dvd2dvd-r 1.4.9

[mrbass]

official homepage
http://www.dvd2dvd-r.de

My dvd2dvd-r guide with a mirror to download latest version
http://www.mrbass.org/dvd2dvdr

Ver 1.4.9 [26.04.2003]
- now using EclCCE 1.4a
- support for Cinema Craft Encoder SP 2.67.00.10 Trial
- error while setting audio to present is fixed (only appears if language is 'Not specified')
- error while setting subtitle to present is fixed (only appears if language is 'Not specified')
- hungarian, greek and czech support for IfoEdit added

I guess it was released April 26th but I didn't see anything till today April 30th about it's release.

You need to run at least 1024x768 and have a version of CCE. DVD2DVD-R only does MAIN MOVIE ONLY. No episode DVDs / mutliple PGCs.

Can anyone verify if 1.4.9 fixes the compile bug in scenarist with subtitles? I'll try it myself and see.

Still some issues with IFOEDIT and NTSC dvds. PAL users are in heaven.

edit: NTSC DVDs you must author in Scenarist (I guess you could try Maestro too).

[mrbass]

well rob w reported that he tried 1.4.9 with subtitles and the compile error is still present with scenarist. So word to the wise: If using scenarist to compile uncheck all subtitles.

oh yea just tried 1.4.9 had all eight options checked except Upper Field First. Subs still way outta synch. Now doing it again with same options but using pulldownmod this time.

[atreides93]

Why use scenarist anyway??

I think for NTSC you should never check "upper field first'..and use pulldown instead. there's a bug in CCE regarding upper field first.

[mrbass]

I tried that but my subtitles are outta synch by a long shot. Many say the issue lies with IFOEDIT / NTSC. IFOEDIT / PAL = heaven. Others guess it could be something with pulldown 0.99d. I'm still in experiment mode.

[atreides93]

Hmm then its probably ifoedit. I use pulldown all the time, with scenarist and my subtitles are perfect :) I do it all manually without a tool like dvd2dvdr...

[jhmac]

mrbass
is that the only problems you noticed with DVD2DVD-R with NTSC and ifoedit? I have been using it for around 3 mos and use the "progressive, force film, 3:2 pulldown and all my movies come out great. I have not noticed any other problems... I do not keep the subs, no use for them. I watch movies not read them... I go back and forth with the other programs like DVD95Copy, DVD2One, DVDShrink, and IC7. If the movie is more that 6gb I use CCE to re-encode...

[RB]

Originally posted by atreides93
There's a bug in CCE regarding upper field first.
There is no bug in CCE, the option is just slightly confusing. CCE always sets Top Field First = 1 in the encoded stream, regardless of whether "Upper Field First" is checked or not. What it does however when you check this option is shifting the video one line up before encoding the frame. This ensures that originally bff interlaced video is played back correctly after sending it through CCE. So, as a rule of thumb, only check Upper Field First in CCE if source video is interlaced and bottom field first.

[jzaman]

Originally posted by RB
There is no bug in CCE, the option is just slightly confusing. CCE always sets Top Field First = 1 in the encoded stream, regardless of whether "Upper Field First" is checked or not.

RB:

With an NTSC movie do you always select Force Film and 2:3 pulldown?

When I select ForceFilm and 2:3 pulldown, scene to scene navigation is impossible and the time duration panel is incorrect on one of my main players whether I select Upper Field First or not. When I don't select Forcefilm and 2:3 pulldown and I select Upper Field First the movie plays from scene to scene with accurate time duration but a frame to frame analysis reveals some minor flaws. If I unselect Force Film, 2:3 pulldown AND Upper Field First then the movie is very shaky/flickering. (Examples: Red Dragon, Harry Potter: Chamber of Secrets, Star Wars II, Grey Zone) ???

[RB]

Sorry, I'm in Germany and as such am doing PAL conversions only. Never had NTSC stuff in my hands.

[jzaman]

(deleted)

[mrbass]

added my dvd2dvd-r guide
http://www.mrbass.org/dvd2dvdr

could someone who does PAL DVDs kindly tell me what options you set for CCE. I know you don't do force film, pulldown, set drop frame, set progressive, flag, etc. Basically is PAL just set according to Bitrate Viewer and not those four options on the right?

