Recording a multi-chaptered DVD into one file [SOLVED]

[Roddude]

I have this legal, store-bought DVD that has 90 different chapters on it, about 3-6 minutes each. I would like to record the whole thing into a single file, as the chaptering is annoying. I'd like to be able to move from point to point without having to go back and pick a chapter each time, which is why I want it all in one file.

The DVD has a "Play All Chapters" option, and will play the DVD without a break in between chapters. However, when I use VLC's record function, it will only record the first chapter and nothing else, even though the recording button is still showing that it is recording.

I first tried this with VLC 1.1.8, and I just installed 1.1.9. I cannot get either of them to record this into one file.

Ripping the DVD only results in 90 different files, which defeats the purpose.

Any ideas? Thanks.

[Roddude]

Also, why are no posts about conversion software allowed?

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Also, why are no posts about conversion software allowed?

Because those are usually "My iPhone converter, only 30$" spam posts.

[Roddude]

I'm in the USA, and the ones listed in the "Multimedia" section of MajorGeeks.com all seem to be pretty decent, as well as those listed on Cnet.com. Look at the user ratings to decide. I don't know if these sites have languages other than English.

I would recommend a couple of favorite free conversion programs, but I don't want to violate the forum rules.

[Roddude]

Also, concerning the multi-chaptered DVD, about half of the files that were created when I ripped the DVD had no sound.

Anyone know how I can make the whole disc into one file?

[VLC_help]

Streaming with --sout-keep and transcoding with other VLC instances might work, but it isn't easy.

[solazy]

@Roddude,
I found an open source transcoding tool (with a great interface) that could help you to remove all chapters in a DVD structure. Though it's dated from 2005, it worked perfectly on my Windows XP system (but I can't tell you if it will work on Vista or 7)

I made a complete test for you, removing all chapters (and menu) from a DVD structure I got.
There are 2 great pictures that explained the whole (simple) process and it went fast.
The resulting Video_ts folder played nicely on Vlc and on my DVD player attached to the TV (after I burned a rewritable DVD with the resulting Video_ts folder)

As I don't want to violate the forum rules, I'll wait a few hours for Vlc_help or J-B advice : should I PM Roddude directly and share this find with him only, or as it's open source, would it be better to share it here with all of you ?

***************
But Roddude, there is one thing that I didn't understand in your 1st post, when you wrote : "I'd like to be able to move from point to point without having to go back and pick a chapter each time"
Because the original DVD I tested had, like yours, a "Play All Chapters" option in its menu, then :

* With Vlc, if you select "Play All Chapters" in the original DVD, then you should be able to "move from point to point without having to go back and pick a chapter each time", by simply dragging the slider, no ?
Because I could do it with my chaptered original DVD, using Vlc.

* Now if you play the original DVD in your DVD player attached to your TV, what is your exact problem ?
If you use the "skip" button of your remote control, then you'll jump to the next chapter after each skip, do we agree ?
But maybe you don't want this on your DVD player, because you got 90 chapters.

So the question is : how do you intend to "move quickly to another point" on your DVD player, if your new DVD structure hasn't got chapters anymore ?
Because the resulting DVD won't have any menu or chapters, then the only 2 ways to move quickly from one point to another one, on your DVD player, will be :
* Use the FF button on the remote control (though you could already do this in the original DVD)
* Enter a time hh:mm:ss in your remote control ("display" button on mine) if you want to jump directly to a certain place in the file.

So it would be great if you explained, why you can't actually "move from point to point without having to go back and pick a chapter each time" when using the original DVD in Vlc or in a DVD player

I understand you would like "to record the whole thing into a single file, as the chaptering is annoying"
The question is : why don't you keep the DVD structure, if the precedent described methods allow you to move quickly from one point to another, without going back to the menu in a chaptered DVD ?

[Roddude]

With Vlc, if you select "Play All Chapters" in the original DVD, then you should be able to "move from point to point without having to go back and pick a chapter each time", by simply dragging the slider, no ?

Actually, no, not with this DVD. This particular DVD is chaptered very strangely.

What the DVD is is a collection of short videos. Each one plays as a separate movie though. I can select "Play All", but the slider will only allow me to slide between points on the particular video I'm watching. I can move from one video to the next in sequence with the "Next Media in the Playlist" buttons, but that, of course, only allows me to skip to the chapter right before or after.

If I want to move from video #1 to #75, I'd have to go back out to the main menu and select it. I'm trying to set this up to where all videos are one movie, instead of 90 short ones. Then I can just move the slider to different points, which would be quick and easy. I've never watched this DVD all the way through because I get so irritated with all the extra steps I have to go through to move around within it.

Here's what the chaptering looks like if I explore the "Video_TS" folder on this disc (only the top half is my actual screen, the rest is white space that the Paint program put there that I can't get rid of):



Most DVDs do not have anywhere near this many files in that folder. This is why I don't want to keep the DVD structure.

As I said before, the DVD will play all videos all the way through, but VLC's record function will only record the first one. I was hoping that someone knew how to reset VLC to get it to record everything.

If you can PM me with this transcoding tool, I would appreciate it. I use Windows XP also. Also, to the administrators, it might be helpful for people to post links to conversion software to you, you can then review them, and put them in their own section if they are legitimate and not spam.

[solazy]

Hi Roddude,
Got it, there are 90 different movies on your DVD, while my 1st test has been done on a "1 movie multi-chaptered" DVD
I just sent you all infos by PM, after I did successful tests on a DVD which includes several movies in it (and several chapters in each movie)

Hope you'll make it

[Roddude]

I tried that demuxing program you messaged me about, and in any mode, it would would create the single.m2v and .ac3 files for the whole DVD, but it would then only create the first video after using the DVD authoring option.

