want to split a disc in a specific way. possible? (example)

[sybariten]

I have a question about re-authoring a dvd onto two discs. I know that ifoedit, dvdfab, dvdshrink and vobblanker can do this, from guides i have read.

But lets say that i have the action film "Furious death ninja II (back from the dead)". Concider this to be your most typical DVDrelease. When examining in dvdshrink, i see that the main movie weighs 4200 mb and the extra material weighs 1900 mb.
Everything realistic so far? OK fine.
Now, i want to make a copy of that disc. Lets consider that i'm obsessed about quality for some unknown reason, and i dont like the idea of transcoding/recompressing, even if the result would be indistinguishable from the original. I dont have any dual layer discs so i'm gonna try and use two regular cheap DVDr discs.

Now, what i would like to do would be to put everything except the extra material on one disc, and everything except the main movie on the other disc.
In other words, i could put in disc one in a dvd player and have a perfectly normal menu, i could watch the whole movie, but if i tried to watch the extra material that "link" would be "dead". And vice versa for disc two, with the extra material on.
Is this possible?
I know that the aforementioned tools can split discs, but they seem to just split the movie in half or so. I would like to retain a dvd structure that is as similar to the original as possible, with whole movies and just using "dead links".

[Pudah]

VobBlanker should do the trick. You can split any way you like, you don't have to split the movie in half unless you want to. Blank out the extras on one pass. Blank out the film on the other.

[guns1inger]

You can even do this with Shrink. I still do on occassion because I can never seem to get usuable output from vobblanker (it doesn't like my PC, for some reason). If if don't care too much about how pretty it is, I will just use a black jpg. If I want it to look a little nicer, I will create a still in photoshop (perhaps a screen grab or coverscan) and put "See Disk 2 for Special Features" or similar. In Shrink, find the item you want to remove, and pull down the compression list. From here you can choose your own still frame. These usually only take up a few mb (especially if you only replacing extras). When you play it back and select one of the missing features you get told to switch disks. Simple.

[manono]

Except for guns1inger's problems with VobBlanker, I also think that VobBlanker would be most people's choice for the job. Blank the extras and process and burn. Then blank the movie, process and burn. You might also want to touch up the menu with MenuEdit and/or PGCEdit so the buttons can't click on the stuff that isn't there any more.

[BSpielbauer]

Is this possible?

The scenario you describe is VERY close to the method that I use for all of my discs. In fact, on many of them, my method is actually as you described. The only difference is this -- IF the entire main movie turns out to be too large to fit onto one DVD-5 with no compression, I choose to go ahead and split it. If it turns out that it will fit, then I do not split it.

None of my backups have used any compression, at all. For those original store-bought DVD-9 discs, I end up with the following:

Disc 1 - Contains the first half of the film, which ends at a chapter break on some films (the larger ones). I preview this break, to make sure it is at an appropriate moment in the film. This disc also has all of the menus, which continue to function normally. Except, of course, if one selects an "extra." Those do nothing, since the extras are not contained on Disc 1. This disc contains all audio streams, including any director's commentaries. It also contains any subtitles. It uses absolutely no compression. The quality is identical to that of the original disc.

At the end of Disc 1 -- if the main movie is spit -- a brief still frame informs me that I need to "Please insert Disc 2." This graphic depicts me, and my DVD player, as I carefully remove one disc from the open tray. It began as a high quality digital photo, and was then edited in Photoshop.

Disc 2 - Contains the remainder of the movie. It also contains all of the menus. All of the menus are full-functioning menus. The only exception is if one tries to select a chapter from disc one. In this case, the disc merely jumps to the very first chapter which is available on THIS disc. This disc contains all audio streams, including any director's commentaries. It also contains any subtitles. It also contains every extra, every deleted scene, every trailer, and every Easter Egg. It uses absolutely no compression. The quality is identical to that of the original disc.

The process is simple. It is also reliable. There are also at least two excellent guides easily available, to walk one through this. The only software used happens to be freely available (not that this was important to me, but it is to some).


http://jsoto.posunplugged.com/guides/VobBlanker/splitdvd9/index.php

Note about the above...

Even thought the guide makes it sound like you want to split the main movie, this is a choice. You could skip that part, of course, if the main movie all fits, and end up exactly as you describe.

The guide linked above assumes you have ripped the entire original DVD9 disc to your hard drive already. This can be done using DVDDecrypter, or DVDShrink (use whole disc mode, and change the compression rate to NO COMPRESSION and ignore the warning that it is too big).

It also has a (completely optional) final part which gets rid of the "pause" which often occurs at the beginning of your second burned disc. This final step is so easy, I have used this option every time.