[RB]

The four rightmost "NTSC" options are not available if DVD2DVD-R detects a PAL DVD, anyway (greyed). If the PAL source is progressive, then the correct settings would be just as shown in your screenshot. If it's interlaced, then all options should be turned off, except for bff interlaced video (BV: 'Field topfirst: no') where "Upper Field First" should be checked.

About BitrateViewer: I would only trust it for the information about "Field topfirst" and "Aspect ratio". I have seen many progressive PAL DVDs where the stream is reported as Scan type: Alternate/Frame Type: Interlaced. You'll really have to use DVD2AVI preview mode to see if it's truly interlaced. Or use WinDVD and set Deinterlacing to "Force Weave".

[Petrus]

mrbass:

I only do PAL movies, and so far not a problem with DVD2DVD-R. I am using this tool about 2 months ago, and made more than 30 backups.
i use the options that bitrate viewer detects.

[Grunter]

Petrus:

And so do i. I've used dvd2dvd-r for 3 months on pal dvd and it works very well. I use the option that the program sets plus progressive frames and every copy looks greet.

[mrbass]

thanks RB, Petrus, and Grunter for the PAL info.

I think I'm gonna run two more tests and then give up if it doesn't work. Time code freezes on standalone and if you skip to a chapter or fast forward it'll freeze after 5 seconds or so. Failing this I'll either use dvd2dvdr with scenarist or dvd2svcd with maestro. However, neither of those give subtitles currently so that's a huge bummer.

[mrbass]

I posted this over on dvd2dvd-r forums and hope Chatwalker can answer a few of them. Since most don't venture over there here's my post.

Ver 1.3.6 [30.01.2003]
- now using MPEGDecoder by Nic wich is more faster (DVD2AVI and mpeg2dec.dll no longer needed)

Can someone point me to a link as to exactly why mpegdecoder by Nic can't be used for NTSC dvds. I'll do some searching around forums myself.

Ver 1.3.8 [11.02.2003]
- implemented own 'Get VTS Sectors'- Code
hmmm perhaps this is the reason why NTSC dvds don't display time code on dvd player and when you fast forward or skip chapters it'll freeze after a few seconds. I'll use dvdtoolbox and 'Correct DVD Sectors' and see if that doesn't fix it.

Ver 1.4.6 [25.03.2003]
- Now you can modify the bitrate for the credits
Ver 1.4.7 [09.04.2003]
- Bitrate-Tweaking is only shown, when CCE SP 2.6x is selected

Hmmm...I guess this is why I don't see this section since I'm using CCE 2.50. Anyone have a screenshot?

[mrbass]

ok I've tried stripping (not stripping really) with dvdtoolbox the end result to let it 'correct navigation points' and 'updating sectors' and still it freezes. I've burned like 6 times on this one DVD+RW media. Only so many things left to try. Looking more and more like Scenarist with NTSC may be the only way to go.

[mrbass]

I have officially 'given up' with IFOEDIT and NTSC. Wasted a whole week and a half. Could've been playing more RTCW and Enemy Territory instead.

Anyway I've updated my dvd2dvdr guide (May 5th 11:30pm Pacific Time) for NTSC DVDs using Scenarist NT to mux and author the dvd video files. Like I said before those with PAL get to use IFOEDIT and are all set.

[muralin]

mr. bass:

followed your guide to do SWII. selected everything other than "upper field first" in the encoder tab. it worked fine until the completion of encoding. The log then said, "starting pulldown" and then 2 sec later "File Not found".... any thoughts? I am doing NTSC.

[mrbass]

hmmm...not sure because it checks for free disk space so that wouldn't be it. Best guess is you are using funky characters in your folders / path name and pulldown can't handle it. This happened every now and then with people using dvd2svcd. It could be something totally else though.

