Undersizing with When a Stranger Calls

[Angelus]

Hi, I've been trying to backup When a Stranger Calls and I've run into a problem while encoding the main movie. I've encoded the extras already, and the VIDEO_TS folder with the extras and menu only take up 430 MB. I've tried encoding the main movie now but once it's done, the total size is only 2.87 GB. The bitrate for the main movie was pretty high, average of about 5700 and a max of 8700 or so. I even tried using the calculations from DIF4U and it still came out around the same size, still undersized. Any reason why this isn't working? I haven't had any problem with other movies and Scenaid's bitrate calculations.

Thanks!

[setarip_old]

Hi!

"When a Stranger Calls" is a SONY release that contains "ARccOS" copy protection. Are you sure you've properly initially ripped the DVD?

[Angelus]

Yeah, I decrypted it using DVDFab, then I created an ISO using Imgtool, then went about processing it with DIF4U. Maybe somehow doing it this way messed up the IFOs or something else?

[setarip_old]

1) What was the size of the .ISO image file?

2) Have you PLAYED the .ISO image file (under VLC or other) to determine whether it contains the ENTIRE movie?

[Angelus]

1) The image file is 7.64 GB, and the VIDEO_TS folder that was created after using DVDFab is the same size, 7.64 GB

2) I just checked and the movie seems to be playing fine, movie and credits all there.

[Orion|69]

1) The image file is 7.64 GB, and the VIDEO_TS folder that was created after using DVDFab is the same size, 7.64 GB

2) I just checked and the movie seems to be playing fine, movie and credits all there.

Have you checked the undersized outcome as well for completeness, and if complete : check the bitrate of the main movie video with a tool and see what that says.

I think the output is probably NOT complete because I never saw such a huge bitrate-error caused by either DIF4U or SceneAid.

Checking this would make it clear wether there was a problem with the calculation or not... IF the output is in fact complete - and if it is, it should give you a very low bitrate when testing it - otherwise the output could never be undersized that much.

[Angelus]

That was a good idea! As it turns out, the encoded main movie is only 32 minutes long, whereas the original movie is 1h 27 mins. Also something weird is when I directly play the original .m2v file in media player classic, it only comes out to 59 mins...but when I play the AVS file DIF4U created, it plays for the total time, 1h 27 mins. Something is definitely going on here.

[Orion|69]

That was a good idea! As it turns out, the encoded main movie is only 32 minutes long, whereas the original movie is 1h 27 mins. Also something weird is when I directly play the original .m2v file in media player classic, it only comes out to 59 mins...but when I play the AVS file DIF4U created, it plays for the total time, 1h 27 mins. Something is definitely going on here.

Media player classic not being able to get the correct time from a m2v-stream is actually normal. Don't worry about that.

CCE obviously chokes on the demuxed inputfile around the 32 minute mark and I myself wouldnt be suprised if it turns out to be the dvdrip step coz of arccos after all.

[Angelus]

I'm going to try to re-process the movie but this time demuxing the main movie by VOBID and see if that helps at all. If that doesn't I'll have to re-rip the movie with another method and then go from there.

[Trahald]

I didnt have any issues with this movie.. although i preprocessed it with pgcedit/arccosplugin. does dvdfabdecrypter clean the disk as well as pgcedit/arccos plugin? (ie not just get rid of the errors but get rid of the null cells at the beginning of the movie pgc) if not you may end up with out of sync output.

[Angelus]

I still have problems trying to redo When a Stranger Calls, so I decided to put that aside and backup another movie I just got, Eight Below. It's a Disney release and doesn't have arccos...but when it was loaded into DVD Decrypter it said it found 2 suspect areas of copy protection. I found that the .m2v file created from DIF4U is smaller than the actual movie...yet the .avs file plays fine meaning that the .d2v file from DVD2AVI is correct. So why is this happening, it seems DVD2AVI is working fine, just DVD Decrypter isn't?

[setarip_old]

I don't know what impact this might have on your efforts but, "Eight Below" which is, as you said a Disney release, has "RipGuard" copy protection. After you've ripped it with DVD Decrypter v.3.5.4 (Use "File" mode, select "All files", NOT "movie files"), to properly "clean up", you should load the rip into VOBBlanker, set a new output directory/folder, select "Process all" and then press the "Process" radiobutton...

