Episode confusion.

[sponza]

Hi folks,

I recently bought a box set of 3 DVD-9s containing TV episodes, and I'd like to back them up to DVD-5s without compression. I'd like to be able to put arbitrary episodes on each DVD-5.

I've read so many guides and tutorials that my head's spinning. I'm relatively new to this, but I understand most of what I've read, such as using VOBEdit to join the episodes into a single VTS and then have IfoEdit make the respective IFO files. I also looked at 2COOL's guide but I don't have DVD2One, and also read a bunch of other guides related to IfoEdit.

But maybe I'm looking in the wrong place, or I'm just thick and not getting it. So let me explain what I want to do. I can use DVD Decrypter to extract all the files without compression. Of those files, I know which files relate to the episodes (VTS_nn_x.ext). I'd like to keep these episodes as separate Title sets, which should make it easier to jump between them on a player (instead of having to sequentially skip every preceding chapter).

So this is where I'm confused. 2COOL's guide says to use DVD2One for transcoding, but since I don't need compression, I don't see why I need to transcode. Given that I have extracted the episodes and their related information, isn't authoring a new DVD "only" a matter of manipulating IFO files and renaming VOB files? If so, could you offer some pointers on what else I should be reading?

Any help would be appreciated,

Cheers, mers

[Kedirekin]

If all you want to do is make the episodes different titles on a disk - with no menus - DVDShrink can do this for you very simply.

DVDShrink is a transcoder, but you can use it to process things without compressing them, and it's completely free.

A few minutes looking at some of the guides over on www.dvdshrink.info might save you a lot of pain and heartache. I think the first two re-author guides under DVDShrink 3.1.x might address your needs quite nicely.

[sponza]

Thanks Kedirekin, I use DVD Shrink all the time but it hadn't occurred to me that I could reauthor from HDD (always used other DVDs before). Told you I was daft. :)

I would like a bit of an explanation as to what's going on in this episode scenario though, and that's part of the reason I posted here instead of the Authoring section. Am I wrong in thinking that each VTS (with its associated IFO and VOB files) is an independent entity?

Let me clarify. Assume a DVD has two VTSs, namely VTS_01_x.* and VTS_02_x.* ... is there any relationship whatsoever between VTS_01 and VTS_02? Can't a proper VMG IFO file be created to include only VTS_01 or only VTS_02, without making any changes to either? (Other than having to rename VTS_02 if it is to be included alone.)

The reason I ask is because this would be very beneficial for backing up episodes. You would use DVD Decrypter to extract the VTS files to a single directory, possibly rename some of them, and then create only the VIDEO_TS VMG files. Of course, you'd have to look at the VTS files to create the VMG files, but the only thing being generated are the VMG files and you wouldn't need to regenerate existing VOBs.

Thoughts, taunts? :)

mers

[Dimmer]

Originally posted by sponza
I would like a bit of an explanation as to what's going on in this episode scenario though, and that's part of the reason I posted here instead of the Authoring section. Am I wrong in thinking that each VTS (with its associated IFO and VOB files) is an independent entity?You right about that, but they have to be glued together by VMG meaning you can't just add a VTS to a DVD and expect it to work. DVD Shink in authoring mode creates brand new titlesets and VMG out of your titles, and probably all that's left from the original DVD are chapter breaks.

As for the episodic DVD's, there is a couple of simple solutions. If you're lucky and each episode resides in its own VTS, you can use TitleSetBlanker (http://www.sysh.net/titlesetblanker.html) to blank out half of the episodes for each backup disc. However, it's possible that on some DVDs all the episodes are in VTS1. The other way is to use a one-click tool such as CloneDVD and remove half of the titles from the disc so it won't have to transcode. Of course, you'll have to run it twice for each backup. CloneDVD replaces removed titles with a second of blank space. Either way, you'll get to keep full menu structure and everything on each disc.

[sponza]

Thanks Dimmer.

The problem with the episodic DVDs is that you might end up having to put episodes from different original DVDs onto one backup disc, thereby rendering the menus useless and TitleSetBlanker and VOBBlanker not much help.

e.g. you have a box set with 2 DVDs A and B, each with 6 episodes. In the name of quality, you want to back these up to 3 DVD-Rs (not 4), so you get:

DVD-R 1: A(E1), A(E2), A(E3), A(E4)
DVD-R 2: A(E5), A(E6), B(E1), B(E2)
DVD-R 3: B(E3), B(E4), B(E5), B(E6)

You can use the original menus for the first and third backup disc, but you're screwed on the second. I guess it's not a common occurrence, but I just bought a box set (Allo Allo, highly recommended :)) with 4 episodes here, 5 episodes there, etc. And I don't want to use 2 DVD-Rs per DVD since I can use less overall even without compression.

Back to the VTS debate. If you're right in confirming my suspicion that VTSs are separate unrelated entities, is there any tool out there that given a set of VTSs can create corresponding VMG files? I know IfoEdit can make the IFO files for a single VTS, but what about many of them ... say, one per episode? ;) It should even be trivial to add a standardized VMG VIDEO_TS.VOB top menu in this scenario, to choose between episodes.

It comes down to whether VTSs are independent. I mean, can you freely rename and reorder VTS files if you had corresponding a VMG IFO for each arrangement? Or are VobIDs of the VTSs interrelated? (talk about acronym soup)

Seems like if they were independent, there'd be tools out there to do just this ... or with help, I'll code it myself.

Cheers, mers

[Dimmer]

@sponza
Naturally, I was talking about scenario when you split each DVD into two parts. Obviously, you want to save not just quality but money too by using five recordable DVDs instead of six to back up a three disc set. Of course, in this case you'll have to re-author the whole thing.

If you still thinking about joining independent titlesets, I suggest you go carefully in IfoEdit through some VIDEO_TS.IFO files and see how much information they contain. It's not a simple table of contents like FAT for example.

Here's one method that might do the trick I believe you have in mind for joining the independent episodes. Create a new project in TMPGEnc DVD Author (TDA) with Main menu only and as many dummy tracks as you have episodes. The tracks can any one-second video fragments, perhaps good enough to create menu thumbnails for the tracks. TDA creates a separate VTS for each track and a title menu for its Main menu. Once you built the DVD, replace the dummy titlesets with your episodes, renaming them as appropriate. Then it's off to IfoEdit, changing all the links in the title menu and adding whatever scripting required. Then of course you do Get VTS Sectors. If you do everything properly, this method could work quite well for you.

[Kedirekin]

It is an interesting question. On the face of it, it seems like you should be able to rename and combine title sets (VTS_0X's) from different disks and create a simple video manager menu to let you jump in to the different menus for the different title sets.

In reality I think that DVDs are authored in so many different and sometimes strange ways that we will never see a tool that automates this. While title sets are largely independent, DVDs often use commands to jump all over the place (from VMG to VTS back to VMG to another VTS, and so on). Heck, often the title set that hold the menus is separate from the title sets that hold the titles (if that make any sense). This extensive linking means the title sets are not really independent.

Additionally some disks put a fair amount of their menu functionality in VMG menus, and I cannot think of a way to combine VMG menus from two different disks.

In the long run, if you place any value on your personal time, it may be cheaper to just cave in and use more disks. Of course, it's up to you; I only mention it because it is what I would do.