Is there an easy way to split one DVD onto 2 discs…

[kroc_kroc]

…to preserve as much image quality as possible?

I doubt you can do it with the software I have:

Toaast 5.2.1
DVD2oneX
DVDBackup

[galactica]

actually... you can
with dvd2one latest version

use the cell/layer function of MOVIE ONLY and you can split the movie into 2.

movie only though.

[kroc_kroc]

So would I be wright in thinking that I select 'movie only'. And then in the cell/chapter/etc I choose for instance chapter and tick the chapters, say 1-10 out of 20 and then press start. And then do the same for 11-20.

What's the best choice for this variable or fixed?

Is this way quicker as there is less compressing to do?

[galactica]

yes, just select the 1st half and process that, then select 2nd half and process that

best setting, hmmm its up to you i would leave it on variable

quicker? its about the same since you have to run the process twice, when i did it it took the same time to do both as it would to do a compression to 4.4

[kroc_kroc]

Thanks - it worked great and the quality is stunning.

[goodvibes88]

What about is you don't have the latest version of DVD2ONEX? I've got v.1.2.0 and I would like to separate the special features from the main film while still retaining the menu for both things (on both new discs). Again, I'd like to do this to retain the highest image quality for the film as well as the special features. I already know how to select and identify each vob file using VLC but I don't know how to separate them. Help!

Thanks a lot!

[WiseWeasel]

How about downloading the latest version? It's free for all those who paid for earlier versions. BTW, the quality is stunning because it's the same as the original. It doesn't matter if you choose constant or variable mode for this operation, as it's not actually doing any compression, but merely rewriting the streams to new files and generating new IFO files for them.

[goodvibes88]

OKay, cool. I'll try it. And by the way, good job with Hades, WW!

[WiseWeasel]

Hades is dead. It's all about MacTheRipper now...

[goodvibes88]

Great, time to find out about that one.

I think I'm going to have quite the collection of DVD rippers before I'm through: DVDBackup, OSeX, Hades, and now,

Ta-Daa!

MacTheRipper!

(I guess none of them are universally the best...)

[goodvibes88]

OK. I've picked up the newest version of DVD2oneX but I've run into a snag concerning my quest to separate the actual movie from the special features and burn both (each with a menu) to separate discs:

The problem is that D2oneX won't let me select more than one TITLE at a time to process! In my test case, the title with the actual film runs 19 cells (which can each be selected or not selected depending on how much of the film you want to process) but the special features are broken up into many titles (with varying numbers of cells) so there's no way you can process them all at once. And doing each separately probably won't work because D2oneX renames each new file it processes so that each time you process a file it ends up with the same name...so putting all of the same named files into one VIDEO_TS folder wouldn't seem to make sense...

So does anyone know a solution to this problem, putting the film with a menu on one disc with the special features and a menu on another disc?!

[galactica]

Ive heard it being done on PC. No clue if you can do it on a mac thought

the split disk function of dvd2onex is only for movie only mode, so that defeats the purpose you are searching for

[goodvibes88]

Maybe the only way to split a double-layer DVD this way (with the film on one disk and the special features on another; both with menus) is to process the DVD once in movie only mode, selecting only the cells which contain the actual film so that you get the highest resolution for the movie on one disk (especially if it is just over 4.4 GB, then it will be only compressed a little bit to fit on one DVD-R). [But does this also give you a menu or not?]

THEN, do what Galactica suggest on his web-site: shrink (by repplacing) the vob files provided by DVDBackup, except shrink the actual film's files instead of the other stuff on the disk. Then, when you use the USER DEFINED category in D2oneX you can process this second disk with the special features at the highest resolution possible to fit on your DVD-R.

The only problem is with my earlier version of D2oneX the User Defined option didn't work: no matter what numbers I punched into it I always got the same sized files after processing...I haven't tried this with the newer version yet to see if this problem was fixed.

But maybe that is a long-winded solution to the problem. Whaddaya think?

[MadMacLean]

Just my two cents.

I think I've come up with my plan of action on the splitting issue. I plan on doing a movie only split with dvd2onex, so I can keep 100% of the video quality.

But of course, we want the extras! Just do an extra idiot-proof full compress and burn of the DVD9 to the DVD-R. Who really cares about image quality of the extras?

Of course we're talking about a total of three dvds -but they're damn near free anyways. I could use the exercise getting up off the couch to change the disc...

madmaclean

[schmeg]

One technique for having a high-quality movie on one disk, and all the extras on a second disk:

note: This works on discs that have different VTS (video title sets) file groups for the individual titles. Look at the original files -- if you have one large group of files all numbered similarly VTS_01_1.VOB through something like VTS_01_8.VOB, then the original disc was authored in a way that won't work with this method.

1) Rip the disc to your hard drive.

2) Using DTOX, select "Movie Only" and compress the main title as usual. No, there won't be a menu, but I don't need one for a disc that just has one movie.

3) Look at the ripped files and find the video title set that represents the main title (usually this will be four or five 1GB files in sequence).

4) Move those files (starting with the one marked "1", leave the one marked "0" if there is one) to a temporary folder.

5) Try playing the VIDEO_TS file in Apple's DVD Player. If this method is working, you should be able to access everything through the menu except the main movie -- usually DVD Player just stops if you try to select this title.

6) If it all looks okay, you delete the files that you moved and burn this folder as your second DVD.

[thecat]

Great, time to find out about that one.

I think I'm going to have quite the collection of DVD rippers before I'm through: DVDBackup, OSeX, Hades, and now,

Ta-Daa!

MacTheRipper!

(I guess none of them are universally the best...)

actually now MacTheRipper is clearly the best DVD ripper. Those you mention are no longer maintained AFAIK and the other one I know of (YadeX) is IMO not as good as MTR.