Converting DVD to WMV

[Poulsonator]

One of my co-workers needs a DVD converted to WMV (the DVD itself is a really entertaining piece on "hiring success" for our HR department ). I've been looking all over for a decent tutorial on how to do this, but I haven't found anything that's remotely comprehensive.

I'm a veteran of "backing up" DVDs with DVD Decryptor/DVD Shrink/Nero, but I've never tried a conversion like this. I've been able to rip the DVD itself to a single .VOB (that also contains the audio track), but as soon as I load it into Windows Media Encoder 9 to attempt the conversion, WME9 crashes.

I've read about other programs that you can use, but no specific instructions can be found that detail what I simply need to do. Supposedly, there were some very nice instructions posted by "Zarax" on a site called microsoftusernetwork, but they are long gone.

Any ideas from the video conversion crowd? I'm sure it's not hard to do, I just can't find any helpful resources at the moment.

Thanks!

 

[rbV5]

Maybe give TMPGEnc Xpress a try. It has a mostly functional 14 day trial and I believe it supports unprotected VOB to WMV conversion directly. Link

 

[HN]

do you do dvd -> dvd backups or dvd -> divx/xvid? if you can make the divx/xvid, you can take that file into windows moviemaker and create the wmv from there.

 

[xtknight]

My WME9 crashes when I input a MPEG-2 file too. Don't know what's wrong with the stupid thing. I recall trying different codecs and still having it crash.

VirtualDub, free, is fine if all else fails.

 

[Poulsonator]

Thanks for the responses!

I've tried TMPGEnc, and it didn't work; however, it wasn't the Xpress version. I'm downloading that now.

As far as going DVD -> divx/xvid, I'd like to learn how to do that as well. When you convert to divx, then to WMV, do the end-viewers of the newly created WMV need the divx codec? Will they need that codec regardless?

 

[rbV5]

Originally posted by: xtknight
My WME9 crashes when I input a MPEG-2 file too. Don't know what's wrong with the stupid thing. I recall trying different codecs and still having it crash.

VirtualDub, free, is fine if all else fails.

Its probably choking on the audio, WME doesn't like 2-pass encoding with MPEG2 from my experience.

 

[rbV5]

Originally posted by: Poulsonator
Thanks for the responses!

I've tried TMPGEnc, and it didn't work; however, it wasn't the Xpress version. I'm downloading that now.

As far as going DVD -> divx/xvid, I'd like to learn how to do that as well. When you convert to divx, then to WMV, do the end-viewers of the newly created WMV need the divx codec? Will they need that codec regardless?

I wouldn't recommend 2 lossy codecs conversions ever (DVD>Divx>WMV), its likely to be crap before you're done.

UPDATE: Slightly off-topic, but Divx Create is a freebie if you hurry.....Link

Today we are pleased to offer you the DivX Create Bundle, including the DivX Player, DivX Pro 6 codec and DivX Converter, absolutely free.

 

[xtknight]

There's always GraphEdit. (But you still need the MPEG-2 encoder codec which is mainly the cost). If I recall, FFDShow will do it for free.

Or, you can get an mplayer-win32 build. Mencoder is not bad at all for encoding. Should be a cinch to do batch encoding with it.

Originally posted by: rbV5
UPDATE: Slightly off-topic, but Divx Create is a freebie if you hurry.....Link

Good catch. :thumbsup:

 

[xtknight]

 

[akugami]

Canopus Procoder Express? Or if someone has a copy you can "borrow" Canopus Procoder 2.0.

 

[gsellis]

Some of the cheap NLEs will do it. Studio 9 can edit MPEG2 and output to WMV. There may still be a free trial at pinnaclesys.

 

[Poulsonator]

Bah! Same problem I had the very first time. I can get the video transferred to WMV, but I never get the sound.

I ripped the DVD down as a single .VOB using DVD Shrink. I then used TMPGEnc 3.0 Xpress to convert to WMV. It looked like TMP detected the sound track, but apparently not.

What settings am I looking for here?

 

[Munky]

The way I used to do it, is to first convert the DVD to a high-quality divx, and then used the wm8 encoder utility (from the MS website) to make a wmv file. Not sure if you must have it in wm9 format, but the process is probably similar.

