Conversion settings from VOB to WMA?

[VernonRobinson]

I have a 3 minute video shot by one of our locations in Europe. I need to convert it to a format that can play on our corporate machines primarily in the US. The standard corporate computer build only contains Windows Media Player, some form of Flash Player and Shockwave Player. I have tried several conversions, but all seem to suffer from reduced picture quality or audio distortion, or are too big to fit on a standard CD. I have converted to AVI, MS DV-AVI, WMA, MPEG to name a few. I have PrEl versions 1,2, 3, and 4 available. Note that the standard corporate machine does not contain an MPEG codec, so that failed. I need help to select the software (e.g. Windows Media Player, Flash, etc.) and get the best conversion settings to get this 3 minute video to fit on a standard CD (700 MB), while maintaining the best overall quality from the original DVD source. It has to fit on a CD since not all of the machines have a DVD player. Even those that have a DVD player do not have DVD software installed.

Thanks,
-Vernon

[Steve Grisetti]

I'd recommend using MPEGstreamclip to convert the VOBs to DV-AVIs and then using Windows MovieMaker to convert the AVIs top WMVs.

You don't say much about your delivery system for this playback though. Your best solution might be to just keep it as a VOBs and distribute DVDs!

If you aren't sure all the computers can play DVDs, WMVs are your next most universal file (100% universal on a PC).

The only problem might be that, generally speaking, WMVs are primarily a web delivery format and are usually compressed and at 320x240 pixel resolution.

You can make them full video size (640x480), but that can be taxing for some computers. Probably not -- but I guess it depends on how old and how fast these computers are.

[VernonRobinson]

I'd recommend using MPEGstreamclip to convert the VOBs to DV-AVIs and then using Windows MovieMaker to convert the AVIs top WMVs.

You don't say much about your delivery system for this playback though. Your best solution might be to just keep it as a VOBs and distribute DVDs!

If you aren't sure all the computers can play DVDs, WMVs are your next most universal file (100% universal on a PC).

The only problem might be that, generally speaking, WMVs are primarily a web delivery format and are usually compressed and at 320x240 pixel resolution.

You can make them full video size (640x480), but that can be taxing for some computers. Probably not -- but I guess it depends on how old and how fast these computers are.

Steve,
I will take a look at MPEGStreamClip. But you do not recommend converting the VOB's to AVI using PrEl? Publishing DVDs are out of the question. Not every machine has a DVD player and none of them have DVD player software. I see that there is a Shockwave Player along with some type of Flash Player that is included in the standard machine build. Would either of those provide better sound and picture resolution than WMVs?

The recorded video shows 25 FPS, recorded at 48Khz. Should I match these settings, or is standard NTSC settings ok?

Thanks,
-Vernon

[Chuck Engels]

25 fps probably means the footage is PAL, not NTSC, making the conversion more difficult if this was to be played on a television in the USA.
Might not be a problem for converting to FLV or WMV though. Overall I agree with Steve's suggestion of leaving Premiere Elements out of the mix and using Movie Maker to create the WMV, best quality at the size you pick.

What kind of size and quality are you trying to achieve?
Any conversion is going to lower the quality and the higher the compression the worse it will be unless you also shrink the overall viewable size.

Have you thought of putting them on the web in a decent web format? Do all users have access to the internet?

[VernonRobinson]

25 fps probably means the footage is PAL, not NTSC, making the conversion more difficult if this was to be played on a television in the USA.
Might not be a problem for converting to FLV or WMV though. Overall I agree with Steve's suggestion of leaving Premiere Elements out of the mix and using Movie Maker to create the WMV, best quality at the size you pick.

What kind of size and quality are you trying to achieve?
Any conversion is going to lower the quality and the higher the compression the worse it will be unless you also shrink the overall viewable size.

Have you thought of putting them on the web in a decent web format? Do all users have access to the internet?

Chuck,
I came to the same conclusion about the footage being PAL. In all likelihood, this will be viewed on a computer screen not television. I have been able to make the conversion, but either the sound is choppy (digital stutter I call it), or else the picture quality is poor. Highly pixellated when viewed at 1/2 screen or larger. I need the 3 minute video to fit on a standard CD approx 700 MB in size. Is it necessary to recompress the footage? I would think 3 minutes of video should be able to fit. The VOB file is approximately 148 MB in size.

Would you take FLV over WMV? I have never used Windows Movie Maker. Is it on the XP disk somewhere or is it a separate download from Microsoft?

Thanks,
-Vernon

[Chuck Engels]

Movie Maker is already on your computer, just check under Start/Programs/Accessories/Entertainment.
I have a free tutorial coming out later this week on converting to DV-AVI using Movie Maker, the principle is still the same.
The audio stutter could be a problem due to conversion from 25fps to 30fps, you may need to set up your project as 25fps and do not convert to 30fps, just a thought.

[VernonRobinson]

Movie Maker is already on your computer, just check under Start/Programs/Accessories/Entertainment.
I have a free tutorial coming out later this week on converting to DV-AVI using Movie Maker, the principle is still the same.
The audio stutter could be a problem due to conversion from 25fps to 30fps, you may need to set up your project as 25fps and do not convert to 30fps, just a thought.

Chuck/Steve,
Thanks for the directions. I used MPEG_StreamLine to convert the VOB to AVI. I then used Windows Movie Maker to convert the AVI to WMV. It worked well. The quality was acceptable and the audio was fine. My question is when using MPEG_StreamLine to convert I tried the dv conversion and wound up with a ".dv" file extension. What is this file type? Second, I converted to DV-AVI and the question of codecs came up again. There were probably a dozen or so choices. I chose the Apple DV Pro codec. But there were others including Sorenson, Intel Indeo, and YUV to name a few. I did not try and do a conversion to Flash, I was running out of time.

How about a quick tutorial on the codecs and which ones are decent ones to use for conversion. I realise this is time sensitive data, but it would be better than shooting in the dark like I did.

Thanks for all the help.

Regards,
-Vernon

[Steve Grisetti]

.dv is what Apple saves DV video as. Consider it the Mac equivalent to a DV-AVI.

With DV-AVIs, the DV is the codec, so you shouldn't have a lot of choices. Most of those choices, in fact, (Sorenson, Intel Indeo, etc.) sound like other codecs, which you don't want.

Beyond that, I probably need some schooling. I think the DV codec most of us know and love is the Panasonic DV codec -- but I assume Microsoft has one too ... because they're microsoft. But let's leave that answer to better minds.