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How To: Rip, Encode and Combine Using Fairmount & DTOX

Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 9:50 pm
by Cavalicious
How To: Rip & Encode

What’s Needed:

VLC Media Player
Fairmount
DVD2OneX
HandBrake

Steps:

1. Install VLC, DTOX, Handbrake and Fairmount (there is no need to install DVDRemaster that comes with the package)

2. I personally, set Fairmount to open when a DVD is inserted. One of the cool things about this is if the DVD doesn’t have CSS then the DVD will mount as normal. To do this, all you need to do is go to System Preferences, then CDs & DVDs and choose Fairmount like so:

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If you choose not to do this, that’s fine, just open Fairmount and then insert the DVD.

3. You should see something like Cream Cheese being spread across a Bagel.

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Once Fairmount completes, you should see a window similar to this:

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This shows you that Fairmount has mounted the DVD.

4. Now open up DTOX and click on the middle button (Movie Only);

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5. Then, when asked, click on the Fairmount mounted volume in the Finder drop-down and click choose:

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Now DTOX will attempt to read the Fairmount volume as if it was an real DVD. This can take some time. Once complete, DTOX will show the “DVD” contents where you can choose the Title, Audio, SubTitles and Cells:

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Note: If you go into the preferences menu of DTOX, you can pre-select your requirements (i.e. AC3 audio, English Subtitles, etc.) These will be remembered and automatically used for future reads.

Note 2: Be sure to click on "Settings" and change the DTOX settings for "Double layer output (DVD-RW(DL))", to avoid compression.

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6. Once you choose you Title (typically the first longest), Audio and SubTitle that you prefer, then click on Cells and check for any Zero(0) Duration and/or Size:

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As you see above, this particular movie doesn’t have any Zero cells. But, as you see in the pic below, some movies do. In this case all you have to do is uncheck the cells in questions:

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7. Once you have cleaned-up all Zero cells, just click on the Green Button at the bottom right-hand corner.

A drop-down will show up asking about Output Type. Just be sure to choose File Set:

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Then DTOX will ask you where you want to save the File Set folder:

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Once you click on Choose, you should see a Progress Bar indicating DTOX is now processing your Movie Title:

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8. Once complete, all you have to do is feed HandBrake the newly encoded folder and encode as normal.

fin...


How To: Combine

*Warning…Solution may be too advanced for the casual user. Please refrain from asking “How Do I” questions about 3rd party software on this forum. They have their own respective forums that can facilitate those questions.

Since eddyg added the “No Audio” fix (Thanks), now one should have no problem merging those movies that span 2 DVDs (i.e Pearl Harbor (Two-Disc 60th Anniversary Commemorative Edition)).

That said, previously you would have had to run both DVDs through HB and combine the encoded files with 3rd party software like Quicktime (and wait a year to finish)…all Post-encode. If you were encoding using CQ or CRF, its possible that you would end up with 2 different files with different bit rates, along with other issues.

This will be a Mac base solution as that is what I work with.

Software needed:

  • Fairmount (or ripper of choice)
    DVD2OneX
    HandBrake 0.9.0 and above


DVD Used:

The Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring (Platinum Series Special Extended Edition) -NTSC

Solution:
  • 1. Use the procedure above to create (2)two Movie Only (file set) folders.
    3. Make sure to pick the appropriate Title, Audio Track, etc.
    4. In most cases, you may want to delete the last cell of the 1st DVD and the first cell of the 2nd DVD (if respective cells are like 2 – 5secs). This is normally a black screen or such.
    5. Once the 2 Movie Only folders are created by dtox, you can (if need be) delete the original folders.
    6. Now you want to open the first folder with dtox using the middle button again.
    7. Then, click on the double plus button (++), and pick the second folder.
    8. Hit the Green button and you should now have 1(one) folder with the combined 1st and 2nd DVD.
    9. At this point (if need be) you can delete the previous (separate DVD) folders.
    10. Now take the newly created folder and run it through HandBrake with you favorite settings!
Keep under consideration…Your “favorite settings” could very well create a file larger that 4GB. Which will entail other settings in HB to be turned on.

