questions about backing up my DVD's please

[crusader33x]

hello, i have spent the last 2 days researching the site but im getting confused with all the formats, programs, steps, etc. hehe so id like help

i have dvd box sets and would like to back them up by extracting the episodes from the disc into Divx format, what program (and where do i get it) do i use to do this?

and

the most confusing thing to me is how about foriegn language episodes? i have a disc of japanese animation and want to back up episodes IN JAPANESE with english subtitles NOT the default english....


if it helps ill describe my "newb know how", basically i tried Cucusoft DVD Ripper, it does MOST movies ok, but wont extract multiple episdoe DVD's at all, much less japanese animation in japanese with english subtitles

thanks to all who reply!!

[redwudz]

You might try FairUse Wizard. One guide: http://www.dvd-guides.com/content/view/34/59/

[crusader33x]

thanks i'll give it a shot and let you know tmrw!!

[crusader33x]

also, is this the full version? if not, how is it limited? and i've read the guide which is great! however, unless im mistaken, you forgot to mention how to select language and subtitles!

thanks again!! will report back soon!

[ntscuser]

As an aside, the sooner studios begin releasing entire TV seasons on single Blu-Ray discs in standard definition format so people don't have to resort to DivX backups, the better.

[crusader33x]

yeah im still having trouble selecting languages and subtitles!! please help

[whitejremiah]

i doubt that studios will start releasing boxsets in standard def on blu ray...with the exception maybe of older tv shows.....it would be like a contridiction of the technology to do so...it's intended for high def use, and im not even sure if a disc like that would fit the blu ray specs....i guess only time will say for sure, though....

[ntscuser]

i doubt that studios will start releasing boxsets in standard def on blu ray...with the exception maybe of older tv shows.....it would be like a contridiction of the technology to do so...it's intended for high def use, and im not even sure if a disc like that would fit the blu ray specs....i guess only time will say for sure, though....

One of the claims being made for Blu-Ray is that a single disc can store at least 30 hours of programming in standard definition format. That is enough to store an entire season of say Star Trek or Buffy The Vampire Slayer together with all the extras. A quick search of the internet will show that the vast majority of people would rather have the convenience of an entire series on one disc in lower resolution than have to keep changing discs all the time. If commercial studios fail to offer such recordings then people will compile their own using home Blu-Ray recorders operating in standard resolution mode. This website will be packed with guides from people explaining how to do it.

I am guessing that hardly anyone will buy full-priced boxed sets of TV series all over again just to be able to watch in HD. They will either wait for prices to fall which wil make HD versions uneconomic to produce or they will compile their own recordings from existing standard definition DVD boxed sets.

[jimmalenko]

I would use DVDDecrypter to batch rip:
https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?p=1373527#1373527

Then use AutoGK.

[slimpickins]

yeah, tv is gona be a tough one to resell

but imagine having s1-4 of alias in standard def and then s5 in high def, it would be really strange and hard to live with

i think all the actors who make more than 100 of us make ina liftime for one film should take half there money along with all the studios and all the profits that they wipe there arses with and should just hand out free hd-dvd's to all of us, then the world would be a happy place, but nope there gona sell us the same stuff in better quality, i feal so cheated

they planned it by making dvd's so cheap we would all stock up only to come out with hd-tv with a few years

[slimpickins]

p.s proper stuipid to have a hole season on 1 dvd, practicle yes what aout all the custom packaging that makes me love this hobby so much, do i flush it down the drain, it would be kind of cool not having to change the disks but how lazy can u get,

soon we will think of dvd as we thought of vhs, we could easily fit a whole season of vhs onto a dvd but we dont

[ntscuser]

p.s proper stuipid to have a hole season on 1 dvd, practicle yes what aout all the custom packaging that makes me love this hobby so much, do i flush it down the drain, it would be kind of cool not having to change the disks but how lazy can u get,

soon we will think of dvd as we thought of vhs, we could easily fit a whole season of vhs onto a dvd but we dont

It would only be one season per Blu-Ray disc. An entire series would still require a boxed set with all its attendant packaging. The latter would still be a significant saving over what we have to pay currently for a DVD boxed set.

[slimpickins]

well at the moment bosets are rather cheap, and incredibly cheap if u find deals on ones that have been out a while, 7 pounds for s1 of ally mcbeal, 13 pounds for any series of x-files, 64 pounds for s1-5 + movies in collectors set for babylon 5, all very very cheap, i wont be paying 60 pounds for a series of enterprise though, and i alot of hdtv boxsets were priced above 40-50 i wouldnt be interested unless i decided i would buy just new stuff i really would want to watch after id seen ot ontv like 24, then again id want smallville, lost, veronica mars, the o.c prison break sg1=atlantis and bsg and mnie on hd but i think that would set me back hundreds where as normal dvd maybe 100 if that

[tjinpgh]

It would only be one season per Blu-Ray disc. An entire series would still require a boxed set with all its attendant packaging. The latter would still be a significant saving over what we have to pay currently for a DVD boxed set.

