Easy DVD-9 to DVD-5 Technique

[[*]_BonKerS_[*]]

This is a short but sweet guide to taking your dual layer DVD and turning into a single layer DVD. I know there are other methods floating around vcdhelp.com but I have just had so much trouble finding a reliable guide.

First of all you need the following tools:

OSex 0.0110a1: http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/9830
ffmpegX (Latest) : http://homepage.mac.com/major4
mrBitBudget 0.5b: http://www.versiontracker.com/moreinfo.fcgi?id=15830&db=mac

01. Put your DVD into your drive and then open OSex.

02. Use the following settings for OSex:

TI (Title): Select the first track (by default it is selected). If your disc has both Widescreen and Fullscreen on the same side then you might have to run a small test to figure out which track is the right one. But Widescreen tends to be the first track and Fullscreen is the second (the other tracks are extras).

CH (Chapter): All of these should be selected since we assume that you want every chapter to remain on your DVD.

AN (Angle): Select only the first angle.

Vid (Video Track): There should only be one track, select it.

Aud (Audio Track): The first track tends to be the 5.1 track, select it and deselect the others.

Sub (Subtitles): Uncheck subtitles.

Fmt (Format): We want to get just one VOB file so leave Program Stream checked.

Seg (Segmented by): Title, this way we get one big file.

3. Click Begin and rip the DVD to your computer. Make sure the path to your .vob file contains no exotic characters. For instance : ( ) / [ ] and similar will generate errors so just make sure that every folder that ffmpeg has to look through has no special characters.

4. Find the time of your movie by either looking at the disc or by going to imdb.com and finding the running time. Note this time in minutes, 2 hours 34 minutes is 154 minutes, etc.

5. Open mrBitBudget and put your time in minutes in the top box and 224 in the audio box. Leave ROM data and dubpicture unfilled. You should be supplied with a four digit number, take no note of the decimal and use that as your bitrate: 2.938 MBPS is 2938 kbps.

NOTE: The following steps require you to have ffmpegx setup correctly. If you don't have the binaries installed or you get errors all the time you will have problems. Make sure everything works properly.

6. Open ffmpegX and choose your VOB file from the open menu and where you want it to go with the Save As... button.

7. From the quick presets at the bottom select "Hi-bitrate DVD" BUT replace the Video Bitrate from 4000 to whatever mrBitbudget told you to use.

Now you could tell it to start encoding now or you could fine tune a few things...

8. Under the "Options" tab next to "Thread" select your encoding method. Background will use less processor power when other things are going on, Normal will use most of your computer power (if not all) and if you have a dual processor computer select Dual CPU.

9. Under the "Tools" tab you can select "Keep Elementary Streams" to output the M2V and MP2 files in edition to the DVD image. Also, if you dont want to make your DVD image yet (lets say you want to remaster it with DVDSP) just uncheck "Author as DVD (VIDEO_TS)."

Now you should have a either a DVD.img file which is your ready to burn DVD image or an M2V file and MP2 file which you can use in Sizzle or DVDSP! Good luck DVDing!

[stniuk]

Thanks just what I was looking for!

[akpslp]

thanks for the guide. i followed it exactly and everything seems to have worked. however, when i drag the m2v and mp2 file into DvDSP and start the preview, the movie looks great for about 15 minutes or so, then the video stops......the audio is still heard, but no video. i did not notice any errors on the terminal....

any idea's?

thanks a bunch......

[[*]_BonKerS_[*]]

I should have said this in the main guide... if you don't care about tracks or adding menus then you can use the program "Sizzle" to master the DVD. It will be one long track but it will allow you to just take your M2V and AC3/MP2 files and turn them into a DVD.img

Sizzle (Latest): http://thegoods.ath.cx/~hmason/sizzle/

Extended Guide Using Sizzle:

01. Click "Scratch Folder..." and select the place where you want the DVD to be created. I would recommend using a disk that has about 8 or 9 gigs for this option because this is where it has to make everything into VOB files and then pack it into a DVD.img file.

02. Click "Output Path..." and select where you want your final DVD.img to be. This disk should have over 4.3 gigs available because your image will not be over 4.3 (and if it is then it won't burn).

03. Disc Label is what your disc will be called when it shows up on your computer. I wouldn't recommend using spaces or lower case here so just use "_" instead of spaces. (ex. 'The Sum of All Fears' should be 'THE_SUM_OF_ALL_FEARS") It isn't visually the most appealing but then again it isn't like you are really going to see this accept when you watch it on your computer. (Note: this is not what the .img file will be, you can make that anything, this is just what the DVD's name will be when it is mounted.)

