Dual Sided Back-Up

[Scooterpig]

Before I get flamed, well I should say if I get flamed - yes I have done a search for over an hour here and there is nothing that I can find that can help me out and what there is here is perhaps a little old now, so here I go..

I have a 2 sided DVD with both sides having menus. I would like to know if it is possible to back both sides up to the 1 dvd with the menus intact. These menus can be all at the start and don't have to be seperated at the half way mark for each disc respectively. Actually I would prefer if they were at the beginning of the disc but not sure if it is possible.

The disc is a TV Show with 2 episodes per side of the disc with the menus allowing for selction of any episode, plus a couple of extras.

I'm not so much worried about the size as obviously it can be shrunk, but I would like to know if this is possible please.

Thank you..

 

[skywalker]

Hi, scooterpig, I have done that with DVD2ONE on a mac, I have both XP and mac, prefer the mac for dvd burning etc.
DVD2ONE is available as a windows program as well.
www.dvd2one.com/

Skywalker

 

[Scooterpig]

Gidday skywalker...yes I also have done it before using DVD2one to copy a movie but it doesn't allow you to save any menus that may be on the B side of the dvd, that's what I was wondering if it was possible to do.

 

[ChickenMan]

I dont believe there is any simple conversion prog that would do what your after as how would you select any of the Eps, each menu only points to 2 and doesnt point to the other menu (there is no button!).

I would rip the menu off Disk one as still image (I use the Camera button with WinDVD) and edit in Paintshop or what ever to include the 2 eps from side 2. You could grab the menu from side 2 and combine the 2, what ever is easiest.

Rip the 4 eps individually to 4 separate folders and encode each separately to 1/4 of a DVDR size (I'd use 1115 in DVD2SVCD). Then just author them all Maestro or DVDLab. That way you get the best quality and original (though modified) menus.

 

[MackemX]

Chickenman's suggestion is probably the easiest but you can also use PGCedit and DVDRemake to do this and keep original menu's. I don't think PGCedit hasd menuediting capabilities so the button thing may be a problem but I do know you can add content to a DVD. The sad thing is you cannot add a visible button to switch so you must use an invisible button if you cannot hijack an original button

I'm busy merging Friends DVD's that have 4 episodes on each into 1 DVD that has 8 episodes and it's going quite well as it's taking me about 5-10 mins to do it. I'm basically just using the same method as in my Star Wars 1 & 2 merging guide HERE

Chickenman, maybe you have an idea on how I could do something I'm trying. Do you know anything that allows you to modify the subpic?. I can extract the pic as a bmp with SubRip and the use DVDAuthor to partially input it back in but it's not exactly what I'm looking for

any clues anyone?

another thing I tried was taking a snapshot of a menu by extracting the image. I extracted the menu cell using VOBEdit and then remuxed the image back in after creating an m2v file from the image. This gave me the menu still but with original button layout and subpicture so I could insert this in using DVDRemake

 

[Scooterpig]

Thanks guys...I didn't think it would be that easy but will have a go and see how I go..

 

[ChickenMan]

I didnt explain, if the menu is an animated one, then that 2 can be extracted off as well and normally hide in the VTS_01_0.VOB file. I use DVD2SAVI to select out the range I want (all the menus are clumped together), then save project. This gives the AC3 audio and an *.d2v file which I rencode with TMPGenc at about 4000 bitrate (this reduces its size down and very acceptable quality). This all takes about 2 min max. But difficult to modify an animated menu to include other buttons (for the disk 2 eps), so either hijack other buttons if available or put an overlay over the top when authoring in Maestro. I tend not to use animated menus when combining 2 dvds as they take up 2 much room thats needed for the Eps/Movies, and still menus are so easy to modify. Just include a short animated intro prior to the Menu and that looks good generally. Use DVD2AVI to get the audio for the stills menus though as I said above.

Mackemx, I've never really worried about the menu button subpics to be honest and almost always use Maestro for all my authoring. It can make anything square or rectangular and any colour you want. You can apply an overlay of the sub pics but I cant be bothered.

 

[Scooterpig]

DANG! I know I'm gunna have to read that a dozen times to figure out what ya have said, but thank you CM....

 

[ChickenMan]

Read the DVD to VCD Tute on how to use DVD2AVI and to encode the *.d2v file. Just load in the appropriate DVD Template, of corse, rather than a VCD one. It will all come very clear when you actually DO it.

 

[MackemX]

thanks for the feedback Chickenman

I try to keep away from Maestro due to it's cost so I'll just live with pinching a button if I can or at worst an invisible button. I hope in time that DVDRemake adds this feature and it has been hinted but I'm still looking for a simple solution anyway to use without it and DVDAuthor has been the closest I've come to it

I did join 2 Friends flippers ages ago and seeing as the menus were stills I scanned part of the cover. I created a menu from that with the 'I'll Be There For You' playing in the background. I'm gonna be happy just joining all the original stuff keeping all menus thought that's if I ever get a dual layer burner

 

[ChickenMan]

That menu above would playback well on a PC or LCD screen but not on a normal TV, the oversan would drop off the bottom line of text and possibly the first few letters of those on the left and the last letter or so on the right. You need a good 10% margin all around to be safe.

 

[MackemX]

I think it's just a cropped pic I've linked to there as everything worked fine on the backup but I do know what you mean. Who knows where that one disc is now though as I've got discs all over the house. I only did the one Friend's disc as I couldn't be bothered to go through the complete series as discs were a little costly back then . I may not even bother with this series as it's cheap enough now anyway to buy them again as to what it was when I bought it