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

[jdobbs]

In an effort to try and reduce the reading associated with the DVD-RB Mega-thread I've added this thread as a place to make any comments and/or suggestions associated with features, results, etc. As it seems there are numerous issues associated with how worker apps (like CCE or AVISYNTH) are configured to work with DVD-RB, any quick-configuration guides (maybe cut-and-pasted from the mega-thread (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=72691) you may want to post would also be greatly appreciated.

Please post any bug reports in the DVD-RB sister thread dedicated to bug reports. It is located here (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=73050).

I will also attempt to keep the link below up-to-date so you can always come to the first page of this thread to get the latest version of the beta.

The latest version can be found here. (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=75452)

Note: Some browsers may need to "Refresh" to get the most current version.

Most of all I want to thank all the beta-testers for giving such great feedback.

You can find brief installation and usage instructions on this post/page. (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=73051&postid=465822)

[StifflerStealth]

This is a suggestion. It is based off of something somebaody else said about templates. This is mainly for those that like to tweak the BitRate settings.

Have two ecl files. One file will have all the data that is the same between all the cells. The second file will have the [item] stuff like title, cbr_brate, vbr_bias, opv_brate_min/max, vbr_brate_avg/min/max, vbr_pass. the vid_file0, vaf_file, aud_file are different, but are based on the title name, when the Item ecl file create, the "template" plus the data from the file that list the indivual fils plus the vid_file... created from the title name and the path.

This will keep the file size low and all the stuff that people need to edit will be in a group. Plus the template file can be used from project to project, so the program would not need to redo something.

Just a suggestion that is not too important, and can be dismissed totally.

Stiff

[jdobbs]

@StifflerStealth

I was actually thinking about doing this at some point for .AVS files and could do it for .ECL as well. How's this sound: I can have an edit window come up with all the parameters as they would have been created but with some kind of token (e.g "%file" for the name of the input file) for parameters that will be fed by DVD-RB. Then the editor could change any settings as he/she sees fit before the writing starts...

[StifflerStealth]

That sounds really good as long as it's easier to make changes. Would one need to switch to advanced mode to do? I thought you mentioned in that big thread that you had planned to have an option to set what VTSes/PGCs are main and which are extras, and there would be a place in the settings to set extras at xxxx bitrate and yy passes, and then the main maovie marked files would get teh remaining space distributed between them equally at some lower bitrate.

I think that might be easier to do. This is the sole reason I edit the ecl file. If DVD-RB had this option, I don't think I would need to edit the ecl file again, but I think knowing that I could is a great comfort.

Cheerio,
Stiff

[jdobbs]

@StifflerStealth

It may be a while before I put an editing capability in, but I'm planing to do the distribution of bitrates based on the original DVD in the next revision (barring small bugfix releases). I also plan to have the bitrate distribution between the main VTS and other (extra) VTSs in the near future.

[StifflerStealth]

Kewl, sweet, ... more positive comments. No hurry. I have a lot of patience. I mean I've been trying to back up this one DVD for the past month, so I can definatly wait for a new version.

Stiff

[Paced]

@jdobbs

Is it possible to add certain lines to both the AVS and ECL files for a given VTS set? I was thinking maybe you could allow us to right-click on any VTS we wish, and have various options to choose from - here's a few options that come to mind:

- de-interlacing (Telecide/Decimate/FieldDeinterlace)

- if you do intend to add 1/2 D1 for extras in the future (I remember reading it somewhere in the last thread), you might also want to add an option to keep the stream interlaced, which requires editing of the AVS script (SeparateFields/Weave, etc.). And, of course, an option to de-interlace it if the user wishes to do so.

- setting the appropriate tags (progressive/ZigZag or alt. scanning order/TFF or BFF, etc.) for the ECL.

I'm not sure how hard this would be to implement, but something like this for DVD-RB's future would be excellent :)

Also, great work on DVD-RB's progress so far, and thanks for sharing it :)

[jdobbs]

@Paced,Is it possible to add certain lines to both the AVS and ECL files for a given VTS set? Yeah, I can do that. But I have to be careful how I implement it. It's one of those things that experienced users will find nice -- but can confuse the hell out of the average folks. I still want to concentrate on making this the "easy" way to do CCE backups of a DVD.

