Vob files in Videostudio

klingon_master · Post by **klingon_master** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 8:04 am

I purchased a Hitachi DVD camera. The files from the camera created on the DVD discs are VOB files. Does VS 11.5 or X2 edit VOB files? I have used Magix Movie Edit Pro 15 and it doesn't seem to want to edit the Vob files. Both the other video editing programs I use can edit the files but it is slow to edit the files. These Vob files are extensions of MPEG 2 so you would think most video editors now would be able to edit these files.

When I'm shooting the videos I use the highest quality setting which allows around 18 minutes of video on one side of a 1.4 GB disc. Usually with a DVD camcorder the highest quality setting the camera is recording at around 9MB a second which is about 1/2 of what most $500-600 HD camera's record at. I figure some of the problem is just the huge file size of the videos being edited. My computer has 2GB of ram and around a 3GHZ processor so my computer should be more than powerful enough to edit these files.

mitchell65 · Post by **mitchell65** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 10:02 am

VS x2 will certainly edit VOB files. I assume you have importesd the folders and files from the camera to your PC? Here's how to import your files to VS.
Click File
Click Insert Digital Media to Library or Timeline
At the bottom of the window that opens, click "Import frrom folder"
Go to the folder you imported from your camera. It will be called something like "VIDEO_TS"
Select that folder. You will know it contains your VOB file if the OK is active and not greyed out.
Click OK and you will see a window like this:

You may see a number of "Titles" Check the box next to each one. See the green tick against my Title 0.
Click "Import" at the bottom of the window.
Sit back for awhile.
Then all your clips will be in the Library/Timeline.
Personally I always put them in the Library then drag them into the position I want on the Timeline.
It's your choice though.

DVDDoug · Post by **DVDDoug** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 6:29 pm

Usually with a DVD camcorder the highest quality setting the camera is recording at around 9MB a second...

That's just about the maximum bitrate per the DVD spec. You probably won't find a standard definition MPEG-2 camera that records at a higher bitrate.

...which is about 1/2 of what most $500-600 HD camera's record at.

This is "apples to oranges"... HD has more pixels and requires more raw data. And, it depends on the compression format. Standard definition DV/AVI from a miniDV camcorder) is less-compressed than MPEG-2 at 13GB per hour. MPEG-4 and AVCHD are more efficient than MPEG-2, so you can get better qualtiy at lower bitrates. But, these highly-compressed formats can be a pain to edit or convert!

I figure some of the problem is just the huge file size of the videos being edited.

File size alone is not a problem. I work with "movie length" MPEG-2 files all the time (typically 4-6MB, and sometimes bigger). DV/AVI files are bigger, and uncompressed AVI files are about 65GB per hour!!!

klingon_master · Post by **klingon_master** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 6:28 am

You turn on the Hitachi DVD Camcorder. You flip the LCD on the camcorder and you can look at all the video clips taken on the DVD RW+ disc. If I have one clip on the disk everything works fine. I can take the file from the DVD disk and edit the file just fine. The file will show up fine in the editor. If there are multiple little clips on the DVD disk then only a small portion of the file from the dvd disk will show up in editor.

I'm using both Vegas 8 and Movie Edit Pro 15. I have this problem in both programs. I don't think Videostudio X2 would have the same problem would it? I don't know exactly why some VOB files show up correctly in the editor but others don't.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 7:47 am

But do you tick all of the little boxes in the import page, beside all those little clips?

klingon_master · Post by **klingon_master** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 10:08 am

Ken Berry wrote:But do you tick all of the little boxes in the import page, beside all those little clips?

I don't know what exactly you mean. I edited a file earlier that was about 6 minutes. It was one big file I had downloaded onto my computer from the DVD. It worked just fine and I was able to edit the entire clip.

Now If there were 3 separate clips on the DVD RW+ disk that totaled about 6 minutes on the disk then I would have a problem. I would download the files from the DVD. When I would try to edit the VOB file in the editior the file would be screwed up and only show a small portion of the file. The file itself would be screwed up.

mitchell65 · Post by **mitchell65** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 10:45 am

klingon_master wrote:
Ken Berry wrote:But do you tick all of the little boxes in the import page, beside all those little clips?
I don't know what exactly you mean. I edited a file earlier that was about 6 minutes. It was one big file I had downloaded onto my computer from the DVD. It worked just fine and I was able to edit the entire clip.

Now If there were 3 separate clips on the DVD RW+ disk that totaled about 6 minutes on the disk then I would have a problem. I would download the files from the DVD. When I would try to edit the VOB file in the editior the file would be screwed up and only show a small portion of the file. The file itself would be screwed up.

The check boxes that Ken refers to are as shown on my screenshot above. What exactly do you mean when you say the clip is "screwed up"