Combining 2 DVDs into one MKV (x264+OGG+sub).

[betaserver]

I want to combine 2 DVDs (parts 1 and 2 of "Schindler's List") into one MKV file.

What's the best way to do this? Should I combine the VOBs and then convert? Should I combine and convert the separate components and then mux them? Or should I simply combine the MKVs in the end?

I'm guessing from what I've read that options 1 and 3 aren't really appropriate for what I'm doing (I wish to combine the 2 video, audio, and subtitle streams into 1 stream each). If that's really the case:


How do I combine 2 M2V files and convert them to x264? I'm guessing AVISynth can do this, but the editor that comes with MeGUI doesn't include the feature.
How do I combine 2 AC3 files? Should I combine them before or after conversion (OGG), and how do I actually do it? Will I lose synchronization by combining them? (That is, do audio and video files combine differently? Will the combined audio be exactly the same length as the combined video?)
How do I combine 2 subtitle files? (IDX and SUB, extracted using VobSub.) Will the length of the resulting file be exactly the same as that of the video/audio?


Thanks for your help!

[foxyshadis]

Most rippers will use avisynth, and as long as that's the case for yours, it becomes trivial to do that. Rip both to your hard drive normally, start your processing for one, and it'll generate some sort of script like:

mpeg2source("d:\video\schindler1\vts1_01.d2v").Audiodub(nicac3source("d:\video\schindler1\vts1_01.ac3"))
....

You start processing the second one, leave the first alone, and it'll generate a similar script. Now you pull the source lines out of it and just add them to the first one, like

mpeg2source("d:\video\schindler1\vts1_01.d2v").Audiodub(nicac3source("d:\video\schindler1\vts1_01.ac3"))
last ++ mpeg2source("d:\video\schindler2\vts1_01.d2v").Audiodub(nicac3source("d:\video\schindler2\vts1_01.ac3"))

Then you resume processing like normal, and you'll end up with one file with both segments. MeGUI and staxrip can both deal with doing this, but since gordian knot uses another method for the audio, you would have to combine them manually, which is quite a bit more difficult to do while retaining sync, since audio is typically offset a fraction of a second.

Subtitles I'm not sure if you can do that, you might ask in the dedicated forum. You might ave to use subrip to convert to srt, combine, then convert back to vobsub if you want. Once ocr'd, you have to get aegisub (or subtitle workshop) and shift all rows in the second by the length of the first video (not the subs), then paste them both together.

It's possible you can also simply convert both normally and append the two mkvs in mkvmerge.

[sujit]

mkvmerge (http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/downloads.html) has answers to all your questions.

[foxyshadis]

Only if you manually set the delays on the audio and subtitles correctly, and only if you encode the video properly (with a random --sps-id).

[sujit]

i havnt anytime tried the following, but i guess it should work. you can load all the vobs from the two dvds in dgindex, this way u get a single ac3. similarly, after encoding, u get a single video file. if there are any delays in the audio, dgindex will indicate that and mkvmerge will set it for you. u can the rip the subs from the two dvds seperately. try using append in mkvmerge. it there is delay, u can manually set it.