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Old 23rd June 2012, 22:25   #1  |  Link
Jer01
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Trouble using AutoGK to convert DVD to .avi

Hi,

I am having trouble converting some of my DVD's to .avi files so I can watch them using my Media Player connected to my TV. Edit 6/28/12

Let me start by saying I am very new to this - so keep any responses basic and detailed.

I am using Dvd Decrypter and AutoGK.

I started out with season 5 of bewitched and after some learning time, successfully converted all 30 episodes to 30 avi files. Beginners luck I guess.

Then I moved to season 1 of bewitched and ran into a brick wall.

In S05, if I am recalling properly, there was a .IFO file for each episode, so I could use those IFO files to input into AutoGK for each episode.

In S01, there is not an .IFO file for each episode. In disc 4, for example, there 9 episodes. It appears all the episodes are in 9 VTS_02....VOB files. When I play VTS_02_0.IFO, It starts an episode in a foreign language. When I try to play any of the .VOB files, it takes me to the screen where I can make my choice of what to play.

Can somebody help me? What do I need to do to make individual .avi files for each of the 36 episodes in Season 1 [similar to what I did in Season 5 dvd]?? I would prefer sticking with the AutoGK program if possible.

Don't forget, I am really new at this, so please make your input as basic and detailed as possible.

Thanks in advance.

Jer01

Last edited by Jer01; 28th June 2012 at 19:05.
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Old 24th June 2012, 05:23   #2  |  Link
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I believe the free version of DVDFab will rip a DVD to individual episodes. DVD Decrypter may have trouble with newer DVD copy protections (nothing to do with the episode problem) as it's not been updated in years.

If you've already ripped the DVD to your hard drive open it with DVD Shrink. Go into DVD Shrink's options and set the target DVD size to something large (DVD-9 minimum) so DVD Shrink won't try to Shrink the DVD as it re-saves it.

With the ripped DVD files open in DVD Shrink, go into re-author mode (use the top menu button). The right hand pane will hopefully display a bunch of titles. With any luck there'll be a title for each episode. Sometimes there's multiple titles per episode, in which case you only need to use one. Drag a title from the right pane to the left pane. Repeat the process for each episode. When they're all done use DVD Shrink's backup function to save the DVD to a new location on your hard drive. The backup will only contain the episodes and each episode will have it's own set of ifo/vob files. Before re-saving the DVD using DVD shrink you can switch to the Compression tab and disable the audio or subtitle streams you don't want (those not in English).

If it's not easy to work out which title to use for each episode, open the ripped DVD files with a media player such as Media Player Classic Home Cinema. Play each episode individually as you normally would. With each episode playing, MPC-HC will display the appropriate title number in the status bar. Use the each episode's title number when dragging the titles from DVD Shrink's right pane to the left pane.
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Old 25th June 2012, 20:40   #3  |  Link
Jer01
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Hello, hello_hello

Thanks for the help.

I dl DVD Shrink and used it on the Video TS file I got from Dvd Decrypter - on S01 D04.

Everything worked pretty much as you described and I got the NEW Video TS files with a IFO file for each episode. This is the file structure that I got for my S05 Dvd, just using Dvd Decrypter. So that is what I needed to input into AutoGK.

Just a few questions/issues.

[1] ""Go into DVD Shrink's options and set the target DVD size to something large (DVD-9 minimum) so DVD Shrink won't try to Shrink the DVD as it re-saves it""

I couldn't find the options menu or any other menu to allow me to do this.

[2] I am assuming that I would have to use another program [e. g., Dvd Fab, Dvd Decrypter, etc. ]to decrypt commercial DVD's before using Dvd Shrink. Is this correct? e.i, Dvd Shrink does not have the capability to decrypt.

[3] The volume of the backup files was pretty low. I don't know yet if this will be a problem with my .avi files on My media Player. I have not gotten that far yet. But I suspect it may be a minor problem.

[4] One time I forgot to disable the foreign language audios in the Compression Tab - and the new files played in a foreign language. English was the first tab and appeared to be the default language. This dvd plays in English in my dvd player.

[5] One of the episodes had some video problems. I re-authored 3 episodes and saved them. There were some vertical lines on the rhs of the picture on one of the videos. I have no idea if this would be seen on the dvd playback.

[6] When I used Dvd, Decrypter, I am wondering why my S05 dvd's provided a separate ISO file for each episode [7], and the S01 dvd's provided only one ISO file for the 9 episodes. Why would the file structure be so different in these two 4-disc dvd's?

---------------------------------------

I found a work-around to my problem using only Dvd Decrypter and AutoGk. If you run Dvd Decrypter in the IFO mode, you have the capability of running any file individually [ one at a time]. This is OK if you only have a few episodes to run. If you want all the episodes on the dvd, this method would be very laborious.

P.S. The Audio volume was low when I used this method also.

Thanks again.

Jer01

Last edited by Jer01; 25th June 2012 at 20:44.
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Old 26th June 2012, 10:47   #4  |  Link
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If you use DVDFab HD Decrypter, you should have no trouble seeing the individual episodes. You do have to rip them individually and may have to rename the folder between rips, but it will eliminate the need of any extra steps such as running the rip through DVD Shrink.

