Convert DVD to movie file

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Astro Forever
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Convert DVD to movie file

Postby Astro Forever » 14 years ago

I feel really strange asking this question because I've done this at the very least one hundreds of times and most of the time it was related to Astroboy, but... It's been at least 2 or 3 years I can't quite remember how I used to do it! :rolleyes: I pretty much stopped when VirtualDub wouldn't let me hear my videos on my old computer anymore (still don't know why, it was apparently a codec problem of some sort) and haven't given it a try since I got my new computer.

I remember using DVD Decrypter to extract the files on the DVD to my computer (although in this case it's a DVD that I've made myself, so there's no protection on it). It gave me .VOB files, then I remember I would separate the audio and the video, then put them back together correcting the delay and then finally I would use VirtualDub to put the audio and video together.

I know there are tools that I could buy, but I'd rather do it for free. However, I wonder if the way I used to to it is archaic or if it's still the way to go. And which softwares am I supposed to use to address the delay in the audio (if there's one) and to separate the files? I'm not sure anymore, and when I tried to install one of the files, it told me it was too old for Windows XP or something, so I decided to stop there and ask first to make sure I wouldn't mess up anything.

There are more specific forums for that but I thought maybe some other members here would also want to know. :) If nobody can answer me here, I'll post the solution I came up with when I get it. :)

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TasZero
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Postby TasZero » 14 years ago

A topic I feel I can be useful with.
I spent months trying to work it out and when I finally did I ended up changing the way I did it several times.

I use Dvd decrypter in the same way you do, then I use a program called Gordian Knot. I haven't used it for a little while so I hope I get it all right. Gordian Knot is free and it works with both Vista and XP as far as I know. I have only used it on Vista myself, but I think it was originally written for XP.

I had a quick look for the download and you can find it here
http://www.doom9.org/index.html
You'll need to click downloads on the left.
Gordian knot and the codec pack for it are the first two downloads on the page. Under the first heading "Rippacks" (You'll need both ("Gordian Knot rippack 0.35.0 pack2" and "Gordian Knot Codec Pack 1.9"))

You'll need to install both (obviously) the codec pack can be a little annoying since it is a bunch of different installers in one big installer. The codecs may be outdated so if one trys to install and you have a newer version of it then just click cancel on its installer and then the codec pack will simply move onto the next codec.

A bit of a warning, it has 1000's of different options, so if you fool around with it too much you can end up with some big problems.

Now step by step
1. Use DVD decrypter to create the VOB files. I think you need it in "IFO" mode but I'm assuming you know how to use it.
2. Open up Gordian Knot and go to the ripping tab, click the little filmstrip button under the second heading "2. Prepare the VOBs"
3.DGIndex (a separate program will open (its a part of Gordian Knot) will quite quickly create an index file used in the next step of encoding.
4. Go File then open, and select the vob you created, if it works right the vob will open and you can look through it. Use the tools at the bottom to select the range of your program (so you can cut out the credits or select an individual episode if the dvd had all the episodes in the same chain)
5. Go file, Save, then let it do its thing.

Hopefully this isn't too complicated. I am doing some of this from memory so hopefully I'm right... if I'm not then let me know.

