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  1. This guide will show you how to backup the main movie & use a main + chapter select menu taken from the original DVD.

    I will explain it using what is considered the "old school way". For every step we will be using another (free) application.

    Why?

    - It gives me more control over every step.
    - It requires (a lot) more time & work but it's less complex then some other tools that could scare off people with less technical knowledge (like myself).

    This makes it, imo, a good guide for people just starting with backing-up their DVD's & it allows me to give some solutions to problems I encountered along the way that may be of help.

    So, I'm not an expert. I just want to share what I've learned so far thanks to the people of the videohelp community.

    Feel free to point out things that can be done in a better way; things I didn't think about or even mistakes made.

    Before I start; a big "thank you" to all the people that make this wonderfull software and to those who share their know-how with us.

    PS: For the moment this is a text-only guide. If really needed, maybe I'll add images later.

    Software required

    - DVDFab HD Decrypter -> Copies DVD to hard disk; removing protection & region code
    - Dgmpgdec -> Gives you an index file & your final audio
    - Avisynth -> For using filters before encoding (optional)
    - AvsP -> My preferred avisynth script editor
    - ChapterXtractor -> To know the time when chapters start.
    - SubRip -> To extract the subtitles
    - PgcEdit -> In this case used to extract the main & chapter menus
    - MediaInfo -> Gives alot of detail about your source file
    - HC Encoder -> To re-encode to MPEG2
    - MediaPlayerClassic -> Used to preview before & after the authoring process
    - DVDauthorGUI -> To put everything back together
    - Delaycut -> To fix problems with audio delay (optional)
    - Nero or Imgburn -> Or another burning application to burn the DVD

    Only DVDFab HD Decrypter, DVDautherGUI & Avisynth need to be installed. The other tools can be extracted to a folder and run by starting the *.exe.

    1) DVDFab HD Decrypter
    - Load the original DVD in your DVD drive. Start DVDFab & select "main movie".
    - Select the audio you want to keep & start the copying process.
    - When this is done you will probably find the files under
    "C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\My documents\DVDFab\MainMovie\NAME_OF_THE_DVD".
    - Close the program.

    2) Dgmpgdec
    - Start DGindex.
    - File > Open.
    - Browse to where you saved your movie in step 1. Look in the VIDEO_TS folder & select al the VOB's that belong to the main movie. Most of the time this will be VTS_01_1.VOB, VTS_01_2.VOB, .....
    - Now you will get a "file list" window. Verify that the numbers go from low to high, top to bottom. Press "ok"
    - File > Save project. Choose a destination for the DGIndex project file (*.d2v).
    - DGindex now generates an index file and will give you one or more *.ac3 audio file(s). The filename will also indicate the "audio/video delay" value. -> "*** DELAY xms.ac3"; where x is the value. We will need this value when we start authoring.
    - Close the program.

    3) AvsP
    I've grown the habit of using some avisynth filters on the video before I start encoding. This step is optional but I'll cover it anyway. It could all be a placebo-effect but when I compare the original & filtered movie (using another tab in AvsP); I'prefer the filtered version.
    AvsP is my preferred script editor. For DVD backup I always use this script:

    Import("C:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\LimitedSharpenFaster.avs")
    LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\mt_masktools.dll")
    LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\RemoveGrain.dll")
    LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\warpsharp.dll")
    LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\convolution3d.dll")
    MPEG2Source("C:\PATH TO YOUR DGINDEX PROJECT FILE\*******.d2v", cpu=0)
    Convolution3d (preset="movieHQ")
    LimitedSharpenFaster(ss_x=1.0,ss_y=1.0,Smode=3,str ength=60,overshoot=7)


    There are 2 filters used. One to clean up the source (Convolution3d) & the other to sharpen the image (LimitedSharpenFaster).

    - File > Save script as. Choose a destination for your aviscrypt file (*.avs).
    - Close the program.

