Encode main movie and keep original extras. Possible?

[Indigo]

Any help would be appreciated. I noticed that the Big 3 method works like that, but I must admit that after 15 hours of total processing and the end result still not working quite well I am not sure that that method is for me. :P Seems that on the surface DVD-RB might be of easier use.

What I have in mind is if it is possible to rip the main movie only, encode it with RB, and then somehow rebuild it with the original content that wasn't encoded. Not sure if this is a farfetched idea though.

Hope I don't sounds too confusing. :/

[Sir Didymus]

Hi, Indigo :)

Not sure I understand what you mean...
Anyway, DVD-RB is intended to rebuild an original movie, keeping intact the whole structure and contents, and producing a backup copy using encoders (CCE, QuEnc, Procoder) or a transcoder (Rejig) for reducing the size of the video contents...

If in this process you want to just to keep untouched one or all of the extras, this (even though almost unusual...) is easily feasible, using the nice add-on application of Robot1 (i.e. RB-OPT, together with DVD-RB).

What you should do is the following:

1. Set up DVD-RB in three click mode (default). See the nice hints and guides in the sticky threads for more precise indications on this point...

2. Run the "Prepare".

3. Launch RB-OPT, load the RB settings generated in the previous step, and select the VTS and VOB-id(s) of the extras you want to keep unchanged. Untick the "autosized" button and put the "reduction" slider at the maximum level (typically 99.98%). Save the Settings.

4. Run the "Encode" step.

5. This will re-encode also the extras. At this point it is up to you to keep the encoded extras (skip this step and the following) or (if you absolutely want the untouched originals) you need to extract from the original the m2v files corresponding to the cells of the extras.

6. You need to demux by cell id(s) the original, using VobEdit for example.

7. While double checking not to make mistakes in this step, you should find the encoded m2v files in the D2VAVS folder corresponding to the extras you want to keep, and substitute these files with the corresponding files produced in the previous step.

8. Run the "Rebuild" step.

It should work...
And please correct me, if someone knows simpler methods...

Cheers,
SD

[Indigo]

I guess that is basically what I have been aiming at. :) I'll do some tests with RB-opt seeing how it goes.

I see that under point 5 you mention that RB will still encode the extras I have modified with the RB-opt. Will they be reencoded with the settings I set using RB-opt? If so I assume having checked the autosize on the main movie it will be encoded at the correct bitrate to keep the size right?

Btw, what's the difference between cce etc. (encoders) and rejig (transcoder). With CCE encoding takes ages for me.

[Sir Didymus]

1 - Yes.
2 - Yes.
3 - Your last question, posted in between, requested just few words to be placed, but it could take very much time to be answered properly. And it is off topic... Please give a look all around on this beautiful forum, since I am sure you will get some much more deep and complete description on the matter. Maybe some masters of the subject will give much better description. I am only sure I am not the right person to ask this (also please consider I am not of English mother tongue).

Anyway, to say it short: transcoders (I love DVD Shrink among all of them) are based on the concept of reducing the size of the video stream by eliminating some of the coefficients that are present in the MPEG compressed stream, and that are containing higher frequency visual information. The whole structure of the Group of Pictures (GOP) of the video stream is left unchanged by them. This size reduction strategy is very effective and may be performed very quickly (in relative terms), especially when the wanted reduction level is not extremely high.

Encoders work on a totally different (and much heavier) way. They normally need to start from an uncompressed stream for producing a new encoded video, generating a new MPEG stream with a new GOP structure, based on the constraints and parameters (Constant Bitrate or Variable bitrate, value of the video bitrate, ...) that are given to these programs. When the compression levels you want to obtain for the video stream is relatively high, it is generally accepted that what you pay using encoders (instead of transcoders) in term of the much more time it needs for the encoding task, you get back in term of "subjective" or "perceived" video quality.

Hope it is enough for you to have a preliminary idea...
But I say again: read all around, and you will learn a lot. I can guarantee this.

EDIT: noticing now you are from Gothenburg. While we are OT, let me say your town is very very nice. Being there for a nice trip some time ago...

[Indigo]

Heh...thanks that certainly explains why DVDshrink works fast while CCE takes hours. :P

I guess I have to accept that with my specs on the comp, encoding is slow business. I'll keep on dreamin about those that reach speeds over 2. :P

Ps. Yea..it sure is a fine place to live. :)