Mencoder and IFO Files
 

Hi guys, i was just wondering if it was possible to use DVD IFO files instead of directly using VOB files.

I know Inc uses the IFO for the audio to good effect in PackShot but I was wondering if it was possible to say make a program where you could say Rip your movie to the HDD and then select the film and any extras you wanted and convert the movie.

This way ppl with FAT32 HDD would not have to worry about having a one huge VOB file that may be over the 4Gig quota.

I like the way ShrinkDVD does this you can select what movie you want rip it to hdd and then put another DVD in and rip that movie then do a Re-Author.

Much more effective would be getting a pipe work, so you just have to use a syntax where all VTS_01_*.VOB except the VTS_01_0.VOB would be taken through mencoder automatically ... theres a command cat but DigiDoc posted a time that it will not work correctly on windows if I remember correctly :(

Thanks for the info Inc, I know you could just make batch encoding for example: VTS_01_1.VOB, VTS_01_2.VOB and just get the encoder to merge the VOBS and ac3 files after the encode.

The reason I say about the IFO files is that it is difficult to know which VOB you want to extract to the HDD for examples any extras. If your encoder could read the IFO files you could select which movies you wanted and these could be ripped to the hdd and the encoder could make a new IFO file or similar with the names of the ripped VOBs and say you cant have a bigger VOB than 4 Gig and your VOBs were split into 2 or 3 files, the encoder could batch process these files and then merge them at the end.

Its just an Idea I just wanted to know of how hard it would be to do it or if its possible. :)

Hi guys,
Yes I must agree that loading IFO files instead of VOB files would be much more (how is it you say Inc ?) sexy 8)
But I think that right now it could be very hard to try that as MEncoder is ready for VOBs but not IFOs.
The equivalent of "cat" on windows would be "type" (who told us this?) but yes there are problems with the estimation values in MEncoder log window such as time remaining, etc.
I would stick with VOBs/AVIs for now as it's going to make it easier for learning MEncoder.
In a few months we should start looking for that :D.
That's my honest opinion.
Cheers

Hi Rui, I know that for Mencoder reading IFO files might be difficult but If an GUI wrapper could read IFO's and then rip the necessary VOBs to the HDD and then maybe you could have the GUI use that VOB as the input to convert.

Even if the VOBs were split I guess the GUI could batch process them and then join the resulting m2v files at the end.

d2s read the ifos and more vobs if needed but i don't know how it works!

That would be a hell of work! :lol:

You would have to write a total IFO parsing engine which gets out of the IFO the VOB points and then you still must find a way to feed mencoder using theese still splitted VOBs cause encoding VOB by VOB and merging afterwards could result in issues! As you found out in the other thread.

So this all makes no sense cause still there will be splitted VOBs do be feeded into mencoder. And by this you still have to find a way to that in case of mencoder. And if you find a way, then you can drop that Encoding out of IFO idea and let a GUI directly recognise the right splitted VOBs on the HD, like DVD2AVi.

My God, yes Inc that would be one undertaking and a lot of work involved.

I think we can live with the way it is. :)

Hi Zyphon,

Why not use DVDDecrypter in IFO mode? You can choose cells in each PGC easily and rip only what you want. :D

Thanks for the tip Vm I never knew that. ;)

I shall try that out now. :D

yeah, really works V ! 8)