Adding all chapters (in one click) to queue?

[chutzpan]

WHY CAN'T IT BE DONE!?

I don't understand babkes from this CLI, I would only like to add all existing chapters without manually having to add each chapter separately.
I'm trying to do this with a bunch of TV-series DVDs and I seriously don't get why that very feature seems so remote, and how it only seems to be possible using a zillion differnt scripts and all kinds of installation first.

Please, someone help me! I know there are hundreds of other Mac users trying to get their heads around this issue.

[Smithcraft]

What?

SC

[chutzpan]

What?

SC

Clarification: adding every SINGLE chapter (from a DVD) to queue in one command/click without having to do so manually for each and every one.

[GregiBoy]

You don't have to add chapters. Are you talking about "Titles" (Episodes)?

[chutzpan]

You don't have to add chapters. Are you talking about "Titles" (Episodes)?

DVDs usually are divided into scenes/chapters. E.g. in TV series, they are equivalent to episodes. They CAN be added manually each and every one, to the queue. Just that this requires you to select the chapter, write a name for the resp chapter, and add it to the queue.
I wanna rip each and every chapter one by one, but having to go through the hassle of manually selecting every one. (with TV series, this is quite a headache)

[mac_man_ad]

Is what you're getting at that say Title 0 on the dvd contains, hmm, 4 episodes of a TV show. There are chapters corresponding to episodes such that:
T0 C1 = ep 1
T0 C2 = ep 2
T0 C3 = ep 3
T0 C4 = ep 4

Cos if so, ripping these chapters to separate outputs is not automated for many reasons, such as the following. I have Anime dvds where the structure is similar, but each episode has start, middle and end chapters, as well as chapters for OP/ED sequences. Thus for my example DVDs:
T0 C1= ep 1 OP start
T0 C2=ep1 start
T0 C3=ep1 middle
T0 C4=ep1 ED start
T0 C5=ep1 end/ep2 preview
T0 C6=ep2 OP start
...

so, now you know that there are various structures around, explain how HB should know exactly how to split a title into episodes by chapters.

Andrew

[chutzpan]

Is what you're getting at that say Title 0 on the dvd contains, hmm, 4 episodes of a TV show. There are chapters corresponding to episodes such that:
T0 C1 = ep 1
T0 C2 = ep 2
T0 C3 = ep 3
T0 C4 = ep 4

Cos if so, ripping these chapters to separate outputs is not automated for many reasons, such as the following. I have Anime dvds where the structure is similar, but each episode has start, middle and end chapters, as well as chapters for OP/ED sequences. Thus for my example DVDs:
T0 C1= ep 1 OP start
T0 C2=ep1 start
T0 C3=ep1 middle
T0 C4=ep1 ED start
T0 C5=ep1 end/ep2 preview
T0 C6=ep2 OP start
...

so, now you know that there are various structures around, explain how HB should know exactly how to split a title into episodes by chapters.

Andrew

Then, let's just use plain feature films as an example instead. They have scenes, right?
So if I wanna rip 'em all individually, is there nothing I can do except going through the painstaking process of adding them one by one to the queue?

[mac_man_ad]

Correct. Or you could probably cut them into separate files post-encode using mkvmerge or similar. In the case of my anime for example (again), the episodes are very regular lengths ( under a second), and so i could if I so wished (I have in the past) use mkvmerge to split the HB full title encode into 22m33s (or whatever) long output files. it worked ok.
I have not looked into it's ability to chop by chapter, but it may be able to. The only real issue with post-encode chopping is if the chapter marker does not fall in the correct frame type. I'm no expert here, but this can lead to decode issues.

Andrew

[chutzpan]

Correct. Or you could probably cut them into separate files post-encode using mkvmerge or similar. In the case of my anime for example (again), the episodes are very regular lengths ( under a second), and so i could if I so wished (I have in the past) use mkvmerge to split the HB full title encode into 22m33s (or whatever) long output files. it worked ok.
I have not looked into it's ability to chop by chapter, but it may be able to. The only real issue with post-encode chopping is if the chapter marker does not fall in the correct frame type. I'm no expert here, but this can lead to decode issues.

