Guide for using DVD2ONE with Episodic TV Show DVD's?

[leebo]

Baldricks guide dosn't mention it, but is there a way to copy a DVD9 containing an episodic TV show to a DVD-R?

I'm trying to back up the show "24".
Disc one contains 4 episodes. Unfortunetly, they show up seperately in DVD2ONE, which means I can only copy one episode, not all four.

Any ideas?

[P@iNKilleR]

to make it easier for U I'll try & explain!! rip all the vobs to the drive with dvddecrptor, then delete all of the ifo & bup files. Remember U have to rename all the vobs starting with the first in order I.E. VTS_01_1.VOB, VTS_01_2.VOB & so on. Once all this is done open ifoedit & create new ifo's for your dvd set, once all this is done you will have all the episodes muxed together so U can rip them in order. Ok now the easy part just open dvd2one & get going select your directory where the dvd is & where U want 2 dump it & away U go!. I've done this with pheonix nights dvd & it plays fine with all the chapter points intact.

Kev!

[leebo]

Well, I mus B reeaallyy slow!

How can I run IFOEdit if the first thing I've done is to delete all the IFO's and BUP's? IFOEdit needs an IFO file to read!

BTW, this particular DVD has four episodes on the disc statring with VTS_04_1.VOB, VTS_04_2.VOB, etc.
But even though they're all included in the VTS_04_x.VOB series, DVD2ONE still sees them as four seperate title sets, and wants to copy them seperately!!!

In other words, THEY'RE ALREADY MUXED TOGETHER!

[leebo]

Well, I found one way to do it, apparently there are several ways.

I opened the VTS_04_1.IFO file with IFOEdit.
I clicked on "VOB Extras".
I left the default items checked, and added "Strip Streams".
Next I deselected one of the streams that were listed to force IFOEdit to transcode the VOB's to new files and create new IFO's.
Now DVD2ONE sees all four episodes as one program chain.

One problem: Though the original had no chapter points, each of the four episodes were (or at least acted like) it's own chapter. So you could jump between episodes by pushing the chapter button on the remote.
The new files created by IFOEdit removes this ability



You can also try http://ifoedit.wh.fr0zen.com/joinclip.html

[P@iNKilleR]

ok start again strip your new dvd U have created to the drive as in m2v & ac3 files then use some authoring software like spruceup & add your own chapter points prior to creating you new vob set.... Anyway U can create new ifo's with ifo edit U not seen the button create new ifo's yet???? U dont need ifo's m8 just the vob! simple! U can do it your way but thats to awkward but ateast U got what U wanted in the end. Good luck with ya next try M8

Kev!

[leebo]

Anyway U can create new ifo's with ifo edit U not seen the button create new ifo's yet???? U dont need ifo's m8 just the vob! simple!

Hmm..

Never used that button b4. Thanks, I'll try it.

BTW, don't want to re-author, but looks like "Create IFOs" has an option to keep the chapter points?

[wulf109]

I think the problem is that episode DVD's use one ifo to control all operations from the vob files. The individual episodes are PGC's in the vob files. What has worked for me is to rip only the vob files to the HD,for example on the ST-TNG disks the four episodes are contained in 8 vob files. Rip those vob's to your HD. Then use Ifoedit to create a set of ifo files treating the four episodes as one PGC.
DVD2ONE will then see the four episodes as one movie(PGC). After converting with DVD2ONE you will have a directory containing the four episodes transcoded to a 4.36GB's. The chapter stops are preserved along with with any or all audio and subtitle streams depending on what options you selected in DVD2ONE.
Most DVD payers have a goto function on their remote. It's easy to determine which chapter starts a new episode. Note the chapters that start each episode and use the goto function to select which episode you want to view.

[nickel]

I'll have to track down this DVD2ONE thing... never heard of it. I just backed up 24 with 4 episodes per disc (like the original)... but did it all "by hand" with transcoding and re-authoring (my PC was on for two weeks straight). Not worth the time it took. But was an interesting experiment.

[mikef07]

OK I did this already and here is how u do it.

