What do I do next? How do I burn these files?

[jjordan]

I've read most of the guides on Doom9, searched and read everything I could find in the forum, and I'm still a little confused on how to do something. Everything seems to be geared to ripping commercial DVDs. I'm trying to do this with a DVD burnt from home video.

I made a DVD+R from two tapes of one hour each. I would like to make a copy of only one of those titles onto another DVD for someone else.

The question is, how do I rip only the one title and how do I burn it onto another DVD+R?

I used DVD Decrypter to rip only the one title. I now have a .BUP of 50k, .IFO of 50k and a .VOB of 1.4M. So far, so good. Now, accoding to the guides that I found, I should use DVD2AVI.

I used DVD2AVI to convert this to a .wav and a .m2v file.

Now what do I do with these files? No burning or editing software seems to be able to even select them as files to burn.

More important, I can't believe there isn't a simpler process than this. The DVD has no copy protection nor region codes on it. It was burnt by me.

After all, the files are already in the proper format for a DVD. Why should I have to do anything but rip and burn, without having to spent a lot of time to convert the VOB to something else. Isn't the VOB what is on the actual DVD? Why then can't I copy (rip) the VOB from one DVD and burn it to another. I know I have to setup the two directories properly, but if it's stored on the original DVD as a VOB, why then can't it just be burned to another DVD?

Any help would be appreciated. I'm open as far as any method to accomplish this.

Thanks

[killingspree]

hi and welcome to the forum
i think you can use the method described in this guide ifoedit main movie only guide (http://doom9.org/mpg/ifoedit-menustripping.htm).
it should provide you with enough information on how to accomplish your task...
another one would be this one: http://doom9.org/mpg/ifoedit-advanced.htm

hope this helps
steVe

[jjordan]

Thanks, killingspree (interesting handle),

I did look at this guide about a week ago, but it was a little over my head at the time and seemed WAY too complicated. Thanks for showing me the exact guide to try and follow.

I believe I can make it work based upon carefully following the instructions. I've read it twice so far, and it still hasn't quite sunk in.

BTW, why is it so complicated to do what I'm trying to do? I simply want to take one 'title' from one DVD and burn it to anohter?

When I rip it to my HD, isn't it already in the necessary format to simply store on another DVD?

As you can tell, I'm really a newbie at this. I just can't figure out why all these steps are necessary if I'm making an exact copy of 'some' data taken off one disk and want to copy it to another.

Why wouldn't I just copy this to another DVD? The only reason that I can think of is because it has to be burnt with a certain directory structure, but I would think that any burning software would handle that automatically.

I guess I'm trying to compare it with CDs. You rip one song from one CD and simply burn it to another. Clearly that thinking is wrong.

I've spent almost a week trying to figure out simple things like this and cant' seem to find 'simple' answers. It seems that this 'hobby' has grown up fast and everyone assumes that everyone else should be starting at their level. Even the 'simple' or 'beginers' guides are geared to copying commercial DVD, and not much out there on home burnned DVDs, not that there should be many differences.

If anyone would like to take a moment or two and see if they can help explain my misconceptions on why this shouldn't be simpler, I would really appreciate it.

[killingspree]

Originally posted by jjordan

I did look at this guide about a week ago, but it was a little over my head at the time and seemed WAY too complicated. Thanks for showing me the exact guide to try and follow.

you're welcome :) ... i know it seems complicated in the beginning. especially if the guide is not exactly dealing with yout topic (commercial <-> home made DVDs) i agree that this topic is not very well covered in the guides on doom9. still i guess this is going to come up in the near future anyway as more people are getting DVD burners and digi- cams.


BTW, why is it so complicated to do what I'm trying to do? I simply want to take one 'title' from one DVD and burn it to anohter?

this might interest you: http://doom9.org/dvd-structure.htm
it explains the file structure of a DVD and what each kind of file is used for...

When I rip it to my HD, isn't it already in the necessary format to simply store on another DVD?

yes, it is in the right format, you do not have to reencode it... (:
from the data contained within the vob files, you are perfectly ready for burning, but as you said below, dvds need to have a very strict file structure and a dvd player needs the right information on what it should do with the .vob files and it's content.
Therefor you have to create new .ifo files etc so that the dvd player (standalone or software) knows what it is dealing with. unlike normal music cds, the dvds need to have extra information beside the one which you want (audio, video, menu) so that a dvd player can read it. these files have to be created seperately for each DVD that does not resemble another one exactly.
it's another thing if you just want to do a 1:1 copy of your existing DVD. this is the easiest thing to do, especially with home mad DVDs as you'll never have a problem with size (can't be over 4,7 Gig) If you decide you'd just rather do this copy, there's of course a respective
guide (http://doom9.org/mpg/dvd5-backup.htm).

I would think that any burning software would handle that automatically.
Yes, indeed Nero can handle it, but i do not know how the results look like. so you can of course try it. just use the DVD profile in the Nero Wizard. anyway i personally wouldn't recommend it and if you try i'd recommend you first try it on a DVD - RW, rather than risking a coaster.