Andrew

Thank you Andrew!

I mean, there's no problem adding chapter by chapter, and they obviously do come up. As I went through the CLI guide (I don't even understand what it is and how to use the CLI), there WAS an option of chapters. Can't it be ran and repeated to the last chapter? Seems like one could but I don't understand how.

/Steph

[mac_man_ad]

You are kinda left with three options here:

1: Encode the full dvd (all episodes) and just label it all Volume 1 or whatever, and use the chapters within whatever media player you use to skip to episodes (This is what I have fallen back on doing, as I am lazy)
2: use the GUI (or CLI if you really want) and just increment the "Chapters x through y" popups and hit "add to queue" for each. sounds like this is what you are doing, and it is kinda just three extra clicks an episode right... (yeah I'm too lazy for this usually as option 1 works for how I watch things, and in my anime example when doing this i got the start and ends wrong too often (slightly less of an issue now that you can edit a queue entry after creating it)).
3: script the CLI. this requires more skill at text manipulation than I have to extract the number of chapters for the longest title from HBs "sanding" output, and then simple looping through and running HB from chapter 1 to n on the longest title. You'll have to wait for someone with more scripting skill than me for this one, or, if you are familiar with the CLI already, google for sed or awk and see if you can come up with something for yourself.

It is annoying, and I hate people who make DVDs in this way (but look closer, just occasionally they also put all episodes on separately, and you may have missed them in the "title" popup), but because of the huge variety of possible layouts out there, the HB devs can't really make a "split to eps for me" feature, and split by chapters only really feels obvious to you because of the way this particular series has been put on dvd (I hate even more those series that differ on each disk of a box set).

I hope you find an acceptable option for your needs, but I feel that you will get no developer interest in such a feature built in to HB.

Andrew

[chutzpan]

You are kinda left with three options here:

1: Encode the full dvd (all episodes) and just label it all Volume 1 or whatever, and use the chapters within whatever media player you use to skip to episodes (This is what I have fallen back on doing, as I am lazy)
2: use the GUI (or CLI if you really want) and just increment the "Chapters x through y" popups and hit "add to queue" for each. sounds like this is what you are doing, and it is kinda just three extra clicks an episode right... (yeah I'm too lazy for this usually as option 1 works for how I watch things, and in my anime example when doing this i got the start and ends wrong too often (slightly less of an issue now that you can edit a queue entry after creating it)).
3: script the CLI. this requires more skill at text manipulation than I have to extract the number of chapters for the longest title from HBs "sanding" output, and then simple looping through and running HB from chapter 1 to n on the longest title. You'll have to wait for someone with more scripting skill than me for this one, or, if you are familiar with the CLI already, google for sed or awk and see if you can come up with something for yourself.

It is annoying, and I hate people who make DVDs in this way (but look closer, just occasionally they also put all episodes on separately, and you may have missed them in the "title" popup), but because of the huge variety of possible layouts out there, the HB devs can't really make a "split to eps for me" feature, and split by chapters only really feels obvious to you because of the way this particular series has been put on dvd (I hate even more those series that differ on each disk of a box set).

I hope you find an acceptable option for your needs, but I feel that you will get no developer interest in such a feature built in to HB.

Andrew

Thanks for taking the time Andrew! I find it quite hard to get ones head around option 3 as I find the CLIGuide nothing but geek-friendly and not for the average Joe wanting to learn how to script. Funny thing, there IS a way to choose chapter 1-1, 2-2 (etc...) using the GUI so why can't this be a simple feature of HB? I mean, other ripping softwares DO have this feature. They're not just that flexible.

[jamiemlaw]

See my answer here.

[chutzpan]

See my answer here.

Thanks for noticing! I justed posted...