[Angelus]

^thanks I'll try that. I guess I need to read up on the latest copy protections so I know when to do these steps!

[Orion|69]

^thanks I'll try that. I guess I need to read up on the latest copy protections so I know when to do these steps!

Good thing is that there aren't that much different "latest" copy protections, and the moment you've done them once, you'll recognize them pretty much instantly when having only a little experience.
Searching online about the copy you want to do, would be a good thing as well, because you're bound to not be the first to rip the movie anyway most of the times. People going thru a rough patch and alot of trial&error to publish their findings, even expect you to gain from their knowledge, because that's exactly how they learned :) Knowledge is power - and often it's free :)

Remember : although being a biotch, doing titles that you don't directly master the first time, these are exactly the titles that bring you knowledge, and make you a better ripper/encoder in the end :) It won't bring you recognition, nor (assuming you don't do the bad thing, and just back up your discs legally) will you gain anything from it but knowledge, and yes, it might cost you far more time to do it than you initially planned, but it sure as hell will make you feel good the moment you nail that sucker :)

At least.. that's how I see it - I might be just as well be an ignorant-quality-anal-semi-autistic... then again aren't we all who read this forum? :)

This post being pretty much being off-topic completely, besides the tips, is solely meant to let you know that you are on the right track. Not settling for 1-click-crap-quality will pay off in the end, if only being a personal victory to show yourself you can do it.

Unfortunately I don't own a copy of When A Stranger Calls, otherwise I wouldn't have mind to take you by the hand and show you how to do it step by step (NOTE: be sure to try the way Trahald mentioned - imo thats the only way to do arccos correctly and avoid problems during later steps). Feel free to pm for any questions you might have (as long as it's not for my money - I tend to never have any I can hold on to anyway) :)

[setarip_old]

@Angelus

For what currently appears to be a "foolproof" method of ripping any and all DVDs, you might want to try the just released "RipIt4Me". It does EVERYTHING described in the suggestion by "Trahald" - but is automated, so that it's not necessary to to access DVD Decrypter twice, nor use PGCEdit at all to rip your DVD.

You can get this freeware at:
www.ripit4me.org

[Angelus]

Ok, here goes my persistent problems with Eight Below and other like movies. I processed 8 Below using RipIt4Me using all the steps in the program, including the FixVTS step. Yet when I try to process the movie using DIF4U, I still get the shortened result when encoding the main movie. The demuxed m2v file after DIF4U only plays about 1hr 12 mins, when the movie is over 2 hours long. When I encode it, it only comes out to be 44 mins long, all though at the end of the movie the credits play. Somewhere the time, or pieces of the movie are getting messed up.

One thing I did see was in BatchCCEWS, it said the total number of frames in the movie were 173,242. Yet in the "Chapter Information" file created by DIF4U, the last chapter in this text file lists frame 216,330. So I'm guessing there are more than 216330 frames in the entire movie. It seems that somewhere along the line, DIF4U is failing to demux this correctly. The D2V file created is correct and of the right duration, just the M2V files are wrong. Any ideas?

[D3s7]

well the d2v and avs is created from the demuxed m2v so that doesn't make much sense...

are you using DIF's bitrate calcs or scenaids? It's possible there's an issue there

[Angelus]

I'm using the bitrate calculations from Scenaid (I've already encoded the extras fine, just the main movie left to be encoded). As I mentioned before, when I play the avs in Media Player Classic, the length of the movie is correct (around 2 hours long).

Before when I had the same problem, I tried DIF4U's bitrate calculations which gave a higher bitrate than Scenaid's, and the movie still cam out pretty undersized.

Edit: When you run RipIt4Me, is it wise to uncheck all of the options in DVD Decrypter that relate to structure protection? For example, in DVD D, there's a setting to Remove Structure Protection, and remove IFO Structure Protection...right now those are enabled, would disabling them possibly help out? Because I notice when I run RipIt4Me, after the PSL file is opened in DVD D, the "suspect areas of structure protection" in the log file go from 2, to about 46 after the PSL loaded. Is this a problem?