What is ReAuthorist?

[dssgorila]

sounds good to me :)

[hendrix]

Cant wait til ReAuthorist comes out

Thanks to Aquabubble, Derrow, BBWolf, Eyes'Only, Lightning UK, Doom9 and everyone who help make dvd back-ups less "pain in the ass"
all i can do is donate.

hendrix

[jerschwab]

the soon to be released version of ReAuthorist will also create a file compatible with DoCCE4U.

How's it coming with the DoCCE4U integration? Are you confident enough in DC4U's ECL creation yet? I tried your program on the weekend for the first time and it looks just awesome! I couldn't believe it when I opened up Scenarist and saw everything in it's place!

Anyhow, keep up the good work! You'll see a donation from me as well sometime in the future!

[brashquido]

Everyone seems to have a copy of the ReAuthourist beta except for me :(

OK, I've had my cry now, I'll be good ;) . It's like waiting for Christmas when you're a little kid or something, I'm checking the forum every couple of hours to see if it's out yet.

*edit*

Oh yeah, If ReAuthourist does what it sounds like it will, I'll happily donate some $$ too :) . Although the stupid Aussie dollar isn't worth much anywhere else :(

[dssgorila]

im anxious too, Scenarist gives me a headache

[toolman2k]

please give us the tool! we all want it! finally good encoding on the whole disc...not just the movie...finally extras that are watchable.....:)

[hendrix]

im with toolman2k

HOOK US UP! :D

[MLS]

Sounds like a really sweet program, can't wait for public release :)

/MLS

[Fmazzanti]

hi,

first of all, I must say that this is my first contact with DoItFast4U
and Reauthorist, although I've been fighting with IfoEdit and CCe for a while now (will partial success I must admit). In any case, yesterday I installed all the components and started a project, but maybe I'm missing something 'cause I got stuck at an intermediate point due probably to incomplete knowledge about how these tools are to be used.

I want to backup a DVD which contains 2 PGCs in VTS_01, one for the main movie and another for a tiny blank stream. There are also other VTSs in the DVD, some of them contain things you can't remove (as trailers of movies that show up upon insertion of the DVD into the player and prior to the root menu) while others are extras that one can safely take away. I decided to get rid of these extras, so I launched DoItFast4U and ripped only those VTSs I wanted to keep. Furthermore, I did not deselect any audio or subtitle stream because, according to the Reauthorist README, one can do that in Reauthorist. Well I let DoItFast4U rip the thing and I must say it did it *perfectly* (I was certainly impressed about how good this tool is actually). once that was over, I closed DoItFast4U and started ReAuthorist. Pointed the working directory to the folder where the VTSs ripped by DoItFast4U were and... Rauthorist crashed :(
Repeated it and the same result.
Then I decided to point the working directory to the VTS01 folder created by DoItFast4U (which was located inside the RIP folder) and Reauthorist didn't crash, but it showed no subpicture streams to select (the selection box was empty), and I couldn't make it find them.

Now obvioously this means I'm doing something wrong, but don't know what. So maybe somebody can answer a few questions I have so that I can understand better what these programs do in order to trace down the problem.

1) These tools are meant to reauthor the DVD. But does this means that the resulting DVD is going to have *exactly* the same structure as the original one? I mean, if in the original DVD there are titles that play upon insertion on the standalone (as the many many trialers that show up in Disney disks at the very beginning), should these be kept in order to have a working project? I guess the answer is yes, but still would like to confirm it.

2) can I deselct titles/audios/subtitles in DoItFast4U and feed the result to ReAuthorist, or should I rip everything first with the former and make the selections with the later?

Ok, I thing this is enough right now. I must add that although I haven't succeded (yet) both tools look really amazing!

Cheers.

[aquabubble]

Hi fmazzanti,

Sorry to hear you are having problems. First of all, can I ask what version you are using? Please make sure you are using the The latest is 0.5.1 - this fixes some problems when loading certain projects.

In answer to your questions:

1. The aim is to replicate the DVD structure pretty much exactly. However, with careful attention you can remove those segments of video you mention - so long as they are replaced with a short, blank piece of video to keep the structure intact.

