Easiest Program To Merge Two DVDs Without Interruption

[V Bot]

I want to merge the original Halloween & Halloween II without a pause/break. What is the easiest program for a novice? As you may or may not know the second movie starts similar to the way part one ended (Was re-shot). I would like to have a seamless merge. Would settle for a transition. Don't necessarily have to have the menus or chapter marks, but would be a bonus. So please give me some input. Thank you guys in advance. I have used ULead Video Studio before, but is there a better program? I am running Vista.

[PuzZLeR]

I would say this is definitely an editing issue, but not with VideoStudio. Don't get me wrong, VS is great, but was really designed for acquisition sources like DV, not highly compressed sources like MPEG-2 (the format on DvD).

VS can be very problematic with MPEG-2 producing broken streams when using Smart Rendering. Only re-encoding produces a good stream, but it should be avoided since it kills quality (and takes longer).

You would need a dedicated MPEG editor - one that can cut, join, etc without re-encoding, which would be lossless (in quality) and quick.

Unfortunately, I don't know of any good free ones. Look into TMPGEnc MPEG Editor, VideoReDo TVSuite, and Womble MPEG Video Wizard. All are easy to use and can rip out (non-encrypted) DvD streams and join them. Womble can also do transitions if you wish.

Then (if it fits) you can re-author the resultant video into a new DvD with a DvD authoring tool (with several free ones available).

If you need more detailed help with any of these apps or their (joining) functions let me know.

BTW - Merging the two into one DvD, with any source menus intact, is not so straightforward for a novice. In fact, it would be surgery, and not a good procedure anyway. As well, you'd have to re-encode the result to fit it on one DvD-R (with quality loss).

[johns0]

Dvdfab.

[PuzZLeR]

Yes, good tool. But AFAIK, it doesn't join multiple titles seamlessly as one, only as separate chapters/titles with obvious pauses/breaks there. Forget adding any transitions either.

Unless I'm mistaken, or if the O/P is cool with just having them on one disc with the break, then yup, it's an easy novice solution otherwise to get multiple titles on one disc.

[manono]

Yeah but, as you mentioned, this kind of a thing isn't so easy for a novice. I think he might (and should) be satisfied with a split second pause between the 2 titles. There's probably a lot of black at the end of one and the beginning of the next one anyway, which will make the separation even longer.

If his intent is to do away with the black frames and dissolve directly from one to the other (cutting out the end credits as well?), adjusting the audio so that it maintains audio synch, and adjusting the chapter points, well, then I think he's bitten off way more than he can chew. That's why johns0's suggestion of DVDFab or mine of DVD Shrink (freeware) is probably the way to go. With Shrink in reauthor mode he can cut the stuff he doesn't at the end of the first film and the beginning of the second, leaving just the very slight pause as you go from the one title to the next. No menus, though.

[guns1inger]

VOB2MPG to get both titles, then use DVD Flick to merge them into a single seamless title. Make sure you check to box so it doesn't re-encode compliant mpeg-2 streams. You only get basic menus though.

[V Bot]

Thanks for the input. I've used Shrink before, but I really don't want the delay/break. I would rather have a seamless transition. I will give a couple of these mentioned programs a try, Thanks again. You guys know your stuff...

[PuzZLeR]

Well, I am an editor first in this hobby, hence my mindset.

However, even if you do go with DvDfab, or with editing, I'm afraid you may still need to re-encode the final result just to get it to fit even onto a DvD-DL (I would assume with the two Halloween titles combined).

If you do go the editing route: extracting the raw streams, cutting any credits/black filler/etc (like Manono mentioned and which those apps I mentioned can also do), joining the streams and re-authoring, etc - all successfully, you can still use a tool like DvD Shrink, etc, but I would just do it as the last step after a finished disc image is complete and ready on your hard drive first.