In my case, I use a 65% CRF for all 3 Platinum Series Special Extended Edition DVDs of LOTRs and love the quality I gotten. All of my files came in under 4GB except the 3rd set (Return of the king). It was 4.01GB, but still worked perfect with my AppleTV.

Happy Encoding!

~FB

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2007 1:35 am
by Tonyt
I've had success combining 2 dvd's with MPEG Streamclip (v1.9b3)
I load the 2 handbrake converted files into MPEG Streamclip and then "Save As" a .mov file (If I "Save As" mp4, the file is saved w/o sound).

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2007 5:38 pm
by baggss
I may have to try this, thanks Cavalicious....

Concerning the 4Gb file size, I though 0.9.0 eliminated those issues.

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2007 5:50 pm
by Cavalicious
baggss wrote:I may have to try this, thanks Cavalicious....

Concerning the 4Gb file size, I though 0.9.0 eliminated those issues.
You can go over 4GB but you must use the 64-bit option (which will make it incompatible with the AppleTV.

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2007 6:10 pm
by baggss
Cavalicious wrote:
baggss wrote:I may have to try this, thanks Cavalicious....

Concerning the 4Gb file size, I though 0.9.0 eliminated those issues.
You can go over 4GB but you must use the 64-bit option (which will make it incompatible with the AppleTV.
Not worried about ATV, what about the iPod?

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2007 6:17 pm
by dynaflash
Cavalicious wrote:
baggss wrote:I may have to try this, thanks Cavalicious....

Concerning the 4Gb file size, I though 0.9.0 eliminated those issues.
You can go over 4GB but you must use the 64-bit option (which will make it incompatible with the AppleTV.
Um, I think an iTunes update fixed that, didnt it ? I thought it was that iTunes wouldnt stream over 4gb, but it was fixed a rev or two ago.

Will test it out tonight.

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2007 6:55 pm
by Cavalicious
dynaflash wrote:Um, I think an iTunes update fixed that, didnt it ? I thought it was that iTunes wouldnt stream over 4gb, but it was fixed a rev or two ago.

Will test it out tonight.
According to the AppleTV forum, it's still a limitation. funny thing is, someone was trying to do the LOTR, got a 4.6gb file and iTunes refused on import...

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jsp ... 5&#5069115

Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2007 1:17 am
by Tonyt
Seems like its a lot easier to just load the 2 handbrake converted files into MPEG Streamclip and then "Save As" 1 .mov file.

Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2007 2:31 pm
by Cavalicious
Tonyt wrote:Seems like its a lot easier to just load the 2 handbrake converted files into MPEG Streamclip and then "Save As" 1 .mov file.
That said, previously you would have had to run both DVDs through HB and combine the encoded files with 3rd party software like Quicktime (and wait a year to finish)…all Post-encode. If you were encoding using CQ or CRF, its possible that you would end up with 2 different files with different bit rates, along with other issues.

Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2007 1:25 am
by baggss
I just encountered something interesting.

The movie I chose was Dr Zhivago. Disc one ripped fine with MTR, but disc 2 was ARccOS protected. I could rip it in full disc mode, but DTOX wouldn't do anything to it afterwards and would simply lock up. If I tried to do a Main Feature only extraction, MTR could only find junk on the DVD, all zero cells, no main feature.

For grins, I tried to run it thorough HB 0.9.0, which read the disc and them promptly, and consistently, crashed when I clicked start.

Now, this was one for the first DVDs I ripped when I stared with HB, and didn't recall having any issues with then. So I fired up HB 0.7.1 and sure enough, it would rip it just fine, no issues. I let it run about 5 min and then stopped it.

Any idea why?

BTW, I'm going to switch discs and try this again with another movie.

Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2007 3:55 am
by Cavalicious
Hmm...ARccOS isn't normally a difficult task for MTR. But I do believe some things are just plain...unexplainable.

