How to split a DVD-9 to 2 DVD-5s using VobBlanker 'skip' feature

[foobaz]

I have not been able to find a detailed guide on how to do this so I decided to write one myself in the hope that someone will find this useful. This procedure saves lots of time when the movie and special features or individual episodes of an episodic disc (Note: This only applies if the episodes of an episodic disc are each in separate VTSs) are in separate titles and you want to split a DVD-9 to 2 DVD-5s.

Reference forum posts:
4 Episodes to 2x DVD+R (http://forum.doom9.org/showpost.php?p=554725&postcount=7)
Quickest way to split episodic discs with VobBlanker? (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=102179&highlight=episodic)

Procedure


Rip DVD to hard drive with DVDDecrypter
Back up all IFO and BUP files in case the originals are needed again
Create disc1/VIDEO_TS and disc2/VIDEO_TS directories

Disc 1

From the VIDEO_TS directory of the ripped DVD, move all the VOB files for all the titlesets that will be skipped (files to be put on disc 1) to disc1/VIDEO_TS

For example, the main movie VTS or the VTSs of the first episodes that will go on disc 1
Leave a copy of all VTS_##_0.VOB files in the original VIDEO_TS directory. They will be needed when you open the original DVD in VobBlanker

Copy the IFO and BUP files for the VOB files that were moved to the disc 1 directory to disc1/VIDEO_TS

Don't copy the IFO files for the titlesets that will be blanked. Let VobBlanker create new ones for these
There is no need to copy the VIDEO_TS.IFO file to the disc1 directory since it will be recreated

Open the original DVD in VobBlanker


If there is more than one VTS_##_0.VOB file, you may get a dialog box that says:
Detected ini/end cell pointers out of range in TITLES domain
Affected titlesets are:

VTS_01_0.IFO
. . .
VTS_##_0.IFO

A FullScan is required: See Menu->File->FullScan...

'OK' out of this and go to the menu and select:

File->'VOBs Full Scan'

Be sure to check the boxes:

MENUS
Enable Full Scan

TITLES
Enable Full Scan

Select:

Run

If you get the message:

Some Cells not found in Menus
just 'OK' out of it.

'Close' the dialog box and continue.



From the main menu select 'Blank'-->'All'
In the 'TitleSet' panel, select the VTSs that will be skipped (the ones that were moved to the disc1 directory) and click on the 'Skip' button
Then click on the 'PROCESS!!' button
If you did everything right, it should take only seconds to process without errors
Disc1 should now play, as is, in your software player

Disc 2

Now move the VOB files of the remaining titlesets to disc2/VIDEO_TS

Again, leave a copy of all VTS_##_0.VOB files in the original VIDEO_TS directory. They will still be needed when you open the original DVD in VobBlanker.

Copy the IFO and BUP files for these moved VOB files to disc2/VIDEO_TS

Do not copy IFO and BUP files for the titlesets that will be blanked. Let VobBlanker create these.

Close VobBlanker and reopen it to open the original DVD
This time, click the 'Skip All' button
Right-click on the titlesets that are to be blanked and select 'Blank'

These are the titlesets that were moved to disc1/VIDEO_TS previously

Click on the 'PROCESS!!' button
Again, if you did everything right, it should take only seconds to process without errors
Disc 2 should play, as is, in your software player


If there are any errors or if there is a better way please post suggestions here. Thanks.

[jsoto]

You got it!.
This is the quickest way to split episodic (with different VTSs) discs.
Note it works fine because VobBlanker uses the file sizes in the output folder to adjust sectors.

jsoto

[setarip_old]

@foobaz

Hi!

Thanks for the "how-to" ;>}

I'm just curious to know if, as an alternative, you've tried using (oooold freeware) DVDFab v.0.17 to accomplish the same thing, by simply clicking on "Split"?

[jeanl]

foobaz, something you forgot to mention, is the output directory you need to select when you run vobblanker. I'm guessing you're outputing to disc1 the first time, and disc2 the second time. This isn't clear from your post...
Is that right?
jeanl

[foobaz]

You got it!.
This is the quickest way to split episodic (with different VTSs) discs
Gee you mean there are no errors? :) Thanks for the feedback.

