ADigitalMan's Guide to MPEG2/AC3 Editing — Page 10

 I think I've discovered a work around for Womble not saving with Subtitles. Add in a long black bar at the bottom or top of the video before editing in Womble, hardcode the subtitles there, then export a lossless avi of it that way. Then use the virtualdub filter to extract hardcoded subtitles (since all the subtitles should be in the black bar it should read it accurately) and crop out the bar with subtitles and re export. Then just mux the new subtitle file when you burn the DVD.

AxiaEuxine said:

Is this the best thread for a complete newb/beginner in editing? Example: Lets say I had a movie/dvd I wanted to add or delete a scene from and then make a dvd out of it. Would the first post of this thread be the way to go or do you recomend something else?

Yes this guide would be your best bet,very easy to follow,this is how I do all my edits now also.

Following the edit I did in Womble (MPEG Video Wizard), I discovered that nearly half of the audio file was corrupt, or something, because the sound simply cuts out for half of my project, although the timeline says the file is there. What could cause this? How can it be repaired or corrected?

I spent all evening cutting the little boy out of Superman Returns, and darn it, I was really looking forward to it!

I'm hoping one of you guys can help me out. I'm on a Mac, and I'm trying to rip The Phantom Menace using DVD Decryptor in my Windows partition, and in my Mac partition I'm using MPEG Streamclip and Premiere. What I'm trying to do is get it so that when I'm finished I'll have 5.1 audio available in Premier, but for some reason it's giving me a hard time. When I export the VOB from MPEG Stream Clip using Save As it plays fine in VLC, but when I import into premier there is no audio attached. I tried using demux to create a seperate audio file, but I've only been able to figure out how to get a stereo audio file out of it so far. I'm kind of flying blind right now, and I could really use some advice on how to make this all work. Thanks in advance!

Doctor M said:

Does it make a difference if you edit at 23.976p or 29.97i?  I've always just assumed the editing should be with progressive frames whenever you can.

23.976p is best.  Your work can suffer from blending problems if you don't. 

It's always better to remove the pulldown flags, then edit.  After all, it's easy enough to put them back afterwards with dgpulldown, so why risk problems? :-)

Doctor M said:

I'm surprised the guide doesn't have a step for that.

Do you use dgpulldown's custom setting? i.e. 23.976 to 23.976.  That's what I use. 

Doctor M said:

Yup.  Usually the "In Place" option as well.

I've never heard of that one, but I might still be using an old version of dgpulldown.  What does an "in place" option do?

Ah!  I understand.  Drive space isn't really an issue, so I'd prefer the "old way". 

Thank you for your information, Doctor M.  :-)

I have a problem with womble in regards to editing.  The editing I'm doing is not at fault, the audio is crossfaded correctly and such but whenever there is a cut to a video (or actually even if there is 2 video tracks on the timeline) whenever it switches from one video segment to another sometimes there is a loud pop and an audio drop out for a fraction of a second.  It's not in the audio, and it's not due to anything I'm doing because it's all aligned. 

This is a known bug with Womble.  You have to overlap the two audio tracks that you are crossfading and apply at least a three-frame fade out to the first audio track and a three-frame fade in to the second.  

If you do not do this, the pop might not be in the preview, but it will be in the exported file.  Womble is a pain sometimes.

When you say you have two video tracks on the timeline, I take it you mean one next to the other on the same track, but they are from different sources rather than the same source.  Are you working with muxed audio?

Another thing that helps is making sure these options in Womble's options are checked:

• Gop size compliance for DVD recording;
• Use CRC protection;
• Re-encode the whole audio if any part needs fixing.

You are correct. Although sometimes it's the same file but different parts of it.

Well I work with muxed and unmuxed audio.  The way I edit is I have the video file muxed with just the center channel audio (for easy dialogue removal) and then the second audio track is the other 4.1 channels.  When I make a cut,  I take about 4 seconds or so (depending on what sounds better regarding the music) of the audio after the cut point on the first segment and have it fade out.  I then take about 4 seconds of the audio before where the second segment starts and have it start fading in and timed perfectly with the start of the second clip. Sorry if this isnt' clear, I'm terrible with words.

Is what your saying I should do is take the audio that's fading in, and have it continue playing for a few frames even after it's already in?  (I.E., having basically 2 audio tracks of the same thing playing over top of each other for about 4 frames)? And the same with the

I hope you understand what I'm saying with this.  If this is all I have to do, then you can disregard my post in the ROTJ edit thread, because I still have all the original project files so I can just go in and extend all my fades.

And is it normal for this to happen even though the clips that are crossfading aren't the only audio?  I mean to say that there is another audio track that is playing constantly as the other two tracks are fading.

It sounds like you are editing correctly anyway.  If track A is fading into track B at a cut point, track A should extend several frames beyond the cut point (i.e. to the right of it), and track B should start several frames before the cut point (i.e. to the left of it).  Womble does tend to make random pops at times anyway, but having those options checked should help.

Yeah, I really hate womble.  I'm thinking about scrapping my rotj edit anyway and starting over with a different program.

Do try the options I suggested.  They usually help.

Go through and make sure all your audio files have a minimum three frame fade in and fade out at the beginning and end.  It should solve the problem. 

It seems a shame to scrap the edit.  If I were you I would see if I could sort the audio problem out and use another program next time.

I don't know about Vegas, but I had the same problem with Womble when importing VOB files.  Try using PcgDemux to get a m2v video file and ac3 audio files, and load those into Womble instead.

ADM,

I just wanted to say thank you for such a thorough walk through.  It's really nice that you made it accessible and human at the same time.  Kudos.

:)