Dual layered DVD copied onto two DVD-R's

[The Maynard]

I just ordered my first DVD burner and can't wait for it to arrive! I just got sick of all this converting and futzing around with the xVCD format. I figured it's about time to get into the DVDR format.

I've been reading through the guides and they are very helpful. I don't want to compress the video and lose any quality at all. I also want to remove the unwanted subtitles and audio tracks but I want to keep the menus.

So my question is on dual layered discs. Can I use Smartripper to select the chapters I want, making it stop at a certain chapter so that it's a fairly smooth ending for disc one. And also using Smartripper's Stream Proccessing to select only the audio tracks I want, rip all of this to the hard drive and then using Nero to burn those files?

Can I rip all the files I want to keep, stop disc one at the end of whatever chapter I select and then use Nero to place the VOB files in the Video_TS folder and burn that as a fully working DVD? Or is it better to use the programs listed in the guides?

Since I haven't fooled around with this at all I know I am asking newb questions. But I just think it would be easier for me to select what I want for disc one, make it stop where I want so it stops at the end of a scene, and only include the best audio track.

[The Maynard]

I just got to the guide that talks about using IFOEdit to do this. I think this will work out better for me. But still, just curious about using Smartripper. Any thoughts about which is best?

[ormonde]

If it is your desire to just "Split" a DVD to fit onto 2 DVD (r, rw) disks, there is a nice little program called "DVD-replica" that will do this easily.

[The Maynard]

Let me ask you this...if the movie is compressed to fit onto one disc how much quality in the video and audio is usually lost? Is it, on an average, really noticable?

[ormonde]

"Let me ask you this...if the movie is compressed to fit onto one disc how much quality in the video and audio is usually lost?"

If you use a program such as DVD Shrink or similar, excellent results can be achieved at between 20 and 30% compression ratios. The audio stream(s) are NEVER compressed only the video. Usually I let Shrink automatically select the proper compression ratio.

[setarip]

You'll have to judge that for yourself, on a case-by-case (DVD-by-DVD) basis. There are too many variables to make one overall statement about ALL commercial DVDs:

1) Amount of high action
2) Video bitrate
3) Audio format(s) and/or languages
4) Video format/formats
5) Single or multiangle
6) Quality of the original

[ormonde]

To Maynard:

As setarip rightly pointed out, there are many factors to consider. Overall, it's a subjective issue. (Beauty is in the eye of the beholder)

[The Maynard]

Cool. Thanks. I'll have to play around with all these new toys now. It seems to be alot different than ripping and making VCD's. All this new software to learn...it's gonna be fun. I get the burner next Tuesday so I'll have time to learn it all.

[ormonde]

" I get the burner next Tuesday so I'll have time to learn it all"

Good luck....

[The Maynard]

I got the burner yesterday and it had a little trouble at first for some reason. I was debating which of my two original drives I was gonna keep: The cd-rw or the dvd-rom. I took out the dvd-rom and put in the dvd-rw figuring that can read and write the discs. But one of the discs it wouldn't read at all and it ripped pretty slow even though it says it rips at 12x.

So I decided to take out the cd-rw drive since the dvd-rw will burn cds as well.

Using DVDDecrypter, IFOEdit and IMGTool I made my first official DVD copy of Matrix Revolutions and it is pristine and perfect thanks to the great guides here. I will do some experimenting with the other software out there to see if those are any better because, even though it was fairly easy doing it this way there was just way too much manually moving and placing of files that could result in a screw up.

Thanks for the suggestions and the guides folks. You're aces!

[ormonde]

"Thanks for the suggestions and the guides folks. You're aces!"

Glad (We) could be of help

[The Maynard]

I've made several copies so far and they have come out great! I've tried out DVD XCopy but it doesn't recognize my drive and the beta version doesn't burn to ISO so I'll scratch that one off.

DVDShrink is pretty damned good though! Fast and mostly automated. I like that you can select the compression levels of each individual title and choose not to compress the movie. I did Evil Dead last night and compressed everything down except the movie and I was able to fit it on one disc. When I watched the extra features that I compressed I didn't notice ANY quality loss. Of course, the extras were fairly low quality anyway.

Right now I am working on Jack Brown and I am using 47% compression on the main movie. We'll see how bad it is. If it's not acceptable then I will just split it over 2 discs.

[The Maynard]

I just used DVDShrink to copy Jackie Brown and I used compression on the main movie to fit it all on one disc. Using 43% compression on it really didn't hurt the quality at all. I was shocked! There was only one scene that had some MPEG artifacting and that was the begining where she's riding the conveyor through the airport and the background is a tile wall. The tiles are small so there was some artifacting around them and the titles but that was it. Everything else looked perfect! I love my new toy!

[setarip]

Congratulations on your successes!

Although you don't seem to have any questions regarding DVD Shrink at the moment, I'd suggest that should you have such questions you should post them in the DVD Shrink-specific sub-forum(s) here.

[The Maynard]

Woops! Wrong one indeed. It's beed reposted in the correct thread.