Ok, I have a big problem.

Please read this, I know it's alot I just feel one has to know what exactly is going on to be able to help :(


Last week or so I got together with a group of students to record a silent film for our Creative Writing class. The filming went great, we got all the shots we needed. We used an older Sony Handycam model (I think?). I took the camera home to transfer it onto my computer. I had to download a version of a movie editor made especially for those cameras. Now my computer registered the camera, but the program wouldn't. I spent hours messing with it, nothing was working.

So I thought, alright no biggie, I can take it back to the video production class at my school and convert it onto a CD or DVD. I thought they were using computers there to edit movies, but no, they were smaller then computers and were named "Picaso" Or something.. they also had TV screens attatched to them. So the girl in my group got it recorded onto a DVD eventually using some funky machines I had never seen before.

Now it is my responsibility over the weekend to edit it. First thing I do log onto my computer and open up Sony Vegas 6.0, but then I relised Vegas was only registering it as 20 seconds long, when in reality it is around 12 minutes. If I played it from the beginning, it would play for 20 seconds and break abruptly, and when I tried playing it from a different point it would play something COMPLETELY different, it wasn't the same scene as when the player played it last time. Basically anywhere I clicked It would play some part of the movie for how ever many seconds were left on the 20 second spam.

I opened up the DVD and checked the file formats. There was:

- VIDEO_TS.BUP
- VIDEO_TS.INFO
- VIDEO_TS.VOB
- VTS_01_0.BUP
- VTS_01_0.IFO
- VTS_01_1.VOB

I then checked to see which file was the biggest and assumed that was the main video. It was VTS_01_1.VOB. I googled .VOB I found this forum and saw people posting issues about .VOB and vegas, but mainly I saw they just couldnt hear the sound.. but that wasnt my problem.. It simply wouldnt show up as 12 minutes, instead it was always 20 secounds.

I talked to a few people and figured that I should use a DVD ripper and convert it from .VOB to AVI Or MPEG. So I downloaded a few programs and tried each one.. Every one of them would be working fine until suddenly part way through it will give me a windows error, and shut the program down. I've tried maybe 5 different Programs and each one does the same thing. Although Ive never figured out if they get the error at the same spot.

So thats my horrible horrible problem, WHAT do I do. I need to get .VOB into an editable format for Sony Vegas. My guess is that the file is corrupt. But I'm not sure.

OH, one more thing, it works when I watch it on a DVD player... I've also tried switching to different computers to make sure it wasnt the DVD reader it's self..



IF anyone could tell me whats going on.. I would GREATLY appreciate it.

If it plays good on DVD, then you might want to consider capturing to vegas using a "pass through" from a DVD player into your digital camera on tape, or directly from through the camera to your computer editing system. This assumes you have a digital camera that can do so. If you don't, beg borrow or steal one.... Your explanation does not really tell us what you have in the way of gear, so its hard to advise what to do.

From what I remember I think it is a MiniDV HandyCam Model TVR3xx. No I do not have the camera with me, or the tape, all I have with me is the DVD with the movie on it.

Okay, point is you can't get to a camera that camera right now, or all you would do is download the tape and edit again from there, Right ?

Now, I am say that to save the day, you could take a standard video player, play it into the input jacks on a digital camera that provides by pass to the computer, and capture it over again that way, and edit from that direction. You need to get someone with a Sony or Canon MiniDv or other brand that has pass through, to do so. You haven't even told us the technical issues of the format of the tape you may still have.

I am assuming there is some sort of error on the DVD that is preventy you from transcoding .vob to .avi, which is what I would normally suggest doing. But since you have gone that route, this is the only other suggestion I can make.

I'm sorry but I am really new to this stuff, I can't get my hands on the camera in time.. I see what you are saying though. I might have to end up getting it in late and doing that. The only possible thing I could get my hands on is the tape.

Also, would it be possible to stream it directly from the DVD player to my computer and record it that way? If I had the right cables to do so?

Only if the DV player as firewire output. Otherwise, unless you have a capture card with S-video or component input on your computer, you would need something to act as a "go between." That was what I was referring to when I mentioned using a digital camera with "pass through" capability.

There are also capture cards available, but I don't know what your access to stores or your finances limit you to.

What kind of "tape" is it? Mini-DV, Hi-8 or something else? I would suggest grabbing the tape, which you said you can get and then touching base with someone "anyone" that has a camera that matches the tape format and recapturing the video. This should not be too difficult. You could probably even post where you live, as in city, and meet up with some nice person from the same city that posts here on DVinfo...