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[xen-uno]

Found a nice program (File Merger) that will (seamlessly) merge all your hard drive based VOB/mpeg chapters into one movie...

http://fysx.acwu.com/Programs/Download/FileMerger-01-07-14.zip

spelled out further here...

http://members.shaw.ca/maxwellsayles/Programs/index.html

Steps: DVD to final
1) Get latest version of DVD Decrypter (3.2.1.0) and from the Edit menu use the "Select Main Movie Files" (IFO's not needed as far as I can tell)
2) Decrypt it
3) Open File Merger
4) Drag & Drop your VOB's onto the main FM window. Arrange chapters in ascending order
5) In Destination file, put in your final file name (ie d:\temp\WaveTwisters.vob (or .mpeg))
6) Click on Merge in the menu bar
7) When it's finished...so are you. Test the file

MC (10.0.99) will not run *.vob's on my machine (Please select file to play error)...but will *.mpeg's (simply rename the extension if VOB).

10^-27

[IanG]

MC (10.0.99) will not run *.vob's on my machine (Please select file to play error)...but will *.mpeg's (simply rename the extension if VOB).

10^-27

The only DVDs I keep on hd are ones I've made myself.  If I double click on the video_ts folder they play perfectly, complete with menu navigation.

Ian G.

[pipsqueak]

the dvd's i have on my hdd do play, but it takes mc ages to recognise the files (30 to 60 seconds). and then there are a load ov vob files and beneath that the DVD chapters, with a red x on the icon. however if i dbl click it it does start to play the dvd.

renaming the .vob's seems to screw the files up. the mpegs are suddenly -2.32 or 0.11 minutes long (instead of 15 mins of so)

[xen-uno]

Hmmm...not here. According to MC, WaveTwisters.mpeg has a dur of 45:29 which is correct. Playback is instantaneous. Re-rip one according to instruct's above and see what happens. The hard part now is figuring out Gordian Knot ... est time to compress to XviD/DivX (on 700 MHz PIII) is about 44 HOURS!

10^-27

[pipsqueak]

xen

the mpegs do play back instantaneously (but their timings are messed up). it was the .vob files that were slow. i have been using basically the method you suggest (steps 1 and 2 anyway). Then i either leave it as an uncompressed vob file (if its a good film) or compress to divX (good pic quality but loses 5.1 audio).

i use Dr divX. its not free (so i feel like i sold out, but the other progs seemed too complicated), but its very easy to use and quick (free 14 day trial available). On my P Mobile 1.4G, it takes 4 hours to encode a 2 hour DVD to DivX, using 2 pass encoding.

my current video issues are that i keep neeing to reset the number of audio channels in the windvideo section of MC, and that some DVD's lose the visual part or just flick back to the title screen when i move or resize a window.

pip

[xen-uno]

pip...

I'll give the Doctor a shot...yes...the others are way complicated (though once initially configured, not too bad). GordKnot has a well written pdf to go along with it.

10^-27

[xen-uno]

Got it pip...

Took about 4 hours with the Doctor...set target size at 750 MB...got 788 (about 1/4 the size of the original mpeg). Overall, quality of video & sound of the avi is pretty good...though noticeably better via mpeg. One irritant was that it seems to limit possible display formats (raising file size had no effect beyond a certain point). WaveTwisters in mpeg is 720x480 (3:2)...kind of halfway between widescreen (16:9) and fullscreen (4:3). I settled on widescreen which produced a 720x400 screen (best fullscreen res available was 652x480).

Not sure where XviD/DivX fit into the picture (neither mentioned before/during/after conversion...it must produce DivX and encapsulate into an avi container).

10^-27

[pipsqueak]

xen

"Not sure where XviD/DivX fit into the picture (neither mentioned before/during/after conversion...it must produce DivX and encapsulate into an avi container)." Sounds right. Dr divX encodes into avi, using DivX technology. So you will be unable to play the files on a computer if they dont have the DivX plugin.

Quality is basically VHS. I rip all my DVD's onto the HDD. If i feel they are worth the $5 or so of HDD space i leave them uncompressed, if not they get the treatment!

In terms of the display format, your limited by the input - blame the studios who encode in 3:2. You can always crop the picture but expanding the image tends to stretch it badly.

My main issue is that i lose the 5.1 sound when i compress the file, so i tend to rip TV shows and leave the films with big explosions uncompressed.

pip

[pipsqueak]

xen

i downloaded and tried auto gordian knot. free, very easy to use. best of all it lets you use ac3 for audio so you arent limited to stereo sound. it may become my default codec at this rate

pip