At this point, unless someone can suggest something better, I will have to choose between using a program that is so slow, that it may take as much time to finish the DVDs that DVDFab couldn't handle, as it did to rip the one's that it could. I would really like to finish this job some time this year, so I'm all ears as to either something comparable to DVDFab or a means to make DVDFab work on these DVDs as it should.
Seeker, I am a bit confused, so please forgive me if I am misunderstanding here.
Nero can handle the files, but you need to use DVD Fabs Copy Disc feature, or its Copy Full movie feature to rip the DVD to your HD.
The result will be the entire DVD (untouched Qualitywise) on your HD that has no copy Protection. It has been decrypted.
AnyDVD can decrypt on the fly for whatever program you wish to use. It also has a Rip function, which will copy the entire DVD to your HD, which also leaves the FULL untouched disc without and protection to work with, same as DVDFAB.
All you have really accomplished at this stage, with AnyDVD or DVDFAB, is moving the contents of the disc to your HardDrive and removing any protections on it.
At this point, you use whichever other encoder you want to use.
Nero Recode, MEGUI, Handbrake etc.
The reason you can encode directly from disc with DVDFAB, is it decrypts on the fly for its own personal use. Not for other programs.
Ripping to HD is really the best way to go IMHO to work with a DVD, as its faster and easier for the encoders.
After you encode a compressed copy, you can delete the Full DVD copy from your HD and keep just the recoded file.
Depending what settings you use, Handbrake and Megui will be slower encoders. They are however, more accurate.
They can crunch a 4.5GB DVD down to 1GB, and look nearly perfect.
Nero (again dependant on quality settings used) will be faster than the other 2, with quite decent results. Just not quite as good.
As far as DVDFAb, I would attempt just copying the entire disc to the HD. See if it is able to do so.
Then, try its encoding option, directing it to the location you copyed the disc to.
I can understand your confusion, partly because it is based on my own, and partly because you and I continue to think in two different directions. Perhaps I misunderstand, but it seems that you want me to rip to a format that will end up with multiple .vob files, instead of a single .mpeg or .mkv file, which I would then need to decrypt. I would be willing to do that, except that I do not understand how multiple .vob files can be used to obtain a single file of any format. Maybe I am missing something, but I fail to see how I could use multiple files for a single movie conveniently, nor do I understand how collectorz would properly catalog them?
I am making "some" headway with WinX DVD, and I think that I see why DVDFab is having a problem with many of my disks. When WinX DVD starts to display the movie in the preview screen, it shows a logo screen of the distributor, followed by the interactive menus. Sometimes the preview will continue on automatically after a minute of so displaying those extra screens, and sometimes it just remains there. This is with only the main movie file selected, which normally avoids those screens.
Doing things this way is a long rocky row to hoe, but at least it is going somewhere. If I'm missing something in your explanation, please feel free to enlighten me.
When you rip the DVD to your HardDrive, with either AnyDVD or DVDFab, it removes the copy protection.
If you open the folder you will find it is an exact copy of the DVD structure. For example,If you browse the files on the actuall DVD, you will find it will be the same as the files on your HD. Both with multiple VOBS.
The only difference is, the Protection is gone from the one on the HD, and, a encoder can read it much faster than directly off the disc. You can use any encoder you choose now to encode o a MPV,AVI,MKV .. whatever your choice without the error of being copy protected.
This way, when you go to encode the DVD to a file, and the encoder you wish to use asks you for the DVD, you simply point it toward that Folder you copied.
The encoder, thinks its the original DVD. Because, it actually is.
Its just on the HD instead of a disc.
Another good reson to do it this way, is that depending which encoder you prefer, many will let you Que up jobs.
So you can copy say 3 or 4 Disc to your HD. Set each movie up in the encoder and start it encoding before you go to bed.
The next morning they are all done. You can then delete the full discs off you drive and keep the 3 or 4 files you encoded.
Last edited by Wishmaster; 13 Jan 2011 at 16:20.
Okay, I'm beginning to see the light. I used DVDFab to copy only the main movie, to save a little time, but a couple of things that I noticed was that the preview screen displayed it in wide screen, when the movie is full screen (a bit squashed). I then went back DVD Copy and used the Merge option, but even though at first it appeared that it was going to only have 1 file as output, it still had 3 VTS files. I then tried using the Video Converter, but it lists 2 output files, instead of one. I'm starting out down your path, but getting lost along the way.
