o0RaidR0o
31st December 2002, 05:29
Hi fellow members, I would like too take this time too share what I have learned over the last 72hrs through trial and error and lots of coasters :)
Okay now for a list of the hardware players: AMD 1600+, 768mb DDR, Seagate 80gig 7200 HDD, Pioneer (A05U) 4X DVD-R/RW writer, Sony DAV-S300 (theatre system) and APEX 5131 stand-alone DVD players and CompUSA’s own brand of DVD-R blank media (I’ve learned that RITEK stamps most of the branded blanks, which I believe CompUSA’s name is one of). Before I bought my Poineer I first checked to see what media type my main stand-alone player (the Sony) was compatible with and although it isn’t officially listed I found that the DAV-S300 can play DVD-R’s and that helped me choose not only which format but which burner and that is how I came to choose the Pioneer DVD-R/RW instead of +.
I have read many articles prior to getting my Pioneer covering ripping, authoring and burning DVD’s. I downloaded or borrowed all the tools that were suggested by the articles in preparation. I won’t list every single piece of software, but just so that you get the gist here is a small listing: DVD2DVI, DVD DECYPTER, IMGTOOL, DVDMaestro, SMARTRIPPER, IfoEdit, ETC.
Anyhow like I said through a lot of trial and error I want to cut through the muster and share what absolutely works for my set-up.
We’ll start off by listing the necessary software and in the order that I use them: Smartripper, ReMPEG2 (with BirateCalc), IfoEdit, DVDMaestro, and PrimoDVD. I’m no expert by any means, this is strictly from a novice’s point of view.
When I load SmartRipper (take note of the movie length in the input window, title -> Program Chain -> Angle, you’ll be needing it when you use the birate calc) the only setting changes I have made is to reduce the max-filesize from 9000 to 8000, everything else is left at default. Since I’m only concerned with the main movie and nothing else i.e. subtitles, menu’s, etc., under the Stream Process tab the only items I have checked it the main movie which the first check-box, Audio English and others. When I do check these items on the right-hand side you will see ID=0xE0, the radio button Demux to extra file is checked for both the main movie and audio, others is left at default and then I start the rip process.
Once the ripping is complete I then run ReMPEG2 to reduce the size of my ripped files to fit DVD-5 standard blanks. Click on the Open button and select the file .m2v file that was created by SmartRipper. It is going to look at every single frame in the movie and the process will take 20mins or more. Once its done I then go to the options tab and check the following radio buttons: output resolution 720x480, frame mode match source, everything else is left at default, except of course the birate scale factor. This is where I use the HTML based BirateCalc to fit my DVD on to a DVD-5 blank, remember when I mentioned to take note of the movie length when you load your DVD in smartripper, this is where you need it, if you didn’t take note you can always go to http://www.imdb.com and look up the movie title and it will give you the length of the movie in actual runtime minutes. The fields that you will find when you run Biratecalc are as follows: Video Min, Audio Birate, Type, Advanced tab, depending on what type you choose, in this case DVD, the field will change with your selection describing how many DVD’s or CD’s x GB’s or Min’s, Calculated Average Birate in kbit/s, and again another field depending on type, DVD or CD Max Birate in kbit/s. yes you guessed it the field Video Min is where you are going to input the runtime mins, I use 384 for Audio Birates, type DVD of course, 1 x 4.37 and that is how I get my average birate. BTW I never use advanced mode, it isn’t necessary. Now let’s say your movie length is 158mins, with audio set to 384kbit/s then your average birate would be 3478. You then would slide your scale factor in ReMPEG2 to 3478 or closes to it. Now its been my experience to always scale less then your average birate in order to safely fit on a 4.7 DVD-5. so if my birate is 3478 then I would further scale down to about 3200 or there abouts. It would REALLY suck to have to do this again because it came out a few Megs to big.
After that go back to the main tab, and click encode, and give the new file a name. This is the longest part of the process, on my system and of course depending on the size of the movie it takes anywhere between 5 – 6hrs to encode. (for some reason the only cliché I experience with ReMPEG2 is that it will not freeze but simply not complete past 99%, however I manually cancel the process and even thought I am warned that it is still going it is actually finished) Once completed then you should have an .m2v file that is small enough too fit on a 4.37gig disc.
If you haven’t done so already create a permanent parent directory with the sub-dir’s AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS folders, keep it clean nothing else should be in here other then your final .ifo and .vob files that where created using IfoEdit in the VIDEO_TS dir. In other words you should have a working directory for all your steps until you create your final .ifo/vob files.