    4) ChapterXtractor
    - Start ChapterXtractor.
    - click on "OpenIFO".
    - Browse to the location where you ripped the movie in step 1. Open the VIDEO_TS folder and choose the *.IFO which belongs to the main movie. Normally this will be "VTS_01_0.IFO".
    - Choose the tab "Format". Select the "SVCD" preset.
    - Click "Save data" & enter a name for this text file.
    - Open the text file & edit it as follows: Change every line from "Chapter X = hh:mm:ss:xx" to "hh:mm:ss.xx".
    - Save & close the text file & ChapterXtractor.

    5) Subrip
    - Open Subrip.
    - Click on the "VOB" icon under "File".
    - Choose "Open IFO".
    - Browse to the location where you ripped the movie in step 1. Open the VIDEO_TS folder and choose the *.IFO which belongs to the main movie. Normally this will be "VTS_01_0.IFO".
    - Click start.
    - Now identify each letter & number. Don't forget to mark "Italic" when the text is Italic. If Subrip has troubles with the "%, $,..." characters; you can use the ">>" button to expand the selection.
    - When done you can click on "File > Save As" in the lower section of subrip.
    - Choose a location & save your *.srt subtitle file.
    - A *.srt file can be opened in notepad for further editing or in a subtitle editing program to make additional changes or even translations.

    6) PgcEdit
    - Open PGC Edit.
    - File > Open DVD.
    - Browse to the location where you ripped the movie in step 1. Open the VIDEO_TS folder.
    - A little window will pop up. Wait till PgcEdit finishes scanning the folder & click close.
    - A menu is listed as a "VTSM" on the left side of the main window. The time listed can also be of help to identify the menu you want. Right click & choose "Preview PGC" to see if you selected the menu you want.
    - You will see a little window with a horizontal slider. Use this slider to select the image you want (or use the play, >, >> buttons). Click on the "BMP" button to save it as a BMP image.
    - Do this for the main menu & for every chapter menu.
    - Close PgcEdit
    - Optionally edit the BMP's in an image editor. Adding, removing text,... (For this guide we need a main menu with the text "Play" & "Chapters").

    7) MediaInfo
    MediaInfo is used to see if our source is interlaced or progressive; 4:3 or 16:9; Top Field First or Bottom Field First (TFF or BFF).

    - Open MediaInfo.
    - Open one of the "VTS_01_1.VOB, VTS_01_2.VOB,..." VOB files.
    - I prefer the "tree" output of mediaInfo. Nice & easy to find the info we need.
    - Close MediaInfo.

    NOTE: I found out that MediaInfo doesn't always detect TFF or BFF correctly. If, after encoding, the movie flickers in scenes involving movement, you need to encode again and swap the TFF, BFF setting.
    If you want you can test this by encoding a small scene from the movie twice. Once in TFF & the second time in BFF.
    To do this with HCencoder (see step 8); just put in the frame numbers for start & end frame on the main tab.
    You can use the "Preview/Zones" tab to find the frame numbers you want.
    Then author them on a DVDRW & play them on your TV. One will flicker, the other won't.

    8)HCencoder
    Now we are going to use HCencoder to re-encode the main movie so it can fit on a DVD-5 instead of a DVD-9.
    The file size will depend on the bitrate used. To know the bitrate to use I recommend a bitrate calculater.
    I usually use a regular calculator though. I don't know exactly how much extra space is needed to fit everything on a DVD-5 when using menu's. Or how much the authoring itself creates extra needed space. You will need to ask someone who knows more about this then I do. I did hear some good things about fit2disk & VideoCalc; but haven't tried them (yet).

    An example of how I do it:

    I start with 200 MB less then there fits on a DVD-5. Convert the size to kB's. Minus the filesize of my *.ac3 audio in kB's. Use this value as the file length. Now click on "average bitrate" & HCencoder will decide on an average bitrate which is calculated from the file length value.

    - Start the graphical interface (GUI) by clicking on the "HCgui_****.exe".

