dvd editting - what s/w to use?

[Tjobbe]

I've been given the task of trying to edit my girlfriend's sister's wedding :?

I've not done this before!

I'm looking for something rather simple to use, that I can trim unwanted scenes and bits from, and save it as a file that can be burnt to either DVD or VCD.

I'd like to add titles and a song at then end with credits if possible too!

Can anyone recomend a (free?) pc based piece of software?

[rosschapman]

can't say much about PC - but for free software -have you tried Windows Movie Maker?
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/moviemaker2.mspx

What is the video on? Tape? Mini-DV Tape? How are you inputting it?

For editing on a pc, I'd recommend Adobe Premiere Elements (about £49).

[Tjobbe]

Thanks Ross, just figured out that my damm dvd player isn't working now! and I cant view the iso files through my cdrom drive, typical..

[chaos]

If the files are already on DVD, then you might be in a bit of trouble. Capturing from DVD to Computer, and then back to DVD usually requires the use of multiple software packages. I believe that Pinnacle can capture DVD, and for everything else, you would have to get a media box that runs your VCR/DVD player into your PC through a USB converter. I don't recommend using Windows Movie Maker, because it lacks in the compression department. Premeire Elements is an excellent software package, but its only downfall is that it has difficulty encoding file formats other than it's own AVI codec, so editing precompressed files of that size is almost out of the question. There are some free ones for linux, but none that I can think of for windows. Sorry mate, but this probably won't work out as well as you or I can hope. Best of luck!

[Tjobbe]

~Take II~

Well, I have just picked up a £30.00 DVD burner and I have the DVD's, which play perfectly on my machine!

I'd love to arrange them in the order I recorded them, add a title screen at the end and also a song, at the minimum cost and effort, if at all possible?

What software do I need to:

a) copy the DVD to my hard drive
b) arrange them in order, with the title screen and song at the end, if possible, as one DVD file
c) burn them to normal size DVD's

A tall ask, but if anyone has a combination of free software packages they can recomend or an all-in-one solution, great!

[chaos]

Ok, here's what you need, although my way isn't necessarily the best way.

1) Get yourself DVD Decrypter. I think this version will work, although I havn't downloaded it myself. (I recommend looking for it at a more respectable site, but this should work fine)
http://www.mrbass.org/dvdrip/SetupDVDDecrypter_3.5.4.0.exe.

2) Install it, and go to the 'Mode' menu where you will click on 'File'.

3) Rip the .vob files to a known location, and then go into that folder and change '.vob' with '.mpg' (or '.mpeg').

4) Add your music, and get all of your clips in order on the timeline.

5) Open 'er up in your video editor. If this is the only project you intend to do for a while, the I suggest getting a free trial of Premiere Pro, or something from here (http://www.aboutvideoediting.com/download/index.shtml).
If you decide to do more editing in the future, then I suggest that you buy Premiere Elements.

6) If your editor supports burning directly to DVD (most do nowadays), then do that. Else, export to the highest quality format, and find some burning software. I believe Nero can burn Video DVD's, but I don't know what else to tell you.

Hope that was at least vaguely helpful.

[Tjobbe]

Ok, here's what you need, although my way isn't necessarily the best way.

1) Get yourself DVD Decrypter. I think this version will work, although I havn't downloaded it myself. (I recommend looking for it at a more respectable site, but this should work fine)
http://www.mrbass.org/dvdrip/SetupDVDDecrypter_3.5.4.0.exe.

2) Install it, and go to the 'Mode' menu where you will click on 'File'.

3) Rip the .vob files to a known location, and then go into that folder and change '.vob' with '.mpg' (or '.mpeg').

4) Add your music, and get all of your clips in order on the timeline.

5) Open 'er up in your video editor. If this is the only project you intend to do for a while, the I suggest getting a free trial of Premiere Pro, or something from here (http://www.aboutvideoediting.com/download/index.shtml).
If you decide to do more editing in the future, then I suggest that you buy Premiere Elements.

6) If your editor supports burning directly to DVD (most do nowadays), then do that. Else, export to the highest quality format, and find some burning software. I believe Nero can burn Video DVD's, but I don't know what else to tell you.

Hope that was at least vaguely helpful.

Thanks Chaos, Think I might have to skip downloading a 512mb premiere pro file though, it will take me about ten hours on this connection, which is a very tempermental one to say the least. ill see if i can pick one up from the back of a magazine or something.

d/lding dvd decrypter now, ill see if i can pick up something similar to premier for less than 100MB?!

[chaos]

Actually, I don't think you are going to want to download the Premiere Pro demo, as I just found out that it can't export to DVD (dang Adobe; Macromdia always gave full featured trials, but Adobe is too greedy). Still looking for another good freeware alternative, but it's not looking good. Unfortunately, Windows Movie Maker doesn't support the DVD/Mpeg format due to the multiple data streams. I guess you could always get the Premiere Elements/Pro demo, export it to an ultra high resolution WMV sequence, and then import it into Windows Movie Maker, but there are possibilities of quality loss or incompatibility if you do this. It should work though if you want to giver a try.

[chaos]

Well, I was a little off in my ramblings. Unfortunately Windows Movie Maker cannot publish DVD's, and I have yet to find a free DVD publishing program of decent quality. Unless someone else here can come up with either a good free DVD editor that includes a DVD publisher, or a good dedicated DVD publishing software, you're stuck with Premiere Elements. However, I don't see why you wouldn't buy Premiere Elements. I have never regretted spending those $80 (it's much less now for the 1.0 version) as I can now publish DVD's that work well in almost all modern DVD players, as well as encode movies in WMV, MOV, MPEG, VCD, and DVD. That is a pretty good deal if you ask me, and having personally used the Pro Version, I must say that I didn't feel like I was lacking in that many features by using the Elements version.

Have Fun