Topic: DVD file structure question(ish)

[daveeb]

Hope this is in the right place guys.  anyway i'm taking music video files recorded onto a panasonic dvd recorder and copying the entire disc to my hard drive. my aim is to have a video jukebox which i can play with powerdvd (this already works). what i also want to do is pick and mix the tracks and burn my favourites to dvd using the pc(when i get a burner that is  ). each track is a seperate TITLE and has its own associated vob file, ifo file and bup file. My questions are

1. which files are needed for the burning software e.g. Nero to burn a successful dvd and will i need any other software.

2. I need to rename all the vob/ifo/bup files to reflect the title of the track they represent, will this affect the playing of the vob files.

3. i notice that there is a video_ts (vob) file for each title but there is also an un-numbered video_ts file that is much smaller than the rest. what is this file for (e.g. does it represent the thumnails in the top menu) and is it required, bearing in mind this file comes off a dvd of specific files (and there will be files from lots of other discs as well) and my aim is to mix them up.

Thanks for any help.

[Simon]

Well, I hope someone can help you with this Dave, as it would certainly be an interesting project.  

My one comment would be, yes you could probably use Nero, providing the files are not copy protected.  If that were the case, then you might need some sort of DVD Decrypter, which you could probably find on Google.  

[daveeb]

The discs aren't copy protected as i burned them on a dvd recorder from home recorded video cassettes.  My problem is i don't really know how much of the file structure (if any) that e.g. nero will build for me from the raw video files or how much i need to provide (from the source discs)  

[Sandra]

Looks like you need all the IFO and BUP files that correspond to each VOB file Dave.
Not sure how renaming them would affect them.
Theres a tutorial here that may help a little  


http://www.dvdshrink.info/nero-video.php

[Dack]

video_ts.ifo is the file that is first read by the DVD player. This contains the information on where the files are located and also the control information for the disc.

*.vob is the video object i.e. the track of data

(You also get *.bup as well which is the backup of the *.ifo)

To create a favourite choices disc you are going to need to make a video_ts.ifo file that contains all the information on the tracks you've included.

This means DVD authoring

You are going to need to author a disc using one of the dvd authoring packages. Most packages these days allow you to extract files/vobs off other discs.

[daveeb]

thanks all.  dack would you have any recommendations for a basic authoring package.  nothing fancy i just want to be able to reconstruct a working dvd from other "bits"  

[daveeb]

thanks for that tutorial sandra.  looks like its going to be the video_ts.ifo & .bup files that are going to cause me problems in my master plan
as i presume they refer to the entire contents of the dvd they came from whereas i'm just cherry picking certain titles from different dvd's.  it'll probably become clearer when i actually buy a burner  

[Sandra]

I should think that the smaller VOB that you have probably carries the menu part of your recorded DVD Dave.
I believe nero 6 has its own built in DVD authoring built in as well for backing up non copyrighted DVDs and it even has a "Shrink to fit" which looked quite easy to use if backing a 9 gig DVD u to a 4.7 gig one.

Theres a tutorial that may help you for nero 5 here Dave :

http://www.nero.com/en/631939469946227.html

Have a look at the "to create a Video-DVD", its a slow opening PDF if you select view so you are probably better off downloading it  

[daveeb]

Plenty of homework for tonight. thanks sandra  

[Sandra]

Heres some more for you Dave  

http://www.dvd-guides.com/guides.php?category=dvdjoin&name=shrinkmix

I am still looking for the nero 6 article that I read once as I think that would do what you want but its proving to be a little elusive  

[Sandra]

I still dont think that this is the article I saw before but it shows that you can do it with just Nero Recode 2 which is part of Vision Express inside Nero 6  

http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/mpg/recode2.htm


Bet you wished you'd never asked now Dave  

[daveeb]

Much thanks for all the help sandra. i've done some searching myself and everything seems to be geared to burning multiple dvd titles ie compressing them in some way.  i don't want to compress it i'm just intending to fit on as many titles (ie music tracks) to the disc as it will comfortably hold retaining the original quality settings. Still its proving a good learning experience.  

[Dack]

Have a look on http://www.mediachance.com/dvdlab/ It will give you some pointers as to what you want to do. The software is free to download for a 30 day trial too.

I found it a bit buggy at creating menus but if you follow the examples you should be able to get something worked out on your home computer. You do not need a DVD Writer to play the projects you create as you can save the images to the hard drive and play them from there.

Good guides over at www.doom9.org start with the basics and you'll be knocking out masterpieces in no time