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Using Windows Movie Maker which comes with XP it is possible but you will first have to convert the DVD to an avi or mpg file. Otherwise you will get something like this:
"The file D:\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_1.VOB is not a supported file type, and it cannot be imported into Windows Movie Maker."
Once you have completed the conversion and imported the two halves into the program, you can apply a transition of some sort to the join. Then you then have to convert the .avi or .wmv output back to DVD-Video.
Here is my trick to do this without spending a week converting the entire movie back and forth into different formats.
I do not want to convert the entire movie. Just the area I want to join.
First, I open the first half movie in Shrink and Reauthor. Using the Set Start/End Frames feature, I select the last chapter of the first disc. Now, using the sliders and buttons I look for a scene change in the last chapter as close to the end as possible.
What I'm looking for is a definite scene change. The audio should change as well if possible.
Once I've made the choice I back this "clip" up to my HDD.
I repeat the process with the second disc, only this time with the first chapter, again making the cut at a definite scene change.
This clip is backed up to a location as well.
Next, I convert the clips into a format that WMM can handle. mpg for example. I use a DVD to mpeg converter for this.
The nest step is to open WMM and import both mpg clips.
Now I can use WMM to apply a transition or anything else I like between the two clips. A fade transition works pretty well.
Once that is completed, I export the joined clips as DV-AVI.
Now I have to convert this clip back to DVD-Video. Because the clip is only a few minutes long it only takes a few minutes to convert. I use NeroVision Express. I end up with a short DVD-Video "movie".
Because I made the first cuts with Shrink at definite scene changes I can now open the first half of the movie in Shrink again and find this scene change. I remove everything past it using the Set Start/End Frames feature. I join my clip to the trimmed first half.
Because I was careful during the cutting process and there is a scene change, you can't tell where the first half of the movie ends and the clip begins.
I repeat the process with the second half, being careful to make the cut in the correct location. Once this is done, I can now join the first half + clip to the second half.
Once that is done I can back the whole thing up as one DVD with a WMM transition applied.
Fun stuff.
Frank
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 10. July 2005 @ 09:11
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