04. Click "Input Video..." and select your M2V file.

05. Click "Input Audio..." and select your MP2 file or AC3 file, it also accepts AC3 in the latest version.

06. Then click "Make Image" and wait a little while, for me it is about 20-30 minutes (on a Powerbook G4 500) for a full disc image, results will vary.

NOTE: If you notice there is an option to add more tracks "Add Track" & "Remove Track." Do not use this though because these are not chapters, they are actually "Tracks" which most DVD players can't switch. I have emailed the author of Sizzle and he said that in a future version you will be able to add chapters, but if you make any additional tracks you will only be able to play the first track and not switch to the others (believe me I have tried).

NOTE: One your image is complete double click it so that it mounts on the Desktop. Then open Apple DVD Player (you should already have this on your computer) and from your "File" menu select "Open VIDEO_TS Folder..." and then select the VIDEO_TS folder inside your mounted disc image. The DVD should play just as if you put the actual disc inside your DVD drive, if the audio is off or if the quality doesn't look too good then you can know this before wasting a DVD-R/W.

Hope this helps!

[CJ of FL]

_BonKerS_[*]]NOTE: The following steps require you to have ffmpegx setup correctly. If you don't have the binaries installed or you get errors all the time you will have problems. Make sure everything works properly.[/b]

I want to use this guide and I've downloaded the the 3 linked progams. However, ffmpegx doesn't have installation instructions. It has the program, engines installer and 4 subtitles packages. What do I do from here? - Sorry, I'm a newbie.

[[*]_BonKerS_[*]]

As far as installing ffmpegX goes you need to download mpeg2enc, mencoder and mplayer which you have already downloaded. Use the installer program that is included with ffmpegx to install these binaries and then restart. You should then be able do do the DVD-9 to DVD-5 process. If you still have problems just ask!

[CJ of FL]

Thanks for your help[*]_BonKer$_[*]. I got everything installed and used Osex on the movie, Memento. However, when I used ffmpegx, I got some errors. I got the following before it started...

**ERROR: [mpeg2enc] Could not read YUV4MPEG2 header: system error (failed read/write)!

...and when finished...

**ERROR: [mplex] Unable to open file /Users/chris/Desktop/dvd output/memento.m2v for reading.
rm: /Users/chris/Desktop/dvd output/memento.m2v: No such file or directory

Can you help me out?

[[*]_BonKerS_[*]]

Crap, I think that I forgot to mention that you need to have the Quicktime MPEG-2 Component inorder to decode everything properly. Unfortunately this component is not free but if you look you can find it floating around the internet.

This should be the case if it doesn't encode the file at all. I believe that I had the same errors as you and then once I installed the component everything went smoothly.

[incredible]

First: The best manual to reencode your DVD-9 to DVD-5 and to SVCD, even to DIVIX is explained in this URL:

http://mac.mercy.bei.t-online.de/

Ok, its in german, but you can translate it by using Google or Sherlok II


Now to the replies in this thread:

@ "akplsp"

Use the "Gop Headers" option in FFmpegX!!!! when you will author your DVD in DVD SP! Cause this is needed if you want to set correct markers and that your standalone Player is able to FFW and REW. Also this option avoids such problems as you mentioned in your reply.

@ all

There is a misunderstanding of Mbit and kbit in this thread...
4,123 Mbit (as for example MrBitbudged says) are not 4123 kbit!
You have to multiply the result of MrBitbudged by 1024! Then you receive the correct Kbit value. Also the question how much kb are how much kbit. Easy answer multiply your kb by 8! and you'll receive the kbit value.
So ... From Mega to kilo = multiply by 1024
and from byte to bit multiply by 8.

Ok, .. the little amount of kbit which is lost by just making 4,123 to 4123 is no big deal, but why should we trash space on a DVD-5.

Another Point ... the Audio:

I reencoded a lot of DVDs, ... trying a lot of techniques and applications .. and I came to the solution that its better to render a DVD in OSeX by choosing ELEMENT Streams, ... why? .. ok, cause a DVD-9 often contains 5.1 Dolby surround tracks and if you just let FFmpgX do the job of a mixdown to a mpeg2 sound file you will see that a lot of surround sound felling will be lost .. even if the source on the DVD-9 is only surround.
And ... I think the best way is to let the 5.1 AC3 file as it is and just add it to your final reencoded m2v to author a DVD-5 with untouched original 5.1 Sound. But if its only a surround sund file (OSex says 2 Channels) than you also can reencode it at a lower bitrate, cause very often for 2 channels they use 224 kbit rate, why? ... 128 for two channels is ok!! I heared it.