    "Main" tab
    Input: Use the *.d2v file created by DGindex or your avisynth *.avs file.
    Output: Choose where you want to safe your encode (*.m2v)
    Log: Choose where you want to safe your logfile. Handy if something doesn't work.
    bitrate: either use file length or average bitrate.
    Profile: Best. Slower but worth it.
    Aspect ratio: 4:3 or 16:9 depending on MediaInfo's info.
    Interlaced: depending on MediaInfo's info.
    Scene Change: Yes
    Autogop: Yes

    Settings to mention: (see pdf in one of HCencoder's folders for more details)

    "Settings 1"
    Interlaced Fields: TFF or BFF (depending on MediaInfo's info)

    "Settings 2"
    Luminance control: 2

    "Preview/Zones"
    I use a value of 0.5 for openings (studio logo's etc) & credits & 1.0 for the main movie.

    When everything is like you want; don't forget to go back to the main tab. Verify you're going to encode al frames & click on the "make dvd compliant" button. Watch the info box for any messages.

    Hit the encode button & wait till it's done. This will probably take between 3-6 hours. You can run this overnight if you want & check "shutdown" to shut the pc down when HC has finished.

    9) Testing the audio delay
    I've found out that the delay that DgIndex mentions in step 2 isn't always correct. It once reported a 0ms delay but it was actually around 980ms. Found this out after authoring the DVD, so better check if this value is correct or not. This is how I found out the 980ms delay.

    - Rename the *.ac3 & the *.m2v(see step 8) so they have the same filename.
    - Open the *.m2v in MediaPlayerClassic.
    - If everything sounds in sync then that's ok.
    - If not, go to "play" > "audio" > "options". Here you can manually change the delay value. Now to get to the 980ms value it was just trial & error. So it may take a while before you're happy with it.

    10) DVDauthorgui
    Time to finally put everything back together.

    - Open DvDAutorGUI.
    - Click on the "add title" button.
    - Select your *.m2v file you created with HCEncoder.
    - Then select the *.ac3 audio that belongs to the *.m2v.
    - Click the "chapter" button & copy/paste the values you created with ChapterXtractor in step 4.
    - Click on the arrow besides "extra" & select "add/edit subtitles". Browse to your *.srt file created in step 5; leaving the values as they are.
    - Again under "extra" select "edit language tags". Use this to set the audio & subtitle language.
    - Under "extra" you can also set the audio/video delay reported by Dgmpgdec in step 2.

    I'll explain how to put in the menu's below. This takes some time since you also need to place the button's. Just remember you can save your progress using File > Save project.

    We first need to convert our *.bmp's from step 6 to a "M2V still".

    - Under "Menus" choose "create M2V still". Select your "*.BMP" & the location to save your M2V still.
    - Do this for every *.BMP

    When this is done it's time to work on the menu links. In this case I have a main menu with "Play" & "Chapters" - See Step 6. In the final DVD "Play" will start playing the movie & "Chapters" will bring up the first chapter select menu (ea. chapter 1-4).

    First we are going to load all menu's.

    - "Menus" > "add new title set menu"
    - choose your main menu.
    - Repeat this for the chapter menu's (1-4, 5-9, ....)
    - For now, each time close the window that pops-up where you can add the buttons.

    Under "Menus" > "Titleset menu manager" you can re-order or rename your menu. Double click an entry to bring up the window where we can add buttons.
    For every button we are going to create there is an action we can set. The button is a visual indication to see where you are in the menu. (ea. a rectangular selection area). The action can be to bring up another menu or start playing a certain chapter.

    I'll explain how to link from the main menu to the chapter menu & how to go to a chapter from the chapter menu.

    From main menu to the chapter menu
    - Double click the main menu in the "Titleset menu manager". This will open the window where we can add buttons.
    - check "advanced". This will allow us to put in a width & height value for the selection area.
    - Click "add button".
    - for width & height type "100". You will see a selection area in the preview window.
    - Use the horizontal & vertical sliders to position this area over the text "Chapters".
    - Use the "width" & "height" sliders to change the shape & size of the selection so that the text fits inside the selection area.
    - You can also change the highlight colour if you don't see it well.
    - Under action choose "jump menu x"; where x is your "chapter 1-4" menu.
    - Click on accept.

    From "chapter 1-4" menu to start playing chapter 3
    Double click "chapter 1-4" menu in the "Titleset menu manager". This will open the window where we can add buttons.

