Part IV - Subtitles
0) If you find yourself with more .SUP files than there are listed in the language menu of your DVD, it's likely there are forced subtitles or separate titles for widescreen and letterboxed display.
If that is the case, load DVDSubEdit. Select File (menu)/Open full domain.
Navigate to your PAL DVD’s directory and select the first VOB of the titleset you want to examine. In my example it’s VTS1 so I open VS_01_1.VOB (don’t select any that end in “0”, those are menus). Click Open.
Once the program has scanned the entire titleset, go to the 'Subpic selection' drop down box (where it says "All Streams"), and select the individual streams one at a time and take a look at the preview.
(You may need to move the slider under the preview window back and forth (the left/right arrow keys work too).)
The preview window will resize in response to the subtitle's corresponding video format. That is, if the window is square with the image letterboxed, that sub stream is for letterboxed. If it shows a 16x9 screen, those subs are for wide.
You'll remux the subpictures back in order later, so the only thing you need to worry about is wide versus letterboxed.
The stream name in the 'Subpic selection' box shows you the track's StreamID and WS or LB.
It's a good idea to rename your ripped subs to keep this straight. For example:
0x20(en)WS is English Wide
0x21(en)LB is English Letterboxed
0x22(en)WS is English (SDH) Wide
0x23(en)LB is English (SDH) Letterboxed
Rename as follows:
Subpictures_20.SUP => Subpictures_20 WS.SUP
Subpictures_21.SUP => Subpictures_21 LB.SUP
Subpictures_22.SUP => Subpictures_22 WS.SUP
Subpictures_23.SUP => Subpictures_23 LB.SUP
Close DVDSubEdit and DON'T SAVE ANYTHING.
1) For each of your subtitle tracks, you will need to make a copy of the original .IFO to that titleset and rename it to match your .SUP file.
For example, if VTS1 has 4 subtitle tracks, you will need to copy VTS_01_0.IFO four times.
So continuing with the above example.
Subpictures_20 WS.SUP
Subpictures_21 LB.SUP
Subpictures_22 WS.SUP
Subpictures_23 LB.SUP
Will need four copies of VTS_01_0.IFO named:
Subpictures_20 WS.IFO
Subpictures_21 LB.IFO
Subpictures_22 WS.IFO
Subpictures_23 LB.IFO
WARNING: A PROBLEM WITH BDSUP2SUB CAUSING JITTERING HAS BEEN FOUND. THIS PORTION OF THE GUIDE NEEDS REWORKING. IN THE MEAN TIME IF YOU TRY THIS METHOD, TEST PLAYBACK ON THE DEVICE YOU WILL BE WATCHING YOUR DVD ON.
2) Open BDSup2Sub. Select File/Load and navigate to your working directory.
Open your first IFO file that you need to edit. (Do not open the SUP file or you will receive an error.)
'Conversion Options' will appear after the titles are loaded.
Check the box for 'Convert Resolution' and select 'NTSC (720x48)'.
If this video is Case #1 you will also need to check 'Change frame rate' and select 'FPS Source' as '25' and 'FPS Target' as '23.976'.
Click 'Ok'.
3) The top window will show you the original subtitles. The bottom window the resized version.
If you don't like your preview, you can change the resizing filter. If you're not sure what looks best, I recommend 'Bilinear'. It produces titles about as sharp as Lanczos3, but without the inherent ringing that can remove detail and make the top/bottoms look squashed.
Just open the drop down box at the top and select the one you like.
Make sure that at the top 'Palette' is set to 'keep existing'.
4) When you're ready, make sure the 'Output Format' at the top is set to 'SUP/IFO', and select File/Save.
BDSup2Sub will automatically use the same director and add 'exp' to the file name.
Just click the 'Save' button.
5) Repeat for all your subtitles for all your VTSs and PGCs.
BDSup2Sub will remember your last settings between files. After getting the first titles how you like it, all you have to do is 'Load', click 'Ok' to the 'Conversion Options', and then 'Save/Export'.
