I am using TMPGEnc 3 Xpress to remove adverts and general editing of films recorded of the television. The edit quality is pretty good but when I go to output the file, I select the DVD button, yet all I get is an MPG output and not the Video-TS folder and the relevant Vob files. I have tried using the MPEG format instead but I get the same output. Where am I going wrong?

If the movie is off say BBC and there are no adverts, I just use DVD shrink which can take out the front and back of a movie, but where there are adverts the only programme I have found so far is TMPG.

Is there an alternative to TMPG that has the same editing facilities and can output to VOB files??

Any help will be appreciated.

If I'm not wrong, TMPGEnc 3 Xpress is only a mpeg encoder, and can't convert mpeg files into vob files.

To do this you need another software, like TMPGEnc DVD Author, that load the mpeg file created with TMPGEnc 3 Xpress and convert it into vob files.

Can i not just use the DVD author to edit from scratch and then covert to VOB files, as the current alternative means creating a new Mpeg file which takes 4-6 hours and then starting with the DVD author programme to creat the vob files.

For what I know you can load the mpeg file directly with dvd author, trim all unwanted material, and then convert it in vob files.

In trimming mpeg files dvd author is very fast, becaise it don't re-encode mpeg again, but simply cut unwanted stuff from the file.

Thanks - i have just tried it and it seems to work ok! the only prob is that the DVD author does not have the fancy bits like de-interlace and cropping that Xpress has, but i suppose i can live with that as i only use those tools once in a while

Are you sure that TMPGEnc 3 Xpress don't have something to trim without re-encode anything? Something like the "Direct Stream Copy" of vurtualDub...

not on my version

Why not try the combination of ProjectX which is great for editing out commercials from MPEGS, and demuxing in general.(http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=ProjectX),


and

GUI_for_DVDAuthor (GFD) which is great at taking mpegs (or vobs) and converting to DVD (vob files)
http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=GUI_for_dvdauthor.

Both are freeware, and very flexible albeit the interfaces are not entirely intuitive. I never get synchronisation problems with this combination.

There is also a simple way to edit ads using DVDShrink:

You can cut out ads simply by using the reauthor key and selecting the same show several times e.g. if you have 3 ad breaks, select the same show four times, and edit each one to only include sections between ads. This will create a DVD with 4 titles which will play sequentially with a slight pause between each section.

Actually, you can then take the DVD vob files if you like and select them all into GFD which merge them into a single title if you prefer.


BTW: ProjectX will process .TS files which is the special mpeg format used on PVRs such as the Humax9200T

Then contact Pegasys.

thanks - i'll give all that a go