Premiere Pro Vob Files

[Lida Rick]

I am trying to streamline my file system and organization by using dropbox as a main source for working files and exports so they are collaborative with teammates. I do a lot of graphic design and video editing. I am experiencing issues when importing footage files that are on our drop box (synced on my computer and even made them available offline) into premiere pro. It allowed me to import a few footage files, but when I try to import the rest I am hit with a "Import Error" message within premiere. Can someone please walk me through this issue?

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I'm editing many VOB files from different DVDs in the same project. Files from one DVD have the same files name as files from other DVDs, but placed in separate directories. Not only does Premiere get completely confused when previewing the videos (playing video from a completely different sequence than the one selected with the play head), but it replaces the incorrect audio from wrong files when rendering... or drops the audio for certain VOB files entirely.

The only way to get Premiere to correctly reference the correct file placed on any sequence timeline is to pre-process all of my VOB files with Mpeg Streamclip, saving one large uniquely named VOB file per DVD, and importing that file into Premiere.

How is it possible that Premiere cannot handle files that have the same name? This is beyond amateur.... Professional grade? Really? I'm having a hard time showing people at work that Premiere can be used in a professional environment. I'm having to resort to using a decade old video converter (Mpeg StreamClip) to read and correct issues that Premiere completely chokes on.

Combined with the horrible extremely slow import bug that plagues large projects, and the decade old 'Unknown Error' encountered by many during export, Adobe is showing that their software is not professional grade and cannot be counted on in work environments. But what choice do I have? Sony Vegas became horribly buggy 5 years ago, pushing me to Adobe Premiere. Avid Media Composer? Software standards, with the advent of never-ending patches, have turned all customers into beta testers. This is not acceptable yet seems to be the industry norm now.

In 4 years of my CC membership, paying an average of $75 CAD/month, I've spent over $3500 to use Premiere. Adobe is repaying loyal customers with terribly buggy software that is only getting more and more buggy.

Importing using Media Browser rather than File > Import would likely fix the confusion within Premiere, however you may have to move or rename the current media folders, prior to re-importing media or the previous issue may follow along if working in the same project. NEW project should be okay just using Media Browser method.

Sorry Jeff, but your suggestion is not relevant to my problem because I am using Media Browser to import these files. And this is also a new project not created with an earlier version of Premiere. I appreciate your suggestions but am tired of the black magic voodoo methods that many bring up to solve problems with Premiere. How is it that different methods of import in Premiere DO NOT USE THE EXACT SAME CODE TO IMPORT? And why is the mantra of avoiding project files created with earlier versions of Premiere so prevalent? If Premiere is not backward compatible with old project files, then don't allow it to load them. Period. Some form of half backward compatibility is completely misleading and a complete garbage policy by Adobe, which their marketing department seems oblivious to. Either the CC suite is backward compatible or it is not. Apparently, it is not.

You misunderstood - I never referred to projects made in previous Premiere versions. Was only saying that if the file naming issue exists in the current project, and you re-import those same files again into same project, Premiere may use prior linkages which would resolve nothing, thus using a NEW project (not newer version) or at least moving source files would provide a chance at a fresh start.

Thanks Jeff. No worries. I understand that Premiere stores old metadata based on filename, which is also incredibly stupid. Why would it ever assume that a file with the same name as a previous import is the actual same file. A filename is just that... a name. It doesn't indicate that a file is identical.

It doesn't appear that any answer has been 'flagged' as correct in this thread ... if you mean that green-star/text box thing, that's the button for selecting a post as a correct answer ... NOT indicating that post is correct.

I realize the frustrations at times with dealing with the Adobe products ... and those of really any other software provider. I was recently watching a discussion between a few editors who were lamenting that they primarily used PrPro because in their view it was less bad than FCP & Avid at the current time, which isn't a huge endorsement. "Less bad" is clearly not "I love this app!"

No, neither I nor any of the others posting on here can say why one method of importing is less reliable than another, or why say "simply" opening an older project file in a new version for PrPro's base "converting" process is often less than satisfactory while creating a new project and then importing the old project file is normally better. It would seem to be the same thing, right? But in reality, it ... ain't.

