Edit Content from DVD

[MovieMaker]

I have a movie that I burned to DVD several years ago that I would like to bring back in to VideoStudio for further editing. I also have the .iso for that DVD stored on my computer.

I have converted both the DVD VOB and the .iso to MP4 files using HandBrake. The resulting files both play properly on my computer, and the movies are several hours long.

However, when I capture either one of the MP4 files to VideoStudio using the "Import from Digital Media" function, the clip will not work. The clip doesn't display any video, and the total length is about 15 seconds. When I check the clip properties, it shows the file to be 11.7 GB, 15.731 seconds, with 90,000 frames per second. Instead of using the "Import from Digital Media" process, I also tried just "Insert Media Files" to bring the old movie in for editing, and that had the same result.

I'm guessing that the fix for this is fairly simple, but I obviously haven't been able to figure it out. I would appreciate some input on how I can get the movie into VideoStudio so that it appears properly for editing.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[John-T-Smith]

Rename the VOB to MPG and see if that will import

[canuck]

Why are you converting the video to mp4? It does not give you better quality and may in fact reduce it.

There is no need to capture anything if you have the files on your hard drive.

Copy the Video_TS folder from the DVD to your hard drive. That folder should contain a number of ifo, bup and vob files.
The vob files are the video files. There should be a number of vob files that are names VTS_01_1.vob, VTS_01_2.vob, up to maybe VTS_01_5.vob
These files should be ~1,048,574KB in size. Change the vob extension to mpg. Now you can insert these renamed files into the timeline in sequence.

Using the iso is pointless since it is only an exact image of what is on your DVD.

[asik1]

renaming to mpg is also useless as although the vob's are mpeg's they are indexed only within the dvd.
import that to VS and you get only 8sec,

[MovieMaker]

Thanks very much for your suggestions. The only reason that I was trying to change the files to MP4 was to try to get them into a format that VideoStudio would allow me to work with. I didn't know that I could just change the file extension on the VOB's and make them workable.

I have successfully applied your recommendations to get the files to mpg and insert them into VideoStudio. However, I now have another problem.

There are 6 VOB files on the DVD. As you said, the largest (4) are about 1,000,250 KB. For some reason, one of those is coming into VideoStudio as a huge clip, one that exceeds the maximum project size, and thus I cannot even work with it. The properties display as almost 94,000 seconds long. (The others show up as 1358 seconds each.) When I play this file on my computer, it plays properly and is 13 min 32 sec long, but VideoStudio basically locks up when trying to work with this clip.

This most likely has something to do with my original reason for wanting to edit the project in the first place. When the DVD was produced many years ago (I believe using Ulead DVD MovieFactory), I also saved the iso and an M4V. I didn't notice at the time that the M4V was huge, almost 17.5GB for a DVD that had two movies of about one hour each. The M4V file shows as being over 13 hours long in my file explorer, and when I play it on the computer, it plays at over 13 hours. The software producing the DVD did something bizarre with the movies! The first one hour movie appears many times in the M4V, but each time a bit more of the first part of the movie is chopped off. In other words, the entire movie plays first, then another copy plays without the first roughly 5% of the movie, the another copy plays without even more of the first part of the movie, and so on. This continues for the full length of the M4V file, each time missing a greater portion of the beginning. The M4V never shows the second movie! My main objective is to capture a copy of the second movie (that does play properly on the DVD and does show up on the clips that I just imported from the VOB files).

Based on the clips that I can work with, I know that the one clip that is now giving me problems contains the end of the first movie and the beginning of the second. Thus, it also likely contains some data inserted by the DVD production software that is totally confusing VideoStudio.

I know that this all sounds very strange, and I wouldn't believe it myself if I weren't looking right at it.

Does anyone have any ideas how I can salvage this one clip that affects both movies?

[MovieMaker]

I think that I have overcome the issue. Instead of trying to pull the clip into the timeline and then edit (which exceeded the project size limit), I was successful just clicking on the clip in the library and cutting it into smaller pieces, then pulling the smaller pieces into the timeline. Because VideoStudio sees the original clip as huge, I needed to wait a long time for each part of the cutting process, because the software took 15-30 seconds to execute each move, but it does appear as if I now have workable clips.

[canuck]

renaming to mpg is also useless as although the vob's are mpeg's they are indexed only within the dvd.
import that to VS and you get only 8sec,

Of course renaming the vob to mpg works. Obviously you have never done it or are doing it incorrectly.

[canuck]

Thanks very much for your suggestions. The only reason that I was trying to change the files to MP4 was to try to get them into a format that VideoStudio would allow me to work with. I didn't know that I could just change the file extension on the VOB's and make them workable.

I have successfully applied your recommendations to get the files to mpg and insert them into VideoStudio. However, I now have another problem.

There are 6 VOB files on the DVD. As you said, the largest (4) are about 1,000,250 KB. For some reason, one of those is coming into VideoStudio as a huge clip, one that exceeds the maximum project size, and thus I cannot even work with it. The properties display as almost 94,000 seconds long. (The others show up as 1358 seconds each.) When I play this file on my computer, it plays properly and is 13 min 32 sec long, but VideoStudio basically locks up when trying to work with this clip.

