Re-Authoring and maintaining 5.1 ??

[pmoscatt]

Hi all,

I am in a situation where I need to re-author a DVD which contains 5.1 audio.

So I guess the best way to do this - if it's possible is to strip the audio out as AC3, then convert the VOBs into MPEGs to allow re-authoring, then glue it all back together at the end.

Firstly, is this possible ??

Secondly, what utilities do I need to invest in ??

Cheers
Pete

[manono]

So, I take it you're changing or editing something before remuxing? I'd demux it using PGCDemux. Do what you have to do and then remux using Muxman. Your AC3 audio remains unchanged. The 2 programs mentioned are both freeware. If you want to make menus when authoring, then that's something else. More detail about what you're trying to do would be helpful.

[pmoscatt]

G'Day Manono,

Ok.... here's the low down on what I am trying to achieve.

I have two DVD's that I want to combine onto one DVD and therefore create my own custom menu.

I managed to convert the movies into two 1.5G DivX AVI files. I then tried to bring them into my Sony DVD Architect for the re-authoring, but I then found that Architect dose not accept AVIs that are compressed.

If I was to strip the audio out and convert the video to MPG then I was going to bring the video onto one DVD then match the AC3's to each video file.

Hope that makes some sense.

Pete

[Alex_ander]

Demux audio in VDubMod (streams/stream list/demux). Encode video as elementary stream and use both for authoring.

[AlanHK]

I have two DVD's that I want to combine onto one DVD and therefore create my own custom menu.

I managed to convert the movies into two 1.5G DivX AVI files.

My opinion, this is not the best choice.
You're doing MPEG -> AVI -> MPEG.

You may be able to use the original MPEG (and audio) unchanged.

How big are the original DVD files? Do you have room on your target DVD to use them as-is? (If you're using a DL, you probably do.) Also consider you may omit unneeded language tracks, previews, warnings, etc.

Extract the MPEGs from the original DVD VOBs. There are many methods, eg VOB2MPG, ReJig, PGCdemux....

If the total size of both MPEGs is less than your target disk (4.7 or 9 GB, depending, you can just author with these.

If too large, you can compress the MPEGs with Rejig.

[Alex_ander]

If you still have those VOBs, you can also demux with DGIndex. Load the VOBs by VTS' set into program, file/'save project and demux video'. This will output .m2v+.ac3 for authoring.
If you have something like TDA2, you don't have to demux, it will import DVDs by title with chapters + cut-edit if needed.

[jman98]

If the total size of both MPEGs is less than your target disk (4.7 or 9 GB, depending, you can just author with these.

If too large, you can compress the MPEGs with Rejig.

Dual layer disc capacity is actually 8.5 GB, so both films could easily fit separately on a single layer disc (4.5 GB) and yet be too big to put on a dual layer disc without re-encoding. For example, both films could be 4.4 GB in size.

For all we know the original poster may be wanting to put both movies on one single layer DVD, which will make the quality really suffer after re-encoding.

[AlanHK]

For all we know the original poster may be wanting to put both movies on one single layer DVD, which will make the quality really suffer after re-encoding.

Well, I wouldn't like to recompress mpegs by 50%. But that's rarely required. As I mentioned, usually there is a lot of dross you can omit and be able to fit the remainder with little or no compression.

Regardless, mpeg-> avi-> mpeg will unnecessarily lose quality and should be avoided. Frameserve the mpegs if necessary to reencode.