[Paced]

Originally posted by jdobbs
@Paced, Yeah, I can do that. But I have to be careful how I implement it. It's one of those things that experienced users will find nice -- but can confuse the hell out of the average folks. I still want to concentrate on making this the "easy" way to do CCE backups of a DVD.

Very true :) AVS scripts are easy to get around (because it's not crucial to edit them in the program's current state). But, what I'm worried about is the CCE settings that 'average folks' may have trouble with. For example, DVD extras are usually interlaced, and getting DVD-RB to set the appropriate CCE tags for these streams is a challenge. The only way I see DVD-RB getting around this (without manual intervention from the user), is if it is able to scan each VTS set before creating the ECL, and determining which CCE tags go where, or whether they should be turned on or off :eek:

[jdobbs]

There's also the option of using the newer CCE encoders' option to do 3:2 pulldown recognition.

I already scan the file and can tell you exactly which frames are interlaced, field based, telecined... The problem is with the NTSC sources that switch back and forth between telecined and not telecined every few GOPs.

[StifflerStealth]

Originally posted by jdobbs
There's also the option of using the newer CCE encoders' option to do 3:2 pulldown recognition.

I already scan the file and can tell you exactly which frames are interlaced, field based, telecined... The problem is with the NTSC sources that switch back and forth between telecined and not telecined every few GOPs.

Add a new option to demux by GOP :D.

Actually, if a file is both, I just say to my self, "OK, which is it the most", and then pretend the entire file is that way. I think CCE 2.67 can tell the difference are something, because the video come out perfect all the way through. One would never know that it is both. Well, that's just my experience. I might of had false positives or something.

Stiff

[Rombaldi]

Originally posted by jdobbs
@Paced, Yeah, I can do that. But I have to be careful how I implement it. It's one of those things that experienced users will find nice -- but can confuse the hell out of the average folks. I still want to concentrate on making this the "easy" way to do CCE backups of a DVD.

I can see one place where you have the AVS options (.19) that appear to be global should be on a VTS basis.. the 'Resize to D1' is something I would want to do to the extras, not the whole disc, the tantelizing '4:3 LBX to 16:9' and 'zoom 2.35 to 16:9' as well. Those would be great for the main movies that are 4:3LB ot 2.35, but on more than one disc I've seen the extras be 4:3 full frame (converting those would not be pretty).

[chadp1a]

Hi everyone. Great program jdobbs.

Using DVDRB .19 set for QuEnc.

When trying to view the avs files created using windows media player, I receive an error from the player stating that I do not have the proper codec. If I choose CCE as the encoder the avs files play fine.

Any ideas anyone?

[wmansir]

Originally posted by jdobbs
There's also the option of using the newer CCE encoders' option to do 3:2 pulldown recognition.

I already scan the file and can tell you exactly which frames are interlaced, field based, telecined... The problem is with the NTSC sources that switch back and forth between telecined and not telecined every few GOPs.

I would not rely on CCE's internal pulldown detection method as it is not very accurate. It is often too agressive on interlaced video, causing jerky ouput, yet ineffecient on true telecined material. For instance I used it on some Buffy episodes, which D2V reported as 95% film, but CCE's ouput was only ~70% film.

Also, in order to use CCE's Pulldown detection the timecode must NOT be set to 00:00:00, which can cause problems with some authoring programs. Let me clarify that to say: CCE's Pulldown detection will FAIL if the timecode is 00:00:00, but some programs need it set to that in order to accept the file. Of course since you are writing the program in this case you could work around it, but just FYI.

And on another subject, could you clarify if the current builds work with seamless branching? I know you mentioned interleaving is disabled, but I'm unsure if that relates only to Angles or seamless branching too.

[djan]

Hi, just to know for when the true vbr taking in count the entire movie and not doing by cell. Again, very thx for this prog, it rules.

[JvD]

@jdobbs

Normally, when recoding or transcoding I find it much faster to have different source drives. Reading on one source and writing on another. The same goes for authoring. Is it possible to make this an option? At least for the authoring part.

[robot1]

If it's possible, could you implement in future per-vts options?
Many DVD have extras interlaced and 4/3
Options should be different there:
the avs should use converttoyuy2(interlaced=true)
And even "resize to half D1" or "Convert from LB 4:3 to 16:9" should be per VTS.

Anyway, great great prog.

