DVD Rebuilder Freeware Edition for Dummies

[cynthia]

DVD Rebuilder Freeware Edition for Dummies


Introduction

The purpose of this guide is to get you started with DVD Rebuilder and to show you how easy this program is to use and also the advantages you will notice when you watch your backup of using this program instead of DVD Shrink when you want to apply a high 'shrink' per cent for your DVD.

At a first glance this program may look very tricky and advanced to use - but I can promise you that if you can use DVD Shrink - you sure can learn how to use this program. There are more settings and a lot of new words but there is no need to know every function of this program.

I will also show you that you can use this freeware program with some additional programs - so that you can do the whole backup process with freeware programs.

After you have installed the program in your computer - just take a walk in the customizing section of this guide and after that you just need to select where your original files reside and select which (if any) soundtracks and subtitles you want to keep and then press the backup button and finaly burn your new created DVD.

If you have any problems or questions regarding this program - you can post those in the DVD Rebuilder forum - moderated by UncasMS. He and the other members will help you with your issues.

I also want to thank blutach and UncasMS for the help with this guide and for some additional material collected from previously written FAQs.


What's wrong with DVD Shrink?

Over the course of the past couple of years DVD ripping techniques have changed dramatically. Newer "one click" programs have made backing up a DVD a fairly simple process... but there is a significant trade-off. The quality that can be attained by even the best of these programs is poor in comparison to original techniques that used Cinemacraft Encoder, HC Encoder, QuEnc, or other top-notch encoders. The reason is simple. When using one of these encoders the picture is rebuilt from scratch and optimized for the resulting bitrate. One-touch transcoders usually drop DCT coefficients or change quantization info in order to lower the bitrate. This can result in pixelation and poor overall picture quality.

But, they sure are convenient.

That's where DVD ReBuilder (DVD-RB) comes in. This program was built to bridge the gap between the incredibly easy but limited "one-click" solutions and the incredibly complex but high-quality methods of DVD ripping and backup.

Another advantage of DVD-RB when compared to older methods is that it doesn't require access to an expensive authoring package. DVD-RB includes its own reauthoring engine that reconstructs the DVD in a way compatible with its original design.


Supported Encoders

• Cinemacraft Encoder (commercial)
  
  A very fast encoder. The price is US$ 58.00 for the CCE-Basic version.
  
  
• HC (freeware)
  
  An exceptional quality encoder that, while slower than CCE, comes pretty close in terms of quality. This software is included and is installed automatically in the DVD Rebuilder installer package. Developed by hank315.
  
  This is also the encoder we are going to use in this guide.
  
  
• QuEnc (freeware)
  
  A high quality encoder. Version 0.52 or above is required. This software is included and is installed automatically in the DVD Rebuilder installer package. Developed by NIC.
  
  
• Canopus ProCoder (commercial)
  
  Recommended by UncasMS if you want a very professional encoder. The price is US $499 for the ProCoder 2.0 version. There is also a ProCoder Express version for US $59.95.
  
  
• ReJig (freeware)
  
  This is actually a good-quality high-speed transcoder. Developed by by NIC.
  
  I still have a feeling that DVD Shrink with AEC enabled will do a better job.

Operating System Support

DVD Rebuilder will work on these systems:

• Windows 2000
• Windows XP
• Windows 2003

Donations and the Professional Edition

I know. You cringe at the thought. But, a lot of work went into this program and I'm not charging anyone outright for my time. I ask that if you find this program useful (and I think you will), PLEASE DONATE $10 (suggested) to my PAYPAL account.

It will keep the improvements coming and also help me work on other similar software projects. As a donator you will get the benefit of being notified of all freeware upgrades available, and I will accept your requests for additional features (If you don't contribute, please don't ask). Come on! It's only ten bucks! (Of course if you're really wealthy and impressed, feel free to donate a million dollars, and if $10 sounds like too much, donate what you can).

PROFESSIONAL EDITION:

Please note that the "Professional Edition" of DVD Rebuilder is available for $29.95. Sending a donation of that amount or greater will result in your automatic upgrade to the Professional Edition. The Professional Edition adds many, many additional features, including:

- Video Segment Editing
- Movie and Menus Only capability
- Segment Blanking
- Slideshow Mode
- Advanced Encoding Features
- Movie-Only mode
- Extended HC encoder support
- Graphic Analysis display
- ISO file creation
- Automatic burning using DVD Decrypter
- New v1.00 Intuitive Interface
- Full support for ILVU encoding
- ... and more...

These new features will never be included in the freeware version. So if you want to take your backups to the next level of outstanding quality, get the Professional Edition.

To find out more about DVD Professional, click on the "Rebuilder Web Link" option under the HELP menu.

This Guide

I have divided it into these sections:

• Introduction
• What's the difference between DVD Shrink and DVD Rebuilder?
• Installation
• Customizing
• Use a ripping tool
• Save more space - use MenuShrink
• Running
• Burning
• How To Update Your Version of HCEnc Batch?
• Batch Processing
• Filters
• Misc. Tips and Advice
• Suggestions And Feedback - Feel free to post what you want

[cynthia]

What's the difference between DVD Shrink and DVD Rebuilder?