2. My preferred way of doing things is to rip everything and deselect appropriate assets in ReAuthorist since this will retain the exact DVD structure as the original and let you interactively see the effect on DVD size of deselecting different items. However, if you absolutely know that you're not going to need a specific stream then by all means deselect it in DoItFast4U.

[VerbaL]

Hi,

Just trying out the new beta and it seems that a lot has been improved once again. Really appreciate the efforts aquabubble and everyone that's working on these tools.

First times I tried ReAuthorist, I didn't use DoCCE4U but manually loaded the ECL file into CCE. Now I thought I'd give DC4U a try and I noticed that DC4U isn't loading the Bias and QFactor settings from ReAuthorist. Is this a known issue or should it have taken those from ReAuthorist as well?

Greetz,
verb

[aquabubble]

Thx VerbaL

Yeah, currently DoCCE4U is not able to take all of my settings so you will lose the bias and IQP. However, I have been working with BBWoof on modifications to his input file to allow all of these to be passed across. As soon as he is ready to release this version, I will get a new ver of RA out to use it. You can expect to see this quite soon.

[VerbaL]

Great! Thx for the update. I find it quite amazing how you co-operate with the other toolmakers and how quick program updates are being released.

[waldok]

We sure have a powerful trio here with Aquabubble, BBWoof and Eyes'Only. These guys rule.

Waldok:cool:

[Fmazzanti]

@aquabubble,
I'm also sorry about ReAuthorist crashing, but such is life... since this is my first contact with these tools, I can't really say is a ReAuthorist problem, I tend to think it's me who's messing up things.
In any case here's what I see: after DoItFast4U does its job, I have a folder that contains subfolders VTS01 to VTS09. VTS01 is the VTS of the main movie with 2 PGCs, and IfoEdit shows that PGC1 (=main movie) uses VOB IDs:1,2,3 while PGC2 is a tiny blank stream using VOB Id:3. If Iunderstand things correctly, this should not be a problem...
And well, ReAuthorist crashes when tries to load the contents of VTS02, which has copyrights etc. If I set the working directory to VTS01, then ReAuthorist doesn't crash but doesn't see any subpicture stream either (and there are 32 of them).
And yes, I'm using the last beta 0.5.1 Tried also with 0.5.0.5 and the same problem...
If you fell this might be something related to your prog, feel free to ask me for any info. As i said, I'm not sure this is really a bug, but probably you can tell better.
Anyway I keep thinking your tool together with Eyes Only one are heaven sent ;)
BTW thanks for the answer to my questions.

[Fmazzanti]

Ok, after messnig around I managed to have ReAuthorist recognising subtitles in VTS_01 8however the total project still crashes one it reaches VTS02). So I point the working directory of Reauthorist to the VTS01 folder created by DoItFast4U. After choosing audios, I hit the encode button and DoCCE shows up as expected... It then loads
VTS__01_P01.16-9_1 and... nothing happens (remember this is the first time I use it), so I hit the play button and a dialog looking for the .ecl file appears. I then load the .ecl file created by Reauthorist and DoCCE says the following
ERROR: Could not locate the CCE File Open dialog
ERROR: Could not load ECL file into CCE
but CCE is there and I can hit the 'encode' button myself and let it run over the loaded .ecl file (which does a 1pass VBR at Q=40 and then stops)... what is it I'm missing?

[dssgorila]

aquabubble
can i get an estimate as to how many days till the release of reauthorist. i dont mean to put pressure or anything im just curious to know when it will be available

[ShaneZ]

Well, after about a week I finally got a chance to check out your new work Aqua. :) Everything worked out great and you know if I didn't crash it, it must be pretty friggen stable.

Good job

:)

[brashquido]

I just finished my first ReAuthourist project, and from a total novice point of view I think it's fantastic tool!

Although I had no idea what I was doing, and actually intended to do a full 1:1 conversion, I ended up with a movie only result :rolleyes: .

As this is my first sucessful CCE/Scenarist based conversion, I'm was trully amazed with the resulting video quality. In a nutsell, quality = original :D :cool:

I'm going to play a bit more to see if I can find out why I got Movie only, I'm pretty sure I know what it was. I think I only imported the reautourist.scp file into scenarist, instead of all of the **.scp files ReAuourist produced.

