D2SRoBa and DVDDecrypter

[manolito]

I have always used DVDDecrypter in conjunction with D2SRoBa to rip my DVDs. Lately this does not work any more. DVDDecrypter immediately quits with a message that it cannot append to the file xxxx.vob when it is called by D2SRoBa. Using DVDDEcrypter by itself in IFO mode works perfectly. Ripping with vstrip or the internal routines also works.

I installed several older versions of DVDDecrypter to make sure that this is not related to the last DVDDec version, but no difference. Could this have something to do with the latest WinXP updates?. I am using XP Professional SP2 with all the latest updates (German version). Anyone else have these problems?

Cheers
manolito

[tylo]

Hi, manolito - long time no see!

I have no idea what the cause may be, but I am planning on making a new release of D2SRoBa, so I will look into this. (/edit: DVDFabDecrypter will not currently work, as it it has limited command line support (subset of DVDD's), but I will try to add support for it, as it reads ARccOS R2 discs correctly.)

After some time of using DVD-RB, I got tired of it, and now I back to movie-only using dvd2svcd (on long titles). Hopefully dvd2svcd is actually working on a new version with cc270 support++, as he promised. :)

Cheers

[manolito]

Hi, manolito - long time no see!

Hi Tylo, good to see you back here!

I tried to nail down the problem with DVDDecrypter some more, and here is what I found:

Right after DVDDecrypter starts, a window pops up with the following message: "Unable to create, replace or append to file I:\MOVIES\VTS_01_0.IFO Repeat? Cancel?"

The filename does show up in Explorer, but it is write protected. When I clear the write protection flag and press "Repeat" in the DVDDecrypter error message window, the ripping continues normally.

Isn't this weird? By the way it does not matter if an empty "Movies" folder is already present or if I let the program create this folder. I really have a feeling that one of the latest Win XP security updates could be causing this behavior. Could you try to verify this on your computer to find out if it only happens in German versions of Windows?

Cheers
manolito

[tylo]

Thanks :). I looked at the old source code for the DVDDecrypter vStrip emulator, and I see that I am unsetting the write-protection of the output VTS_01_0.IFO file *before* DVDDecrypter is called. I did it because when you rip with with internal routines, DVD2SVCD makes the VTS_01_0.IFO write protected (I vaguely recall the reason was to avoid that this file sometimes disappered in earlier buggy dvd2svcd versions). For some reason, my unsetting of write-protection didn't work then (?).

However, this only is relevant if your are DVDDecrypting over previously ripped files with internal routines (you should delete old ripped files first).

[Nick]

I'm pretty sure DVD2SVCD isn't currently being developed.
I understand there is the possibility of another developer taking the software over. However, having spoken to the author, I get the impression that he himself will not be developing DVD2SVCD any further.

We can but wait and see what happens.

[manolito]

For some reason, my unsetting of write-protection didn't work then (?).

However, this only is relevant if your are DVDDecrypting over previously ripped files with internal routines (you should delete old ripped files first).
Yeah, unsetting write protection by your vStrip emulator does not work any more on my system. But it has nothing to do with old ripped files being present in my "Movies" folder. Before starting a new project I always clear the content of this folder completely. And even if I delete the folder itself before running DVD2SVCD, the folder will be created by D2S and the problem is still there.

Just to make sure that it is not my Beta version of D2S 1.22 Build 4 Beta7, I reinstalled Version 1.22 Build 1, but it did not make a difference. Just in case you might ask, I have disabled all non-Microsoft services in XP, I do not have a resident virus scanner running, and there are no user right restrictions on my machine (I run XP as an Administrator, I did not create other user accounts).

Any ideas?

Cheers
manolito

[manolito]

I'm pretty sure DVD2SVCD isn't currently being developed.
I understand there is the possibility of another developer taking the software over. However, having spoken to the author, I get the impression that he himself will not be developing DVD2SVCD any further.
Thanks Nick for these clear words. I had a feeling that this would happen. Still it would be nice if DVD2SVCD (the person) himself could comment on the state of his software.

If it really turns out that there will be no further development of D2S, then I would like to make a few comments myself:

First of all a BIG BIG thank you to DVD2SVCD. This software is in almost daily use on my machine, and I think I will use it for a long time from now.

I also would like to propose to make the latest Beta of Version 1.22 Build 4 available to the public. It definitely solves the AVI resize issue, and I have not found any problems with it since I started to use it (in November 2004!).


And of course there is the question what we really will be missing, if there will be no more updates to D2S. IMHO not very much. Let's see:

Support for CCE 2.70
Version 2.70 has the Adaptive Quantization Matrix feature, and it should deliver better quality on fades. But there are also reports that it is still a little buggy. For my taste CCE 2.67 together with D2SRoBa is still a winning combination, and we also have alternatives today. Since D2S has support for QuEnc, we can also use FreeEnc and especially HC as encoders. In many cases I prefer HC's quality over CCE.

