Primer on DVD backups

[anoopkumar]

I want to backup only the main movies of my DVD's, without the menu and subtitles and with only the English audio track. My original DVD's are dual-layer and I want to burn to DVD-5 using a Pioneer A04. I've read about IFOEdit from Derrow's guides and seen many posts about the right/best/proven/reliable method to do what I am trying to do. In following Derrow's guides, I have learned a lot about what IFO and VOB files contain, but have gotten somewhat confused about certain details. Most notably, I am unclear what to do about the so-called menu VOB's. One of Derrow's guides about remuxing a .m2v file back into a title set says at the end, after the VOBU pointers have been corrected and the new IFO's have been written:

So your new destination directory looks now like this:
{picture of destination directory with remuxed VOB'S and new IFO'S}

As you can see, the Menu-VOB's are missing! So copy them manually to your destination directory:
{same picture with original VTS_0X_0.VOB and VIDEO_TS.VOB copied}

Now you have to check out, if you will need some of the other files, especially if you want to keep the original Menu.

The sentence starting with "As you can see" seems to contradict the last sentence. If you are copying the menu VOB's, then why would you then want to find out whether you need other files to keep the original menu? Didn't you just copy the menu files to the destination?

I did read the guide on keeping the original menu, but in one instance, my original DVD got a huge scratch on it before I knew to rip the entire disc. Thus, I only have the main movie VOB files on my hard drive. Am I sunk? Can I burn a copy with what I have?

If anyone can clear up my confusion, that would be good. But what would be even better is a pointer to a book or article or other resource about DVD authoring, so that I can understand why I am following each step of a particular guide. That way, if something goes wrong, I can correct the problem quickly and easily and if I want to deviate in any way from the guide, I'll do so knowing the reason and consequences. Essentially, I am wondering if there is some way to learn what some of you experts know without having to spend months and years of time and many dollars. Maybe I am short-cutting the very honorable, time-tested practice known as Trial and Error, but if someone can point me towards such a resource, I would be very grateful.

[djdrock]

This guide is the best way I have found to do it.

http://www.fukrulez.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=4&page=1

(this site is pretty slow)

Absolutely no need for IFOedit.

The guide however says there is a problem burning the discs in the original aspect ratio because of REempeg. This is not true. If you are reencoding the video to a smaller bit rate, let reempeg do so. You can select an option in DVDmaestro to burn in 4:3, 16:9 etc...Since you want to burn the disc with no menu, you could taylor the instructions in DVDMaestro to do that.


http://www.fukrulez.com/modules.php?...tegories&cid=1 is a link to more specific instuctions on some of the programs needed.

Should you have any more questions, let me know!

[anoopkumar]

Thanks for the info, djdrock. I do remember reading that guide a few days ago. However, DVD Maestro is no longer available, and when it was, apparently it cost in the tens of thousands of dollars.

It still looks like IFOEdit/ReMPEG are the combo for the price-conscious DVD consumer these days. However, I do see in FukHead's guide that ReMPEG messes up the aspect ratio. Is this what you are referring to when you say that DVD Maestro will correct the aspect ratio? It seems to me, though, that if FukHead is correct, then ReMPEG will stretch the original 16:9 picture to get a 4:3 picture. Maybe DVD Maestro can undo this stretch, but since I don't have $10,000 to spare, it looks like I'll have to accept ReMPEG's botch-up of the aspect ratio. I'm not looking forward to seeing very skinny soldiers fighting off even skinnier Ethiopian citizenry in Black Hawk Down. I haven't seen the end result yet, but I'll let you know in the morning, after Saving Private Ryan is done being burned.

Again, since I can't spend the money on DVD Maestro, I'm still hoping that someone can point to a resource that explains the operations behind IFOEdit and ReMPEG in more detail than I've yet seen.

Thanks in advance for any help anyone can give.

[djdrock]

Check your private messages and email!

djdrock

[anoopkumar]

The burn of Saving Private Ryan to DVD-RW worked, but only partially. It won't play on my Apex AD-1200 or the Toshiba DVD-ROM drive in another machine.

Specifically, the Apex recognizes that there is a DVD disc in the loader, but doesn't play anything. It will show 2x, 4x, 8x when I press the fast forward button, but no picture appears. Win 2K on the other machine says that the disc is not formatted. It does play perfectly (albeit with noticeably lower quality) on the machine on which I burned the disc, via PowerDVD reading fom a Pioneer DVR-A04.

Maybe the disc itself cannot be read by either of the other drives. The Apex is supposed to be able to read DVD-RW, but it's one of their lowest priced players, so it's probably unreliable. The Toshiba drive in the other machine is a half-height, so it probably also doesn't have the ability to read DVD-RW. I'm going to try a DVD-R of the same VOB files, burned with Nero 5.5.9.0, which is the program I used the first time.

[anoopkumar]

I wonder if anyone's reading my posts.

The DVD-R worked in both computers. PowerDVD plays the movie perfectly. The Apex player doesn't play the disc, though, showing the same behavior as it did with the DVD-RW.

I believe that I have not authored the disc properly. I think that some pointers in the IFO files and/or the VOB files that show the FBI warning or studio logo are missing or incorrect. PowerDVD probably is more forgiving for that sort of stuff.