[fourtyfour]

servus...

What do you expect?

It is a movie only tool.

You can use IfoUpdate for menu ect. to create a full backup.

[aquabubble]

When used correctly, ReAuthorist can help you achieve a full DVD copy in next to no time - it was never invisaged as a movie only tool, although I suppose it could be used for this. Anyway, please make sure you are following the instructions properly. Make sure you have "Create VIDEO_TS using unused VTSes" checked on in DoItFast4U and the following should work perfectly:

[list=1]
Rip those VTSs you need ripping by PGC in DoItFast4U
Start up ReAuthorist
Select your rip folder. (ReAuthorist will process all subfolders)
Move through your Title Sets (VTSs) and remove any unwanted audio and subpicture streams
Once you are happy with what's going to be in the project, either click on the Auto-Size button, or manually go through your PGCs to change the bitrates in order to get your project to fit on a DVD-R
Click on Encode to launch DoCCE4U and create your re-encoded files
Import the ReAuthorist.SCP script into Scenarist
Wait patiently while Scenarist does its stuff. If you wish, verify that your tracks have created successfully and with the correct audio/languages etc and that the Scenario looks appropriate
Get Scenarist to author your VOBs and IFOs
Copy the authored VOB files to the location of your other files, i.e. the VIDEO_TS folder that DoItFast4U created for you (excluding any VTS dummies unless you're ditching the VTS completely)
Run IfoUpdate on the original IFOs and correct the VTS sectors
Test it and burn it baby!
[/list=1]

[Fmazzanti]

Hi,
bad news again. I tried a second DVD and at least this time it goes through DoItFast4U and ReAuthorist until the end. However, when I load the project in Scenarist and copile, it spits the following messages

Info
Info Creating DVD Files
Warning Sub-Picture (stream 1 in Track "VTS_01_PGC_01") is across scene boundary at 00:11:19;05
Error The Audio Attribute(Language, coding mode and so on) in PGC<VTS_01_PGC_02pgc>:Stream<0>:Title<Title102> is different from The Reference PGC<VTS_01_PGC_01pgc>
Error The Audio Attribute(Language, coding mode and so on) in PGC<VTS_01_PGC_06pgc>:Stream<0>:Title<Title103> is different from The Reference PGC<VTS_01_PGC_01pgc>
Error The Audio Attribute(Language, coding mode and so on) in PGC<VTS_01_PGC_06pgc>:Stream<1>:Title<Title103> is different from The Reference PGC<VTS_01_PGC_01pgc>
Error PreCheck From DB failed
Error DVD files could not be created

and does not compile anything. Well... time to do the backup 'old style' I guess.

Cheers!

[aquabubble]

I think there may be a problem with DoItFast4U in setting the language in the audio/subs filenames. All you need to do to correct this is to go through your tracks in Scenarist and make sure that those audio streams in the same positions within a VTS are set to the same language. Then everything will work perfectly I assure you.

Don't give up so easily! ;)

[Fmazzanti]

@aquabubble,
thanks for the advice. Apparently it worked and now the project compiles...
Now please don't think I want to surrender. I have a backup pending to do today, but that doesn't mean I'm going to withdraw. I asked you for the beta of ReAuthorist and you sent it to me, so now i have the responsability to give you my feedback and I try to do it. That is the LEAST thing I can do...
BTW I still have to send to you the file you requested. It will be comming either today or tomorrow...

[brashquido]

Hey aquabubble,

I followed your steps to the letter and I've got my 1:1 copy :D :D. Came out at 4484MB, so there is no wasted space either:D.

It came out so close to the original, I never thought it was possible. Apart froma few audio/visual stutters and artifacts in the extras, it is to my eye 100% identical. I find it weird that there are these artifacts in the extras though, as I didn't re-encode them. They are all straight from the DVD rip, should be identical to the original?:confused:

*edit*

Forgot to say that when I went to burn it with Nero 5.5.10.7 it came up with an error saying a vob file was missing, but it burnt and seems to work on both my PC and set top player. Could this have anything to do with the artifacts? Not that it really matters, just curious is all.

