[Newbie] Purchased DVD-RB but how convert DVD9-->DVD5 on a TV-series DVD?

[Xophile]

Hello everyone!

I purchased both CCE and DVD Rebuilder the other day and have now installed everything on my computer. I want to make a copy of my original DVD-box with episodes from sex and the city for my girldfriend.

I used DVD Decrypter and got about 80+ files in a folder of 7gb. The DVD has 6 episodes and therefor I got 6 .vobfiles at around 1gb. I want to keep Swedish and english subtitles, the menu and nothing else.

I then started DVD Rebuilder, did my settings and it all started just fine. After about 30min it was done and I then found only one file in my output folder, no isofile which I wanted (and had set in dvd-rb) and the file contained the first episode with spanish audio :)

I then read the readme file and found out that encoding TV-series is abit tricky.

Any suggestions on how I do this?

Thank you kindly!

[BadServo]

Actually it's not that tricky, it's just that since DVD-RB was designed with movies in mind, some of it's automated tricks get confused when episodic (TV series) discs are duplicated.

The first thing you should do, is to NOT select the special "Movie and Menus Only" or Extra reducing features. These automatically assume that the largest portion of video is the movie and disreguard the others. Odds are, this is why you only got one episode.

Instead, copy the entire movie (deselecting the subtitles and audio you do not need). Do not check the "One-Click" mode, so that you see the Prepare, Encode, and Rebuild buttons at the lower right of the window. After your options are set, press "Prepare."

After the Prepare phase is completed, start the segment viewer from the Options menu of DVD-RB. Uncheck the option in the segment viewer to hide extras. Then you will need to click on each segment in the list and determine if it's an episode or extra you'd like to keep. If it isn't, double click it to convert it to a blank segment.

After you've gone through the entire disc, you can click the Save & Exit button and then press the Encode button. Once that is completed, press Rebuild.

It shoudl also go without saying that you should try and have a good 10GB of free space before you do this.

Personally, I find the easiest way to backup my discs thus far is to use CloneDVD with AnyDVD to copy the disc's contents to the hard drive. During the process, I deselect any extras, subtitles, angles, or audio I do not need, and choose whether or not to keep the menu. Then I specify a custom target size that is larger than the material, like 9999MB. This will insure that the video is untouched and will be saved without recompression.

After this I run the copied material through DVD-RB. I realize that DVD-RB can handle most of this itself, but I perfer this meathod as it often speeds up the initial copying of the disc to HDD, since I've likely already illiminated alot of the material. Also, with all the unwanted material already discarded, there's less chance of an issue with DVD-RB (such as your unexpected spanish audio.)

I hope this helps.

[Xophile]

Badservo:

I can't thank you enough for your reply! I'm at work at the moment but will try it as soon as I come home!

It was stupid of me to copy the whole disc in the first place. I just need the movie (or in this case, the episodes), maybe the menu and a few subs. I always delete the extras as I want better quality. Can't DVD Decrypter do this for me?

I'll get back to you tonight!

PS. Are you in Georgia, US perhaps? I'm from Sweden but stayed in Atlanta last year when my girlfriend studied at Georgia State :)

[BadServo]

Glad to be of service. Hope this resolves your issues. Yes, I am in Georgia, in the metro-Atlanta area.

[markrb]

I do close to the same thing, but use DVDShrink.
I don't want menu's so this way works easiest for me.
I simply select reauthor mode and shut off compression.
I deselect any unwanted subs and audio tracks.
I just say yes to the "this will be oversized" and save it.
Load it into DVD-RB and make sure that no special settings (i.e. half extra's,
movie only mode, etc...) are on.
I have not had a problem yet.

Mark

[Xophile]

Markrb:

Thanks for your reply! I had thought of that solution as well but then I will get one big iso file first, and later on one encoded file as well. It doesn't sound like a very simple solution (but it sure would work). Isn't there a program where I can choose to keep the menu if I want, what subs etc etc and then let it do it's thing with CCE? Without so many steps in between?

Thanks!