DVD Rebuilder (CCE One-Click Beta v0.46) Comments and Suggestions

[TK8472]

When the main movie is smaller than DVD5, is it possible to leave the movie untouched and only DVD-RB the extras?

[wmansir]

Originally posted by TK8472
When the main movie is smaller than DVD5, is it possible to leave the movie untouched and only DVD-RB the extras?

You can do that with a third party tool called RB-Keeper. Check out the overview sticky for a link to the project thread. I haven't used it myself, but that is the tool's purpose (to keep original parts of the disc).

[TK8472]

Originally posted by wmansir
You can do that with a third party tool called RB-Keeper. Check out the overview sticky for a link to the project thread. I haven't used it myself, but that is the tool's purpose (to keep original parts of the disc).

I'll check it out, thanks.

[d62ks821]

Originally posted by jdobbs
Yes. You'd have to change one parameter in the ECL. My plan is for that to happen automatically at some point (in the event output was oversized).

I presume you mean changing vmode=0 to vmode=2. I've done this and it works. So, first pass OPV is oversized, so then I do 3 passes VBR, after which the size is correct.

However, What I really like is to redo with OPV, as it will still be much faster than n-pass VBR. We now have a 100% sample from the over/undersized 1st OPV, so should be able to automatically adjust q-factor on all, and hit size dead on for 2nd OPV attempt. It maybe than only some of the assests missed their target, so only a subset would need to be reprocessed, resulting in even more time reduction.

[jdobbs]

Originally posted by d62ks821
I presume you mean changing vmode=0 to vmode=2. I've done this and it works. So, first pass OPV is oversized, so then I do 3 passes VBR, after which the size is correct.

However, What I really like is to redo with OPV, as it will still be much faster than n-pass VBR. We now have a 100% sample from the over/undersized 1st OPV, so should be able to automatically adjust q-factor on all, and hit size dead on for 2nd OPV attempt. It maybe than only some of the assests missed their target, so only a subset would need to be reprocessed, resulting in even more time reduction. Since a .VAF was generated in the OPV pass, all you have to do is do a single pass VBR. The VAF will already document the distribution of bits based on the OPV -- which will be modified only slightly (and proportionally) to meet the specified bitrate.

[d62ks821]

Originally posted by jdobbs
Since a .VAF was generated in the OPV pass, all you have to do is do a single pass VBR. The VAF will already document the distribution of bits based on the OPV -- which will be modified only slightly (and proportionally) to meet the specified bitrate.
Maybe I'll expose my ignorance here, but if this is so, why would I ever want to do a n-pass VBR when I can do a OPV, followed by a 1-pass VBR (if needed)? Am I missing something here?

[tylo]

Maybe I'll expose my ignorance here, but if this is so, why would I ever want to do a n-pass VBR when I can do a OPV, followed by a 1-pass VBRYou will want an n-pass VBR encode if you don't know which Q to use for the initial OPV pass (the analyze phase can do that). To achieve superior quality, the OPV pass must produce a size close to the target size, then the following 1-pass VBR should only fine-tune the size to meet the target size precisely.

- If Q is below about 40, the following 1-pass VBR will not improve quality noticable when it only increase the size 1-3%. But purists prefer to fill their media to the brim anyway.

- If Q is above about 40, the 1-pass VBR may improve quality, even if the OPV was exactly on target. Naturally, it is also required if the OPV pass produced an oversized file.

[d62ks821]

Originally posted by tylo
If Q is below about 40, the following 1-pass VBR will not improve quality noticable when it only increase the size 1-3%. But purists prefer to fill their media to the brim anyway.
If i were under 1-3%, I'd let it go, but over? ...need the additional VBR pass. ...what if it's more like 10-15% under/oversized? is a single additional VBR pass sufficient?

[jdobbs]

Originally posted by d62ks821
If i were under 1-3%, I'd let it go, but over? ...need the additional VBR pass. ...what if it's more like 10-15% under/oversized? is a single additional VBR pass sufficient? Yes. You only have to regenerate the .VAF for extreme bitrate changes. The CCE manual recommends you regenerate the .VAF when the bitrate is either cut in half or doubled... that's a big change.

[Faust2]

So, after hanging around for a while here, i finally got my account to work, just to say at first a big Thanks to jdobbs for all great work he is willing to share with us (um, not so much the work but the results :) )

the best cherry pie around here!!!