I'll cut and paste from official q&a of dvd2svcd
Q29: I used special characters like ( ) [ ] % 1 2 3 001 4 5 6 7 8 9 in my output folder name
A: Don't use these. These characters can be source of problems at least for bbmpeg. Due to sheer number of programs utilized in DVD2SVCD bundle it's better to just stick to your ABC's lest you like to gamble with your time.

download DoPullDown and manually do the pulldown so you don't have to start all over.
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?&threadid=49034

[Administr8or]

Some dvd's come with a ":" character in the title of the DVD, so perhaps Star Wars uses it as well like: STAR WARS: AOTC or something.. simply rip the dvd using dvd decrypter and then change the title of the dvd, again with dvd decrypter.. so remove the ":" from the title.. guess with some other characters it's the same problem, cuz dvd2dvd-r uses the dvd title as dirname and windows can't handle : in a pathname.

To do so.. rip the whole dvd as an iso.. then do this:

Tools > Iso > Change Volume Label

Select the iso you just ripped, and change the label.. thats all :)

[mrbass]

monomer, jazman..where are you guys? Anyway one last test I'm not so sure I tried with NTSC and IFOEDIT. Doing it without any subtitles at all. I'll try that sometime today myself but if anyone else wishes to give it a go and see if the problems persist in the standalone dvd player be my guest.

[jzaman]

Originally posted by mrbass
monomer, jzaman..where are you guys? Anyway one last test I'm not so sure I tried with NTSC and IFOEDIT. Doing it without any subtitles at all. I'll try that sometime today myself but if anyone else wishes to give it a go and see if the problems persist in the standalone dvd player be my guest.

I am still around. I haven't given up on DVD2DVD-R/IFOEDIT for NTSC DVD movies but I'm taking a breather. Typically I did all my NTSC movies with DVD2DVD-R\CCE Basic as movie only and no subtitles. As you know, I also went against conventional wisdom and did quite a few burns with Pulldown/Force Film unselected and Upper Field first selected. Player compatibility, navigation and time display is excellent with these settings but there is mild artifacting or whacked frames as you have pointed out. However, despite the frame to frame anomalies, the quality on a standalone player still rivals the transcoded versions when compression exceeds 30% or main movie size exceeds 6.3gb. Obviously this is more evident on larger screens.

Is it worth the hassle? Monomer thinks so but then again he has a 113" screen. I'm not as sure but then again if I build a LARGE home entertainment setup I may later regret any compromises.

[mrbass]

Originally posted by jzaman
I am still around. I haven't given up on DVD2DVD-R/IFOEDIT for NTSC DVD movies but I'm taking a breather. Typically I did all my NTSC movies with DVD2DVD-R\CCE Basic as movie only and no subtitles.
oh ok ....crap then the no subs NTSC/IfoEdit has been tried and you did get the time display/navigation errors on standalone. I'll burn one dvd+rw when I get home and then I'll feel easy.

[jzaman]

Originally posted by mrbass
oh ok ....crap then the no subs NTSC/IfoEdit has been tried and you did get the time display/navigation errors on standalone. I'll burn one dvd+rw when I get home and then I'll feel easy.

Correct. With 2:3 pulldown and Force Film selected (even with no subtitles selected) I did experience the time display/navigation errors on my standalones. Without 2:3 pulldown and Force Film selected I did not experience the time display/navigation errors on my standalones but the other problem exists.

[mrbass]

yep ...tried it without subs and same crap. I'm hoping that TMPGEnc DVD Author or DVDLAB will at least allow importing of chapters and then someday down the line subtitles and those two would provide a good alternative rather than having to use scenarist.

[Fmazzanti]

Hi guys,
I've also used DVD2DVD-R and loved it, but gave up because,as mrbass says, it can only do single PGC stuff and more or less half the dvd's I backup contain more than one PGC in the main movie VTS.
Still, I think there's some discussion in the roiginal dvd2dvd-r forum about how to deal with multiPGCs. I can't really understand their german, so I'm wondering how can this be done. Does anybody know anything about this?

[tgferg67]

Hi all,
I'm a new DVD2DVD-r user an am have quality problems in dark scenes in the movie Count of Monte Cristo(5.35 GB movie only).
The normal and light scenes are absolutely perfect but the dark scenes produce an unacceptable amount of noise/grain. Any suggestions greatly appreciated.
Here is what I am using and my setups
CCE 2.50 & Scenarist

I used the DVD2DVD-R generated bitrate settings and used a 2 pass VBR and then followed mrbass's DVD2DVD-R guide for the rest of the setups. His guide is here. http://www.mrbass.org/dvd2dvdr

I set up CCE default settings by looking at the "getting the best out of CCE" guide at this site.

