I recently had some 8mm film transferred to DVD. I am trying to edit the film clips using Premier Elements 4.0. Some of the film clips copy into the project but others don't. I tried copying the VOB filed onto my hard drive and then changing the file ext

Question

I recently had some 8mm film transferred to DVD. I am trying to edit the film clips using Premier Elements 4.0. so I can reburn the films on a single BluRay disc. Some of the film clips copy into the project but others don't. I tried copying the VOB filed onto my hard drive and then changing the file extensions on the VOB files to MPEG but this was no help. Some of the VOB files contain numerous film clips but my software does not appear to be able to recognize them as such. I need to know if replacing my old Premier Elements with the new Version 13 would solve this problem or not. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Bob

Answer 1

Bob
What do you have now.....
What computer operating system do you have?
We can go into the finer points of source and your intentions, but for now it would appear that you are using SD 4:3 source media to get to a HD 16:9 result. Lots to discuss in this regard.
What was given to you on the DVD disc? DVD-VIDEO 4:3 or something else?
If DVD-VIDEO on DVD disc, you should expect to find on the disc a folder named VIDEO_TS. That is your target for your video files.
If you were given a DVD-VIDEO on DVD disc, then all you want from it are the video files, specifically
VTS_01_1.VOB, VTS_01_2.VOB, and so on through that series until possibly getting to
VTS_02_1.VOB, and so on. How many files you have beyond the VTS_01_1.VOB file will depend on the size of the DVD-VIDEO.
Does the above scenario apply to you?
The alternative might be someone giving a DVD disc (data disc) which contains just the VTS files mentioned which were copied from
the VIDEO_TS Folder. So, you do not get the whole VIDEO_TS Folder, just the essential video files. Does this scenario apply to you.
I see no need to replace your Premiere Elements 4 with a later version unless you have a huge project and need a later version that will be a 64 bit application running specifically on Windows 7, 8, or 8.1 64 bit computer.
Consider...Premiere Elements 4 and if you have DVD-VIDEO on DVD....
1. Place the DVD disc in the burner tray
2. Open Premiere Elements 4 and set the project preset for NTSC DV Standard (assuming you are working in a NTSC setup)
3. Go to
Get Media
"DVD, Digital Camera, Mobile Phone, Hard Drive Camcorder, Card Reader"
"Adobe Premiere Elements - Media Downloader" and its Advanced dialog.
Set the Source in the latter dialog for the drive which has your DVD disc inserted in its tray
You should see your VTS_01_1.VOB thumbnail in the "Adobe Premiere Elements - Media Downloader" Advanced dialog.
With this VOB selected, click on Get Media to get the file from there into the project.
Should work fine.
Complications may be involved if the people who processed your footage gave you something other what is described above.
Please review and consider, and then we can plan our project strategy accordingly.
Thank you.
ATR