I discovered rebuilder at something like 0.22, and since then it improved on a regular basis, although it worked (for me) basically right from the beginning. Before I used GKnot with Divx Pro to backup my DVDs, and it took something like 30 hours with my Pentium 2.5, and then I happend to have a DVD-Burner, without really knowing anything about the Big3, CCE, Authoring, Scenarist or whatever...

Then I got really frustrated.

Then I stumbled across RB and now everthing's "fine&dandy"...

:D :D :D

So, having said this, i can hopefully make my order ;) ?

In my opinion, there are only a few little drawbacks left with dvd-rb, which are
-multiangles, seamless branching and interleaving (i have no idea, up to wich degree these three are related/the same)
-Encoding Menus. This is (for me) somehow important, since here in Europe i have the feeling, there is sometimes much space wasted in these. In "To Catch a Thief", f.e. there is a half gig-menu in god only knows what languages... Nevertheless the backup looks great.
-Downcoding sound. This maybe a particular thing which nobody but me might use, but sometimes I find it funny to watch a film again f.e. in italian or french... It would be great to have the opportunity to downcode the sound from Dolby 5.1 to Dolby 2 (192 kbits/s), if the film doesn't have big sound effects and/or you don't have a home cinema system.

but then again, this is only my personal "whish-list", so Jdobbs please don't bother too much (as im pretty sure you will not... :D )

[Sectie.B]

jdobbs

A small request (I think...): how about outputting the result as an ISO file?
ATM I'm using ImgTool Classic to create an ISO-file and let it burn with DVD Decrypter. It would be nice if I could skip that one step ("I'm lazy as a man can be" from David Byrne is a song about me, according to my grilfriend ;))

[harpseal]

Originally posted by The_Flash
Any chance we could get a "Make New Folder" option after clicking the button to specify the Working Path? Would save me from a few sighs this week. Thanks.

My suggestion may or may not relate diretly to this. I would love it if in any of the file/folder path selection boxes would allow typing/editing directly in the input box, instead of only being able to use the browse button. Ideally this would allow the creation of a new folder where applicable (see above), and I guess also verify that the folder actually exist and what is needed there is actually there i.e. a video_ts etc.

Also, I'm not sure if this is a bug or needs to be added as a feature, but if I select Deinterlace with DECOMB and/or MPEG2Source ("source",idct=7) in the advanced features, then save the project and re-open it, the settings don'e seem to save. Seeing as the encoder selection and setup file paths are saved to individual projects it would seem as this should too. But also if I turn them on in one project then open another project, sometimes it stays on, sometimes it doesn't even though they all were saved with them on.

Sorry to be long winded, just being my normal annoyingly over-detailed self.

harpseal

[lamster]

Originally posted by harpseal
I would love it if in any of the file/folder path selection boxes would allow typing/editing directly in the input box, instead of only being able to use the browse button.

Me too; I usually just edit the rebuilder.ini file before starting DVD Rebuilder, so that I can just paste in the correct paths rather than having to navigate to them.

[jdobbs]

Originally posted by Sectie.B
jdobbs

A small request (I think...): how about outputting the result as an ISO file?
ATM I'm using ImgTool Classic to create an ISO-file and let it burn with DVD Decrypter. It would be nice if I could skip that one step ("I'm lazy as a man can be" from David Byrne is a song about me, according to my grilfriend ;)) Outputting to an ISO seems like a lot of work to me... and I'm lazy too. ;)

[ookzDVD]

@jdobbs,

DVDShrink .iso output routine is awesome :)

[jdobbs]

Originally posted by ookzDVD
@jdobbs,

DVDShrink .iso output routine is awesome :) Uhhh... ok. Not sure how that helps me...

[Joergen]

I think dvddecrypter should start learning how to burn a VIDEO_TS dir instead of DVD-RB learning how to write an .ISO for another tool.

Use Nero to burn the files, works every time and even includes lots of validation routines that other tools dont have.

btw one version of dvdshrink output broken .iso's and some fruitcakes say the latest/last version doesnt work at all ;)

[The eDealer]

@Joergen
I'm with you, ISO is not the problem.

