noobie with AutoGK questions.

[celchlepp]

Hey all,

I just installed AutoGK, converted a DVD just fine to AVI, but only got the main movie (with audio). Am wondering how to get the special features with audio also, if that is even possible in an AVI. I did follow the guide that accompanies the dl of AutoGK, and selected both audio options available for English, but still only got audio for the main movie.
Also, another question: To save space on a drive connected to my Philips DVP 5982 unit, which works great playing dl'd AVI's, Do you think it would be wise, provided special features are possible in an AVI conversion, to just convert all my DVD's to AVI's? This is why I need help getting all the stuff from a DVD to AVI so I have a complete replica of the original DVD, just a LOT smaller.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
p.s. I did search for this elsewhere in these forums, but came up short, which is why I posted.

[somebodeez]

I don't know how anyone else does it but you can open your DVD files in DVDShrink, click "Reauthor" and select the extra that you want to encode, save just that to a folder and encode from there.

You can preview your selection in DVDShrink to make sure that's the one that you want, select the audio that you want and any subtitles that you want (or not).

[celchlepp]

Rock on somebodeez, thanks! yeah, I forgot to add in my original posting that I use Shrink, exclusively for that matter, unless in the very rare case that it doesn't work, but VERY rare case indeed. Otherwise, I am pretty used to DVDShrink. Not to say I'm at all an "expert" with it mind you. ha!

no doubt more questions coming soon upon trying this out.

[somebodeez]

Very welcome
I find this method helpful when doing series as well.

[celchlepp]

So, would that make the special features part of the original DVD a seperate AVI file to play in addition to the movie.avi? I am wondering if it is at all possible to have an avi file that includes the menus where you can navigate the choices just like you do on a normal DVD menu screen and select special features, scene selection, etc.

If that is simply not possible with an avi, that's okay, but just would be mighty nice though. Then it would be a full duplicate of the original DVD. Isn't that the point anyway?

Thanks in advance for this, and please if you would, throw an idea or two my way on what you think of converting all DVD's to AVI's (I could care less about high quality vs. average quality to be honest with you). Why not do that just for space saving reasons? Does anyone else convert ALL of their DVD's to AVI's for this or any other reason? why or why not?

Just looking for more education here, with much gratitude on my part for all you helpful folks out there who save us from our own confusion.

[somebodeez]

So, would that make the special features part of the original DVD a seperate AVI file to play in addition to the movie.avi?

Correct

I am wondering if it is at all possible to have an avi file that includes the menus where you can navigate the choices just like you do on a normal DVD menu screen and select special features, scene selection, etc.

If that is simply not possible with an avi, that's okay, but just would be mighty nice though. Then it would be a full duplicate of the original DVD. Isn't that the point anyway?

I don't think it's possible to have a navigational type menu in AVI (although I could be wrong).
I just use my DVD player's menu to select the file I want to play. No biggie.

I use filenames that correspond with each other so they are easier to find.
Example:

01-The Life and Times of Somebodeez.avi
02-The Life and Times of Somebodeez-Extra01.avi
03-The Life and Times of Somebodeez-Extra02.avi

As far as the point goes, people have their own individual reasons for converting movies to AVI.

I like to have AVIs for road trips using my portable player. It cuts down on the amount of discs I have to pack/unpack and I can leave my originals safely at home.

Thanks in advance for this, and please if you would, throw an idea or two my way on what you think of converting all DVD's to AVI's (I could care less about high quality vs. average quality to be honest with you). Why not do that just for space saving reasons? Does anyone else convert ALL of their DVD's to AVI's for this or any other reason? why or why not?

Well personally, I do care about quality and try to get my AVIs the best that I can. Of course they just can't equal the same quality as the DVD that they came from but I believe that if one is going to take the time to do this, you might as well make them the best that you can while you're at it.

When viewing my AVIs on my old tube TVs, people have asked whether they were watching the DVD or DivX - they couldn't tell the difference. This day and age with big screen TVs in our homes and the old tube TVs getting phased out, the difference is viewable (especially the bigger the TV is). So something to keep in mind is what are you viewing your AVIs on? What about in the future?

When you mentioned saving space, did you mean physical space?
In order to truly save physical space one would have to get rid of the DVDs once they've been converted.
However, I don't get rid of my DVDs once I've AVI'd them. No way!

[celchlepp]

All very good points you brought to my attention somebodeez. I appreciate it. Very good pont in particular regarding what type of TV we may buy in the future. we are just using a basic tube tv right now with only one coax connection in the back. As far as quality, which ties into the type of TV you mentioned, I wouldn't have thought of that. I don't know that I even like those big LCD's for a tv. a 22" or bigger PC monitor is plenty huge for me for a computer, I still like the tube TV's though.

Heck man, I've been in the PC support industry for about 13 years, and am plenty willing to throw in the towel on all the tech stuff. tired of it. I couldn't care less of latest tech. Thankfully, my wife is on the same page as I am for not really caring about just how great a video looks.

and no, I wasn't talking about physical space, but hard drive space. Yeah, I know huge drives are getting real cheap, but I'd rather put a heap of 7xxMB AVI's on a drive than a small number of ripped 4.35GB movies on it. We'll see where the future takes all of us for techie equipment for the living room, or for those lucky enough, a home theater.

Thanks again man, I appreciate all your input. I'll play around with these proggies, and see what all I come up with. great so far. and yeah, I stongly suspected AVI's were not capable of replicating and integrating the menus into their file type and have any of it actually work.

Cheers,
Chuck

[somebodeez]

You're welcome.

What's good enough/works for some might not be for others.
This stuff really is a matter of personal taste and needs.

As far as the latest tech stuff goes - well I'm still using and lovin' my CRT monitor
It's gonna be a sad day when she goes.

PS: I'm not a man :P

[celchlepp]

sorry for the assumption. funny though, my wife and I have been discussing recently how the English language has changed from its original form for some particular terms. "Man" being the most prevalent change, in her opinion, due to women's lib movement some years ago. I admire that she still subscribes to the old fashioned way, contrary to college teachings in general of gender specifications in applied terminology, that "man" applies to the whole human race regardless of gender. "mankind" for example, is hopefully never to be replaced by "peoplekind" or "personkind" or some other "politically correct" pathetic conversion of the linguistic nature.

Take care and again, thank you very much for the proggy help and education.

[somebodeez]

Oh no problem
It's not the first time. Just as long as it only happens online and not in person

Yes indeed, terminology has changed over time.
The very first time I ever heard the term "flash your firmware" had me pausing for thought