VOB Vs. AVI

MadMaverick wrote on 5/23/2016, 1:47 AM

So I have some old movies burned onto DVD-R discs. There for a while that's all they existed on, because the computer I had them stored on got fried in a storm (I didn't have my computer plugged into a surge protector). I also had movies on VHS-C tapes that I converted to DVD using my DVD/VHS combo player/recorder. So I ripped the discs onto my computer using DVD Decrypter, with plans of re-editing/re-uploading them.

They ripped as VOB files. I was later informed that all I needed to do was put the DVD into my computer and use File | Import | Camcorder Disc... and Vegas Pro would have transferred the footage directly to my timeline. I haven't tried this yet, but it sounds nifty. Would ripping the footage off my DVD using this method produce VOB files as well?

Anyway, the computer I had at the time was slow, so the VOB footage would lag quite a bit for me, making editing more frustrating. So I rendered the VOB footage as an AVI. I then edited the AVI footage, which moved much more fluidly. I had compared the VOB quality video to the rendered AVI footage, and at the time I noticed little to no difference in the quality.

I later found out that it's best to render as less as possible, and that your quality compromises with each render. I ultimately want to render out my final product as an MP4.

Was it a bad idea of me to render out my raw VOB video as an AVI? Should I re-edit the video using my original VOB file? The annoying thing is, I've done a lot of work with the footage as an AVI... but I believe there are certain methods that can be used if one was to re-edit using VOB as the main source. It seems like there's a way to synchronize the audio with your video, which might save time.

Anyway, what do you guys think?

...and yes, I am a bit obsessive compulsive lol.

Comments

PeterDuke wrote on 5/23/2016, 3:15 AM

First of all, DVD VOB files are to all intents and purposes, merely MPEG2 files that have been chopped into 1 GB chunks, plus a smaller chunk at the end. If you concatenate the chunks you will incur no quality loss.

One way is to drag the DVD IFO file to the Vegas timeline. It will appear as a single event, with yellow lines marking the chapters.

Another way is to concatenate the VOB files of the set directly into a single file. The first set will have files named VTS_01_1.VOB, VTS_01_2.VOB, etc. Don't include VTS_01_0.VOB. Suitable tools are the command COPY /B XX1.VOB+XX2.VOB+XX3.VOB outputfile.mpg, the program IgorWare File Joiner, etc.

Yes, it was a bad idea to convert to AVI. I don't know if there is a way to use your AVI file as a proxy for the MPG so that you don't have to do all your editing again.

musicvid10 wrote on 5/23/2016, 7:42 AM

All you should have to do is drag the IFO to the timeline.

MadMaverick wrote on 5/23/2016, 10:38 PM

Was it still a bad idea considering that the video started out as an AVI, before being burnt onto the DVD?

Do you HAVE to concatenate the chunks to maintain quality? Would you maintain quality if you just needed one chunk? What if you didn't have much on the DVD, and all there was was just one VOB file?

Does dragging the DVD IFO give you the same quality as dropping you DVD content as VOB?

Also, can you smart render VOB or IFO video?

Former user wrote on 5/23/2016, 11:10 PM

If you rendered to an uncompressed or lossless AVI, then there won't be much difference in quality. But it would be better and less time consuming to edit from the existing vob or mpeg files. ( you can use free programs to extract the mpeg from the vobs or just import it directly to Vegas as others have already mentioned)

PeterDuke wrote on 5/24/2016, 6:08 AM

"Was it still a bad idea considering that the video started out as an AVI, before being burnt onto the DVD?"

So you start with perhaps DV AVI. You transcode that to MPEG2 to make your VOBs, You transcode that to AVI (what codec?). Finally, you transcode that to MP4 (MPEG4?). All that transcoding causes loss of quality. Even going from AVI to AVI or MPEG2 to MPEG2 loses quality.

"Do you HAVE to concatenate the chunks to maintain quality?"
The VOBs have to be concatenated explicitly or implicitly if there is more than one of them else you will get a glitch at the join.

"Would you maintain quality if you just needed one chunk?"
If there is only one VOB file, just change the extension from VOB to MPG.

"Does dragging the DVD IFO give you the same quality as dropping you DVD content as VOB?"
I don't understand. If you mean dropping the VOBs directly on the timeline, I don't thing Vegas will accept that, but if it did or you changed the extensions to MPG, you will get a glitch at the joins.

"Also, can you smart render VOB or IFO video? "
VOBs, once concatenated, become an MPEG2 file. Dragging the IFO file to the timeline concatenates the VOBs implicitly, so is exactly the same thing.

Vegas claims to be able to smart render MPEG2 but it does not do it properly. See my last post in http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/showmessage.asp?forumid=4&messageid=915956 for Standard Definition MPEG2. If you want do simple cut editing with smart rendering, you can do it with Womble, VideoReDo and some other utilities.

