DVD Ripping and Editing with Surround Sound - HELP ME!

For those of you who don't know, I'm going to start my fan-edit by october and the problems I've reached are:

-What is the best way to rip the movies from their DVDs in the highest quality while retaining their 5.1 Audio Surround?

-How can I edit the film and keep the 5.1 Surround?

-How can I get 5.1 and edit it when I add in music to scenes without music?

Also, what editing software do you suggest I use? I have Adobe Premiere Pro 2 but I might end up going with Vegas (the latest version).

I would first demux the video and audio streams.

If you can load the MPEG-2 video as a source into your editing software directly, then great. Otherwise, you should first save it out to an AVI file using lossless compression. You will need a fair bit of hard drive space.

To edit the 5.1 audio, you will need to decode the AC3 file into six mono WAV files.

Never used Vegas but I think it is able to work with multi-channel audio. Certainly the latest version of Sound Forge can.

yes, Vegas has the ability for multi-track audio editing, and can render a 5.1 audio.  to decode the AC3 into 6 mono wavs, there are a variety of applications, but a feww solution is BeSweet.

I use Vegas to edit and my process is generally:

- DVDFab HD Decryptor to copy DVD to HDD (without region coding, etc)

- gordianknot to convert to avi

- virtualdub & VFAPI to frameserve to Sony Vegas

-frameserve (via demugmode) from Vegas to CCE to render final video

Remember guys, I'm new at the whole editing in 5.1

What is "framserve"? And will an AVI from gordianknot keep the 5.1 audio? What's AC3? What's BeSweet?

Is there an automated program that could rip the Videos from a DVD in MPEG format while sustaining the 5.1 audio? (would this work with DVD Decrypter?)

yes you will sustain the 5.1 audio from decryptor.  I believe you can go directly to an mpg from it also, but I'm not sure because i usually skip that step.  If not look into vob2mpg. 

you can choose to keep the 5.1 audio in gordianknot.  you can also just use the original ac3 file to get your 6 wav files (see below)

an ac3 file is the elementary audio file from the DVD.  Unless you convert it specifically, it will be in 5.1

besweet is a free audio conversion utility.  It can convert ac3 to wav and vice versa.  It can also separate your 5.1 ac3 into 6 separate wav files (which you will need for 5.1 editing).

frameserving can be a rather tricky process.  I made a tutorial for Vegas here (you have to register to the forum).

So using besweet, I import the ac3 file directly from the AUDIO_TS folder and click on convert to WAV and it will autimatically convert it to 6 wav files?

So then I could just rip the VOB file and convert it to a video and mute it and it wouldn't make a difference because I have the 6 channels already imported seperately from besweet?

Also, how would I export the video file when I'm finished?

And would you suggest I create a different file per scene, or do it all at once?

you will have to get the ac3 on your computer.  you can do this either before or after you rip the DVD.  To get the ac3 from the VIDEO_TS folder, use PGCdemux as Moth3r suggested.

after that its besweet time.  you choose ac3 to six wavs. and hit ac3 to wav (after setting the input and output).  this will give you 6 wav files that you can import into Vegas.  You will have to assign them to the appropriate channels there.

Correct, you really dont need audio on yor video file since you have the 6 wav files. 

For output, I would suggest frameserving to a high quality encoder like CCE or TMPGEnc.  All of the frameserving directions are in the link I provided above.

I would suggest exporting the video as 1 file.  NOT scene by scene.

So how would I put up sample clips or put it onto a DVD if I don't go scene by scene? And why would you say to do it all together?

You can select a portion to render out if you want sample clips. There is an option for that on your time bar in Vegas.  If you dont render out the final project as one movie you will likely get a pause between scenes.  This may vary on different DVD players.

Think of it this way, when you watch a movie on DVD, is it one file, or is each scene a separate video?? Its almost always one movie and one file.  You can insert chapter markers in your DVD authoring program if you want to (but in the end its still 1 video)

Ah ok, makes sense. Which Vegas would you suggest I use?

I am using the pro version of Vegas 7.  I love it, the only gripe is its incompatibility with some file types (but this is overcome with frameserving, which I do).  I think Vegas 8 has the same basic fault, but I hear nice things about it.  I've not tried the entry level Vegas versions

Ok thanks, I think I'll go with Vegas 8. And one final question, what's the best program for DVD Menus?

Vegas comes with DVD Architect.  Its very nice, and you can do just about anything you want with it with regards to DVD design.

Xilisoft DVD Ripper allows me to Rip DVDs.

For audio, would this be ideal?

Quality: Highest

Sample Rate: 96 000

Channels: 2 (Stareo)

Split: Infinite

Type: AC3

And then I'd use besweet to convert my 2-Channel AC3 file to 6 WAV files?

And for video should I do AVI or MPEG?

Wait should I rip the DVD with DVDDecrypter, Xilisoft DVD Ripper Plantinum 5 or DVDFab HD Decryptor for a seperate AC3 5.1 Audio and a seperate video?

And what filetype should I rip it to? (AVI, MPG etc)

And what's frameserving?

As I mentioned before, I'll suggest the method I prefer.

- DVDFab HD Deccryptor to get disc to HDD

- Gordian Knot to convert to high quality AVI (Vegas handles AVIs better)

- you can use PGCDemux to get your ac3 from the DVD folder on your HDD

- besweet to convert 5.1 ac3 to 6 wav files

Frameserving sends the video frame by frame to your editor or encoder.  Check out doom9 or videohelp.com for more information.

I got Auto Gordian Knot. Is that fine?

Also, the Besweet program does nothing. It's just a command prompt. I downloaded the GUI and it seems to work.

yep, autogk is fine.  less options, but its much much more user friendly.  And yes the BeSweet program does do something, lol.  Correct its a command prompt, you can use it without the GUI, but I wouldnt suggest it, ever.  The GUI makes it pretty easy.

Should I put the GUI files/folders in the CP folder or vice versa?

Also in HD Decrypter should I select Full Disc or main movie? All I want is the main movie but will that give me the 5.1?

edit: one more thing, How do I select in import of HDD? (or is that default already?)

OK nevermind, I want the deleted scenes too. So I should do full?

yes if you want deleted scenes, do full

And it will automatically be changed to HDD?

You said it would rip as a HDD, it's ripping as a VOB.

yes it will rip as a vob.  and what do you mean rip as a HDD.  How do you rip a movie as a hard drive?  if you want a mpg use vob2mpg.  otherwise you can juse use the vob files for autogk (to get it to an avi)