[jdobbs]

Originally posted by chadp1a
Hi everyone. Great program jdobbs.

Using DVDRB .19 set for QuEnc.

When trying to view the avs files created using windows media player, I receive an error from the player stating that I do not have the proper codec. If I choose CCE as the encoder the avs files play fine.

Any ideas anyone? It's probably the YV12 requirement. Search the forum for YV12 and you should find something.

[jdobbs]

@wmansir,And on another subject, could you clarify if the current builds work with seamless branching? I know you mentioned interleaving is disabled, but I'm unsure if that relates only to Angles or seamless branching too.Sorry, not yet. Generally both seamless branching and angles use interleaving. Right now all I do is take note of it and mark them. I don't reinterleave them yet. It will come.

[3coola]

Originally posted by jdobbs
@wmansir,Sorry, not yet. Generally both seamless branching and angles use interleaving. Right now all I do is take note of it and mark them. I don't reinterleave them yet. It will come.

It's pretty easy to see if a movie is seamless branching or has angles, but there would be even easier if DVDrebuilder could give me a note about wheter the movie is suitable or not for use with DVDrebuilder. I have came across several movies that have button-over-video in some extra materials, but main movie is ok to use with DVDrebuilder or Big3. One can always use different programs for main movie and extras, but then it's not one-click anymore ...
So a message when movie is seamless branching, has angles or button-over-video would be nice!
And the ultimate goal I suppose is to manage all these types within DVDrebuilder?!
For the movies like Anger Management or Legally Blonde 2 that has many extras but only one small of them is button-over-video (there are questioners in them), perhaps it is not so hard to have a option in DVDrebuilder of leaving the entire VTS as is?

Btw, good work with this tool! Do you sleep at all during the nghts?

[Kakashi Sensei]

I have Alredy PM'ed jdobbs about this, and was wondering what you guys thought. I had a problem with my PC shutting down when CCE Was encoding using DVD-RB b/c i'm a goof and like to do other things while I encode and accidently hit the shut down CCE after encoding.

Well My friend wrote a program that hides CCE while it encodes and you only see a flash when a new window pops up. Its not very big in size and works really well. Let me know. :)

[jeremymacmull]

Just a question

Is your final aim for this proggie to be like DVDshrink

ie Really easy to use and transcode a dvd 9 to a dvd 5 with or without the extras etc but in your case using a much better transcoder such as CCE (or encoder if you like)

typically involving very few clicks and setting up and also having a GUI with all the info ie differing compression for the main movie vs the extras.

COS for me DVDshrink is perfect but imost of the time i ditch the extras to get good quality

if with your tool i can get good quality AND keep the extras due to the fact that CCE is a much better mpeg2 encoder then i would definately switch and im sure so would a lot of others.

I dont mean to pester i would just be interested in what your final aims for this proggie are if im way off course then fair do's


JEREMY

[robgarib]

Please where i can download QuEnc?
I want to try it with dvd rebuilder 0.21 but i don't find any result in doom9 and in google search.
Thanks

[NobbyNobbs]

For QEnc, look in the "Other MPEG Encoders" forum here at Doom9:D

[DMagic1]

I saw that you added the ability to change the color of the app. I never like the original color but I thought it was just a primer until you added a nice coat of paint to it. Do you plan on changing the look of it later after all, or most of the bugs have been fixed? I thing it would also be nice if it was skinnable.

[jdobbs]

@jeremymacmullReally easy to use and transcode a dvd 9 to a dvd 5 with or without the extras etc but in your case using a much better transcoder such as CCE (or encoder if you like)You hit the nail on the head. My goal is to create a simple-to-use transcoder that also gives you high quality. Unfortunately the only programs that do that either use within-the-compressed-domain shrinking or an inferior quality encoder. I wanted, with this app, to make it possible to use any host of encoders -- but especially CCE. For $59 you can get unparalleled quality -- but you then have to author it back to DVD. I'm trying to get the best of both worlds.

[jdobbs]

Originally posted by DMagic1
I saw that you added the ability to change the color of the app. I never like the original color but I thought it was just a primer until you added a nice coat of paint to it. Do you plan on changing the look of it later after all, or most of the bugs have been fixed? I thing it would also be nice if it was skinnable. Hadn't given it much thought. I just implemented the ability to change colors because I got complaints about my ugly choice...