Gary James wrote on 5/24/2016, 7:41 AM

The simple answer to your question is "TRY IT, YOU'LL LIKE IT".

If you have a single movie on your DVD you'll have one or more VOB files named like: VTS_01_x.VOB. Where "x" is a number from 1 to n. Likewise the movie will have a single IFO file named: VTS_01_0.IFO. Simply drag this file to the Vegas timeline and wait till the assets appear before you un-click the mouse.

Vegas will import the primary video and audio media from all the VOB files and concatenate them on the timeline. It will also import any Chapter marks from the movie and add them as media markers that can be edited in the Trimmer. Vegas will also examine the movie for Closed Captioning information and build an .SCC from what it finds.

By the way. I was the first person to mention this undocumented Vegas "feature" in this forum. I ran across it by accident, and after a little experimentation brought it to the forums attention several years ago.

rs170a wrote on 5/24/2016, 10:21 AM

I can enthusiastically vouch for Gary's method. Since he posted it I've been using it all the time and it works great!!

Mike

Chienworks wrote on 5/24/2016, 4:04 PM

I haven't used any other method since Gary posted it.

For some inexplicable reason, it's magnitudes faster in speed than the import dvd camcorder disc function, as in, close to instant. The import function can take nearly an hour on my PC. It also avoids the audio glitch that even the import function still suffers from.

MadMaverick wrote on 5/24/2016, 11:17 PM

Awesome. So basically the best option would be to use Gary's method, and the quality is totally maintained?

Btw Gary, have you considered making a YouTube tutorial showcasing this method?

Does this method work for big commercially released productions on DVD? Does it work with Blu-rays?

PeterDuke wrote on 5/24/2016, 11:55 PM

There is no IFO file with Blu-ray discs. In any case the method is unnecessary because the video files are not cut into chunks.

Gary James wrote on 5/25/2016, 8:12 AM

"Btw Gary, have you considered making a YouTube tutorial showcasing this method?"

I've already done this.

MadMaverick wrote on 6/12/2016, 4:55 AM

Okay guys, when using Gary's method I don't see an IFO file anywhere amongst the MPG files. It's just not there. Do you guys mean that there's an IFO file amongst the VOB files? So looks like I'll have to use DVD Decrypter to attain an IFO.

Or, I could concatenate the files, but I don't know how to do this. PeterDuke talked about this, but I don't understand it.

Also, if you render VOB files to lossless AVI, is there really that big of a quality difference anyway? The videos started out as DV-AVI. It seems like when I did this the footage was all corralled within a single VOB file. Every disc I decrypted would've been less than 30 minutes long. One thing about rendering 'em AVI is that I could properly smart render the footage without messing with some kind of other program.

musicvid10 wrote on 6/12/2016, 7:23 AM

MadMaverick,
The files are in the VIDEO_TS folder. All of them.
If you can't see the file extensions, tell Windows to let you see them.

MikeLV wrote on 6/12/2016, 10:47 AM

See my post here:

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/showmessage.asp?Forum=4&messageid=946283

DVD Decrypter works perfectly fine for taking the chapters off the DVD in VOB format. Then you can drag the VOBs directly to the timeline and edit as necessary.

Chienworks wrote on 6/12/2016, 3:12 PM

Vegas' explorer won't show .IFO files unless you change it from "Media files" to "All files".

Stringer wrote on 6/12/2016, 9:49 PM

@ " DVD Decrypter works perfectly fine for taking the chapters off the DVD in VOB format. "

Why would that be necessary?

Gary James wrote on 6/13/2016, 6:41 AM

"Okay guys, when using Gary's method I don't see an IFO file anywhere amongst the MPG files."

That's because you're using the Vegas file open dialog to view the .IFO file. In my video I'm showing how to drag the .IFO from the WINDOWS EXPLORER PROGRAM into Vegas, not via the Vegas file open feature.

MikeLV wrote on 6/13/2016, 11:00 AM

Stringer, because it's the easiest method I've found for importing chapters as separate events on the timeline.

Gary James wrote on 6/13/2016, 12:23 PM

Mike, in all fairness DVD Decrypter is nowhere as simple as dragging the .IFO into the timeline. It was the only viable workaround for your nonstandard DVD layout. Dragging the .IFO not only imports the entire video title and all chapters as media markers, it also imports any associated closed caption stream. And it does this entirely within Vegas without the need for an external utility program.

Chienworks wrote on 6/13/2016, 7:06 PM

"drag the .IFO from the WINDOWS EXPLORER PROGRAM into Vegas, not via the Vegas file open feature."

As i mentioned above, it works great from inside Vegas' explorer if you set it to view "all files". This is the way i do it.