DVD Shrink is a transcoding program. Transcoding or more specifically Compressed-domain Transcoding means normally a re-encoding process that changes the video or audio features, such as resolution or bitrate, by changing parts of the a/v content, but not by reconstructing the content again (which is the case in encoding process). Compressed-domain transcoding also maintains the format of the file same as in the original file. Transcoding doesn't encode it takes out small bits of detail to make the DVD video smaller. Faster then encoding.

DVD Rebuilder can be used as both an encoding and transcoding program by using different modes and is a good program to re-encode a DVD. Encoding is the process of changing data from one form into another according to a set of rules specifiec by a codec. Often the encoding is done to make a file compatible with specific hardware (such as a DVD Player) or to compress or reduce the space the data occupies.

Encoding will give you a better picture quality when you need to 'shrink' your original DVD down to a very low bit rate.


Bit rates

Another common word in the encoding world. Generally, higher bit rates allow for higher quality, because more information is moved.

Think of bit rate as water coming out of a hose. If each drop of water in the stream of water leaving the hose is a single bit, then as you turn up the water pressure more bits are passed along. When the hose is turned down low only a trickle of water is moved meaning that few bits of water are moving resulting in a low bit rate. When the hose is turned to its maximum pressure, a great number of water droplets or water bits are moving each second resulting in a high bit rate.

Very often people are asking about the compression percentage and what results in a good quality backup.

Put simply, it is not the compression percentage which matters but the bit rate which is devoted to the video encoding.

These bit rates should give you a clue on the quality:

• 1 Mbit/s – VHS quality
• 5 Mbit/s – DVD quality
• 10 Mbit/s – HDTV quality

For example, if a movie was originally encoded with a "high" bit rate (say 6 Mbps - "mega bits per second") and compressed by a lot, (say to 50%), on average, this would result in a bitrate of 3 MBps.

But if the movie was originally encoded with a "low" bitrate (say 3.5 Mbps) and was compressed only by 20% (to 80%), the resulting average bitrate would be 2.8 Mbps - worse than the 50% compression!!!

Now, what you can detect as "bad quality" will most likely depend on the final bitrate and the size of your screen. If your are projecting onto a huge screen, the higher numbers are probably necessary (say over 3.5 and preferably 4.5+). But on a regular TV, you can probably get away with the 3 Mbps range (and even lower).

IfoEdit has a neat bitrate calculator in its Tools menu. First, take the total amount of space devoted to your title - DVD Shrink will tell you this in its main screen (it may be 4,463MB for a reauthored DVD). Then, simply enter in the number of audio streams and subtitle streams. If you have a DTS stream add one to the number for audio. IfoEdit will calculate the average bitrate based on this data.



Screenshots from DVD Shrink and DVD Rebuilder

You can see a picture comparision - done by UncasMS - between DVD Shrink and DVD Rebuilder with the encoder HCEnc used in this thread. If you are using a dialup modem - you could bake a cake during the time those pages loads in your computer...

Credit: blutach and UncasMS.

[cynthia]

Installation


Download the program

You can download the latest DVD Rebuilder Freeware version at DVD Rebuilders homepage. Scroll down that page until you find this version - DVDRebuilder Installer v0.94.

This version contains an installer that will do the installation work for you as easy as possible.


Start the installation

Unzip the downloaded file and start the installation by running the file 'DVDRebuilder_v0.94_Free.exe'.

You should now see this window:



Select the language that you want to use during the installation. Then click on the 'OK' button to continue with the installation.



Make sure that you don't have any other programs running at this time. If you have other programs running - close them now.

Just click on the 'Next>' button to continue with the installation.



Here you can read the license agreement for the program. If you acccept the license agreement then click in the empty circle for 'I accept the agreement'.

After this your page should now look like this one:



Click on the 'Next>' button to continue with the installation.



Click on the 'Next>' button to continue with the installation.



If you want to select another location for where the program should be installed - you can change it here. In most cases it's safest to accept the suggested location.

Click on the 'Next>' button to continue with the installation.



As this is a new installation of the program the above suggested/selected place to install the program don't yet exists on your hard disk. Just click on the 'Yes' button to let the program create this new directory on your hard disk.



This is where you can select which components of the program you want to install. The program will suggest a 'Full installation'. It's best to accept this suggestion.

Click the 'Next>' button to continue with the installation.



Here you can change where you want the programs shortcuts to be placed. You can also select not to creat any shortcuts to the program. It's best to accept the suggested place.

Click on the 'Next>' button to continue with the installation.



You need to specify the location on your hard disk of the folder/directory where you want the programs temporary working files to be saved and also a folder/directory where you want the final result files to be saved. The later files are the ones you are going to burn to a DVD.

Click on the 'Next>' button to continue with the installation.



Here you can decide if you want to have an icon on your desktop and/or a quick launch icon.

Click on the 'Next>' button to continue with the installation.



You are now ready to let the program start the actual installation of the DVD Rebuilder program.

Click on the 'Install' button to start the installation.

You will then see this window during the installation:

---

Installation of commercial encoders

This will give you a chance to configure previously installed commercial encoders on your system.

As we are going to use freeware solutions in this guide and also to the fact that we don't have any of those commercial programs on our system - so this part of the installation will be very fast.