I have also been using one additional step... I use VOBBlanker to insert a still frame at the end of the first disc, so a frame pops up for 15 seconds, which urges users to "Please Insert Disc 2." This step is NOT outlined in the guide, but it is so easy I figured it out on my own, after using this method about four times.

FIRST --> you need to get some "insert disc 2" images. These can be made yourself. I use Photoshop to create my original graphics, and then I turn it into a usable “.VOB” file by using the “STILL IMAGE” option in DVDShrink. This will be explained below, at the very bottom, later.

You can also download a few pre-made graphics from this page, which has about six of them. These are all "ready to go," which means they are already encoded into brief ".VOB" files. They are zipped, so you will need to unzip them.

http://www.dvdshrink.info/inserts.php

Once you have an image to insert, we can add one “new step” to the guide I directed you to, above. This “new step” needs to be added at the very end of the VOBBLANKER process for DISC 1. I have re-copied the paragraph preceding it, so you can figure out exactly where this step goes.

======= Revised version of the guide =============

Scroll down to the last cells, highlight and click blank. Repeat on other cells. Remember we still need to blank 1382MB. You can use a calculator to add all the blanked cells or trial and error. In this example we blanked up to cell # 19 chapter 17 to give use a final size of 3979MB. I recommend blanking at a chapter point. Example cell #24 is not at a start of a chapter it belongs to chapter 21 with cell #23 as a starting point.

=== (INSERTED NEW STEP BEGINS HERE) ====

Now, if you wish to insert a still frame which tells users to “insert a new disc,” we should add this one simple step. Right now, in the sample we used our DISC 1 will consist of chapters 1 through 16. Our first “BLANK” cell is chapter 17.

Access the “CELLS LIST” again. Click on Chapter 17, the first cell to be blanked. Instead of “blanking” it, we are going to “REPLACE” it. With Chapter 17 highlighted, click on the “REPLACE” button over at the right.

A new window will open up. We can now BROWSE and direct the program to any normal “.VOB” file. Choose the .VOB file which corresponds to the still frame you want to insert. Once this has been selected, you simply click on “OPEN” which closes that window. Then, click on the “APPLY” button, and finally click on “CLOSE.”

We are now ready to let the software do its thing for DISC 1.

== (END OF NEW INSERTED STEP) ===

Click on PROCESS!!

I hope this is clear.

-Bruce

P.S. I have found that it is very easy to use DVDShrink to turn any graphic into a "insert disc two image." You simply load up a single title from ANY ripped collection, using the "Open Files" option. Then, you change to "REAUTHOR" mode. You drag a SINGLE TITLE into the left window. Then, you adjust the time to your desired time, by using the "START / END FRAMES" option. Then, you change the "COMPRESSION" setting and make it: "STILL IMAGE." (Do NOT use “Still Pictures”!) Then, you will be able to "BROWSE" to any graphic, and Shrink will use it as a still image instead of the title you originally chose.

Here is a guide that shows this occurring (even though it is a part of a larger set of titles):

http://www.dvdshrink.info/still_image.php

Hope this helps you.

-Bruce

[sybariten]

Just wanted to get back to this ol' topic and say that i appreciate all the help one gets at this place, and i'm especially impressed by your long elaboration BSpielbauer!!

As for my progress, i have split a few discs now and i have been using the method where i let DVDshrink replace certain parts with still images, and using no compression for the rest! works fine.

[spectroelectro]

These are fairly complicated answers. The simple answer? Rip, convert all the VOBs to mpg, edit with womble, re-author. If you have extra commentary or stills, move those over too and re-author as slideshows and/or slideshows with audio. Re-authoring takes some time but you can get everythinge exactly the way you want it.

[rkr1958]

These are fairly complicated answers. The simple answer? Rip, convert all the VOBs to mpg, edit with womble, re-author. If you have extra commentary or stills, move those over too and re-author as slideshows and/or slideshows with audio. Re-authoring takes some time but you can get everythinge exactly the way you want it.

That's simple!

For me most simple way is to use Titlesetblanker ...
(1) Rip DVD to your harddrive.
(2) Use Titlesetblanker to blank out the extras
(3) Move all the ~* files in the VIDEO_TS folder to a temp folder
(4) Burn VIDEO_TS & AUDIO_TS to DVDR
(5) Move all the ~* files back to the VIDEO_TS folder
(6) Use Titlesetblanker to "unblank"
(7) Now use Titlesetblanker to blank out the main movie
(8) Move all the ~* files out of the VIDEO_TS folder to a temp folder
(9) Burn the VIDEO_TS & AUDIO_TS folders (extra's disk)
(10) [Optional] Move the ~* files back and unblank with Titlesetblanker

Both disks have the original menu. If you select a title from the menu that's been blanked it will blink for a second and go back to the menu.

Also, if your title is still too large you can use DVDShrink to remove all but one audio track (keeping the compression level set to no compression).