New to DVD-backup, need help

[DataChief]

A brand new Sparkle/SPI 350watt power supply went bad on me and fried 2 motherboards (never suspected the PSU until trying it on a diff mobo). I'm still waiting for my replacement RMA mobos to arrive. For now, im stuck on a P3-700 running XP pro (i hate XP too, i use win2k on all of my own systems)

I have a Pioneer DVD-106 and DVR-104 installed on this box. I have Nero 5.5.9.9 and don't mind buying/etc/installing other software if needed. I have DVD Decrypter, infoedit, and numerous other apps.

I bought a 25 pack of meritline DVD-Rs (dark purple bottoms) because they were highly recommended on here. The package came and a bunch of the discs were scratched, so meritline sent me a label to send em in and get em replaced. Anyway, back to my actual problem. Just wanted to give a little background on my shitty temporary setup.


For my very first DVD backup attempt, I used DVD Decrypter to rip the files onto a hard drive. That went perfectly. The files were renamed of course, but I left them like that. I then used Nero 5.5.9.9, chose "DVD-ROM UDF/ISO", and copied the files I thought would make it happen.

The DVD I was trying to backup is Blade II. Even with the directories and everything setup and seemingly perfect, the DVD doesn't work in any players. I chose no multisession, UDF 1.02, took out the silly labels and just put in "BLADE2" like the original has, etc.

I probably did this wrong, but according to other people I've talked to that was all I had to do. The Blade II DVD is shown to be 7.29GB. It has a silver bottom, so I thought it was DVD5 or whatever.

I tried making an image with InfoEdit by removing VOBs 5-8 (so the size would be OK). InfoEdit gives an error saying C:\windows\command.com isn't a command line interpreter. I don't know what else to do right now, so I finally worked up the courage to make a post on here. I figured you guys might be willing to help me out a little.

I have no problem admitting im a n00b to DVD backup and stuff like this. Hell, I haven't even ripped any divx files yet. I have like 100 DVDs and I'm itching to do so once I have the time to mess with it. For now, I just REALLY want to make use of this expensive DVD burner. My brother doesn't take care of CDs/DVDs at all, and I would like to have backups just in case (he's scratched discs so badly that even data dr can't repair after multiple uses)

I've tried finding how to make backups already. I've read over 50 threads on these forums and so far haven't found what I need. If you can give me some good info to get me started, I would appreciated it greatly. Once I find out what tools to use and ways to get around these problems, I should be OK.


Thanks ahead of time, peace

[hoops10]

You said: "The Blade II DVD is shown to be 7.29GB. It has a silver bottom, so I thought it was DVD5 or whatever."

You answered your own question, if the original dvd is 7.29 gbs, then it will not fit onto a dvd-r unless you strip/encode it. I have done Blade II and know that you must encode it becuase the main movie vobs are too big to fit onto a dvd-r by themselves. Follow the CCE/IFOEdit guide on Doom9's site and you shouldn't have any problems.

I don't remember if this movie has mulitple PGC's or not.

[DataChief]

ok, im checking that guide out right now.

what about for movies that are under 4.7GB and *could* fit on one DVD-R easily?

Do I rip the DVD with DVD Decrypter, then use InfoEdit to try to create an image? InfoEdit hasn't been able to create an image for me yet because of that CLI error it gives me.

Thanks for your reply, hoops

[DataChief]

Quick follow-up:

So you are saying that ANY DVD video that has over ~4.5GB of VOB files CAN'T be backed-up without re-encoding the video stream and thus reducing the quality of the video?

I really wanted to just make a nice exactly digital backup of all my DVDs, even if it requires using multiple DVD-R discs for one movie.

Thanks for the help!

[Artur]

Hello, you have 2 ways of doing it. Re-enconde or split.
Re-encode using the guide http://www.doom9.org/mpg/maestro2.htm
Split using the guide http://www.doom9.org/mpg/ifoedit-2dvdrs.htm

[DataChief]

thx for the links, Artur.

They kinda load weird tho, it seems much of the guide is missing.

Anyway, I was trying what it said and stinkin winxp gives an error every time. I get to the part where you pick the point to split at and after that, windows gives an error. I really hate XP, I guess im gonna hafta take it off and install 2k on this machine. Sigh, inconvenience.

[klona]

Yes. It's clearly a DVD copy/authoring topic. It should be asked in the authoring forum, as the burning ones is purely related to burning issues, when data are ready to be burned.

To answer anyway, just rip your DVD5 with dvddecrypter all files (in file mode) to your HD. Then, use Ifoedit to apply a "Get VTS sectors".
Your files are ready to burn. You can create an image, from ifoedit or not, using IMGTools.
You can also, before burning, change the First Jump comand to avoid FBI warnings and remove user's prohibition, but it's not needed to work.

Please check guides, everything is inside.
Please consider this topic as closed here and redo a post in the correct forum if needed