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The Original Official Guide by Sefy Levy

More Guides:

DVDx / VirtualDub+LSX / AVI to VCD / DVD2SVCD / ImTOO DVD Ripper / EasyDivX / Complete Guide

Introduction! In this guide, I will attempt to make it as easy as possible to explain how to create a Backup of your DVD movie, This version of the guide is updated to the latest programs and will guide you from Start to Finish in one go! using the most common and freeware programs! and also included is Chaptering, do remember MOST of the settings used here are DEFAULT, I did not make any changes, and if I did have, they are mentioned in the guide. as I have recently recieved some feedback and suggestions on this guide, I will continue to work on it, but for now, the All-In-One/Ultimate Guide will be on halt.

Programs used in this guide: Copying - Smart Ripper FrameServing - DVD2AVI Encoding - TMPGEnc or TMPGEnc Plus Chapters - Chapter-X-Tractor Authoring - VCDEasy ( & ASPI Layer for your system! - use the search for "WinASPI" or scrool to the bottom of the page!)

Before we start with the guide, we must make sure the tools we are going to use actually work and setup correctly! Unzip the tools you are going to be working with into the SAME folder, and once you do, make sure all applications work, and then we are ready to begin! For this example i've used "Superman - The Movie Special Edition" (NTSC/154min/DD51@384k) and we will be converting it to a Video-CD NTSC Standard so it  will fit on two 80min CDR media. (or 74min with 2min Overburning, which is only if your CDRW drive and media supports it!), do remember that  740mb filesize will fit into 74min CDR and 800mb Filesize will fit into a 80min CDR (in VCD 1min = 10mb!). NOTE: This current guide does NOT support Subtitles, if you want subtitles in your movie I suggest you use one of the other great guides on VCDhelp, in the future, if there is an easy method of adding subtitles, I will add them to this guide!

This guide will be divided into the following sections: Part 1 - Copying Part 2 - FrameServing Part 3 - Encoding Part 4 - Chapters Part 5 - Authoring   Part 6 - Burning Part 7 - Troubleshooting

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Smart Ripper

The most updated program, the most prefered one I believe as well, has the most options, and the easiest to use interface amongst all other programs (well, atleast in my opinion) and rarely fails on copying a movie.

Settings Step - Make Sure your settings are identical to the ones in the image below.

Step 1 - Press on the small browser button under the Target, and Choose a Target directory that the movie files will be placed.

Step 2 - After you succesfuly selected a Target Direcory, the "Start " button will appear, from the "Rip-Method" press the " Movie " and then press the "Start" button.

Step 3 - As soon as you press the Start button, the copying will begin, with alot of details regarding the time, encryption and DVD Speed.

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DVD2AVI

This program basicly makes it possible for TMPGEnc to read the VOB files since TMPGEnc can only load one VOB file a time it does not seem to be able to read them all at once directly, it also gives you the ability to select which Audio Track you want the movie to have and create the appropriate WAV file for it.  ( NOTE: The MP3 Option NO LONGER exists in the new versions of DVD2AVI! )

Step 1 - Press "File" and "Open" (1a), Select the first VOB file of the movie (1b), and This will automaticly select all the VOB's that follow (1c). 1a ) 1b ) 1c )

Step 1d - This is an Optional Step! - Some movies may come in the Film format which is 23.976 fps instead of the regular NTSC 29.976, so you might want to enable the Force Film feature of DVD2AVI, go to the " Video" menu and select "Field Operation" and then press on the "Forced FILM" and this will create a D2V file using 23.976 fps.

Steps 1e/1f - Go to the "Audio" menu and select " Track Number" and then select which track from the Movie you want to create as a WAV (most movies have the English Track on the Track 1). Click again on the "Audio" menu and select "Output Method" and make sure you are selecting "Decode to WAV (AC3, LPCM)" option, so it will create a usable WAV file for TMPGEnc and not AC3 track! 1e) 1f)

Steps 1g/1h - This is an Optional Step! - Press the "Audio" menu and select the "Dolby Digital Decode" and choose if you want to create a "Dolby Surround Downmix", some users report better sound quality and surround with this option enabled. Also you can have DVD2AVI convert the 48Khz Audio Sample into a 44.1Khz, by selecting the "48 -> 44.1KHz" submenu, and selecting how high quality you want the convertion to be. ( NOTE: This takes alot more processing time and slows down the creation of files, and also creates a lower quality WAV file, so I recommand you AVOID using this option! ) 1g) 1h)

