[SOLVED] DVD9 to DVD5 guide

Corrected some typos in the commands and made some explanation clearer on november 18:


I have read many guides on how to this in Linux and decided that I would create my own keeping it as simple for newbies as it can be.

This guide lets you rip a DVD (just the main movie) and burn it on a DVD-R (4.7) that will play on your standalone player.

It is mainly command line, but fear not. It's easy.

One precision before we start. When I say in the guide open a console. I mean go in whatever file manager you use and open the console from the folder you want to work in.
You could also just ' cd ' to it manually. Also you can just copy and paste my commands.

Tools needed: DVD:Rip / dvdauhtor / transcode / mjpegtools / k3b

Optional: Kavi2svcd /QDVDAuthor or DVDStyler

1) Rip the DVD title(s) to harddisk with DVD:RIP in a project folder. This will create VOB files of the chosen title in that folder containing the movie and the soundtrack you picked.


2) Most of the time you will get around 5 or 6 numbered VOB's from a ripped title in your project folder.

Concatenate (merge) those VOB files into one by running in a console:

cat *.vob > movie.vob


3) You now have 1 VOB file. We need to demutliplex it and get the M2V and AC3 files out of there. From the folder, again using the console run:

tcextract -i movie.vob -t vob -x mpeg2 > movie.m2v

and after that:

tcextract -i movie.vob -a 0 -x ac3 -t vob > movie.ac3

This will produce a movie.M2V and a movie.AC3 file.

4) To requantize (shrink like DVDShrink on Windoze) your movie so it will fit on a single DVD-R (4.7) do as such:

tcrequant -i movie.m2v -o shrinked.m2v -f 1.5

This will produce a file called "shrinked.m2v"

The 1.5 at the end is the shrink factor if you like. 1 keeps the movie the same (just a reference) and 2.0 would reduce it to 50% of its size. So 1.5 seems reasonable as it equals 75% of the original size once processed.

If you prefer you can calculate the exact factor yourself with this formula:

requant_factor = (video_size / (4700000000 - audio_size)) * 1.04

Personnaly I often get a value around 1.30 for a normal 2 hours movie.

1.04 is a value used to leave overhead space for menus and chapters

If you are including more that one audio stream or a subtitle stream, those file sizes must also be subtracted from the maximum dvd image size.

All sizes are in bits.


5) Now we need to re multiplex those 2 files into a compliant DVDauthor file:

mplex -f 8 -o final.mpg shrinked.m2v movie.ac3

This will produce a file named: "final.mpg".

Note: mplex will detect if a pulldown is necessary and do it.


6) You can now add the file "final.mpg" to QDVDAuthor or Klvemkdvd authoring programs and create your DVD or use dvdauthor from the command line as such:

dvddirgen -o newdvd (create a dvd structure in a folder named newdvd)

- Populate de filesystem like so:

dvdauthor -o newdvd final.mpg

- Create DVD information (IFO) files:

dvdauthor -o newdvd -T


7)Burn the Video_TS and Audio_TS created with K3B DVD Video mode.



Happy authoring!

Steel_J

Very cool! I had no idea it was so easy to do this kind of thing in Linux. My only DVD burner at the moment is on my wife's Windows-only machine, but this nugget of knowledge may come in handy the next time she decides to switch to Linux. DVD-shrink is one of the most useful Windows DVD tools I've ever seen. Pretty cool to know I can write a quick bash script or GUI to do the same thing. Nice work!

Well, hehe! It look's easy enough when you read it.

Believe me though it took me many hours of testing over and over just to make it
simple and effective. Few! But I m glad I did.

I get from your post that you seem knowlegeable in the art of bash srcipting. I am a very advance computer user but my OS expertise is on Windows and
I did quite a bit of shell scripting in the past. Although I recently migrated for good to Linux , my scripting know how in this environnment is limited.

Now on with my question: Could you write a little start script modeled on my guide, just to push me in the right direction to create one. It would certainly give me a visual representation of how bash script look structure wise.

If you don't have the time, just pointers, rules of thumb or a good reference Web site for bash scripting.

I would really love to automate all of this and right now the Linux community is in great need of video processing automation, I am sure you know.

Anything would be appreciated

Steel_J

Have you thought about writing a Linux Tutorial about this?

I just posted a tutorial on external drives this week and it got approved in the tutorial hardware section.

I don't want to seem pompous or anything by posting another tutorial right now.

It may sound stupid but after a few years of preparation (running a dual boot and later a second machine on a home network) to migrate from Windows to Linux and finally doing it last week, I feel kind of new and green.

Even if I am an experienced computer user in general and even if Linux and I get along a lot more than I tought possible I don't want be barging in and kicking down doors, hahahaha! Especially in a big forum like this with users who have been posting for years to teach what they know.

Look at me with my 17 posts and you for example with your 5000+, even if you are moderating.

I will tell you that I do stand by this guide having tested it myself manytimes over so I would not be ashamed to submit it as tutorial.

I will look into polishing a bit and make it more complete and in a few days I will submit it.

Thank you.

Post count means little - it just shows that (apart from the moderating duties) I have too much time on my hands

Look forward to seeing the tutorial.

Right you are!

I clicked your link on: How to Ask Questions the Smart Way

Haven't laught so hard in a long time. It's so true and so educational in a hilarious way at the same time. Fell off my damn chair!

