Keeping 5.1 DD sound

[crody]

I am copying a DVD to a DVD-R. The problem is this movie is divided on two sides of the disc-half of the movie is on one side and half on the other. I want to combine both sides and put on a single DVD-R. The problem is, after using DVDtoAVI to convert the video so that I can join the 2 sides together in Virtualdub, I lose the 5.1 DD sound-it gets turned into a .wav file so that virtual dub will recognize it. Then TMPGe encodes the .wav as an MPEG 1 audio when I convert the joined sides back to DVD format. I want to be able to join the sides and still keep the sound at 5.1 DD. Is it possible? And how do I do this? I cant find a guide that tells me how to do this. I am a newbie at this.

[coops75]

I think reeldvd is the only "low" cost authoring program that will copy 5.1 sound to a dvd. It will mux it also

[crody]

What I believe I am looking for is a program that will join 2 AC3 streams together seamlessly just like Virtual Dub joins 2 video streams. I know that Virtual Dub wont join AC3 streams as it doesnt recognize them. Surely there must be a program that can do that. Anyone hear know of one?

[Bel]

What I believe I am looking for is a program that will join 2 AC3 streams together seamlessly just like Virtual Dub joins 2 video streams.

I spent quite some time playing with this the other night, with the same situations as you. I mean seriously, who ever heard of two sided dvd's anymore? I felt like I was back to flipping my laser discs. But, I digress... I could not find anything to merge the 2 ac3 files together. I didn't even think about converting them to avi's to get the two together, what codec did you use, and did you notice any loss in quality? Besides that, I'm with you and hate losing 5.1. Ultimately, I just gave up and put a part 1 and part 2 on the disc, but I wasn't at all happy with that solution.

I don't know what program you use to author, but I tend to use Spruce which doesn't let you author it to play one video right after the other is fixed. I believe it can be done with the Uleads (workshop and movie factory) and that might be a way to cheat and make it seem (almost) smooth. I'm wondering if its something that can be edited in IFOedit, to make it play the second part after the first is finished instead of going back to the menu.

I know I'm not adding anything to help you, just wanted to let you know that I also feel your pain. Hopefully, someone smarter than I has a good way to get the 2 clips together.

[THE RIPPER]

I have done this with goodfellas, what i did was rip both sides of the dvd, then change the numbers of the vob's so you have like 8 or 9 in order, for exampl, side one you have vts 01_1 , o2 03 04,,just change the exts of side two to follow the order, then use dvd2avi to demux the audio,
this worked for me

[crody]

What is "Goodfellas"? ohhhh you mean the movie....I have the movie "Seven", I will give it a try....thanks...

[noname]

I have the movie "Seven", I will give it a try....thanks...

Just to let you know that Seven is encoded with 6.1 Channels with the DTS-ES Format. Or at least the special edition I have is. Im not sure if it has a plain 5.1 or not.

[crody]

No this is the original release of Seven that I bought over 2 years ago--it has the movie divided up on a 2-sided single layer DVD with only 5.1 Audio.

[crody]

Well so much for that idea....renumbering the 2nd set of VOB files didnt work, DVD2AVI hangs up when it gets to the renumbered VOB files and quits working, any other ideas? anyone know of any software that can seamlessly join 2 ac3 streams together?

[ViperXT]

Couldn't you encode the two sides video in TMPenc and then remux them with their respective ac3 files? Then simply merge the mpegs?

[menaceboy]

have you tried smartripper's demux function while ripping the dvd? dumps the movie into whatever you specify, .m2v and .ac3, makes one .ac3 dual layered or not

[Bel]

Couldn't you encode the two sides video in TMPenc and then remux them with their respective ac3 files? Then simply merge the mpegs?

This is exactly what I tried with my rip of Goodfellas. (there's a coincidence, huh? Goes to show how many 2 sided dvd's are floating around these days) Unfortunately, while the final video played on my computer (with an excessive pause between where the two files were joined), on my dvd player the sound quit at the joining and did not return at any point in the second part.

[EnemyWithin]

I figured out how to do this with Stargate (and some nice person pointing me to the tutorial listed at the bottom!). Simply transcode each side of the disc separately (but make sure that you add the VOB's from both sides together when determining the size of VOB's in the DVD-R calculator). This will leave you with 2 sets of VOB's, each about 1/2 the size of a disc. Now use VobEdit ( http://mpucoder.kewlhair.com/derrow/index.htm ) to merge the 2 VOB's into one. Follow this tutorial : http://mpucoder.kewlhair.com/derrow/joinclip.html#joindbl

[crody]

One thing, what program do I use to transcode the VOB's? I normally use smartripper to rip the DVD and demux the files to a separate .m2v and .ac3 files and transcode the .m2v file with ReMpg2. Then I use Spruce up to author the DVD and burn it with Prassi's Primo DVD. Since I now have to change smartripper to just rip the VOB's and IFO files, what do I use to transcode the VOB's to VOB's of a smaller size before I use VOB edit? Remember I am still a newbie and dont know all of this yet, thanks.

[EnemyWithin]

You can still use ReMPEG2 to do the transcoding if you like. You will get better results with TMPGEnc or CCE, but they are also a lot more complex. Stick with ReMPEG2 until you get more comfortable with the process, or until you get your first bad transcode by ReMPEG2

Either way, I would invest a little time into reading the TMPGEnc/CCE tutorials/guides so you have some familiarity with it when you do decide to move on.