EDIT: When I ran those files in the converter, it changed back to regular full screen. I guess that the files on the DVD don't know the difference between WS and FS.
EDIT 2: I thought that the converter might merge the two files listed into one, but I was wrong...it gave 2 .mkv files as output.
EDIT 3: Using the ripper on DVDFab gave the same result as when trying to use it directly from the DVD...it failed.
Last edited by seekermeister; 13 Jan 2011 at 17:24.
A full, uncompressed version of a DVD will have multiple VOB files.
Typically, most VOBs are .99GB insize, and then it goes to the next one.
Normally, if you just point the encoder to the folder, it should be able to read from there. Just use the open folder option.
If you want, or need to depending on the program, open the actual files. (For example to Index it with MeGUIs File Indexer)
What you want is the very 1st .VOB that is .99GB in Size, as this one is the start of the movie.
Don't worry to much about the .VOB being split into pieces.
It works kind of like if you have a .ZIP or .7z file that in 3 parts, you need only start unzipping the 1st one, and it automatically reads from the others when needed. Multiple pieces, but its actually 1 continuous file.
Im not familiar with that aprticular program.
But usually, when you open the file, there should be something that give some details about the stream such as resolution.
The problem with having the file in pieces is not a matter of whether the encoder can work with them or not, but whether the player will. I just selected the first .mkv file of one movie in VLC, and when it reached the end of the first file, it quit. Even if the files could be chained together in play, the sum of the files is larger than if it had been ripped in the first place. For instance, one movie that I just checked had 1 file of 1,048,574kbs, the second also 1,048,574kbs and a third of 1,036,210kbs for a total of 3,133,358kbs, which is probably twice the size of the ripped file...space counts.
Ah I see.
TBH, Im not sure why it would be encoding each VOB as a separate file.
I mostly just familiar with MEGUI and Nero.
Maybe it is just the way that particular program works.
Will DVD FAB open the folder as a single movie without encoding all the separate pieces?
You can merge all the MKVs into a single file. But it shouldnt be encoding it all in pieces.
It's not just DVDFab, because AnyDVD also came out in pieces the same way. You say that I can merge the MKVs, but if that is true, I don't know how. I did Google for a means of splitting an MKV, because of some multi-feature movies being combined as one, and I found nothing. I recall a remark that I read elsewhere, that said that it was necessary to convert a MKV to a MPEG or something else to do something like that, and then convert it back to MKV afterward...maybe for the lack of capable software...I don't know.
MeGUI is about the only program that we have talked about, that I haven't tried yet, because of lack of understanding. The big problem is that I do not know what to put into the avisynth window, and until I do, the program will go nowhere.
Did you go through the tutortial I wrote up?
It will walk you through step by step how to create a MP4 or MKV from a DVD folder.
When you decrypty the DVD to the HD, with AnyDVD or DVDFab, it will be in pieces and quite large. Its simply the DVD itself without protection.
That entire process is simply removing the protection and writing to the HD to be easier to work with. Theres no recoding at all being done.
Converting an orginal DVD --> MKV or MP4 is all you need to do.
When you get into recoding multiple times, the final video will look really bad.
Try this:
Open MeGUI.
In tools, click on File Inder
In that complete folder you ripped to the HD, choose the very first .99GB .VOB file.
Que the job, and then run it.
In the Avisynth script that pops up, click on the filters Tab, and then press the analyse button.
When its done, go back to the I/O tab, and just check the clever Anamorphic Encoding button, and then save the script.
MeGUI should have your script and audio imported now.
For now, in the Encoder Setting choose Unrestricted DXVA , and press config.
In that Window, for Modes Choose Automated 2 Pass
Then set the Bitrate to 1500
For Audio choose Nero LC96kbp and press the Config.
You can change it to Down mix to stereo if you choose or keep the 5.1 track.
If you downmix to stereo, an Adaptive Bitrate of around 192 or 226 will be good for now.
((You may need to DL the NERO encoder, its all free))
Then just press Auto Encode, and choose what Container you want, (MP4 or MKV) , a save location and start it.
You can adjust all these values higher or lower later, but this should be a pretty quick encode that will get you started and learning whats going on.
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