The DVD Rebuilder installation program should at this time of the installation - now have launched the 'Commercial Encoder's Config' installation program automatically - as you see in this window:



Select the language that you want to use during the installation.

Then click on the 'OK' button to continue with the installation.



As we don't have any of the above commercial encoders on our system - we got this warning screen.

Just click on the 'OK' button to continue with the installation.



We still don't have the above programs on our system - so just click on the 'Next>' button to continue with the installation.



No need to read this as we are not interested in programs we are not going to use.

Click on the 'Next>' button to continue with the installation.



This is where we should direct the setup program to our installed copy of CCE. We still don't have that encoder program installed on our system - so just use the 'Browse...' button to locate a folder on your hard disk. You can use any folder you want on your hard disk. The installation program will just search that folder you selected and as it's not going to find the CCE program in that folder (or any other folder you might have choosed) the installation program will just continue to the next step.

When you have selected a folder/directory - then just click on the 'Next>' button to continue with the installation.



Aha, you never selected a link to a folder/directory on your hard disk. Click on the 'OK' button and you will see the previously window again. If you did what you should have done - you will not see this window.



Here you can select the version of the commercial encoder(s) that you want to use as default. We are still not going to use any of these - so just click on the 'Next>' button to continue with the installation.



Click on the 'Install' button to finish the installation of the Commercial Encoder's Path definition on your computer. As we still don't have any of these commercial programs installed - this will in fact install nothing on your computer.



After this adventure you are now ready to click on the 'Finish' button to exit this setup and let you continue with the real installation of the DVD Rebuilder program.

---

Click on the 'Next>' button to continue with the installation.



Your installation of DVD Rebuilder is now done.

Click on the 'Finish' button to exit the installation.

[cynthia]

Customizing

Start the program. You should see this icon on your Windows desktop and/or in the quick start field - depending on your selection during the installation of the program.

This is DVD Rebuilders main window:



We are now going to go thru the menues in DVD Rebuilder to change the program to work as we want it to do. I'll also do a very brief explanation of the various menu options in the program.

---

File Menu

• Open Project
  
  
  • A project is the backup process of a certain DVD.
    
    
  • If you previously have done all the settings you wanted to apply to a backup project and have saved those settings by the option 'Save Project' - you can load them again with this option. This is usfully when you want to perform several backups at the same time in batch mode.
    
    
  • Batch mode is when you are letting the computer perform the backup of several DVDs automatically - using the project settings you have applied and saved before for each DVD you are going to backup. When the first DVD is backed up - the computer automatically continues to backup the next one until all you have asked it to backup is done.
  
  
• Save Project
  
  
  • Saves the settings you have applied for a certain DVD for later use.
    
    
  • Don't forget to enable the "Output Directory" (check Menu Mode) and set a different folder for each of your projects if you are planning to use "Batch Processing".
  
  
• Batch Processing
  
  
  • This will open the Batch Processing Panel. You can use this panel to add several projects and execute those jobs in a row by selecting batch mode.
    
    
  • To use Batch Processing you must first save a project for each job you want to run. You can then Add/Delete your projects from the Batch Processing list, then click the Process button to start.
    
    
  • This option should not be check marked if you not wish to use this feature.
  
  
• Shutdown at Batch Completion
  
  
  • If enabled, DVD-RB will close down your computer after all batch processes are complete. A 10 Second warning window enables cancellation before shutdown if you still want to have your computer turned on.
    
    
  • This option will be disabled when you close DVD-RB.
    
    
  • Even after the start of a batch processing job you can always change this setting.
  
  
• Print Status Panel
  
  
  • This sends the contents in the Status Window to your printer.
  
  
• Copy Status to Clipboard
  
  
  • Copies the contents in the Status Window to the clipboard.
  
  
• Status Logging On
  
  
  • When checked, anything that is output to the Status Window is also echoed to the log file.
    
    
  • The log file, called "rebuilder.log" is created in the directory specified in "Working Path". If no path is specified it is created in the root of the C:\ directory. The file location is changed whenever a new working path is specified (for example when running a batch job).
    
    
  • This option should be check marked.
  
  
• Verbose Status Window
  
  
  • If Enabled the Status Window will contain extra information.
    
    
  • This option should be check marked.
  
  
• Exit
  
  
  • Closes the program.

---

Mode Menu

• Encoding Method
  
  The following modes selects the Encoding Method you want to use and each method must have it's encoder defined in the Setup screen before it can be used.
  
  
  • CCE Mode
    
    
    • Not used in this guide.
    
    
  • HC Encoder Mode
    
    
    • This option should be check marked as it is this freeware encoder we are using in this guide.
    
    
  • ReJig Mode
    
    
    • Not used in this guide.
    
    
  • QuEnc Mode
    
    
    • Not used in this guide.
    
    
  • ProCoder (EclPro) Mode
    
    
    • Not used in this guide.
    
    
  • No Compression (100% video)
    
    
    • This option will keep original video intact (no re-encoding) and only remove audio/subtitles as selected. This is meant for use with discs that are only slightly over DVD-5 size and can fit with audio removal.
      
      
    • It is also a way in which previously created discs can be demuxed and remuxed to fix possible errors (for example buffer overflows or audio dropouts).
      
      
    • This mode is very, very fast.
    
