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Zithras
4th May 2004, 22:43
sooo...I am trying to make a backup of a dvd that is about 9 gb. All I really care about are the episodes on the dvd, of which there are 6 episodes, in about 7 GB total. They are on VTS_02. VTS_01_0 has the menu files, and 01_1 and and 03_1 have extras that I really don't care about.

Here's my problem:
7 GB is too large to really reencode well without a noticable quality loss, so I want to split the episodes to 2 DVDRs. However, since they are episodes of a series, and not a movie, I want to keep the menu intact, especially its language options and chapter selection options. All of the split-to-2 dvdr solutions (according to the guides) seem to put the most of the files and the menu onto one disc, and leave out the menu and only have movie files on the second disk.

Sooo...how do I go about ripping a dvd-9 to 2 dvdrs AND still keeping working menus on both disks (and getting rid of extras if possible)? Would I have to make new menus? how? Any help would be greatly appreciated. If there's something in the guides that tells me how to do this, I apologize in advance for missing it and please request that someone post a link to the appropriate area, or summarize the method/programs used.

THANKS!!!:D

Kedirekin
5th May 2004, 01:33
If the episodes are separated into separate titles, DVDShrink can get close. You shrink the unwanted episodes to still frames (and the extras if you want), remove the audio for them, and if things aren't small enough after that, a little light compression is usually enough. Then you do the same for the other disk, but apply still frames to the other episodes.

Beyond that, look at a stripping solution. DVDStripper, VOBBlanker and DVDReMake are all tools you might consider. It's basically the same process as above, except replacing the unwanted episodes with blank cells saves even more space than still frames. I believe VOBBlanker will only work if the titles are in separate titles (as DVDShrink above). DVDStripper and DVDReMake work at the cell level, so they'll work even if all the episodes are in the same title. If you use DVDReMake you can hide the appropriate buttons and give the final disks a little more polish.

Dimmer
5th May 2004, 03:51
Another solution is using CloneDVD, where you can remove certain titles altogether preserving menus and everything else. You just run your disc through twice, removing first/second half of the episodes.

Zithras
5th May 2004, 05:26
Whats the easiest way to check titles and see if they are in different ones?

Dimmer
5th May 2004, 10:41
Originally posted by Zithras
Whats the easiest way to check titles and see if they are in different ones? Play the episodes on a DVD player and check the title number on the display.

Kedirekin
5th May 2004, 12:35
Or load the DVD into DVDShrink and see if all the episodes are in one title or in separate titles. Usually, on an episodic disk all the episodes will appear under the Movie node (because they're all about the same size, and larger than extras), so it's usually easy to tell, almost at a glance.