Endless Paradigm

Been converting a few DVDs manually recently, so I thought I'd just write up this guide for reference's sake.  Also, because RonJon wanted me to write one up :P

Why manually rip a DVD?

• Gives you the most options
  
• If there are problems - it allows you to easily identify what problems there are
  
• Probably the only way to get _everything_ off a DVD.
  

In this guide, I'll be converting Fruits Basket Vol.3 to MKV, saving all audio tracks, subtitles and chapters.
Take note that this isn't really a "newbie guide to ripping DVDs".

Tools needed
Note that all tools mentioned here are completely free, with the exception of Goldwave.

• DVDDecrypter
  
• DGIndex (aka DGMPGDec)
  
• MKVMergeGUI (aka MKVToolnix)
  
• Avisynth
  
• TomsMoComp AVS plugin (really optional, but I highly recommend it)
  
• Goldwave (this application isn't technically free, but trial lasts a long time; you may use another sound editor if you wish - I primarily use this one because of it's ability to open files via DirectShow)
  
• x264 command-line app or MeGUI (make sure you get the x264.exe file [Download rev680] or the MeGUI package)

Tools that you _may_ need:

• DVD Fab Decrypter (if DVDDecrypter doesn't work)
  
• FreeDVD (if the DVD has extra copy protection)
  
• Daemon Tools (if you have an ISO)
  
• VobSub (if you want to rip subs to subpicture format)
  
• SubRip (if you want to rip subs to a text format)
  
• K-Lite Codec Pack (if you don't already have a decent codec pack installed)
  
• azid (if you don't use Goldwave)
  
• oggenc2 or Nero's AAC encoder (for various situations)

Installation
This guide will assume you have the above installed.  Additionally, you'll need to copy the DGDecode.dll file, which can be found in the DGIndex installation folder, into the plugins folder under the Avisynth installation directory.  You will also need to copy TomsMoComp.dll file into the Avisynth plugin folder as well, if you plan to use TomsMoComp (recommended).

Note that this process may take up quite a bit of HDD space, depending on what you do.


Okay, to start:

Ripping the DVD
First, most DVDs have copy protection.  Obviously these need to be stripped.  Usually DVDDecrypter works fine - just pop the DVD in the drive, then go Mode menu » ISO » Read and dump the DVD as an ISO.  Note that you may wish to skip this step, if DVDDecrypter can decrypt the DVD without issues, and rip the DVD in IFO mode (see following section).
DVDDecrypter may not always work, so you can try DVD Fab Decrypter instead, and then use FreeDVD on top of that.

Ripping the video
Anyways, now that you should have an ISO of the DVD (or if you skipped the above step, just rip straight from the DVD), wee'll need to rip the main PGC out.  If you're dealing with an ISO, load Daemon Tools and mount the ISO.  Next open DVDDecrypter, select the appropriate DVD drive from the list, and go Mode » IFO (don't start ripping yet).
Okay, so now you're in IFO mode - select the PGC (or VOBs) which contains the main video.  Usually, DVDDecrypter should have selected the main PGC for you.  If there are multiple video angles, you can choose whether to keep both angles, or just rip one.  In my Fruits Basket DVD, there's two angles, but since the only difference between the two are just some text, I'm only gonna be bothered to rip one angle.
If you are not sure whether you have selected the correct PGC, just leave it on whatever DVDDecrypter selected.  You can double-check by looking at the length.

In the above screenshot, 02:48:01 (2 hours, 48 minutes, 1 second) seems right.
Anyways, now just rip DVD in IFO mode.  This process usually takes 2-40 minutes depending on various factors.


Demuxing
Now that you have a series of VOB files on your harddrive (if you got DVDDecrypter to dump as one large VOB file, rather than split into 1GB chunks, that's fine as well), open DGIndex, and add all the VOB files to DGIndex (make sure the order is right).
Now, go Audio » Output method » Demux All Tracks, then go File » Save Project.
Save the D2V file anywhere - note that you'll need around 250MB per AC3 track or about 750MB per DTS track that you rip.  This process typically takes around 2-15 minutes.

After DGIndex does its stuff, you should have a .d2v file, and some .ac3 or .dts files - the latter is the extracted audio streams.


