johnmeyer
26th January 2004, 07:26
Update (on January 30, 2004): There is a tool now available that does what these guide does, but with one click of a button. Get it here:
TitleSet Blanker (http://shh.dvdboard.de/titlesetblanker.html)
This guide uses:
DVD Shrink
IFOEdit
I created this guide because I find that lots of DVDs have both the widescreen and the fullscreen version of the movie on the same disk. I only want to backup one of these, but I'd like to keep the extras, and I would like to keep the menus.
Using DVD Shrink, I can compress the fullscreen version (the one I want to delete) to "still pictures" and I can eliminate all of its audio and subtitle channels. However, the resulting "movie" often still consumes 500 Mbytes or more, and thus requires that the main movie (the version I am keeping) still be compressed. It also takes quite awhile to convert the fullscreen movie to still pictures.
I have seen guides for doing what I want using IFOEdit, but they look way too complicated (and I've written guides on using IFOEdit to change PGC tables, so I am not easily put off). I have also seen guides using DVDXCopy, but I didn't want to buy another program. I also saw a guide using DVD Stripper, but I couldn't find the software.
While searching for an answer, I kept seeing various references to "dummy VOBs" and thought that if I could just create a few VOB files, and then fix up the IFO files for the fullscreen version, then DVD Shrink wouldn't care, the navigation for the rest of the DVD wouldn't change, and I could use DVD Shrink, if necessary, to do the remaining compression.
Well, the idea seems to work. Here's a quick guide. See if it works for you.
Limitations: I made no attempt to use Menuedit to actually eliminate the menu for fullscreen. If you click on "fullscreen" in the movie selection menu, then you will get to see whatever is in your little dummy VOBs. Big deal. If you don't click on "fullscreen," you'll never know that nothing is there.
Here's the guide:
[list=1]
Determine what VOB contains the fullscreen version (or widescreen, depending on your preference). This is pretty easy. The movie VOBs are the group of VOBs with similar numbers that are larger than any of the others. The only thing you really need to know is which one is widescreen and which one is fullscreen. To figure this out, just "drag," from Explorer to WinDVD (or player of your choice), one of the VOBs from either of the big VOB sets. You can then tell instantly which one is widescreen. By way of example, in the DVD I just did, the VOBs that contain the fullscreen version were VTS_02_0.VOB, VTS_02_1.VOB, VTS_02_2.VOB, VTS_02_3.VOB, and VTS_02_4.VOB.
Replace these VOB files with a "dummy" VOB. You want to find a really small VOB (a few megabytes at most), preferably one that doesn't contain navigation (i.e., no menu buttons), although I don't think that matters. Just drag a few small VOBs. from the directory where you ripped your files, to WinDVD (or whatever you use to play DVDs) and make a choice.
Make copies of this "dummy" VOB file, and then rename each copy to match the names of each of the VOB files for your full screen movie (i.e., for my example, the names I just listed above).
Move your fullscreen movie VOB files to some other folder (no use deleting them until you are sure everything is OK). Also, move the IFO and BUP files for that titleset as well (VTS_02_0.IFO and VTS_02_0.BUP in this example).
Now, move the dummy files you just created into the VIDEO_TS folder with the rest of your movie.
[/list=1]
O.K. just to pause and reflect on what we've done: You moved the fullscreen VOB and matching IFO and BUP files to another folder, and replaced those VOB files with a valid, but small VOB file that was duplicated, and then renamed to match the names of the VOB files you moved.
Now, in the next step, all you need to do is create new IFO and BUP files that will provide basic navigation in and out of your "dummy" VOBs. You will use IFOEdit, but don't worry; you'll be using one of its "automatic" modes that won't require you to edit HEX or anything even remotely scary.
Start IFOEdit.
[list=6] In IFOEdit, click on the "Create IFOs" button. In the dialog box that appears, click on "Create a PGC for each VobID" and "Create Chapter for Each Cell." In the "Output Stream" section, click on the button to the right of "1st VOB of Title Set" and select the first VOB dummy file (VTS_02_0.VOB in this example). On the next line, specify "Destination Directory for IFO files" by clicking on the box to the right of the text box. Pick an empty directory somewhere on your computer.
Click on OK to create the new IFO and BUP files.
Close IFOEdit.
In Explorer, rename the two files that were just created. Give them names that match exactly the IFO and BUP files that you moved in step four above (VTS_02_0.IFO and VTS_02_0.BUP in this example). Move these two files into the VIDEO_TS directory with the rest of the movie. You're pretty much finished.[/list=6]
As this point, you just fire up DVD Shrink, and proceed as normal for a "Full Disk" backup.
Once DVD Shrink has finished looking over your files, you will immediately notice that little or no compression is required (you just got rid of almost half of what was on the disk, after all). If any compression is still required, you can probably just delete an unused audio channel, or shrink the menus, and end up with a movie that doesn't need compression at all.
The neat thing about this procedure is that because there is almost no compression required, DVD Shrink finishes in just a few minutes, especially if you shrink from one disk to another disk (it took five minutes total for my DVD because I only had to shrink about 100 Mbytes of menus and extras. Everything else was set to "No Compression").
Hope this works for you! :) This same technique may also work for eliminating other parts of the DVD without resorting to still pictures. The main requirement is that the element you want to delete should be contained in one contiguous VOB set.