Heres the solution: ... first as I said render in OSEx to element streams ... and let FFmpX do the video job as shown in the link I posted in the beginning of this reply.
Now we take the AC3 2.0 channel file and use "a25DecX 0.24" to generate an AIFF. In a25DecX use the option "individual" output, so you will receive the original 2 channels seperately untouched!!. Now you can reencode the Aiff channels with Apack to 128 kbit... dont forget to check the "dolby surround encoded" option so your player will understand it better.
If you want to make a two channel sourround file of a 5.1 AC3 file, ... also use a25DecX to make a 2 channel mixdown by choosing the "dolby" option, not the "stereo"! Cause this is just a simple mixdown as FFmpegX does. This result file you can also encode in Apack with 128kbit as mentioned.
You can hear the difference by using a25DecX to mixdown your surround sound files in dolby mode!!

But I think a25DecX also can handle VOB files ...
.... its the best Audio decoding software I know, it even handels correct the decoding of PCM files!!!! which often are used in DVDs for uncompressed sound. Also PCMs muxed in a VOB file!

Heres the link :

http://homepage1.nifty.com/~toku/software_en.html#a52decX

Go ahead!!
Markus

[[*]_BonKerS_[*]]

Thank you for adding valuable information, the one thing I love about these forums is that people are always willing to go above and beyond the norm. Thanks! :D

[major]

a DVD-9 often contains 5.1 Dolby surround tracks and if you just let FFmpgX do the job of a mixdown to a mpeg2 sound file you will see that a lot of surround sound felling will be lost .. even if the source on the DVD-9 is only surround. .. Now we take the AC3 2.0 channel file and use "a25DecX 0.24" .. check the "dolby surround encoded".. "dolby" option, not the "stereo"! Cause this is just a simple mixdown as FFmpegX does.

This is not correct. Unless there is a bug (in that case please help me track it and I will fix it), ffmpegX is already doing dolby surround mixdown in VOB -> mpeg2 (including with QT decode option).

The engine used by ffmpegX to do Dolby Surround mixdown is a52dec, that is, the same engine used by a52decX.

[CJ of FL]

I got the Quicktime MPEG component and I think I have it working. It currently says...

Encoding started on Sat Jan 25 14:56:04 EST 2003
## Component Manager: attempting to find symbols in a component alias of type (regR/carP/x!bt)

Does that seem right? Also, will this give me 5.1 or stereo sound? And how long should a 2hr movie take with ffmpegx?

Thanks!

[[*]_BonKerS_[*]]

Yes that is right, when it says that it will stay like that until it is finished encoding the video file.

As far as times for encoding go it all depends on the type of processor you have and what OTHER stuff you are doing.

For me (TiG4 500) it takes about 4-5 times the length of the movie, but that is also because I do other things like surf the internet, talk on AIM, etc.

On my roommates DP G4 533 it is about 3x the movie length. So a 2 hr movie would be done in about 6 hours. Which is essentially just a night while you sleep :)

[CJ of FL]

Well, it finished doing Memento and had no "error" messages, although there was this message...

INFO: [mplex] Selecting DVD output profile (INCOMEPLETE!!!!)

And my output files were small, about 1.5gb, and when I play the movie the video stops at about 14 minutes and just stays on the same frame. Then, I open the Osex vob and discovered it was the same way. Any idea what went wrong with Osex?

[[*]_BonKerS_[*]]

Probably an error with the disc, maybe it is scratched. Just to test this idea out you should try to encode another disc. Also, have the "Keep Elementary Streams" checked so that if something happens when it is trying to multiplex it you will still have the main two files.

[CJ of FL]

Well, I tried Spiderman with Osex and when I play the vob with Quicktime, the video freezes after 8 minutes. This sucks! I've found really good, quick and easy ways to do single layer dvds as well as dual layer dvds when the movie vobs will fit. However, everything I try to get a large movie to fit doesn't work and all I run into are errors and program glitches. WTF?

[major]

There is a Quicktime mpeg-2 issue for >4GB files. Always try first to preview your VOB with quicktime player. If it doesn't look complete in quicktime player, you'll get the same output in ffmpegX, so use "mplayer decode" option instead of "QT decode" in that case (slower).

[akpslp]

so if my vob plays fine in vlc but not in quicktime i should use the mplayer decode option instead of "QT decode"? Basically with vlc i can fast forward and the video plays all the way to the end....after using the guide above, the video plays for about 15 minutes then stops. i played the vob in quicktime and it did the same thing?

should i redo the rip with Osex? or just use the mplayer decode?

[[*]_BonKerS_[*]]

Wouldn't hurt to give mplayer a try :)