The "audio low" problem could be one of a number of things, for example if AutoGK is keeping the original AC3 audio you may just have to boost the volume of your AC3 playback filter.
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Old 27th June 2012, 05:57   #5  |  Link
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No need to rename folders when you rip the episodes with a batch after having checked which episode has which title:

DVDfab /MODE "MAINMOVIE" /SRC "D:\" /DEST "e:\My TV Show\My TV Show 1x01" /TITLE "2" /CLOSE
DVDfab /MODE "MAINMOVIE" /SRC "D:\" /DEST "e:\My TV Show\My TV Show 1x02" /TITLE "3" /CLOSE
DVDfab /MODE "MAINMOVIE" /SRC "D:\" /DEST "e:\My TV Show\My TV Show 1x03" /TITLE "4" /CLOSE
DVDfab /MODE "MAINMOVIE" /SRC "D:\" /DEST "e:\My TV Show\My TV Show 1x04" /TITLE "5" /CLOSE
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Old 27th June 2012, 18:55   #6  |  Link
Jer01
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jer01 View Post
Just a few questions/issues.
....

[3] The volume of the backup files was pretty low. I don't know yet if this will be a problem with my .avi files on My media Player. I have not gotten that far yet. But I suspect it may be a minor problem.
....

[5] One of the episodes had some video problems. I re-authored 3 episodes and saved them. There were some vertical lines on the rhs of the picture on one of the videos. I have no idea if this would be seen on the dvd playback.

Jer01

OK, I am finished and I thought I would report back on what I found.

With regard to the "low volume" problem [ [3] above] -- I got the low volume problem when I played the ISO/VOB file on Media Player Classic. After I converted that to an .avi file using Auto GK, and played it with Media Player Classic, the volume was fine. The problem went away. This surprised me. P.S. I used the "Auto" settings of AutoGK. I did not change any settings except change the file size target to 175 MB [for a 25 min episode].

With regard to the vertical lines on one of the episodes [ [5] above], I checked the original DVD on my DVD player. I got the same video problem with the original DVD. So that problem was in the DVD and not caused by any ripping/shrinking ops.


All in all, everything turned out very good. It took me a long time, but I am hoping next time it will go smoother. I will have to give DvdFab HD Decrypter a look.

----------------

I read somewhere that "Ripit4Me" uses both DVD Decrypter and DVD Shrink under one "Roof" and has the capabilities of both. It supposedly makes ripping & shrinking much easier and eliminates steps. Most people were quite enthusiastic in their remarks about it. Does anybody here have any experience with it?

Thanks to all who contributed.

Jer01

Last edited by Jer01; 27th June 2012 at 19:03. Reason: Added P.S.
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Old 28th June 2012, 00:48   #7  |  Link
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jer01 View Post
Just a few questions/issues.

[1] ""Go into DVD Shrink's options and set the target DVD size to something large (DVD-9 minimum) so DVD Shrink won't try to Shrink the DVD as it re-saves it""

I couldn't find the options menu or any other menu to allow me to do this.
Edit/Preferences/Target DVD size.
I'm pretty sure it's set to DVD-5 by default. This means when resaving the DVD, DVDShrink will shrink it (re-encode it) to fit on a single layer blank disc. Then you're re-encoding it again.
You want to set the size to at least DVD-9. DVDShrink will display the amount of compression it's using when you open the DVD. Generally, using DVD-9 as the output size will stop it from compressing anything, especially if you're removing audio streams. DVD Shrink also has an option to only select audio streams in a specific language or format by default when it opens a DVD. Saves "forgetting" to deselect the others.
You'll probably know if DVD Shrink is recompressing the DVD when resaving it, as without re-compressing it the backup will happen a lot faster.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jer01 View Post
[2] I am assuming that I would have to use another program [e. g., Dvd Fab, Dvd Decrypter, etc. ]to decrypt commercial DVD's before using Dvd Shrink. Is this correct? e.i, Dvd Shrink does not have the capability to decrypt.
I think it does but it's very out of date. If you run something like AnyDVD in the background to do the decrypting you should be able to open the disc directly with DVDShrink and rip it/re-author it in one step. Something I should try myself. Old habits dying hard, I guess.....