    - check "advanced". This will allow us to put in a width & height value for the selection area.
    - Click "add button".
    - for width & height type "100". You will see a selection area in the preview window.
    - Use the horizontal & vertical sliders to position this area over the image of chapter 3.
    - Use the "width" & "height" sliders to change the shape & size of the selection so that the image fits inside the selection area.
    - You can also change the highlight colour if you don't see it well.
    - Under action choose "jump Title 1 chapter 3".

    Do the same for the other links to chapters & menu's. Just click "Add button" & repeat the process.

    - Click on accept when done.

    When this is finished, click the "Author DVD" button; select where you want save the folder that will be created & let DVDAuthorGUI do it's job.

    NOTE: Referring to step 9. When I had put in the 980ms delay value under "set A/V delay"; DVDAuthorGUI crashed during the authoring process. I got this fixed by changing the delay using delaycut.

    - Load the *.ac3 in delaycut.
    - Check Original length.
    - Use the 980 as value under "Start (msec)".
    - Click "Process".
    - Use the fixed *.ac3 as audio track when authoring.

    In my case this fixed the delay & DVDAuthorGUI didn't crash.

    11) Test, Burn & enjoy
    - Do a final test by loading the DVD folder in MediaplayerClassic or you software of choice for viewing DVD's on your PC.
    - Burn the folder with your preferred burning application.
    - Enjoy your movie on your standalone player or your PC.

    Final words
    I hope that my first guide ever can help some people getting started. If you want an all in one application I recommend "Nero Recode" or "DVDshrink". They do all the above in about 45 minutes & on my TV the image quality is the same. But hey, maybe I'm not THAT demanding ;).
    I do like how I can have full control over every single step using these individual applications. And you learn some stuff along the way.

    Thanks for reading.

    ChibiTomo

    ~FIN~

    Updates
    15-08-2007: Considering recent comments; I made some small changes to the text & layout.
    18-08-2007: Did some more spellchecking.
    "It's like a finger pointing a way to the moon; don't concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory" Bruce Lee, ETD.
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  2. Member oldandinthe way's Avatar
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    All these methods are more complex than DVDShrink+AnyDVD

    And I've never had the audio out of sync with that method.

    Does full disk or main movie only. Allows you to select audio tracks and subtitles.
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    Originally Posted by ChibiTomo
    - I'm not an expert. I just want to share what I've earned so far. So feel free to point out things that can be done in a better way; things
    I didn't think about or even mistakes made.
    The guide is nice and all but I think it's old school.

    If you are going to do something like this manually where you want to keep the dvd structure intact, while only re-encoding the movie, there are more efficient and better ways, and still free.


    Disregarding the decrypting and burning, if I were to do something like this:

    1) Get rid of anything I don't want using pgcedit. Alternatively you can use vobblanker but I like to disable buttons and stuff using pgcedit. Then post-process using vobblanker. You can even convert the motion menus to stills using vobblanker if you want to(like your guide).

    2) I would extract the movie, audios, subs, celltimes using pgcdemux.

    3) Use videocalc to calculate bitrate for video. Re-encode the movie using dgindex, avisynth, cce(or hcenc), and dgpulldown(if need be).

    4) Use muxman to mux back the new encoded video with the audio(s), sub(s), and celltimes.

    5) Use vobblanker to replace what you muxed with muxman into the original dvd structure.


    This way since the original structure is intact no need to extract menus, no need to use a standalone authoring programs and re-do navigations, etc.
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  4. Thanks for pointing me in a new direction Pinstripes23. I'll read some related guides & try it out.
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  5. Member Seeker47's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by Pinstripes23
    The guide is nice and all but I think it's old school.

    If you are going to do something like this manually where you want to keep the dvd structure intact, while only re-encoding the movie, there are more efficient and better ways, and still free.

