Compressing and Backing Up DVD?

[Sakuya]

I have a rather large DVD set that I want to back up in order to save space. There are 20 DVDs and each DVD has only 2 episodes (I think each episode is around 48 minutes long). I want to compress them to DVD-R so that there are 10 episodes on each DVD. Is that too extreme? If it is, then how about 8 episodes on each DVD? How do I go about doing this? Also, the audio is LPCM 2 channel. Should I let it remain like that or convert it to AC3?

[waheed]

theres a new software you can try out, ratDVD.

LPCM takes up too much space. convert to AC3.

Compressing 20 dvds to fit on 2 dvdrs does seem extreme. you'll notice the quality loss.

or dvd shrink in re-author mode, loose menu and all extras.

[Sakuya]

No, I want to compress the 20 DVDs to 4 DVDs. So 10 episodes on each DVD. I'm using DVD Shrink right now and I'm setting the compression ratio. How do I know what to set so that the 10 episodes will all fit nicely on one DVD-R?

Once I used DVD Shrink to back up one episode, the episode consists of 2 VOBs. Why is it like that?

[guns1inger]

A VOB can't belarger than 1000mb, so if an episode goes over this size, more VOBs are required. Most commercial movie titles spread over 5 - 6 VOBs for just the movie.

Personally, I believe the quality at that level of compression will be unacceptable. And using Shrink to do it will only make it worse. My Sopranos sets have 4 episodes to a disk, and even using DVD Rebuilder with CCE, I wouldn't put more than 3 on a disk.

If you use Shrink, do not set the compression yourself. Let Shrink do it. It probably won't be able to make it fit in one pass, so you may have to Shrink it, then load up the results of that and Shrink it again.

[jimmalenko]

10 eps (480 minutes) to each DVD is quite possible ... however you'd be looking at roughly VCD quality if using SL DVDRs. If using DL DVDRs, and VCD quality is acceptable, you could put 20 eps to each DVD at roughly VCD quality. Re-encoding of course means a heck of a lot more time, but if you're dedicated enough, and use the right software, you could set up some batches and let the software do its work over a couple of days.

Whichever way you decide to do it, I'd definitely be converting your audio to AC3, as LPCM audio is 1536kbps, whereas you could probably get away with 256kbps AC3, which is gonna "save" you roughly 900MB per disc as they stand ATM, or 17.57GB, which IMO is quite a significant saving. However, if you wish to change the audio in this fashion, you'll have to reauthor the discs at some point, which could make choosing exactly when to use DVDShrink a tough decision.

I guess you could rip each ep, demux, fix the audio, remux and then author each disc as it currently stands, so that you've basically emulated on your hard drive what you have on original DVD discs, except that all eps now have AC3 audio. THEN use DVDShrink at this point.

[Sakuya]

I have decided to have 8 DVD-Rs with 5 episodes on each disc. Or maybe 3 DVD-Rs with 6 episodes on them, and the last 2 DVD-Rs with 5 episodes on them. Either way, here's what I'm going to do.

1. Use DVD Shrink to extract the VOBs for each episode.
2. Demux the VOBs.
3. Edit the WAV and convert to AC3.
4. Author using DVDauthorGUI
5. Plug in DVD Shrink and reauthor to fit on one DVD-R
6. Burn

That will work right? For demuxing the VOBs, I'm using pgcdemux. I opened my VTS_01_0.IFO. But for the mode, which mode do I pick? There is "by PGC", "by VOB id", and "Single Cell".

[jimmalenko]

FYI, if you use DVDDecrypter or Smartripper, you can do steps 1 & 2 in the one step.

Apart from that, it sounds fine

[Sakuya]

I used DVD Decrypter to demux. I'm not sure if I set it correctly though because the M2V is 1 hour and 22 minutes when the entire episode is only 48:35. Here's what I did. I set the mode to IFO. Under "Input", I only check off "Chapter 3" and at the bottom it says the duration and it is 48:35. Under "Stream Processing", I check "Enable Stream Processing" and both audio and video are checked. At the bottom, I have it at "Demux". cared:

[Sakuya]

Personally, I believe the quality at that level of compression will be unacceptable. And using Shrink to do it will only make it worse. My Sopranos sets have 4 episodes to a disk, and even using DVD Rebuilder with CCE, I wouldn't put more than 3 on a disk.

Even with DVD Shrink automatic compression, it comes out incredibly pixelated. Do I need to buy CCE separately or does it come with it? Hopefully, it will give better results. I'm now looking at 4 episodes a disc. As I understand it, DVD Rebuilder shrinks a DVD so that it would fit right? So if I finish authoring the overly large DVD of mines, I can plug it into DVD-RB and it can help me shrink it down so that it fits on a DVD-R right? So basically, a better substitute for DVD Shrink?

