Can I split a DVD video that I've already made into chapters?

Q Many years ago, I saved some TV programmes to a DVD. I would now like to split the DVD into chapters. Can you suggest a program to do the job? I have looked at applications such as Roxio and Nero, and neither can do this. I am using Windows XP.

Graham Franklin

A First things first – there is no way to edit the contents of a DVD once it has been burned, so you will either need access to the original video files to create a new disc or transfer the contents of the DVD back to the computer’s hard disk for further editing.

The former task is trivial using any DVD-authoring software, so we will assume you no longer have the original video files. The trick here is to extract the video from the VOB files on the DVD without any kind of reconversion, since this will reduce the video quality. Copy protection shouldn’t be an issue for a disc you have created yourself and you can use a free download called VOB2MPG to convert the VOB files on the DVD to MPEG, which can then be used as needed.

To do this, start VOB2MPG and insert the disc to be ripped into the PC’s DVD drive. Now click the ‘Browse for DVD source’ button, browse to the DVD and select the first IFO file (this is usually in a folder called VIDEO_TS). Click the Open button.

Depending on the disc’s structure, one or more chapters will be listed in the left of the VOB2MPG window – tick the box at the top of this list to select them. Next, click the ‘Browse for output folder’ button on the right of the window to select (or create) a destination folder on the PC’s hard disk in which to store the resulting MPEG files.

Click the Start extraction button and the DVD will be ripped to a single MPEG file – this may take some time, depending on the size of the disc. You can then import this file into a DVD-authoring program in the usual way, add the chapter marks and burn it to a new DVD.