Case and point - I was working on the DVD The Score for days, and I've tried every combination of MTR and DTOX that I could muster. I would either have a 50sec last chapter (suppose to be 9min 20sec) or I would get read errors with HB (during last chapter). I finally said the hell with it, and just let HB do its thing to the DVD natively. Sure enough, it encoded fine.

PTS, audio sync, and Video trashing error during the encode, but came out perfect.

Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2007 4:12 am
by robjohn
Cavalicious wrote: 1. Run both DVDs through MTR using Full Disk Extraction only!
2. Run both folders (one at a time) through dtox using the Movie Only function (Middle Button).
3. Make sure to pick the appropriate Title, Audio Track, etc.
4. In most cases, you may want to delete the last cell of the 1st DVD and the first cell of the 2nd DVD (if respective cells are like 2 – 5secs). This is normally a black screen or such.
5. Once the 2 Movie Only folders are created by dtox, you can (if need be) delete the MTR folders.
6. Now you want to open the first folder with dtox using the middle button again.
7. Then, click on the double plus button (++), and pick the second folder.
8. Hit the Green button and you should now have 1(one) folder with the combined 1st and 2nd DVD.
Why run the MTR folders through DTOX separately and then join the resulting folders? What does that do that joining the MTR folders with DTOX does not?

Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2007 1:48 pm
by Cavalicious
robjohn wrote:Why run the MTR folders through DTOX separately and then join the resulting folders? What does that do that joining the MTR folders with DTOX does not?
The point is to combine 2 Movie Only folders and not 2 full DVDs. The Mastering of the folders is cleaner this way.

Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 9:33 pm
by Bear Hunter
Nice write-up. Have you had any luck using VLC to convert anything? I haven't

Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 9:40 pm
by cvk_b
Great Job! Nice tip about setting System Prefs to Open the DVD with Fairmount– hadn't thought of that.

Cell Q's:

Q1: Should I uncheck cells that have a duration and no size?
Q2: What about size with no duration?

Sometimes they aren't both zero. I've always wondered about that.

Thanks for the write-up.

cvk_b

Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 9:51 pm
by Bear Hunter
Me too...but I think the answer is yes on both counts

Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 9:56 pm
by Cavalicious
Bear Hunter wrote:Nice write-up. Have you had any luck using VLC to convert anything? I haven't
sr55 and I talked about that. VLC themselves don't recommend that you use it to transcode. Quality just isn't there.

Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 9:57 pm
by Cavalicious
Bear Hunter wrote:Me too...but I think the answer is yes on both counts
You are correct...

A Zero in either field is a useless cell.

Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 9:59 pm
by cvk_b
Cavalicious wrote:
Bear Hunter wrote:Me too...but I think the answer is yes on both counts
You are correct...

A Zero in either field is a useless cell.
Thanks for the clarification.

Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 10:37 pm
by jbrjake
cbud wrote:Can we make a sticky about Handbrake not seeing all valid titles on a DVD.

It is a common problem and 9 out of 10 times it can be fixed using DVDOneX in movie only mode.

Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2007 2:00 pm
by Feynman
Does anyone know if either FairMount or DVD2oneX2 store any invisible files of what you are copying anywhere on the Desktop (or any other locations on the computer for that matter)?

MacTheRipper stores an invisible file and I use KillTheRipper to get rid of them.

Free-er

Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2007 9:48 pm
by golias
So, are there any free products out there that do the job DVD2one does?

In a perfect world, backing up any media source would be something so simple that the functionality would be built in to the OS. I donated (once) to MTR, but in general I detest the idea of paying extra money to a commercial developper simply to be able to back up files I already own.

Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2007 11:15 pm
by baggss
It's s ad that we have to resort to using 2 pieces of software, one of them not cheap, to replace what use to be one of the best open-source projects on the Mac.

Ah-Well.

Nice Write-up!

Posted: Sun Nov 04, 2007 3:31 pm
by dynaflash
baggss wrote:to replace what use to be one of the best open-source projects on the Mac.
Hate to say it, but mtr was never open source. It was free once upon a time, but the source code has never been released afaik.

Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2007 1:44 pm
by dynaflash
Oh, and *very* nice tutorial on the process Cav :)