    Disregarding the decrypting and burning, if I were to do something like this:

    1) Get rid of anything I don't want using
    {snip}

    And your alternative is still way too much work, IMO, for most routine jobs. Which leaves me curious about something -- sticking to the freeware realm for the moment, because I know there are supposed to be some good payware options around, like VideoRedo. I don't know the answer to this, because I so seldom need to reach for FabDecrypter, and haven't gotten into their post-"HD" versions. But I see all kinds of new options in there for remaking your backup just the way you want it. Might this be the easier, streamlined answer ? Or would I find a lot of those features to actually be disabled, because this is the "lite", free, lesser derivative of Fab Gold or Fab Platinum ? And do they necessarily always involve a re-encoding, which is going to lower the quality ? (I know that you can sometimes use Shrink without compression, and thereby avoid re-encoding, but usually at the cost of losing the Menus and the Extras.) It seems unlikely that Fengtao is going to give away too much of the functionality they charge $ for in the Gold and Platinum versions.
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  6. Member AlanHK's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by ChibiTomo
    5) Subrip
    -----------
    - Open Subrip.
    - Click on the "VOB" icon under "File".
    - Choose "Open IFO".
    - Browse to the location where you ripped the movie in step 1. Open the VIDEO_TS folder and choose the *.IFO witch belongs to the main movie. Normally this will be "VTS_01_0.IFO.
    - Click start.
    I don't know why you'd want to do this routinely. Just demuxing the original subtitles to sub/idx or sup will almost always be better than any you can make. (Use DVDSubedit to move, change the colours, or delete selectively, if you like.) If they're messed up, you might as well start fresh by downloading SRTs from a subtitle site. Subrip OCR is tedious and not perfect, and will almost certainly introduce errors.

    Also, as regards formatting, your "===" lines are too long and stretch the page out.
    You might use the "font size" buttons to make headings more clear.
    And as you're writing a guide, it would benefit from a spellcheck, there are several typos (eg, above "witch" should be "which").
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    Originally Posted by Seeker47
    And your alternative is still way too much work, IMO, for most routine jobs. Which leaves me curious about something -- sticking to the freeware realm for the moment, because I know there are supposed to be some good payware options around, like VideoRedo. I don't know the answer to this, because I so seldom need to reach for FabDecrypter, and haven't gotten into their post-"HD" versions. But I see all kinds of new options in there for remaking your backup just the way you want it. Might this be the easier, streamlined answer ? Or would I find a lot of those features to actually be disabled, because this is the "lite", free, lesser derivative of Fab Gold or Fab Platinum ? And do they necessarily always involve a re-encoding, which is going to lower the quality ? (I know that you can sometimes use Shrink without compression, and thereby avoid re-encoding, but usually at the cost of losing the Menus and the Extras.) It seems unlikely that Fengtao is going to give away too much of the functionality they charge $ for in the Gold and Platinum versions.
    I have no idea why you're bringing up VideoReDo first of all, since we're talking about DVD backup. The topic of the thread is to backup a DVD9 to DVD5. And it seemed the OP wanted a lot of control over the tasks at hand in order to compress to DVD5. So I suggested a better and more efficient way, all using freeware. And it will keep the original dvd structure intact. It is also a lot more versatile, as you pretty much have complete control over the whole DVD. What I suggested above is only a small part of it. You may think it is a lot of work but I suppose you can always "spend" money on those other progs like DVDRemake Pro, DVD-RB Pro, DVDFab Platinum/Gold, etc. to make things "easier" for you. The freeware apps I suggested above can do most what these payware all-in-one progs can do. The only times I encountered something I couldn't do with freeware or figure out - was combine 2 DVDs including menus into one DVD(with main menu to either go to disc 1 or disc 2), and compressing multi angle DVDs. But I rarely encounter those kind of tasks. Also I have not found any all-in-one prog(free or pay) that can do a COMPLETE PAL DVD to NTSC DVD conversion. But the ones I suggested above, in addition to a few more freeware apps can do the complete conversion.
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  8. Always Watching guns1inger's Avatar
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    DVD-RB is free, uses HCEnc for high quality encoding, and for a standard DVD9 - DVD5 is almost a one-click exercise. If DVD9-DVD5 size reduction is all that is require then anything else is overkill.
    Read my blog here.
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    The freeware version doesn't give you complete control. If you're happy with that then good for you. Some people want complete control on how they want to back up their dvds.
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  10. Always Watching guns1inger's Avatar
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    and for a standard DVD9 - DVD5
    I did qualify my statement. That said, there are still much easier ways to do this.
    Read my blog here.
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  11. Originally Posted by Pinstripes23
    The only times I encountered something I couldn't do with freeware or figure out - was combine 2 DVDs including menus into one DVD(with main menu to either go to disc 1 or disc 2), and compressing multi angle DVDs.
    I just did my first combine-2-DVDs-into-one the other day. It was a 2-part movie split over 2 DVD5s. DVDRemake Pro is one way, but I was trying to find a freeware solution. Rather than having a menu that pointed to part 1 or part 2 of the movie, I combined the vobs to one long movie, and joined the subs. The key for me was saving the (static) menu screens as BMPs, redoing one of them with chapters 10-18, rather than the original 1-9 on each DVD, and making a "dummy" menu using DVDAuthorGUI. Then after opening the Muxman authored DVD in PGCEdit, I imported my menu, and also imported and edited the menu commands, buttons and colors from the original DVD. Took awhile to figure out, but it works great.