When you are done you can delete all the Subpictures...IFO files. They serve no purpose from here on out.
Part V - Chapters
1) Open your first PGC's Celltimes.txt file in Notepad.
2) All those numbers now need to be corrected.
Case 1 needs to be multiplied by 1.25. This can be done manually or using this XL spreadsheet: http://www.mediafire.com/?jogaymnnywe
All other cases need to be multiplied by 1.1988. Here is a spreadsheet for that: http://www.mediafire.com/?hqnnm1nenzy
Copy and paste the list of cell times into the left column. Copy the new cell times from the right column.
Paste these into a new text file and save it. (I like to call them 'Celltimes_NTSC.txt' to avoid confusion.)
Part VI – Menus
NuMenu4u was developed for re-encoding menus of DVDs before good quality single-program options were available for DVD9 to DVD5 conversion. It was used in conjunction with other software to semi-manually re-encode and rebuild DVDs.
Unfortunately it is unsupported and disappearing into oblivion. The basic free edition requires commercial authoring package Scenarist. The full registered VIP version supports the free/cheap Muxman.
This guide assumes you have the registered version.
0) NuMenu4u can be a bit overwhelming at first. Here is a good guide for configuring it properly: http://www.doom9.org/mpg/big3-preperation.htm#NuMenu4u
You’ll need to point NuMenu4u to your video encoder, audio encoder, and authoring software. For the rest you can probably get away with the default settings, and let the wizard configure everything for you.
1) Open NuMenu4u. Click Wizard (menu).
Check “Convert Format (PAL -> NTSC / NTSC -> PAL)”, and “Use Muxman for authoring instead of Scenarist”.
Select the drive of your mounted image and click Next. In theory NuMenu4u can work with a ripped folder, but I’ve never been able to successfully accomplish that.
Click the disc icon and select an output directory for the converted menus. Click Next.
Select a preferred Language and click Next.
The Minimum Menu Size to Process option is unimportant since all menus will be re-encoded. Just click Next.
Select your preferred video encoder. You have lots of options. Cinema Craft Encoder 2.70 SP works fine. Click Next.
If you want you can click the “Show Advanced Encoder Settings” and tweak some options. I like to use One Pass VBR with the Q set to 10, but you have plenty of options to choose from.
Click Next, then “Press to Start Processing”.
It will beep, flash, open and close loads of windows and programs and generally go nuts. Go get a drink or something because you won’t be able to do much else with your PC while this is going on.
When it’s finished it will close itself and you’ll hopefully (among other things) have a VIDEO_TS folder in the directory you indicated. Feel free to delete everything except the VIDEO_TS folder.
Part VII – Rebuild (finally)
0) The next step is to mux the audio, video and subs for each pgc. Create some folders. You will need one for each asset. I like to keep things neat like this:
Conversion\Mux\VTS1
Conversion\Mux\VTS2_PGC1
Conversion\Mux\VTS2_PGC2
1) Load MuxMan.
Under Video, click ‘browse’ and locate your recoded video file.
The “Video Multi-File Manager” will open. Just click the “Close” button at the bottom right.
Under Audio, click ‘browse’ and locate your recoded audio file.
The “Video Multi-File Manager” will open. Just click the “Close” button at the bottom right. You can set the Language and Extension, but these will be replaced later when you rebuild the disc.
If you re-encoded your audio or there was no delay, leave the 'Delay' box blank at 0. Otherwise, enter the number in ms.
If you have more audio streams to add, click the up arrow by “Stream:”. You can then browse for your next file. Repeat as needed, adding your tracks in numerical order.
Under SubPictures, click ‘browse’ and locate your recoded SUP file (those are the ones that end in 'exp').
The “Video Multi-File Manager” will open. Just click the “Close” button at the bottom right. Again you can set the Language and Extension, but it’s not necessary.
If you have separate widescreen and letterboxed subpictures, make sure to click the "LB" or "Wide" that corresponds to each track (which you should have renamed with LB or WS to keep straight).
Otherwise, if you video is widescreen, click the “LB” and “Wide” buttons.