[brashquido]

Just thinking, could the artifact, and nero errors be due to this conversion being so close to the maximum limit of the DVD-R limit? The conversion I did came out at 4,699,965,440 bytes which only leaves 34,560 bytes left on the disc. Could this upset it in this way?

I don't believe it's media (could be wrong) as I'm using Pioneer DVD-RW media for testing like I normally do, and it's never been a problem before.

[ShaneZ]

Originally posted by brashquido
Just thinking, could the artifact, and nero errors be due to this conversion being so close to the maximum limit of the DVD-R limit? The conversion I did came out at 4,699,965,440 bytes which only leaves 34,560 bytes left on the disc. Could this upset it in this way?

I don't believe it's media (could be wrong) as I'm using Pioneer DVD-RW media for testing like I normally do, and it's never been a problem before.

Nero could be the problem. I used to use it to burn, but now I created my dvdr iso with ImgTools and burn back with DVD Decrypter. I had artifact problems as well and it seemed to clear up a lot of the flakey little problems I was having.

@Waldok:
I stand corrected :)

[waldok]

@Shanez, is this "DVD Decoder" an app you just wrote ? :p :p
or did you mean "DVD Decrypter" ? :D

@aquabubble : Sorry to say this, but I have a constant crash (error : cannot write to memory at adress blabla") with the latest Beta at import time on the movie Snatch R2. Tried the same operation on the same DIF4U-generated files with the 0.49 version and it works fine.
I'm sorry I can't give much more details right now, the movie is Snatch R2, 20 VTS, nothing special apparently.

Maybe you can get this movie and try by yourself ? I just used latest DIF4U, unchecked all "non english" audio streams, and kept French subtitles only.
I really don't know what else I could say to help. Really, trying this by yourself is your best bet.


Good luck.

Waldok:cool:

[aquabubble]

Hi waldok,

Hmmm... this is an odd error. Not seen any problems like this in a long while. I will email you to get more details if that's okay - my log file contains a lot of information that is useful to me.

Actually, to all my beta testers... Until ReAuthorist goes public, if you get any bugs with the betas, please could you email them to me rather than using the forums? Thanks :)

To anybody else reading this, don't worry - I'm working hard to make sure the public release is as flawless as possible :D

[SniperKilla]

heh, /me cant wait to get his hands on it

[hendrix]

@aquabubble i'd like to be a beta tester - i do a lot of episode dvds
(ie simpsons, oz, etc.) i want to check out how well your proggy can handle them.

TIA
Hendrix

hendrix_lars AT hotmail.com

[waldok]

Aquabubble,

Sorry, I just mixed up everything, as I used PM with eyes Only for a DIF4U bug instead of using the forum and used the forum for "your bug "instead of emailing or pm you.
Maybe I should stop drinking after all... :D

Waldok:cool:

[hendrix]

@ waldok

don't stop drinking man :angry:

[Fmazzanti]

Hi,
I knowbug reporst and stuff like that should go PM, but I just wanted to say that the second backup I reported to fail (where end credits of the main movie were missing) has finally surrendered to the power of ReAuthorist. Don't ask me what I did 'cause I started messing around with my PC until I had things fixed, but after that I started all over again and this time got a *perfect* copy. This program really rocks and I'm happy to be a beta tester...
Cheers.

[dssgorila]

what version of docce4u and doitfast4u do i need for reauthorist

[redeemer-dk]

Is it possible to post a link to the newest ReAuthorist or can you send it to my email?

Thanks a bunch. Sounds like a great prog!

rune.svendsen@mail.com

[d4g]

you probally got my msg in mirc but ill post here anyway so i can get an answer


ok when u rip by angles in doitfast4u and the subs are named with a1 a2 and so forth

when i use reauthorist ra it doesnt import those files....i have to import it it looks like it doesnt recognise the a1 and a2 files..but when i rename them to the non angle way they import fine can you look into this thanx

d4g

[brashquido]

d4g I think aquabubble is wanting to keep all discussion regarding the operation/enhancement/bugs of ReAuthorist restricted to the e-mail addresses included in the readme file that comes with the beta. Just so the non-beta testers don't feel left out, and to avoid confusion. Nice feedback though :)

[SkoalWintergreen]

Any release date information on this yet? sounds like it is working for a lot of beta testers? I do a lot of movie only, stripped to sing PGC, if the program can easily do that maybe a movie only release so the general public can get a feel for the program? either way just curious, pretty excited about this.

