Multiple DVDs to One...Possible?

[sukebe80]

I have 5 DVDs that I wish to combine into one. Each have only one episode that is only about half an hour, plus all the extra features on it are pretty much the same, so why not just combine them? My idea is make each episode into a mpeg format and then burn the mpeg files using My DVD. Now, the thing is it'll take some time, but the episodes have 2 languages and options for subtitle, and I want to have those options too. I also want to create the same extras the have like video clips of the stars and the still images. Anyone have any idea about how I might do this or even if it's possible.

Thanks for any help..

Sukebe

[ImaWeTodd]

It's not clear which steps you can not do. Maybe you can do them all.

I'll tell you what I would do.

- Pull the video, audio (and extras) out of the vobs with vobedit (demux)
- Pull the subtitles out with subripper
- Figure out any new menus I'd want and make them with an image editor (Photoshop)
- Author the whole thing with Maestro


Now you might not have Maestro, but you can do all the other stuff with freeware. I'm not sure what you can do with MyDVD.

This would take some time. Especially creating new menus and dealing with the extras.

Good luck !

[FulciLives]

I have 5 DVDs that I wish to combine into one. Each have only one episode that is only about half an hour, plus all the extra features on it are pretty much the same, so why not just combine them? My idea is make each episode into a mpeg format and then burn the mpeg files using My DVD. Now, the thing is it'll take some time, but the episodes have 2 languages and options for subtitle, and I want to have those options too. I also want to create the same extras the have like video clips of the stars and the still images. Anyone have any idea about how I might do this or even if it's possible.

Thanks for any help..

Well chances are all 5 episodes (not to mention the extras) will not fit on a single DVD recordable disc unless you re-encode everything using an mpeg-2 encoder such as TMPGEnc or CCE. If you re-encode everything at half D1 resolution (352x480 if the source is NTSC or 352x576 if the source is PAL) then you should be able to fit everything. Keeping the menus and some of the extras (the still images mostly being tricky otherwise the full motion extras like interviews should be easy enough to do) will be next to impossible to do without a lot of work. Would be easier to just make your own or better yet use an authoring program that has menu templates.

The authoring program I know of that can handle multiple audio tracks and optional subtitles would be Maestro. There might be others but I doubt there are any that are easy-to-use. Of course I haven't yet played around with the somewhat newer TMPGEnc or DVDLab authoring programs.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

P.S.
In the past when I've had such content I usually just pick the audio track I want and if that means I need the subs then I burn them in. For instance I watch a lot of Asian films and I would NEVER want the English audio option so I use the best of the Asian audio soundtracks (like a 5.1 vs a 2.0 if it has both) and then BURN the subs into the image when doing the mpeg-2 encoding since, afterall, I would never want to watch the movie WITHOUT the subs. This way I can use just about any authoring program since I'm down to a single audio file and no seperate subs file.

[vance43211]

combine the video to one folder

use ifoedit to strip out all the xtras

use ifoedit to create new ifo files

if each video is uncompressed (most episodes disc are compressed, but yours are probably not, since u have only a half hour on each disc)

than u would have 2 1/2 hrs. of uncompressed video

use dvd shrink 2.3 to reencode your video

then u burn with your recording program



p.s.

a simpler route

if u have neodvd plus

import your vob files and burn

u can add menus this way

and add them video clips

[Bob W]

This is how I would do it but I wrote this more for putting a double sided DVD onto a single DVDR but it still would work for what you want to do.

1: Rip both sides with SmartRipper to a single folder (all the files in one folder). Since the main movie on the second side may have VOB files with the same file names as the first side you will first need to put these into another temp folder then re-name them starting where the first side left off then move the files into the combined folder.
2: Delete all the files in the folder except the main VOB files for both sides.
3: Rename all the VOB files in order starting with VTS_01_001 then VTS_01_002 an so on.
4: Use VOBEdit to "Join" the files.
5: Use IFOEdit on the joined files to "create new IFO's".
6: Use IFOEdit to "get VTS sectors" on the files created above.
7: Use DVD2one or DVDshrink to compress the files in step 6 to a VIDEO_TS folder (you create this) so they will fit on a single DVDR.
8: Test the resulting files with PowerDVD or WinDVD prior to burning.
9: Burn The VIDEO_TS folder to DVD.
10: Enjoy.

SmartRipper, VOBEdit, and IFOEdit all all free so look in the tools section to get same. You can get some tips on using VOB and IFO edit here.
http://ifoedit.wh.fr0zen.com/joinclip.html#joindbl...

[FulciLives]

I had suggested re-encoding because I felt that doing the above and using something like DVDSHRINK would probably compress the original SO MUCH that the loss of quality would be noticeable. After all we are talking about 2 1/2 hours of video and audio PLUS extras which include (according to the original post) video clips which means an even longer running time than 2 1/2 (the final running time of course based on the extent of the extras). That was why I had suggested half D1 re-encoding.

However I admit that the other method of re-structuring with IfoEdit and then compressing it with something like DVD2SHRINK might still give acceptable quality ... BUT ... I have a feeling it might all be just a bit much to fit on a single DVD recordable with an acceptable level of quality.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[vance43211]

FulciLives

do u know that almost every episode disc out there is already compressed
to make all of them episodes fit on it

so his end result will probably look like a "regular" episode disc

[thayne]

You could use DVD2SVCD in DVD mode and encode each episode, with AC3 sound, to 850MB then use SpruceUp to author the menu's. I have done this with 4 (hour long) episodes on a single DVD and the quality is very good.

I say use SpruceUp because you want an authoring app that supports AC3 sound, otherwise you will loose the 5.1. Any authoring app that supports AC3 sound will work though. MyDVD will not work cause it only supports PMC sound and you will loose the 5.1 and the sound portion of your final VOB's will use a lot more disk space, meaning you would have to encode the video with more compression.

There is a guide somewhere here to show you how to use DVD2SVCD to make DVD Mpegs