Dvd editing

Please bear with me as I am a novice. I hired a videographer for my daughters party. The audio on the DVD is inconsistant, too low at times and too high at times. It does not help to adjust the volume because I would have to do it minute to minute in some instances. I want to be able to edit the audio on the dVD and manually reset the volume control at different times throughout the DVD. For example, at 16 minutes and 29 seconds through 16 minutes and 56 seconds I want to increase the volume. then return to the existing volume at 16:56 through 17:46 and adjust again at 17:47 - 18:13. How can I do this?

By the way, when I complained to the videographer he said I waited too long and he doesn't have the video on his computer anymore so I would like to be able to do it myself.

 

What programs have you for that purpose? You need some intelligent software. And what OS are you running?

 

That is my question. What is the best software package to use to edit the volume and like I noted, it has to be at certain intervals, i.e., at 16 min and 39 sec to 17 min, 26 sec. etc.

My operating system is Windows XP (Media Center Edition).

Thanks in advance.

 

There's many different programs that will allow you to 'extract' the audio track, save it as a .wav or .wma or .mp3 file, edit it to your heart's content, then merge it back with the video. Try using Virtual Dub. It's free, and VERY popular, so finding help and how-to guides is easy. And it's available right here at Major Geeks:
Virtual Dub http://www.majorgeeks.com/VirtualDub__d5523.html
You might also try AoA Audio Extractor, but it might require the ripping of the DVD to a different format (like .AVI or DivX) before you can extract the audio:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/AoA_Audio_Extractor_d5496.html
Now that I'm thinking about it, you might have to convert the DVD before using VirtualDub also. I know there's plenty of apps available that will extract the audio track from a DVD without converting it, but I'm not aware of any free tools for this, and the names of some paid programs have slipped my memory at this particular moment....
Once you have the audio saved as it's own file, you'll need an audio editor; here's two free programs that are also very popular and it should be no problem finding help online:
Wavosaur http://www.majorgeeks.com/Wavosaur_d5418.html
Audacity http://www.majorgeeks.com/Audacity_d4427.html
VirtualDub is very flexible, but not the most user friendly program, but one thing you can do is to cut the video into sections, save each section as it's own file, then change the volume settings on each section individually. When you have the volume levels the same in each section, you can then join them together again (using VDub) in a single file. The entire project can be accomplished with Virtual Dub, except for converting the file to/from DVD format, and VDub won't burn the video back to a DVD either..... Two good forums for all things video (and audio) are www.afterdawn.com and www.videohelp.com Both have tons of guides covering every audio/video topic you can imagine and there's guides written for specific projects using specific programs. Great sites!

Good luck! Keep us posted!

[dlb]
:major

 

I recommend using Adobe Premiere Pro CS3. It will allow you to adjust the volume any way you want.. plus pretty much anything else you would want to do editing wise.