How to make a perfect DVD-R copy!

[phoney]

This tip goes for all DVDs where the main title is less than 4.2 GB.
"Then So what?" you may think, "it's just to extract the m2v and the ac3 and put it together in DVD SP or another authoring app"
But then you don't get the additional languages, the subtitles or the chapters (even if chapters are quite easy to regenerate).

1. rip the DVD as "DVD folder" with OSeX
2. in the dvd folder, look for the files that contain the main movie, and throw away eveything else. The main movie is the set of VOBs that are 1 GB and then one last of less than 1GB, and the corresponding IFO and BUP file. In my case it was VTS_02_0.BUP, VTS_02_0.IFO, VTS_02_(0-4).VOB.
3. Rename the files so that they are named VTS_01... instead of the old number (VTS_02... in my case)
4. use tocgen to generate new VIDEO_TS.BUP and VIDEO_TS.IFO files.
tocgen is a part of dvdauthor project at sourceforge and comes with MMT 0.9.1 for example. Copy the tocgen executable to your VIDEO_TS folder and run the command from there, something like this:
cp ~/Desktop/tocgen ~/myDVD/VIDEO_TS/tocgen
cd ~/myDVD/VIDEO_TS/
./tocgen ~/myDVD/VIDEO_TS/

when it's ready, remove the tocgen file:
rm ~/myDVD/VIDEO_TS/tocgen


There may be more than one way to do this, but this was my first attempt, and it was successful, so I thought I'd share it.

[pants]

hey,

how do you do this, "Copy the tocgen executable to your VIDEO_TS folder"? and where is the tocgen executable? do you access this through the mmt gui or somewhere else?

thanks

pants

[polopo43]

If the DVD is more than 4,2 Gb isn't it possible to compress the .VOBs to a smaller size and then use your trick to keep the chapters, subtitles etc... ?

One other question: Is there a way to keep menus as well ?

Thanks answering me.

P.S.:
Wouldn't it be great to have this integrated in ffmpegX 0.0.x ?
Thanks for all the work you are all doing.
Polopo

[phoney]

If the DVD is more than 4,2 Gb isn't it possible to compress the .VOBs to a smaller size and then use your trick to keep the chapters, subtitles etc... ?

One other question: Is there a way to keep menus as well ?

Generally, there is no easy way to copy a 4.2+GB dvd... I wish that you could easily "compress the .VOBs" but it's not quite that simple as it involves demuxing it all, recompressing at lower rate etc, and the for the re-muxing there is no good solution to bring it all together again, as it was on the DVD, with chapters, subs etc.

The other question: I'm sure there is I just don't know about it... Well, you could always use a PC...

[phoney]

how do you do this, "Copy the tocgen executable to your VIDEO_TS folder"? and where is the tocgen executable?

I forgot to say in my "mini How-To" that some basic knowledge about the Terminal is required. I cut some corners in the explanation, yes I know... Obviously this wasn't clear enough:
cp ~/Desktop/tocgen ~/myDVD/VIDEO_TS/tocgen
cd ~/myDVD/VIDEO_TS/
./tocgen ~/myDVD/VIDEO_TS/

I guess you could also do the first step in the Finder. Here is how:
Since I take it that you are not the kind of guy that downloads source code and compiles yourself, we better start with readymade program files: open your folder containing MMT 0.9.1 or a recent build of ffmpegX. control-click on the application file and select ""show package contents". Navigate down to Contents > Resources. There you will find tocgen among the other files. Copy that file to the folder named VIDEO_TS that contains the VOBs you want to burn.
Then open Terminal in your Utilities folder in the Applications folder.
Then write this: (assuming that you have your VIDEO_TS folder in a folder called myDVD in your home folder)
cd ~/myDVD/VIDEO_TS/
./tocgen ~/myDVD/VIDEO_TS/

get it?

[polopo43]

[/quote]
Generally, there is no easy way to copy a 4.2+GB dvd... I wish that you could easily "compress the .VOBs"
([/quote]
ffmpegX can do this, if you choose Author as DVD... or am I wrong ?

[phoney]

yes

[CJ of FL]

If the movie is small enough to fit, I just drag the video_ts folder onto DVD Backup. When finished, I throw away the vob's that aren't the movie and burn the remainder with Toast. Everything will be the same as on the original dvd, but the special features won't work.

[Nhoj]

Is there a quick & easy way to tell which VOB files are part of the film, and which are the extra features?

[phoney]

The movie is usually a set of 1 GB (or 1023.9 MB) large VOB files (the last one is of course not neccesarily 1 full GB), while the extras are smaller.
This is of course no 100% indication but true for most movies.
You could also try with vlc and browse through the different titles, i would guess that the title number corresponds to the VOB file name

[schmeg]

Thanks for this tip, Phoney. It's the perfect solution for a lot of my disks, where I just want the movie to start up without all of the other grunge. Saves hauling into DVDSP. Neat.

[jefwest]

west ponders if tocgen, when put in his lotr two towers sizzle generated video_ts folder...will generate a bup with the ability to fast forward/skip tracks......rubs his hands together evilly............let's out evil laugh.....