Put TV shows on DVD

[Confuzed]

As the forum topic suggests, I'm a newbie, in need of advice. I would like to create some DVDs with TV programs on them for a friend who suffers from dementia. I would like them to have no menu at all. Simply drop the DVD in the player, hit play and have it play all of the shows on the DVD sequentially then restart at the beginning when it finishes.

My assumption is that I would RIP videos from an existing DVD, do some sort of encoding and then burn files to a new DVD. So far, I've tried various tools - Handbrake, DVDFab9, MakeMKV, WinXDVD Ripper, DVD Flick and Imgburn. I've been trying for several days now, gotten close, but not working the way I would hope. I really don't know what I am doing.

I would be very appreciative if someone would take the time to outline the steps and recommend software to use.

Randy

[videobruger]

I assume the source is a retail DVD with episodes of TV shows.

Use MakeMKV to make MKV files for the episodes. MakeMKV will put the video/audio unaltered into MKV files and remove copy protection. It may not be able to remove copy protection for the latest protection schemes.

Drag the files onto AVStoDVD and press Start. Since the video/audio is already DVD compliant no re-encoding is needed (or done).

This will produce a DVD file structure for a menuless DVD that you can test in a software player before burning with ImgBurn (or the like).

EDIT: Re-reading the post I see you want the DVD to "loop". In this case you may want to use DVDStyler to author the DVD instead of AVStoDVD. I've made a Youtube tutorial on how to do that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyPheFE1CaY

In case of more episodes use the post-command for each to jump to the next episode and have the last jump back to the first episode.

[orsetto]

DVDflick can easily make dvds that auto-loop from last video back to the first. And its default setting is to NOT create a menu for the DVD, so you don't have bother about that at all. If you want to use DVDflick, I would first follow the MakeMKV workflow suggested above by videobruger to create the MKV files from your original DVDs. Then:

Start DVDflick, so a new empty project window opens. At the top, click on "Project Settings." In the next window, click on "Playback." In the next window, make sure the option "Loop to the first title when done playing last" is checked. Click "Use As Defaults", and going forward every dvd you create will auto-repeat from beginning to end until removed from the player. Click "Project Settings" again, and click on "Burning" in the next window. Choose "Burn Project To Disc" and click "Use As Defaults" - this tells DVDflick you want it to always run the IMGburn program and burn the dvds automatically (make sure you have IMGburn installed).

To convert your MKV files into a new custom menu-less looping dvd, click "add file" on the right hand side of the project window. Navigate to the folder where you have the MKV files, and click the ones you want to make a new dvd with. You can import multiple MKVs at once by holding down the Control button on your keyboard as you click each one in the group, then release the Control key and click "Open".

The project window should now be filled with all the MKV titles you chose. If any are shown out of sequence, you can change the episode order by clicking on the video you want to move and then move it with the "Move Up" or "Move Down" buttons at right. When satisfied you have all episodes in correct playback order, check the "Total Duration" readout on the lower right of the window (above the "Browse..." button). Note the total running time: DVDflick works best if you limit each dvd to under three and a half hours, four hours max. If you go higher than that, the yellow capacity bar at left will turn red, indicating you should delete one or more MKVs from the bottom of the project list. Once all looks good to go, click "Project Settings" then "Video" then "Advanced", select "Copy MPEG-2 Streams", click "Accept" and then "Accept" again. (This last setting should speed up the dvd creation process considerably, since it bypasses any unnecessary re-encoding as mentioned by videobruger above. But note this is the only setting that can't be made an automatic "default" - you need to manually choose "Copy MPEG-2 Streams" each time you make a new dvd project.)

Load a blank dvd into your PC drive, then click the "Create DVD" button at the top of the window. DVDflick will cycle thru several progress bars until it reads "Finished" after burning the dvd. The process takes anywhere from 30 mins to two hours, depending on your source videos and PC hardware. Note since the resulting auto-play dvd has no menu, your PC might start playing it after DVDflick burns it- this is normal, just eject the disc from your PC.

[Confuzed]

videobruger and orsetto,

I'd like to thank you both very much for taking the time to explain this process to me. Things are now working nicely.

Randy