The "significant savings" is probably why they won't do it.

There's no practical reason why a season of Star Trek Voyager (24 Episodes, 7 discs) should cost significantly more to produce or buy than, say, a season of Buffy The Vampire Slayer (21+/- Episodes 6 discs). Yet, when they were released to retail, a season of Trek ran over $100 while Buffy retailed for $50. Somehow I doubt the one extra disc cost them an extra $50 to produce.

Paramount priced them according to what they thought the market would bring.

So, it's unlikely that the price would drop substantially whether it is seven discs or one.

The only reason to really price it less is if people somehow think it's worth less because it's only one disc and aren't willing to pay the same for it.

If that happens, the companies will probably continue producing multi-disc sets for no reason other than to fulfill the "if it has more discs it must be worth more" mindset.

Not to mention that it will be probably be a few years before players capable of handling the blue ray discs become common place.

[ntscuser]

It would only be one season per Blu-Ray disc. An entire series would still require a boxed set with all its attendant packaging. The latter would still be a significant saving over what we have to pay currently for a DVD boxed set.

The "significant savings" is probably why they won't do it.

There's no practical reason why a season of Star Trek Voyager (24 Episodes, 7 discs) should cost significantly more to produce or buy than, say, a season of Buffy The Vampire Slayer (21+/- Episodes 6 discs). Yet, when they were released to retail, a season of Trek ran over $100 while Buffy retailed for $50. Somehow I doubt the one extra disc cost them an extra $50 to produce.

Paramount priced them according to what they thought the market would bring.

So, it's unlikely that the price would drop substantially whether it is seven discs or one.

The only reason to really price it less is if people somehow think it's worth less because it's only one disc and aren't willing to pay the same for it.

If that happens, the companies will probably continue producing multi-disc sets for no reason other than to fulfill the "if it has more discs it must be worth more" mindset.

Not to mention that it will be probably be a few years before players capable of handling the blue ray discs become common place.

Bufy was released in the UK long before North America and the price was initially £70 per 22-episode season or approx $120 at the current rate of exchange. Only very recently was it reduced to £35/$60 after strong pressure from retailers.

I personally know many people who purchased early and expensive DVD players as a way of "saving" on the cost of buying laserdiscs. The logic of that is dubious but I expect the same thing to happen with Blu-Ray players if compilation discs work out cheaper than existing DVD boxed sets. For the same reason I think HD-DVD will fail even though the players are cheaper as the software for it will work out much more expensive per disc.

It also has to be born in mind that TV compilations now constitute a much greater share of
the overall market for pre-recorded video than they did when DVD was first introduced. Blu-Ray is inherently able to store more of these whether in standard or high definition formats.

[crusader33x]

jimm-is this program gauranteed to work 100% ?i ask cuz its like instead of pppl helping me and answering my questions on how to use a program they tell me to download another one, and i have trouble learning that one, so again, if you would be so kind, how would i use this program to back up episodes and add subtitles over a selected language? thanks

[crusader33x]

can someone help pleasE? its been over a week?

[redwudz]

Sorry, I'm not that knowledgeable about AutoGK. I use FairUse Wizard 2, the latest version. For subtitles and audio language selections, open 'Options' at the bottom of the first program page. You can select the Japanese audio track and English subtitle track.

If you go to the programs internet homepage and then 'Support', you will see the FAQ for the program that answers your questions about limitations on the trial version and some other info on subtitles. The main limitation on the trial version is it will only make 700MB files, or CD size. There is no size limitation on the pay version, which is presently $20US, so not really expensive. It will also use the newer and very efficient X264 codec.

AutoGK may have more control over the final product, but both programs can use the same codecs, at that is what does the conversion, not the program. I like the ease of use. I just decrypt the DVD to the hard drive and start FUW, make a few adjustments and let it run. It will also do batch processing if you have a bunch of files to convert.

[crusader33x]

ok thanks, i just got home from work, so when i have more time tommorow ill run the program and give it atry and post any questions, thanks again

[crusader33x]

ok im following the guides, i am going to do a regular movie,

when i do multiple episodes from a disc, will it rip each episode and each audio track indivudally? this is where i get confused, also

if i click all the files on a disc will it just rip everything like the menus etc. and rip an identical copy of the movie?

thanks

[whitejremiah]

Sorry, I'm not that knowledgeable about AutoGK. I use FairUse Wizard 2, the latest version. For subtitles and audio language selections, open 'Options' at the bottom of the first program page. You can select the Japanese audio track and English subtitle track.

