Tutorial

This tutorial has been written so anyone can understand the method of ripping DVD to VCD compliant .MPGs Which you can then burn to VCD format using Adaptec EZ CD Creator, VideoPack 4 or any other VCD creation program, and is for educational purposes only. IT IS ILLEGAL TO MAKE COPIES OF DVD MOVIES - I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR ACTIONS AS A RESULT OF READING THIS PAGE, OR FOR ANY RESULTS OCCURING FROM THE USE OF THIS TUTORIAL OR THE PROGRAMS FOUND HERE.

The files you will need are here (8 meg) or grab the individual files:-
iFilmEdit
Panasonic Premiere Plugin
Xing Encoder
DVD2MPEG
This page has some large graphics you can grab a zip file with the whole thing here (141k) Some things to bear in mind You will need a lot of HDD space. You will need a lot of time depending on your hardware. Results may vary, but this is what works for me.
If something doesn't work right, try experimenting a little. You need to make sure you have the Microsoft Directshow filters installed from here (enduser.exe)
So far I have not been very successful ripping Region 2 DVDs, This is probably because of the region settings of my MPEG card and the Operating System
Installation of Software All Serial Numbers (if required) are included in the .nfo files in each package Unzip the Complete DVD rip.zip package into a spare directory - You will end up with 2 files:- DVD2MPEG_10.zip and IFilm MPEG Editor V1.4.zip
Unzip the first one and you will see 3 further files DVD2MPEG Squeezer 1.0.exe Panasonic Premiere Plug-In 2.01.zip Xing MPEG Encoder 2.20.zip.
Install the DVD2MPEG package first - Next install the Panasonic Premiere plugin. Make sure when asked, that you install this in the SAME directory as you installed DVD2MPEG in. Now install the Xing MPEG Encoder anywhere (you can just install the encoder and shared files, but go ahead if you want to install the player as well). Now would also be a good time to install IFilmEdit as well. If you like to keep things tidy like me, then make a Program Group called "Ripping" or something similar and copy all the new items into it:-
Your first run (Demuxing) DVD2MPEG will have created a Program Group for you, locate this and take a look at what you have got inside there. First you will need to register the Encoder, this is simply a matter of clicking the "Enable Encoder" option, a DOS box will popup and 2 confirmation boxes will appear, click OK on both of them and then close the DOS box. Now launch DVD2MPEG Squeezer, you will see the program box appear: Stick a DVD into your drive and click on "File" - Select the first option "Select Graph": If you are ripping a Region 1 disk choose NTSC, or choose PAL if you are ripping a Region 2 Disk - Click OK. Next Click "File" again and choose the second option "Select Output" - Edit the Paths here to reflect where you wish to store the split video and audio files, then click OK:- NOTE :- Bear in mind that you will need about 1.5 - 2 gigs of free space for the 2 files you are going to create in this step, you will need a similar amount when you come to joining them later. Click "Options" on the menu bar and "Capture Settings" - Another window will popup :- Click the video format (use the same one you chose earlier in "Select Graph") - You now need to calculate the number of frames to grab, this really is not that hard. For NTSC disks the rate is about 1800 frames per minute of film and for PAL, 1500 per minute, just multiply by the length of the DVD (almost always stated on the box or the disk itself) - There is no need to change anything else in this box - Click OK. If you are a little short of disk space you may just want to rip half the film first, make a mpg file and then delete the .mpv and .mpa files, so saving space, and rip the other half later. - You can do this by calculating the length of half the film and do the math to come up with the number of frames you need to rip. A little later on in this tutorial you will learn to use the navigation controls of DVD2MPG to find the point where you left off, and then rip from that point to the end of the film Now click on "Playback" on the menu bar and choose "Build graph and Mpeg settings" - You will now get a player window popup (probably MS active movie) - If you have done everything right the film will start to play without sound, also the picture may be scrambled or upside down, THIS IS NORMAL- If you just get a black playback box, see the the paragraph below this. - When you see the film start to play hit the OK button on the popup box. Now you will get the Plugin settings box - Change the stream format to PAL or NTSC VCD (has to be the same as the graph you selected previously), then just click OK and another popup window will appear telling you that there was a problem with the audio output stream, ignore this and click OK again. Despite this error, you will still end up with the correct files on your HDD. If you just get a black Active Movie Window, then you may have made an error - You may have forgotten to enable the decoder or do not have the MS Directshow Filters installed, also you may well get this if you are trying to rip a DVD that is not for your Region Code. After you click the OK popup, you may get an error message telling you what the problem is, read it carefully, it should give you a clue to what you have done wrong. There may be other reasons for this error, but please do not mail me for help on this. I have tried to be as thorough as I can in this tutorial - If the particular error is not covered here then I have not come across it. Try to be sure that you have covered all possibilities first, and if all else fails - Experiment. You should now be left with just the DVD2MPEG Squeezer box on the screen - Click "Playback" from the menubar and click "Play" - A player widow will popup - Depending on the film, It may play until it reaches the menu screen and stop or it may play direct into the film itself - If it goes to the menu screen, go to the "playback" in the menubar and click "Jump To" - A box will pop up - Change the chapter number to 1 and hit OK, the film will