Best Way to Burn "JUST" the Special Features

[grandmasterjayboogie]

Hey guys.

I already know that I can burn just the movie and get 0% reduction most times—which is what I want for the highest quality backup.

Now I want to know what is the best way to burn just the special features.

I read in another thread where galactica advised using Toast and/or DVD2OX to burn specific vobs. However, with a lot of special features being only 20 minutes or so, I'm afraid this would be a waste of DVD-R disc space (when putting special features on a seperate disc).

This is probably a silly question, but is there a way to put vobs on a CD? I would like to put the special feature vobs on a seperate disc, but I don't want to waste space.

I thought of converting them to .avi using Handbrake, put it takes FOREVER to encode on my slow-ass G3 iMac.

Any suggestions?

[Spoffo]

The way I do it is to rip a copy of the complete disk. Then go into the VIDEO_TS folder and replace each VOB from the feature - and only from the feature - with a little 1k file with the exact same filename. Leave the VOBs for the extras and all the menu IFO, BUP files untouched. This should normally reduce the VIDEO_TS to a size that will fit on an SL disk.

When you play that disk all the menus will work fine for the extras. If you accidentally click on a menu commmand that takes you to the feature it will usually go to black for a second or two then come back to the menu.

[grandmasterjayboogie]

Thanks, Spoffo. I'll give it a try.

What would you recommend for discs that have shorter special features, perhaps maybe a 1/2 hour total w/ trailers and such? I suppose the only solution is to put them on a DVD-R, even though there may be some wasted space.

[Spoffo]

Yeah. It's conceivable that there might be a way to format a CD with all the right files for a DVD player to see it as a DVD, but I've never tried. Why bother? A high quality SL DVD blank costs 30 cents (20 cents if you shop agressively.) A blank CD-R is what, a nickel cheaper?

[Frobozz]

Popcorn 2 lets you select or deselect any titles on a DVD so it is easy to select just the special features. There also is a video player to see what each title is. You won't get any menu, though. The titles you chose will automatically play from one to the next and can be selected using either the chapter skip command on the DVD Player's remote, or the player's title search function.

[Spoffo]

<<What would you recommend for discs that have shorter special features?>>

Here's another idea, if you're using Toast. You could easily combine "extras" from more than flick on a single DVD.

Identify the first VOB from each item you want and drag it to the "DVD-Video" window of Toast (NOT "Video from VIDEO_TS"). Toast will locate any other VOBs in that title by itself, and you can create a nice menu in Toast 7, naming each extra as you choose and selecting appropriate thumbnail visuals.

If you're sure to select "Re-encode: Never" from the advanced options, the process of encoding and burning the new disk will be very fast. To be extra-sure you're getting what you want, save it all as a disk image first. (Toast file menu.) Mount and play that image. Then if you're happy with it, burn it.

[grandmasterjayboogie]

Yeah. It's conceivable that there might be a way to format a CD with all the right files for a DVD player to see it as a DVD, but I've never tried. Why bother? A high quality SL DVD blank costs 30 cents (20 cents if you shop agressively.) A blank CD-R is what, a nickel cheaper?

Well, I bought a hundred count Maxell from Big Lots for just $10, so I'm trying to use them up and save my DVDs.

Thanks for the tips, guys. It really helped me out.

[pixel zombie]

you could use YADE to extract the vob files and then use mpeg2works to combine the vob files into 1 VIDEO_TS folder without having to reencode with Toast which takes FOREVER...

[grandmasterjayboogie]

Well, unfortuantely I can't use Popcorn 2 or Toast 7 because I have a G3 Mac.

However, after some fooling around with an old version of DVD2OneX (1.4.2) I realized I can just use its "Join" feature to cherry pick which titles I want in the DVD-R.

The only downside is that I still won't have a menu, which I prefer for easy navigation.

Is there any way I can "Join" but keep the original menu?

[grandmasterjayboogie]

The way I do it is to rip a copy of the complete disk. Then go into the VIDEO_TS folder and replace each VOB from the feature - and only from the feature - with a little 1k file with the exact same filename. Leave the VOBs for the extras and all the menu IFO, BUP files untouched. This should normally reduce the VIDEO_TS to a size that will fit on an SL disk.

When you play that disk all the menus will work fine for the extras. If you accidentally click on a menu commmand that takes you to the feature it will usually go to black for a second or two then come back to the menu.

Oh yeah, forgot about this way. I wish there was a way to this in DVD2OneX and keep the menu.

[pixel zombie]

the author of DVDEdit cliams that will be a feature when the application goes to version 1.0