This most likely has something to do with my original reason for wanting to edit the project in the first place. When the DVD was produced many years ago (I believe using Ulead DVD MovieFactory), I also saved the iso and an M4V. I didn't notice at the time that the M4V was huge, almost 17.5GB for a DVD that had two movies of about one hour each. The M4V file shows as being over 13 hours long in my file explorer, and when I play it on the computer, it plays at over 13 hours. The software producing the DVD did something bizarre with the movies! The first one hour movie appears many times in the M4V, but each time a bit more of the first part of the movie is chopped off. In other words, the entire movie plays first, then another copy plays without the first roughly 5% of the movie, the another copy plays without even more of the first part of the movie, and so on. This continues for the full length of the M4V file, each time missing a greater portion of the beginning. The M4V never shows the second movie! My main objective is to capture a copy of the second movie (that does play properly on the DVD and does show up on the clips that I just imported from the VOB files).

Based on the clips that I can work with, I know that the one clip that is now giving me problems contains the end of the first movie and the beginning of the second. Thus, it also likely contains some data inserted by the DVD production software that is totally confusing VideoStudio.

I know that this all sounds very strange, and I wouldn't believe it myself if I weren't looking right at it.

Does anyone have any ideas how I can salvage this one clip that affects both movies?

Could you post a screenshot of the contents of the DVD? Does it have a Video_TS folder adn what files does it contain.
Something is really strange about its structure from your description. In fact I am very confused by what you are describing

[MovieMaker]

I'm not surprised that my explanation of my problem was confusing. It is very difficult to describe.

First, let me try to clarify what I am trying to do. I recently noticed that the m4v file that I created at the same time that I burned the DVD years ago is huge (about 17.5 GB), much bigger than it should be for the two one-hour movies that it contains. I have been depending on the m4v to be my backup for the DVD. When I played the m4v file on my computer, I was shocked to find that it plays the first movie in its entirety, then replays it starting part way into the movie, then replays it again starting further into the movie, and on and on. The total length of the initial one hour movie plus all of the partial movies is over 13 hours! More importantly, the second movie isn't even on the m4v. Thus, I have no backup for the second movie that is on the DVD. I am trying to get a copy of the second movie onto my hard drive.

The DVD has split up the two movies into six VOB files. I have copied all six of the VOB files from the DVD to my hard drive, changed the file extensions to mpg, and inserted them into my VideoStudio library. Of the 6 mpg files, 5 of them work perfectly within VideoStudio. One of them does not. I am thinking that the one does not because the program used to create the DVD years ago did something peculiar with that particular file, and it may be related to the mess that it created in producing the m4v file.

Both movies on the DVD play perfectly in a DVD player. Because I can see what is on the 5 mpg files that are working in VideoStudio, I can confirm that the mpg file that is not working contains the end of the first movie and the beginning of the second movie. VideoStudio sees this mpg file as being over 94,000 seconds long, even though the original VOB file size is almost identical to a couple of the other VOB files that are working properly. If I try to pull this into my timeline to piece the movie back together, VideoStudio says that I have exceeded the maximum length allowable for a project. Thus, I cannot reconstruct the second movie that I am missing on my hard drive.

I am open to any and all ideas on how I can recover the second movie from my DVD.

Thanks.

[canuck]

Which of the 6 vob files is not working? I bet it is the VTS_-1_0.vob file. This file contains the menu video (if present) and is not needed. The files from ?_1.vob to *_5.vob are the important ones they should contain the movie that you want
So ignore the *_1_0.vob file!

Where did that m4v video file come from? I hope it was not used to create the DVD!

[Ken Berry]

From memory, Adobe Premiere creates m4v clips which are video only. A separate audio file is created (m4a?) to go with them.

[lata]

Hi

Have you tried importing the disc to video studio using Import Digital Media option.

1 / Place the disc in your DVD drive
2 / Right click video studio timeline and choose Insert Digital Media
3 / Browse for your DVD drive, place a tick in the box to select.
4 / Press Ok then Start
5 / A thumbnail list will show , select all Titles by placing a tick on thumbnail top left, ignore the chapters,
6 / Choose a new Working folder for these files
7 / Start Import

[MovieMaker]

lata,
Thanks very much for the suggestion to import directly from the DVD. It worked!

I have successfully captured the clips from the second movie and reassembled them. I have successfully generated a new mpg file of the movie on my computer.

I can't thank you enough. This movie included the birth of my second child, so it was extremely special to recover and have saved for the long term.

[asik1]

Well, I must admit I'm a lemon here. I don't do/or have many DVD's and never worked with MPG's.
but non of the suggestions on this thread works for me of the few files I tried it on.
I guess it's my system that dosen't like mpgs.

even mediainfo gives wrong report

[MovieMaker]

Are you sure that you allowed enough time for the capture screen that you showed to populate? It looks like it may have identified the proper number of chapters. The population of that screen takes some time.