New Utility --MakeItEasy-- Full Backups with DVD2one

[jdobbs]

All,

Okay, I've been impressed with the speed of DVD2one and its ability to create VOBs. But I've been wishing I could do complete backups, menus and all, like I do with the DVD2AVI/CCE/IFOUpdate method. The author is promising this capability in future versions.

I couldn't wait. So I wrote a utility (I call it "MakeItEasy") to do it for me and (as always) I'm sharing it with the DOOM9 crowd. To make it work you need DVDDecrypter, DVD2one, IFOEDIT, and MakeItEasy -- nothing more. Complete backups in an hour or so.

Here's how it works:

1. Rip the disc to your harddrive with DVDDecrypter. Put them in a directory called D:\ORIG (or any name you like)

2. Look at the VOBs and find the one with the movie (the biggest)

3. Copy the files VTS_XX_1.VOB thru VTS_XX_n.VOB to another directory -- for instance call it d:\SOURCE

4. Now look at the directory you copied from and see how much space is used by other files (IFOs, other VOBs, etc.) -- you'll need to know this for MakeItEasy.

5. Run MakeItEasy and follow the directions. You must first prepare the DVD2one source. What you will be doing is padding the VOB files with enough space to hold your extras! That is shown as Step 2 -- make sure you create plenty of space as it will be compressed along with the rest of the source data. It all depends on the size at the start -- regardless it will shrink to 4.38GB when completed.

6. After MakeItEasy pads the VOB files. Run IFOEDIT and click the "Create IFOs" button. It will create all the files needed to run DVD2one.

7. Run DVD2one against the files you just created. Use D:\SOURCE for input and D:\DEST for output (or any name you want)

8. After it's done, it's time to remove the padding (so you have room for your extras) from the files in the D:\DEST directory. Again, MakeItEasy does that -- just follow the directions.

9. Copy the VOB files (only) from the D:\DEST directory to the D:\ORIG directory.

10. Run the update function from MakeItEasy. It updates the original IFO in the same way that IFOUpdate would. It also does a "Get VTS Sectors" function.

11. Test it with PowerDVD or another Player. If all went well you should have directory ready to burn in under an hour.

Please don't throw stones if you find errors. CONSIDER THIS VERSION A BETA. Please post your results here. I just finished writing the software, used it once, and am posting so others can help me debug it. I haven't even written a readme file yet.

Enjoy.

---------
FOUND A BUG -- DELETED ATTACHMENT
WILL POST AGAIN ON TUESDAY

[The_Flash]

I'll give it a shot after work tomorrow. Thanks for your hard work and dedication!

[jdobbs]

I found a pretty serious bug. It deleted the files I had created with DVD2one when I was testing on "ET" (it was only supposed to get rid of the padding, sigh) -- I gotta get some sleep, I'll fix and repost tomorrow.

[fourtyfour]

servus...

hehe, your tool sounds cool.

but I think DVD2one next release comes till the next two weeks.

Pinnacles product will start at beginning of march and will do menus.

But I couldn´t wait for some movies with 5.5 GB.

So attach the tool as soon as possible

regards, fourtyfour

[Skinleech]

Very nice sounding tool, I will give it a try also.

[jdobbs]

Here's the formula for computing padding size.

a = size of the entire original disc
b = size of all except the main movie
c = size needed for Padding

(a/4.38) * b = c

So if you have an 7GB area that consists of 5GB in movie and 2 GB in extras:

(7/4.38) * 2 = 3.19GB in padding (3190MB)

[jdobbs]

Ok I fixed the bug (stupid error) -- lets try it again. Please post anything you find with this...

[FamousPerson]

jdobbs:

your attachment is still "gone"

[mpucoder]

We have no moderator to approve attachments, so only supermods and admin can do it.

[jdobbs]

I just did 'ET' with this tool (all features are included) -- it worked great and took a total of 45 minutes beginning to end (not counting burntime).

DVD2one may not be a "perfect" backup -- but it looks damn good.

I'm going to do "Matrix" next.

jdobbs

[jdobbs]

I don't have the patience to wait, so I deleted the attachment here and posted it in this thread.

Download, try it, and give me some feedback.

Not sure about multiple angles yet... I may have to make an adjustment for that (tomorrow?) -- it should be fine with interleaved, though.

[alanrob]

Your a star m8
Keep up the good work.

[jdobbs]

Just tried "Matrix" twice -- no luck. But it doesn't seem to be MakeItEasy or DVD2one... the IFO file created by IFOUPDATE doesn't seem to be correctly formed. I'll try some more titles.

[jdobbs]

Okay. I think I've figured out the problem with "Matrix" As I was padding I had an incrementing VOBID. The program pads by reintroducing video from the start of the movie with different VOBID/CELLID and LBA numbers... In the case of "Matrix" it overran and I got some funky VOBID numbers.

For virtually all movies that isn't an issue. At any rate, it's easy to fix. I will correct and repost tomorrow. The new version should also work for multiple angles.

[fletch]

jdobbs,

Thanks for this nifty new add-on ! I shall test on a PAL movie tonight and post my results.

Cheers

Fletch

[CyBerian]

thx. for this nice tool
I will test it tommorow...

[The_Flash]

DVD2One won't open the padded vobs. Not sure if it's an ifo creation problem or the padding.

[theraven15]

First I would like to say this is a great little idea though I can't go by use since I can't seem to get it to work. I'm hoping someone can help me cause I would love to try this out.

I was just wondering if I'm doing something wrong when using MakeItEasy cause in the first padding routine it starts out fine and then I get a "Run-Time Error 5 invalid procedure call or arguement" error message and then the program closes. Has any one else gotten this error or knows why I'm getting it.

This is in step 2 - does it matter what vob file you select as the dvd2one source. I selected the first in the series.

[alanrob]

Originally posted by theraven15
First I would like to say this is a great little idea though I can't go by use since I can't seem to get it to work. I'm hoping someone can help me cause I would love to try this out.

I was just wondering if I'm doing something wrong when using MakeItEasy cause in the first padding routine it starts out fine and then I get a "Run-Time Error 5 invalid procedure call or arguement" error message and then the program closes. Has any one else gotten this error or knows why I'm getting it.

This is in step 2 - does it matter what vob file you select as the dvd2one source. I selected the first in the series.

Are you moving all the VOB's for the main movie into another folder?

[Calypso]

jdobbs,

Fine effort- I applaud your continual ingenuity!

Seems to me this method, however, will not work with many multi-pgc titles (typical WB titles, for instance.) The problem is that there is often one or more PGCs both before and after the main feature (like a WB intro, theatrical trailer, etc). I'm not sure exactly which PGC you are padding- but the crux of the problem is the DVD2ONE only lets you select one PGC. If you pad the last PGC, DVD2ONE ignores all that nice padding.

In the test case I ran, after "depadding", I still ended up with the same exact number of files, which totaled 4.37GB. MakeItEasy didn't complain about it at all- acted as if nothing was wrong.

EDIT AFTERWARDS:

I do see that the entire VOB was what DVD2ONE encoded (all PGCs), as well as your padding. I guess the IFOEdit step created a single PGC out of the entire VOB. I have about 11 minutes of your padding at the end of the VOB, which MakeItEasy just can't seem to remove.

If this is supposed to work, I guess I'm a bit confused how this single PGC title gets integrated back into the original IFO, which has multiple PGCs.