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jer01 View Post
[3] The volume of the backup files was pretty low. I don't know yet if this will be a problem with my .avi files on My media Player. I have not gotten that far yet. But I suspect it may be a minor problem.
Probably because DVDShrink's output size was set to DVD-5, so it re-encoded the video when backing it up.
Of course if you also remove unwanted audio streams, the size of the backup files will be reduced.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jer01 View Post
[4] One time I forgot to disable the foreign language audios in the Compression Tab - and the new files played in a foreign language. English was the first tab and appeared to be the default language. This dvd plays in English in my dvd player.
AutoGK will include more than one audio stream when converting to AVI. When you open a DVD with AutoGK it only selects one audio stream automatically. It appears the correct (English) one was selected.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jer01 View Post
[5] One of the episodes had some video problems. I re-authored 3 episodes and saved them. There were some vertical lines on the rhs of the picture on one of the videos. I have no idea if this would be seen on the dvd playback.
AutoGK has an auto-cropping function which attempts to remove the black bars (assuming that's what the black lines are). It doesn't always get it exactly right. It's better to remove them completely when encoding. You can adjust the auto-cropping by pressing CTRL+9 to open AutoGK's hidden options.
You need to select the "tune auto-crop parameters" box. Then (if for example there's some black borders remaining on the right) increase the right "force cropping of" value a little. There's one for each side of the video. Close the hidden options window and use the preview to check the black border is gone. Repeat the process as necessary.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jer01 View Post
[6] When I used Dvd, Decrypter, I am wondering why my S05 dvd's provided a separate ISO file for each episode [7], and the S01 dvd's provided only one ISO file for the 9 episodes. Why would the file structure be so different in these two 4-disc dvd's?
It's just how they were authored. I don't think there's a logical reason why they had to be one way or the other.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jer01 View Post
With regard to the "low volume" problem [ [3] above] -- I got the low volume problem when I played the ISO/VOB file on Media Player Classic. After I converted that to an .avi file using Auto GK, and played it with Media Player Classic, the volume was fine. The problem went away. This surprised me. P.S. I used the "Auto" settings of AutoGK. I did not change any settings except change the file size target to 175 MB [for a 25 min episode].
AutoGK will either keep the original audio or convert it to MP3 during the conversion process, depending on the output file size or whether you manually select an option other than "auto" for the audio (advanced settings). In your case it'll be converting it. The converted MP3 audio will probably be louder than the original as AutoGK normalizes it (increases the volume until the peaks are 0db) before it converts it to MP3. The original AC3 audio may sound low by comparison, but that's normal. It's just the way it is.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jer01 View Post
I read somewhere that "Ripit4Me" uses both DVD Decrypter and DVD Shrink under one "Roof" and has the capabilities of both. It supposedly makes ripping & shrinking much easier and eliminates steps. Most people were quite enthusiastic in their remarks about it. Does anybody here have any experience with it?
I use it all the time. It doesn't have the capabilities of DVD Decrypter or DVD Shrink as such, rather it uses those programs to do the work. RipIt4Me still has problems with newer copy protections. Originally it's purpose was to rip discs DVD Decrypter couldn't rip, but now it's out of date too. If you try to rip a DVD where the output file size is something ridiculous (30 or 40GB for example) then you've found one of those DVDs. For those I use AnyDVD.
The main reason I use RipIt4Me is because I have a few DVD drives so with RipIt4Me I can rip more than one DVD at a time (it'll warn you about running more than one instance of DVD Decrypter and ask if it should close one but doing so has never caused me a problem). Maybe you can rip more than one DVD simultaneously with AnyDVD or DVDFab but I can't say I've ever tried it.

When ripping a movie DVD, RipIt4Me is fine to use (assuming it can handle the copy protection) as it has a "movie only" mode. No need to use DVD Shrink. If you're ripping an episodic DVD then using something like DVDFab, which apparently will rip individual episodes, might be better to use if it saves having to re-author the ripped files with DVD Shrink in order to encode them.

Last edited by hello_hello; 28th June 2012 at 01:35.
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Old 28th June 2012, 08:57   #8  |  Link
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Quote:
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I am having trouble converting some of my DVD's to .avi files so I can watch them using my Media Player.
The simplest way is to use this -> http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.ph...767#post819767 .
It does exactly what you want, repack a MPG file from an DVD into an AVI container. Use the hints given in this thread to obtain each episode into a single MPG file (or VOB whatever), then use mencoder to mux them each in an AVI.

Unless you understand something else by AVI
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Old 28th June 2012, 19:03   #9  |  Link
Jer01
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Anybody ever used "TVRipper" ? TV Ripper is a wrapper for dvd decrypter 3.5.4.0. -- Freeware. It allows you to supply multiple VTS and PGC information to command DVD Decrypter to rip television shows from your personal DVD collection for compression and archival later.

http://www.qweas.com/downloads/audio...tv-ripper.html

Haven't used it, but it looks like the cat's meow for backing up DVD's with multiple episodes. Not for Movie DVD's.

------------------

By the way, when I said: "I am having trouble converting some of my DVD's to .avi files so I can watch them using my Media Player." in my #1 post, I meant the Media Player I have connected to my TV -- not a Media player on my PC. Sorry for any confusion there. I have edited post #1 to clarify that.

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Old 28th June 2012, 19:42   #10  |  Link
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JER01
With regard to the "low volume" problem [ [3] above] -- I got the low volume problem when I played the ISO/VOB file on Media Player Classic. After I converted that to an .avi file using Auto GK, and played it with Media Player Classic, the volume was fine. The problem went away. This surprised me. P.S. I used the "Auto" settings of AutoGK. I did not change any settings except change the file size target to 175 MB [for a 25 min episode].
As I mentioned before, "low volume" can occur due to your AC3 filter's settings. Your .avi file with good audio volume probably had it converted to MP3, but if it had kept the original audio the level still would have been low.
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