IfoEdit 0.95 and CCE: new simple guide to remux CCE

[emistral]

It has been probably described in different threads here and there but this mini guide is the conclusion I came to after reading many and many guides/threads
We all know that unfortunately remux does not work in Ifoedit with CCE m2v files (big audio sync problem)
First I did not want to reauthor the DVD. What's the point of saving time in reencoding and wasting time in reauthoring ! (apart of CCE quality)

for this guide I will use The mummy movie. I wanted to keep the whole structure (extra, etc...)

The tools I need are:
- Dvddecrypter
- IfoEdit 0.95
- VodEdit
- ReMpeg
- DVD2AVI
- VFapi converter
- CCE 2.64

The procedure is as follows:
- rip the whole content of the movie (if you want to keep the extra) or only the movie
- load the main VOB file for the movie (VTS_02_xx in the case of the mummy)
- use ifoedit to strip any unwanted subtitles, audio tracks, etc... for the main movie but for the extra as well if you wish
- once it is done, create a CFFL file for the main movie to be used with Rempeg (you can do the same with extra if you wish to reencode them)
- Open Rempeg and load the CFFL file
- wait until it is finished and write down the length of the movie and the average bit rate (you can do that for any extra if you wnat to reencode them). I use Rempeg to give me just an indication of these 2 parameters. I am pretty sure there are other softwares that could do that in a cleaner way but I have had a chance to look deeper in the guide
- use the formula described in the ReMpeg doom9 guide to recalculate the size of the movie by taking into account the extras (I have a very simple excel spreadsheet to do that if anybody is interested). This will give you the new bitrate to reencode the movie (basically the % calculated using doom9 guide for rempeg X the average bit rate given by rempeg). Write down this number
- open DVD2AVI and load the first vob of the movie or the extra you want to reencode. Set up the parameters as described in the different guides you will find on doom9 and save the project. This will create a d2v file and an AC3 file which shows the delay in ms in the file name of the audio track.
- close DVD2AVI when it is finised and open VFapi converter. Load the d2v file (click add job and choose your d2v file) and press convert (it will convert the d2v file into something CCE can understand)
- open CCE. In the window, right click and choose add. Select the file generated by VFapi converter.
- click on the file in the list, then right click and choose edit
- This is where you are setting your encoding parameters. I choose CBR and the bit rate is the one you have jusat calculate above. I am not really familiar yet with CCE so I am pretty sure that there might be other encoding method such as VBR but my main concern was to predict the file size. Using CBR, the file size is roughly the one calculated previously
- click encode and wait (usually 2h for a 2 hours movie at a bit rate of 4900kbps)
- now this is where the interesting part lies. Once decoding is finished open ifoedit and follow the guide on doom9 "how to author a DVD with ifodedit". You will need vodedit for this part
- once the DVD authoring process is over, you should end up with a new set of VOB files and VIDEO_TS files which contains the movie. If you play these files with powerdvd or any other dvd player, you will notice that the video and audio are in perfect sync.
- but what we want is the complete movie. By default Ifoedit always assign the video title set to 1 when authoring but it might be the case where your movie in the whole dvd structure is not in VTS_01 but in VTS_02 or other ones. In that case rename the new VTS files with the corresponding number (for instance for the mummy, the main movie is in title set 2 while ifoedit names the output vob files VTS_01. So I changed all VTS_01_xx authored by ifoedit with VTS_02_xx )
- Then copy or move ONLY these VOB files (ifoedit will also generate IFO and BUP files but don't bother) in a tempory directory and also move or copy the entire DVD structure (except the VOB files of the main movie or the extra you have just reencoded) you have ripped in the same directory. You should have now a complete DVD structure with all the extras that will fit on a single DVD-R
- Reopen Ifoedit and load the VIDEO_TS file from the temporary directory
- Make it region free and DO NOT FORGET to press GET VTS
- Your DVD is ready to burn


It looks a little bit long like that but once you know how to use all these softwares, it is pretty quick. The longest part being the stripping of unwanted audio and subtitles and the reencoding

So far using this method, I have managed to burn 10 DVDs keeping these extra if they are at a reasonable size or only the movie. The picture is clear even with a CBR of 3000kbps and all the structure is kept

So I hope these mini guide will help some other like you and me who are frustated of reauthroing or not being able to use their CCE m2v file.
I am not an expert so if there is an expert who can spot a mistake or something that could go wrong, let me know

[dwisniski]

I believe there's only one glitch with that method; the chapter points will not line up correctly with the original ifo files. I just stared using CCE instead of ReMPEG because I was unhappy with the quality of the latter, and could not get the chapters to line up correctly. I used the guide for re-authoring with DVD Maestro from Doom9, changed the names of the new .vob files to whatever the originals were numbered, replaced the original .vobs, and everything worked great. You can keep all the menu's and extras, and the chapter selection points worked perfectly.

[Myth(GJ)]

Dwinski,

When you moved the VOBs from Maestro back into the original movie set, am I correct in saying you did NOT move the IFO files created by Maestro?
Would this not also give you the same chapter problems? I am working on this method myself at the moment but normally copy across the IFO files also.

Do you use IFOUpdate at the end?

Thanks,
G.J.