importing from a dvd in vs9

[GDMama]

Please go to your Profile and fill in the System information. Without more information it is difficult to troubleshoot your problem. It could be that your system is not powerful enough to load the video clips.
Do you have any applications (antivirus, IM, etc) running in the background? In normal operation they don't put that much demand on the CPU, however video is very demanding, and coupled with background apps can slow a system to a crawl.

As for your second question, no you should be able to import from a DVD the same as the full version, I know I did before purchasing it.

Ron

Okay, Vidoman, I hunted down the sytem info the best that I could and added it to my profile. It looks like I meet all the specs. Also, I tried turning off my virus protection, to no avail.

One thing I'm thinking it could be...When I copied the DVD files to my hard drive, they came over as .vob files. In order to change them to .mpg, I just changed the extension. Do I need to actually go through conversion software to make the change (from .vob to .mpg) actually take proper effect? And if so, is .mpg the best format to change it to? It looks like if I use conversion software, I can change to all kinds of formats, I just don't know which would be best.

Thanks for any guidance you might be able to offer!

[Ken Berry]

The thing you have to understand is that a burned video DVD HAS to have the video files on it in mpeg-2 format (as opposed to the information, structure and backup etc files .IFO, .BUP etc). It is just that in DVD jargon, once burned, they use the .VOB extension instead of .mpg. But they are no more than that: they are -- pure and simple -- mpeg-2 files, so changing the extension from VOB to mpg is no more than a change of extension. **No other conversion is necessary.**

And since your intention is to include some of the DVD video transferred in this fashion into another DVD of your own making, then it is simply not sensible to convert it to some other format and then convert it back to mpeg-2 again. Mpeg is a 'lossy' format, which means that every time you manipulate it -- and this includes a fortiori re-encoding to another format and back again -- you lose some quality (though opinions vary as to how much loss is caused each time, and how noticeable it might eventually become).

(...and pace those who might want to jump in and say a video DVD can also these days have mpeg-4 files. I was trying to explain things simply...)

[GDMama]

All I know is VS9 (and 2 other video editing software programs I have) can manipulate the file if I use a convterter software on the files first, but if I just try to pull them in straight from .vob, the video editing packages only recognize the first chapter of the file (or, in the case of VS9, it just stops running).

I've been searching for comments from other owners of my recorder (Sony DCR-DVD92) who have this same problem. Some seem to be able to just change the extension and they're good to go, but some are not. If I'd had any idea, I wouldn't have gotten a recorder that goes straight to DVD! I got it because I thought it would make things easier!

[ccblue]

GDMama,
I have a Sony DVD92 camcorder and ran into a few problems initially loading the video to Video studio 9. Converting the file from .vob to .mpg brought it in without chapters and would freeze when you tried to play the video. Initially I couldn't get Video Studio 9 to import the dvd at all, but after getting the latest updates from windows XP it started working. My other issue was my camera didn't like the Memorex DVD+RW discs I was using, and apparently wasn't finalizing the video properly. When I changed to Sony DVD-RW disc, poof everything was rosy. Hope that helps.