Subtitles
If you wish to get the subs, you have two options - either store them as subpictures or as text.  DVDs store subtitles as subpictures, so this will be the easier option.  Text will be, usually, a lot more problematic and may cause some loss of formatting etc, but saves a lot of space at the end, and are a lot more flexible.

Splitting (optional)
If you have an anime DVD like mine, and you want the video to be separated into episodes rather than one long video chunk, you'll need to do this.

No Splitting
This step only applies if you chose not to split the video in the above step.

Open Notepad, and copy the following into a new file:

MPEG2Source("InputVideo.d2v")         # video input
KillAudio                             # wee don't want audio
TomsMoComp(0,5,1)                     # deinterlace video
ConvertToYV12                         # convert to format which x264 can handle

Replace InputVideo.d2v with your d2v file obtained from DGIndex.  If you aren't using TomsMoComp, remove the appropriate line from the above.
Now save the file as convV.avs in the same folder as your d2v file.  This will be the AVS script for video.


Converting Video
You should now have AVS file(s).  You can now choose between using MeGUI or converting through the command-line with x264.  If you choose MeGUI, add the AVS file as the video input, then select the appropriate options and convert the video.  I personally don't like MeGUI so I'll be converting with the command-line instead.  Continue reading for instructions on how to convert using the command-line.
Open Notepad and copy the following:

x264 -q 20 -A all --me umh --subme 6 --ref 3 --mixed-refs --direct auto --b-pyramid --b-rdo --bime --sar 16:15 --thread-input --progress -o FB.mkv Video01.avs

I've highlighted the parts that you'll need to focus on.  I'll explain them here.

• -q 20
  This option controls the quality of the outputted video.  This value ranges from 0 (highest quality) to 51 (very bad quality).  Generally a value of 16-20 gives very high quality video, suitable for DVD backups.  For average quality, 24-26 should do.
  
• --sar 16:15
  This controls the aspect ratio (AR) of each pixel.  My source video happens to have a resolution of 720x576 (AR by dimensions = 5:4) but the actual video's AR is 4:3.  So ⁵/₄ × ¹⁶/₁₅ = ⁴/₃  « that's where the "16:15" comes from.
  You'll probably need to change this depending on the resolution and the final AR you want.
  
• -o FB.mkv
  Specifies the output video file.  Although it carries a .mkv extension, this will not be the final MKV file.  In the above, ]FB.mkv is the output file.
  
• Video01.avs
  The input AVS file obtained above.

Obviously, there are many more x264 command-line parameters.  If you're interested, a quick Google search will bring up details on them, so I won't explain them here.
Save this as conv.bat in the same folder containing everything.  Now copy x264.exe into the same folder as well.
Finally, run conv.bat  This will start the video convertion process and will probably take hours.


Converting Audio
This step will depend partially on what you've done above.
If you have 5.1 audio, well... I don't, so I won't be covering conversion of it yet.  For now, you can easily just mux the AC3/DTS streams into the final MKV without conversion anyway.  In fact, this is done fairly often in practice, it seems.  If you do want to convert it, I suggest converting to 6 channel HE-AAC.  This should be easy to do with MeGUI.

Now, for stereo audio:
Now, open up Goldwave.  If you have .mka files at this point, open them in Goldwave.  If you don't, open up the .ac3 or .dts file(s) in Goldwave.
Now wait for it to do it's thing, then go File » Save As.  In the Save as type listbox, select Ogg (*.ogg), and for the Attributes listbox, select the one with "48000Hz 0.4q stereo" in it.  Note that the "q" number determines the quality.  A higher "q" means higher quality.  Generally 0.4q produces CD transparent audio.
Now just save the file.  This process will take some time.

Repeat this for each audio track you want.


Multiplexing
This is where you join up all your converted stuff into a single MKV file.
Open up MkvMergeGUI.  Add you converted video file (should be in a .mkv file) and then your audio files (if you converted in the above step, they'll be .ogg, if not, they'll be .ac3 or .dts).  Next, if you have any subtitles, just add them in.
At this point, you may wish to set the languages of your audio streams (just select the audio stream to change, and select the language from the listbox below), video streams and subtitle streams.
After all that, if you decided to keep chapter info, click the Global tab, and add the chapter file (.txt) in the appropriate location.
Finally, make sure you go File » Set output file to choose where you want to save the final MKV file, before going Muxing » Start muxing.

