Extracting previews from DVD

[miltHTPC]

I have been building a library of movie previews on hard disk. I do
this so that when I have a movie party, and the group is trying to
decide what movie to watch, I can easily show the previews of
the movies under discussion to assist in making the decision.

I have been getting the previews for my library by extracting
them from my DVDs. I have been using CloneDVD2 for this.
(And additionally, when there are multiple previews in a single
DVD chapter, I have been using Adobe Premiere Elements to
extract each preview from its containing chapter.)

All this works very well and goes pretty fast in the great majority
of cases. However, I have encountered (so far) 5 DVDs where
CloneDVD2 doesn't see the previews on the DVD as extractable
clips (A Man for all Seasons, Persuasion, Sense and Sensibility,
Rounders, and Amadeus). Using DVDShrink, I can see that on
these DVDs the previews are different because they are encoded
as menu items, not as "titles".

So, first I tried to use Adobe Premiere Elements to extract the
previews out of the appropriate .VOB files. This doesn't work
because the sound is always out of sync with the video.

DVDShrink doesn't work to extract these previews because you
have to throw away the menus in order to do re-authoring.

I tried a demo copy of DVD95Copy Pro, but frankly I couldn't
figure out how to work it to extract any individual clips from a
DVD, much less menu items.

I looked at the web site for DVDFab Platinum. Just looking at the
sample screen shots, it looked much like CloneDVD2 in its
capabilities for customizing. It doesn't seem to separate out the
various parts of the menu system.

So, before I spend money to actually try DVDFab Platinum, I
thought I would try this post. Does anybody here have any
advice for me on what program might be able to extract the
previews on these DVDs (with the sound in sync, of course).

Many Thanks.

--Milt--

[manono]

Hi-

No need to spend any money. For titles, DVD Decrypter in IFO Mode can select and decrypt to VOB the individual previews from the DVD in the DVD-ROM. If they are in the menus, although there may be a way to get them directly from the DVD in the DVD-ROM, I don't know of a way. Put the entire DVD onto the hard drive, open PGCDemux, select the IFO that contains what you want, tick the "Menus" button, check the "Create a PGC VOB File" box, select the correct menu item from the drop-down box, give it an "Output Folder" and "Process". If you've selected the right menu item, you'll get it as an in-synch VOB file. If you want to reencode it, it might be more useful to demux it.

http://download.videohelp.com/jsoto/dvdtools.htm

Maybe there's a faster way that someone can tell us.

[miltHTPC]

Many thanks to manono for the suggestion of using PGCDemux.
I have downloaded it and tried it and it comes pretty close to
working!

On the these DVDs, the menus of interest have several items
in them. Take one example, A Man for All Seasons. Using
DVDShrink we see "Menus" -> "Title Menus" -> "English" ->
"Menu 1" : "Menu 2" : "Menu 3", where "Menu 1" is the Columbia
Tristar logo, "Menu 2" is the legal warnings, and "Menu 3" is the
preview I want to extract. When I apply PGCDemux as per your
instructions, I get only "Menu 1" into a .VOB in the target
directory. (And, I get the same results whether or not I check
the "One file per VID" option under the "Create a PGC VOB file"
box.)

Am I maybe doing something wrong? Is there any way to get
PGCDemux to go on and do all the menu items (even if they are
all merged into one VOB)? If not, any other suggestions as to
tools?

Many thanks.

--Milt--

[manono]

Hi-

Then try also ticking "Single Cell" under "Mode". However, if they're all part of the same cell you'll have no choice but to extract the cell VOB and cut it, using something like MPEG2Cut. The audio will still remain in synch:

http://www.digital-digest.com/dvd/downloads/showsoftware_mpeg2cut_294.html

[miltHTPC]

Unfortunately, "Single Cell" doesn't work either -- it still only yields
the first part of the menu, which doesn't include the part I want.

For kicks, I also tried the third choice "by VOB id". That doesn't
work either.

Any other suggestions (from anybody)? The clip I want can be
seen and played with DVDShrink so easily, with sound exactly
in sync! There's got be be a way to get at that little sucker.

BTW, Adobe Premiere Elements 3.0 works just fine to take a
VOB, cut it down, and put out a playable DVD folder.

Thanks.

--Milt--

[manono]

Hi,

I didn't really understand this statement:
Unfortunately, "Single Cell" doesn't work either -- it still only yields
the first part of the menu, which doesn't include the part I want.
You seem to be saying you didn't locate the cell you wanted. Didn't you use the drop-down box to check out the other cells? Rest assured, the part you want is in there somewhere.

If that doesn't work for you, then try this. It may be a little easier to understand what's going on. Open the DVD in VobBlanker. Highlight the VTS containing the menu and hit "Menu" to the right. In the new screen, highlight the menu at the top. The PGCs will show in the bottom panel. Find the one that contains what you want (perhaps using the Pre/Cut button), highlight it and hit "Cells" to the right. In the new screen, see if the menu is divided into several cells, or is all contained in one cell. If all-in-one, then you can extract it, but you'll get all the stuff which will still have to be cut. If there are several cells, you can choose the one you want to extract.

[setarip_old]

@miltHTPC

Hi!

If you can determine (as you apparently can) which .VOB contains the desired video, there's no reason you can't load it into "MPEG2Cut.EXE" (by "Dark Avenger"), as already suggested by "manono", and simply visually set your start and end points and save.

[miltHTPC]

@manono
You are right. I had noticed the drop down menu, but its displayed
contents were so arcane I hadn't deciphered it as list of cells.
Using this menu to find the right cell has let me extract the previews
I wanted. Thank you. One small difficulty is that previews
extracted this way frequently have a small audio sync problem,
sometimes just barely noticible, sometimes annoying. (But, this is
a much less serious audio sync problem than I get just trying to
extract straight from a VOB).

@setarip_old
I set out to download MPEG2Cut to give it a try, and got lost in
a maze of web sites that either didn't load, or just gave me a lot
of ads, or seemed too sleazy to be trusted. Is there some reason
to think that MPEG2Cut will be able to avoid the serious audio sync
problems that occur when Adobe Premiere Elements is used to
do this kind of cutting? If so, I would appreciate a pointer to
a trustworthy web site for downloading MPEG2Cut. Thanks.

--Milt--

[manono]

One small difficulty is that previews
extracted this way frequently have a small audio sync problem...
Did you check for a delay by hitting the "Check A/V Delay" button? Delays can be easily fixed, although not without demuxing, fixing the AC3 audio, and then remuxing. I'm surprised that you found out-of-synch audio, though, as I've never seen one when demuxing a VOB using PGCDemux. I'm not doubting you; I'm just surprised.

[manono]

As for MPEG2Cut, you can find its successor (MPG2Cut2) here:

http://www.videohelp.com/tools/Mpg2Cut2

A safe place for the original MPEG2Cut is here:

http://www.digital-digest.com/dvd/downloads/showsoftware_mpeg2cut_294.html