[crody]

So in this case I would use VOB edit 1st to merge the VOBS then transcode the VOBS using ReMPEG2? Will ReMPEG2 transcode the VOB files directly as well .m2v files? I have had bad luck transcoding with TMPGenc as every one always seems to have video artifacts in the video every once in a while while watching-like pixelation and weird colors for a brief moment throughout the video. Where as with ReMPEG2 I have always seen perfect video.

[crody]

Anyone? Will ReMPEG2 transcode VOB files directly?

[EnemyWithin]

Yes, ReMPEG2 can use the VOB's as the source to produce the .m2v output file. This .m2v can then be remuxed with IFOEDIT.

So use VobEdit to merge the VOB's, make sure everything plays back ok, then transcode with ReMPEG2. Play the .m2v before remuxing, to make sure that you are satisfied with the results.

[crody]

I dont understand--remux? What would I have to remux? The audio and video? I didnt think they would have to be separate as I would have smartripper just rip the DVD to the VOB files-which contain the audio and video together and then just transcode the merged VOBS with the audio and video still as one with ReMPEG2? or do I have to separate the audio from the newly merged VOB files before transcoding? If so-what program would I use to demux the audio from the merged VOBS before transcoding? Or does ReMPEG2 automatically separate the audio when transcoding in which case-Spruce will remux the .m2v and audio files for me?

[EnemyWithin]

If you use ReMPEG2, then you dont need to do anything with the audio. The VOB files contain both the audio and the video. When you use ReMPEG2, it uses the VOB's as the source (with both audio and video), but only produces the .m2v file (video only) as the output. This demuxes the video from the VOB files during the transcoding (lowering the bitrate).

This will leave you with the original VOB's and the newly transcoded .m2v file. Since the .m2v file was created with ReMPEG2, you can remux it directly into the VOB's with IFOEDIT. This will replace the video in the VOB's with the video in the .m2v, while keeping the audio intact and synchronized.

[crody]

Oh I see....thank you very much for the info..... Now I just have to find a tutorial for IFOEdit..... thanks

[crody]

Well I tried to transcode using ReMPEG2 but it only wants to transcode 1 VOB file at a time which would create 6 different .m2v files for the 6 VOBS-is that how I am supposed to do it? Or is there a way to get ReMPEG2 to do all the VOBS at one time? I thought about using TMPGEnc but I cant figure out how to get it to transcode the .d2v file that DVD2AVI created as a video only stream. I demuxed the audio to a separate .ac3 file. But TMPGEnc still wants to encode the .d2v file as a Video and Audio stream. Or does it matter since there is no audio stream in the .d2v file?

[Martyn1980]

I havn't read all the replies here but Virtual Dub does join ac3 files, cant you extract the audio off each vob file and multiplex it with the two avis you have then open up the first avi in Virtual Dub then append and add the second one, now save it as one complete avi, now extract the ac3 file off the avi,either with Virtual Dub or some other program.

Correct me if im wrong or if this is too much hassle

[crody]

Well I found an easier way to merge the 2 sets of VOB files from each side of the disk using VOBEdit. Its just a matter of transcoding the whopping almost 6 gigs of VOB files to a size that will fit on one DVD-R.

[crody]

Well after using VOB edit to merge the VOBS and TMPGEnc to transcode the VOBS I tried to import into Spruce for authorizing and it wont import the .mpg that was transcoded by TMPGEnc-Spruce says the info in GOP is out of sequence??? Now what? Any help here? Should I just go ahead and use ReMPEG2 to transcode each VOB individually? or if there is a way to get ReMPEG2 to transcode all the VOBS at once-I will need the step by step procedule as I can find nowhere where it tells me how to do that. Please help.

[EnemyWithin]

Make sure that you tell TMPGEnc that the stream type is "Video only". The default is probably "System(Video+Audio)". You should load (LOAD button) the "unlock.mcf" from the Extra folder (under the directory where you installed TMPGEnc). This will allow you to make modifications to the default templates that come with TMPGEnc.

Once you have selected "Video only", TMPGEnc will make the default extension .m2v (video only) and not .mpg (video+audio). Make sure that you name the .ac3 file the same as the .m2v (i.e. movie.m2v and movie.ac3). Then you can import the movie.m2v into SpruceUp and it will import the .ac3 automatically.

[crody]

Ok I finally came up with my own way of making this work on my own and this is how it is done. I ripped the VOBS from each side of the disc. Then I merged the VOBS using VOB Edit. Then I used IFO Edit to create new IFO files for the new title set. Then I used the Smartripper (set to streaming) to demux the audio and video from the merged VOBS to a separate .m2v file and .ac3 file. Then I used ReMPEG2 to transcode the .m2v file to a smaller file that would fit on a DVD-R disc. I then used Spruce-Up to author movie. Then IFO Edit once again to correct the new IFO files made by Spruce-Up to match the original IFO files and then burned the new Spruce-Up title Set using Prassis's Primo DVD and it works perfectly. There is only a brief 5 second pause in the video where the 2 sides were merged from the original DVD. Thanks for all the help you guys gave me.