Step 2a/2b/2c - Press "File" and select "Save Project " ( 2a), a popup window will appear, here you will input the filename ( 2b) this part takes awhile, so when you see in Status near Remain: FINISH, you are done (2c), next you will check that all the files needed for TMPGenc are present, the VOB, D2V & WAV (2d). 2a ) 2b ) 2c)

Step 2d - If you managed to follow all instructions correctly, you should now have a WAV file and a D2V file in your VOB's folder. (* NOTE: Do NOT delete the VOB files! they are still required for the encoding! *) 2d)

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TMPGEnc - Wizard (v2.5x +)

In the Latest version of TMPGEnc there has been a new feature added to ease up the usage for Newbie's, it's a Wizard mode, which helps you through each step you take in an easier to use way, here I will guide you through the Wizard Steps.

Step 1 - Open TMPGEnc and use the Wizard to select the Template of your choice according to the Movie you are encoding, if the Wizard has been previously disabled, you can press CTRL-W to activate it again, for this movie i've selected the "Video-CD NTSC" Template, press the "Next " button to continue.

Step 2 - On this step use the "Browse" button to select the "Video File" (2a) and "Audio File" (2b ) inputs for your movie, when you are done, you will have the option for setting the "Video Type" and the "Field order " and also the "Aspect ratio" according to your Source, remember, this is where you set if your DVD is in a Wide Screen format or Full Screen, and then press "Next " to continue. 2a ) 2b )

Step 3 - Here you can use the "Source Range" (3a) to encode just part of your movie or optimize your movie using the " Clip frame " or "Noise reduction", those are optional tools ,you dont HAVE to use them, only use them when you know what you are doing.

3a) Press on the "Settings" button next to the "Source Range ", and select the Start and End frames for the first part of the movie, notice at the top left corner, there is both the amount of frames and the running time "136459 frame (01:15:53) " so just scroll around your movie till you get to the point were you want to cut. Remember: if you are doing a Video-CD you CAN fit 74min of movie into a 74min CDR, even if the file size is 740mb, it is normal and will fit! and the same goes for 80min movie for 80min CDR media!

Step 4a - Select the type of CDR/DVDR media you will be using for TMPGEnc to calculate if the file will fit into that desired media type, when using the default Standard Templates, you cannot alter the settings unless you go into the "Expert" settings, however, if you choose a self-made template or other then those that came with TMPGEnc, you can change it directly in this screen.

Step 4b - If you pressed on the Expert button on the previous step, it will take you to this screen which allows you to define all the settings you want, what you see below is what I have set for my movie which is a Wide Screen 16:9 display and i've kept the aspect ratio so the resulting VCD will come out as a Wide Screen and will not be stretched out of proportions and it will contain the Black Bars on the top and bottom!. NOTE: TMPGEnc controls how the movie will appear on your TV set, either in Wide Screen or Full Screen, to accomplish that, follow these settings according to your movie, you need to go to the Settings / Advanced, and change the followings: If your movie is Wide Screen: Source aspect = 16:9 Display Video arrange method = Full Screen (keep aspect ratio 2) If your movie is Full Screen: Source aspect = 4:3 Display Video arrange method = Full Screen (keep aspect ratio 2) 4b)

Step 5a - Now select the "Output file" name, if you used the "Source Range", make sure you select diffrent file name for each part of the movie, and it would also be easier to select "Create another project..." so you can let TMPGEnc work on both parts of the movie in one go instead of waiting for one part to finish and then repeating it again.

Step 5b - If you have selected to create another project, you will have to repeat all the Wizard Steps you went through till now, but the diffrence is you select a diffrent start/end in the "Source Range ", and select the "Output file" name for the second part, make sure you select diffrent file name for each part of the movie! and remember to select "Start encoding immediately" or it will attempt to create another project!.

Step 6 - Once you pressed the "OK" button, the encoding will start, when it's done with Part one, it will go automaticly for Part 2.

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Chapter-X-Tractor

This program is capable of accessing the DVD Movie's IFO file and extracting the Chapters Information so it will be used in to create a VCD/SVCD with the same Chapter Points, so when you use the Remote Control you can jump from chapter to chapter.

Step 1a - Load Chapter-X-Tractor (1a) and press the " Open IFO" button.

Step 1b - Select the Movie IFO file which you ripped earlier.

Step 2a - You will now see all the information needed in the " RAW Data" field.

Step 2b - Now Press the "Save data" button, and select a filename for the Chapter Information.

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VCDEasy

A New program that is capable of doing chapters in a rather easy and simple way, and uses all the free tools out there for giving you the best of the best, it's chaptering capabilities are far simple but effective in the last few builds it has added support for the free CDRDao burning tool, and gives you an easy interface for burning the images it created.

