Possible to keep movie & menus at 100% and only encode extras?

[blutach]

Say my main movie and menus can be encoded 100% lossless. Now say I have some extras that require compression. How can I ensure the movie and menus are kept at 100% while only the extras get processed.

To date, I have blanked out the movie in PgcEdit, run DVDRB on user defined target sectors and replaced the main movie in VobBlanker.

Must be an easier way. I am missing something, I am sure.

Regards

[Guest]

1300+ posts and you're still violating forum rule 9? Shameful!

[blutach]

Apologies neuron2 - Maybe you can change the title of the thread (I can not).

:redfaced:

Regards

[Guest]

Sorry, I can't edit in this forum. But you should be able to edit the title. Just select edit and then change the text in the title area.

[feedback]

It is very easy to do just click the edit button, then change the message in the thread title.
I just changed a word in a thread that I started in June of this year just to see if I could and had no problem. I wouldn't advocate doing it wholesale, but if you need to fix a mistake to observe the forum rules or to fix a typo it is there for your use.

Regards,:)

edit: Dang, Neuron2 beat me to it. :D

[blutach]

Thanks - 1300 posts and did know you could change the title of a post but not of the thread (so it would change in main forum too).

Regards

[feedback]

With the complete movie,menus and extras, First set DVDRB Pro. to No compression. The Half D1 and Half space for Extras is then greyed out. Still, if you go to the AVS options then the Advanced (expert) options then Resize to Half D1 and then choose the VTS's that contains the extras, tick that VTS it should affect the extras in that VTS only.
Is this approach in the area of what you are looking for?

Have not tried it myself but seems plausible.

Regards,:)

[blutach]

Not quite. Not looking to resize them but simply to encode extras only. To date, have been blanking the movie and removing the menu (easy), figuring how much actual space I have left on the disk, setting that as my TargetSectors in the options part of rebuilder.ini and then processing. This works and I have a DVD encoded with just extras.

I then replace the (blanked) movie title in VobBlanker and reimport the menu in PgcEdit.

Works but is cumbersome.

Regards

[JFerguson]

Yeah, I've done as you have. Another time, I just deleted all of the main movie information out of the ECL file and run it like that -- this assumes that the compression chosen for the extras is close to what you're looking for.

I'd certainly welcome an easier way or added option (maybe in Preview Editor, No Compression)...

[blutach]

Thanks for the idea JFerguson. So if my movie is in VTS_01, if I delete everything in the ECL up to the first [item] containing V020000.... I should be right?

I'll give it a try.

Regards

[Sir Didymus]

Yeah, I've done as you have. Another time, ...


Me too...
But the approach I followed was more complex (just pointing it out as an alternative, in order to make a little bit more complicatet the jobs that are too easy :p ...):

1. Run a first instance of the DVD-RB project in no-compression mode. This is quite fast and it is basically needed just to demux the m2v assets from the original title, in the form expected by DVD-RB.

2. Run a second instance (in an encoding mode, three click) of DVD-RB and just perform the prepare phase.

3. Run RB-Opt (the nice application of Robot1) in order to tune at the 99,9% the bitrate for the main movie.

4. Edit the Rebuilder.inf file [Status] section, changing the Progress=1 line to Progress=2. Add the line Encode_Progress=nnn, where nnn is the progressive encoding number corresponding to the first item of the extra (very easy to get this number, just count the avs files in the D2VAVS folder before the ones correspondig to the extras...).

5. Hit Encode. This way DVD-RB should start the encoding session completely skipping the encoding of the main movie.

6. At the end of the Encoding Session, before hitting Rebuild, move all of the m2v assets of the main movie obtained in the step 1 to the D2VAVS folder of the second project.

7. Hit Rebuild...

It is a very general approach, and if you like to play with the above manual steps a little bit, it should work properly...

Cheers,
SD

[blutach]

Thanks SD. Going to give that a try.

EDIT: What if the movie is not in the 1st VTS? Makes it harder to "skip over" in step 4.

What did you think of the method I use of changing the TargetSectors? It seems it is the easiest so far.

Regards

[spyhawk]

EDIT: What if the movie is not in either the 1st VTS? Makes it harder to "skip over" in step 4.I think you have to remove movie related sections in rebuilder.inf and rebuilder.ecl. I never try it though, so not sure if it works. I assume Encode_Progress is just the counter of how many m2v it has encoded.

btw, don't you have to change the Completed line in rebuilder.ini as well if you just want to skip the prepare phase? Does Completed=1 means prepare has finished, Completed=2 means encode has finished, and so forth?

Also is it possible, after prepare phase, to change encoder? I tried to do it by changing RB Mode menu but doesn't work, so I have to prepare again.

What did you think of the method I use of changing the TargetSectors? It seems it is the easiest so far.How do you calculate TargetSectors reliably? Seems like it is not very reliable. Previously I have 2261000, and it oversizes depending on movie. Then I change it to 2260000 and it hits the spot for most movies. Now I'm trying to encode the episodic anime. With CCE it comes out 4.37GB (4,703,442,944), and then with HC 4.38GB (4,704,518,144). This is a little bit oversize. So it's 10hrs wasted time. I'm trying to get 4.36GB (4,6xx,xxx,xxx).

[blutach]

Yes, it isn't that reliable. But you need to subtract not just the main movie but also the menus and the IFO/BUPs. Then allow about 2% for variability.

