Use TMPGenc DVD Author to make your own DVD backup's and STILL have subtitles GUIDE

Programs needed:
TMPGenc DVD Author (1.6)
DVD Shrink
PgcEdit

I've made some "friends" backup dvd's using this method and it works like a charm.

I'm only going to descripe the excact procedure i've used to make these dvd's.

The problem was that my original friends dvd's are double-sided (NOT dual-layer), so each dvd contains 8 episodes with 4 episodes on one side and 4 on the other. And that anoyed me like hell that i could only watch 4 episodes before having to get up and turn the dvd around or change it to another. Therefore i decided to make my own backup's containing 8 episodes on one standard 4.7 gb DVD.

After having tried like a million different DVD author programs i decided that i simply HAD to use TMPGenc DVD Author, since it's a nice and easy program to use and is recommended and used by alot of users. But sadly this program doesn't support subtitles so i found a way to cheat a bit so that it would work


First of all i used DVD Shrink to copy each episode to my harddisk individually, with the subtitles needed (VOB-files - NOT ISO image).
Then i used TMPGenc to create the DVD by adding all the episodes and making a menu (remember that the episodes has to be seperate tracks so that there will be a VOB file for each of them) before finally making the DVD-files.

To make it easier later on i also used DVD shrink's re-author feature to make a dvd with all the episodes (the ones ripped individually with subtitles). Simply push the re-author button in DVD Shrink and add the episodes one by one (in the right order ofcourse). Then press the "Backup!" button, and set "Select backup target:" to "Hard Disk Folder" and select or create a folder for these files before pressing ok.

When this is done there is no need for the seperate episode rips anymore..

Now the tricky part comes, because the idea is that you simply overwrite the VTS_??_?.BUP, VTS_??_?.IFO and VTS_??_?.VOB (? being a number) files of each episode in the TMPGenc created DVD folder, with the ones containing the subtitles (the ones you made with the re-author feature from DVD Shrink).
DO NOT OVERWRITE THEM YET

In my case i had 8 episodes so the DVD created with TMPGenc contained these files:

VIDEO_TS.BUP
VIDEO_TS.IFO
VIDEO_TS.VOB
VTS_01_0.BUP
VTS_01_0.IFO
VTS_01_1.VOB
VTS_02_0.BUP
VTS_02_0.IFO
VTS_02_1.VOB
VTS_03_0.BUP
VTS_03_0.IFO
VTS_03_1.VOB
VTS_04_0.BUP
VTS_04_0.IFO
VTS_04_1.VOB
VTS_05_0.BUP
VTS_05_0.IFO
VTS_05_1.VOB
VTS_06_0.BUP
VTS_06_0.IFO
VTS_06_1.VOB
VTS_07_0.BUP
VTS_07_0.IFO
VTS_07_1.VOB
VTS_08_0.BUP
VTS_08_0.IFO
VTS_08_1.VOB

VTS_01_0.BUP, VTS_01_0.IFO, VTS_01_1.VOB being episode 1
VTS_02_0.BUP, VTS_02_0.IFO, VTS_02_1.VOB being episode 2
and so on...

Before overwriting there's only one thing left to do. Because if you just overwrite the files now, the dvd just return to menu after having played an episode (or that's what it did in my case), since the commands in the IFO files aren't the same. What you want is for the "new" episodes (with subtitles) to act just like the ones created with TMPGenc (in my case that the next episode is played when one has ended, and to return to the menu when the last episode has ended).

To do this i used PgcEdit. First of all load the DVD created with TMPGenc. Then start the program again in a new window and load the re-authored DVD created with DVD Shrink.
In my case there was VTST 1, VTST 2, VTST3..., VTST 8 - one for each episode. What you need to do is simply delete the commands in all of the VTST's in the re-authored DVD (created with DVD Shrink) and copy/paste the ones from the DVD created with TMPGenc. THAT IS ALL.. Do not mess with anything else... Then save (File - Save DVD)

Finally when it is done simply just overwrite the files from the TMPGenc created DVD, with the ones from DVD Shrink containing the subtitles EXCEPT FROM VIDEO_TS.BUP, VIDEO_TS.IFO, VIDEO_TS.VOB (IMPORTANT since these files contain the menu).

Now everything should work proberbly. My next move was to load the finished DVD with DVD Shrink and make it into an ISO file. This is also done to make sure that the DVD isn't too large for a 4.7 gb DVD. It shouldn't be a problem since DVD Shrink has already compressed the episodes to fit on a DVD (when the episodes was reauthored), but since the menu has been added since then it might be a good idea to do this just to be sure. No second compression was needed in my case.

Well that's about it. It's actually quite simple when having been done once..!

Cheers

PS. Since i'm not an expert on the DVD-field I would like to be notified if this procedure causes any bugs or has any flaws and so on. I'm just saying that this method has never caused me any trouble 8)