The muxing operation should only take a few seconds to a few minutes.  After it's done, open up the MKV to make sure it's exactly what you wanted.  If you split the video, you'll have to repeat this for every MKV you want in the end.

So now you've successfully ripped and converted your DVD :) (hopefully)

WoW thanks Z man

(i wonder how many people read that to the end....)

The manual way gives the most control over the output ^.^, if u know what your doing.

I use a mix of this and MeGUI.

ZiNgA BuRgA Wrote:Ripping the DVD
[image]First, most DVDs have copy protection.  Obviously these need to be stripped.  Usually DVDDecrypter works fine - just pop the DVD in the drive, then go Mode menu » ISO » Read and dump the DVD as an ISO.  Note that you may wish to skip this step, if DVDDecrypter can decrypt the DVD without issues, and rip the DVD in IFO mode (see following section).
DVDDecrypter may not always work, so you can try DVD Fab Decrypter instead, and then use FreeDVD on top of that.

I always just rip straight to IFO, and that never had problems yet.

ZiNgA BuRgA Wrote:Splitting (optional)
If you have an anime DVD like mine, and you want the video to be separated into episodes rather than one long video chunk, you'll need to do this.
...

U can always rip episode by episode by selecting neccesary chapters for the single episode when ripping in IFO mode, and repeat for every other episode.

Oh well, the tool's probably easier.

ZiNgA BuRgA Wrote:Next, wee'll need to look at the AVS template textbox.  For video, I'll use the following template:

MPEG2Source("InputVideo.d2v")         # video input
KillAudio                             # wee don't want audio
Trim({s},{e})                         # trim length of the video to the correct episode
TomsMoComp(0,5,1)                     # deinterlace video
ConvertToYV12                         # convert to format which x264 can handle

Replace InputVideo.d2v with the name of the d2v file obtained from DGIndex.  If you aren't using TomsMoComp, remove the appropriate line from the above.

If your using TomsMoComp, the output dimensions must be multiples of 4. May need to take that into mind when deciding how much to crop the sides of the video, well, doesn't look like you're cropping, so u won't run into that problem.

Although most have ugly black boarders, and sometimes colour distortions on the boarders, and IMO probably need cropping.

ZiNgA BuRgA Wrote:Ripping as text

Open SubRip.  Go File » Open VOBs.  Click Open IFO and select the IFO file obtained from DVDDecrypter.  In the Action section, choose SubPictures to Text via OCR.
...

And then add your own stuff to the srt file, like your name in the credits :mdr:. That's how the anime fansub groups stick their names  in. Although they do a lot of touchup, and typesetting and stuff too to get what u see. I never bothered to learn typesetting, more effort than it's worth.

Excellent guide ZiNgA :great:

:D

Thanks Zinga! I'll take a read now.

Assassinator Wrote:I always just rip straight to IFO, and that never had problems yet.

Some more recent releases' copy protection can seem to trick DVDDecrypter unfortunately...  I really like that app

Assassinator Wrote:U can always rip episode by episode by selecting neccesary chapters for the single episode when ripping in IFO mode, and repeat for every other episode.

I actually have never tried that... >_>

Assassinator Wrote:If your using TomsMoComp, the output dimensions must be multiples of 4. May need to take that into mind when deciding how much to crop the sides of the video, well, doesn't look like you're cropping, so u won't run into that problem.

Although most have ugly black boarders, and sometimes colour distortions on the boarders, and IMO probably need cropping.

Hmm, commercial DVDs typically don't put black borders around the video.  I'm presuming you're ripping from a professionally authored DVD.
Hehe, I've seen some pirated DVDs which use MPEG-1 streams >_>

Assassinator Wrote:And then add your own stuff to the srt file, like your name in the credits :mdr:. That's how the anime fansub groups stick their names  in. Although they do a lot of touchup, and typesetting and stuff too to get what u see. I never bothered to learn typesetting, more effort than it's worth.

Ahh, typesetting.  Not too hard actually.
I've used it a few times for those karaoke subs.  Takes a while to synch everything, but after that, generally programs like Aegisub can automatically do typesetting for you, once you give it a template.
I kinda find it enjoyable :)

nice guide.

nice

oh wow, thank you very much

damn i dint read the whole guide