Wrong .VOB duration in Avidemux 2.6

[Jan Gruuthuse]

Then probably using vlc to transcode the dvd is a solution: https://wiki.videolan.org/Transcode/ to get an avidemux editable video.

[Jan Gruuthuse]

With VLC I was able to save/convert part one from the dvd burnt from downloaded iso. Probably possible with other chapters to, couldn't figure that one out.
With Handbrake is easier to select chapter you want and enqueue to queue, when all selected are in queue, start decoding in Handbrake queue.
I upload end results shortly and let you know where you can find these.
UPDATE: The 4 video's editable in avidemux2.6.8  are in my dropbox.

[VanillaMozilla]

Just a brief progress report.

So far I've had excellent success with Handbrake.  It fixed the hardest cases that I have.  The output is editable, and the resulting DVDs are correctly synchronized.  Even with the Handbrake .mkv files, the sync problems persist in version 2.5.4, but not in 2.6.8.

You guys were right.  Using these .VOB files directly from the DVD recorder often leads to serious errors later.  Sometimes even VLC seems to have a lot of seek problems.  In one case I couldn't even advance the DVD.

The Handbrake documentation suggests program "MPEG Streamclip" as an alternative for lossless encoding output, but for my purposes the extra re-encoding step has no practical effect on quality.  WinX DVD Ripper or Video ReDo is sometimes recommended for Win or Mac, but Handbrake has an overwhelming argument in its favor:  it works.  So far I haven't needed an alternative.

[Jan Gruuthuse]

Glad the issues are gone and you can salvage/edit your archived videos.

[AQUAR]

I am a bit late coming back to this topic.
My suggestion for this DVD was going to be:  try DVD decryptor (free windows based program from the DVD era).
It can make sense of the DVD by taking note of the .IFO navigational descriptors and extract accordingly.
An even better free program is DVD rebuilder (one of my favorite windows program!) and does just what the name suggests.

If handbrake works then no need to try anything else though.

Workflow wise for converting 8mm tape in a nutshell:
1) a reasonable capture card (or usb video capture device).
2) capture video with virtualdub (also free) into a very fast lossless codec (eg huffyuf).
3) process the resulting video file to suit the format of the output display (eg PC monitor, analog TV etc).
4) compress with a modern lossy codec to suit you media player (avc or xvid for older standalone players).
5) Or remaster into a new DVD (dvdlab is great but not free or dvd rebuilder).

There is more to it than that, but those are the basic steps.   
Also, much choice in free programs to do any of those steps.
Of course Avidemux is my choice for compressing and processing those BIG huffyuf video capture files. 

 

[VanillaMozilla]

I'm still open to improved methods, and AQUAR very kindly advised me about capture devices.  Here are his replies:


"Video capturing is not hard to do, but slow computers are not ideal for that kind of processing.
Doing it via a USB2.0 port is fine, and look for a capture device that syncs audio and video to the same clock.
Don't buy a device that feeds the video to the USB connection and audio to your sound card.

"I only have an older, simple and cheap USB capture device that uses the audio card for capturing the audio.
It has audio sync issues that arises when using a different time base (clock) for audio and video.
Hence my advice to avoid these types of capture units.
I am sure that the more recent vesions will be better in this regard, as most of them feed both audio and video via the USB serial port.
That allows digitising of both audio and video with the PC clock as a common time base.
Picking a fast PC and fast codec for caturing helps minimise dropped frames that occur when the process can't keep up.
Hence a faster PC and a codec like huffyuf is your friend."

[AQUAR]

Just in case anyone picks this up:
Time bases don't have to be derived from the PC clock.

Just a thought:
If the digitising of analog audio and video has sync problems on playback, you could try the Reclock directshow filter.
That filter provides a proxy time base for the audio and video to correct some of these sync issues.

[Jan Gruuthuse]

The usb video capture devices depend heavy on drivers. Sometimes an OS no longer supports this device. No driver = device no longer working. Even well known brands have these issues. Like Pinnacle miroVIDEO DV300, Plextor PX-AV200U, several Firewire cards, all laying on the shelf gathering dust

Try before you buy or stay with a solution that is working.

[AQUAR]

So true!
My USB video capture device only works under windows XP.

Also I guess any current capture devices will use WDM based drivers instead of VFW drivers.
So if you use VFM programs to capture (eg virtualdub) you need to use it with a VFM to WMD wrapper.

I like using virtualdub because it gives easy access to lots of video codecs.
Apparently the FFVFW codec is a very fast MPEG4 compressor that will create smaller files than those created by huffyuf and maybe with better quality video (not tried it myself!).