If worst comes to worst, just use DVD Shrink on the menus afterwards. No big damage - not here to watch menus anyway :)

Regards

[spyhawk]

yeah, the thing is I already shrank the menus to 50% b4 re-encoding. Now I have to shrink it again. :( I was thinking of stilling all of them, but the motion looks too good to do that.

btw, is it ok to replace one encoded m2v with another encoded m2v using RME (same video content) and do the rebuild over again or will it mess up the rebuild b/c of different file size? If this way is ok, then it will save tons of time instead of re-encoding again with a different TargetSector.

[jptheripper]

@spyhawk

differnt file sizes are okay, different frame counts are not

[spyhawk]

Cool! How do I check if frame count is the same b4 rebuilding?

[EDIT]Never mind. I got it.

[Sir Didymus]

Thanks SD. Going to give that a try.

EDIT: What if the movie is not in the 1st VTS? Makes it harder to "skip over" in step 4.

What did you think of the method I use of changing the TargetSectors? It seems it is the easiest so far.

Regards

Yes, you are right in both of the points you are making:

- if the movie is not the 1st VTS point 4 changes slightly. In this case it is necessary to perform manually the step 4 after the manual stop of the encoding at the first segment of the movie VTS. The purpose is just to skip the encoding of the assets already available.

- agreed your method is easier... You know, since it is a process to perform not very frequently, and the steps are all manual, each user tend to follow the path he/she prefere...

Cheers,
SD

[Sir Didymus]

@spyhawk

differnt file sizes are okay, different frame counts are not

Quoted, quoted...

DVD-RB is a powerful tool that makes possible to play with it a lot.

I have to admit that the example of spyhawk (said that it is never a good idea to try to fill every single byte of a DVD5), happened to me too sometimes.

Re-encoding just the end titles, and the manual tweaking of the "Complete=" and "Encode_Progress=" items allow not to waste the most part of the encoding time spent for the batch.

While trying to squeeze just the black final titles and acknowledgements from a movie, and using some nice tools like Cuttermaran, it is also possible to re-encode even less than a whole single segment, by extracting the original and the encoded m2v assets, cutting the part(s) of the original m2v to re-encode, cutting at the same points the encoded m2v, re-encoding at a huge level the sub parts that needs no bitrate, and putting back together the final m2v segment, again with Cuttermaran...

All the best,
SD

Edit: do not want to suggest horrible practices to anybody, but dammit, arriving at the end with 3 MB of oversizing may change to a killer even the most peaceful person... :angry:

Edit2:

Also is it possible, after prepare phase, to change encoder? ...

Absolutely not. Each different encoder requires a specific setup. Even in case the encoder is the same (CCE SP) but the releases are different (2.50, SP trial, SP retail), apart the different needs of adopting the mate eclcce application, people from Cinemacraft were so nice to modify the scale, the names and the behaviour of some fundamental parameters, so different modes of preparing and launching the encoding sessions are used in DVD-RB...

That's really crazy, and it's a real flaw in their excellent product; this sort of unstable frontend for the encoder has forced jdobbs to change the application at each new release and version of CCE in order to keep DVD-RB up to date.

[jdobbs]

Look for this in v1.10. I'm going to add the ability to select different encoders for different segments -- and also to force "no reencode" in the segment editor. I'll even look at making the "Movie-Only" options use "No Compression" as the default (that can be overridden) when the disc will fit. The "override" is for folks who want to filter etc...

[blutach]

Man, that would save a lotta fussin about. Thanks jdobbs - it does seem there are a few folks who want to be able to easily keep the movie at 100% and just re-encode whatever extras they want to keep. :thanks:

Regards

[LakersFan]

I agree. This is a feature I've patiently been waiting for. :)

Thanks jdobbs

[t0tum]

4. Edit the Rebuilder.inf file [Status] section, changing the Progress=1 line to Progress=2. Add the line Encode_Progress=nnn, where nnn is the progressive encoding number corresponding to the first item of the extra (very easy to get this number, just count the avs files in the D2VAVS folder before the ones correspondig to the extras...).
SD

Tnx for for this approach, especially for mentioning RBOpt
Although i cant manage to get rebuilder run CCE from specified (extra's) cell like u described above. No matter wat i do it always starts from 1st movie cell.
Btw, iam using cce 2.70.02.01
yet i havent tried deleting movie cells from REBUILDER.ECL if thats the issue?

[Sir Didymus]

It works...
Just tested in order to be totally sure...

Please follow the steps in the given order:

1) Prepare the project
2) Close DVD-RB
3) Edit Rebuilder.inf as described above
4) Open again DVD-RB [in order the changes to the project being fetched]
5) Hit Encode
6) The window asking to confirm the resume of the encoding should appear
7) Answer yes...

Sorry if I did not mention some of the steps in the procedure (especially 2 and 4)...

Cheers,
SD

[t0tum]

That worked indeed.. :o

However this step didnt work for me:

6. At the end of the Encoding Session, before hitting Rebuild, move all of the m2v assets of the main movie obtained in the step 1 to the D2VAVS folder of the second project.

It rebuilded all encoded extra's without main movie cells which i copied like u said.
Anyhow, i replaced original extra's with rebuilded ones, this worked fine and in fact its less time consuming :D

[Sir Didymus]

However this step didnt work for me...


That's strange... It should be equivalent... :confused:

Anyway nice to see you have been able to do the job following an alternative path...

This is once more demonstrating how it's easy to play with dvd-rb...

Very nice application, isn't it ? :p