    
  • Other Encoder
    
    
    • Not used in this guide.
  
  
• One Click Mode
  
  
  • If Enabled, the entire rebuild process is performed with the click of one Transcode button.
    
    
  • If not check marked, DVD Rebuilder is in "three click" mode. The encoder will pause between each of the three main stages: Prepare, Encode, Rebuild. This allows the user to tweak encoding parameters and verify quality before Rebuild.
    
  • For the purpose of this guide it should be check marked.
  
  
• Shutdown at One-Click Completion
  
  
  • If enabled, DVD Rebuilder will do a Windows shutdown of your computer at the successful completion of the next One-Click execution. A 10 Second warning window enables cancellation before shutdown.
    
    
  • This option is reset when you close DVD Rebuilder.
  
  
• Steal Space from Extras:
  
  
  • This option allows you to improve your main movie quality by reducing the quality of extras. It works by taking storage space (10%, 25%, 33% or 50%) from whatever is in use by the extra and then reallocating it to the movie.
    
    This reallocation of space happens BEFORE other options - so, for example, if you choose Half-D1/Half-Space and also choose 50% reduction, the Half-D1 size will be halved twice, resulting in a Half-D1/One-Quarter space.
    
    
    • 00% No Space Stolen (Default)
      
      
    • 25% (Quality Drop on Extras)
      
      
    • 33% (Significant Extra Quality Drop)
      
      
    • 50% (I don't care about Extra quality)
    
    
  • CAUTION!!! Don't use this option with "Episode" DVDs!!!
  
  
• Half-D1 and Half Space for Extras
  
  
  • If Enabled, any extras (that are outside the main [largest] VTS) are resized to Half-D1 and allocated half the normal bitrate. The "recovered" space will be allocated to the main VTS. For movies with a lot of extras this can significantly improve the bitrate for the main movie. This option will NOT work on "ReJig Mode".
    
    
  • CAUTION!!! Don't use this option with "Episode" DVDs!!!
  
  
• Angle Processing
  
  
  • Not available in this version.
  
  
• Suppress Warnings Prompts
  
  
  • If enabled, this will suppress any warnings, such as overwriting of files in the Working Path.
    
    
  • Should be check marked.
  
  
• Enable "Output" Directory
  
  
  • This option will allow you to specify a different folder for your "ready to burn" DVD Rebuilder output files, keeping it separate from the many other support files produced during the Rebuilder operations. Placing Working Path and Output path on physically different hard disks may also have some beneficial impact due to the optimization of the I/O operations.
    
    
  • This option is extremely useful if you're planning to encode multiple projects on Batch Mode. Don't forget to set a different "Output Path" on each project if you're going to use more that one project on Batch Mode.
    
    
  • Should be check marked.

[cynthia]

Options Menu

• AVS Options
  
  AviSynth is the program that splits and rebuilds your DVD and there is no need to change any settings in this menu for our work.
  
  
  • ConvertToYUY2()
    
    This converts the video to YUY2 colorspace before encoding. This should be enabled if you're using CCE (for more infos, check the CCE FAQ, Q14.4)
    
    
  • AudioDub(BlankClip())
    
    This is a workaround for a bug in certain CCE versions. Enable this if you're using CCE 2.5 and have an AMD CPU.
    
    
  • Advanced (Expert) Options
    
    This will give you some more Advanced (Expert) Options to use.
    
    
    • Filter editor
      
      You can read more about this function in the section 'Filters' in this guide.
      
      
    • Deinterlace with DECOMB
      
      When dealing with interlaced content, you can enable Deinterlace with DECOMB, which uses Decomb's fielddeinterlace to deinterlace the video. This slows down encoding.
      
      
    • MPEG25Source("source",idct=7
      
      
      
    • Disable "Interlaced"
      
      Disable "Interlaced=True" in YUY2 can be used to change the way ConvertToYUY2 is used. By default, the option Interlaced=True is used, but this can lead to a slight color shift, so you might want to disable this operation when dealing with purely progressive content.
      
      
      • Apply to All
      
      
    • Resize to Half D1
      
      Resize to Half D1 triggers resizing of all VTS sets to half the standard resolution. While half D1 is part of the DVD specifications, not all players like it so be careful.
      
      
      • Apply to All
      
      
    • Convert from LB 4:3 to 16:9
      
      Convert from LB 4:3 to 16:9 allows you to turn letterboxed 4:3 sources to a 16:9 anamorphic widescreen picture.
      
      
      • Apply to All
  
  
• CCE Options
  
  
  • Not used in this guide.
  
  
• HC Encoder Options
  
  
  • This is the encoder we are using.
    
    
  • You can chose between three encoding profiles:
    
    
    • Fast (Lower Quality)
    • Normal (Default)
    • Best (Slowest)
    
    
  • 'Fast' sacrifices quality for speed, and 'Best' does the inverse. I suggest you experiment with these three profiles to find the optimal one for your quality / speed needs.
    
    
  • An example of the time for the various options. This test performed on an AMD XP2000+ 512 Mb:
    
    
    • 09 h 15 min - Fast
    • 09 h 43 min - Normal
    • 11 h 11 min - Best
  
  
• QuEnc Options
  
  
  • Not used in this guide.
  
