Hi, As I undersand most of DVD cpying/authoring tools perform re-encoding of the video audio files. However, I'd like to avoid reencoding, and only rearrange video sequences and change menus (for example, DVD friends - it has 4 episodes on one side DVD, and I want to add fifth to it, to fill up the DVD-R space, and to change the navigation menu accordingly). Could you please recommend what tools I might use to perform that? Again, the most important for mee is to keep the original quality of the VIDEO/AUDIO. And I dont know at what moment in what tool the quality may be changed (because of a different reencoding algorithm, etc,) I could not find the straight answer in any of the guides or tools descriptions. I consider using IFOedit + DVD Decrypter, Ulead MovieFactory, DvdXCopy 1.5, Nero Burning express. The biggest problem for me is that I dont know how to edit existing DVD episode navigation menu
Pinnacle Studio 8 will alow you to 'back-up' (not copy, thats illegal) your DVD onto two seperate disks. This is unless a movie is under 1hr 29mins. These can be backed up onto a single DVD R without being compressed.
When I backup DVD's I use DVDdecrypter to rip, DVD2one to compress, and Nero to burn. Nothing really complicated in this procedure and even though you are compressing the video with DVD2one I can't notice any difference at all. ~Brian~
DVD2One is damn good at it's job but if the video is over 2hrs then you can notice slight degradation. If you want/need 1:1 copies then I suppose DVDXCopy might well be the best option , as you can split to 2 discs. I use: DVD Decrypter DVD2One Nero
ok, but how do u create a menu? I tried using tmpg dvd author (or however u spell it) and i reencoded it so that the audio would be compatible with ulead moviefactory 2. After putting the new vob into ulead, the new dvd was bigger than 4.7 gig!!! I guess the movie itself cant be 4.7 gig (the default size in dvd2one) if you want to put a menu on because the menu itself takes a couple of megs.
I think I understand the question. what i would do is not worry about the file sizes at first just create my menus with all the necessary vobs using ulead. then after thats done use dvd2one using full disk mode to shrink it down to 4.36GB
So what you are saying is that i should rip the whole movie with dvd decrypter, take just the movie along with the necessary subtitles that i want, then once those vobs are done, load them into ulead to create the menu, then once that is done, load it into dvd2one a second time to further compress it?
You mentioned it all exactly right apart from 'load it into DVD2One for the 2nd time' Why is it the 2nd time ? Just dont bother compressing until you've done everything else.. Only need to use DVD2One once
Like i said the first time....So what you are saying is that i should rip the whole movie with dvd decrypter, take just the movie along with the necessary subtitles that i want, then once those vobs are done, load them into ulead to create the menu...(at this time the movie is bigger than 4.7 gigs because the menu is a few megs which makes it larger than 4.7 gigs). Then i have to load it into dvd2one so it will fit onto a dvd-r. You see, i cant encode/compress it with dvd2one only once because the ac3 files cant be loaded into ulead after taking the vobs off the dvd with dvd decrypter. haha hope this all made sense.
Well, I did some trials and want to share - maybe some would find it useful. I did manage to copy DVDs without quality loss - in 2 ways actually. 1. DvdXCopy 1.5.2 - I backed up Ice Age (+ Gone Nutty) with it. I could choose with DvdXCopy which title sets to copy, with preview. Disadvantages: I could not backup Beauty And The Beast - the disk has very tricky navigation - it jumps from title set 1 to title 7, and in between. I had no idea what title sets are required, but even when I selected all required titlesets, the backup copy still would not play - I assume ifo files were not corrected during backup I can not backup Friends with DvdXCopy in the way I want it. I dont like the copyright screen from 321studios, which is added to a copy. It's black, ughh. 2. IfoEdit, DVD Decryptor, ImgTool. I successfully backed up Beauty And The Beast. There are some very informative guides I used - from doom9 and fr0zen. It's really nice tools - I dont know why I spent so much time looking for commercial DVD copiers on the net. None of them doesnot come even close to IfoEdit + DVD Decryptor + ImgTool + VobRator. They do not reencode video-audio streams afaik. They just rearrange navigation, streams, cells. Well for now I'am off with these tools, that's for sure.
Or use ifoEdit to get rid of all extras, subtitles and AC3 channels not needed and maybe it will fit on the one disc
Ok, as I said, I successfully used IFOedit and the ImgTool to backup Beauty and the Beast on to DVDRW. Menu worked and stuff. But. I used NeroExpress afterwards to copy from DVDRW to DVDR. I used "Copy entire disc" option. Result - Negative! While DVDRW works fine, copied from it DVDR does not! Is it possible that "Copy entire disc" feature breaks the dvd structure somehow?
Hey Herbsman, What about x-copy express?You can use that to get best quality picture and still keep it on one disk only.
I am pretty much a noob but I have tried alot of the methods suggested on the forums and have had luck with most of them. Now I am using DVDdecrypter, DVD2one v1.1.3, and Nero burning rom. I just began backing up my Band of Brothers collection using these tools and kept all menu's, field guide, etc,(I only kept AC3 sound) and I really cant tell a difference in the video quality.And best of all, it fits on 1 disc. Anyway, just my 2 cents.
Andru, i have noticed that 'copy entire disc' can cause some problems. I would not use that method and try another.