And that's what most of us that try and help around here generally work towards ... in reality, with the app working as it does, what's the best and quickest process to get someone's project out the door for them. "But why should I have to X!!!!!" ... well, probably a good point ... but all 'we' can do is help to get the work done.

I rant on here, the forums, because I have NEVER ONCE received any feedback on a reported bug. At least it allows me to vent my frustrations until the next roadblock I encounter. I once had an in with one Adobe engineer in Utah, who helped me through another horrible Premiere bug that was causing incredible grief while I was editing a feature film.... maybe I should reach out to him again with this latest bug.... just don't have the time to do QA work for Adobe.... just a few minutes to vent.

Sorry Warren, but I'm not editing the DVD video structure from the DVDs directly. I'm loading the DVD VOB files from the DVD into a unique folder on a local hard drive. Premiere would lose it's mind if I tried to edit directly off of the DVDs (access times and such). Also, I don't want to upconvert the mpeg2 VOB files into DV files. That would increase the file size from approximately 4.6gb for the DVD to 26gb with no advantage in quality.

I have to disagree that there is a huge advantage in quality by converting to DV from mpeg2(VOB). Video can only be as good as it's source. Sure, DV enables Premiere to parse through the video in both directions quicker, allowing for a smoother editing experience (at a cost of 500% the storage space!), but the visual quality of DV generated from mpeg2 is identical to the source file. Premiere cannot add detail nor quality. Any chroma sampling information added in the DV version is based on the original limited source. Saying that converting mpeg2 to DV creates a huge improvement in quality is like saying that converting a 320x240 pixel camera video to a 4k ProRes444 file will make a huge improvement in quality.

And saying Premiere is editing the DVD data structure is not quite accurate. I refuse to give Premiere so much credit with being able to read VOB files. It can interpret a VOB file, which is a very strict version of an mpeg file. It's just another file format Premiere understands. There is no special structure related to multiple files that Premiere is 'editing'. I'm dragging the VOB files onto a timeline. Premiere does not understand the DVD structure and will actually place the VOB files out of order on the timeline if I don't select them in a very specific way.

I should have said, "There's a huge advantage in preserving quality and ease of editing by converting from a long-GOP MPEG2 format to an intra-frame format like DV-NTSC." Another way to put it is this: Just because you can edit a video format in Premiere Pro, it doesn't mean that you should edit that format in Premiere Pro.

VOB files are indeed part of the DVD-Video data structure (as anything one finds inside of a VIDEO_TS directory is) and exist only for that format, accommodating the limitation of a 1GB file limit on a UDF formatted disc when authoring a DVD-Video title to DVD-Video specification. A VOB is multiplexed picture and sound and Premiere Pro is capable of "demuxing" it, preventing one from having to demux elsewhere. As far as playing VOB files in order goes, the only way to guarantee that is to play the DVD-Video data from a DVD player. Going directly the VOB file(s) bypasses the "First Play" action, the Menu Space and Title Space, the picture stream settings, the audio stream settings, as well as any other GPRMs and SPRMs that control DVD-Video playback.

I know you're just looking for an answer as to why your PR project is incorrectly linking to VOB files in different folders. This could be something going on with your storage rather than Premiere Pro.

UPDATE: I had to abandon using Premiere to edit VOB files. Even after pre-processing multiple VOB files into 1 uniquely named VOB file with MpegSteamClip before injesting into Premiere, I was encountering a seemingly random sync issue where Premiere places video 12-14 frames too early in relation to the audio in exported MP4 files. I haven't noticed any pattern other than it's either in sync or 12-14 frames pre-mature in relation to the audio. This made using Premiere in a professional workflow unusable. I've since gone back to an old but reliable tool, Handbrake. Handbrake interprets the VOB files correctly, does a better job of deinterlacing than Premiere, and outputs video files that are always in sync with the audio. The only drawback is I can't (easily) trim or zoom the video in Handbrake. But audio sync is more important to clients than these other cosmetic tweaks.

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