How-to: DVD to single MPEG file

[bobbo]

I've been looking for a simple solution to extract a single video file (e.g. main movie) from a DVD, so I can use BTV as my movie viewer. It's the ideal solution for setting up a video jukebox for the kids: no DVD menus to navigate, no sticky/scratched DVD discs, just straight to the movie. Here's my solution:

1. If the DVD is encrypted, use DVDDecrypter, DVDShrink, etc. to rip the movie to your hard-disk. There are plenty of guides on the web for these programs. (Check local listings for legality in your area.)
2. Download and install VOB2MPG. This program does the magic of combining all the VOB files into a single main movie MPEG. It also adds the correct header info so BTV sees the proper run-time of the movie. (Note that this step does not transcode the VOB - it should take minutes, not hours to complete. This is important to know, because video quality will remain identical to the original DVD.)
3. Using VOB2MPG, select the VIDEO_TS folder you created in step 1. Then, select a folder for the resulting MPEG files. Finally, click Start. (Don't pick your BTV recordings folder as the output location - we'll get there in the next step.)
4. Find the resulting MPEG you want to keep (hint: the main movie is typically the biggest one) and rename it to something descriptive.
5. Double-check that you can view the file in Windows Media Player. The trick is that many DVD's use AC3 audio, so if it fails to play or has no sound, install AC3Filter.
6. Move the file to your BTV recordings folder. Delete the rest of the ripped DVD's files.
6. Finally, go to the BTV web admin and fill in the details of the movie, such as title, description, etc. That's it, you're ready to watch the movie!
7. If the movie played in WMP in step 5, but won't play in BTV (corrupt/missing error message), try changing the MPEG decoder in BTV's Playback Settings. (For example, the basic audio decoder can't handle AC3 audio.)
8. Repeat steps 5 and 8 on each BTVLink client.

Known issues:
A. No, you can't get your DVD menus with this method, so don't ask. If you want menus, move up to the DVD Library in BM. However, since you get to organize the files yourself in the web admin, TV series DVD's are easily supported (with a little elbow-grease on your part to fill in the details.)
B. ShowSqueeze may not work on these files. Options include manually conversion using Windows Media Encoder, or something I haven't tried yet, DVD-WMV.
C. If the video uses AC3 audio, you won't get any sound from the MVPBTV. It's a MediaMVP limitation, so to get around it you have to transcode to a format it can use. Options include VideoReDo to convert AC3 to WAV, or possibly transcoding to WMV.

[Jakesty]

Dude, you're process is UGLY! Use #1 DVDripper instead.

1. Open DVD Ripper. It will decrypt automatically
2. It auto selects the VOB file, just verify, and change the export format to DIVX.
3. Hit start, wait a while for it to finish.
4. Copy new DIVX file to BTV folder and enjoy. My DIVX files are 1gb or less per DVD program.

There's no menu, just select and it runs. If you need a different format, DVD Ripper does like 20 or so, just pick when ripping.

[bobbo]

There are several good commercial programs out there, including both #1 DVD Ripper and VideoReDo. However, I hadn't found a guide on how to convert DVD's using free tools (save $) and without transcoding formats (save time). Hopefully my suggestions help others.

[Jakesty]

I'll definitely concede to that. I love free software. It does cost like $30 for DVD Ripper, but makes it so easy to do that ripping your DVD is not a chore and can be done by anyone in the family with limited experience.

[pwlong]

I agree with you both: automated video processing using free software rocks!

I put together a combined DVD-ripper-transcoder-to-AVI procedure using two freeware programs (DVD Decrypter and HandBrake) in batch mode, which I use for archiving DVDs. My default filesize for a given DVD VOB structure is 2GB, but that can be adjusted very easily. The entire process is kicked off by selecting a "Transcode DVD" option from Beyond Media, so it passes the "ease-of-use" test for my family. However, you could just as easily copy the resulting AVIs into your BTV video folders and view them within BTV.