6. Back in Gordian Knot we will want to select the setting you want before we open the newly created .d2v file (which is the index we just made)
7. On the Bit Rate Tab you can the codec, container (avi, ogm, mkv) and plenty of other settings. Leave them all alone except the ones I say, things like duration are set by the program later.
8. You want Avi as the container so choose that. Codec can be either DivX 3.11, DivX5, XVid, or X264. You can use whatever you like, I prefer X264 because it gives the best quality for relevant file size, if you have problems anywhere along the way you should change the codec here and try again, as I have sometimes had problems depending on the codec.
9. Under total file size you can decide how big you want the file to be, 175MB for a half hour episode (more like 20-25 minutes) or 700MB for a movie. I usually have higher numbers as I like nice quality, play with this and see what the results look like, then decide what you like.
10. You should be done here now, I never changed anything else here so it shouldn't be a problem.
11. The next tab is Resolution, the setting can often mess up what your end result is, so be careful... they also rarely seem to change back to something stupid, so if you finish and find you have the wrong size then just come back here and try again.
12. Width X Height in the middle is what the final resolution will be. Use "Input Resolution" and "Input Pixel Aspect Ratio" to hopefully get what you need, then use the arrows between Width X Height to get what you need, if you can get it change "W-Modul" and "H-Modul" next to hopefully get what you want. If you have a strange aspect ratio you might have problems but with the right settings you can get everything you need.... worst case you get something very close. It wouldn't matter too much.
13. Subtitles (the next tab) are something I never figured out how to do right :( oh well, if you want then see the programs help section (on the same site as you downloaded the program)
14. Everything should be right now, so open your .d2v using the open button in the bottom left of the program, if you do it right you should see your video.
15. Since I don't have d2v file to open I am doing this from memory. Basically you just need to "Save and continue" all the way through, the only thing you need to change here is select the audio track(s) remember to do this each time.
16. You'll need to select the audio track(s) that DGIndex made, they should be in the same folder you put the .d2v file in. In the setting you can choose make sure to encode them to mp3 with a bit rate of something like 128KB/s I think thats the default, if not, then pick something suitable, if you choose "Just Mux" then you might have problems. This is also where you can fix any audio delays, DGIndex should fix any audio problems, although if the dvd has lagging audio (only really possible if its a dvd you made yourself) then I think you can manually edit the delay here (I think) although I never had any problems with audio delay thanks to DGIndex
17. Once that is done and you have gone through everything, then you'll be taken to the "Encoder" tab, It'll ask you if you want to start, if your doing a movie then just say yes, if your doing episodes repeat the steps for all of them and once they are all in the job list click "Start Encoding" however you'll likely want to do one episode by itself first to make sure everything works right.

Once it starts encoding then hopefully it'll work, first you'll see a very simple program open called BeSweet, it'll encode your audio, then when thats done "virtualdubmod" will open and automatically start with the video, if in your codecs settings you have selected two pass, it will go through twice meaning it will take twice as long. Don't close either of the programs that open otherwise you'll kill the process and need to start again. Depending on the file it could take a long time, but considering you have done dvd encoding before you should know this.

Once your done look at the video, if it looks good check the file size, if thats ok then you should be done. Just make sure the video is the correct length and then you can delete all the files you created along the way besides the avi.

Other things to note.
Codec settings are separate to the program, they can mess it up the result and can't be controlled through gordian knot.
Since the codecs are programs installed on your computer you can find them and manually open the setting for them. Usually the default settings are ok though. I know X264 supports multipass encoding, its too complicated for me to explain that myself but you can find info here.
http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/gknot-main6.htm


If all goes well then you should be able to do whatever dvd you like with plenty of different settings... if something goes wrong then say something so I can figure it out.

Also, the site the downloads are on has tutorials, but they were way over my head so I ended up learning a lot of it by myself... I think following steps like the ones I just made is a lot easier than following the tutorials, but feel free to look at them.

To anyone else reading, if you know an easier way with as many options then I'd like to hear it.

Very curious to find out your results.
Last edited by TasZero on Wed Sep 09, 2009 3:32 am, edited 3 times in total.

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Anapan
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Postby Anapan » 14 years ago

I use Xvid4PSP
http://www.videohelp.com/tools/XviD4PSP
It's not just for PSP, it can output/convert too many formats to count.
Very easy to use, and excellent video quality. If you're into technical stuff, it has lots of that hidden under the hood to play around with, but the presets are very well chosen.

There's a manual-type thingy here:
http://forum.winnydows.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=70
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dannavy85
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Postby dannavy85 » 14 years ago

I use IMTOODVD but the only problem is it won't do any new DVD's made by American companies because of the stupid copywrite protections.

So far thankfully anime hasn't been affected to my knowledge.

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Astro Forever
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Postby Astro Forever » 14 years ago

Oh thank you everybody!!!!

"TasZero" wrote:1. Use DVD decrypter to create the VOB files. I think you need it in "IFO" mode but I'm assuming you know how to use it.

:blush: :whistling: :unsure:

I had completely forgotten about this. I remember I used to change that setting, I think that's how I separated the sound and audio! I'll have to take a look in my other computer!