If you have more subtitle streams to add, click the up arrow by “Stream:”. You can then browse for your next file. Repeat as needed, adding your tracks in numerical order.
For example:
If your subtitles are...
Subpictures_20 WS_exp.SUP
Subpictures_21 LB_exp.SUP
Subpictures_22 WS_exp.SUP
Subpictures_23 LB_exp.SUP
Stream 1 will be 'Subpictures_20 WS_exp.SUP' and the 'Wide' button selected.
Stream 2 will be 'Subpictures_21 LB_exp.SUP' and the 'LB' button selected.
Stream 3 will be 'Subpictures_22 WS_exp.SUP' and the 'Wide' button selected.
Stream 4 will be 'Subpictures_23 LB_exp.SUP' and the 'LB' button selected.
MuxMan's track list will show...
Track 1: W 20 LB 21
Track 2: W 22 LB 23
If you got it wrong, you'll probably see a red warning.
For the Audio and SubPictures don't worry about the 'Language' or 'Extension' boxes. That information will be copied from the original DVD when you rebuild.
Click File (menu)/Import Chapter. Browse and select your retimed cell time list.
Browse and select the correct output folder, and click “Start”.
Note: If your last cell is right at the end of your movie (used for chapter skipping to the end), you will receive an error saying "reference to non-existent scene". That’s because the final chapter is too small. This is why we do not let PgcDexmux read the last chapter during ripping.
If you still get this error, open your cell times file and subtract 30 from the final number. This will make the last chapter a little more than a second and fix the error.
2) Repeat muxing with MuxMan for all the PGCs you’ve re-encoded.
3) Open VobBlanker.
Under “Input Video Manager (VIDEO_TS.IFO)” click Browse and locate your NuMenu4u authored files. Click down to VIDEO_TS and select the VIDEO_TS.IFO file. Click Open.
You will get an error. That’s fine because there aren’t any video files yet. Just click OK.
Under “Output Folder” click Browse. The folder you select will be the final DVD unless you make further optional changes. You'll want it to be a VIDEO_TS folder:
NTSC_Movie\VIDEO_TS
Under the TitleSet list, you will see that each of the VTS’s list the Video Format as PAL 720x576.
For each of these you will Right-Click and select “Video Attrib”.
This will open the Video Attributes settings. Where it says “Standard”, click the NTSC button. Click OK to close the attributes window. It will ask if you’re sure, click Yes.
Repeat for all VTS's.
Now click the first VTS (VTS_01_*.VOB) in the TitleSet list. You will see a list of PGCs in the bottom window.
Click the first PGC in the list “PGCs in Selected TitleSet”. Click the Replace button to the right.
Navigate to the corresponding MuxMan’ed folder, and select the VTS_01_0.IFO in that folder. Click Open.
If you’ve converted the video from letterboxed to anamorphic wide, or changed the number of audio channels or type, you will receive a dialog asking if you want to correct the IFO. Click Yes.
Repeat this process for each PGC in each titleset.
For any PGC’s you’ve decided to get rid of, instead of clicking "Replace", click the “Blank” button.
You will notice at the top a box that says Size(MB). This will give you your final DVD size.
A DVD5 can hold up to 4482mb and a DVD9 can hold about 8144mb.
If the number seems too small or too large, you'll want to go back and resize some assets.
It's a good idea to be about 20mb below the maximum if possible.
At about 5% undersized you may want to consider re-encoding the main movie with a higher bitrate.
If your DVD is less than 5% oversized, using DVD Shrink on it as a last step will have a negligible impact on quality. Any more and I’d strongly recommend stripping something or re-encoding some assets at a lower bitrate.
Once you’ve either replaced or blanked every PGC, click “PROCESS!!” and wait.
Close and quit VobBlanker.
Part VIII - Final Tweaks (Optional)
DVDRemake Pro http://www.dimadsoft.com/dvdremakepro/index.php
This is a really nice program that lets you change just about anything about a DVD.