I think it's more important that jdobbs keeps on focusing on the "optimization".
The topics
- encoding menus
- encoding sound
- handling of multiangle/seamless branching and
- further Encoder (for example mencoder)
would be more reasonable/interesting for me.

But right now it's a great Tool. :)

[harpseal]

In the batch projects listing window, you can't see the project filename if the path is longer than the window. The DVD-RB app window gives me a resize pointer but doesn't actually let me resize it any wider. Just a minor (very) inconvenience in a awesome application.

[FreQi]

Originally posted by Joergen
I think dvddecrypter should start learning how to burn a VIDEO_TS dir instead of DVD-RB learning how to write an .ISO for another tool.

ImgTool Burn (http://www.coujo.de/) does the trick for me. It uses Nero in fact but I find it incredibly convienent to just select the directory DVD-RB put the VIDEO_TS in and click "Burn".

I'd like to see DVD-RB also copy ove the JACKET_P and other miscelaneous files from the DVD like autorun.inf's and whatever. There has only been one disc i've done so far that I could not copy all the 'other' things due to lack of space, so maybe DVD-RB could take into account these DVDRom extras when calculating a target size.

But like I said, this is rarely an issue really. I just have to remember to copy the files, remove the "Read Only" attribute and hope it fits on the disc.

[Solo]

I have just start using DVD Rebuilder two weeks ago after finally getting my first DVD burner. Thanks for the program. It is great!

I also had a request, but I see it was mentioned and answered above. That is for the option of having output to ISO file. When I do shrink a movie with DVD-RB and I try burn it with Nero then I get a DVD reallocation error. Img Tool gives same error. If I ignore the error then the resulting DVD does play fine on my DVD player though.

[d62ks821]

Originally posted by Solo
When I do shrink a movie with DVD-RB and I try burn it with Nero then I get a DVD realloacation error. Img Tool gives same error. If I ignore the error then the resulting DVD does play fine on my DVD player though.
I'm seeing the same thing on SOME disks. Here is the nero error message.

7:41:21 AM #2 DVDREALLOC -19 File DVDVideoCompilation.cpp, Line 1154
File size is not a multiple of a logical block size (2 KB)

Is this really a problem or not?

[jdobbs]

Originally posted by d62ks821
I'm seeing the same thing on SOME disks. Here is the nero error message.

7:41:21 AM #2 DVDREALLOC -19 File DVDVideoCompilation.cpp, Line 1154
File size is not a multiple of a logical block size (2 KB)

Is this really a problem or not? It should probably burn ok as the burning software will pad it... but it's perplexing. I write all my files in 2K increments, so how could one of them not be on an even 2K border? Are you using any other tools for pre or post processing?

DVD files have to fall on a 2K border because that is the sector size of DVD-Video discs.

[Joergen]

A referenced 0KB VOB is also not a multiple of 2, where if its unreferenced nero will say it shouldnt be there.

[Faust2]

I wonder why "dynamically assign bitrates" is still in the "standard" mode menu. It just confuses people. I can't imagine any situatiion where you would turn this off. IMHO this is the only way to achieve a reasonable bitrate distribution across the movie, it works great, and therefore it should not be longer in the standard mode menu, because it sounds complicated and people, especially "one-click-people" :D , will always tend to be afraid, turn it off and then be disappointed about the quality. Please jdobbs consider to move it in the advanced options, with reverse logic "disable dynamically...", or even put it in the hidden settings.

[jdobbs]

Originally posted by Faust2
I wonder why "dynamically assign bitrates" is still in the "standard" mode menu. It just confuses people. I can't imagine any situatiion where you would turn this off. IMHO this is the only way to achieve a reasonable bitrate distribution across the movie, it works great, and therefore it should not be longer in the standard mode menu, because it sounds complicated and people, especially "one-click-people" :D , will always tend to be afraid, turn it off and then be disappointed about the quality. Please jdobbs consider to move it in the advanced options, with reverse logic "disable dynamically...", or even put it in the hidden settings. Actually my plan is to make it the only option... there is never a good reason to disable it.

[Toranaga]

I am trying to do The Butterfly Effect PAL and get a Run-time error 53 - file not found when trying to encode.

[TheSeeker]

DId you do any preprocessing? If so did you make sure that all the files are in the source folder?

[Toranaga]

I get the same error no matter if I haved pre-processed or not.

[Amir]

post dontation info in the FAQ please (I couldnt find it).