[GlenC]

Hi,

Reauthorist is designed for keeping the whole or most of the dvd intact. Single pgc's can be done without this program with ease.

It is not a rip tool such as instant copy or dvd2one.

The process is dvddecrypter->dif4u->reauthorist->docce4u->reauthorist->scenarist->ifoupdate

It's still a longish process to go through, probably around 24 hours computer time? in total, but the final output, your complete dvd in VERY high quality, is worth it.

As Aquabubble say, it's for the purists.


Glen.

[ShaneZ]

Originally posted by GlenC
Hi,

Reauthorist is designed for keeping the whole or most of the dvd intact. Single pgc's can be done without this program with ease.

It is not a rip tool such as instant copy or dvd2one.

The process is dvddecrypter->dif4u->reauthorist->docce4u->reauthorist->scenarist->ifoupdate

It's still a longish process to go through, probably around 24 hours computer time? in total, but the final output, your complete dvd in VERY high quality, is worth it.

As Aquabubble say, it's for the purists.


Glen.

I was gonna reply as well, but I think you pretty much summed up everything that needed to be said. :)

Aqua has done one hell of a job.

[Fmazzanti]

Need some help here :)

I've been backing up a movie with Reauthorist. I've followed Aqua's instructions, but the final result does not play properly :(

Trouble is with VTS_01, where the main movie resides. It has 2 PGCs, the second one being a blank stream of 0.15 secs. I go through all the steps and Scenarist compiles the project, but the final VTS_01.IFO contains 2 cells less than the original one. These cells correspond to positions where Vob_ID changes in the original files, while in the generated by Scenarist there's only one Vob_ID.
So IfoUpdate fails when doing its job, complaining about the number of cells not being the same in the original and authored file.
If I understand that correctly (although I'm not sure at all about this) IfoUpdate must be run in Adjusted cell mode, isn't it? I've tried all modes and only Standard works, but the resulting project does not play propperly. Can someone help me? I don't know what I'm doing wrong... Please indicate what would be the right mode in IfoUpdate. I've been using the prior to latest release of ReAuthorist, 'cause I don't have the latest one yet. I'll download it and run it on this project once again, anyway. However, I'd like to understand what's going on...


Originally posted by GlenC

The process is dvddecrypter->dif4u->reauthorist->docce4u->reauthorist->scenarist->ifoupdate


What? According to aqua's readme, the second reauthorist step (the one you write before scenarist) is not there... what is it for?

Thanks.

[GlenC]

Hi,

The first Reauthorist step is to set the vts sizes, after this docce4u is called. The second Reauthorist step is creating the scenarist project.

Glen.

Btw. Excellent job Aquabubble!!

[ShaneZ]

There was a slight error with RA handline NTSC video in RA 0.6.0.3beta but Aqua has just released 0.6.0.4beta that should solve the problems.

Hope that helps before you swamp Aqua with bug reports. :)

Shane

[Fmazzanti]

Thanks for the answer! But still I'm missing something... I usually do both steps at once, before running docce4u, and maybe that's the reason why I have troubles with the resulting DVD structure (I have to fine tune it by hand with IfoEdit in the end).
Why can't you create the scenarist project before running docce4u?

Originally posted by GlenC
Hi,

The first Reauthorist step is to set the vts sizes, after this docce4u is called. The second Reauthorist step is creating the scenarist project.

Glen.

Btw. Excellent job Aquabubble!!

[SkoalWintergreen]

Just a note for those of us who just want our hands on a beta of Reauthorist you can just load up your favorite IRC program and get on the EFNet network and join the room #doom9dls and their should be a bot in their that is serving the latest Reauthorist Beta. This is just for those who aren't really into the beta testing but want to try it out.

Amazing program by the way, all you programers are quite talented. Keep it up.

[SniperKilla]

0.6.0.4 not working, i hit encode and the program flashes and sits there :(

nevermind, i restarted my pc, and it worked now.

