Ripping/Encoding Prob with Nero AVC

[greggerm]

Greetings all -

I seem to be running into a bit of a hiccup - either with DVD Decrypter, or Nero Recode.

I've been working on ripping my DVD collection and encoding them into Nero's AVC implementation, so that I can keep them all on my HTPC and not worry about the discs.

I am using DVD Decrypter (moment of silence...) in the IFO mode to rip out the main movie and a soundtrack. Each time, I get a 4-7 GB VOB file (I turned off file splitting so Recode has one file to work with)

Using Nero Recode, I choose the "Encode Movies or Videos into Nero Digital" option. I browse to the VOB file, and select it for encoding. Most of the time I get what looks like a proper rip - the movie time shows properly, and Recode shows the proper after-encoding file size. Sometimes, however, Recode only recognizes a few minutes of the movie. Even if I can open the whole movie in a software DVD player, Recode only recognizes the first 5-30 minutes of the movie. Additionally, it computes an after-encoding size based on that 5-30 minute clip.

I am using this workflow because I want to be able to batch my encode jobs - using the "Rip DVD" mode only seems to allow one job at a time.

I've ruled out VOB file size, as taken in an example, the "A Beautiful Mind" VOBs I cut are 5.9 GB and they are recognized fine, yet the smallish "American Pie" VOBs had this problem.

Are there any DVD structure issues I need to take into account? Is this Recode just being a pain? What am I doing wrong? :)

Thanks for any input!
-Greg

[berrinam]

I had the same problem as you. I have no idea what caused it, but my solution was to feed it the input via Avisynth (I used Gordian Knot to generate the avs files).

[greggerm]

I tried the above workaround, but the AVS was also playing short - I chalked it up to being something wrong with what I was doing in DVD Decrypter. But I'm not one to give up quickly.

My next trick was to rip one of the problem DVDs to my hard drive in its entirety (file mode). I brought that into Recode, and low and behold - it was able to see the entire movie as it should. It would also seem that Recode CAN queue up multiple VIDEO_TS directories using the "Recode DVDs and Videos to Nero Digital" option, nullifying my use of the no-split IFO rip.

Yes, I do have to rip the ENTIRE DVD to the HD now, extras and secondary audio tracks and all, but the extra time is nothing compared with having to worry about if the rip would work using my other method.

NOW - I have to poke through the threads to find a fix for the "Quiet 5.1 Audio Problem" that Nero Digital (AVC) seems to have. I had to *crank* my amplifier up on a sample encode to make it work properly. Time to try that REG hack that I saw floating around for 2.2.6.16

Thanks for the tip!
-Greg

[Scarpad]

Gregg it seems to do this with movies that feature Seamless Branching