Where do I start? About 2-3 weeks ago I got my first DVD writer an LG GSA-4120B. I went to my friend who showed me how to copy a dvd with these three programs:- DVD Decrypter, DVD2One and Pinacle Instant CD-DVD. I copied my first film that day! I have done one more copy since then. A friend asked me if I could do a copy of this film for him, so seeing this as a challenge I agreed this is when the problems started. Ripping the files was straight forward compressing them with DVD2one was a different story the progress bar got to 66% and then booted up a fault that said an error had occured and the program had to close, b******s I thought! To this day I am still trying to not let this DVD beat me. I came back to this forum with my first message for help and read what others had wrote. Okay I will try DVD Shrink followed the guides but became stuck. Even with the initial compression the file was still to big for a DVD-R. Its not worth taking off the extras because it didn't make much of a dent in the file size and as far as the audio tracks go well there was only the one anyway, there also are no subtitles to get rid of. I read the rest of the guide and thought okay I will select manual compression and adjust the whole film that way. The slider is as far to the left as possible even if I try to type in a percentage nothing. Right I will try and copy the file to my hard drive as it was just slightly compressed and then select this file and compress it again. The file got compressed alright after over 6 hours! I looked at the compressed file and the quality was pretty crap so to compress this file again well seemed pointless. Back to the forum I go to swatt up again! DVD Rebuilder, hmmm! I will give that a shot I followed the guide to the letter but when I start off the program the progress bar gets to the end and just as it is ready to encode it just hangs there nothing I left the program running all night before I realised this problem. Back to square one, I feel like me head is going to explode with all these ideas and different programs to use. I thought the only way I can get round this problem is to buy a dual layered DVD-R and record on that problem solved, or so I thought I went to PC World today just to get an idea of the cost. They wanted £12 just for one DVD-R, Jesus I thought, what if I made a mistake at that price it could be costly. I think that the only option for me is to copy the film onto 2 DVD-R's or to admit defeat. All I can think of is that film and how can I copy it! I am strating to think that the film itself although it is an original is not that good a quality so no matter what peice of software I use the end result may probably not be any good anyway. Is there not one piece of software that you can say there it is this is all I need to copy DVD's if so what is it or do I need lots of different ones and if so what are they. I would like to sort out whatever problem I am having with DVD Rebuilder and CCE. Firstly how do you know which one to choosed CCE SP 2.50, 2.66, 2.67, Basic, QuEnc or Rejig, christ whats the difference. I don't know maybe I am out of my depth with this program. One last point to make one of my friends went to a car boot sale where someone was selling copied DVD's. I have seen these copies and there pretty good, now these DVD's have 3 films on them. How the bloodey hell do they manage that the total playing time is around 5 and a half hours including one 5.1 sound track and a simple menu selection screen. I am racking my brains thinking well if they can do this with three films how is it I can not with just one with a playing time of just under 4 hours. I know I am going on a bit but I am a little p***** off, the next hundred films will probably copy okay but I just don't want to be beaten. I am sitting at my computer now hoping that someone out there will be able to help me and have a few of the answers that I need. I am willing to purchase some new software If it will do the job but obviously money is the issue I cannot afford a lot! It looks as though I will already have to buy a piece of software just to enable me to play any region of DVD that I want seeing that my DVD has locked me out now. I am currently using a trial version of DVD Region + CSS from DVDidle.com. I can't think of any more questions at the moment but I would appreciate any help that you can give me because I am at my wits end. Thankyou for anyone that has taken the time to endure my novel and whining! Regards Homerson
WOW......... The fault you suggested 'program had to close' suggests the operating system caused that and not necessarily Dvd2one. And the fact that you were receiving oddball lockups suggest a possible machine related issue.... What system specs are you operating with - CPU/RAM etc? What operating system is it? Were you multitasking at the time? What is the dvd you are trying to do? The easiest way I find using Dvd Decrypter (I only retain the movie and audio (no menu and extras) is to use FILE mode and have it select the movie files only (usually 1 IFO, 4/5/6 VOBS, 1 BUP) Then you know your PC will be doing minimal removal/compression, when it comes to processing..... Then usually run it through Dvd2one - set it as user defined 4400Mb, select the main title and audio, select angle 1 and let it go and do it's thing...... For a straight forward guide on dvd decrypter movie only goto http://www.chrismccann.co.uk If you can post your machine specs, we can go on from there.......
Did you use Reauthor mode in dvd shrink? In reathor mode it's possible to keep just the main movie and edit the start and end points. I just recently did Braveheart which is 2hrs and 57 min long. After chopping off the intro and the end credits, I was able to get compression above the 80% mark. Did you run deep analysis with shrink when you ripped? Deep analysis really boosts the quality of the video image under compression. Hope this helps.
Homerson I have seen your specs in the other thread you posted (contents should be placed in this one soon). I have to be honest here (others MAY disagree), I think you may be pushing your machine a little hard with what you have, especially using XP aswell. What RAM is it - SDRAM PC133 or DDR ? More memory may improve things a little, as I do not think it is the programs you are using that are the problem. XP uses a hell of a lot of resources especially from a memory point of view. Do you have a seperate Graphics card or is it on board? But personally I think an addition of more memory would be the first way to go, at least another 128Mb min. (if you are using PC133). Other than that it maybe worthwhile considering a CPU upgrade aswell (easy to say I know), but there are limits to what your machine at present can cope with.