I'm thinking of raising the CCE video quality setting from 5 to 15 and also enabling the noise filter.

Any other suggestions?
:confused:

[edekba]

Hey Guys I got a problem doing this. I've Tried using MrBass's guide but i get this erroer when EclCCE comes up.

EclCCE just says that Program timed out or something to that nature.. anyone got any clue?

Or If Possible maybe an older version of DVD2DVDR

[mrbass]

wouldn't know...read the changelog 1.4.9 he updated to a newer Encoder control list version.
I've only tried 1.4.5 had major synch issues and 1.4.8. Never hurts to try the lastest version

@tgferg67 about CCE quality
well you could try 3 or 4 pass instead of two. Put min to 1000 and max to 7500 (RB suggested those values) which I use each time. Do NOT enable anti-noise filter.

[tgferg67]

Thankyou for the suggestions mrbass. With your suggestions in conjunction with movie the video quality setting to 20 quality is now what I expected.

One more question for someone. I justed processed the movie Harry Potter with DVD2DVD-R/Scenarist and the movie ended 7 seconds short than the source movie. I chopped of the credits with DVDShrink and was pretty picky in establishing the exact second/frame that the video/audio faded at the ending. Now the DVD2DVD-R movie ends abruptly because it's 7 seconds short. I recall a post stating the chapter were 5 seconds off using DVD2DVD-r/Scenarist. Could this have something to do with it?

[Cathunter]

edekba,

dvd2dvd-r is like a girl....treat her gently !!

I had the same error ("...timely manner"). Either you use EclCCE 1.4c (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?threadid=46664&highlight=eclcce)or EclCCE 1.4.

You have to re-boot your system and start dvd2dvd-r. After dvd2dvd-r has been started, do not touch your PC until dvd2dvd-r finished its job....;)

Good luck !

[layer3maniac]

I have done several NTSC movies with subs without using Scenarist and they all came out perfectly. Am I doing something wrong? :)

[Drylook]

Hello everyone... Got a problem here!
I did several backups with DVD2DVD-R before without problems (I'm in PAL heavenland).
Now, for the second time, the result comes out with the video running faster than normal (I would say 2x or 3x) while audio is running at normal speed ????

What the hell happened? Anyone had that before??

[Artur]

Hi there,
i use the PAL sistem to. What´s the version of Dvd2Dvdr you use Drylook? Maybe...
Não te esqueças de registar novamente no nosso forum em PT!
I had a problem similar to that. The picture was shacky in some parts of the movie " The Abysm SE ".
Seeya.

[layer3maniac]

mrbass,
First, thanks for putting up a guide! But I don't understand why you're using Scenarist instead of just letting dvd2dvd-r do the muxing automatically with ifoedit. I have done several backups this way, subtitles and all, and they all seem perfect. Am I missing something here?

[ElGamal]

Of course, you're missing that they are in NTSC land, and that IfoEdit isn't capable of working with this colour mode, only PAL.
Becouse of that the must use Scenarist.
Hope this helps.

[layer3maniac]

I am also in "NTSC land" and it seems to work just fine for me.

[mrbass]

Originally posted by layer3maniac
I have done several backups this way, subtitles and all, and they all seem perfect. Am I missing something here?

no, I think I'm missing something. Which version are you using? I know 1.4.8 and 1.4.9 don't work with subtitles (NTSC / Scenarist)..it gives a compile error in Scenarist. I'm not saying you can't use Subrip or whatever but I'm not about to go through that manual process myself. You must be using an older version of dvd2dvd-r.

[layer3maniac]

No, I'm using the latest version - 1.4.9. I had a moderately hard time finding where to downlaoad it. And it was fairly tough to find a guide in English as well. Now that you have put up your guide, (thanks again), with a download link, neither of those things are issues anymore.