now play (no sound is heard - this is normal) Or play around with the controls in this option until you reach the point you wish to start capturing from. If you only ripped half the film as outlined earlier, use this to navigate to the point where you want to start ripping from. When you see the film playing correctly hit Ctrl + C to start the capture. There are some instances where you may get the Parental Lock appear in the play window - This is solved by opening the "Special" from the menubar and changing the "Viewing level" to Adult or something and then change the chapter number. You can stop the capture at any time by pressing Ctrl + C. The film will continue to play until it reaches the end, or the number of frames you set has been reached. (This will take a LOT of time, on my system it takes 9 hours per hour of film - Best do it overnight, and even then it may not be finished) Checking for Synchronisation After you close DVD2MPEG, take a look in the directory you set in the path for capture settings - You should see 2 files:- Default.mpa - The Audio Default.mpv - The Video Before you go any further you need to disable the encoder, use the link in the DVD2MPEG program group and click OK on the 2 boxes and close the DOS window. Now you can use Xing MPEG Player to open each file and check the length of each - They should be within a few (10) seconds of each other. If they are then proceed to the next step, if not then you did something wrong and will need to do it again. Joining the files (ReMuxing) Now fire up the Xing Encoder, choose "new job" and in the window that pops up, choose the Video CD category and either NTSC or PAL as required. The information in the right hand half of this window shows the properties of the output stream NOT the requirements of the input stream. Click "Next" set the files in their relative sections and specify the output path and filename- Leave the Stream Type as "System":- Hit the "Encode now" button and sit back and wait till its all joined (May take an hour or so). Close the program. OK, lets sum up - On your drive you will have 3 Files a .mpa a .mpv and a .mpg - If you did everything right then you only need the .mpg from now on - NOTE, lets check the validity of the .mpg file. Two steps are involved. First, open the .mpg in Xing MPEG Player or any other suitable player, scroll through it in steps and check the Audio/Video synch (make sure the lips match up to the sound etc) do this until you reach the end of the film. If this ok then we need to check the file is White Book compatible (VCD Compliant). We do this by trying to add the .mpg to Adaptec Video CD Creator. I do not intend to go into that in full detail here - If you have been creating VCDs then you will know how to do this and will already have the software. Suffice to say, that if EZ CD Creator accepts the file, then we can delete the .mpa and .mpv files and proceed to the next step. (There is no reason for the file NOT to be VCD compliant). Chopping the MPG into CD sized Files. This is the only program I have found that will output correctly formatted VCD compliant parts of a larger file. Others recommend Jiao VCD Cutter to do this. But if you use Jiao you will generate a none White book compatable .mpg file OK open up IFilmEdit. Click "File" "Open" and find the .mpg file and click OK - A thumbnail will appear in the footage window (forget about the fact that the thumbnail is not one from the beginning of the film) - Drag the thumbnail to the Player window and you will see the first frame from the .mpg (may be black if you started the capture on a black screen) you can play the movie (with sound) by pressing the "Play" button, but make sure you return to the beginning of the film when you are done. Click the "Mark In" button once - Now move the pointer to about halfway along the bar, play the film from here and try and find a good cut point, such as a change of scene or a non critical part in the film, try to set this point at somewhere between 1 hour and 1 hour 10 minutes (you can make it smaller if you wish, but bear in mind we are trying to fit the whole thing on 2 VCDs) - Once you have the pointer where you want it, click the "Mark Out" button - The portion you have selected is represented by the coloured bar where the pointer is located. Right, this bit is important - Go to "Preferences" on the menubar - Check that "Recorder Mode" is set for "MPEG System" and that "VideoCD Mode" is set for "VideoCD". Also while you are here set the "Temp Dir" to somewhere you have about 1.5 gig free (Ideally where you deleted the .mpa and .mpv from). Now we need to record the first .mpg portion - You do this by hitting the Red button on the recorder window, a progress box will popup showing you the process. When this is completed you will need to save the file in .mpg format. - Hit the "Make Movie" button and set the save path and filename and hit OK - The only sign you will see of the process running is the HDD light and the eggtimer on screen - Still paying attention? I hope so cos this bit is also important. After the first file is done don't touch the pointer on the bar. The pointer should still be at the cut point - Hit the "Mark in" button again to mark where the 2nd file will start, and then move the pointer to the end of the bar and hit "Mark out" - You should see the coloured portion change to show the area you just marked. If not then move the pointer back and Mark it in again and mark it out again. - hit the "Close" button ON THE RECORDER WINDOW ONLY - Once again hit the red button on the Recorder window and the 2nd clip will record blah blah blah - Hit "make Movie" blah blah blah. The result of all the above is 2 CD sized .mpg files that are VCD compliant and ready to be used with Adaptec Video CD Creator or any other VCD creation software you wish to use. I wish you all good luck with your DVD ripping, and I hope this little tutorial will help you on your way Many thanks to the regulars of #PCDVD on Efnet, especially Robshot, Nomad, tOm[hA] & + whos FAQs on DVD Ripping helped me out and prompted me to write this.

Tillbaks