2 Dvd-9 --> 3 Dvd-5?

[j_olson]

I have a long movie on two DVD discs.

If I strip out some unnecessary stuff and compress it with DVD-Rebuilder I can fit the movie on two DVD-5 discs with decent quality. If I split each disc into two I get the movie on four discs with perfect quality.

However, the data left after stripping out what I don't want from the two original discs can be fit onto three DVD-5 disks without using compression. There's even room for keeping the menu (which is the same on both the two original discs) on all three DVD-5:s.

Now the problem, what programs (free or cheap) and techniques should I use? DVD Decrypter to get all on my HD, but then it seems I need to make one movie from the two disca and than split that into three parts?

Even if you don't have ready answers, thoughts are also welcome.

[Surf]

My 2 cents:

If you are willing to forgo the menus, then it is possible with DVDshrink's REAUTHOR method.

And here's another not perfect but do-able way, for the 2nd disk, use PGCedit's "add new chapter/title" method. Then again, this won't give you a proper chapter selection for your menu will hold only the choice of the 1st disk. The third you will be able to keep from the 2nd original.

The 1st recommendation's the best if you can sacrify the menus...

[j_olson]

Thanks, if I have to I will drop the menus - but I would rather keep them...

I don't want the kids to use the original disks, but at the same time it's a movie I myself can watch so I would like to have the best quality. The menus are rather nice, the kids like them, so if there's a way to keep them it would be nice. Otherwise I would have to keep just the main movie, one audio and one subtitle track and skip the menus.

Does any commercial program do this (not too expensive, though)?

[Surf]

"...I myself can watch..." <<< use the original!:p

"I would like to have the best quality" select uncompressed method in DVDshrink RE-AUTHOR.

Commercial program? Can't think of one...Keep in mind then you're re-mastering the whole movie!!

Here's a compromise: keep your menus, but WITHOUT chapter/scene selections !!! That's the stumbling block I'm thinking of. Say each of the two disks have 30 chapters, it is hard to maintain the chapter 21-40 in the target disk 2!

Ran out of pennies...

[j_olson]

Well, it's not a movie I will sit and watch all by myself - I meant that I can join my kids and watch for a while (they can watch some movies over and over...)

Can DVDShrink Re-author be used to make 3 disks from 2?

[em64t]

You may want to try DVD Copy (http://www.intervideo.com/jsp/InterVideoDVDCopy_Profile.jsp). You can copy 2 DVD-9 to 3 DVD-5 rather easily, but no menus. I suppose you can add the menus later if you desire with other software.