 

[govtcheez75]

is WMV same as MPEG? Any easy free way to convert DVD into MPEG files?

 

[rbV5]

Originally posted by: Poulsonator
Bah! Same problem I had the very first time. I can get the video transferred to WMV, but I never get the sound.

I ripped the DVD down as a single .VOB using DVD Shrink. I then used TMPGEnc 3.0 Xpress to convert to WMV. It looked like TMP detected the sound track, but apparently not.

What settings am I looking for here?

When you add your DVD video, do you see the audio listed below the video resolution listed on the "set source" page, next to the preview window like so?
--------------------------------------------------
2h. 5 min. 9 se. : 00:00:00 - 02:05:09
720x480, 29.97fps, 225074frame
48000 Hz 5.1 ch
--------------------------------------------------

UPDATE: Also, I used WMA 9.1 professional for the multi-channel audio.

 

[Poulsonator]

OK, so I think I've figured out the problem. Check out the error I get with TPMGEnc, and the audio track listings:

LINKY

The audio track isn't recognized in any of the pics.

When I ripped the DVD as a single VOB using DVD Shrink, I was able to play back that VOP in WinDVD with both video and sound. Any modifications past that, though, resulted in lost sound.

 

[rbV5]

OIC now, DOH!
From the TMPGEnc 3.0 specifications:

4-AC-3 audio import requires the TMPGEnc Sound Plug-in AC-3.

Thats the problem right there, sorry dude, I steered you wrong

Limitation: All functions and options are usable excepted the Batch encode tool and the Project Open/Save options

They forgot to add the AC3 plugin needed part.

I don't have a DVD>WMV conversion written up, or I'd link you to my Graphedit page.

 

[Poulsonator]

Ah, thank you rbV5. Unfortunately, there's no trial version for the plug-in as well.

I'll see if my company will pay the tab for a copy of this software, then I'll report back.

 

[rbV5]

Originally posted by: Poulsonator
Ah, thank you rbV5. Unfortunately, there's no trial version for the plug-in as well.

I'll see if my company will pay the tab for a copy of this software, then I'll report back.

It is a quality encoder, so you're not thowing good away for bad.

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: rbV5

Originally posted by: xtknight
My WME9 crashes when I input a MPEG-2 file too. Don't know what's wrong with the stupid thing. I recall trying different codecs and still having it crash.

VirtualDub, free, is fine if all else fails.

Its probably choking on the audio, WME doesn't like 2-pass encoding with MPEG2 from my experience.

It won't even import sometimes. I'll see if there's a WM9 CLI utility maybe in the SDK somewhere.

 

[xtknight]

I think I may have figured it out (2-pass works too). Both FFDshow codecs were screwing up WME9. FFDShow MPEG1 audio decoder crashes WME9 and Video decoder returns corrupt video. So I disabled FFDShow MP1 decode and it reverted to "MPEG Audio Decoder" (quartz.dll) which ships with WMP6.4 or higher I think. Video decoder used is MainConcept MPEG decoder. Splitter is also MainConcept.

So far here is what's returned from the command line utility:

C:\WMSDK\WMEncSDK9\samples\vb\wmcmd>cscript wmcmd.vbs -input "D:\S-Video (Aug 02
) 004.mpg" -output "D:\wmenctest.wmv" -v_mode 2 -a_codec WMA9PRO -a_mode 2
Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.6
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 1996-2001. All rights reserved.

..................................

So I don't know if it *really* works or not yet, but I highly suspect this will fix it.

Edit: I halted it and the first part (audio and video) of it seems to play. Source was MPEG-2 Video/MPEG-1 Audio. It crashed when I put it in to WME9 normally. Then I disabled FFDshow codecs and it worked fine. WME9 command line works fine but the GUI still freezes up while encoding.

The WME9 command line utility is in this package (in .\WMEncSDK9\samples\vb\wmcmd):
http://download.microsoft.com/download/...969-817b-0c288c633461/WMEncoderSDK.exe

and I already posted a sample command line for it above.

cscript wmcmd.vbs /? to see all the options.

 

[rbV5]

Thanks, that might come in handy as I've always had issues importing MPEG2 or transport streams into WME to the point of giving up on using WMV9 at all.

To be honest, I've committed to using H.264 as my personal target format for everything going forward, everything else I encode with other formats will be purely for testing.