How to convert TV Series DVD episodes to DivX/XviD with ease using freeware

HGC · Member Joined: 11 Feb 2007 Location: United States

Followup to my posting of yesterday. I answered my question by digging deeper into
the DVD Decrypter options. I found the switch to suppress the window that was annoying
me. Sorry for the bother.

BigBadBob · GOD Joined: 23 Nov 2001 Location: West Virginia, USA

Thank you so very much for this guide. I've got several seasons of various tv shows, and movies. Lots of dvds.

And I wanted to convert them to .avi so I could fit a whole season (for a half hour show) on a single dvd. I've got a divx capable dvd player and am happy with it.

Anyway, this is great. Simple, just copy it with dvd decrypt, and then just run it through autogk.

One question though, I was reading somewhere about some of these free solutions are not as high quality as some higher end programs. I'm wondering if anyone thinks/knows that this way is as good? I get pretty good results.

For instance I converted an episode of Frasier, 175mb. Looks pretty good. But not as sharp as some I've seen with the same file size and running length. Any tips on improving that? I may have confused you all, I'm a little fuzzy myself.

usr316 · Member Joined: 20 Feb 2007 Location: United States

I tried using this guide, and had some success, but not exactly what I wanted. I got 1 episode to convert right with AutoGK, but it was the 2CD 1400 mb version. It did work I canceled it & tested the video & it worked. But everytime I try it at a lower size, the 1/4 CD 175 mb or any others, I get the same error: "video compression error: the source image format is not acceptable. (error code -2)" I retried it on the 1400 mb again & got that error on those setting as well. Any idea why I'm getting this error? Did I rip it with DVD decryptor wrong or missing some setting somewhere?

BigBadBob · GOD Joined: 23 Nov 2001 Location: West Virginia, USA

I actually got that error before.

I believe it was something to do with the width in the AutoGK settings. Just above the Add Job/Start/Abort box on the lower right, click Advanced Settings.

Then on the output resolutions, try Auto. Or try Fixed and set it at 640, or 512 seems to work well for me.

usr316 · Member Joined: 20 Feb 2007 Location: United States

I tried auto, I tried the 640 fixed width that was in the guide, both had the error. I'll give 512 a shot.

usr316 · Member Joined: 20 Feb 2007 Location: United States

This seems to be a common in the error log: EXCEPTION: Open avi failed. Any idea why? I tried a different video on auto, it didn't come up with any error pop up, it just didn't work. I checked the log & that's the last thing in it.

BigBadBob · GOD Joined: 23 Nov 2001 Location: West Virginia, USA

I had that problem as well. It happened when I went into the hidden menu in AutoGK (Ctrl+F9) and changed something, just to see what it did.

I'm afraid I don't know how to get the default settings back in that menu.

Hopefully someone else here may know what the problem is.

usr316 · Member Joined: 20 Feb 2007 Location: United States

Well I never changed any settings that I know of. Don't think I ever got into the hidden menu

BigBadBob · GOD Joined: 23 Nov 2001 Location: West Virginia, USA

you might try uninstalling autogk and reinstalling. I really don't know what the problem is.

usr316 · Member Joined: 20 Feb 2007 Location: United States

OK, I'll give it a shot. Is there somewhere here where I can find what all the correct settings should be? Is it possible that I've got a setting wrong with DVD decryptor?

sowhatu · Member Joined: 26 Feb 2007 Location: Canada

thank you vey much for this tut.

alot of people are gonna be so happy i can fill their requests for my seasons of shows.

RabidDog · Old B. Joined: 25 Oct 2002 Location: UK

I would not recommend using VBR mp3, CBR mp3 is better or even better on episodic discs keep the original 2ch ac3 , Most times its at 196k so takes up very little extra space. 384k 5.1 ac3 is a lot bigger tho and should be downconverted. vbr mp3 is bad especially if you try to edit the avi's at some point, will probably end up with lip-synch errors. Ripped dvds (if ripped as iso ) can be mounted under daemon tools and re-processed. A bitrate of 1000kb is good, anything less and the quality starts to fall away. quality based encoding using agk will HALVE your encoding time 65 is reasonable qaulity 70 is good 76 is the canines sperm sacs.
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handtruck · Member Joined: 28 Mar 2002

I absolutely LOVE your batch file. I use it with megui and it's great!