More info here for anyone interested.

[bobbo]

I'm still working on the MediaMVP part of the problem - that being AC3 audio not supported. Staying in the realm of free tools, my best luck so far is using the wizard in VLC to leave the video untouched but transcode the audio to "MPEG Audio". VLC crashes if I try to transcode the MPEG files created with VOB2MPG, but it seems to work fine on the VOB files themselves.

I also think I'll be able to automate the process with a single command-line call, but I first want to test it out on a few bigger files before I post a procedure. Stay tuned.

[cannen]

I use Fair Use Wizard. The free version will only encode to xvid or divx to a 700mb file, but the paid version will let you encode to whatever size and quality that you want. I think it works really well and haven't had any audio/video sync issues at all. Another nice thing is that you can encode directly from a DVD or an ISO.

I put my divx files into BTV and then edit the program description and title. The only problems with this method are that you can't organize them by title and you can't add actor info.

[bobbo]

OK, I've got the MediaMVP thing licked. The whole problem is that standard DVD's encode audio in AC3, but the MVP only handles MP2 (aka Mpeg Audio). As pointed out on this thread, there are plenty of commercial solutions that can take care of this, but I wanted a one-click, simple-to-use, free solution.

The answer is the Windows version of the open source MPlayer. It comes with a command-line utility called mencoder that does all the work: I can transcode the dvd's audio without transcoding the video, so it's a quick operation. Drop the DVD in the drive and use this one command line:

mencoder.exe dvd://1 -dvd-device E:/ -ovc copy -oac lavc -lavcopts acodec=mp2:abitrate=224 -of mpeg -mpegopts format=dvd:tsaf -o title1.mpg

This command takes title 1 on the DVD in drive E: and rips it to the file title1.mpg. To further simplify, here's a batch file DVD2MVP.bat:

SET mplayerpath=C:\Program Files\mplayer
start "Ripping DVD Title %1" /D"%mplayerpath%" /LOW /B /WAIT "%mplayerpath%\mencoder.exe" dvd://%1 -dvd-device %2:/ -ovc copy -oac lavc -lavcopts acodec=mp2:abitrate=224 -of mpeg -mpegopts format=dvd:tsaf -o %3

The same example above is now reduced to:

DVD2MVP 1 E "C:\My Movies\title1.mpg"

Notice that this method totally skips the dvd decryption and vob joining steps: it's straight from disc to mpeg file. If you'd like to go deeper (like transcoding the video to lower bitrates, mpeg4, etc.), take a look at the mplayer documentation.

Oh, and one more step, don't forget to go to the BTV web admin and enter in the details for your newly ripped mpeg file, otherwise it will show up under series "Unknown".

This little batch has really simplified things for me, hope some of you find it useful, too.

[Mutiny]

Does #1 DVD Ripper separate episodic DVDs into multiple mpegs?

[Jakesty]

Yes. In the case of a HOUSE cd, there are 4 episodes on it and it shows each as options to be exported. You can download the demo for free to test it out.
It is extremely easy to use.

[cfaslave]

Originally Posted by pwlong

I agree with you both: automated video processing using free software rocks!

I put together a combined DVD-ripper-transcoder-to-AVI procedure using two freeware programs (DVD Decrypter and HandBrake) in batch mode, which I use for archiving DVDs. My default filesize for a given DVD VOB structure is 2GB, but that can be adjusted very easily. The entire process is kicked off by selecting a "Transcode DVD" option from Beyond Media, so it passes the "ease-of-use" test for my family. However, you could just as easily copy the resulting AVIs into your BTV video folders and view them within BTV.

More info here for anyone interested.

