Convert DVD with H.264 keeping menus

[seehazy]

It appears that this cannot be done. My research seems to come up with info from many years ago and I would just like to make sure.

MKV and MP4 supposedly support menus, but either not fully or not in the sense of converting a menu from a DVD structure. There is also an old DivX Ultra format that supports menus. I feel as if "menu support" and "the ability to convert the exact menu from a DVD" are two different things however.

Just wanted to make sure there is not some method that has been developed I am unaware of.

Obviously you can just rip to a .ISO and keep the full structure including menus (both for DVDs and BDs)... but I am trying to ascertain, specifically for DVD, whether there is a method to trim the file size using H.264 encoding while keeping the original menu, and having your output be a simple .mp4 or .mkv file.

Probably not, but just wondering. Thanks

[Kerry56]

No. There isn't any software that I am aware of that can convert the main movie to H264 and keep the original menus from dvds.

It is possible to use BD Rebuilder to reduce the size of a blu ray movie and keep the original menu. That will keep it in blu ray format.

You can use the main movies from blu ray or dvds and make a compilation blu ray output, and make a new menu to access them, but you lose extras and original menus doing this.

[_Al_]

Menus are created on user side , not embedded with video (like DVD or BD). User chooses something and gets GUI or just browsing through smb where menu is files in folder structure.

XBMC, NAS app, some DNLA server etc, nice GUI with pictures that are created through indexing (even for home videos like Synology Video Station for example), I'm sure there is many approaches user can choose.

This menu thing that is not on user side but embedded with video would have to be widely supported.

[seehazy]

Kerry56: yes I know all about BD Rebuilder and use it often, great program. But to my actual question yeah figured there was not a solution. No big deal thanks for the reply. I know I could reduce file size of an ISO using DVD Shrink (or similar tools) but the compression of MPEG-2 is nasty compared to using H.264. Obviously quality is lost either way, but if possible I was hoping for the better solution. This is just a very specific scenario and not a big deal.

_Al_: completely not understanding what you're trying to say. As for XBMC and the like... yes they are great and provide a nice graphical interface for movies/video files regardless of whether they have menus of their own ("embedded"). Doesn't answer or seem relevant to my actual question... but thanks for the reply.

[_Al_]

Basically I tried to say that menus are useless if one is not to play DVD or BD. That is why nothing have caught on. Matroska's menu did not, what else would

It is a good idea to name clips, episodes using consecutive order, using dates: 2012.12.25_Christmas.mp4, 2012.12.31_New.Year.mp4 ... or numbers: 01_morning.mp4, 02_racing.mp4, 03_hospital.mp4, or TV series are using format S01E01_name.first.episode.mp4, S01E02_name.second.episode.mp4,.. etc., put those videos in well named folder. User will see nice menu on screen browsing for those videos. Yes, it is menu. Players will even play those clips, videos subsequently.

[manono]

I know I could reduce file size of an ISO using DVD Shrink (or similar tools) but the compression of MPEG-2 is nasty compared to using H.264. Obviously quality is lost either way, but if possible I was hoping for the better solution.

A much better solution is not to use DVD Shrink to reduce the size, but do a full reencode. Of course, the quality produced for the same size by x264 is better, but if all you know is Shrink then you don't know what really can be done with MPEG-2.

And you can keep your menus.

[seehazy]

_Al_: gotcha: You make a fair point and I would agree with you. Wanted to reduce file size of a DVD for my parents to put on their computer but they are into the embedded menus and stuff. Ended up just keeping full uncompressed ISO, not a big deal.

manono: Well that makes sense. I am only really familiar with DVD shrink for compressing DVD iso's. Do you have a suggestion? I may be using a program capable for this purpose just didn't know it.

DVD Shrink claims to use: "deep analysis before backup to improve quality" as well as "high adaptive error compensation." I mean, in order to shrink a DVD using the program, it would have to fully reencode it correct? What makes your potential suggestions or a different program better at MPEG-2 compression?

[manono]

DVD Shrink claims to use: "deep analysis before backup to improve quality" as well as "high adaptive error compensation." I mean, in order to shrink a DVD using the program, it would have to fully reencode it correct?

No, it transcodes which is way different from a full reencode. It's perhaps the best of the transcoders, but still a transcoder.

For the gory details about the differences, please read this and some of the followup posts:

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?&threadid=63587

Unless you're prepared to do the reencoding manually (from which you can conceivably get a better result if you know what you're doing), perhaps the best all-in-one DVD reencoding program is DVD-Rebuilder. You can remove the stuff you don't want (logos, warnings, extraneous languages and subtitles, extras) in DVD Shrink before sending it to Rebuilder. That way you don't waste valuable bits on stuff you don't want. And I don't believe it takes an ISO as input. Not sure.

[hello_hello]

Given your parents would be playing the video on a computer..... there's no way to familiarise them with using chapters for navigation rather than a menu as such? If the original DVD has chapters, they can be extracted and muxed into an MKV, or you can create your own, naming each appropriately etc. MKVMergeGUI has a chapter creator, but if I'm creating a chapters file from scratch generally I find it easier to start with a text file as a template and edit it accordingly. Something like this:

CHAPTER01=00:00:00.000
CHAPTER01NAME=This Is Chapter One
CHAPTER02=00:07:02.589
CHAPTER02NAME=This Is Chapter Two
CHAPTER03=00:11:59.344
CHAPTER03NAME=Chapter Three, Believe It Or Not
CHAPTER04=00:19:27.625
CHAPTER04NAME=Chapter Four
CHAPTER05=00:25:34.825
CHAPTER05NAME=The Chapter Following Chapter Four