I then decided to try using a conversion program to convert all VOB files into .avi. Some, it turns out, can't handle that many files at once, and will produce some without sound. I can't say which one actually worked, due to the forum rules. I'll PM you if you are interested. I then tried using Windows Movie Maker to put them all together. All it does is give me message that it can't save the video, or that I don't have the correct codecs, which it refuses to download and install, even though I keep telling it to.

After this, I tried an awful program called Kate's Video Joiner which does nothing but create a single file with either no picture or both no picture and no sound. When I used it to try to put all 90 of the videos together, it would cause Windows Explorer to have to close as soon as it saw the new single file, without me even opening it. Windows said it had a problem with it's shmedia.dll file. I ended up downloading this .dll and replacing it, not noticing that it's actually an older version, but I can't see any difference in how anything in Windows works, so I won't worry about it. I thought I was going to have to reinstall Windows after this, but just getting rid of that big file (I had to use Malwarebytes File Assassin tool to do so) made everything OK again.

At this point, all I'm looking for is a way to join all these .avi files into a single file. Any ideas? Or, if you know another way to remove the DVD structuring, that would work, too.

Thanks.

[solazy]

Ok, let's continue this in PM, see you there.

[Roddude]

With Solazy's help, I finally figured out a seemingly fool-proof way to to this:

1) Rip the DVD to hard drive.

2) Select View>Arrange icons by type, delete all .ifo and .bup files, and any small .vob files that are simply introductions or advertisements and such that you don't want or need. Then sort the remaining files into their proper order. Selecting View>Arrange icons by name should do this.

3) Make sure that all files have the same frame rate and resolution. If not, use a conversion program to make them all the same. Select .mpg as output container if .vob is not listed. MPG is very similar to .vob, and it will take much less time to convert. Be sure all other file specifications as close to the originals as possible.

4) Use a video joiner to create one big .vob file (or .mpg file if converted.)

5) If you'd rather have your file be a smaller and easier-to-use .avi file, use the converter again.

IMPORTANT: If you're going to convert to another container such as AVI, don't do so until AFTER you've made the one big VOB or MPG file. Converting each and then joining them will result in a broken AVI file.

I now have all 90 of the separate movies from this DVD consolidated into one 5.5Gb file which works perfectly, even though Windows supposedly doesn't work well with .avi files over 2GB in size.

[solazy]

Bravo Roddude,
Thanks for having shared with us the fool-proof way you used.
I was sure you'd make it because you didn't give up when facing difficulties.

Unfortunately, I won't be a big help soon and will have to close my Vlc Forum account.
Because it's getting very hard for me to login to Vlc Forum, though my browser is Opera last version 11.10, due to the following repeating message after several unsucceful login attempts :

***********
Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /ucp.php on this server.
Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
***********

I understand Vlc staff has problems with spammers, but if I have to disconnect several times from Internet, then reconnect with a new IP, with the hope that each new Internet connection will allow me to login to my Vlc account, well...it's not fun anymore.

No big deal, "All things must pass" as sung George Harrison.
It was a great time here with all of you

[Roddude]

Opera is my favorite browser, too, but it doesn't work all that well with Videolan forums. Use Google Chrome (SRWare Iron if you want better security), or the new Firefox 4, or, as a last resort, Internet Explorer. The phpBB forums might have some ideas and options as well. http://www.phpbb.com/

BTW, does anyone know how to set Windows so that any Internet links or saves webpages will, when right-clicking on them, give an "Open With" option, so that a person can choose the browser that will work the best?

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

OK, I will try to calm a bit the security wrt to Opera.
What are your User-Agents?

[Roddude]

What's a User Agent?

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

http://whatsmyuseragent.com/

[solazy]

My user agent, as shown in the link whatsmyuseragent.com :
Opera/9.80 (Windows NT 5.1; U; en) Presto/2.8.131 Version/11.10

Wow...that's the exact part of the Opera infos I PM'd you on May 2, let's repeat them here :

About Opera
Version information
Version
11.10

Build
2092

Platform
Win32

System
Windows XP

XHTML+Voice
Plug-in not loaded

Browser identification
Opera/9.80 (Windows NT 5.1; U; en) Presto/2.8.131 Version/11.10

Thanks j-b

[Roddude]

I've notice that Opera Web Browser, as of late, seems to be getting slower and slower. I can try to open a website such as IMDB.com in Opera, then go to Chrome or Firefox and open it as well, and it will have loaded in one of the second two, while Opera is still waiting. It seems to be the fastest browser of all if installed right after a fresh install of Windows, but over time, it starts to get slower and slower.

It's still my favorite for most websites, though. Especially since it's so easy to save Internet video out of it's cache folder, even while the video is playing. You can set the .tmp files in this folder to always open with VLC, and then look for the largest file, which is the video file. I've also been able to rename the extension to whatever it actually is, such as .flv or.mp4 (I use MediaInfo to see), and move it into the folder I want it in, even while it's playing in YouTube or whatever. Other browsers either don't have a file extension on the temp files, making it take longer to get the file open, as you have to choose the program to open it, or the file disappears from view once it's done loading, or it will say it can't be moved while the browser is open, and as soon as you close the browser, it's gone. Opera also makes it easy to toggle the flash and other plug-ins on and off, and you can see what is actually in a flash ad or whatever, while other browsers will just show a circle or square with an arrow in it. Then you have to click the arrow to see what it is.