[robot1]

I read that DVD-RB needs files ripped on hd and not mounted with daemon tools. Could you check at the beginning that you can write in the selected path? Many users don't read the docs...

[KungFuCow]

Im ripping from mounted drives via Alcohol 120% and its worked perfectly.

[StifflerStealth]

I too can confirm that iso's mounted with Alcohol work. I have not had a single problem. here just might be something about the daemon tools driver that doesn't cause it to work right. In fact, daemon tools has always created some issuse with Windows for me. All the guides I've read say that the source should always be an iso mounted becase you know you will never be able to screw up the files, so i had to find something that worked. Alcohol 52% is the Virtual drive only and a little cheaper.

@All: Maybe we should have people post if they have a different virtual drive that works to give people more choices. I know there are many virtual drives out there like Nero, Pinnacle, ....

Stiff

[djan]

I use Alcohol 120% too and it works well.

[djan]

Is it possible to set the CCE priority level when using DVDRB ? I would like it runs in low priority as I would like to use my PC while encoding. Thx.

EDIT: I read this in CCE Forum in the FAQ :

Q9: Can I work in other programs while CCE encodes?

Most certainly yes! The only thing you want to make sure in this case is that your system is stable and that CCE doesn't use so much CPU time so reasonable processing power is still available to other applications. To do this, run CCE with a lower process priority via the following batch file:

code:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
@echo off
start "CCE" /LOW <path to CCE executable>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Replace <path to CCE executable> with the full path to the CCE executable (and remember to put it in quotes if it contains spaces) and create a link to the batch file on your desktop, run CCE via that link.

Jdobbs, can you implement this please ?

[DDogg]

djan, if you are using eclcce with later versions of cce, just run it, go to the eclcce options in the standard option dialog in CCE, and set cce process priority to idle.

[djan]

The problem is I'm using CCE 2.50 SP and there is nothing about.

[huesage]

@ All:

I was curious if someone could please tell me a little about the CCE settings. Is there a rule of thumb on CCE settings for getting the best quality out of encodes?

VBR_Bias: ?
Quality_Prec: ?

Any help on this topic would be apreciated, for the time beeing I will just work with the default settings. If anyone would like to give me an explanation as to what those settings do, that would also be great !

I thank you all in advance for your help.

@ jdobbs:

Amazing work, my jaw is on the floor.

[djan]

Originally posted by huesage
@ All:

I was curious if someone could please tell me a little about the CCE settings. Is there a rule of thumb on CCE settings for getting the best quality out of encodes?

VBR_Bias: ?
Quality_Prec: ?

... It was what I was asking for in the other thread and in CCE section. Waiting for an answer. :) I would like to know more too.

[3coola]

Originally posted by robot1
I read that DVD-RB needs files ripped on hd and not mounted with daemon tools. Could you check at the beginning that you can write in the selected path? Many users don't read the docs...
I use daemon tools and it works fine. (DVD decrypted first, then making the image in Nero).

[djan]

Originally posted by 3coola
I use daemon tools and it works fine. (DVD decrypted first, then making the image in Nero). Huh, why to not create immediately the ISO with DVD Decrypter ?

[RobertR]

I'm quite acustomed with Big3 method and am currently testing DVD ReBuilder. This looks just awsome and i bow to jdobbs for all his work.
When using Big3 it's relatively easy to add/replace subtitle to dvd beeing backed up (matter of dropping specially named sst and bitmaps into subs dir). From what i've seen during my tests (ok i've never made it to ReBuild stage i'm just fooling around with encoders atm) things like adding subs is not possible at the moment. Will you consider making some option for this?
Does DVDReBuild at current stage recompress menus?

Best regards
Robert

[djan]

No, it doesn't encode the menus. It copies them like they are.

[jdobbs]

Originally posted by RobertR
I'm quite acustomed with Big3 method and am currently testing DVD ReBuilder. This looks just awsome and i bow to jdobbs for all his work.
When using Big3 it's relatively easy to add/replace subtitle to dvd beeing backed up (matter of dropping specially named sst and bitmaps into subs dir). From what i've seen during my tests (ok i've never made it to ReBuild stage i'm just fooling around with encoders atm) things like adding subs is not possible at the moment. Will you consider making some option for this?
Does DVDReBuild at current stage recompress menus?