1. Use smartripper and open dvd.

2. CLick on the first PGC (There should be 4, 1 for each episode)

2. Click Stream Encoding.

3. Make sure the video is checked and the audio that u want.

4. "Demux to extra file" for both video and audio.

5. You should end up with an M2V file and an AC3 file.

6. DO it for each episode. Save each PGC in a different directory.

7. After all 4 episodes are done, rename episode 1's "ep1.m2v" and "ep1.ac3" episodes 2 files "ep2.m2v" and "ep2.ac3". Do it for all 4.

8. DO this for all 4 episodes.

9. You should have:

EP1.M2V
EP1.AC3
EP2.M2V
EP2.AC3
EP3.M2V
EP3.AC3
EP4.M2V
EP4.AC3

10. Move all these files (8 total files) to their own directory.

11. Now for the fun part. Open DVD Maestro. Import media assets in bottom right window. Select all 8. They will parse and should say OK when they are done.

12. Double click movie1

13. Drag ep1.m2v to where it is supposed to be dragged to. When you do this you should see a little scroll bar under it and scroll to the end. If it is "24" it should be around 45 minutes long. You will see where it ends. Drag ep2.m2v in the space where ep1.m2v ended. Scroll to the end of ep2.m2v and drag ep3.m2v. DO the same for ep4.m2v also

14. WHere the audio is right click next to #1 and select "create sync audio track. Choose the right ac3 tracks for each (THey may be automatically assigned).

15. When all 4 are assigned click create audio track.

15.5. Create chapter wherever you want by clicking in chapter area. I suggest every 15 minutes.

16. ALmost done. When this is done you should be able to save and then go to "tools" at top and compile.

17. When this is done you will end up with what looks like a DVD with 1 long movie (WHich is really all 4 episodes combined)

18. Use this as your DVD in DVD2ONE. SHould work flawlessly.

ANy questions ask away.

[leebo]

The chapter stops are preserved along with with any or all audio and subtitle streams depending on what options you selected in DVD2ONE.

Interesting. But I thought chapter stops were located in the IFO's. You're saying they're located in the VOB's?

I could swear I tried your method but lost the chapters.
I'll have to try it again.


mikef07 nice, but I don't have Maestro and hope to avoid re-authoring.

[leebo]

OK, wulf109.

I tried your method for getting the four episodes to be seen as one with DVD2ONE and it worked!

I wanted to keep the subtitles though, and the color info was lost, leaving them un-readable.
So I used IFOEdit b4 DVD2ONE to copy the subtitle color info from the original DVD, to the ripped, IFOEdit created IFO file. Now they're fine.

I'm currently running DVD2ONE on it and will report back.

Thanks.

*Update:

Worked like a charm!!!!!

[nickel]

wulf109, I like your method for quickly readying a DVD for DVD2ONE. I will try that once I get DVD2ONE. Thanks for sharing.

mikef07, your method using Maestro is sound. But I do want to point out that it adds quite a few steps and a lot of time (parsing and compiling are no fun to wait for). But the real benefit to this method is that you can put chapter stops anywhere you want (especially cool in the case of "24"). My backups of "24" are almost identical to the originals (except for the transcoding to reduce size). All of the menus and menu audio are preserved. I even used subpictures to re-create the > < button indicators on the menus after downloading an "LED" font. The main difference is that I added chapter stops all over the place. I only get to watch DVDs about 20 minutes at a time, so I thought it was pretty lame that it didn't come with chapter stops.

[leebo]

Using IFOEdit to create new IFO's gives you the option to "create chapters for every cell ID" (I think thats how it's worded). My "backup" ended up having chapter stops every 5 to 8 minutes (or so).

Unfortunately...
Tried exactly the same method today on disc two of the set, and it's not working!
For some reason, after IFOEdit finishes creating new IFO's, WinDVD can't play it from the HD. If I ignore this and try DVD2ONE, DVD2ONE finishes in about two seconds with one VOB of about 10kb.

I hate computers!
______________________________________________

Nevermind. Operator error.
I forgot that IFOEdit's new IFO's would be named VTS_01_1.VOB, and that requires you to change the names of all ripped VOB's to corrispond.

I like computers again.