If you have a menu that’s not in English (or the language you want), you can save a still image of it, change the text then reimport it. (If the menu was originally animated, it won't be any more, but at least you'll be able to read it.)
You can also completely hide buttons that are no longer useful so people don’t try to select content that you stripped.
Other considerations:
Your original DVD may contain PC, DVD_ROM or JACKET_P content.
Feel free to copy any or all of this to your new disc.
JACKET_P is cover art used by some players. There will be three files in the folder, a small, medium and large resolution video file that contain a still picture. These need to be converted to NTSC as well.
This guide should help you get started: http://forum.videohelp.com/topic232001.html
Appendix A: DTS to DTS Conversion
While I won’t go into the full details, KpeX at the Doom9 forums wrote a nice FAQ on DTS audio. http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=424069#post424069
3. How can I transcode a DTS file?
Azidts http://www.doom9.org/software2.htm#audio can be used to transcode DTS with BeSweet (Note that you'll need WinDVD Platinum installed) or with one of the BeSweet GUIs (eg. OggMachine). The Hypercube Transcoder http://hypercube.is.dreaming.org/ supports DTS transcoding as well. One could also use DTSdec (assuming a large amount of HD space) to decode to wav and then encode to any desired format.
Recent versions of foobar2000 http://www.foobar2000.org/support DTS playback and transcoding to any of fb2k's many output formats. Thanks to Kurtnoise there is an easy guide on transcoding DTS with fb2k http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&postid=566664#post566664 to a variety of formats.
4. Is it possible to encode DTS with BeSweet?
Yes, but you'll also need Surcode CD/DVD Pro, which encodes DTS. Please see Q32 of the Besweet FAQ. http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=15738
I've found Hypercube to be a great program for converting DTS to WAV. The website has been down for awhile, but you can still find the program here: http://www.videohelp.com/tools/Hypercube_Transcoder
An important step in transcoding DTS is that the channels tend to be in a different order and you need to remap like this (if I recall correctly):
FL -> FL
FR -> C
C -> FR
LFE -> SL
SL -> SR
SR -> LFE
If you want to re-encode back to DTS after applying slow down in BeSweet, SurCode for DTS is the only program I know of that encodes DTS and it's $100 for a single purpose encoder. You may be better off using Dolby Digital at 640kbps.
Appendix B: Audio Commentaries and Dubbed Films
Sometimes audio dubs (for non-English films) and commentary tracks are recorded while watching the film with speed-up.
As a result the film should be slowed, but the audio track in question needs to be time stretched without slowing it.
Example 1:
Movie with a PAL region created commentary track:
Track 1 = Main movie soundtrack with speedup.
Track 2 = audio commentary without speedup.
Track 1 should be slowed as described in the full guide.
Track 2 time expansion with pitch correction is needed (see details below).
Example 2:
Foreign language film. (This can be found with some Japanese anime): Track 1 = Original non-English language track with speedup.
Track 2 = PAL country's English dub.
Track 1 should be slowed as in the main guide.
Track 2 should be time expanded.
If you aren't particularly worried about the foreign language soundtrack being pitch perfect, or you're going to strip the non-English track, you can treat the movie as a Case #2 by encoding the video at 25 fps and adding 25 to 29.97 pulldown flags. The speed up in the non-English track will still be present, but the dub track is copied untouched.
To time expand:
While decoding from AC3 to WAV in BeLight, click on the "Advanced Settings".
Before we used the 'Convert Frame Rate' SoundTouch settings. Make sure it is UNchecked.
Check the box that says "Tempo" and enter: -4.096
Click Ok.
Your command line should now look like:
BeSweet.exe -core( -input CommentaryPAL.wav -output CommentaryNTSC.wav -2ch -logfile Commentary.log ) -azid( -c none ) -soundtouch( -tempo -4.096 )
If you find any errors (technical, grammatical...), have any suggestions or run into any problems, please let me know. I'd like this guide to be as complete and accurate as possible.
PLEASE DO NOT CROSS POST THIS ANYWHERE ELSE. IT IS AN OT FORUMS EXCLUSIVE.