I tried Anapan's suggestion, Xvid4PSP... but Anapan, you can convert the file into another format, but you can't edit with that thing? Because I'm starting from a 2h video and want to save only parts of it. I guess it would work if I saved it to a format that VirtualDub can read and then I could edit it, but it would be a long process.

"dannavy85" wrote:I use IMTOODVD but the only problem is it won't do any new DVD's made by American companies because of the stupid copywrite protections.

Yes, that's stupid... I understand why a company wouldn't want to see its stuff for free on YouTube, but just like regions on DVD, it prevents us from enjoying our own legal videos. :shifty:

IMTOODVD isn't free though, although maybe it would be worth it...

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TasZero
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Postby TasZero » 14 years ago

"Astro Forever" wrote:Oh thank you everybody!!!!

[QUOTE=TasZero;91264]1. Use DVD decrypter to create the VOB files. I think you need it in "IFO" mode but I'm assuming you know how to use it.

:blush: :whistling: :unsure:

I had completely forgotten about this. I remember I used to change that setting, I think that's how I separated the sound and audio! I'll have to take a look in my other computer!

I tried Anapan's suggestion, Xvid4PSP... but Anapan, you can convert the file into another format, but you can't edit with that thing? Because I'm starting from a 2h video and want to save only parts of it. I guess it would work if I saved it to a format that VirtualDub can read and then I could edit it, but it would be a long process.
[/QUOTE]
I don't know anything about Xvid4PSP but I can make some guesses, firstly, from what I can see it only changes video formats, not rip dvds? But I figure if it does work easily and you can get the video to avi then VirtualDub would be the easiest way, if your picky like me then Virtualdub will also have some nice ways to make the video look nicer, with a better file size

"Astro Forever" wrote:[QUOTE=dannavy85;91274]I use IMTOODVD but the only problem is it won't do any new DVD's made by American companies because of the stupid copywrite protections.

Yes, that's stupid... I understand why a company wouldn't want to see its stuff for free on YouTube, but just like regions on DVD, it prevents us from enjoying our own legal videos. :shifty:

IMTOODVD isn't free though, although maybe it would be worth it...[/QUOTE]
I've used IMTOODVD before, a friend gave me copy....
Anway, I found it to work quite easily, but the results didn't impress me, sure it worked but the settings didn't have enough flexibility, also, I don't recall it being able to modify the length of the input (like episodes or removing credits etc) but I could be wrong since I didn't use it very much.
(My guess from memory) Basically it allows for ripping the videos with the length as they appear on the dvd, as the encryption and program chains vary between movies and discs you might find that you need to cut it out with virtual dub (or maybe even something like Windows Movie Maker)
I think you can download a trail version of the program for free, just google it and you should come up with something.

"dannavy85" wrote:I use IMTOODVD but the only problem is it won't do any new DVD's made by American companies because of the stupid copywrite protections.

So far thankfully anime hasn't been affected to my knowledge.

It makes it harder, but there are some programs that can get past the new protection, dvd decrypter can get past even the most recent encryption, although it can take it a while to do so. The programs like ImTooDVD and XVid4PSP might not be able to do it, but you can always use an external program (like anydvd) to decode the dvd before it even gets to the program.

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Astro Forever
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Postby Astro Forever » 14 years ago

Still waiting for XviD4PSP to save my file into the new format...

I tried using VirtualDub, I'm going to have fun with all the missing .dll tomorrow... :whistling:

DrFrag
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Postby DrFrag » 14 years ago

Thanks for all the info!

I too haven't kept up with these things. I'd like to switch to x264 but VirtualDubMod doesn't support it. I tried GordionKnot years ago and it crashed on installation, but I might give it another shot.

I've packed away my DVD player and sold my TV. I watch everything on my computer now, and there's no sense using several GB to store 4 or 5 TV episodes.
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Postby Latu » 14 years ago

Not sure about all of that technical stuff, but an easy program I use to rip DVDs is Magic DVD Ripper. You could probably find a registration code off of youtube too.
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jeffbert
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Postby jeffbert » 14 years ago

"DrFrag" wrote:Thanks for all the info!
I've packed away my DVD player and sold my TV. I watch everything on my computer now, and there's no sense using several GB to store 4 or 5 TV episodes.

I have been watching on PC with a TV card until I bought a monitor with video inputs & PIP. :lol:
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