Anyone Ripped This Movie?

[TenaciousJP]

Hey, friends!

There's a movie that I've been wanting, but it's terribly expensive. This movie is "Seven Samurai: Criterion Collection."

I know for sure that the movie is dual-layer, since the movie is 3+ hours long. There aren't many special features on the disc, so the movie would be a huge number of gigs. I'm wondering this:

Is there any way to copy this movie onto DVD-R? The only things I would care about keeping are the original Japanese language track, and English Subtitles.

Would I have to re-encode the movie? If so, how could I do it, while keeping the Japanese track and the English subtitles? I remembering hearing about a program called ReMPEG, or something like that, but I heard that that can take up to 24 hours, while TMPGEnc only takes up to 6 hours.

I was thinking about re-encoding the movie using TMPGEnc, but I don't remember reading anything about it supporting Dolby Digital sound and removable subtitles.

However, I have heard about people being able to extract the AC3 track (don't know if they could extract the subtitle track, too?), and re-encode the video only, and then join the video and audio in an authoring program such as SpruceUp.

For all I know, the ripped movie could fit on a DVD-R, but I haven't access to the disc, and I seriously doubt a 3 hour movie could fit on a single-layer disc without re-encoding.

Thanks for reading this long post, and thanks in advance for any help that can be provided. I really appreciate it, friends. Thanks!

-J.P.

[drewson99]

just use the standard rip->frameserve->reencode method, it'll fit on a dvd-r no prob and it'll look good. If you want subtitles good luck, go read doom9 guides but good luck getting them to work properly without wasting god knows how much time and dvds. in that case I would just buy the movie.

[wkc]

LOL, I agree with drewson99 on the subtitle part.

I use Spruce's DVDMaestro for authoring. In the low tech way (read not using IFOedit or Remux):

STEP I (copy DVD to your HD):
Smartrip the entire DVD to your harddrive using the backup or file method. So that you don't have any encrytion and faster access for the following steps.

STEP II (get the video and audio files):
1) Smartrip the video and ANY one of the audio that you DO NOT want into a single VOB file. Also use Smartrip to demux the audio channel that you want into a seperate file (preserved in AC3 format).
2) Transcode the VOB file using TMPEGenc using the DVD template but with 352x480 resolution. I would use VBR 2 pass and high quality. It'll take about 10 hours to transcode. (Why do i want an audio channel to go with the VOB even I already have the AC3 audio file? It's for keeping the video in-sync with the audio.)
3) demux the transcoded 352x480 mpg file and just take the video part (.m2v)

Now you have a small enough video file (probably about 3GB) and a nice AC3 audio file.

STEP III: Subtitles - Use SubRip:

1) File, Open VOB.
2) "Open IFO" and select the VTS_01_0.VOB.
3) Only check the VOB files that's related to the movie. Usually it starts from the first 1GB file (VTS_01_1.VOB)
4) Language stream: English
5) Action: Save SubPictures As BMP
6) Last TimeCode 0 0 0 0
7) Start
8) Pick a directory and type in any filename, "Save"
9) This is the hard part and it's still a trial-and-error for me. Start with the Preset of Maestro, "OK". (Note the "Colors order in the original DVD". You MAY need to adjust those later.)
When it's done,
10) Select Output Fomat, Set output format, and pick Spurce DVDMaestro (*.son). (Note the 4 Contrast numbers here with 15s and 0s. You'll need to adjust those later.)
11) "Convert to this format"
12) File, "Save As", give it a name and this is the filename when you import the subtitle into DVDMaestro.

STEP IV: Authoring in DVDMaestro.

I'm not going into detail on the authoring part, but just a few notes on the subtitle one. First import the video and audio tracks, then right click on the subtitle track to import the subtitle. Double click on any particular subtitle block and you'll notice the odd color and some of the incorrect non-transparency and transparency. Write down the color and the transparency you have there THEN adjust that one frame with the correct color and transparency. Write it down. Ok, now you've only adjusted ONE subtitle frame among the entire track.

To adjust the color for the entire subtitle track, go into another subtitle block that still have the wrong color. Instead of changing the color, "Edit Palatte" and adjust the color there.

To adjust the transparency, look back STEP III #10. Adjust the 15s and 0s to corresponse to the correct transparency. Save the .son file. Reimport the .son and check again. Trial-and-Error.

If somehow your entire picture's transparency attached to your subtitle's transparency and you couldn't find a way to correct it in the above step, you have to re-extract the subtitle again doing the ENTIRE STEP III. Adjust the "Colors order in the original DVD" in #9 there. This does not happen often but it has happened to me.

Good luck.

[TenaciousJP]

Thanks for the help!

Looks like a tough deal with those subs.

I'll try this during the weekend.

-J

[TenaciousJP]

Another thought...

Is there any way to make a video stream, with the English subtitles permanently on (part of the video stream)? The subtitles don't have to be removable. As long as they are on the video in some way, I'm satisfied.

Once again, thanks for the help!

-J

[pccfm]

I just backup "Blade2". Its about 2 hours movie and 8GB when you rip to hard drive.

I am using Flask with LSX-plgin 2.1(like SVCD or VCD converting method).
set to 5000-3000 VBR. (It will take about 4 hours for reencording on my P4 1.4)

Demux and import to DVDMaestro.

Use subrip and correcting time(around 7~9 sec delaying)
I dont know why people has subtile sysn problem .....

Get chapter..

Then Voila

One thing that when I back up my DVD, I dont use any fancy stuffs..
like title, menu....

Just put in and play movie.