Thank you for the advice! I didn't try just backing up the movie or removing the credits because I wanted to use that as a last resort. I have just had a look at the files because they still remain ripped on my hard drive the menus and the extras only amount to 160MB the movie itself is 5284MB and 3:39:24 long. With the initial compression and not taking into account the menus and extras I still need to loose 951MB to fit the film onto one DVD-R disk. For some reason I am not able to select Deep analysis when backing up the film. My argument is how do the people that sell these copies at car boot sales get 5 and a half hours on one disk with a half decent quality.
To Baabaa You are right my ram is SDRAM PC133, my graphics is a GeForce FX 5600 Ultra. As far as upgrading goes I could add an extra 128MB of ram but that is the limit for my motherboard and as for the processor well I am better off replacing the whole motherboard, processor and memory. I have had some success with copying DVD's ie. The Rug Rats Movie and Missing. But maybe you are right maybe this film is just out of my computers reach. What would you recomend is the minimum system requirements needed for copying DVD's and what software would you say you need in your arsenal. Regards Homerson
Dude,you most defenetly need more ram (512MB would be nice) the minumum ram needed for win xp to run is 128MB and thats just for the OS.Now running any other ripping or trancodeing software will eat up whater free ram you have left and 128MB is not that much to work with.
Try Newegg.com here is a link with some prices. http://www.newegg.com/app/manufact.asp?catalog=147&DEPA=1 in the keyword box type PC133 and hit search. enjoy. _X_X_X_X_X_[small]Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.[/small]
That disc will definatly fit on one DVD using Shrink. Your system is pushing the limits a little but you should be fine (I have done backups on a P3 600mhz 256mb ram machine) What else is running on your system? For this old of a system shut down EVERYTHING that isn't needed including your Antivirus program. Use deep analysis AND the enhanced setting on sharp. It will take a long time to do this movie with your system like this but the quality will be good. The particular movie doesn't matter if you were able to back up another movie you will be fine. If you are really worried about quality you could put this movie on two disc using Shrink and have no compression at all. It will fit on two discs with space to spare but one will work also. Good luck and let me know how it goes
Yes michigan what operating system were you using when you did that (I would be surprised if it was XP)? Go on then shock me and say that it was............. Homerson. Hmmmmm, if your motherboard only supports a max of 384Mb SDRAM PC133, then that is your limit. That would be the cheapiest/easiest option to start off with to see of you obtain any improvements. The problem nowadays with costs reducing, throwing money at old equipment becomes very uneconomical - I would say you could probably get a 1GHz CPU in your motherboard (you would need to check that in the manual) and it would be maxed out aswell. So if you, lets say maxed out your motherboard: 1GHz CPU 384Mb SDRAM PC133 This may get you by, and would probably cost you £40/£60(UK). However if you wanted to look into rendering/re-encoding etc, then an upgrade to a M/B that supports DDR PC2100 min would be the best way to go, and an obvious CPU upgrade (maybe 1.5GHz) to accompany it. Problem is lots of people (as michigan stated) have had success with low spec machines, and PC architecture is not an art - some things work well, some don't - but it is best to give them decent tools to try with........... With dvd's you have a massive increase in data transfer rate compared to that of cd's an increase of ten fold in most cases per second - so you can imagine the RAM and CPU being an integral part of the process. Now when it comes to compressing, it is a similar process (alot of info being transmitted/then crunched up and writing to a new location per second. I do not want to give you a spec, you go and follow that spec and find out it doesn't work...........I can only give you (in my opinion is a ball park to look at). Suggest: Motherboard with intel chipset/400FSB/PC2100 to PC2700 min. etc CPU AMD XP2000+ (overclockable), or Celeron 1.5Ghz, or P4 2Ghz - with suitable FSB compatibilty for the M/B. PC2100 DDR - 256Mb min. XP Home or PRO (NTFS not FAT32) Seperate AGP graphics adapter 64Mb min. The above is what I would consider to be suitable for dvd backups and re-encoding. Obviously down to costs, this may not be feasible - but with XP, I think you would be nicely set......... Hope this helps............... Just for the record my specs are as follows: M/B SIS648FX-A for P4 800FSB P4 2.4Ghz - Hyperthread 800FSB 1Gb DDR400 PC3200 FX5200 256Mb DDR Graphics card running at 4x 80Gb Maxtor 7200rpm Hard drive (NTFS) 160Gb Maxtor 7200rpm Hard drive (NTFS) LG Dvdrom Pioneer 108 Dual format/Dual Layer burner Windows Home Edition SP2 Dvd backup programs: Dvd Decrypter 3.1.9.0 Dvd2one 1.2.1 Recordnow Deluxe Suite 7.2 Pinnacle 8 for rendering/re-encoding People will say that I use older versions but these work flawlessly for what I intend them for..................... _X_X_X_X_X_[small]Beware of the Pixies - they move in over night and turn your life upside down [/small]
Thank you all for your help and advice I think the best bet at the moment is to maybe take the easy option as far as the film is concerned and copy it onto 2 DVD-R's, well for now anyway. I do deffantly want to upgrade my computer at some point maybe this will be sooner rather than later. Anyway I will let you all know how I get on and one last time thank you! Regards Homerson
Any time. Actually it will be interesting to know how you get on with the split to 2 dvd's...........keep us posted..... BTW...........[bold]WELCOME TO AFTERDAWN[/bold]
