how to join 2 dvd folders without compromising quality

[flyerhigh]

Hello,

I'm trying to do something a lot of people would like to do but for the life of me, I can't seem to figure out how. I've read numerous guides and the stickies in this forum but I'm still not arriving at the results I want.

Basically, I'm trying to encode several episodes with subtitles into a dvd without compromising quality.

I tried using AVI2DVD and lots of other programs but nothing seems to work.

I've also tried DVD Flick but it produces incomplete files when I try to add subtitles. To work around this, I:

1) Used DVD Flick to convert avi files into mpeg (to fit a single dvd)
2) Discarded everything except raw video and .ac3 files for each episode
- so there's one video and one audio file for each episode
3) Used Muxman to combine the raw video, audio, and subtitle streams per episode but this results in having a dvd folder for each episode (when i want more than one episode in a disc)
- the quality of the files at this point are still excellent but because i don't know how to burn 2 dvd folders into one dvd I...
4) Used NERO Recode to combine the dvd folders and burn into a single disc
here's where the quality suffers:
- the subtitles come out pixelated and in awful colors (red, white, blue)
- video quality deteriorates significantly
- but note: video quality settings are at 100%, with 2 pass encoding

This method seems to work however, what I'd like to know is
1) is there a simpler way of doing this
2) is there a way of joining the 2 dvd folders without a significant impact on video quality?
3) is there a way to remux each episode into an MPEG or VOB file (with subtitles) so I can just join these using Nero Vision and add a menu to the final product in the process?

I know there are tons of payware out there but is there any way to do this without having to shell out money? I really don't do this often so I don't want to invest in a program I'd only use a couple times a year at most

Hope someone can help!

If there's something I left out in the explanation, please let me know

[Baldrick]

ConvertXtoDVD, add all avis and subs and convert to one DVD. Or if you prefer free tools try FAVC if you haven't done that.

[flyerhigh]

ConvertXtoDVD, add all avis and subs and convert to one DVD. Or if you prefer free tools try FAVC if you haven't done that.

just tried FAVC but the program won't even start on two different computers. one says the program is trying to access an invalid file and needs to close. on the other computer it just freezes. wish it worked though, seems like a great program. As for convertxtodvd... i was hoping to stick to freeware

[poisondeathray]

So is this 2AVI => 1DVD conversion with menu & subs? What is the original input file? You mention DVD folder so is it a ripped DVD and VOB's(Video_TS)?

What format are the subs in?

2 other freeware programs you might try are DIKO and The Film Machine. I've used them both, but they are a bit "buggy" compared to FAVC and convertxtodvd.

[flyerhigh]

So is this 2AVI => 1DVD conversion with menu & subs? What is the original input file? You mention DVD folder so is it a ripped DVD and VOB's(Video_TS)?

What format are the subs in?

2 other freeware programs you might try are DIKO and The Film Machine. I've used them both, but they are a bit "buggy" compared to FAVC and convertxtodvd.

the original input files are 2 avi files and 2 .srt files (2 episodes per disc)

i demuxed each of the 2 avi files into their raw video and audio streams.
i converted the 2 srt files into 2 sup files.
to remux them, i had to do it per episode to keep the timings of the sup files accurate.

i'm thinking if there's another remuxer out there i can use that will enable me to have separate titles in the disc?
with muxman, my problem is the two episodes are played back to back and i don't know how to divide the two titles. i read muxman also has a "batch mode"? would this achieve what i want to do?

or is there another program other than nero recode that will enable me to join the 2 VIDEO_TS (the output of muxman) folders without losing quality?

Thank you for the recommendations, I'm downloading both right now, hopefully one of them will work. The reviews for DIKO and are a bit scary, is there any "trick" you recommend to make it work better?

[borax]

MuxMan can do it. Just use GfD, set the authoring engine to 'MuxMan', add your videos/audios/subtitles (make sure to use the correct palette!) and go! GfD automatically creates a simple menu to select your two movies.

BTW:

i demuxed each of the 2 avi files into their raw video and audio streams.

If MuxMan accepts these files, they are already DVD compliant Mpeg files, not 'classical' avi files (which are divx or similar usually). In this case using MuxMan (with GfD) is the best option, as no reencoding step (with quality loss) is required.

[Baldrick]

ConvertXtoDVD, add all avis and subs and convert to one DVD. Or if you prefer free tools try FAVC if you haven't done that.

just tried FAVC but the program won't even start on two different computers. one says the program is trying to access an invalid file and needs to close. on the other computer it just freezes. wish it worked though, seems like a great program. As for convertxtodvd... i was hoping to stick to freeware

Have you installed microsoft .net framework 2 and avisynth(favc requires those)?
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0856EACB-4362-4B0D-8EDD-AAB15...displaylang=en
http://downloads.sourceforge.net/avisynth2/Avisynth_257.exe?use_mirror=dfn

[GeorgeW]

or is there another program other than nero recode that will enable me to join the 2 VIDEO_TS (the output of muxman) folders without losing quality?

DVD Remake Pro (maybe even the free version) will let you combine VIDEO_TS folders into one DVD with a generic "top level" menu that has buttons to the separate DVD's.

You could combine them, and then depending on final size, run the combined version through DVD Shrink (if needed).

Regards,
George

[flyerhigh]

MuxMan can do it. Just use GfD, set the authoring engine to 'MuxMan', add your videos/audios/subtitles (make sure to use the correct palette!) and go! GfD automatically creates a simple menu to select your two movies.

BTW:

i demuxed each of the 2 avi files into their raw video and audio streams.

If MuxMan accepts these files, they are already DVD compliant Mpeg files, not 'classical' avi files (which are divx or similar usually). In this case using MuxMan (with GfD) is the best option, as no reencoding step (with quality loss) is required.

THANK YOU, this program was exactly what I needed. Especially since, you're right, my files were already in their .m2v and .ac3 form, it was a lot faster. It took me some time to go through the guide and had to do a bit of trial and error but everything worked absolutely perfectly... and I was able to customize everything to my heart's desire. This program is so brilliant!! I can't say thank you enough.

Thank you also Baldrick, Poisoned Ray, and George for your suggestions! I don't know why my computers seem to hate video editing software but thank goodness everything worked out in the end. I installed the pre-requisite applications but perhaps the different programs I installed were contradicting each other?

ALSO

just in case someone is unfortunate enough to have the same dilemma, and tries this method...

just note that after using GfD, you can use IFOedit to change the color of the subtitles (especially if you don't have a palette). If you use SRT2SUP, the log help file explains precisely how to do it.

I'm so amazed at how brilliant people can be are right now... Thank you again for the support and help!