Best regards
Robert Currently all existing original subtitles are kept intact when rebuilding. So there really isn't a necessity for extracting, reencoding, and readding subtitles.

[robgarib]

Can you put in a next version the possibility like in dvd shrink or in other transcoders to decrease quality of extra material in the dvd increasing the final quality of the main movie?

[2COOL]

DVD2DVD-R gives us a detection status on what kind of video we are dealing with prior to. Possibly, a feature to do one like this or have a seperate pane displaying what we are dealing with prior or in real-time. e.g. interlaced, progressive, pulldown, etc...

[petesafool]

Hi all,

Since v0.16 haven't had any trouble at all:

Labyrinth/r2/pal
Behind Enemy Lines/r2/pal
Predator SE/r2/pal

Only failure was PIRATES OF THE CARIBEAN DISC 1 which i've posted in the ERRORS thread (might be the still frame issue).

JDOBBS you deserve every donation!!! As much for IFOedit and IFOupdate as well as this prog.

I would certainly like to see some of the 'advanced' options that others have asked for, but I have one that nobody else seems to have requested (or cares about?) - the ripping/inclusion of DVD-ROM features when calculating bitrates.

[NobbyNobbs]

Although he deserves a lot of credit both for DVD-RB, and ifoupdate, I believe that Derrow deserves a little credit for IfoEdit, don`t you think ? :D :D

[StifflerStealth]

I don't know if this is a bug or not, so I would like some help with the problem before I post a bug report.

I am using version 0.21, and one of my DVDs is dectected at 23.976 fps. DIF4U detects the majority of the cells at 29.976 fps. In DVD-RB I set the treshhold at 50% and 90%, but I get the same results. It is a TV episodal disk. Is there any free program I can use to analyse the video to see what it truely is. The settings from DIF4U look better when of film is encoded at segment that the believed rate of 29.97 compared to the believed rate of 23.976 fps that DVD-RB gives. There are fewer interlace lines. I looked at the AVS file and I made sure "ConvertToYUY2(interlaced=true)" was in there. Even though DVD-RB is giving 23.976, should I put "Telecide()" in the AVS files?

Thanks,
Stiff

[jdobbs]

All: Sorry for the delay and sparse postings. I've had a problem with my Internet connection all day, and the COMCAST phone-guy wanted to argue about it. Sigh... He thinks 5Kbs upstream is acceptable when he can't see the problem from his end...

Anyway here is the latest Beta of DVD-RB (v0.22) The fixes/updates are listed below:

- Corrected some bugs in way pointers were being inserted into the NAVPACK audio sync tables. I'm hoping this was the source of some reported audio problems.

- Fixed the Run-time error " '52' Bad file name or number error ". This would only happen when attempting to perform two complete (Prepare, Encode, and Rebuild) sessions without restarting. I left a flag incorrectly enabled following completion of a Rebuild.

- Implemented a size limit on VTSs to be processed. Now very small VTSs that have virtually no data involved are simply copied as-is and are not processed. This eliminates unnecessary recoding and some possible gotchas.

- Added an option to the audio select panel of SETUP that enables automatic removal of all DTS streams. I personally never keep them, so I added this for me.

- Added the "Batch Processing" feature. It lets you select from saved project files and execute muliple jobs -- nice for overnight work.

Also I think I've narrowed down the problem with the "green flash" and troubles with cells that some people are experiencing. It seems to be related to the way I demux into Cells when you are using ReJig mode. Not ReJig's problem -- mine.

Thx: jdobbs

Look in the first post of this thread to get the latest version

[KungFuCow]

JDobbs, any bug fixes in this release that may cure the FFWD and RWD problems?

[StifflerStealth]

I DLed 0.22, and the zip file was corrupted.

Stiff

[onesoul]

Originally posted by jdobbs
Currently all existing original subtitles are kept intact when rebuilding. So there really isn't a necessity for extracting, reencoding, and readding subtitles.

Hi, I think what RobertR was asking is an option to add/remove a subtitle in a language that was not on the DVD. (I wish I knew how to do that :o)
Although I hadn't got around to try dvd-rbv, I can see it is really something, thanks for making it available :)
One question: do you allow the user to edit the avisynth scripts or something like having default filters? (sorry if this doesn't apply)

Cheers