Video Conversion

[Jon Bolden]

Hey all,

I have a technical problem that I could use some help with. I had old VHS tapes converted to DVDs that could play on a DVD player.

My hope / goal is to convert them into an editable format while preserving full quality. The files are at .VOB on the DVD. I have been unsuccessful in converting them to an AVI, MPEG, etc... in order to edit them in iMovie. The sound NEVER syncs up and I can never retain full quality.

Does anyone have expertise in these matters? I'd gladly trade you some hugs for some help.

[mcnichol]

Hey Jon, I use TMPGEnc (or sometimes Handbrake) for video conversion on a PC. I'd noticed that when I tried to use the individual VOB files to convert, the program couldn't do it right -- bad a/v sync, or just couldn't track the frames properly. But when I use pointed it to a VIDEO_TS folder that had the fully authored DVD files in there it worked just great. I have zero experience with iMovie, but in TMPGEnc it was a matter of using the import wizard and telling it I wanted to load from DVD rather than a specific file, then just pointed it to the VIDEO_TS folder on the hard drive.

Also, not sure of quality loss converting from MPEG2 DVD standard to AVI, but I know it's looked funky when I haven't properly deinterlaced the original video or had allowed it to be interlaced a second time during conversion. You may want to play around with that (converting it to progressive) if you haven't already.

[Brian Boyko]

MpegStreamclip should also work on a Mac.

Though honestly, stuff like this is why I use Sony Vegas, which should be able to handle the files directly, so long as there's no encryption.

[Roy Janik]

I've had good results using Handbrake on the Mac.

[Marc Majcher]

I've had good results using Handbrake on the Mac.

Handbrake, seconded.

[Jon Bolden]

Thanks thugs!