DVD Ripping-poor result

[pauldb]

First, I'm totally new at the process of ripping DVDs, so bear with me.

I downloaded Ripit4me 1.7.1.0, DVD Shrink 3.2.0.15, DVD Decrypter 3.5.4.0, and Fix VTS 1.403, and installed them.

My objective was to rip a couple of homemade DVD-Rs so that I can edit the content, deleting much of it, combining various parts, and burn a new DVD-R. I used an IBM laptop with 1.5GHz clock speed, 750MB of Ram, and 40GB of HD.

I was able to produce 4 .vob files for each disk, open them with WinDVD Creator V2, edit, and burn the new disk.

The problem is that, while the new disk played on my living room DVD player, the brightness tended to vary a significant amount, and occasionally, the picture would tear as though horizontal sync was degraded.

Can anyone say why this result occurred? Is it more likely to be hardware (the DVD burner drive) or software? Any suggestions?

[hech54]

1) If it is a homemade DVD you are ripping...you don't need Ripit4me or all of the other stuff associated with it.
2) If the end result looks different from the original....especially if it is less material on the disc than the original....it is the software.

[Bjs]

Welcome pauldb

First is media type supported by dvd player ... dvd-r to be safe
Brightness fluctuation during playback is common with dvd players hooked through vcr's .

Beyond this , there are other things that contribute to this problem , and the first would be to give the player a good clean , the laser ... Those dvd lens cleaners only push the dirt about ... A good clean comes from the removal of the top cover (power disconnected) , and use lint free swabs and pure alcohol (chemists) ... Do not rub ... Allow to completely vaporize .

For home made dvd editing , you only need dvd shrink , and dvd decrypter .

There is no telling from here , if the issue is caused by windvd creator , but from what I recall , it re-encodes the clips , which might be the issue .

tear as though horizontal sync was degraded

Sounds as though windvd creators filters / transitions between clips might be the cause , if used .

Dont burn from windvd creator , output to folder , and use imgburn to burn project output to media .

[pauldb]

Bjs,

Why use Imgburn instead of WinDVD Creator?

May I tell you how I proceeded and the results? I copied the *.vob files from the source DVDs to the HD. Since I had 4 source DVDs, I put their .vobs in 4 different folders, and renamed the vobs to have unique file names. This was necessary to enable proper editing in WinDVD Creator. After editing, I burned a couple of DVDs.

Things went rather well. The images are rather stable regarding brightness and other features. HOWEVER, now the video and sound are slightly out of sync. This is not the case on the original disks. Do you (or anyone) know why this might have happened? Would Imgburn have kept the sound/video in sync? Is Imgburn an editor also?

[hech54]

This was necessary to enable proper editing in WinDVD Creator. After editing, I burned a couple of DVDs.

Bingo.
NOT saying WinDVD is a bad editor...I've never used it...but messing with .VOB's is a bad move.
I wish it were that easy but unfortunately it is not. Editing out part of a VOB and using just that part is no problem....editing a VOB and sticking it back is most likely your problem.
I wish I could explain it better but...I can't...sorry.

[ZippyP.]

Try vob2mpeg to convert the vob's then do your editting.

[pauldb]

Just a follow up comment. I used vob2mpg to convert the Video_ts folder containing the vob files on three disks. I edited the mpg files using WinDVD Creator, removing unwanted portions and recombining the remainder, then burned two DVDs. All went smoothly with good results, ie no more sync problems. Thanks to all who made comments, and helped me along.

Next project, using the programs mentioned at the start of this thread, I'm going to try making a backup copy of a commercial DVD, which probably has copy protection to see how that works.

[pauldb]

Greetings,

I was able to utilize ripit4me together with the other three programs to rip an older DVD called Forbidden Planet. This DVD happens to be a widescreen edition on one side and a standard screen edition on the other. I processed the widescreen side. Somewhere in the process, it mentioned that CSS was used to prevent copying.

Everything ran smoothly. I ended up with ten files; six of which were vob files plus two .bup and two .ifo files. At this point, I was not sure how to go about burning a DVD with them, so I imported them into WinDVD Creator. I burned a DVD which played OK on my living room player.

Problems: First there were several short clips which had no sound associated with them. I thought the who thing was NG, but eventually, the main movie started, and the sound was fine -- even in sync. The picture, however, seemed to have rather poor resolution, certainly not as good as the original. Also, the aspect ration was such that the human subjects all seems stretched, mostly in the horizontal direction. The color seemed OK.

Can anyone suggest the best way to have burned the DVD? How does one produce better resolution? What about the aspect ration?

Thanks for any comments.

[ZippyP.]

Everything ran smoothly. I ended up with ten files; six of which were vob files plus two .bup and two .ifo files. At this point, I was not sure how to go about burning a DVD with them...

If the size is less than 4.7 GB (likely) then simply burn to disk with something like Imgburn, if not then use DVDShrink.

Windvd is re-encoding your video, you should try and avoid that for reasons that you already discovered.