Software Suggestions

[OtakuD]

Hi guys,

I have a TV series that I want to re author, basically I want to extract the episodes from the DVD and arrange them in a different order whilst keeping the subtitles and English audio in tact. Ive come quite far using DVD-Lab Pro trial but when it comes to adding in the subtitles its an absolute nightmare, the timing is horribly off, even tho I demuxed the source directly, and has taken me over 30min just to get one or two episodes up to scratch. Next I tried just using DVD Shrink and placing the titles one after another on the disk, this worked fine except that the next button doesn't go to the next movie file and neither does the back button go to the previous, am I missing an option somewhere?

Menus arent necessary but would be nice although all I really want is the episodes to follow in my new order and skip to the next episode when I hit the next button. Are there any free applications that can help me with this and will just take the vob files without demuxing?

Much appreciated!

D

[redwudz]

You could try GUI for DVD Author. But it does have a bit of a 'learning curve'.

Not sure about the problem with Shrink. It's not really a authoring program, so it may have problems working with pre-existing VOBs from a DVD if you want to change their order.

Since this seems to be mostly about authoring, might be better in our DVD Authoring Forum for more specific help. Moving You.

[OtakuD]

Thanks, sorry about being in the wrong section. Well Ive used Vobedit and Ifoedit to reconstruct the vob into a single VTS which has done exactly what I wanted (with a few minor subtitle distortions, fixed with DVDSubEdit), there is just no menu now which isnt critical but is there not a way for me to import the menus I made in DVD-Lab? I guess it will be a mission, Ill just have to live with skipping to the correct chapter to get the episode I want I think! :P Ho hum! Happy new year guys!!!

PS Here are two guides I found incredibly useful:

Ifo/Vob Edit:-
http://members.dodo.net.au/~jimmalenko/test.htm

DVDSubEdit color distortion:-
http://download.videohelp.com/DVDSubEdit/Guides/ChangingColors/Guide.htm

[manono]

I think this will work. Get each episode as a little "mini-DVD" using DVD Decrypter set for IFO Mode (up at the top, Mode->IFO). Then open the original DVD on the hard drive in VobBlanker. Highlight the VTS(s) with the episodes in the top window so it appears in the bottom window. Highlight each episode in turn and hit the "Replace" button to the right. Scroll to the episode you want and hit its VTS_01_0.VOB. Do that for each episode, replacing them in whatever order you like. Give it an Output Folder and Process. You'll keep your menus, the sub colors, and anything else in the original DVD. While in VobBlanker you can blank (remove) anything you don't want. Here's a guide:

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

Or, if you really have it the way you want it, except for the menus, you may be able to add back the original menus:

http://jsoto.posunplugged.com/guides/VobBlanker/adding_menus/index.htm

[OtakuD]

Cool thanks for the help peeps! Unfortunately the episodes are nested in one VTS so I have to separate them using DVD-Shrink after removing the encoding with DVD-Decrypter, so I have all the eps on my HD at the moment separated into individual VTS files but I dont think I can use vobblanker like that when the eps are in one VTS can I? Besides I don't want to loose quality on the eps and some DVDs have too many eps on the menu for a normal DVD-5, nice idea tho! Anyways Im trying the GUI for DVD-Author option now, thanks again!

[manono]

...but I dont think I can use vobblanker like that when the eps are in one VTS can I?

Yes, you can - quite easily, in fact. This assumes they each have their own PGC. Then follow my instructions from earlier. The fact that they're in their own VTS means nothing. The only time you won't be able to do as I suggested is if all episodes are found in the same PGC, which doesn't happen all that often.

Getting each episode into a "mini-DVD" using DVD Shrink to reauthor them might also work, but as I never use it, I wouldn't know. If it does, then you can still stick them back into the original DVD using VobBlanker.

Besides I don't want to loose quality on the eps and some DVDs have too many eps on the menu for a normal DVD-5, nice idea tho!

You can replace the ones you like, blank the others, and get them to DVD5 size that way. And if you want the whole DVD9 divided into 2 parts, then for the second DVD5, blank the original ones and replace the ones blanked the first try. I'm not sure that made any sense, but here's a guide to splitting a DVD9 into 2 pieces:

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