Most helper programs are a little outdated
Who cares, if they work? You can always install newer versions of AVISynth, BeSweet, BBMpeg, Mplex and DVDAuthor. I did that for many of them, but I could not see any improvements.
For Neuron2's DGMPGDEC package it is a little different. The latest version that works with D2S is version 1.10. After this Donald Graft changed the format of the index file, and neither D2S nor DVDRebuilder will work with the latest DGMPGDEC versions.

(If you want to use DGMPGDEC version 1.10, here are some tips: You only need two files from the package, and these are "DGDecode.dll" and "DGIndex.exe". DGDecode.dll belongs into the "MPG2DEC" folder under "AVISynth2.5 Plugins". DGIndex.exe must be extracted into the "DVD2AVI" folder, and it has to be renamed to "DVD2AVIDG.EXE". Finally you have to point D2S to these files under the "Frameserver" tab for DGDecode.dll and under "DVD2AVI" for DVD2AVIDG.EXE")

My conclusion clearly is: DVD2SVCD is a great program as it is right now. I have DVDShrink, DVDRebuilder (free version) and DVD2SVCD on my machine, and these programs cover all my video conversion needs. And of these three DVD2SVCD is the software I use the most.

Cheers
manolito

[dvd2svcd]

Well, what to say. Yesterday after I spoke to Nick I fixed an IMDB issue, maybe I should release it as it is now and see if I get the time soon to make it GPL.

[manolito]

Well, what to say. Yesterday after I spoke to Nick I fixed an IMDB issue, maybe I should release it as it is now and see if I get the time soon to make it GPL.
This is great news! It would really be a shame to see that wonderful piece of software die.

Cheers
manolito

[GravuTrad]

Great! Great! Great!

My favourite software is not dead.

Very happy to see you again DVDSVCD!

hi to all, and really great news today!

Big thanks.

(manolito, good work so...to correct some few things? well well, a team is born?)

[pacohaas]

Since D2S has support for QuEnc, we can also use FreeEnc and especially HC as encoders. In many cases I prefer HC's quality over CCE.
I agree, I think a clear way to use HC in D2S would be great. I'm just getting back into this and with the search length of this forum, finding help on integrating HC as Quenc in DVD2SVCD is tough.

I would also like to thank dvd2svcd for all the time he's put into this program over the years.

[raquete]

Great! Great! Great!

My favourite software is not dead.

Very happy to see you again DVDSVCD!

hi to all, and really great news today!

Big thanks.

(manolito, good work so...to correct some few things? well well, a team is born?)
yes,my favourite soft too,great news from dvd2svcd. :D

@dvd2svcd
thank you.

[dvd2svcd]

Very very close now.

[Nick]

@pacohaas

Have you seen this?
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=89439

[pacohaas]

yes, but there are 2 problems:

-the link to HC_CLI.zip is dead
-HC_CLI doesn't work with the currently available version of HC

[Nick]

Urgh! I didn't check the link and Manolito is on holiday at the moment I think.
Next time I catch him logged on I'll quiz him about the latest news on how he's doing this.

It might just find its way into the Plugins sticky if he has an up-to-date solution.

[pacohaas]

well, if anyone's interested, using the new DVD2SVCD and HCbatch_016_testrelease2_16-09-2005.exe as the Quenc executable, everything seems to work fine. ;-)

the end?

[manolito]

Hi everybody,

I have only been back from vacation for a couple of days (Santa Cruz, California), and I somehow overlooked pacohaas' post. So here comes a very short tutorial how to use HC with D2S.

(The link to HC_CLI does not work any more because HC_CLI is obsolete. I wrote HC_CLI for the very first versions of HC. At this time HC did not support command line parameters. It could only be set up by means of an INI file, and all HC_CLI did was take the parameters from D2S, edit HC.INI accordingly and call HC.EXE. Today HC comes with two executables HC.EXE and HCBatch.EXE. With DVD2SVCD we use the batch version.)



Using the HC encoder by Hank315 with DVD2SVCD:

In D2S go to the encoder tab and select QuEnc as your encoder. Point D2S to "HCBatch.exe" instead of "QuEnc.exe". If you did not create a file "HC.INI" in the HC folder, HC will use a couple of default parameters (GOP structure, Matrix and so on). HC's command line interface is mostly compatible to QuEnc's interface, and where it is not, HCBatch is nice enough to just ignore unknown parameters instead of throwing an error. For a comprehensive list of all parameters HC takes from the command line have a look at Hank's excellent documentation.

Example: If you prefer a special GOP structure, you have to specify it in HC.INI instead of D2S. The values for GOP size and No. of B-Frames specified in D2S are ignored.


Cheers
manolito



//Edit
I just noticed that this post has nothing to do with the thread title anymore. A sticky about the use of different encoders with D2S would be great. BTW I do also have a small utility which makes NuEnc compatible with D2S.