Need help/advice on video editing software etc.....

[JRKH]

OK - -
A while back my stepson transferred some VHS home video onto DVD for me.
Some of it is a bit rough and I want to take this and edit in down and clean it up etc.
So - I have "Windows moviemaker" on my old XP computer, but unfortunately it won't read the format that the Video is in....
I loaded the videos onto my computer and they in a VOB format.
I saw on youtube where a guy simply changed "VOB" to AVI and could still play the video so I tried this. It did play on the windows media player, and would import into moviemaker...but when I tried playing it so I could edit it....no picture....nothing. Just the timer showing it playing.

So - I guess what I'm asking is does anyone have any suggestions....or recommendations...on software (my new computer runs windows 7)? I don't want to spend a lot since I probably won't be using it except specifically for this project.

Thoughts??

Peace
James

 

[Marc]

I don't know Windows editing software, but .VOB files are DVD files so you need a "ripper" which will convert it to .mp4 or .avi or other "container". It starts getting a bit complicated here because .avi and .mp4 (and .mkv and .mov and a few others) are "containers" which have "codecs" in them - One for sound and one for video. Just because a video file is in (for example) an .avi container doesn't mean it has the same codecs inside as every other .avi video file.

I use a Mac program called Turbo.264 HD which will take just about any container and it's codecs and convert them to .mp4 with an H.264/MPEG-4 AVC video codec and an AAC-MPEG4 audio codec. It's a one way converter, though, and isn't editing software.

For editing, see http://www.techradar.com/us/news/so...re-9-top-programs-you-should-download-1136264 for some ideas. I have MPEG Streamclip which works OK on most codecs. I think there may be a PC version. For Macs there is also iMovie but it is very restrictive on what codecs it will decode, as are some other video editors. I think you have to convert the file to a .mov file to use iMovie.

I know this won't help too much - I haven't done much video editing to be able to really tell you what you need for a PC. I posted mainly to tell you the stuff about video file containers vs. codecs. Hopefully someone here who is a Windows PC person can help with specifics.

I do have a program called VideoSpec that will tell me what codecs are in a container, but again - I haven't really done much video editing so....

I do have a program called EyeTV which is a very basic video recorder with a built in editor, but it is just for editing clips. No fancy stuff like audio track overlays and such. It does output to several containers and codecs. I do record TV shows from time to time with it and edit out commercials and then save them to .mp4 files, but again - No fancy editing.

 

[Marc]

BTW - Handbrake ( http://handbrake.fr ) will also rip DVDs to .m4v and .mkv containers with an H.264/MPEG-4 AVC video codec and an AAC-MPEG4 audio codec except commercial DVDs which have any kind of copy protection. Since yours are home made DVDs there shouldn't be any copy protection. But again - The program just rips DVDs - It's not an editor. There is a Handbrake version for Windows, Mac and Linux.

 

[JRKH]

Thanks Marc.
I'll look into the handbrake software. I saw that site on one of my searches yesterday.
Also saw stuff about "ripping - which frankly didn't sound good...lol
So I decided to give a shout out here first.

Of course being Sunday things are slow here...so I'll see if there is any more input as the work week gets rolling.

James

 

[JRKH]

Bump....

 

[Jim Wynne]

If you don't mind spending ~$70, Adobe Premier Elements will allow you to do all kinds of editing, including editing VOB (DVD video) files. It's a great program.

I have used Any Video Converter, which is free, to convert videos to different formats, including FLV (flash) to MP4. It works pretty well, and you can't beat the price.

 

[JRKH]

Thanks Jim,
Don't mind spending the money... but I'm not sure how much I would use it.
The "free" stuff always kind of scares me - unless I can get a recommendation form someone.

That said, given the quality of some of the older stuff it might be worth spending some money (Some of it is 8mm transferred to VHS and then transferred to DVD).

James

 

[Jim Wynne]

There are lots of free programs that are worthwhile. If you download from a reputable source and scan for viruses before executing the installer, there should be nothing to be afraid of. Have a look at Computer Freeware that I use and recommend from 2007 for lots of examples of good freeware.

 

[Sebastian]

For ripping I sugest http://makemkv.com/
Really piece of cake.

For further transforming, filter application there is some free Russian ... http://sourceforge.net/projects/megui/ Extremaly disgusting for amateur user. Personally I made 14 attempts to start use this software. Every time finished with swearing, but I have very patient friend who had support me all this time.
Now I use it for 1080i encoding.

Regarding paid softwares - two adresses: www.videoredo.com and www.tmpgenc.net

It is good to check also this library http://www.videohelp.com/tools

 

[masteryworld]

As you need help regarding video editing software, so i am using simple apps which make things simple, easy, as well as save time. The app i am using for doing video editing is name as capcut video editors while the guidance about how to use it to get edited videos is done from their official website name as capcutapks.