[lecher]

This information was culled over a span of the past 5 years, and began when I first began hearing about VCDs and the possibility of digitizing video. My first DVD was authored on a $5K external recorder, and blanks cost roughly $16/each. Yes, I've been tinkering with video THAT LONG. I've read every tutorial and run numerous tests myself, and so I am now handing you what cost me months of time and thousands of dollars. Use the information well.

1.) "Ripping" a DVD
If all you want to do is copy a DVD, the safest and most foolproof method is NOT to use DVD Ripper, DVD Shrink or any other program which processes a file. It's so easy it's mindnumbing; use WIndows Explorer (or the Mac/Linux alternative). Yes, simply copy the VIDEO_TS folder off your DVD and onto your local hard drive by doing a "Copy/Paste". You can collectively smack your foreheads for thinking it was more complicated than that.

2.) "Burning" a DVD
I use Nero exclusively. Let's face it, we're ALL pirates. Justify it how you will, but owning a live recording which was not specifically approved for your use by a member of a band or their record label is owning a "bootleg", and ALL bootlegs are illegal. So don't feel like you've crossed a line by going to a torrent site and picking up a copy of Nero, although it's such a great program I suggest you purchase it legitimately after you've used it a while.

Simply open a new "DVD Video" project (NOT a "Copy DVD" or any other variation), drag-and-drop the VIDEO_TS folder from your hard drive into the left window and hit the button that looks like a match ("Burn"). You're done.

3.) "Re-Authoring" a DVD
Sometimes you get a DVD that's made from a standalone with no chapters, sometimes the author was a hack, and sometimes you download 6 DVDs with 2 songs each and want to make your own compilation. Whatever your reason, I encourage using DVD Decryptor. You can rip specific VOBs, Chapters and whatever, but just make sure you set them to demultiplex to seperate files. This makes life a lot easier. If you're ripping PAL and want to convert to NTSC, NEVER use TMPGEnc! It has no idea what to do with the additional 4fps and instead just copies the 24th frame 4 times. This creates a horrendous looking stutter and should be avoided at all costs. Instead, use your favorite method (mentioned above) to obtain a copy of Canopus ProCoder 2.0 to do the conversion. You will be AMAZED at the results; on a 61" TV I can see no noticeable difference in picture quality between the original PAL and converted NTSC versions, except the NTSC version is in proper 4:3 aspect for North American TVs.

As for authoring software, TMPGEnc DVD Author is a decent piece of software for the extreme novice. However, I use ReelDVD to create my discs, which allows greater freedom to place menu buttons, introduction videos and even create "easter eggs". The menus can be linked any way you like, and you can add text and images anywhere you like on them. I highly suggest finding a copy and playing with it, I now only use TMPG if I just need to make a quick DVD and don't care about the presentation quality.

If you have any questions about anything above, send them to [email protected]
I will try to put together a complete tutorial with images to display the steps in the next few days.