Merging two DVDs into one.

[minaust]

Okay, here's what I want to do:
I have a movie that came on three discs – part 1, part 2, special features. The longest version of the movie would (by my calculations, barely) fit on one DL disc if I cut out the subtitles & all but the main audio track. Changing discs during a movie is like having my old laserdisc back.

What I've done so far:
Rip both discs using DVD Decrypter in IFO mode; feed all ten vobs to DGIndex, save project & demux video (honoring pulldown flags). So now I have a 7.49 gb .m2v file and a 626 mb .ac3 audio track.

Am I on the right track, and what do I need to get them back to DVD file structure? I want to do this with zero transcoding.

[Stereodude]

Laugh if you want, but I'd dust off DVD Shrink and use Re-author mode. You can point it at disc 1 select its movie, then add the movie from disc 2 and have it spit out a set of files ready to burn with ImgBurn.

[setarip_old]

@Stereodude

Hi!

The only trouble with your suggestion is that, IIRC, DVD Shrink does NOT handle layer breaks properly...

[Stereodude]

Won't ImgBurn take that of that when you build it?

[alfixdvd]

Dvd2one can do.

1. Press button: Make a movie-only copy or join multiple movies titles
2 Select VIDEO_TS folder of first movie.
3 Press button ++ : Add a seamless title
4 Select VIDEO_TS folder of second movie.
5 Press button ++ : Add a seamless title
6 Select VIDEO_TS folder of thirde movie.
7 Press de Green Button: Start processing

The three titles will joined in one title.

[minaust]

Won't ImgBurn take that of that when you build it?

ImgBurn CAN but not necessarily will. You have to provide ImgBurn with cell boundaries in the appropriate sector range. If you don't have any, you'll get an error message prefaced with:

“Now would be a good time to start crying, because technically, this is the end of the world.” I love Lightning UK!'s sense of humor. :)

I ended up authoring my work (which was good as far as it went) with DVD Lab Pro with no chapters, and you need to have chapters in the layer break range. A layer break must be on cell boundaries, and chapters in the right place make that happen.

So I'm re-ripping the DVDs, only this time I'm having DVD Decrypter output the chapter info. Amazing what a little homework will turn up....

[minaust]

Dvd2one can do.


As I originally posted, no transcoding. Any way, I got it done, but I had to do a lot of research first.

Load all vobs into DGIndex.

Save project and demux video. Resulting video files had open gops, but that could be dealt with.

Author with your favorite DVD authoring app, making sure to have chapters in the layer break region. DVD lab pro shows you that on the timeline. Dunno about other apps.

Burn with ImgBurn.

Simple, as it turns out. ;)

[Chetwood]

Both DVD2One and DVD Shrink do not transcode on merge when you set the target size accordingly.

[minaust]

Both DVD2One and DVD Shrink do not transcode on merge when you set the target size accordingly.

Then I might try one or the other on my next project. I might even experiment with it it now, as I haven't deleted the vobs yet.

[Ghitulescu]

So now I have a 7.49 gb .m2v file and a 626 mb .ac3 audio track.

Am I on the right track, and what do I need to get them back to DVD file structure? I want to do this with zero transcoding.

Even IfoEdit can remux them into a valid DVD (do however a Get VTS sectors once more :)) - supposingly this is what you want when you say a DVD file structure ;)