Adding an audio track without losing quality?

[smackyourfupa]

I'd like to add an audio track to an existing DVD without having to rencode or lose any quality. For example, I have two editions of the Rocky DVD, one with an audio commentary and one with a dts track. I'd like to add both tracks to the movie (maybe using ConvertXtoDVD)? Obviosly I'd have to rip both discs. Is this possible without losing any quality? Thanks.

[Baldrick]

Yes, it's possible and you can even keep the menus. Use pgcdemux to strip out the video and audio files from the dvds. Reauthor the old video and audio tracks with the new audio track using muxman. Then use vobblanker to add the new authored output to the original dvd.

See https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/277950-How-to-add-new-subtitles-to-an-existing-DVD (scroll down to method 2, it works same for subtitles and audio tracks) and see also http://www.digital-digest.com/articles/Simplistic_Guide_for_Replacing_DVD_Streams_page1.html

BUT you might have to resync the audio track manually.

[guns1inger]

Worth noting that DTS takes up more space than AC3, so you may find that changing the tracks means that the resulting structure won't fit on a DVD without re-encoding the video. Run the numbers through a bitrate calculator to make sure.

[manono]

And there's also a very good chance that adding a big DTS track along with a commentary track might throw the total bitrate above the combined max allowed. If true, you'll have to reencode the video with a lower max bitrate (and take a quality hit as well).

[smackyourfupa]

Thanks ...space isnt an issue...I keep everything stored on my PC...so ripping the video and audio separately with DVD Decryptor and then authoring a new dvd with convertxtodvd wont work?

[guns1inger]

Not the space on your HDD, the space on the target DVD blank.

Are You going to use a single layer or dual layer disc ?
How much space do the files currently occupy ?

And as Manono points out, there is an upper bitrate limit in the DVD spec. If you have a commercial disc that is already encoded to the maximum with AC3 audio, you cannot add a DTS audio track as it will exceed the DVD specification for total bitrate limits.

Finally, ConvertXtoDVD is not an authoring tool.

[smackyourfupa]

Not the space on your HDD, the space on the target DVD blank.

Are You going to use a single layer or dual layer disc ?
How much space do the files currently occupy ?

And as Manono points out, there is an upper bitrate limit in the DVD spec. If you have a commercial disc that is already encoded to the maximum with AC3 audio, you cannot add a DTS audio track as it will exceed the DVD specification for total bitrate limits.

Finally, ConvertXtoDVD is not an authoring tool.

I am not going to use a disc at all. I am in the process of ripping all my DVDs into my PC so everything is stored there.
Are you sure I cannot use CX2DVD? There is an option that lets you add an audio file to the the project.
Maybe I am confused by the answers you are giving me....
I basically want to....
Rip the video from disc one along with the dts track
Then I want to rip the audio only from disc to which is the commentary track
then I want to add them all together.

[manono]

Follow Baldrick's link to his guide from his post above. The guide's for adding a new subtitle track, but just pretend it's about adding a new audio track. The principle is the same. Since you'll have one more audio track when done than you started with, after doing the VobBlanker 'Replace' step, refer to the link given in his Method 2 about 'turning on' the new audio track (updating the IFOs) so you can access it with the remote control. And I may have misunderstood earlier. If you already have a DTS track and are only adding a commentary track, then it can probably be done without going over the DVD max bitrate limits. Probably I said, but not positively.

[smackyourfupa]

Follow Baldrick's link to his guide from his post above. The guide's for adding a new subtitle track, but just pretend it's about adding a new audio track. The principle is the same. Since you'll have one more audio track when done than you started with, after doing the VobBlanker 'Replace' step, refer to the link given in his Method 2 about 'turning on' the new audio track (updating the IFOs) so you can access it with the remote control. And I may have misunderstood earlier. If you already have a DTS track and are only adding a commentary track, then it can probably be done without going over the DVD max bitrate limits. Probably I said, but not positively.

OK i will try that thanks. Just in case I want to add more audio tracks to the video will I still be able to without going over the max bitrate even though I am not writing it to a DVD but storing it on my hard drive?

[manono]

OK i will try that thanks. Just in case I want to add more audio tracks to the video will I still be able to without going over the max bitrate even though I am not writing it to a DVD but storing it on my hard drive?

There's no way to tell until you do the actual authoring. If you get underflows Muxman will abort or give you an unplayable DVD. It's very strict about following the DVD specs.

[smackyourfupa]

OK I'm a little confused and would appreciate some further help. So far I stripped the dts audio track that I would like to add to the existing dvd. I ripped the the dvd (with DVD shrink) that i would like to add that DTS track to and removed the foreign languages. The size of all of the foreign languages that I removed was greater than the size of the DTS track I would like to add, so it should not go over the max bitrate limits. So right now I have the dvd I'm adding the DTS track to in one folder and the dts track itself which is named dts.vob (not sure if i'd have to extract this a different way. I used DVD Decrypter to extract it using direct stream copy). I'm looking to keep all existing menus which Baldrick stated is possible. Just dont know where to go from here. I'm not familair with Muxman, vob blanker or pgcdemux and dont know which one i'd even have to use for the next step. Again, thanks for all the help.

[guns1inger]

You need to get down to having a video stream (.mpv or .m2v are the usual extensions) and your DTS audio stream (.dts). If you video is still in the VOB format, use DGIndex to demux it so you have the video stream. You may have to do the same to the DTS.VOB file to get your audio track.

After this, you can use muxman to author the video stream and DTS stream into a new set of VOBs, then VOBBlanker to replace the existing video with the new one. Just follow the guides that Baldrick linked to (above) for detailed instructions.

[smackyourfupa]

Thanks. One more question (for now). There are a ton of special features on this disc (interviews, trailers, tv spots etc.) What do I do with those?

[manono]

There are a ton of special features on this disc (interviews, trailers, tv spots etc.) What do I do with those?

Baldrick, in his first reply to your post, linked to his guide which explains how to get back the extras and menus after adding in your audio track. Use his Method 2 and be sure to go to the link about updating the IFOs so the final DVD recognizes the new audio track.

And you extracted the DTS track incorrectly if you got it with a .vob extension. There's a way to do it using DVD Decrypter, but not the way you did it.

[smackyourfupa]

There are a ton of special features on this disc (interviews, trailers, tv spots etc.) What do I do with those?

Baldrick, in his first reply to your post, linked to his guide which explains how to get back the extras and menus after adding in your audio track. Use his Method 2 and be sure to go to the link about updating the IFOs so the final DVD recognizes the new audio track.

And you extracted the DTS track incorrectly if you got it with a .vob extension. There's a way to do it using DVD Decrypter, but not the way you did it.

ok thanks again...seems like a lot of work. Makes me think it might not be worth all the hassle and just stick to the Dolby Digital 5.1 track instead of replacing it with the dts track!