    Personally, I have no use for DVD-RB. No IVTC, no RePAL, no PAL2NTSC, no nothing that changes the framecount. No making of a Lagarith when the filter chain is slow, so if doing a number of passes, it can take a very long time. Sure, as guns1inger said, for the easy stuff, it's fine, but I'd still rather do it myself.

    AlanHK is right about the subs; the OCR step is completely unnecessary usually. So is the DVDAuthorGUI step usually, when just backing up a retail DVD. I do it almost exactly as outlined by Pinstripes23.
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  12. Member Seeker47's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by Pinstripes23
    I have no idea why you're bringing up VideoReDo first of all, since we're talking about DVD backup. The topic of the thread is to backup a DVD9 to DVD5.
    Well, here's the connection: the main point of that post was the new options I see in the menus on DVDFab HD Decrypter, for going 9-5, remove this, remove that, put it into Ipod format (Who Cares ?!), etc. If that stuff worked, worked reasonably well, and it was a shorter movie, it might conceivably fit the parameters of what the OP was inquiring about, as one more alternative. It looked to me like they were trying to pick up where Shrink left off. I was just curious as to what's up with those features.

    Originally Posted by Pinstripes23
    And it seemed the OP wanted a lot of control over the tasks at hand in order to compress to DVD5.
    The freeware apps I suggested above can do most what these payware all-in-one progs can do..
    I'm not disagreeing with you here. Guess it comes down to how much control you want, how much compression is required, the quality of the result you are looking for, and how much time and effort a particular job is worth to you.
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    Originally Posted by manono
    Originally Posted by Pinstripes23
    The only times I encountered something I couldn't do with freeware or figure out - was combine 2 DVDs including menus into one DVD(with main menu to either go to disc 1 or disc 2), and compressing multi angle DVDs.
    I just did my first combine-2-DVDs-into-one the other day. It was a 2-part movie split over 2 DVD5s. DVDRemake Pro is one way, but I was trying to find a freeware solution. Rather than having a menu that pointed to part 1 or part 2 of the movie, I combined the vobs to one long movie, and joined the subs. The key for me was saving the (static) menu screens as BMPs, redoing one of them with chapters 10-18, rather than the original 1-9 on each DVD, and making a "dummy" menu using DVDAuthorGUI. Then after opening the Muxman authored DVD in PGCEdit, I imported my menu, and also imported and edited the menu commands, buttons and colors from the original DVD. Took awhile to figure out, but it works great.
    Nice one manono. Yea I wanted to backup this 2 disc set into one DVD5. The first one had the movie and the 2nd one had the extras. I customized what I wanted from both DVDs while preserving the dvd structures with menus from both discs. And have a main menu. I attempted the freeware route by trying to follow this thread from Doom9: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=96211

