creating a football play film
 

the football team provides me with a dvd of the game and wants me to separate the plays into three categories: offense, defense, and special teams. I have been following this (How To Import Vob Files Into Premiere - Wrigley Video Productions Forum) guide to import the .vob files into premiere, then i split them apart and put the plays in separate project files. However, when I export the files and burn them to dvd (nero), the quality is significantly reduced (not nearly as sharp almost blurry, colors are washed out, movement is very jerky). I thought Nero may be the culprit, but the avi files coming out of premiere seem to be reduced as well. Firstly, is it possible to take video captured on dvd, edit it, and reburn it to a dvd without losing quality? This seems like it may be the case based on some of my, quite possibly misguided, understanding.

What I am doing:
If I extract the footage with that method it is lossless as the resulting .avs file is just reading the .vob file, so the file being manipulated in premiere is the original .vob file from the dvd?

Then when I go to extract the footage, I choose "microsoft dv avi", compressor "DV NTSC", pixel aspect ratio "D1/DV NTSC(.9)", check recompress. Under Keyframe, bitrate is "use project setting", optimize stills is checked.

thanks

It sounds like you're losing two generations in the process. VOB files will have mpeg2 compression artifacts. DV will generate it's own artifacts. Then you get more when the avi file is transcoded back to mpeg2. End result? Something just short of garbage.

If NeroVision can eat VOB files, you might try editing with that. As an editor, it's wicked basic and colossally slow when I used it a few years ago with Nero 6. It might be quicker now. Nero's a favorite of those who like to rip DVDs. You might also want to peruse VideoHelp.com. There's a whole subculture inhabited by DVD rippers. Some of them live there.

I have not done this myself but will need to extract video and audio from some old DVDs I've produced so I'm interested in the best way of doing this.

You might be able to convert the vob file directly to mpeg2 using videoredo (you can download a free trial). Then just edit with premiere and export back out as mpeg.

As Jamey said, you will be already on your fourth or fifth generation so don't expect to have the best quality.

I have not done much in terms of dealing with compression lately so I am now a bit confused. What is meant my a generation?

I don't think there is a way to avoid the initial compression to the DVD as the football team's camera records directly to minidvd and my personal camera is rather dated.

Since there is no audio on the vob file, can I just rename it as .mpg without losing anything? currently the video seems to be fine in the preview in premiere, but after I export it, i see a significant drop in quality.

if I download the trial of encore, would that method of dvd authoring produce better results?

Hi Jamey Gigliagi,

This may seem a little weird, but I can do what you want to do, on my 3 Phillips DVR HDD units. They can record from non-comercial made DVD's, like what your getting, I think. That's in addition to the FireWire from a Cam.

I can then edit the parts I want to keep - label them - then out put them to new DVD's in whatever sequence I want. I find it easier to do than going to the trouble of loading to the computer and all that entails.

You just don't get all the fancy labeling and such that you do from the editing software.

I've done this for soccer and horse shows and it works very well.

Just a thought.

Harold

Lets say you record something from a camera directly to hard drive as an uncompressed avi that Premiere or other video editing software programs do not handle natively. Then you edit and export to a DVD. The file you recorded to your computer is generation 1, the edits will be generation 2 because it was converted to a native format, then the DVD is generation 3. Then lets say you take that DVD and then rip it from its vob files. That is generation 4 as it is not a direct rip. You then import that back into premiere and have to pre-render once again because it is not a natively useable program, Generation 5, you edit and export back to DVD, Generation 6.

Does that help?

Don't do it in Premiere! Use an MPEG editor to cut the video up at keyframe points, then append the segments together and reauthor the DVD.

You will have absolutely no loss in quality.

By the way, vob files DO have audio!

Thanks. I am using MPEG StreamClip and it seems to be doing what I want.

I realize that there is audio on the vob file, but since it is just silence, it does not matter.