Author DVD with two versions of film like T2 Ultimate edition.

[StifflerStealth]

Hi,

I would like to make a dvd that offers two versions of a film: The theatrical release and then the extended version. I know by looking at the T2 disc, all the scense are in order, but some are skiped depending on which choice is chosen in the menu.

Like with all things, there's a catch. I want to creat this dvd from a DVD that I already have. The studio refuses to release an extended cut of the film, but included deleted scenes on the second disk. I wish to integrate them into the movie and make it so I can select which movie I want: original or extended. This way I use a burned disc to play the movie and I don't use my original disc. I have destroyed a few discs by accident in the past, so I try not to work with original discs anymore. It is legal for me to take the DVDs I own and edit them how I wish. :P I thought this would be a good project to get my hands dirty in advanced DVD Authroing.

I have access to Scenarist and several other programs.

My questions:
1) What would be your recommended software ideas to do this seemlessly and make sure there is no stuttering or artifacts on Seemless Jumps?

2) Is there a guide on how to do this? Can someone point me to it?

3) Is there software that can separate music from the voice? Or better yet, how would I do scense that integrate into existing scense where there is music and voice. Also, the background music would change for the extended scene. Do I need 2 audio tracks?

4) Do I need to rip the DVD in a special way, like choosing Cell method to produce individual cells? What are the other settings for the ripper? Do I need to (de)mux?

5) Would Adobe Encore DVD work for this? That runs better for me. Or the tool Muxman? :S Or sony vegas? I haven't used these last two tools I mentioned. What about DVD-Lab Pro? I only used it once in my life though.

How do you create the menu to point to these two different features?

Thanks,
SS

[PhillipWyllie]

Answer to question 0.) It is illegal to edit commercial DVDs, also it's illegal to bypass the copy protection.
Now if you're doing a home made DVD:
1.) You're always going to get "pauses" when you jump non-seamlessly. If you do this at a fade out/ in type scene change you won't notice it too much(if at all). A wee solution I found to the artifact question is to do a (10 to 25 frame for pal, 12 to 30 frame for NTSC)fade from the last frame(image) to the first frame(image), this can be done with avisynth's dissolve. Then encode this, although this little video is going to be elsewhere(non-seamlessly), and it'll intoduce an extra 1sec of video, I found no artifacts appear. Oh make sure have corresponding audio and subtitles to keep everything hunkey-dorey.
4.) Just rip it by VobID(do you have access to DVD Reauthor by chance?)

[mpucoder]

To do this properly you need an authoring program capable of seamless multi-story. Scenarist does not have this capability.
The artefacts can also be eliminated by encoding with closed or self-contained GOPs at the start of each point where the 2 stories converge.

[PhillipWyllie]

Hi, mpucoder, will you be introducing seamless multi-story into muxman? Also mpucoder's method for eliminating artifacts is much better, which can be done by simply adding chapter points in CCE.

[bigotti5]

There is something similar to multi-story in muxman (premium and professional only).
Multiplex directives permit pseudo seamless branching (without ILVU).

[mpucoder]

And, yes, version 2 will have seamless multi-story (the real kind)

[StifflerStealth]

Thanks for all your replies. :) It's a shame that Scenarist can't do seemless branching. I thought I read that it did.

I do not have access to DVD Reauthor. I am going to need to read up more on muxman.

Are there any programs out there at all right now that can do seemless branching? Or, something similar?

EDIT: Speaking of CCE, is there a program that I can use that will allow me to queue up a bunch of .m2v files and run them through CCE so, I can force a start of a GOP at the begining of the file? I do not want to change the bitrate, just force a GOP start. Also I want to be able to trim off parts of a video file or split a video file and I need the .ac3 audio file to be trimmed and split at the same place that the video file is. Is there a nice simple program that will allow me to do this?

[PhillipWyllie]

If you run a file through CCE(encoding) the first GOP is always closed. If you want to make the first(or any other for that matter) without re-encoding don't use CCE(as it doesn't transcode only encodes). I don't know of any program that would do this, but it would be nice to know if there was.

[Arky]

Take it from me, SS, you're giving yourself an even bigger challange here than I think you truly realise! :)

I am always pleased to see people undertaking this kind of challenge, from an intellectual point of view, because it can lead to innovation. However, the sheer number of pitfalls in this kind of attempted project is incredibly daunting. I'm not saying this to be 'negative', I'm saying it to warn you that your chances of success are slim and you should be aware of this, from the outset, before deciding whether you will go ahead with it or not. Whether you fail or succeed, one thing is certain - you will undoubtedly spend MANY days or weeks on this, so you must be honest with yourself and ask if you are willing to invest this much time into the desired end result.

Having said that, I nonetheless draw your attention to the RFK quote in my sig below! :)

Incidentally, without getting into the deconstructive facets of your proposed project, I did discuss constructive options for pseudo-Seamless-Multi-Story authoring in Scenarist, in a recent post on another site. Although I am reticent to point you to a commercial site, as I have the utmost respect for the nature of this forum, I should point out that my discussion in the post in question, in no way requires the use of the product to which the website pertains, so, if I may, you will find the post here (if anyone objects to this, please do PM me):

www .dvdafteredit.com/?q=node/1413

The above post, admittedly, does not refer specifically to the kind of implementation of SM-S that you need, however, it does discuss some related issues, regarding undesired user-navigation within interleaved sections of the VOB etc.

To be honest, if I was faced with your project, I'd build the longer version from the deconstructed fragments and then simply have the shorter story version created as a PGC. Of course, this is not truly seamless, however, at least all the necessary PGs for the short-story and the long story PGCs are all contained within one and the same domain so the pauses during playback should hopefully not be too severe. Either that, or have both story versions have their own data and encode them at a low-enough bitrate to allow you to squeeze them both onto a DVD-9.


I wish you the best of luck with your project, should you choose to go ahead with it.


Arky ;o)