Here is my dilemma

Your batch file allows for:

P - Command DVD Decrypter to rip a DVD that has MULTIPLE PGCs per ONE VTS.
V - Command DVD Decrypter to rip a DVD that has ONE PGC per MULTIPLE VTSs.

Can you make it so that you can do MULTIPLE PGCs per MULTIPLE VTS?

I'll explain. Many DVD's split the episodes with commentary onto a separate PGC (since the VOB needs two channels of audio). For example, the one I'm doing now has the first two epidsodes (with commentary) in VTS 1, the next two (no commentary) in VTS 2, and the last one (with commentary) in VTS 3. It would be great to do the "MMULTIPLE PGC / MULTIPLE VTS" so I don't have to run the batch file more than once.

Cheekie_Moonkie · Cheeky Monkey Joined: 25 Dec 2002 Location: United Kingdom

STL20J · Member Joined: 11 Mar 2007 Location: United States

Hey there. This is the first time I've tried backing up my DVD's, and downloaded the tools you recomended. I think virtual dub worked fine. It ripped the .ifo and .vob files into the folders I created. But when I tried to open the .ifo file using the AUTOGK, in the "input" field it gives me this message: "WARNING Error parsing IFO file". I've looked through these back questions but haven't seen anything about this.

I'm COMPLETELY new to this, and have set my virtualdub settings to exactly how you recomend, so I don't know how I would go about "tweaking" any settings on my own yet. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

lacywest · Smallville Fan Joined: 28 Aug 2001 Location: Hanford CA

Good info ... thank you
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mpw777 · Member Joined: 13 Mar 2007 Location: United States

I tried this approach on a series DVD, but it didn't have any PGC files. Everything was set up in an .ifo and .vob format on the disk. Since I don't know what these files are, I just went with the gorilla method and used the file names as mentioned in your article. Thus I just used the AGK portion of your tutorial and followed those directions. Was this the correct approach or should I have done something else?

At any rate I get a bunch of files, but they don't seem to be what I need and the .avi file is very small and doesn't have the name extension I would have expected. Any thoughts?

Cheekie_Moonkie · Cheeky Monkey Joined: 25 Dec 2002 Location: United Kingdom

Cheekie_Moonkie · Cheeky Monkey Joined: 25 Dec 2002 Location: United Kingdom

Methanoid · Member Joined: 17 Mar 2001 Location: UK

Nice guide and super DVD-DC script.. one of the bets nuggets I've found in recent months. Thanks, saved me employing child labour to decrypt the files one at a time on episodic disks!

sraelish · Member Joined: 02 Apr 2007 Location: United States

Wow! Thank you so much!
I've looked at SOOO many online forums for exactly what you have posted!
I'm very much still in the learning process and let me tell you, your guide was so comprehensive and easy to understand! Very nicely done!

My only trouble was that my DVD was a little tricky. It had numerous VTS folders, each with files of about 20 minutes in duration. The only trouble was that out of the 8 "could be" episodes, there are only 5 episodes per CD. So i guess ill just do a little process of elimination.

Let me thank you again, you are awesome!

Cheekie_Moonkie · Cheeky Monkey Joined: 25 Dec 2002 Location: United Kingdom

Jeff7506 · Member Joined: 15 Apr 2007 Location: France

Hello All,

I create a small GUI, to create folder tree for series.

Hope this help.

Have a nice day.

Jeff

seriesdirectorymaker.rar

nxcmp · Member Joined: 15 Apr 2007 Location: United States

i have a problem when i select i want to use a selected bit rate whenever it goes to do the second pass for the avi it dosnt close the first "virtualbudmod" session and when it tries to start the second pass session it say something else is already accessing the avi file and stops... any ideas on how to fix this ??

-Thanks

Cheekie_Moonkie · Cheeky Monkey Joined: 25 Dec 2002 Location: United Kingdom