Now that you have finished encoding, run IfoEdit click on the Open button down at the bottom, and find the folder where Smartripper ripped all the files to. Open the VTS_01_0.IFO file. It will probably ask you if you want to make multiple files uppercase. It honestly doesn't matter if you say yes or no to those questions (I say no). Next double click on VTS_PGCITI, then highlight VTS_PGC_1, next select Tools, Save Cell times, Give it a name and save it to your working folder. Close and re-open IfoEdit select DVD Author, then select Author New DVD and a window will pop open with the following fields that will you’ll only be concerned with: Video: this where you add the .m2v file that ReMPEG2 created, Audio: the .ac3 file that smartripper created, Scene Changes/Chapters: where you will load the Cell times that you created with Ifo/Edit, Output Stream Destination: which you will point to the VIDEO_TS folder and then hit OK.
Now you will run DVDMaestro to create an .img file, go to Tools/Disc Image Creation, a Select Source (Title Set) Directory dialog box will pop-up, this is where you will point to the parent directory that contains your AUDIO_TS/VIDEO_TS folders and then hit OK. Another dialog box will pop-up with the following message: “No layout preference file (i.e. a file with a “.LAY” extension was found in the “VIDEO_TS” folder. If you choose to continue the layout, a neow preference file will be creat4ed with all parametets defaulted.” I confess I do not as of yet know how to create a layout file so just let DVD Maestro do it for me by hitting ok.
The next dialog box to appear will be the Disc Image Creation with the following fields, Tile Set Directory: use the browse button to point to the parent dir where your “AUDIO_TS/VIDEO_TS” folders are located, Output Destination has three fields, To Image File, to DLT Tape, to DVD-R/CD-R media. The “To Image File” is what you will use to browse to where you will create your .img file ( I would name it as the movie i.e. aliens.img), don’t put it in the same dir as your AUDIO_TS/VIDEO_TS folders. Then hit Create Disc Image.
Once .img file creation is complete you then run Prassi’s PrimoDVD (make sure you update your Px engine at Veritas site: http://www.prassieurope.com/), go to full application, hit the Global-Image or Other Image icon button, in the Disc Image File: field browse to the .img file. I’ll presume this will be first time you have burned a DVDMaestro made .img file using PrimoDVD and so I caution just this once first run a test and if everything checks out then record. Although it will be time consuming to run a test it is better to be safe then sorry, but like I said you only have to do it this once.
There you have it, I am able to rip/author/burn a compatible DVD-5 disc that will play on my stand-alones using low cost CompUSA blank media.
Good Luck.
Okay now for a list of the hardware players: AMD 1600+, 768mb DDR, Seagate 80gig 7200 HDD, Pioneer (A05U) 4X DVD-R/RW writer, Sony DAV-S300 (theatre system) and APEX 5131 stand-alone DVD players and CompUSA’s own brand of DVD-R blank media (I’ve learned that RITEK stamps most of the branded blanks, which I believe CompUSA’s name is one of). Before I bought my Poineer I first checked to see what media type my main stand-alone player (the Sony) was compatible with and although it isn’t officially listed I found that the DAV-S300 can play DVD-R’s and that helped me choose not only which format but which burner and that is how I came to choose the Pioneer DVD-R/RW instead of +.
I have read many articles prior to getting my Pioneer covering ripping, authoring and burning DVD’s. I downloaded or borrowed all the tools that were suggested by the articles in preparation. I won’t list every single piece of software, but just so that you get the gist here is a small listing: DVD2DVI, DVD DECYPTER, IMGTOOL, DVDMaestro, SMARTRIPPER, IfoEdit, ETC.
Anyhow like I said through a lot of trial and error I want to cut through the muster and share what absolutely works for my set-up.
We’ll start off by listing the necessary software and in the order that I use them: Smartripper, ReMPEG2 (with BirateCalc), IfoEdit, DVDMaestro, and PrimoDVD. I’m no expert by any means, this is strictly from a novice’s point of view.
When I load SmartRipper (take note of the movie length in the input window, title -> Program Chain -> Angle, you’ll be needing it when you use the birate calc) the only setting changes I have made is to reduce the max-filesize from 9000 to 8000, everything else is left at default. Since I’m only concerned with the main movie and nothing else i.e. subtitles, menu’s, etc., under the Stream Process tab the only items I have checked it the main movie which the first check-box, Audio English and others. When I do check these items on the right-hand side you will see ID=0xE0, the radio button Demux to extra file is checked for both the main movie and audio, others is left at default and then I start the rip process.
