Problem with ripped MPEGs in Encore CS3

A friend had created a DVD (with either Windows Movie Maker or Nero; not sure
which), but I wanted to redo the menu (his was really lame). His software
created four .VOB chunks of the 50-minute video.

I ripped these chunks, renamed them as .mpg, and imported them into Encore 1.5
(which I had at the time) as four separate timelines. All four chunks imported
OK, but I had to transcode the last three before placing them on timelines. I
created a new menu, and burned a new DVD. However, playback on both my computer
and my DVD player had noticeable pauses between each timeline chunk (my friend's
original DVD does play back seamlessly). I tried both linked timelines through
end actions and a playlist - same result.

I upgraded to Encore CS3 because it now can add more than one video file to a
single timeline, thinking that would eliminate the pauses between the chunks and
I'd get seamless playback. However, when importing the original .mpg chunks into
Encore CS3, I get noticeable noise, in the form of green macroblocking in the
first few frames of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th chunks, which were NOT present in
Encore 1.5. (I see the same noise when importing these chunks into Premier Pro
CS3.) Also, Encore CS3 marks these last three video chunks as "Don't
Transcode", but when I place them on the single timeline, there is no
audio.

I've read through and understand the several Forum threads about the difficulty
of working with ripped DVD files. I'm not trying to do any sort of editing on
the video chunks. However, I tried some of the MPEG editors suggested in these
threads to create a single .mpg file, but they have their own problems with
this.

The original AVI file has been lost. I could recreate it from the source VHS
tape, but have been trying to avoid that.

Anyone have any thoughts about this? If the behavior I described above in the
two CS3 packages is a potential bug, I would be happy to submit a bug report to
Adobe.

This may help: A guide to using DVD Decrypter with EncoreDVD by Jeff Bellune

Sorry to say this really is not a bug.
The kind of thing that you're trying to do is something Encore was never
intended to be capable of doing - it's that simple.
Renaming a VOB file to mpg is a workaround to try & force import of a format
that is essentially designed to be on a completed, compiled DVD-Video disc. It
is not the same as properly demiltiplexing the stream. A VOB file on a DVD is a
Video OBject.
The way this works (structure wise) is like this:
VTS_01_0.VOB = the menus for VTS 1
VTS_01_1.VOB, VTS_01_2.VOB, VTS_01_3.VOB, & VTS_01_4.VOB are all separate
parts of the same timeline - VTS 1.
They are split into 4 because the timeline after encoding will have between
between 3 & 4Gb in size. The way DVD-Video gets compiled will take a single
encoding of 3.5Gb and break it into seamless chunks of 1 or less Gb each.
These VOB files contain everything - including any subtitles.
They are not designed to be edited.
The safest way to get seamless use - assuming that you absolutely must rework
files - is to jouin all the 4 VOB files together using a simple command line
instruction.
(copy /b VTS_01_1.VOB+VTS_01_2.VOB VTS_ALL.VOB)
The /b switch is for a binary copy, and although I am uncertain if this is
absolutely required or not, it is how we join up the 2 .DAT files when restoring
DLT tape content to DVD-R DL discs)

Based on reading a LOT of problem reports, importing files from a DVD camcorder
or other MPEG device, or Ripping DVD files rarely results in success in
Premiere... do not be fooled by movie industry advertising into thinking that
"DVD Quality Video" is suitable for EDITING... it is not... a DVD is
designed to be for PLAYBACK only... and that includes trying to edit a Standard
Def MPEG or VOB file!

You should also use WAV sound files, not the compressed MP3 format, To work with
AC3 files in Premiere, it MAY work to copy the ad2ac3dec.dll file from the
Encore DVD directory into the Premiere directory

Go to my notes page <http://www.pacifier.com/~jtsmith/ADOBE.HTM>

Click the internal link for editing compressed files... read, there are some
ideas & links there

There are other products better suited to your task (read at the link above for
a partial list) but if you only have DVD type files, you should convert to DV
AVI... go to the VideoHelp link in my notes and look for a program to convert...
but do be aware that converting from a HIGHLY compressed viewing format back to
an editing format is going to cause a drop in quality

Gentlemen:

Thank you for your quick and informative replies. As I had mentioned, I did
search through the Adobe Encore and Premier forum threads, and recognized the
pitfalls of working with files ripped from a DVD. To my thinking I wasn't trying
to "edit" the ripped files, merely trying to get Encore to recreate a
DVD with them. Perhaps my definition of "edit" is too narrow; if so,
guilty as charged.

Mr. Smith, I had already carefully read your notes page and tried a couple of
the free-trial MPEG editors you mention. However, both also had problems
stitching the four chunks together.

Mr. Wilkes, your suggestion of using the copy Command Prompt worked perfectly.
Who says DOS is dead, eh?

My real concern was in how Encore CS3 introduced video noise/artifacting in the
first few frames of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th chunks where Encore 1.5 did not. This
is what I thought may be indication of a bug in CS3. That's a moot point for me
now, however.