[Fmazzanti]

Hi guys,

I start to be desesperated and I need somebody's help to get a project done with ReAuthorist. I'm affraid I'm missing something really important here because I can't make a workable project out of this movie and that's because I'm probably doing something weird, so please somebody help me here... In any case, I did want I understood it had to be done according to Aquabubbles readme. I'm using release 0.6.0.3beta.

My movie has VTS_01 through VTS_09. That's the contents

VTS_01: 2 PGCs, PGC1 main movie, PGC2 a blank stream
VTS_02: Warnings in several languages anank streams that are there d a Touchstone logo
VTS_03: Trailer
VTS_04: A 'deleted scenes' extra
VTS_05: 'movie making' extra
VTS_07: Trailers of other movies.
VTS_08: Trailer of the movie in french

VTS_06 and VTS_09 are short VTSs that I don't know what they have, as DVD2AVI and PowerDVD do not play them (they're probably blank streams that are probably there just to make a workable DVD structure).

Now since VTS_04 ia round 2Gb in the original and I'm not really interested in it, I just deleted the VOBs and hacked the IFO in order to bypass it. I did this in the original rip and the whole DVD played ok in IfoEdit, so I'm sure I didn't do anything wrong.

Problems came after that. I ran DIF4U and told it to process VTS_01, VTS_03 and VTS_05 only, because those are the only VTSs I wanted to reencode. I though that (appart from VTS_04) all other VTSs are so small that I could simply keep the original ones in the final project.
That way I got in the DIF4U rip folder 4 new subfolders: VTS_01, VTS_03, VTS_5 and VIDEO_TS containing the rest of files belonging to the original DVD.
Once DIF4U did his job, I ran ReAuthorist on the ripped folder and it correctly detected all VTSs. VTS_01, VTS_03 and VTS_05 showed the corresponding information, while VTS_02 and VTS_04 showed in blank. No VTS_06 to VTS_09 were seen by reAuthorist.

I then went through the required steps: pressed the Auto Size button, then the ENcode button and once that finished, the Author button. I got the a ReAuthorist project that loaded up into Scenarist and, after a while, compiled the project.

At theat point I found in the Scenarist folder a DVD structure conatining the VIDEO_TS files, and the VTS_01 to VTS_05 IFOs, BUPs and VOBs. Still, by loading up VIDEO_TS into PowerDVD and playing it, it jumped right to the movie: no menues, no nothing else.
I then copied the VTS_01, VTS_03 and VTS_05 VOB files to the VIDEO_TS folder created by DIF4U, and tried to run IfoUpdate. Then came the problems:

a) I could only do the IfoUpdate of VTS_01 in 'Standard' mode, as 'Adjusted cell mode' and 'cell only mode' complained about the original and the authored files contining different number of cells. I'm not very experienced on this, but checking both file in IfoEdit I see they have the same amount of cells (0 to 32 in PGC1 and 1 in PGC2). Running IfoUpdate on VTS_03 and VTS_05 in standar mode worked.

However, the final project does not play well. ALready at the very beginning, after the Touchstone logo, IfoEdit player stops. Ging to the root menu by hand a from there to the scenes menu and from there to the last scene, after the movie ends it does not go back to the title menu but freezes there. Exactly the same thing happens when I play any of the reencoded extras.

SO... I guess I did it completely wrong. That means I don't really know how do I have to use all these programs. So would you say the DVD navigation structure was broken because I just processed few VTSs in ReAuthorist instead of process the whole thing?

What would be the right startegy then? Rip everything with DIF4U, and then check/uncheck unwanted PGCs in reAuthorist instead? Would that preserve the complete DVD structure?

Please, somebody help me to understand this one... I've been fighting with this movie for three days and I start to feel a huge pain about it...

Thanks for your help.

[tomy601k]

What would be the right startegy then? Rip everything with DIF4U, and then check/uncheck unwanted PGCs in reAuthorist instead? Would that preserve the complete DVD structure?

That's the strategy u have to follow ... Don't Strip the movie ... you'll probably miss with the structure of the DVD ... :rolleyes:

Tomy.

[Fmazzanti]

Thanks for the advice. However if I do that ReAuthorist crashes when reading the folders createdby DIF4U. This damn VTS_02 is killing me, man... It contains still images (copyright notes) that dvd2avi doesn't handle welll. I found that one before. Anyway thanks.