[jimmalenko]

CCE is an encoder, so it re-encodes, whereas DVDShrink is a transcoder. CCE should give you a better result overall, at the expense of a far greater processing time.

[guns1inger]

Even using CCE and Rebuilder you will be pushing your luck to get decent quality with 240+ minutes to a disk. It will be better than what Shrink has given you, but you will notice grain and other artifacts. If you want decent quality, use more disks and put less on each. The technology just isn't meant to do what you are trying to do.

[winifreid]

You might consider using another codec like xvid. The quality would be fine, but you would eith have to watch it on your computer, get a compatible player, or use the tv out on your video card. I suspect that if Shrink is highly pixalated, that CCE wil only be slightly better. Or just use a lot more disks, they are not that expensive or big.

[non-linear]

Personally, I never go beyond 3 hours of playing time per disc. If you want the quality to be decent, you're gonna have to use more discs. If I were you, I'd limit the number of episodes per disc to 4.

[Sakuya]

Thanks. I guess I'd try 4 episodes to a disc. I have some questions on DVD Rebuilder. I heard that the quality would be better if you selected the Custom Matrix. I noticed that you can select Custom Matrix AND Single Pass Encode. Is that recommended? I don't want it to be too long.

Edit:
I tried it with that and it looks great! No major pixelation at all. Is there some more settings that I should set to make it better quality in case there's a possibility for better quality?

[Sakuya]

I find that there's a very small audio sync after I demux the video and audio streams using PgcDemux or DVD Decrypter. It's very small but when they talk fast, it starts to get really noticeable and it's annoying.

In PgcDemux, there's a button called "Check A/V delay" and it checks the delay for the audio. Right now, for this certain episode it reports that the audio has a 242 msec. delay. Is there anything I can do to make it better sync? It's LPCM WAV by the way.

[manono]

You're converting that LPCM to AC3, aren't you? So allow for that delay when doing the conversion. Or do it later on when muxing. Or run the AC3 through AC3 Delay Corrector.

[Sakuya]

Thanks. In AC3 Delay Corrector, which slot do I put the 242 in: Start-delay or End-delay? Both of them are set to 0 at default. PgcDemux does not tell me the end-delay.

[manono]

It's always a Start Delay.

[Sakuya]

Thanks, it worked.

I'm now having a bit of a problem with demuxing this one episode. The length is 48 minutes and 18 seconds. I used DVD Decrypter to demux the WAV and the M2V. The WAV is 48:18 but the M2V is 1 hour and something!! I tried direct stream copy to get a video-only VOB but it's 48:33. When I demuxed again using PgcDemux, the M2V is 48:55! What's with this? Help is greatly appreciated.

[manono]

Hi-

I don't know what you're using to determine the length of the audio and video, but for the video, especially. the players always give the wrong length. I expect that any of the ways you're doing it are OK. However, my preferred choice is using DGIndex on the DVD Decrypter generated Vob to Decode to WAV and get the .m2v. My second choice is PGCDemux. Since you're familiar with PGCDemux, using it is fine as long as you check for and note any audio delay.

[Sakuya]

Thanks. I now have another option in case something doesn't work.

[Sakuya]

Is there an option somewhere in DVD Rebuilder to make the new VOBs a bit less than 4.4GB? I find that the very end of my burned DVD-R is a bit corrupted. Somebody said you could set it but I can't seem to find the option.

[manono]

A DVDR holds about 4.37 GB. The default setting for DVD-RB usually gives you 4.32 GB, give or take, and should be enough below max to prevent corruption at the end. I always fill the DVDR myself, with 4.37 GB, and don't have the problem you describe, so maybe it's a media issue. I don't know how you're determining the final file size, but start dividing by 1024 to get the true size.

The default size in DVD-RB is:

CCETargetSectors=2230000

If you want to lower it, change that line to whatever you want (like maybe 2200000), and insert the line in the Rebuilder.ini, between [Options] at the top, and [Paths] further down.

[Sakuya]

I get the file size in TMGPEnc DVD Author's burning tool and it says the project is 4.4Gbyte. Is that the same as GB I haven't had a problem before with the media I'm using which is TDK.

Edit:
I tested the VOBs on the DVD-R by playing them on the computer and they are fine. Must be the DVD player.

[manono]

Sorry, I was still editing when you responded (you're fast ). See the above post for how to lower the size. I have no idea how TMPEGEnc determines the size. I get mine by selecting all the files, right-clicking->Properties, and then dividing.