I have this, uh, friend. He’s a teacher working with a student on a video project, and he kinda told this student that he could, uh, very easily convert video from DVD (.vob) to a format that he could work with in Windows Movie Maker.
I This friend needs to get started on that conversion, and he’s found several programs that will do the job — but they all cost around $30.00. That’s too expensive for me this friend. The "free" versions of these tools will only convert about half of any particular file without being registered, which isn’t quite what I my friend needs. All the files we’re transferring are original work; the student shot them this month.
I know he’s already considered online services — but the files are
really too big for uploading in any reasonable length of time. Any suggestions? I’ll be sure to let him know. #
Bud,
Do you mean that the video has already been finalized as a dvd format? I have a digital camcorder that easily transfers footage to MovieMaker, (This is what my students use for their weekly broadcast ‘news’ show)but I’m sure you, er your friend already knows how to do that. I would be interested in finding out your ah friend’s solution. I ran into this problem last week.
I have had to use Adobe premiere to convert my (legally recorded) digital video DVDs to a useful format. So if you get a good solution, I hope you blog it though that said, not that I have Premiere, I don’t need it…)
Hi Bud,
If you have access to a Mac, download the free program Handbrake and save the movie as an .avi file to transfer to your PC. Handbrake is also excellent for converting to iPod compatible MPEG-4 as well. I’ve been using this program all week to convert some personal DVD’s and it’s worked like a charm!
Handbrake.
That’s funny. This conversation has come up 3 times in the last week for me.
Two ideas:
(1) Upload it to google video. It’ll be faster than you think. Everything you need is right here for downloading video from YouTube or Google Video. Including info on the conversion process. You can also watch this. Although it shows video downloading (which takes longer than illustrated) from YouTube it will also work at Google Video. (Warning: An off colour example is used.)
(2) Get yourself an account at mediamax.com (25 Gb of free space). Move the file to your “hosted” folder. Email me the link. I’ll try to convert it and get it back to you via my mediamax account.
Cheers!
Have you tried Cheetah DVD?
I have a copy if you need it and I can give it to you easily…just email me and let me know…
http://www.cheetahburner.com/
Bud,
I think if you find the largest .VOB you can simply change the extension to either .AVI or .MPG and it will work. The VOBs are encoded as mpeg2 unusually. The VOB is encoded so the DVD player will see it. Give it a try before, it has been a while since I tried and can’t remember if there are any sticking points.
Tadge
DVDx Ultra Edition (freeware) works great at converting DVD’s (LEGAL ones) back to a format such as avi for use in an editing program. I use it all the time. Takes a while but works perfectly.
Just google for it. I think it is labDV.com
I like to use DVD decrypt to rip the DVD and then Videora converter to make it readable for WMM.