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Ripping Episodic DVD Content

post #1 of 20
9/18/09 at 6:44am
Thread Starter 
As part of my HTPC project, I'm ripping my 200+ DVD collection of cartoon series. I'm using 7MC with MyMovies and MediaBrowser plus MetaBrowser for metadata changes. I'm ripping with AnyDVD. Playback is with TMT3 Platinum through 7MC.

My intention has been to rip, store, and play the shows as straight DVD rips. My approach has been to rip the discs, and organize them as \\Cartoons\\Series\\Season X\\Disc X. I've done a lot meta customizing, even scanning the disc themselves onto transparent backgrounds and using those as my folder.png icons. It all looks very sweet.

Last night, I played with storing these shows as series files instead of the disc-centric format, and I was at a quandary for the best way to extract and store for playback individual episodes off the DVDs.

My approach for testing was to use DVDFab to get the individual episodes/titles from the disc rips. That gave me VOB files for each episode. I renamed the VOB to MPG and set them up in a \\Cartoons\\Series\\SXXEYY - Name.mpg structure.

I fear this might not work 100% though if any individual episode's size is >1GB as it'll get stored across 2 VOB files. I may need to use DVDShrink or some other program that allows to choose no splitting perhaps.

What I found was that TMT3 gave me unsupported file errors when I tried to use it as the playback tool in 7MC, but it would play the MPGs in stand alone mode. 7MC would play the MPGs directly, but I'd prefer to use TMT3 with SlimHD.

My main requirement if I go this route is that I do not want to re-encode or touch the video or audio streams of the extracted episodes. I want 1:1 to the content off the disc.

So, I'm curious what extracting tools and file formats/containers people use for episodic content off DVDs and what you use for browsing/playback. What is your working sequence to get that content off a disc and into your media library? Thanks!
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post #2 of 20
9/18/09 at 7:31am
makeMKV is your friend.

it reads the dvd, finds each episode and will rip each to a single mkv file. you can choose if you want to rip the extras and choose which audio streams you want. only think it lacks is a auto naming option. once ripped, you get title00.mkv, title01.mkv, etc.

it does not compress (42min [typical hour long show] shows are ~2gig in size.
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post #3 of 20
9/18/09 at 7:32am
I agree, MakeMKV is your best bet. Here is a write up I did on some different options (some include encoding, some don't)

http://dbone1026.blogspot.com/2009/0...eries-dvd.html
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post #4 of 20
9/18/09 at 7:54am
Thread Starter 
That looks perfect. I was actually thinking to go with MKV containers as they seem the most popular for storing remuxes.

Will MakeMKV extract/remux from a ripped folder or disc only?
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post #5 of 20
9/18/09 at 8:02am
Quote:
Originally Posted by JaremyP View Post

Will MakeMKV extract/remux from a ripped folder or disc only?

both will work.

as long as there is an *.ifo(dvd)/*.bdmv(bd) file (same file you need to launch the movie in a player)
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post #6 of 20
9/18/09 at 9:50am
Yeah, I've been looking for the same thing. MakeMKV works well if you have "nice" DVDs, but it isn't very smart. It by default selects every title that's say over a minute long or so.

Unfortunately I've got a bunch of DVDs where all the episodes are just strung together as chapters in a single title. MakeMKV isn't able to handle these right.
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post #7 of 20
9/18/09 at 10:24am
Quote:
Originally Posted by stanger89 View Post

Unfortunately I've got a bunch of DVDs where all the episodes are just strung together as chapters in a single title. MakeMKV isn't able to handle these right.

Same here. What's really sucky is they're either Japanese animation or Asian (Chinese/Japanese/Korean) dramas so I also need to to be able to extract the subtitles with correct timing. So far, I haven't been able to fully automate the process, but I've got a working production line involving VirtualCloneDrive, AnyDVD HD, DVDDecrypter, VobSub, DGIndex and MeGUI.
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post #8 of 20
9/18/09 at 10:25am
Quote:
Originally Posted by stanger89 View Post

Unfortunately I've got a bunch of DVDs where all the episodes are just strung together as chapters in a single title. MakeMKV isn't able to handle these right.

What I use is DVDFab Decrypter. This rips the files from the DVD to the HDD.

Then I use DVDShrink to encode to an ISO file. When you encode to an ISO file, there is the option to pick a segment of the file with "mark-in" and "mark-out" points. That way you can chop up the DVD's that have the episodes strung together as chapters.

I personally used that for my Southpark DVD's, the first few seasons where Matt Stone and Trey Parker had lame introductions to every episode. I removed the lamo parts and started the rips from the opening splash screen. Worked like a charm.

Here's a link how to be able to make that happen with DVDShrink;
http://www.doom9.org/mpg/dvdshrink31-mmo.htm

This should give you a 1:1 copy of your DVD rips.
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post #9 of 20
9/18/09 at 11:30am
I am having a similar problem. I was trying to rip West Wing episodes and DVDShrink sees them, but I have yet to find a way to rip all the episodes on a disc at the same time? When I do and then rename them to s01e05 or whatever, only the first episode will play in MediaPortal??

