While doing a little research on DVD -> AVI conversions, I came across a program called “VirtualDubMod“, a program that specifically converts a VOB file to an AVI (among a few other things). I have tried other programs in the past, but they always crashed, or wouldn’t let me save it as a DV AVI. This is why I haven’t been able to make much progress on converting Ilana’s wedding DVD (which is in PAL) to an NTSC DVD. However, VirtualDubMod worked! So, I converted all of the video titles on the wedding DVD from PAL MPEG-2 to PAL DV AVIs. From there, it was just a two-click process to convert those PAL DV AVIs into NTSC MPEG-2 streams.
While I compressed out the files (in a batch mode, of course), I went over to Media Ventures to visit Mike, who was working on setting up some computers over there. I got to see Hans Zimmer’s new studio which is, in a word, breathtaking. It’s got to be one of the most beautiful studios I’ve ever seen – like something out of a film, literally. (The fact it’s housed in a former warehouse adds to the “movie set” feeling as well.) I need to do an article on it – just because it looks that damn cool.