  
• ReJig Options
  
  
  • Not used in this guide.
  
  
• Special Error Processing
  
  
  • For special cases in which certain #0003 or #0004 errors are encountered.
    
    
  • This option is temporary and will be removed in future versions. It is recommended that you use it only as a last resort after you've encountered one of these errors, and not before, as it can cause other unpleasant effects.
    
    
  • This option ONLY affects the rebuild phase. It is meant to counter what appears to be bad source timing parameters.
  
  
• Set Background Color
  
  
  • This option will allow you to set and change the color of the background on the "Windows Standard" skin (or any other skin that doesn't include a graphic background).
    
    
  • Please note that graphically oriented skins have fixed colors that can't be changed by this option.
  
  
• Setup
  
  
  
  
  
  • Applications Paths
    
    
    • When you use the Installer version, all the paths and options will be set for you.
    
    
  • Special Settings
    
    
    • Run Encoder(s) Minimized
      
      HC Encoder will run minimized.
      
      Should be checked.
      
      
    • Remove all DTS
      
      If Enabled, all DTS audio tracks will be removed by default when selecting a new source for a project, regardless of language.
    
    
  • Default Audio Streams and Subtitles Definitions
    
    
    • Audio to Remove
      
      
      • CHECKING a language here will automatically REMOVE all audio tracks in that language by default when selecting a new source for a project.
      
      
    • Subpictures to Remove
      
      
      • CHECKING a language here will automatically REMOVE all subtitles in that language by default when selecting a new source for a project.

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Skin Menu

• Rockas Original
  
  
  • The "classical" default look of DVD Rebuilder.
    
    
  • This is the one used in this guide.
  
  
• Windows Standard
  
  
  • Check this option if you prefer the old look. You can change the window color using the "Change Background Color" option under the Options menu.
    
    
  • Note: This skin does not have a subtitle selection window. So subtitles will be kept/removed based on your selections on the Setup screen.
  
  
• Simple Blue
  
  
  • This is the "Windows Standard" mixed with the "Rockas Original" background.
    
    
  • Note: This skin does not have a subtitle selection window. So subtitles will be kept/removed based on your selections on the Setup screen.
  
  
• Rewrite Defaults
  
  
  • Use this option to overwrite the "Rebuilder Default", "Teck Original", "Rockas Original" and "Windows Standard" with the version contained in the executable. This is useful if DVD Rebuilder contains an updated version of the skin(s) or your local copy becomes corrupt.

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Help Menu

• Contents
  
  
  • Displays this help file (DVD-RBHelp.chm) as long as you have it on DVD Rebuilder's root folder or on a folder called "Help" under Rebuilder's one (ex. C:\...\DVD-RB\Help\DVD-RBHelp.chm).
  
  
• Show Readme
  
  
  • Displays the readme file. This is also contained in the Rebuilder.txt file that came with DVD Rebuilder.
  
  
• Display Versions
  
  
  • This will print out the version numbers of various external software (CCE, AviSynth, DGDecode, etc) that DVD Rebuilder uses in the status panel.
    
    
  • It is useful for verifying what versions DVD Rebuilder is using and for reporting errors in the forum.
  
  
• Make a Donation
  
  
  • This will open an IE window setup to make a Pay Pal donation to the author of DVD Rebuilder.
  
  
• Rebuilder Web Link
  
  
  • This will open up the jdobbs softworks homepage in your web browser.
  
  
• About
  
  
  • Displays version, copyright, and author information. Including a convenient DONATE BUTTON .

[cynthia]

Use a ripping tool


DVD Rebuilder can't decrypt DVDs. So you need to do one of the following things:

• Use a ripping tool, such as DVD Decrypter, DVDFab Decrypter or Magic DVD Ripper to transfer your DVD to the hard disk.
  
  
• Use an on-the-fly ripping tool, such as DVD43 or AnyDVD. If you use one of these programs you can just put the DVD in the reader and there is no need to first rip the DVD to the hard disk.

You can find more information about available ripping and decrypting programs in this guide.


Using DVDFab Decrypter as your ripping tool

In this example I use DVDFab Decrypter to rip the DVD to my hard disk.

The latest version of DVDFab Decrypter can be downloaded from DVDIdle.com and you can also read more about the installation in this guide.


Running DVDFab Decrypter

This is the main program window:

• Insert the DVD you want to backup in your DVD-ROM/DVD-burner.
  
  
• Normally the program will autodetect the device with the inserted DVD.
  
  
• If you want to change the save location of the files - change them manually. The program will always save the DVD in the default 'DVD' folder. You can more or less only change if you want the program to save the files to another hard disk. As default the program will use your map 'My Documents' as target.
  
  
• The program will ask you if you want to delete your target.
  
  
  
  If you want to save your old files - you need to rename the DVD folder to something else - to be able to run a new ripping process without overwriting your old files.
  
  Press 'Yes' if you want to overwrite them and 'No' if you want to abort the program.
  
  
• After that you have done your settings - press the button 'Start' and the ripping process will begin.
  
  
  
  
• When the ripping process is done - you will see this window:
  
  
  
  
• After that you have pressed the button 'Finish' - you will be returned to the main program window again and you are done with your ripping.