The only way it works to to rip each episode individually, and I just don't want to waste that much time for all those episodes, 4 at a time was one thing.

any ideas?
and I have tried makeMKV before for my rips before but I can't get SD rips to play without stuttering...HD is fine, but not SD???

Garen
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post #10 of 20
9/18/09 at 11:51am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Xolo View Post

Then I use DVDShrink to encode to an ISO file. When you encode to an ISO file, there is the option to pick a segment of the file with "mark-in" and "mark-out" points. That way you can chop up the DVD's that have the episodes strung together as chapters.

Yeah, I know DVD Shrink can do it (not sure why you output ISOs ). I don't want to though.

The only other annoying thing about MakeMKV is that you've got to rename the the resulting files after the fact because it won't let you specify the MKV names.
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post #11 of 20
9/18/09 at 1:50pm
I don't think there is a program that can rip individual episodes that are strung together in one title. Not without transcoding, anyway.

Handbrake will do it (you can select a range of chapters from a title), but as I said, it will be transcoded. H.264 encodes over 1800kbps are indistinguishable from the original source, so if you don't mind the extra time it will take, this is not a bad option (and you'll save a ton of disk space).
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post #12 of 20
9/18/09 at 1:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by candre23 View Post

H.264 encodes over 1800kbps are indistinguishable from the original source,

That's a matter of attention, display, and opinion

I do have a question along those lines though. Say I come up with a Super-Awesome-Works-For-Everything-Avisynth-Config (TM) AVISynth script/config. How can I apply that to an arbitrary set of files. To put it another way, how to I automatically encode all the episodes of a series (same AVISynth config, since it's all the same show/quality) without manually setting up the AVISynth script for each?
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post #13 of 20
9/18/09 at 2:58pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by candre23 View Post

I don't think there is a program that can rip individual episodes that are strung together in one title. Not without transcoding, anyway.

DVDDecrypter in IFO mode will do this, but you'll have to select the chapters manually.

Quote:
Originally Posted by stanger89 View Post

I do have a question along those lines though. Say I come up with a Super-Awesome-Works-For-Everything-Avisynth-Config (TM) AVISynth script/config. How can I apply that to an arbitrary set of files. To put it another way, how to I automatically encode all the episodes of a series (same AVISynth config, since it's all the same show/quality) without manually setting up the AVISynth script for each?

I do believe it's possible to load a default Avisynth template in MeGUI. Haven't tried it, though.

I run ripped VOB files via DGIndex (the only method I found that will give consistent AV sync). It has the option to automatically create an Avisynth script based on a template of your choosing.

For example:
Code:
LoadPlugin("...\\DGDecode.dll")
LoadPlugin("...\\Decomb.dll")
video = MPEG2Source("__vid__", cpu=6)
audio = NicAC3Source("__aud__").DelayAudio(__del__).Amplify(3)
AudioDub(video, audio)
FieldDeinterlace()
The above shows fairly basic usage. You can make it as simple or as complex as you want it to be. DGIndex will automatically replace all instances of __vid__, __aud__ and __del__ with the name of the resulting .d2v file, demuxed audio track, and audio delay, respectively. Obviously, you'll want to test that the Avisynth script is working perfectly before using it as template. Since you can run DGIndex via command-line, you can even create a batch file/script to automate the process.
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post #14 of 20
9/18/09 at 5:33pm
DVD shrink to pull each episode into its own .vob. Then load each .vob into AutoGK. I have a ton of shows ripped to xvids. I keep my episodes around 700MB and they look fine on my 52". I don't have infinite space so I don't do direct rips.
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post #15 of 20
9/18/09 at 5:54pm
OP, as I understand from your first post, you already can rip episodes correctly, right? Your only problem is large episodes being split into 1gb vob files.

Just merge them using VOBMerge: http://www.videohelp.com/tools/VOBMerge
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post #16 of 20
9/18/09 at 6:18pm
OP,

You can also pgc.net. This is a simple program that rips program chains and outputs them as a single vob file. Size is not an issue as I have used the program to convert entire movies to a single vob >2GB.

Each episode is its own program chain and pgc.net will pull them out even if they are within the same title.
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post #17 of 20
9/19/09 at 8:06am
Thread Starter 
I played around with MakeMKV yesterday and VOB2MPG today. The 1GB VOB limit isn't an issue since I'm remuxing from the DVD structure into different containers. The 1GB VOB thing only matters if you're extracting episodes to VOB.

I'm torn on using MKV vs MPG files though. Both MakeMKV and VOB2MPG are easy to use and quick to remux and I get individual files from either one as I desire.

