Recover DVD info back to PRE 9

[Ric]

Long story but I will try to keep it short. I video taped a wedding reception a few months ago. Put in it PRE 9 did some editing added a menu and burned to a DVD they loved it. Since then I deleted it because my job was done. Now the problems start. The photographer they hired for some reason doesn't have any pictures of the cermony bad card I really don't know what happened but they have no pictures. All the other events thru out the wedding they have pictures of.

Here is my question can I somehow reload the DVD back to PRE 9 and have it back in the timeline like it never left. That way I thought I could go back in the timeline and snap some photos out of the video so they could have some pictures of the wedding. I used a 3CCD video camera on a mini DV tape. Also I have already taped over tape of the wedding or I would of just installed it again. I gave the photographer a copy of the video, she has the PRE PRO version and she said it would play on her computer but she was not able to get PRE PRO to reinstall it. She said it didn't regonized the extension that PRE 9 gave it. Any thought or ideas or is it a waste of time?

Ric

[Steve Grisetti]

It would be nice if you could just have it all back, Ric. Unfortunately, it's not quite that easy.

But you can do this:
1) Open a new Premiere Elements project. Make sure you select the settings for Hard Disk Camcorder, standard definition or widescreen (depending on your DVD).
2) Put your DVD in your computer's disc drive.
3) Go to Get Media/From DVD and browse to your DVD player.
4) Rip the files from the DVD back to your computer, put them all on your timeline and do your frame grabs.
5) For best results, open the pictures in Photoshop Elements, and apply Filter/Video/Deinterlace.

Remember, though, you're only going to get 640x480 photos from a DVD. That means, when you print them, you're only going to get little 3 x 2 1/2 inch pictures at best. You might be able to blow them out to 4x3, but they're going to start looking fuzzy beyond that. Still, it's better than nothing!

[Ric]

Thanks Steve for all the information I will see if I can get it to work. I appreciate all your help.

Ric

[Bobby]

Ric, I might add that I never delete anything. I don't do professional work myself (at least not yet) but storage is cheap these days. A 1 or 2 GB hard drive can be had for about $100 and can hold a lot of projects. If you are working professionally, just build the price of storage into your fee. You may have happier customers and future additional business if you do that. Of course, hindsight is 20-20!

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

....but storage is cheap these days. A 1 or 2 GB hard drive can be had for about $100.....

Sadly, Bobby, not at true present. This is due to the floods in Thailand knocking out the HDD manufacturing plants. As a result HDD prices have gone through the roof and are not expected to return to "normal levels" until mid 2012.

But tape is cheap. I never re-use tapes so that way I can always go back to the 'master' source files if I need to. I also use a 2Tb HDD as archival storage of all DVDs that I have created so that I can make new DVD copies if necessary (for example, when a client wants to have a new DVD because their original DVD has been damaged).

[Dave McElderry]

A 1 or 2 GB hard drive can be had for about $100 and can hold a lot of projects.

Ummm....1 or 2 TB maybe?

This reminds me of something that happened the other day. I take our local newspaper via online subscription and I prefer to download it as a pdf instead of using the online reader software. I noticed that the download was "only" 65 MB. Then I remembered that the hard drive in my first real computer was 20 MB, which of course held the OS and all the programs and was supposed to have room left over. Time makes all things relative.

[Steve Grisetti]

Unfortunely, Dave, those "relative size" perceptions also seem to apply to the National Debt!

As they used to say, "A couple million dollars here, a couple of million dollars there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money."

[Bobby]

Well, I stand corrected! That is what I get for being away. Drive prices are up, but still a deal for the storage you get.

[Bobby]

Or, perhaps not. Today I saw $100 2TB full size external Seagates at Costco. A sign said that due to shortage there was a limit of 2 per purchase.

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

You are correct, Bobby. There are a few outlets that are restricting existing stock at original prices to customers. But once that stock is gone....

In my own case I have been caught by this. I was about to purchase a NAS (after much research via the web) but just when I was about to commit the HDDs that I had been considering went from UK£120 ea (including our insidious 20% tax) to £263.

So I am holding off until the HDD prices come back down.