[cynthia]

Save more space - use MenuShrink


DVD Rebuilder will not 'shrink' your menus as DVD Shrink do. Instead they are just copied. If the menus on the original DVD takes up 1 Gb in space - they will also take up the same space on your backup.

If you have transferred the DVD to your hard disk with a ripping program (such as DVDFab Decrypter or Magic DVD Ripper) you can use MenuShrink to reduze the size of your menues before you use DVD Rebuilder. This will give you more space for your main movie and extras which mean better picture quality for your movie and extras.

You can find the program MenuShrink and a more in deepth explaning tutorial on how you can use the advanced options - if you want more control over the process - at the MenuShrink homepage.


MenuShrink:

MenuShrink is a small utility for shrinking DVD motion menus to still frames, either with or without audio. By doing this, users backing up their DVDs to a DVD-5 can usually save hundreds of Mb and prune the menu to about 5% of its original size.

MenuShrink is very flexible: you can select whether to keep the audio or not, and preview the image to use as a still background to the menu. You can also keep parts of your menus animated, and still others.

You have to use it after ripping the DVD to your hard disk and before using DVD Rebuilder. After processing your menus through MenuShrink you can use DVD Rebuilder as normal. You can even start up DVD Rebuilder from this program.

The program is very easy to use and it's also very fast.

1. Open MenuShrink and you will see the main program window:
   
   
   
   
2. Drag the VIDEO_TS folder which contains your ripped files over to the MenuShrink window.
   
   
3. MenuShrink will load the DVD and report how many titlesets (VTS – video title set) it found and the overall size of all menus (260.92MB in this case).
   
   
   
   
4. Decide if you wish to keep the audio or not - naturally, eliminating the audio will cause the greatest space savings.
   
   
5. You can then hit the 'Process' button and MenuShrink will shrink down all the menus using default options in just a few seconds.
   
   
   
   In this case we saved 1036.95 Mb of space that can be used for the main movie and extras instead.

If you goof up, don’t worry. Just click on 'Restore Backup' and all will be back as it was in a flash. You can do this at any time, even after the program has been closed and re-opened.

If you have problems with the program - post your questions in this thread.

[cynthia]

Running


Select the source

Press on this button on the row for 'Source Path' and browse to the VIDEO_TS folder of your DVD - depending on if you are using on-the-fly ripping or have previosuly ripped the entire DVD to your system first. After you have selected the VIDEO-TS folder click on the 'OK' button in order to load the DVD.



When the DVD is loaded you should see this:



Here you can select which audio languages to keep, in which audio encoding format and finally which subtitle languages to keep, if any. You can also select director's comments audio tracks.

What I suggest is that you select only 1 language and 1 encoding type so that you will get a better final quality.

This DVD contains two video title sets (VTS). One for the main movie and one for the extra material. Now do the same on VTS 2 as showed in this picture:



If there are more video title sets on your DVD - do the same with them.

When you have select the audio streams and subtitle streams to keep - you are ready to start the backup process by pressing the button.

Now the program will perform three three phases:

1. Prepare

1. The source files are analyzed and additional work files are created. All of these files are hosted in the working directory. Here is a specification of what it will do:
   
   
   • Create DVD2AVI project files from all video sources.
   • Create AviSynth scripts for each video cell. Those files are stored in \DVD2AVS in the Working Path (thus in our example D:\TEMP\DVD2AVS).
   • DVD-RB then calculates a number of parameters for video encoding and stores them in an ecl file (CCE project file).
   • A REBUILDER.INI file is created, containing information how to put everything back together.
   
   
2. Encode
   
   This is when the actual encoding is done and you will see this window during this phase:
   
   
   
   
   
3. Rebuild
   
   The video that have been created during the encoding phase is merged and multiplexed with the original audio and subtitle streams.
   
   A new VIDEO_TS directory is created in the output folder that you selected.

When the backup is done your window looks like this:



You are now ready to burn your created DVD and you can now close down DVD Rebuilder.

[cynthia]

Burning


Preparation before the burning

We are going to burn the files from DVD Rebuilder with the freeware program xxx.

This program can only burn .ISO files - so we need to convert the files in the DVD folder (with the subfolders VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS residing inside the main DVD folder) to an .ISO file first. For this purpose we are going to use the freeware program Folder2Iso.

What is an ISO file?

ISO files (= images that contain the complete structure of a DVD) which offers these advantages:

• Only one file instead of a dir with a bunch of vobs and ifos
  
• ISO is a standard file format which can be read under almost any OS
  
• ISOs can be burned with a variety of burn progs
  
• Images can be mounted with Daemon Tools, Alcohol 120% and similar software and used (e.g. watched with a software player) similar to a regular DVD put into your DVD-ROM.

What is a DVD folder?

A DVD folder contains normally two subfolders; a VIDEO_TS and a AUDIO_TS folder. In the VIDEO_TS folder you find files such as these:



The program can be downloaded here. The author of the program is mkisofs.

How to use the program:

1. Just press Select Folder and add your folder that you want to make iso. ex : f:\movies\Matrix
   
   
2. Select the output path and add a name like test.iso. Please note that you can not save it at the same path of the step 1 . (choose something like : f:\movies\Matrix.iso )

There is also a good graphical guide located at afterdawn.com.