MPG is a bit better supported in Windows. You get Explorer thumbnails automatically. I tried using Haali to get MKV thumbnails, but it didn't work when I associate the MKVs with another player. MPG also shows file details in Explorer.

I want to use TMT3 as my player and MediaBrowser in 7MC as my interface, but unfortunately neither the MKVs nor the MPGs will launch with TMT3 as an external player. It plays them both independently, but not from inside 7MC. Bah...

The video also looks better IMO playing back in TMT3 with SimHD running. SimHD will only run on a MPG or DVD file format though. It auto-disables when playing MKV regardless of the MKV containing MPEG2 video. That's one plus for using MPG containers; however, it still doesn't really matter since TMT3 as an external 7MC player for individual files is broken. Maybe they'll fix that though.

I may stick with MPG for DVD remuxes then and go with MKV for BD remuxes. Although, for BD, I'd like to keep the TrueHD/DTS-MA audio, but I'm reading that those formats won't bitstream from an MKV container. I guess that's why HD Audio to FLAC is so popular, but I really want to bitstream all my audio as my home theater equipment is high quality.

Decisions, decisions...
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post #18 of 20
9/19/09 at 9:31am
Quote:
Originally Posted by JaremyP View Post

I played around with MakeMKV yesterday and VOB2MPG today. The 1GB VOB limit isn't an issue since I'm remuxing from the DVD structure into different containers. The 1GB VOB thing only matters if you're extracting episodes to VOB.

I'm torn on using MKV vs MPG files though. Both MakeMKV and VOB2MPG are easy to use and quick to remux and I get individual files from either one as I desire.

MPG is a bit better supported in Windows. You get Explorer thumbnails automatically. I tried using Haali to get MKV thumbnails, but it didn't work when I associate the MKVs with another player. MPG also shows file details in Explorer.

I want to use TMT3 as my player and MediaBrowser in 7MC as my interface, but unfortunately neither the MKVs nor the MPGs will launch with TMT3 as an external player. It plays them both independently, but not from inside 7MC. Bah...

The video also looks better IMO playing back in TMT3 with SimHD running. SimHD will only run on a MPG or DVD file format though. It auto-disables when playing MKV regardless of the MKV containing MPEG2 video. That's one plus for using MPG containers; however, it still doesn't really matter since TMT3 as an external 7MC player for individual files is broken. Maybe they'll fix that though.

I may stick with MPG for DVD remuxes then and go with MKV for BD remuxes. Although, for BD, I'd like to keep the TrueHD/DTS-MA audio, but I'm reading that those formats won't bitstream from an MKV container. I guess that's why HD Audio to FLAC is so popular, but I really want to bitstream all my audio as my home theater equipment is high quality.

Decisions, decisions...

The reason why I stopped using creating a big VOB is because WMC (I use Media Browser) does not recognize. Just throwing into mkv and playing back in Media Browser works fine (I can't speak of TMT as I have never used).

Regarding Blu Ray rips I was a fan of mkvs but now prefer just to throw into .ts container using Clown_BD (http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2009...0-65-released/) as it allows me to keep the TrueHD/DTS-MA (MakeMKV just extracts the core). However, unless you have a dedicated audio card like the Xonar you can't bitstream DTS-MA/TrueHD from Windows anyhow.
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post #19 of 20
9/19/09 at 10:03am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by dbone1026 View Post

The reason why I stopped using creating a big VOB is because WMC (I use Media Browser) does not recognize. Just throwing into mkv and playing back in Media Browser works fine (I can't speak of TMT as I have never used).

Exactly, big VOB isn't the right way to go. As mentioned, I think I'll be sticking with MPG over MKV though in the hopes of being able to use TMT3with SlimHD as an external player from 7MC/Media Browser at some point. I'd hope they add this feature, but I think it's less likely that they make SlimHD work with MKV containers. 7MC plays the MPG files natively just like the MKV in the meantime.

Quote:


Regarding Blu Ray rips I was a fan of mkvs but now prefer just to throw into .ts container using Clown_BD (http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2009...0-65-released/) as it allows me to keep the TrueHD/DTS-MA (MakeMKV just extracts the core). However, unless you have a dedicated audio card like the Xonar you can't bitstream DTS-MA/TrueHD from Windows anyhow.

I'm actually experimenting with ClownBD right now by remuxing into different formats and seeing if I can get bitstreaming to work in any of them. So far only remuxing to a BD folder structure has worked. I do have a Xonar as well.
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post #20 of 20
9/19/09 at 11:10am
Quote:
Originally Posted by rwpritchett View Post

OP,

You can also pgc.net. This is a simple program that rips program chains and outputs them as a single vob file. Size is not an issue as I have used the program to convert entire movies to a single vob >2GB.

Each episode is its own program chain and pgc.net will pull them out even if they are within the same title.

I've been completely unable to get that to work, I point it to a folder with a DVD structure (hit the scan button and browse) and then it does nothing.
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