I'm using a modified version of this thanks to pwlong that works like this:

• Insert DVD in drive
• click Rip and Transcode
• cli rips the dvd to hard drive in a set location under foldername same as dvd name
• Once finished ripping, cli transcodes the ripped DVD to my movies folder viewable by Beyond Media's DVD Library
• Plugin leaves the ripped dvd files so I can burn a copy to a dvd backup. (this was my edit from pwlongs file)

Things I'd like to add:

• Burn DVD option from DVD Library menu or BM menu (select movie and click burn much like the dvd burning plugin works in BTV)
• Transcode DVD from ripped movie to iPod format (again select movie and click iPod)

[bobbo]

I finally completed a batch file I'm happy with. Be sure to grab the version of ffmpeg that comes with VOB2MPG, because that one allows you to join multiple files. The biggest advantage of this method is that there are no intermediary files created - just straight from VOB(s) on DVD to single MPG video file.

@echo off

:: Rip DVD to MPEG file
:: v1.00 04Dec2007
:: Converts audio to MP2 for Hauppage MediaMVP compatibility

:: Note: Requires special build of ffmpeg!
:: Use the one that comes with VOB2MPG,
:: found at http://www.svcd2dvd.com/downloads.aspx#VOB2MPG

SET ORIGDIR=%CD%
IF EXIST %2:\VIDEO_TS\VTS_%3_1.VOB GOTO SETUPVIDEO

:SYNTAX
echo Rip DVD to MPEG file with MP2 audio
echo.
echo Syntax: ffmpeg-dvd2mpg.bat outputfile dvddrive tracknumber [video-bitate] [audio-bitrate]
echo Example: ffmpeg-dvd2mpg.bat "C:\My Movies\test.mpg" D 01
echo Example: ffmpeg-dvd2mpg.bat "C:\My Movies\test.mpg" D 01 5000k 384k
echo.
GOTO END

:SETUPVIDEO
SET FFMPEG="C:\Program Files\VOB2MPG\ffmpeg.exe"
SET VIDEO=-vcodec copy -vsync 1
::if there are errors in the video, try this line instead
::SET VIDEO=-vcodec mpeg2video -vsync 1 -sameq
IF NOT "%4"=="" SET VIDEO=-vcodec mpeg2video -vsync 1 -b %4

:SETUPAUDIO
SET AUDIO=-acodec mp2 -ac 2 -async 1 -ab 384k
::if the audio/video are badly out-of-sync, try this line instead
::SET AUDIO=-acodec mp2 -ac 2 -async 384k -ab 384k
::to directly copy audio without transcoding, use this line instead
::SET AUDIO=-acodec copy -async 1
IF NOT "%5"=="" SET AUDIO=-acodec mp2 -ac 2 -async 1 -ab %5

:ENCODE
CD /D %2:\VIDEO_TS
FOR /L %%A IN (1,1,9) DO SET INPUTFILE%%A=
FOR /L %%A IN (1,1,9) DO IF EXIST VTS_%3_%%A.VOB SET INPUTFILE%%A=VTS_%3_%%A.VOB*
SET FFMPEGCMD=%FFMPEG% -i multi:%INPUTFILE1%%INPUTFILE2%%INPUTFILE3%%INPUTFILE4%%INPUTFILE5%%INPUTFILE6%%INPUTFILE7%%INPUTFILE8%%INPUTFILE9% -target ntsc-dvd %VIDEO% %AUDIO% %1
echo.
echo Encoding start: %DATE% %TIME%
echo.
echo %FFMPEGCMD%
echo.
%FFMPEGCMD%
echo.
echo Encoding complete: %DATE% %TIME%
echo.

:END
CD /D %ORIGDIR%

(And no, this won't work on encrypted DVD's, but you can always use DVD Decrypter first...)

[Mutiny]

I am using #1 DVD Ripper, but the sound is choppy when using DivX 6.8. I had been using progressive setting for the sound.

Is it better to go to MPEG2 or straight to DivX?

[Jakesty]

Make sure to download their newest version of DVD ripper. They had a fix for the audio which fixed the problem on two of my computers when ripping.