When you have applied your settings - press the and the program will start on the job to create the ISO file.



When the creation of the ISO file is done you will see this image:



Press the 'OK' button and you are finnished with this program.

---

The burning


For the burning we are going to use the freeware program DVD Decrypter.

If you don't have it already installed in your computer - download and install DVD Decrypter final version 3.5.4.0. You can download it here.

Start the program and If you don't see this window - then you are not in 'ISO Write Mode'. To resolve this - press the button 'W' on your keyboard.

This is the mode you use when you want to burn an ISO file.

• Source:
  
  Select the ISO file you want to burn. Use the folder icon
  to load in your .ISO file - or the .MDS file if you have a set of ISO files.
  
  
• Label:
  
  Shows the ISOs label name.
  
  
• Sectors:
  
  Shows your the sector size for the selected ISO.
  
  
• Size:
  
  Shows you the psyical size for the selected ISO.
  
  
• Time:
  
  Shows you the time for the selected ISO.
  
  
• Destination:
  
  Select the CD/DVD-burner you want to use for your burning.
  
  
• Test Mode
  
  This will fake a burning. Every step involved in a real burning will be carried out - except turning on the laser.
  
  If this process is done without any errors - you will see this window:
  
  
  
  If you try to use a RW disc for this mode - it will not work and you will see this message window:
  
  
  
  
• Verify
  
  If you want to verify that your image has been written properly to your disc you can select this option. It will re-read your burned disc and compare it to the original file.
  
  
• L:
  
  Loads the tray in the selected device.
  
  
• E:
  
  Ejects the tray in the selected device.
  
  
  Settings
  
  
• Write Speed:
  
  You can here select the speed rate at which you want the burning to be performed at.
  
  If you want to burn as fast as either the burner or the media is capable of - select 'MAX'. If you want to burn at a desired speed - select that corresponding number at which you want to burn at in the drop-down box.
  
  DVDs can only be burned at 16X as fastest. If you see a higher speed number in the drop-down box - it's a setting for CD burning.
  
  
• Book Type:
  
  If your drive supports book type/bit setting, remember to tell it to burn DVD +R/+RW discs as DVD-ROM. This will make them more compatible with players. The book type/bit setting utility is accessed by clicking on the little 'book' icon in the lower right part of the window.
  
  You will then see this menu:
  
  
  
  
  • Now select your brand of burner. In my example I select 'NEC'.
    
    
    
    
  • You can now select the option you want to carry out.
    
    

---

The Burning Process


Insert a blank DVD disc in your CD/DVD burners drive.



After that the disc has been loaded - the right part of the program window will now show you information about your inserted disc.

_NEC DVD_RW ND-3520AW 3.04 (ATA)
Current Profile: DVD-R

Disc Information:
Status: Empty
Erasable: No
Free Sectors: 2*297*888
Free Space: 4*706*074*624 bytes
Free Time: 510:40:38 (MM:SS:FF)
Supported Write Speeds: 2x; 4x

Pre-recorded Information:
Manufacturer ID: PRINCO

Physical Format Information (Last Recorded):
Book Type: DVD-R
Part Version: 5
Disc Size: 120mm
Maximum Read Rate: Not Specified
Number of Layers: 1
Track Path: Parallel Track Path (PTP)
Linear Density: 0.267 um/bit
Track Density: 0.74 um/track
First Physical Sector of Data Area: 196*608
Last Physical Sector of Data Area: 2*495*103
Last Physical Sector in Layer 0: 0

When you have set your settings you are ready to burn the image. Press the start button and your burning begins.



If you have selected the option 'Verify' - the disc tray will eject before that the verifying process takes place and the program waits for the disc to be reloaded again.

It verifies that the data that was suppose burned, was burned. Most likely, the DVD will burn fine, and if it doesn't, it'll tell you during the burn. You can leave this 'enabled' ('disabled' by default) if you want to feel extra safe.



This shows you how the verifying process is running:



When it's done and if the burning and verifying process was finished without errors - a dialogue box will come up saying burning is complete.



After that message, you can hit "OK" and go ahead and remove the disc.

---

Your burning ended with an error?

If this should happen - take a look in this FAQ.

[cynthia]

How To Update Your Version of HCEnc Batch


What is HC encoder?

In this guide we have used the freeware encoder HCEnc developed by Hank.

What does HC stand for? I guess Hank's mpeg-2 enCoder would fit since the author goes by the name of Hank. Either way, HC has quickly developed into a very interesting alternative to expensive MPEG-2 encoders like CCE SP. I leave it up to you to decide which one is better, but you can certainly not beat the pricetag - and many applications using MPEG-2 encoders have been quick to support HC as well.


New versions of HCEnc Batch

This encoder is released in new versions and if you want to install the latest stable or beta release this section will describe how you will do that.

The freeware version 0.94 of DVD Rebuilder is shipped with HCEnc Batch version 0.15 beta.

The latest stable version can always be found at the DVD Rebuilder homepage.

There is also released beta versions of this encoder - you should be aware that a beta might not work as it should. You could run into problems with picture quality or other problems by using a beta version. The latest betaversions can be found in this thread.


How to install a new version

Browse to this folder on your hard disk

C:\Program Files\DVD-RB\Encoders\HC Encoder

and rename the old file HCbatch.exe to something else.

