What software to combine 2 DVDs with menus?

[victorth]

I've ripped 2 short DVDs, each with a menu (and, of course, various video streams).
Their total size is such that they'd fit together on a single DVD.
They have the same video size, parameters, etc.

I want to put them on a single DVD with a simple menu that
allows either one to be selected.

What software should I use to do that? I'd prefer to avoid any re-encoding
of the original material.

I could use convertxtodvd, but it seems to re-encode everything (unless I've
missed a setting).

[Ghitulescu]

dvd remake

[victorth]

dvd remake

Thanks for the suggestion.

DVD Remake did it, but I'll have to figure out what to do about the functional but less-than-elegant menu that it generates. Haven't checked out that feature yet.

Is there another application that can replace the automatically generated menu?

Also, DVD Remake's UI is confusing and not at all intuitive. But I can live with that.

[Ghitulescu]

you're not the first that wanted to join 2 DVDs, I think you realize this ;) Have a short search, both for join (the are other methods too) and for menu. You'd be surprised :)

[victorth]

you're not the first that wanted to join 2 DVDs, I think you realize this ;) Have a short search, both for join (the are other methods too) and for menu. You'd be surprised :)

Yup, lots of others have wanted to join 2 DVDs. But when I searched what I found was (a) people mostly just wanted to append VOBs into a single movie, or (2) they wanted to create a DVD with a menu for a few movies. Most of the searches found software talking about joining/merging VOBs (single streams).

I found almost no software claiming to be able to combine complete ripped DVDs that had menus. I knew convertxtodvd could do it (but it seems to reencode) but that was it. Thanks to you I now know about DVD Remake, which doesn't reencode.

I'm using DVDStyler to create a new menu to replace the one that DVD Remake provides.

I'm certainly open to other suggestions or comments.

[73ChargerFan]

I'm interested also, and will check out dvdstyler.

I've got dozens of children's videos, each with 30-45 minutes of video.

[victorth]

I'm interested also, and will check out dvdstyler.

I've got dozens of children's videos, each with 30-45 minutes of video.

Based on my limited experience, DVDStyler seems to be very sensitive to the order that you do things in, and some things just didn't seem to work properly. However, in the end I was able to generate a menu that was almost exactly what I wanted. Don't expect to be immediately successful. Instead, experiment with generating dummy DVDs of really short clips until you get the hang of it.

[Ghitulescu]

I'm interested also, and will check out dvdstyler.

I've got dozens of children's videos, each with 30-45 minutes of video.

For you, maybe the TDA is the best choice. TDA = tmpgenc dvd author, for versions below 1.6 I know for sure that it doesn't reencode, reports are that neither higher versions, yet they need to be somehow tricked.

[lych_necross]

I've used DVD Lab (http://www.mediachance.com/dvdlab/) in the past to do this. Its not free, but there is a free trial. Its got a nice and fairly intuitive interface as well.