VS Pro X7 - cannot import recorded movie

[MechDoc02]

I have been using VS 12 for many years, now, so was pleased when Christmas brought me an update to X7. So far, though, not so good.

I burned a dvr movie to a RW disk, in my usual fashion, then tried to import it into VS Pro X7 so that I may edit out commercials, etc. I see the drive I selected, and if I expand that drive I see (if I hold my mouth just right) VIDEO_TS and VIDEO_RM. Doesn't seem to matter whether I select the drive, the TS file, the RM file, or any combination, I get "There is no valid content in the path." Then a dialog opens that shows Content Folder: H:\VIDEO_RM, with a question mark on the icon that is displayed. Seems like there'd be some chance of getting on with the job if the _TS file would show, but I can't manage to get it shown, somehow. Of course, if there's no valid content anywhere, I don't quite understand why anything at all shows up. What's the point of offering a dialog for choosing the next step when nothing can be done?

I do know about the little gray box in the upper left corner of that icon. That's a really clever use of camouflage. Maybe if the _TS file would show, clicking in that little gray box would display a list of "chapters" to import.

Here's the deal: my many-years-old VS 12 detects something like 22 chapters, and did a fine job of importing the first 15 (all I selected) which contain the movie I wanted to work on.

So it seems clear that the disk contains files that VS Pro X7 ought to be able to work with. Also, the dvd just plays on my computer as a dvd, as it should.

The fine pdf manual I downloaded devotes a whole page to importing from a dvd, never once mentioning anything about _TS or _RM files, or little gray check boxes, or much of anything, really.

Unimpressed as I am with my initial use of VS Pro X7, based on the results I've had from the old VS 12 program, I still have high hopes for getting the new version to work, and work well, with maybe some new capabilities. But I need help here at the start, for sure.

[canuck]

Can you add the vob files within the Video_TS folder?

[aljimenez]

I have not done what you are trying to do for awhile. Perhaps the way you do it has changed. Try using "import media" or something like that, instead of trying to import the file like you are trying to do... Al

[MechDoc02]

Canuck - Thanks for trying to help. But I can't add anything to files on a dvd movie recording, unless I first upload it to a hard drive - which step I should not have to do. Also I don't know about any vob. If you are suggesting that I move whatever it is in the VIDEO_TS file that apparently contains the clips I'm trying to get at, well, nothing there seems to carry a vob extension - but mostly the only way I could mess with it would be to first upload everything to a hard drive. My old VS handles importing from that dvd just fine.

Al - Thanks to you, too, for trying to help. But as I understand it, there are two ways to import from a movie dvd: under the Capture menu item select Import from Digital Media, or with the Edit menu item selected, right click on the time line and select Import from Digital Media. Either way I get the same dialogs and the same results.

My old VS 12: with Capture menu item selected, select Import Digital Media, and direct the program to the video disk. It will first look for the "titles" and then the "chapters" under each "title." And then it uploads the movie just fine. Which means I can probably use the old VS 12 as a front end to get the movie into VS Pro X7, but that seems kind of silly, not to mention adding a fair amount of time to the process.

Later: I found that when I recently repaired my operating system that I'd turned off the folder option to "display known extensions." Turning that back on, I see .vob on the largest files in the VIDEO_TS folder, presumably the actual video files. However, when I select the VIDEO_TS folder I get "There is no valid content." And can get no further in VS Pro X7.

[MechDoc02]

Okay, I found the way. As pointed out at least once in another thread, a .vob file can just be renamed as a .mpg file, and then VS Pro X7 can read it. At least, that worked for me. Of course, to rename the .vob files, I had first to upload them from the dvd to my computer hard drive, which took something like 18 minutes for about a 4-hour recording - and that step ought to be unnecessary because VS Pro X7 _ought_ to be able to read standard dvd movie files as recorded by dvd player/recorders, IMHO. Of course, it takes about that long to upload the files directly from the dvd in my old VS Pro system, so I guess I'm not really needing extra time.

[canuck]

Video-RM are not "standard" DVDs as many video programs have problems with them. For me, VS X7 has no problems with importing the Video_TS file but I never import the video that way. I always first copy the Video_TS folder to a hard drive.

If you have a 4 hour recording on a standard DVD then you are way outside the video standard. To put that much video on a DVD (which can only hold about 60 minutes of best quality video) the video has to be very highly compressed.

[MechDoc02]

VS Pro X7 could not import the VIDEO_TS files that were present on the dvd. It recognized nothing in the VIDEO_TS folder, although there were .vob files in there. It got slightly further with the VIDEO_RM folder, but could not find anything there that it recognized, so VS Pro X7 could not import the video on the dvd. My old VS Pro 12 imported the video directly from the dvd. I tried every possible combination of importing from the root directory on the dvd, importing only the VIDEO_TS folder, importing only the VIDEO_RM folder, importing from all three, every possible combination, and nothing worked. The program never saw a file it could handle, although I pointed it as best I could at the .vob video files on the dvd.

The dvd recorder I used is fairly old now, maybe 8 years, maybe only 5. Not sure I have much control over the quality of the recording, but I'll check because I now can play and also burn Blu-Ray. In any event, the recording was not hi-def, by any means. I did not bother to try to time the recording, just left the recorder doing its thing while the dvr played the movie. I had a fair amount of recording past the end of the movie, which ran something like 2:30 including commercials.

[BrianCee]

Something is not sounding right somewhere - when you select "Import Digital Media" a dialogue box like below should appear - when you click the little plus sign next to the DVD the item should open showing the TS folder put a tick in the boxes against the DVD and the TS folder - clicking 'OK' at the bottom should then give you options to import the actual videos

[MechDoc02]

BrianCee - Yup, that's what I did, and what I saw. But it did not matter what combination of boxes I checked, I never got a look at the .vob files I needed to import. If I checked only the VIDEO_TS folder, all I got was a dialog saying nothing importable was found. If I included the VIDEO_RM folder I got to the next step, but of course there wasn't any video in that folder to import, so it also produced a dialog about nothing importable.

My old VS Pro 12 scanned the dvd, produced a dialog containing Title and Chapters under the title, and cheerfully imported whatever I checked. This was from the same dvd, which also played just fine on my computer and in two dvd players, one of which it was burned on.

A review of VS Pro X7 on Amazon includes the statement that the program will not import .vob files, which certainly seems to be the case.