Some ideas and questions for DVD backups using just CDs

[marc_albero]

Hi everybody.

I didn't find a forum section fitting this one, so I tried this section since the thread is trying to improve backup techniques.

I have thought that there must be lots of people doing real DVD backups using more or less 10 700MB CDs to store all the BOBs and IFOs. This is both good and cheap, as the wonderful AV quality of the original DVD is preserved and the required amount of CDs isn't expensive at all. Moreover, you will be able to burn the files to a DVD when DVD raw media and DVD burners become real affordable.

Backups with newer codecs are fine but the quality loss is unavoidable. The previous method would be thought for those who have paid for quality and still want quality.

If you backup the whole DVD in CDs, you need a partitioning tool like WinRAR or WinZIP. This allows you to restore the original files on the HD from the parts on the CDs. You therefore need up to 8GB on HD in order store the movie and play it from there. This takes a lot of space, but it is not much of a problem with nowadays' HD drives.

The problem is that you have to do a restore from 10 CDs onto the HD, which takes an eternity, even with the fastest CD drives available.

The alternative is DVD copying, which is much more expensive (DVD roh media is expensive, and also is the DVD recorder). We are talking about very cheap backups.

My question: is there any ZIP tool in the market that allows to restore a file partitioned in several volumes from more than one volumes at the same time? I mean: I have a big file partitioned in 3 CDs (3 volumes). Since I have 3 CD drives installed in my PC, I lay each backup CD on each drive. I hit the restore button, and all three drives start to transfer data onto the correct offset in the target file, which is created on the HD. This would divide the restore time by 2 or 3. As far as I know, all zip tools proceed sequentially.

So: is there some tool like that in the market, or is it impossible because of the ZIPping algorithm?

[mustaneekeri]

IMHO it's crazy to back up ur DVDs to to CDs preserving original .VOBs. It might be not as expencive as backing up to DVD-R(am), but IMHO it's crazy. Why don't u just make a backup from original DVD when DVD writers and disks come more afordable?
I think this segmented unzipping could be done, but no one has made app for that, since it's needed wery rarely. And only could be useful when unzipping from slower source than HD, and u would need more than 1 of those sources. U have this situation, but i think not many of us do.

[spyder]

Not crazy, I have thought about doing this with my most precious DVD. If the DVD were to get scratched or ruined, I could always remaster with DVD-R when I get a burner. There is no other way to preserv 100% quality and still have the option of standalone playback. Note that this isn't an easy process and as he said it takes many CDs. Few DVDs can just be restored to a DVD-R however. Space limits this.

[UGAthecat]

why not just use smartripper to do a movie only backup and have it split the output vobs at 700mb?
I tested this once and was even able to play back the individual 700mb files with no errors, each had between 15 -22 mins on them.
anyway, because the movie by itself was 8 discs i just ripped it to divx, but it was nice to see the 700mb chunks playing properly.

[marc_albero]

YEAH!

I didn't remember that feature of Smartripper! I will try this! Many thanks. But tell me first: could it be possible to play directly from the CD's or you must transfer all the files to a directory on HD? Anyway and considering that I will have to deal with the inverse process when restoring to a (big) DVD-R, is there any tool to join/split VOBs to whatever size you want (but still keeping playability, from HD or CDs)?

Greetings,
Marc

[marc_albero]

I have just discovered DVTools (see DVD tools in the download zone of doom9.org). It can merge all VOBs of your DVD and them split them to the size you want, and without temporal files. The files work perfect. No feature is lost (as it should be always).

Now comes the playback problem: there is the possibility to transfer all 10 or 11 CDs to HD before playback. It needs a lot of free space and at least 1 hour to transfer all (I have 2 CD drives)... It can be considered since I use to have always space enough for that on my HD.

My concern is the time needed to transfer files. If you feel like "In one hour is dinner time and I'd like to watch Amadeus while I have dinner, so let's start the transfer now". Once all is transfered, you don't have to bother with changing CDs every each 12 minutes. You could also reduce the transfer time if you transfer, say 6 VOBs, let the 7th and 8th transfer, and after one and a half hour you order the transfer of the last 2 VOBs. That's no bother, really!

But you are not always in that mood. Sometimes you want to watch the film and you wanna do it NOW!! Then you could consider not to transfer the VOBs but changing the CDs as needed. THE PROBLEM IS: is there any DVD player for desktop PC that can play VOBs from CDs, looking for the VOBs in the CD drives as he needs them ???
(if you seek forwards into the film, it asks for the VOB needed if it doesn't find them in any of the CD drives).

I am thinking of something similar to the ini files of BSPLayer, which lead the player by looking for the next CD or the CD it needs. Maybe there is some good DVD player that provides that. Even a commercial one, which you have to pay for.

[predatorian]

I'm not an expert for this kind of business, but i think Powerdvd is capable of doing the job. Make a playlist where you add the several vob files. Only problem, it is limited by the amount of cd drives you have. Hope this is not a complete stupid answer, just trying to help.

Predatorian

[marc_albero]

If you just read VOBs in PowerDVD, you don't get either subtitles or chapters or audio streams. You need read IFO file.

Any other suggestion?