    But in the end it just wasn't working for me, so I just had DVDRemake Pro do it. And I customized a main menu and imported , instead of using its generic menu.
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  14. Right, while trying to figure this out I also consulted the Doom9 thread to which you linked. And, frankly, I found it pretty incomprehensible, but that's probably just me. I was lucky in that I had a pretty basic and simple DVD with which to work. All menus already static, and all commands simple and easy to understand. No linking all over the place to all kinds of other VTSMs and VMGMs, and no lots of GPRMs and the like. So, making the movie go beyond the original chapter 9 of both parts, and linking buttons properly and the like was relatively simple. Relatively - it still took several days of work off and on to get it figured out, given my rudimentary knowledge of how menus work.

    DVDRemake's a heck of a lot easier for this, but I learned some things and accomplished something. If I have a similar project in the future, it should go more easily.
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  15. Member LJB's Avatar
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    What about DVDFab HD Decrypter to rip to the HD and Nero Recode to burn the new copy?
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  16. Originally Posted by Pinstripes23
    Originally Posted by ChibiTomo
    - I'm not an expert. I just want to share what I've earned so far. So feel free to point out things that can be done in a better way; things
    I didn't think about or even mistakes made.
    The guide is nice and all but I think it's old school.

    If you are going to do something like this manually where you want to keep the dvd structure intact, while only re-encoding the movie, there are more efficient and better ways, and still free.


    Disregarding the decrypting and burning, if I were to do something like this:

    1) Get rid of anything I don't want using pgcedit. Alternatively you can use vobblanker but I like to disable buttons and stuff using pgcedit. Then post-process using vobblanker. You can even convert the motion menus to stills using vobblanker if you want to(like your guide).

    2) I would extract the movie, audios, subs, celltimes using pgcdemux.

    3) Use videocalc to calculate bitrate for video. Re-encode the movie using dgindex, avisynth, cce(or hcenc), and dgpulldown(if need be).

    4) Use muxman to mux back the new encoded video with the audio(s), sub(s), and celltimes.

    5) Use vobblanker to replace what you muxed with muxman into the original dvd structure.

    This way since the original structure is intact no need to extract menus, no need to use a standalone authoring programs and re-do navigations, etc.


    Hi

    Can i get help on step 5 guide using by VobBlanker, i tried to figure it hard but could not.

    I have the output from Muxman after muxing Main Video,celltimes,chapters and audio and the "original" DVD.

    Now, what i should i do after to get the menus working [from main DVD9[ for the Muxman output.

    I got error in Muxman saying DVD structure may not work, thinking DVD menus could be the problem.

    Please guide me Thanks.
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  17. Originally Posted by mavinashbabu
    Hi

    Can i get help on step 5 guide using by VobBlanker, i tried to figure it hard but could not.

    I have the output from Muxman after muxing Main Video,celltimes,chapters and audio and the "original" DVD.

    Now, what i should i do after to get the menus working [from main DVD9[ for the Muxman output.

    I got error in Muxman saying DVD structure may not work, thinking DVD menus could be the problem.

    Please guide me Thanks.
    If you got an unplayable DVD out of Muxman, then you can't do anything else. Read the Muxman log in the root of the C drive to find out what's wrong. You have to get a playable DVD first. Test it in a software DVD player, one such as PowerDVD. Only if it plays can you go on. The Muxman problem has nothing to do with menus.

    To get the menus back, open the original DVD in VobBlanker, the one with the menus. Highlight the VTS with the movie so it appears in the lower screen. Highlight it in the lower screen and hit the "Replace" button to the right. Trace to the new DVD, the one reauthored with Muxman, give it a destination folder, and process. Test it out before burning to disc.
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  18. Member
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    When I extract the DVD using dvdFAB HD Decrypter do I extract DVD5 or DVD9?
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  19. As it says clearly in the guide, you set it for Main Movie Mode and extract the complete movie. It doesn't matter the size. In my opinion, there's quite a bit wrong with that guide. The real way to do the backup is by following Pinstripes23's instructions a few posts down.

    And if following the (much better) Pinstripes23 method, then you do a Full Disc backup before extracting the movie using PGCDemux.
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