TitleSet Blanker (http://shh.dvdboard.de/titlesetblanker.html)
This guide uses:
DVD Shrink
IFOEdit
I created this guide because I find that lots of DVDs have both the widescreen and the fullscreen version of the movie on the same disk. I only want to backup one of these, but I'd like to keep the extras, and I would like to keep the menus.
Using DVD Shrink, I can compress the fullscreen version (the one I want to delete) to "still pictures" and I can eliminate all of its audio and subtitle channels. However, the resulting "movie" often still consumes 500 Mbytes or more, and thus requires that the main movie (the version I am keeping) still be compressed. It also takes quite awhile to convert the fullscreen movie to still pictures.
I have seen guides for doing what I want using IFOEdit, but they look way too complicated (and I've written guides on using IFOEdit to change PGC tables, so I am not easily put off). I have also seen guides using DVDXCopy, but I didn't want to buy another program. I also saw a guide using DVD Stripper, but I couldn't find the software.
While searching for an answer, I kept seeing various references to "dummy VOBs" and thought that if I could just create a few VOB files, and then fix up the IFO files for the fullscreen version, then DVD Shrink wouldn't care, the navigation for the rest of the DVD wouldn't change, and I could use DVD Shrink, if necessary, to do the remaining compression.
Well, the idea seems to work. Here's a quick guide. See if it works for you.
Limitations: I made no attempt to use Menuedit to actually eliminate the menu for fullscreen. If you click on "fullscreen" in the movie selection menu, then you will get to see whatever is in your little dummy VOBs. Big deal. If you don't click on "fullscreen," you'll never know that nothing is there.
Here's the guide:
[list=1]
Determine what VOB contains the fullscreen version (or widescreen, depending on your preference). This is pretty easy. The movie VOBs are the group of VOBs with similar numbers that are larger than any of the others. The only thing you really need to know is which one is widescreen and which one is fullscreen. To figure this out, just "drag," from Explorer to WinDVD (or player of your choice), one of the VOBs from either of the big VOB sets. You can then tell instantly which one is widescreen. By way of example, in the DVD I just did, the VOBs that contain the fullscreen version were VTS_02_0.VOB, VTS_02_1.VOB, VTS_02_2.VOB, VTS_02_3.VOB, and VTS_02_4.VOB.
Replace these VOB files with a "dummy" VOB. You want to find a really small VOB (a few megabytes at most), preferably one that doesn't contain navigation (i.e., no menu buttons), although I don't think that matters. Just drag a few small VOBs. from the directory where you ripped your files, to WinDVD (or whatever you use to play DVDs) and make a choice.
Make copies of this "dummy" VOB file, and then rename each copy to match the names of each of the VOB files for your full screen movie (i.e., for my example, the names I just listed above).
Move your fullscreen movie VOB files to some other folder (no use deleting them until you are sure everything is OK). Also, move the IFO and BUP files for that titleset as well (VTS_02_0.IFO and VTS_02_0.BUP in this example).
Now, move the dummy files you just created into the VIDEO_TS folder with the rest of your movie.
[/list=1]
O.K. just to pause and reflect on what we've done: You moved the fullscreen VOB and matching IFO and BUP files to another folder, and replaced those VOB files with a valid, but small VOB file that was duplicated, and then renamed to match the names of the VOB files you moved.
Now, in the next step, all you need to do is create new IFO and BUP files that will provide basic navigation in and out of your "dummy" VOBs. You will use IFOEdit, but don't worry; you'll be using one of its "automatic" modes that won't require you to edit HEX or anything even remotely scary.
Start IFOEdit.
[list=6] In IFOEdit, click on the "Create IFOs" button. In the dialog box that appears, click on "Create a PGC for each VobID" and "Create Chapter for Each Cell." In the "Output Stream" section, click on the button to the right of "1st VOB of Title Set" and select the first VOB dummy file (VTS_02_0.VOB in this example). On the next line, specify "Destination Directory for IFO files" by clicking on the box to the right of the text box. Pick an empty directory somewhere on your computer.
Click on OK to create the new IFO and BUP files.
Close IFOEdit.
In Explorer, rename the two files that were just created. Give them names that match exactly the IFO and BUP files that you moved in step four above (VTS_02_0.IFO and VTS_02_0.BUP in this example). Move these two files into the VIDEO_TS directory with the rest of the movie. You're pretty much finished.[/list=6]
As this point, you just fire up DVD Shrink, and proceed as normal for a "Full Disk" backup.
Once DVD Shrink has finished looking over your files, you will immediately notice that little or no compression is required (you just got rid of almost half of what was on the disk, after all). If any compression is still required, you can probably just delete an unused audio channel, or shrink the menus, and end up with a movie that doesn't need compression at all.
The neat thing about this procedure is that because there is almost no compression required, DVD Shrink finishes in just a few minutes, especially if you shrink from one disk to another disk (it took five minutes total for my DVD because I only had to shrink about 100 Mbytes of menus and extras. Everything else was set to "No Compression").
Hope this works for you! :) This same technique may also work for eliminating other parts of the DVD without resorting to still pictures. The main requirement is that the element you want to delete should be contained in one contiguous VOB set.