Noob needs help from wise masters (video sync)

[B***@adobeforums.com]

Hello,

Here's what I'm trying to do:
Take a DVD, grab the video off it, and then cut the scenes apart and stitch them together to make a music video. (Then maybe burn it back to a DVD)

I have the video files. They are about 1 gig in size. I can open them in PPro, cut and paste them around, but the problem is...

The video gets out of sync as soon as I move the cursor (blue thing at top, red vertical line).

When I move the cursor at the bottom (Timeline window), and the time marker changes, then the video shown in the upper right box (Sequence 01) should also change. Instead what happens is the video does not stay in sync. It goes black. Or it keeps playing (not very smoothly) where it was. The two time markers do not stay in sync. The video being played can even be way off from the time marker shown in the same window.

My first thought is either the clip is too big, or my computer is too slow (3 gig cpu, 1 gig ram), but this is my first ever attempt to do anything with video.

What do you guys think?

Thanks

[E***@adobeforums.com]

Bob, please see "How do I import VOB files / edit a DVD?" in the "Frequently Answered Questions" section of the PPro Wiki.Cheers
Eddie
Forum FAQ <http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?14@@.2ccd4455> PPro Wiki <http://ppro.wikicities.com/wiki/Main_Page>

[B***@adobeforums.com]

"You cannot edit VOB files from a DVD with Premiere Pro. You need to rip the files to your hard drive and then convert them to AVI format before editing them"

So this says I need to convert them to AVI... I converted them from VOB to M2V format - which PPro does accept and plays and lets me cut up.

Maybe AVI would be smaller size and easier to work with? But if I go from AVI back to VOB when I want to burn to DVD then I've lost video quality. Right?

[B***@adobeforums.com]

I just tried it with a 24MB WMV file and it works good... so my problems must be all about the file size.

I need a simple way to auto cut the big file up into scenes... then I work with one at a time.

[E***@adobeforums.com]

Bo, it's not a size issue, it's a compression issue. MPEG files do not have complete frames and are therefor not suited to editing. DV AVI is much larger than MPEG, but it is much better for editing.

Converting from MPEG to DV AVI incurs a negligable amount of quality loss, but re-encoding to MPEG is the worst part, that is why it is so bad to start with highly compressed files like MPEG and WMV. It's just not a good (or professional) idea.Cheers
Eddie
Forum FAQ <http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?14@@.2ccd4455> PPro Wiki <http://ppro.wikicities.com/wiki/Main_Page>

[B***@adobeforums.com]

I'm converting to AVI... and it looks like it's going to take hours and hours... and result in a much larger file - just like you said.

I wonder if this huge AVI file will respond in PPro... or if it will be even more slow. I'm going to run the AVI thru the scene-analyzer program, which I hope will work and cut it down to smaller pieces.

It's bad to start with VOB/M2V? That's all I've got. Converting AVI back to VOB will be a nightmare? What should I be doing?

Thanks

[D***@adobeforums.com]

"What should I be doing?"

You are doing it right, VOB to DV-avi, edit, export to mpeg 2, that's the way. But, you could also try the mpeg plugin from Main Concept. It has smart rendering, so if you use the same settings for the mpeg encoding as your source file, you will have no quality loss.

<http://www.mainconcept.com/mpeg_pro.shtml#standard>

Dag

[B***@adobeforums.com]

Just when I thought I had things working....

I noticed some of the VOB's aren't playing. They are big files - but PPro says 00:00:00 when I import them.

So I tried to get them back off the DVD.... but.. remind me how I got them off the DVD in the first place? I think I used a certain program, but when I try to rerun it the program tells me an error about not having a codec.

Then I tried importing my M2V files and noticed that they are widescreen - while the VOB's are not. BUT... the M2Vs won't show in the editor, even with the mpeg plugin.

To sum up:

How do I get the VOB off the DVD?
What's up with the VOB's that show as 00:00:00 in PPro?
Are VOB's regular screen or widescreen? or do they hold the widescreen data but just show as regular in PPro?
Why does the M2V file (converted from VOB) show as widescreen?

Thanks

[E***@adobeforums.com]

Bo, please read reply #1.Cheers
Eddie
Forum FAQ <http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?14@@.2ccd4455> PPro Wiki <http://ppro.wikicities.com/>

[B***@adobeforums.com]

Thanks for the reply... but it leads me to another page and then to another page.. where I search and can't find the answer.

I need a little more hand-holding.

[B***@adobeforums.com]

Hmmm... I managed to get m2v files.... still not sure how to get vob out of dvd decryptor. But I got the m2v and they seem to be working. I set it to take every cell of each chapter as a separate file. This should save me some work as I am planning to cut apart the video to begin with.

Weird thing happening now is this: I click the m2v file to make it play. It starts playing in one of the windows but it finishes before the clip is done. The cursor goes to the end before I see the end of the scene. If I move the cursor around while it's playing I can get it to show the end part that got skipped. What's going on?

Am I on the right track? When I have all these little m2v clips put together then I can somehow convert them into some big file that can play and can be put on a dvd?

Thanks :)

[E***@adobeforums.com]

Bo, there is plenty of hand-holding to be had at www.VideoHelp.com where you will find utilities, tutorials and forums for doing exactly what you're doing.

In essence you want to:


* Rip from DVD
* Convert to DV AVI
* Import the DV AVI into PProCheers
Eddie
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<http://ppro.wikicities.com/>

[B***@adobeforums.com]

Oh... Is this the wrong place for me to ask questions?

[E***@adobeforums.com]

Bo, preferably, this is the place to ask questions about how to do things with PPro. ;)Cheers
Eddie
Forum FAQ <http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?14@@.2ccd4455> PPro Wiki <http://ppro.wikicities.com/wiki/Main_Page>

[B***@adobeforums.com]

Well, PPro is what I'm using and part of what I'm trying to figure out... also have some other programs that do what PPro doesnt

[Steven Gotz]

To make it clear, Premiere Pro is not designed to edit movies from a DVD. The quality is lower than that of a Mini-DV camera. And it is hard on the program because it is designed to edit frame by frame, and M2V files don't have frames with 100% of the information in each frame.

You need to rip the DVD to a Microsoft DV or DV-AVI format (Type 2 - not Type 1).

Then you will be able to edit.

Premiere Pro does not rip for you since no "Pro" needs to rip - at least not often. Most just take the video off of a video camera. And well over 99% of the people who rip DVDs have no right to do so and use it as part of a commercial project.

There are other programs more suited to editing these files. And there is a plugin for Premiere Pro (from MainConcept) that helps Premiere Pro edit them.