[foobaz]

@foobaz
I'm just curious to know if, as an alternative, you've tried using (oooold freeware) DVDFab v.0.17 to accomplish the same thing, by simply clicking on "Split"?
Yes I have and I despise how it forces what it wants on you. It always tries to copy all of the special features first and then part of the movie to disc1. This is true of all the 'one-click' rippers I have tried. The free demo ones anyway. Why would you want to have only part of a movie that would fit entirely on the first disc, have to be interrupted to insert disc2 to watch the rest of it and then have to insert disc1 again to view the special features? Who watches the special features before the movie? Anyone? In any case, if you follow the guide step by step, it should take about five minutes. And you can have it your way. VobBlanker is the tool of preference for splits. Make no mistake. I only resort to Fab when I absolutely must retain angles because VB still doesn't do angles. (hint, hint, jsoto ;))

[foobaz]

foobaz, something you forgot to mention, is the output directory you need to select when you run vobblanker. I'm guessing you're outputing to disc1 the first time, and disc2 the second time. This isn't clear from your post...
Is that right?
jeanl
Gee jeanl, I'm surprised that you asked that. (Isn't this fairly obvious from all the times I mention disc#/VIDEO_TS in the context of each disc? ;)) http://forum.doom9.org/images/smilies/readguides.gif

Just in case it isn't clear to anyone else, the destination directory for VobBlanker to use is disc1/VIDEO_TS for disc1 and disc2/VIDEO_TS for disc2. I suppose it would not hurt to mention that there is no need to 'Fix VTS Sectors' with IfoEdit. VobBlanker already does this IF you follow the procedure.

[CoNS]

Thanks for sorting out the procedure, foobaz! :)

Two minor things:

The title of your thread may be slightly misleading ("How to split a DVD-9 to 2 DVD-5s using VobBlanker 'skip' feature"). Often, when you have DVD with menus, a main movie and extra material, you'll end up with an oversized disc1 folder (main movie+menus) and an undersized disc2 folder (extras+menus), using the method you described. In these cases, in order to fit disc1 in a DVD5, you'd still have to encode/compress the main movie (or blank unwanted stuff, shrink the menu etc.)

Also, just for reference, perhaps it ought to be mentioned that most users would probably want to edit the menus of the two outputted discs to hide the buttons leading to removed material, before burning. PgcEdit's menu editor is the best (freeware) tool for doing this...

[jsoto]

to edit the menus of the two outputted discs to hide the buttons leading to removed material, before burning. PgcEdit's menu editor is the best (freeware) tool for doing this...
And, the most of the times you can easily replace the background with a still w/o the background of the button. Very easy with VobBlanker (MuxMan does the job and VB takes the merit ;) ...)...

jsoto

[foobaz]

Thanks for sorting out the procedure, foobaz! :)

Two minor things:

The title of your thread may be slightly misleading ("How to split a DVD-9 to 2 DVD-5s using VobBlanker 'skip' feature"). Often, when you have DVD with menus, a main movie and extra material, you'll end up with an oversized disc1 folder (main movie+menus) and an undersized disc2 folder (extras+menus), using the method you described. In these cases, in order to fit disc1 in a DVD5, you'd still have to encode/compress the main movie (or blank unwanted stuff, shrink the menu etc.)
Yes well what you do afterwards is a totally different topic and there are many well-documented guides throughout this site on that. My only intent was to document this little-mentioned feature so that those who didn't know about it or who didn't know exactly how to take advantage of it in the right circumstances would have a step by step guide. The usual tendency would be to just blindly blank the unwanted titlesets. This takes a lot more time and is unnecessary in the case where everything is in separate VTSs. I only stumbled across this relatively undocumented feature by accident so I thought it should be made available in a simple how-to that should be easily found by searching for 'VobBlanker skip'. It is intended mostly for cases where the entire movie would fit on one disc as is or for episodic discs where each episode is in a short separate VTS. If you have to encode to do this, I think DVDShrink would be a better choice.

Also, just for reference, perhaps it ought to be mentioned that most users would probably want to edit the menus of the two outputted discs to hide the buttons leading to removed material, before burning. PgcEdit's menu editor is the best (freeware) tool for doing this...Yes I agree that PgcEdit is the best tool for this purpose but, again, this is another topic and is really beyond the scope of this thread. Anyone who would need to split a DVD would probably know something about using PgcEdit for post-processing I suspect. Even if they didn't, the resultant discs would still play as is. The menus just would not function as elegantly.