video capture from DVD

[tcb]

Is there a way to capture just segments of a home produced DVD by using the DVD player in the computer with Roxio EC9? I copied old VHS tapes onto DVD's using a combo DVD/VHS recorder. The DVD's play in the computer's drive but I am not sure how to take sections from the DVD and save those smaller sections onto the computer's hard drive. I found that you can copy the entire DVD onto the drive, however I would like to clip the unwanted parts out instead of putting the entire disc on my hard drive.

[tgs]

Probably more than you wanted but...

Video on a DVD is in the mpg2 format -- audio can be in a couple of formats. Rather than re-capture, best practice is to strip the 2 streams out of the DVD's VOB files onto your hdd for re-use & optionally editing.

 

1) If you want to just use portions of the video, but no fancy editing, DVD Shrink (freeware) or EMC9's Copy let you copy sections of DVD video to your hdd, BUT, you might have to edit your audio to bring it back in sync. Shrink will create a DVD containing your selected video on your hdd -- the video/audio will still have to be stripped out. Also, mpg2 can be cut at I (complete) frames but not at P &/or B frames (incomplete) -- Copy cannot select an I frame to place your cut, & so performs the cut at the nearest I frame which can be ~1/2 sec away. These sections of video can then be imported into MyDVD as separate titles and optionally played sequentially using a play-all button.

 

2) More hands-on work, but often less total time, you can edit your existing DVD video in much the same way as using a DVD Recorder... In MyDVD (or other authoring app) set a chapter at the beginning and end of each section to cut. After burning your new DVD to a folder on hdd, use PgcEdit to remove those cells (think chapters) that you want the player to skip. Warning: This involves a somewhat steep learning curve.

 

3) You can de-mux (strip out) your audio & video tracks from your DVD to your hdd -- several free tools avail. @ videohelp.com. Cuttermaran & a couple of other programs let you cut edit your video - basically cut out sections you don't want, joining the video on both sides of the cut - but you will likely need to fix (edit) your audio. Once you've got 2 good, edited tracks (audio & video) use a muxer to merge the 2 files into one so that VIdeowave/MyDVD doesn't choke -- If needed import the file into Videowave/MyDVD and create your DVD or whatever.

 

4) When you're going to re-encode -- going to another video format, adding fancy editing (transitions/FX) etc... Use a freeware program called DGIndex with the VOB files on your DVD. This creates an index that can be used with Avisynth or [much easier] VFAPI to create a proxy avi file you can use almost anywhere including Videowave.

 

Depending on your DVDR & disc type (+ - R RW RAM), there may be other steps or software you need to access the stored video/audio... IF you have any problems google using the brand/model of your DVDR to find out how others do it. Your DVDR might encode audio to the AC3 format -- you'll likely want to convert to .wav for most editing... Several tool & methods are available at videohelp.com

 

If you're going to a video format besides mpg2 VIdeowave should behave itself. Outputting mpg2, trying several video files from different sources (DVDR + 3 capture devices using 5 different capture programs in XP & Vista), Videowave did not behave at all -- this was due to Videowave trying to preserve the existing mpg2 video, trying to patch it together like Cuttermaran, and it fails.

 

Something I've verified with Videowave that might or might not cause problems with your DVD source, Videowave assumes & uses something called a lower field first field order -- your existing video is very probably top field first. IF in your final video you wind up with stuttering or reversing motion, that's where I'd look first.

 

 

Whew! that was a big answer.

 

My proble is a bit less complex ( I hope) I have source file on DVD that is in 16:9 format. Every time I use the capture facility is comes in as 4:3 with the whole image squeezed in. I tested some of the other options and when I go to wide screen format the top and bottom of the image are truncated. Is there a way I can capture a full 16:9 picture in to widescreen production?

[mikiem]

Probably more than you wanted but...

Video on a DVD is in the mpg2 format -- audio can be in a couple of formats. Rather than re-capture, best practice is to strip the 2 streams out of the DVD's VOB files onto your hdd for re-use & optionally editing.

 

1) If you want to just use portions of the video, but no fancy editing, DVD Shrink (freeware) or EMC9's Copy let you copy sections of DVD video to your hdd, BUT, you might have to edit your audio to bring it back in sync. Shrink will create a DVD containing your selected video on your hdd -- the video/audio will still have to be stripped out. Also, mpg2 can be cut at I (complete) frames but not at P &/or B frames (incomplete) -- Copy cannot select an I frame to place your cut, & so performs the cut at the nearest I frame which can be ~1/2 sec away. These sections of video can then be imported into MyDVD as separate titles and optionally played sequentially using a play-all button.

 

2) More hands-on work, but often less total time, you can edit your existing DVD video in much the same way as using a DVD Recorder... In MyDVD (or other authoring app) set a chapter at the beginning and end of each section to cut. After burning your new DVD to a folder on hdd, use PgcEdit to remove those cells (think chapters) that you want the player to skip. Warning: This involves a somewhat steep learning curve.

 

3) You can de-mux (strip out) your audio & video tracks from your DVD to your hdd -- several free tools avail. @ videohelp.com. Cuttermaran & a couple of other programs let you cut edit your video - basically cut out sections you don't want, joining the video on both sides of the cut - but you will likely need to fix (edit) your audio. Once you've got 2 good, edited tracks (audio & video) use a muxer to merge the 2 files into one so that VIdeowave/MyDVD doesn't choke -- If needed import the file into Videowave/MyDVD and create your DVD or whatever.

 

4) When you're going to re-encode -- going to another video format, adding fancy editing (transitions/FX) etc... Use a freeware program called DGIndex with the VOB files on your DVD. This creates an index that can be used with Avisynth or [much easier] VFAPI to create a proxy avi file you can use almost anywhere including Videowave.

 

Depending on your DVDR & disc type (+ - R RW RAM), there may be other steps or software you need to access the stored video/audio... IF you have any problems google using the brand/model of your DVDR to find out how others do it. Your DVDR might encode audio to the AC3 format -- you'll likely want to convert to .wav for most editing... Several tool & methods are available at videohelp.com

 

If you're going to a video format besides mpg2 VIdeowave should behave itself. Outputting mpg2, trying several video files from different sources (DVDR + 3 capture devices using 5 different capture programs in XP & Vista), Videowave did not behave at all -- this was due to Videowave trying to preserve the existing mpg2 video, trying to patch it together like Cuttermaran, and it fails.

 

Something I've verified with Videowave that might or might not cause problems with your DVD source, Videowave assumes & uses something called a lower field first field order -- your existing video is very probably top field first. IF in your final video you wind up with stuttering or reversing motion, that's where I'd look first.

[tbrewst]

Try putting the disc in,opening VideoWave,importing the video and then editing out the parts you don't want.When you're done output the remainder to a file on your drive in the format you want.