It seems that this 'hobby' has grown up fast and everyone assumes that everyone else should be starting at their level. Even the 'simple' or 'beginers' guides are geared to copying commercial DVD, and not much out there on home burnned DVDs, not that there should be many differences.
as you said there aren't too many differences. also you have to consider this sites history. the site started as a DVD backup community when DVD burners were not (or very rarely) available and for sure not affordable. so the focus of this site has been and hopefully will be to provide methods to backup your commercial DVDs. (if to Divx, SVCD or DVDR doesn't matter)
about the level of the guides: in comparison to the other guides that are around on the internet doom9's guides are very comprehensive and detailed. they assume only the most basic knownledge. it is difficult for everyone at the beginning although it has gotten a lot easier in the last few years (:

hope this helped a bit to get a basic understanding...
steVe

[jjordan]

Thanks, SteVe, for all your help.

The good news is that I DID finally burn the video that I wanted to and it came out great.

The not-so-good news is that the guide was (and still is) very confusing, even after I read it ten times and tried following it 4 times. I kept getting errors that I had no clue to what they meant. I just ignored them. I also found that I had to create different directories and move files around to get things to work. This wasn't mentioned in the guide, I just used the old trial and error method. Still not sure what I'm doing though.

If you, or anyone wants, I'll be glad to go through it again from the start and tell you where I got errors and what wasn't clear or what was missing.

I don't know if that would be be of any help, since I'm doing something that maybe the guide author didn't figure someone would do and because of the ripped structure of my home-made DVD, that confused everything.

One small question just to make sure I understand something. I used ImgTools 0.98 to create the final image.

1. It asked for a filename. Can that filename be ANYTHING?
2. What does it do with that filename? Where does it show up?
3. It assumed that the VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS were in the root directory of the selected drive. I copied my finished files to those directories like the help file said to do. Is that right?

I really am trying to study the structure and make sense of it, but I'm not sure I understand this part.

The original disk had a very basic menu, with thumbnails of the two titles that I recorded. When I used DVD Decrypter to rip the first title, is it possible to get some type of menu and thumbnail ripped also or do I have to use an authoring tool to create those myself to be addes to my new DVD? The new DVD that I created had no menu and went right into the 'play' mode and started playing the video.

The reason of the confusion is that I don't understand at what step I need to use a program like Ulead DVD Studio or DVDit to create my menus, etc. When I tried to use those initially, I couldn't load any of the ripped files in any program, in order to work on them to create a complete DVD.

I've looked at a coulple of guides, but they all assume that you have captured video and are building a DVD from that.

Any help on what to do or where to find the answers would be greatly appreciated.

[killingspree]

Originally posted by jjordan
Thanks, SteVe, for all your help.

The good news is that I DID finally burn the video that I wanted to and it came out great.
great... :D


The not-so-good news is that the guide was (and still is) very confusing, even after I read it ten times and tried following it 4 times. I kept getting errors that I had no clue to what they meant. I just ignored them.

not so great ... i mean i understand that the guide is confusing to you. maybe you want to first try it on a commerical DVD just for practice and then try on your home made DVD.
another thing: please do not ignore errors. they usually do not pop up without a reason. if you do not understand why they are occuring or what they mean, please post in the apporpriate forum and ask for help (: (try to search the internet, FAQs and forum first of course as most likely somebody else already had the same problem)

If you, or anyone wants, I'll be glad to go through it again from the start and tell you where I got errors and what wasn't clear or what was missing. go ahead... post your questions errors etc... but please do the required reading first!

I don't know if that would be be of any help, since I'm doing something that maybe the guide author didn't figure someone would do and because of the ripped structure of my home-made DVD, that confused everything. i don't think so... perhaps the author didn't have in mind. but any author seldomly had every usage for a guide in mind. but i'm not too experienced in the whole dvd 2 dvdr scene either as i do not have a dvd burner (yet)... anyway... there's enough members around that will be able to help you for sure!


1. It asked for a filename. Can that filename be ANYTHING?
2. What does it do with that filename? Where does it show up?
3. It assumed that the VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS were in the root directory of the selected drive. I copied my finished files to those directories like the help file said to do. Is that right?

1) yes... i think so... this would only be a filename for the image file. therefore not relevant for any further process. (the same way as the filename of a word document doesn't affect the content either)
2) see 1...
3)do not exactly understand what you did... i thought you created an image with imgtool?!? if you did so, this sould be ready to burn, no further action needed... (plese correct me if i misunderstood something there)

is it possible to get some type of menu and thumbnail ripped also or do I have to use an authoring tool to create those myself to be addes to my new DVD? The new DVD that I created had no menu and went right into the 'play' mode and started playing the video. well if you just reauthor the DVD with ifoedit and imgtool it might work to use the existing menu (should be in a seperate vob file like vts_xx_0.vob). chances that it does not work are pretty good though so it would probably be smarter to redo a basic menu.
but since you only have a single clip on that dvd i doubt it would be worth the time to do a menu. at least i would see no reason to do so as you most likely do not have selectable subtitles or more than one audio file either...


The reason of the confusion is that I don't understand at what step I need to use a program like Ulead DVD Studio or DVDit to create my menus, etc. When I tried to use those initially, I couldn't load any of the ripped files in any program, in order to work on them to create a complete DVD.

i do not have any experience with those programs but in my eyes you should be able to load the .m2v and the .wav file into these programs. you should be able to load these and then author the menu/ dvd structure right away. but as i said i only have experience with Scenarist NT

oh and if you see a guide that deals with captured material that should be brought to DVD you should be able to use those too: just seek for the point when the audio and the video is all prepared and encoded to the right formats! afterwards you should be able to just follow these guides using your file!

hope this helped
steVe