Stupid question

[glimmerung]

Ok, this could be seen as either an encoding or an authoring question. What I'd like to know is this: is it possible to just rip the whole film to disk (as with http://doom9.org/ifoedit-basic.htm) then, instead of stripping menus, subs and audio tracks, go straight to re-encoding (with TMPGEnc, ReMPEG2 or CCE)? I'm new to this, but it seems to me that if this was done right it would be possible to get a near perfect copy (with a slight downgrade of the picture quality). Of course, I realise I'm almost certainly wrong, I'd just like to know why this can't be done or, better still, be pleasantly surprised by the information that it can.

Thanks for any help.

[p3distxii]

Try it.

Unfortunately it is not that easy.

[guboogi]

sure you can do that. why wouldn't you be able to? simply follow the doom9 guide on ifoedit and cce (http://www.doom9.org/mpg/ifoedit-cce.htm) and you should be able to keep everything about the dvd (with a slight decrease in picture quality for the things you choose to downsample. but with CCE, even that is very little if noticable at all). good luck!

[HomerJ]

I think the title says it all.

Up to now, all I've ever done is "movie only".

Had the "odd" problem from time to time, but I've managed to solve them all. Thanks to the great services of this board, and it's members.

I currently use ReMPEG2 to rencode my movies, but am investigating using CCE as an "upgrade".

Stick at it, choose a "simple" movie to start with

A DVD-5 type (short movie running time) Not too easy to find (most are DVD-9 types) but they are out there.

And, if you have problems please ask on the board, but, remember, "ask the right question, and you'll get the right answer"

Good luck.



HomerJ :)

[guboogi]

i couldn't agree more. you can pretty much copy most dvd's with pretty good results (there are some that are supposedly very complicated) but there are definitely varying difficulty levels for different movies.

i'm pretty new to this whole thing (started maybe a week ago) so i've run into my fair share of confusion, but if you keep at it you'll make progress and figure out how it's done.

i suggest you get down dvd-5's first (from what i understand, you can basically rip the files using smartripper or dvd decrypter, use ifoedit if you want to remove p-ups or make it region free, then burn using nero or primodvd). that should be pretty simple.

as for dvd-9's, i recommend something that has only one PGC (black hawk down is one) and a combination of dvd decrypter, CCE and scenarist. a great guide is the one i mentioned earlier: ifoedit & cce guide (http://www.doom9.org/mpg/ifoedit-cce.htm). try that out and ask questions if you have any. :]

[glimmerung]

Thanks for the replies. Seems the concensus is that, 'yes it can be done' but not that easily.

So far I've been reading all the guides and getting very deep into these forums (great knowlege base by the way), but it's hard work trying to sort out what to do. In some ways there is too much information and it's difficult to work out exactly what is needed.

Gonna keep trying though.

I'm working my way through the CCE and IfoEdit guide at the moment. Sheesh, my head hurts.

[HomerJ]

glimmerung,

Stick with it, I mad the silly mistake of buying a DVD burner, the thought I'd rip a commercial DVD. Boy, did I get that one wrong. However, I stuck at it because I'd just spent all that money, and I wasn't going to make a fool of myself.

Other people were copying OK, so there must be a path there somewhere. Using Rempeg is definately one of the easier paths to start with.

But, if you want to jump in at the deep end, start with CCE.

Keep us posted on your progress.

HomerJ

[glimmerung]

Homer,

Will do (keep you all posted that is).

I kind of knew there was gonna be a learning curve, but I thought, 'Hey, I've done the SVCD thing how hard can it be?'

'Bloody hard,' is the answer.

But hey, I'm learning all about the structure of DVD's and that in itself is worth the time.

[philemon666]

Hi there guys

Just like to say that I'm new to all this shit as well, I bought a burner thinking it was gonna be a piece of cake and that I would have made my money back within a couple of weeks. As things turn out though it is far from straight forward, I've been looking at these forums and guides for a couple of weeks now and at times get more confused than I was in the beginning, I feel like I'm learning things all the time however and I know its only a matter of time before I crack it and get my first DVD burned successfully.

If it wasn't for the money spent I probably would have give this thing up after a couple of days!

Keep me posted all you other newbies, its encouraging to see others make progress.

Cheers

Steve

[slk001]

Your suggestion to "just re-encode everything" will work, but it would be a hell of a lot of work. First off, you need to just re-encode the video - nothing else gets re-encoded. You could conceivable rip out all the VOB ID's on the DVD (including all of the menu tracks) and re-encode them. You would then be faced with the task of "re-authoring" the entire mess. The authoring package that you would need to use would have to be as complex as the original Hollywood package (RE: Scenarist or Maestro). Try this just once, and I would bet that you would never try this again.

But yes, it can be done.

[glimmerung]

To answer my own question: yes it can be done, but it ain't easy. I've done The Mummy Returns, Harry Potter (which was my first and has messed up audio tracks on the trailers - but I know why now and could correct it if I did the movie again) and The Lord of the Rings. Basically it's a case of using the CCE and IfoEdit guide along with the guide on subtitles (www.doom9.org/mpg/dvdsubs.htm) and the "Getting the Best out of CCE" guide (www.doom9.org/mpg/cce-advanced.htm).
You more or less do just stip out the main movie, re-encode it (to make it smaller) then use ifoupdate and ifoedit to put the main movie back into the overall structure and sort out P-UOPs etc. It's fiddly, because you have to consider chapters, subtitles and multiple audio tracks, especially where there are multiple PGCs, but it can be done. So far, I've found that the extras disk for Lord of the Rings was the most difficult, because it had so many PGCs and I think that might be the case for other movies (I didn't bother with the extras disks for Mummy Returns or Harry Potter as I was just using them as practice DVDs and wanted to see if I could rip the whole movie with menus and extras intact). The DVD extras in CCE guide (www.doom9.org/mpg/cce-extras.htm) is also very useful. Setting up CCE to re-encode batches of files all at once really helps speed things up, even if it is a bit fiddly and requires patience and concentration. I got a whole load of files with a start time of 01:00:00:00 the first time I did this because I forgot to change the setting in the first file and copied all the settings over to all the other files in the list - about 15. I had to do the whole lot again, but it only took me a few seconds to set it up once I realised what the mistake had been.

Anyway, I'm going on a bit, but I just wanted to say that 1:1 copies can usually be done.
I'm not even going to try the Matrix yet, though.
Has anyone ever managed to do a complete copy of this movie with everything (and I mean everyting) intact?