From VOB to AVI, simplify please!

[Senvae]

Ok I was reading into the Guides on this website on how to get the best possible quality image from my DVD, and I realized I didn't have the time or the energy to take a Video College Course online.

So can anyone simply for me the steps to take from the ripped VOB footage to the end of having a good clean AVI to work with? I just want to know which buttons to press, that's all, I don't want to know the science behind it. I only do AMVs for fun, not for winning contests, but I have a 25.5" Sumsung monitor with 1920x1200 resolution so it would be great if my AMVs could at least have a good quality image.

If it helps, the DVD in question I want to rip is Ah! My Goddess (the movie)(DVD), and my OS is Vista Ultimate 64bits.

Please help.

[Zarxrax]

1. Load vob into DGindex. Save .d2v file.
2. Open .d2v through avisynth with MPEG2Source command.
3. IVTC the footage with avisynth, and resize it to the correct aspect ratio (640x480)
4. Open you avisynth script in virtualdub(mod), and save it as a lossless lagarith file.
5. Toss your lossless footage into your editing software.

[Zarxrax]

Oh, or I guess you could just watch these: http://www.animemusicvideos.org/guides/zarxfag/

[Qyot27]

It was an anamorphic widescreen movie, so the 640x480 in the above instructions will actually be 848x480 (you could do 640x480 if you resized to 640x352 and added letterboxing, but generally something like that is unnecessary). I'm also not entirely sure, as I haven't worked with the AMG! movie in ages, but I think it can also possibly be force-filmed.

[Zarxrax]

Ah, I thought he was talking about the OVA.

[Senvae]

848x480? That seems like an odd size, but maybe it explains some of the problems I've been having with exporting widescreen footage from Adobe Premier Pro CS3, it would always come out with black bars on the sides and top/bottom, even if my footage was widescreen to begin with. I thought changing the project settings to export square pixels would solve it.... it seems to work.... maybe I'm just dumb.

[Qyot27]

848x480? That seems like an odd size, but maybe it explains some of the problems I've been having with exporting widescreen footage from Adobe Premier Pro CS3, it would always come out with black bars on the sides and top/bottom, even if my footage was widescreen to begin with. I thought changing the project settings to export square pixels would solve it.... it seems to work.... maybe I'm just dumb.

16:9 dimensions (848 = 16x53, 480 = 9x53.3333....), using square pixels. Technically, true 16:9 at 480 height would require a horizontal resolution of 853.3333...., but 848 is a mod16 resolution, and 853 or 854 aren't.

You need to make sure that Premiere's Project Settings match your Export Settings, and that both match the footage itself. That should clear up most of that problem. In other words, as the AMG! movie is anamorphic widescreen, it doesn't use square pixels when it comes straight off the disc (I'm assuming this is the NTSC version that Pioneer released back in 2001). Since square pixels are easiest to deal with, you resize the footage to 848x480. Make sure that both Project Settings and Export Settings are set to 848x480, and Square Pixels. That should take care of it.

[Senvae]

848x480? That seems like an odd size, but maybe it explains some of the problems I've been having with exporting widescreen footage from Adobe Premier Pro CS3, it would always come out with black bars on the sides and top/bottom, even if my footage was widescreen to begin with. I thought changing the project settings to export square pixels would solve it.... it seems to work.... maybe I'm just dumb.

16:9 dimensions (848 = 16x53, 480 = 9x53.3333....), using square pixels. Technically, true 16:9 at 480 height would require a horizontal resolution of 853.3333...., but 848 is a mod16 resolution, and 853 or 854 aren't.

You need to make sure that Premiere's Project Settings match your Export Settings, and that both match the footage itself. That should clear up most of that problem. In other words, as the AMG! movie is anamorphic widescreen, it doesn't use square pixels when it comes straight off the disc (I'm assuming this is the NTSC version that Pioneer released back in 2001). Since square pixels are easiest to deal with, you resize the footage to 848x480. Make sure that both Project Settings and Export Settings are set to 848x480, and Square Pixels. That should take care of it.

Thanks, that's what I was planning to do, but I thought the widescreen res was something like 600x300 (roughly, don't remember the exact numbers). I will try that 848 resolution then.

I just wanted to know now, I am about to make the DG index for AMG, do I need to make an index file for each individual VOB files?

[LivingFlame]

You should be able to index multiple VOBs in one file. Just be sure they're all the same resolution, interlacing method, etc.

[Qyot27]

Well, I use SmartRipper, so I usually set it to output all contiguous content to one file and then index that (even on the non-encrypted DVDs I have). So in other words, an entire movie or episode is in one file, but seven episodes are in seven separate files.

If you want to do it that way, then you can use SmartRipper to do it after ripping the disc with DVD Decrypter. Just point SmartRipper at the actual VIDEO_TS folder on your hard drive (or the main directory that holds VIDEO_TS). There's other options involved, but it's straight-forward enough that it doesn't take much explaining. Just look around the Settings a little.