I don't use ScenaristNT, I don't even own it. I use an older version of cce (2.50) and just let dvd2dvd-r use the .95 version of ifoedit which it installed automatically under the dvd2dvd-r directory. As I said, it seems to work perfectly for me. No errors at all, the subs and audio are in synch.

It kind of surprised me the first time, actually. The guide I was using was for a much older version and it indicated that you have to setup and run ifoedit yourself after dvd2dvd-r was finished processing.

But when dvd2dvd-r was done, I found that it had created a subdirectory (DVD) complete with AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS subdirectories. And in the VIDEO_TS subdirectory there was a nice set of vob, bup, and ifo files ready to rip.

[mrbass]

Interesting...you must have a magic dvd player. I have a pioneer 434 and it will play (dvd2dvd 1.49, cce 2.50, ifoedit muxed) audio in synch etc. The 'only' problem is if I hit 'next' chapter or 'ff' fast forward on my dvd remote in my standalone then it'll freeze within a few seconds. PowerDVD it plays perfectly and you can fast forward and skip chapters, etc.

If anyone knows the cause of why ifoedit does this to NTSC dvds that'd be awesome cuz I sure don't. DVDLab I believe is having similar issues currently and that's one of the reasons it's still in beta.

[layer3maniac]

My DVD player is hardly magical. It's a cheap Apex I bought at Wal Mart. Not sure of the model, I can look it up. It's a couple of years old now.

Are you positive that ifoedit is causing this problem and not your burning software? I used to have problems like that with some of the IC7 DVD's I burned with Nero. I also wound up with quite a few coasters. Now I use CopyToDVD exclusively and never had a coaster yet. I'm going to take two or three of these dvd2dvd-r movies over to some of my friend's houses and see if they have problems on other players.

[edekba]

Apex are Magically :)

They Play Everything You throw @ them & are cheap as hell to boot :)

[mrbass]

@layer3maniac

You doing force film, pull-down, drop-frame, or not checking those? Yes I'm using imgtool with nero to burn. I'll try with recordnow dx but I doubt it'll help.

[layer3maniac]

You know... I don't think that I did before. In fact I'm pretty sure that I didn't. The guide that I had been using was a bit vague and might have been PAL oriented. Plus it was quite old.

I know for a fact that I did on the movie I did yesterday because I basically followed your guide to the letter. (Except for the Scenarist parts, obviously.) It played fine on my PC, but I haven't tested it on my Apex yet. I'll stick it in right now and post the results.

[layer3maniac]

OK, I kind of zipped through it. It played all the chapters fine. No problem fast forwarding or rewinding, all the way up to 8x.

The subs seem to be doing something weird, though. They are in synch at the start of the film, but as it goes on they get further and further afead of the video. By the end, they are around three or four seconds ahead of the film.

I checked this on the movies I did before and, same thing. Sorry, I didn't really notice it before. I only checked the subs at the beginning.

[mrbass]

Other thing that I noticed Harry pott movie near the end around 80% or so the sound started going out of synch (NTSC / IfoEdit).

[atreides93]

That's really sad. I keep hearing about various issues with DVD2DVDR so that's why I don't waste time trying it. I'll just have to keep doing it the manual way using CCE, typing up an AVS script and what not. I might try using doItFast4U but i hear it also has issues sometimes...blah

[mrbass]

Originally posted by atreides93
That's really sad. I keep hearing about various issues with DVD2DVDR so that's why I don't waste time trying it.

No issues if you do the following:

For NTSC mux/author with Scenarist no subs.

For PAL mux/author with IFOEDIT and subs work.

[Grover]

Originally posted by atreides93
That's really sad. I keep hearing about various issues with DVD2DVDR so that's why I don't waste time trying it.
I love this program. (PAL user). I just finished doing Hunt for Red October (it turns out the HUNT was not required. It was behind James Earl Jones' couch the whole time and the rest of the movie was just a dream ... or do I have the new David Lynch "directors cut" version...? )

Last night I just started up DVD2DVD-R, pointed it at the main-movie PGC, set my number of CCE passes (4) and pressed GO. I awoke this morning to find freshly authored and muxed AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS folders (burning away as we speak) that came to 4479MB (that fills up 99.93% of my blank DVD-R).

For main-movie-only, who could ask for more than that ?