Wonderfuly written anyhow.

Thank's a lot.

Originally posted by Steel_J Well, hehe! It look's easy enough when you read it. Believe me though it took me many hours of testing over and over just to make it simple and effective. Few! But I m glad I did.

That is exactly how I started out on my tovid script for converting video - lots of headaches, trial-and-error, reading manpages - before finally getting a basic routine down. And there's nothing like a bash script for remembering how to do that basic routine! I learned scripting along the way, too.

Now on with my question: Could you write a little start script modeled on my guide, just to push me in the right direction to create one. It would certainly give me a visual representation of how bash script look structure wise. If you don't have the time, just pointers, rules of thumb or a good reference Web site for bash scripting.

One resource I refer to all the time is the Advanced Bash Scripting Guide. Despite its name, it really provides a good intro into scripting, with plenty more to learn once you get going. Really, all that you need to put in a bash script is word-for-word all of the commands you normally use to accomplish some task in the shell. That guide will help you learn how to use arguments, conditional statements and stuff to make your script more flexible, able to take user input, and such. That's really all there is to it!

I would really love to automate all of this and right now the Linux community is in great need of video processing automation, I am sure you know.

I definitely agree. In fact, I have been considering growing my little script into a small suite of useful video-processing utilities. Would you be willing to work with me in developing your script into a tool that I could include in that suite? It'll be released as GPL, so the rest of the community can benefit from your discoveries.

For sure I would be very happy to participate and help you in any way I can.

Although, you must remember that, yes I am very computer literate, I have some experience with scripting in general and even have a bit of familiarities with some programming language, BUT I am no programmer.

I fiddled around with Delphi on Windows and I intend to learn C++ on Linux. I have all the books and references but It takes time. I m sure you know.

Now all of this aside. I am a fast learner, a great troubleshooter and I have good searching skills to find most anything on the Net. I have done a lot of audio/ video processing and editing as a hobby for many years now and I am pretty good at it.

I never collaborated on a open source project but it sounds like a damn good time to get me started.

What needs to be done? Give me some guru guidance here

I know for one thing I will take initiative right away and go read your TOVID script again (I looked it over in the past). Then I'll jump over to that advance scripting guide you referred to me and familiarize myself.

Are you looking to build a GUI interface for your script? Something a bit like KAVI2SVCD. With tabs for different modules? My only limited experience with GUI is with Winbatch Studio on Win32 and AutoIt.

What is for certain is that I want to turn this guide into a working Bash script. If you need it as a module for your open source application your are welcome to use it. Anything to help the needs of the community.

If you have tasks for me , ask away!

Originally posted by Steel_J Now all of this aside. I am a fast learner, a great troubleshooter and I have good searching skills to find most anything on the Net. I have done a lot of audio/ video processing and editing as a hobby for many years now and I am pretty good at it.

Great, then you likely have more experience with video processing than I do. Until our household got a DVD burner a few months ago, I had barely any notion of codecs, frame rates, encoding formats... I've had to learn all that along the way. I don't think every Linux user who wants to make DVDs should have to learn all the junk I have learned, which is partly why I made my script (and probably also why you wrote your guide). Naturally I would welcome your help and knowledge on the subject.

What needs to be done? Give me some guru guidance here

You're on the right track with reviewing the existing documentation. If you'd like to become part of the tovid project (an extremely informal commitment, of course), hop on over to the tovid thread so we can discuss things there, rather than cluttering your thread with tovid-related discussion.

Are you looking to build a GUI interface for your script? Something a bit like KAVI2SVCD. With tabs for different modules?

I've made a basic wxPython interface for the script, but haven't done any testing or debugging on it. I like wxPython because it's interpreted (meaning the only thing I need to distribute is a plain-text file) and can create a fairly nice GUI. It's not the top priority, but I definitely want to develop it further, especially once tovid becomes a suite of different utilities, rather than a simple video converter. I think the GUI could tie all the scripts together in a very cohesive way, while still allowing command-line usage for those who prefer it.

Anyhow, check out the tovid discussion - I will post some plans and ideas there.

I have heard good things about it and of course its portability is a main advantage.

Now video editing , that I know. So If you got questions go right ahead. I will monitor the Tovid thread from now on.

In the mean time also, I will work on a script for my guide and post results. Also I have a few other command line procedures I created for video up my sleeves that could become handy later on.

Moving over to the Tovid thread now... I will read all of the posts to get the picture. I am glad it is extremely informal, hahahaha! I got so much to do, and I have to go to work once in a while.

OK I think I found what I want to do but does this support DVD MENUS?

I see that there is a script that will do that already that can be found here

http://lakedaemon.netmindz.net/dvd9to5 <--- Only Supports Main moive

but I want to basically be able to make a complete DVD backup like CloneDVD with AnyDVD.

Will this do that?

I haven't tried this out, but it appears to be a procedure for making an identical copy of a DVD (just at lower quality). So I would venture to say yes, you would keep all the menus that are on the original DVD.

That is what Linux is in great need of actually.

We will get there soon. Many are researching and develloping the suject, including myself.

All my findings will be posted so be patient.

I Followd you directions and everything worked out fine dvd works in most dvd players but the only problem i have is the movie is to wide for any tvs i try them in they look fine on xine & mplayer but if i try them in just a regular dvd player i am missing like 3 inches on each side of the movie left & right