After you have downloaded and unzipped the new .exe file you should place this file into this directory. Don't forget to rename it to HCbatch.exe - as the exe files always have different names to what rebuilder requires them to be: HCBATCH.exe

Should the name differ, DVD Rebuilder will fail to call the encoder and you will end up with an error message.

[cynthia]

Batch Processing


What is Batch Processing?

Batch mode is when you are letting the computer perform the backup of several DVDs automatically - using the project settings you have applied and saved before for each DVD you are going to backup. When the first DVD is backed up - the computer automatically continues to backup the next one until all you have asked it to backup is done.


How to create a project file?

Open up your DVD that you want to backup and apply the settings and changes you want to make for this DVD. Delete unwanted soundtracks and subtitles and set the output folder to where you want to save the files from DVD Rebuilder. When this is done - go to the title bar in DVD Rebuilder and select the option Save -> Save Project instead of pressing the 'Backup' button as you would have done if you just wanted to start the backup process right away.

Do this for every DVD that you want to include in the batch processing.


Running the batch

Select the option Batch Processing in the DVD Rebuilder menu as showed in this picture:




This will give you this window with the batch processing window at the botton of the regular DVD Rebuilder window:



Now use the 'Add' button to add the previously saved project files to this window. If you added one that you don't want to include in your batch project - just highlight the title and click on the 'Del' button.



When you have added all the project files that you want to include in your batch process - press the 'Start' button.


Shutdown at Batch Completion

While the batch process is running you can always change your mind if you want to shutdown your computer - after the batch processing is done - or not. Just go to the title bar in DVD Rebuilder and select the option 'File' -> 'Shutdown at Batch Completion'.

If enabled, DVD Rebuilder will close down your computer after all batch processes are complete. A 10 Second warning window enables cancellation before shutdown if you still want to have your computer turned on.

[cynthia]

Filters


What is a filter?

If you need to improve the quality of your DVDs or solve one of the most common problems with video files – noisy video, remove unnecessary video frames, and remove video "artifacts" created when the original video was converted into digital video, too dark image, insufficient brightness and contrast, wrong white balance, interlaced video, blurred or purple image and others, or you want to make home videos look like an old 30s movie or very futuristic then a video filter can help you with such a task.


To manipulate a video stream to achieve a desired effect

As an example you can use a De-Interlace Filter that removes "artifacts" that can be introduced when encoding NTSC or PAL formatted video. Using the filter will generally result in higher quality output clips. These artifacts are usually a jaggedness surrounding a moving object.


Where can I find filters?

You can find a list of available freeware filters at the AviSynth Filter Collection website.


Where can I find the Filter Editor in DVD Rebuilder?

Select the option 'Filter Editor' in this menu:



This is the AVS Filter Editor window:




You want to know more about filters?

You can find a picture comparision of using and not using a filter in the thread using filters, written by UncasMS. You will also find an example on how to activate a filter and a discussion on which filter you should use in various situations.

[cynthia]

Misc. Tips and Advice


Change the location of the help file

The location of the helpfiles is in the directory C:\Program Files\DVD-RB\Help in your system and inside that directory is also the file DVD-RBHelp.chm

But you will not have the program to open that help file if you use the menu option 'Help' -> 'Contents' in DVD Rebuilders menu.

The only way you can get this to work is if you copy the file DVD-RBHelp.chm to the default directory of DVD Rebuilder - C:\Program Files\DVD-RB

Now you can start the help file inside the program.

---

Let you see all the Video Title Sets (VTS)

VTS Minimum Size Re-Encode Threshold

vts_min_size=n

Range:0-?, Default: 25625 (~52 MB)

The parameter specifies the number of sectors (2048 bytes each) that defines the point at which a VTS will be either encoded or copies intact. Anything this size or smaller will be simply copied into the output VIDEO_TS directory (it won't be further compressed).

These are settings not available via the GUI, but can be set in the 'Rebuilder.ini' file in the your DVD Rebuilder program directory. (Note: this is not the same as the file created in the WORKING directory named 'Rebuilder.ini'). These settings are for advanced users, otherwise they wouldn't be hidden.

All optional settings MUST be placed in the '[Options]' section of the .ini file, otherwise they will be ignored. Any settings changed here will not be activated until the next time you run DVD-RB.

Add the option vts_min_size=0 in the [Options] section of rebuilder.ini and all the VTSs will show up.

---

Don't backup multiangle DVDs in the freeware edition

Just like interleaved VOB units/multiangle scenes are not compressed in the freeware edition - so converting matrix or other multiangle titles with the FREEWARE version is not a good idea.

Either strip the source down to ONE angle or better donate and get the rebuilder PRO version, which does compress interleaved VOB units/multiangle scenes.

---

You want to do a backup of just the main movie?

This function movie-only can not be done in the freeware edition of DVD Rebuilder. But there is a work-around:

Output the main movie from DVD Shrink with no compression applied and then use the free version of DVD Rebuilder on those files to encode them.

[cynthia]

Suggestions And Feedback






Please post in this thread about the DVD Rebuilder Freeware Edition for Dummies.

If you want to see a printer friendly version - press this link.

[UncasMS]

thanx for your time and effort!