[wmansir]

Originally posted by Amir
post dontation info in the FAQ please (I couldnt find it).

It's in the readme file, on the program's help menu and there's a link in the "about" window.

[Mojo300]

Can I use this version with DVD Rebuilder?

[jdobbs]

Yes. I think it will work with the the "CCE SP 2.66+" setting. I just used that version because it was the one I have available at the time.

[Amir]

Originally posted by wmansir
It's in the readme file, on the program's help menu and there's a link in the "about" window.

Oh, um Well i know what the app is so never used the about, and program for a living so never read readmes or help files ;-)))

Thanks for the pointer, will go and check them.

[yesgrey]

Hi jdobbs,

Thanks for the great work you are doing with DVD-RB.
I have already made my donation.

I would like to suggest one thing to DVD-RB.

You request the path for the working directory.
In this directory you do a lot of successive reads and writes during all the process.

I think it would be great if instead of one working directory we could set two working directories. For people like me, with two hard disks, this would be great because the speed of the process will increase and, the most important, will be less stressing for the disk.

Example:
disk 1: source dir and worka dir
disk 2: workb dir
1st step: read from source and write in workb
2nd step: read from workb and write in worka
3rd step: read from worka and write in workb

I hope I have been clear enough.

Best Regards,
Samuel

[lamster]

I had thought about suggesting adding a target directory, for when you can't fit the D2VAVS directory plus the resulting VIDEO_TS directory on one drive. (I.e., working directory would be for D2VAVS, and target directory would be for AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS.)

Also, it might be nice if there were an option to delete the D2VAVS directory after a successful rebuild. (Although if you implement both of these ideas, then the log file should go into the target directory, since that should be preserved.)

[FreQi]

I like the idea of being able to specify a Working Directory (for the D2VAVS dir) and a Target Directory (for the VIDEO_TS/AUDIO_TS dirs)... It would allow you to just burn that dir without needing to delete the D2VAVS dir first. Doesn't bother me either way tho.

[Khauron]

First I'd like to thank the author.

To the subject: would it possible to add some kind of ISO-mode to DVD-RB? With ISO-mode I mean mode in which the DVD-RB would rebuild the files to burnable .ISO. At this moment (0.63a) the DVD-RB comes out fine with VIDEO_TS -folder, which most of the people burns with Nero?

I think this ISO-mode could solve some strange problem with burning and with compatibility. Burning with DVDDecrypter is free, also. I think there are users who can mess up with Nero's settings...

Or is there a prog which would convert the VIDEO_TS -folder to one burnable ISO?

[nwg]

Or is there a prog which would convert the VIDEO_TS -folder to one burnable ISO?

Imgtool Classic.

[jdobbs]

@yesgrey3, lamster, and FreQi

I've implemented the additional output directory as an option and it will be available in v0.64. Thanks for the suggestion.

[lamster]

@jdobbs

Thanks for the implementation! The suggesting part was easy. :sly:

[FreQi]

Thank you much :cool:

[kooky]

Hi jdobbs

Thanks to make DVDRB better and better in each new release ;)

i know we asked you before about that, but do you plan to implement a support for multi-angles and interleave source?

For example, with the Simpsons Season 4, there are few extra with 3 angles, DVDRB has some issues with the 4 DVD

An other issue with Die Hard Episode 1 which contains interleave source


Keep the good work

Greets
Kooky

[wmansir]

jdobbs is concentrating on full multi-angle/interleaving support now (as long as no more major issues pop up). As an interim solution he may release a version that will allow you to process such discs, but only retain one angle.

[DMagic1]

Great to hear it.

[lamster]

Originally posted by jdobbs
@yesgrey3, lamster, and FreQi

I've implemented the additional output directory as an option and it will be available in v0.64. Thanks for the suggestion.
Seems to be a wee bug - when you toggle "Additional output directory" on or off, the "Transcode" button disappears if you're in 1-click mode.

(The work-around is to stop and restart Rebuilder; the button will be back.)

[jdobbs]

Don't know how I missed that. I'll get it fixed.

[jdobbs]

Fixed and posted as 0.64a.

[wfn1]

@JD

RESPECT MON!

[yesgrey]

@jdobbs,

Thank you very much for adding the extra path.

My hard disks will be eternally grateful to you! :-)