Step 1a - Open VCDEasy, and set everything according to your specific movie, and follow the example below. ( * NOTE: Please do not create blank spaces in the Cue/Bin name, as CDRDao may have a problem burning it later on.*)

Step 1b - Press the "Add Files" button and select the first of the two files you encoded earlier.

Step 1c - Change the "Volume Label" to reflect the name of the Movie, and also select the "Bin Output File" location.

Step 2 - On the "Options" tab you can write down the name of the "Album" and also enable the "Use Playback Control (PBC)".

Step 3a - Press the "Chapters" menu item and Here you can select to import the Chapters for your movie, Right Click to get the popup menu so you can import from Smart Ripper or Chapter-X-Tractor.

Step 3b - Select the "Start offset" and "End offset " for the first part of the movie and press the "Ok" button.

Step 4 - Press the "Go" button, VCDEasy will begin analysing your MPG file and create an Image file for burning.

Step 5a - Go back to "Main" by pressing the "(S)VCD " button, remove the MPG file, and open the second part of the movie.

Step 5b - Change the name of the "Bin Output File", so you don't accidently overwrite the previous file (if you didn't burn it yet).

Step 5c - As in Step 3a and 3b, select the Chapters for the second part of the movie, make sure to start a Chapter after the one you last selected on the previous part (3b), and when you are done press the "Ok" button.

Step 6 - Press the "Go" button again to create the second image file of the movie.

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VCDEasy / CDRDao

VCDEasy comes with CDRDao which enables it to burn Bin/Cue images, this way, you do not require any additional software to burn your images.

Step 1 - To burn the newely created images, first make sure that the CDRDo is set up correctly, go to the "Settings " and select the "CDRDAO" menu item, make sure you select your " CD Writer" and set the speed, and also enable the "Allow Overburn " if you plan on using over 80min CDR media.

Step 2 - Next, go to the "Tools" section and select "CDRDao Tools" from the above menu, here you can "Blank a CDRW " and also select to "Burn a CUE or TOC CD Image" file, you can also select to "Simulate" and not actually burn.  Press the " CUE/TOC file" button, and then select the Image you want to burn.

Step 3a - After you selected the first image of the movie (in this case Superman - VCD1.cue) then press the "Burn" button and the writing of the CD will start.

Step 3b - When you are done burning the first part select the second image of the movie (in this case Superman - VCD2.cue) and again press the "Burn" button and the writing of the CD will start.

THE END

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Troubleshooting

Here I will try to cover all the problems you may encounter, and hopefully help you fix them.

In Order for TMPGEnc to recognise D2V files, you MUST have the VFAPI and the DVD2AVI.VFP file located where the TMPGEnc.EXE file is! it will NOT work any other way! It is also sometimes helps to use the Forced Film option in DVD2AVI, but only if you are still unable to open the D2V files with TMPGEnc. (suggsted by msfox) In some DVD movies the Audio Track is located on the second track, so you might want to try in DVD2AVI to rip the secondary Audio Track, if you are not sure which Audio Track to choose, open the Chapter-X-Tractor text file and you can check in there. Also in some movies the Audio Track is a DTS and DVD2AVI is incapable of handling it and converting it to WAV, I would recommand you find a diffrent track, there is usually both DTS and AC3 tracks, use the information files by either Smart Ripper or Chapter-X-Tractor to find out if your movie has an AC3 track and if does, then on which track it is, and if there isn't find the next best alternative which would be the 2ch track. Make sure when you encode the movie that the currect Template will be used for your movie, an incorrect Template will cause A/V sync! and not to mention the resolution will be distorted (if you use PAL on NTSC and NTSC on PAL). If you are having problems copying the Movie VOB files to your HDD, I suggest you check your ASPI Layer, the ASPI that comes with Windows9x, Millenium are not good for ripping, update them, and Windows2000/XP does not come with an ASPI Layer at all! make sure you download the latest ASPI for your system, you can get the v4.6 for 98/Me/2000XP here! (scrool to the bottom of the page!) If Smart Ripper or any other of the DVD Copying programs are unable to access your DVD Movie, try to first play the disc using any Software DVD Player, and then try to run the ripper. Because the Copying program always selects as default the longest running title of the DVD, it might select the wrong title, So make sure the VOB's that were copied are indeed the VOB that belong to the movie itself and not the Extra features (e.g. Pearl Harbor).

Copyright 2000-2004 by Sefy Levy, All Rights Reserved.

Best Regards, Sefy Levy, Certified Computer Technician.