Babylon 5 and DVD Shrink vs DVD Rebuilder

[dannyv]

Greetings,

Has anyone tried backing up any of the Babylon 5 seasons. It seems that they have 2 copies of the episodes on the DVD. one in the main title section and one in the extras section. I tried a full disk backup blanking un-needed extras and audio in both dvd shrink and dvd rebuilder and both came out horrable with very jurky pan motion and very grainy. In dvd shrink the main title was 63%. It looks like the only way to do these is the old school way of ripping each episode, DVD2AVI, CCE then re-authoring (dvd Meastro.).

[ddlooping]

Hi dannyv. :)

Why don't you use DVD Shrink Reauthor mode to reduce the number of episode per backup?

[quantum]

I hope you're comparing the results to the original, because the original Babylon 5 disks are not very good quality. My Rebuilder backups looked pretty good in comparison to the original.

[Noah]

Sometimes it appears that episodes are in two places on a disc, but its only because there are separate options for playing them. There are "Play All" and play by episode menu buttons that are linked to different VTS's, but the larger "Play All" VTS is linked to the actual separate episode VTS's. So there's no redundancy, even though it appears that way. This becomes obvious if you really look at the DVD structure in something like DVD Remake or even Shrink.

Usually, if you reauthor in Shrink and drag over all the Main Movie titles then you will end up with 2 copies. Other times they may appear as extras...so just make sure you're only getting what you need.

[dannyv]

Originally posted by ddlooping
Hi dannyv. :)

Why don't you use DVD Shrink Reauthor mode to reduce the number of episode per backup?

Thank you all for the quick responce. If my responces seem a bit amaturish please excuse me I've only been working with shrink and rebuilder for about a week.

ddlooping,

reauthoring mode will allow me to process individual episodes but I'm not sure how to go about adding a menu. Prior to dvd shrink I riped each individual episode then did the robshot method. I then created my own menus in dvd meastro. I was hoping there was an easier way without having to decompile the individual VOB sets.

Quantum,

You are quite right the originals are not the greatest transfers but my results were very poor compared to the originals. I've done one episode using the robshot method and the result was almost an exact backup to the original. my calculations for bitrate were based on 3 episodes per disk.
Did you include menus in your backup? Can you give me an overview of how you did the backup in rebuilder?

Noah,

The DVD structer when viewed in shrink is as follows

Main title - has all 4 episodes in one title set
Extras - has 3 episodes each in there own title set and all the extras, each one in there own title set.

The entire DVD is approx 8.4 gigs.

[ddlooping]

dannyv, you could use DVD Author to add a menu to the compilations made with DVD Shrink.
Just make sure you do not use DVD Shrink "Start/End" feature, or use it only at chapter points (or you could end-up with DVD Author throwing an error message). ;)

[dannyv]

Originally posted by ddlooping
dannyv, you could use DVD Author to add a menu to the compilations made with DVD Shrink.
Just make sure you do not use DVD Shrink "Start/End" feature, or use it only at chapter points (or you could end-up with DVD Author throwing an error message). ;)

I'm not familiar with DVD Author can you provide a link to this software. Or are you talking about the reauthor feature in shrink?

[ddlooping]

This is the software I am refering to:

http://www.pegasys-inc.com/en/product/tda_feature.html

It has a 30-day trial version.

What I suggested was for you to make a compilation of episodes in DVD Shrink, using its Reauthor mode...
http://www.dvdshrink.info/compilation.php
...then use TMPGEnc DVD Author to make a menu.

Just make sure you change DVD Shrink "Target Size" ("Edit >> Preferences >> Target Size >> Custom"), to leave some free space for the menus. ;)

EDIT: sorry, in your case you should actually use DVD Shrink Reauthor mode to make a selection of episodes, not a compilation from several DVDs.

http://www.dvdshrink.info/reauthor_basic.php

[dannyv]

Originally posted by ddlooping
This is the software I am refering to:

http://www.pegasys-inc.com/en/product/tda_feature.html

http://www.dvdshrink.info/reauthor_basic.php

ddlooping,

I just want to say those interactive guides on your site are awsome you did a great job on those.

I took a look at DVD author and it is exactly what I need. The menu tool is easy to use and I was suprised that it even creates a chapter menu. Its well worth the price tag. thank you and everyone else for your help.

[ddlooping]

You're welcome Danny, glad to be of help. :)
Thanks for the positive feedback. ;)

Let us know how you get along.