If you go to the programs internet homepage and then 'Support', you will see the FAQ for the program that answers your questions about limitations on the trial version and some other info on subtitles. The main limitation on the trial version is it will only make 700MB files, or CD size. There is no size limitation on the pay version, which is presently $20US, so not really expensive. It will also use the newer and very efficient X264 codec.

AutoGK may have more control over the final product, but both programs can use the same codecs, at that is what does the conversion, not the program. I like the ease of use. I just decrypt the DVD to the hard drive and start FUW, make a few adjustments and let it run. It will also do batch processing if you have a bunch of files to convert.

or just use celtic druid's free version.....it will suit your purpose and is free, however if you find use from it, i'd still suggest donating to the original author.....(celtic druid's is identical to the registered version of it, just free, since the program itself is actually open source...h.264 support and all)

[crusader33x]

ok thanks, i'll do that soon! but i want to make sure i can use the program really well!! so here's an example of a dvd with 1 movie that has multiple languages, which file would i take? and what about taking them all? is there a way to see what each of these files are?? thanks!!

check out the link please!!

http://img441.imageshack.us/my.php?image=fairuse5up.jpg

[jimmalenko]

I think you need to check the Guides section for Guides on FairUse, and/or all the other programs everyone has recommended. We realise you don't know any of these programs from a bar of soap but the only cost to you experimenting is time lost (and maybe a little hard drive space). The benefits are that you learn how to use the programs instead of relying on someone here to hold your hand and wipe your a$$ for you.

Pardon the french, but it's been a month and you're no further advanced.

[crusader33x]

dayum!! well i aint too computer savvy so id rather have someone wipe my a$$ instead of getting my $h1t all over the place!! hahah no, i totally agree with you, but i HAVE advanced, i am ACTUALLY using the program, i did like 10 movies, (american) and now i am trying to do multilingual and when i am good with that i will try multiple epsiodes/multi lingual. thing is, it takes a lot of TIME (hours) to extract the dvd files so i am just wondering what to do on that screen.

ok, for some reason, i cant get 640x480, what other resoultions could i use that would look good on television? please help!

also

for instance, if it were a 5 episode disc, and i chose to extract the 5 largest files, would it extract them as 1 continuous file?

[crusader33x]

ok, update, i aM COMFORTABLE using the program i have spent A LOT of time on it!! i have done everything i could want (the basics anyway) and wanted to THANK ALL OF YOU WHO HAVE HELPED!!

however, about ripping multiple episode discs, i succesfully did it, but its 1 large compressed 700mb file. so i have 5 episodes playing back to back without seperation, is the "lite" version able to let me extract each episode individually? when i get to the file screen there is only 1 big file though........

also how does 700mb affect quality? as a opposed to lets say each episode being 300 mb ??

thanks again!!

[jimmalenko]

I'm not that familiar with FairUse Wizard, as I could never get it to work properly on my system. However, there are a couple of different ways episodic discs are authored and the action you need to take depends on this.

All of the episodic discs I've seen fall into one of two categories:

1) 1 VTS for all eps, each ep is a seperate PGC - a piece of piss to rip in c.l.i. mode via a batch file with DVDDecrypter.

2) 1 VTS for all eps, and all eps are within the same PGC, but may be say chapters 1-4 for ep1, chapters 5-8 for ep2, etc etc. Can rip easily with DVDecrypter GUI in IFO mode, but is a pretty "manual" process.


As for your question, it's a matter of bitrate (and frame size). Taking your example of 5 eps in a 700MB file (call this Scenario 1), if you were to allow each ep to be 300MB then your 5 eps would total 1500MB (Call this Scenario 2). Now the running time is going to stay exactly the same, which means that we can increase the bitrate by a little over 2x for Scenario 2 in comparison with Scenario 1.

To throw some numbers about, I'll assume these are 22 minute episodes. So Scenario 1 has 110 minutes represented by 700MB, which is a data rate of 108.6 kilobytes per second (bitrate of 870 kbps). Scenario 2 has a data rate of 232.7 kilobytes per second (bitrate of 1860kbps).

This means that in theory for Scenario 2 we can have a frame size of roughly 2x the number of pixels in Scenario 1 and should end up with a similar quality file. Of course the larger frame size will be much more palatable on your eyesight though.