Once the ripping is complete I then run ReMPEG2 to reduce the size of my ripped files to fit DVD-5 standard blanks. Click on the Open button and select the file .m2v file that was created by SmartRipper. It is going to look at every single frame in the movie and the process will take 20mins or more. Once its done I then go to the options tab and check the following radio buttons: output resolution 720x480, frame mode match source, everything else is left at default, except of course the birate scale factor. This is where I use the HTML based BirateCalc to fit my DVD on to a DVD-5 blank, remember when I mentioned to take note of the movie length when you load your DVD in smartripper, this is where you need it, if you didn’t take note you can always go to http://www.imdb.com and look up the movie title and it will give you the length of the movie in actual runtime minutes. The fields that you will find when you run Biratecalc are as follows: Video Min, Audio Birate, Type, Advanced tab, depending on what type you choose, in this case DVD, the field will change with your selection describing how many DVD’s or CD’s x GB’s or Min’s, Calculated Average Birate in kbit/s, and again another field depending on type, DVD or CD Max Birate in kbit/s. yes you guessed it the field Video Min is where you are going to input the runtime mins, I use 384 for Audio Birates, type DVD of course, 1 x 4.37 and that is how I get my average birate. BTW I never use advanced mode, it isn’t necessary. Now let’s say your movie length is 158mins, with audio set to 384kbit/s then your average birate would be 3478. You then would slide your scale factor in ReMPEG2 to 3478 or closes to it. Now its been my experience to always scale less then your average birate in order to safely fit on a 4.7 DVD-5. so if my birate is 3478 then I would further scale down to about 3200 or there abouts. It would REALLY suck to have to do this again because it came out a few Megs to big.
After that go back to the main tab, and click encode, and give the new file a name. This is the longest part of the process, on my system and of course depending on the size of the movie it takes anywhere between 5 – 6hrs to encode. (for some reason the only cliché I experience with ReMPEG2 is that it will not freeze but simply not complete past 99%, however I manually cancel the process and even thought I am warned that it is still going it is actually finished) Once completed then you should have an .m2v file that is small enough too fit on a 4.37gig disc.
If you haven’t done so already create a permanent parent directory with the sub-dir’s AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS folders, keep it clean nothing else should be in here other then your final .ifo and .vob files that where created using IfoEdit in the VIDEO_TS dir. In other words you should have a working directory for all your steps until you create your final .ifo/vob files.
Now that you have finished encoding, run IfoEdit click on the Open button down at the bottom, and find the folder where Smartripper ripped all the files to. Open the VTS_01_0.IFO file. It will probably ask you if you want to make multiple files uppercase. It honestly doesn't matter if you say yes or no to those questions (I say no). Next double click on VTS_PGCITI, then highlight VTS_PGC_1, next select Tools, Save Cell times, Give it a name and save it to your working folder. Close and re-open IfoEdit select DVD Author, then select Author New DVD and a window will pop open with the following fields that will you’ll only be concerned with: Video: this where you add the .m2v file that ReMPEG2 created, Audio: the .ac3 file that smartripper created, Scene Changes/Chapters: where you will load the Cell times that you created with Ifo/Edit, Output Stream Destination: which you will point to the VIDEO_TS folder and then hit OK.
Now you will run DVDMaestro to create an .img file, go to Tools/Disc Image Creation, a Select Source (Title Set) Directory dialog box will pop-up, this is where you will point to the parent directory that contains your AUDIO_TS/VIDEO_TS folders and then hit OK. Another dialog box will pop-up with the following message: “No layout preference file (i.e. a file with a “.LAY” extension was found in the “VIDEO_TS” folder. If you choose to continue the layout, a neow preference file will be creat4ed with all parametets defaulted.” I confess I do not as of yet know how to create a layout file so just let DVD Maestro do it for me by hitting ok.
The next dialog box to appear will be the Disc Image Creation with the following fields, Tile Set Directory: use the browse button to point to the parent dir where your “AUDIO_TS/VIDEO_TS” folders are located, Output Destination has three fields, To Image File, to DLT Tape, to DVD-R/CD-R media. The “To Image File” is what you will use to browse to where you will create your .img file ( I would name it as the movie i.e. aliens.img), don’t put it in the same dir as your AUDIO_TS/VIDEO_TS folders. Then hit Create Disc Image.
Once .img file creation is complete you then run Prassi’s PrimoDVD (make sure you update your Px engine at Veritas site: http://www.prassieurope.com/), go to full application, hit the Global-Image or Other Image icon button, in the Disc Image File: field browse to the .img file. I’ll presume this will be first time you have burned a DVDMaestro made .img file using PrimoDVD and so I caution just this once first run a test and if everything checks out then record. Although it will be time consuming to run a test it is better to be safe then sorry, but like I said you only have to do it this once.
There you have it, I am able to rip/author/burn a compatible DVD-5 disc that will play on my stand-alones using low cost CompUSA blank media.
Good Luck.