how to backup an episodic dvd with dvd2svcd

[pierad]

i'm a newbie and i need help please.i think this question has been asked lot of times before.but i can't find the answer even though i,ve done a lot of search.when i'm trying to back up the simpsons season 3 or season 2 with dvs2svcd it only reads the first episode (about 22 min)instead of the 120 min that all the dvd is.what should i do to be able to back up the whole dvd and thanks in advance.

[Nick]

In all honesty DVD2SVCD is not ideally suited to this task. You would have to re-encode episodes individually (you will be able to select which episode you convert from the Movie Length dropdown box in the conversion tab. However, you would have to set the disc size each time to the capacity of your DVDR divided by the total number of episodes, to encode each one to the correct size. Other than that there are ways of joining the ripped episodes together and converting as one, but you would still need to create your own menu and/or chapter stops. Either way you would then you would have to author the DVD manually.

Albeit at the expense of quality, the Compressed Domain Transcoding tools such as DVD Shrink or DVD2One, are far more suited to this type of backup.

[pierad]

well thanks a lot for the info.
could you please show me how to join all the episodes in one.reauthoring them with chapter points is no problem for me i can do it.
thanks

[Nick]

1. Start DVD2SVCD as normal on the first episode by selecting the normal IFO file.
2. Make sure ripping is checked
3. Select Rip only on the GO button drop down and rip each ep to serperate directories. You can select which episode you are ripping from the "movie length" dropdown box.
4. Rename the second set of VOB files so that their file names are the same as the first set of vobs, but numbered sequentially one number higher then the first set of VOB's...(EX. VTS_01_03.VOB(highest first set), VTS_01_04.VOB(new lowest second set)
5. Move the second set of VOB files to where the first set is and you can now delete the second directory.
6. Repeat this step with remainder of episodes, numbering each set of VOBs sequentially upwards from the previous episode and moving to the Episode 1 directory. Eventually you should end up with all your VOB's in the Episode 1 directory with 1 ifo file, with all other folders deleted.
7. Start DVD2SVCD and uncheck ripping.
8. Select the IFO file off the HD from the first directory and continue as normal.

I've never done it but that is how I understand it is done. Good luck!

[pierad]

weel thanks i'm going to try it

[ammck55]

I've done several episodic rips, and it appears to me that Nick has the procedure down cold. IIRC, you'll lose the native chapterpoints with this procedure and need to set your own......or not. :) You can manually set chapterpoints under the "CD Image" tab. Choose "Fixed chapters" and then select however many seconds you want each chapter to run. Five minutes = 300 seconds, etc.......

[Edit] pierad - Oops, after re-reading this thread, I guess you didn't really need the boost on chapterpoints, but I'll leave it intact in case someone else stumbles arcoss this, it might come in handy for them. [Edit]

ammck55

[chet]

I am also looking for some help on a similar topic.

I've already ripped some dvds to my hard-drive, and they have 2 chapters per dvd. What I want to do, is put one chapter per svcd. Is this possible?

[Trahald]

Thats usually easier. i'll assume by chapters you mean episodes. after you select your dvd you should see the length corrosiponding to one of the episodes in the movie length box(you can verify them by viewing both eps with powerdvd and writting down the timelengths). you would proceed with dvd2svcd as you normally would. (make sure if needed you adjust the bitrate settings so the lenght of the episodes will be one disk in the bitrate tab). then once you have your svcd burn that or at least move it somewhere to be safe. (if you use batch mode it will offer you a different directory) anyways.. for the second episode.. hit the dropdown arrow next do the movie length. if both episodes are in the same vts set you will see the other length there. just switch to that length then proceed with your second encode. if its on a separate vts you may have to hit the [...] button next to the go button and select the other vts set. verify you have the right vts with the length that shows in the movie length.

[ralphthedog]

One little thing to take note of regarding Nick's process of assembling vobs......nasty audio sync problems can happen if there are audio delays for each episode, only the first episodes delay will be compensated for and the rest will go further and further out of sync.

Might be worth ripping an episode or two with DVD decrypter, then you can check the text file for audio delays.

If there is a delay, you might just have to do one ep. at a time.

[ChickenMan]

Personally I thing DVD2SVCD w/CCE is very well suited to re-coding Episode DVD's as all the Transcoders (DVD Shrink, DVD2One, etc) may do it easy but the output quality is quite poor. The episode DVD's are poor quality to start with compared to a normal movie DVD's.

Lets say your backing up Star Trek Next Generation eps DVD's. They have 4 x 45min eps per DVD. I rip each Episode off the DVD with DVD Decrypter in IFO mode to its own folder. I have File Splitting set to None and have Chapter Info - Maestro ticked. This way I end up with a large 1 vob file for each episode plus a Maestro Chapters file. I then use DVD2SVCD to encode each episode separately (I use batch mode here) to a CD size of 1/4 of 4440, or 1110 (use 1/6 if there are 6 eps on the DVD, etc). Once all encoded, then just author the 4 separate episodes in Maestro ( or DVDLab or TMPGEnc DVD Author or....) adding an appropriate menu. I tend to manually extract the menu off the DVD and use them.

End result is 1000% better quality than the Transcoders and once your done it a couple of times, you can do it all blind folded.

Hope that helps.
CM

[windtrader]

Once all encoded, then just author the 4 separate episodes in Maestro ( or DVDLab or TMPGEnc DVD Author or....) I was thinking about doing this but Maestro requires the elementary (non muxed) assets. Are you using the extracted audio streams and the pulldowned video from the various DVD2SVCD steps?

[Nick]

@ ChickenMan - OK, agreed about quality with the transcoders :) but it's just sooo easy!

When I'm not happy with the results I use DoItFast4U, DoCCE4U and Reauthorist. It has to be easier than ripping each ep separately, batch conversion with D2S and manual authoring.

[ralphthedog]

When I encode episodes seperately I just assemble all the vobs made with DVD2SVCD and scenarist, then create new ifo's with ifoedit. All the original chapters are correct (so it's easy to navigate the eps) and I'm not a big fan of menus anyway.

[ChickenMan]

Originally posted by windtrader
I was thinking about doing this but Maestro requires the elementary (non muxed) assets. Are you using the extracted audio streams and the pulldowned video from the various DVD2SVCD steps?
Yes, that is exactly what I use. I dont make images, just the 2 elementry streams in this case. I have backed up my entire Star Trek Next Generation & Deep Space 9 all seasons (total of 96 DVD's), all with original Chapters & Menus this way with no real issues at all.

@Nick, yep just as good a method but I do like to include the original animated Menus. Its the Authoring bit thats the real pain of it all.

@ralphthedog, yep that can be done as well but DVD2SVCD does not make a proper script for Scenarist for a PAL conversion. Mr DVD2SVCD is currently working on solving the problem so until then, I manually author with Maestro.

[ralphthedog]

@Chickenman, not surprised from all the scenarist posts on the forum, DVD2SVCD121b3 & Senarist 2.6 seem to work OK with PAL stuff.......although I have had 2 weird results with extra phantom audio streams and mangled chapters. I just thought scenarist was tempremental?!

[chet]

yep, Trahald, I meant episodes. thanks for the advice :)

one thing: what is "vts"? I'm a bit of a novice at all this stuff.