DVD Rip Using DVDfab and FairUse Wizard

Any DVD ripping software may be used, as long as it is able to produce an ISO file. FairUse Wizard needs to receive an ISO file for the version used in this guide, as the software will not decrypted. The DVD will be backed up to a video file in the MPEG-4 H.264 format.

In this guide a DVD is backed up and encoded using the impressive H.264 format. Note that both Handbrake and FairUse Wizard can produce XviD and H.264 output.

Fails on Two Pass: The 2-pass encoding error remains unresolved Currently, on "Initializing the compression" during the second pass, "_TranscodeProcess() : The DVD could not be converted." It seems that FairUse is passing something invalid to the internal 264 codec. This is an unresolved issue. This is likely a glitch in the FairUse software. Up the file size and use one pass or use alternative software if you are set on using two pass encoding.

DVDfab versus SmartRipper

Either software is able to accomplish the task. DVDfab is a stripped down free version of commercial software while Smart Ripper is an absolutely free application. DVDfab has a simpler interface, however, Smart Ripper has a lot more features and functionality as both free versions are compared.

Versions

The versions used in this guide:

• DVDFab Platinum 8.1.7.8
• FairUse Wizard 2.11b

Rip DVD to ISO With DVDfab

1. Open DVDfab
2. Screen 1
   1. Choose DVD Copy, Main Movie (as opposed to full disk)
   2. Source: the DVD drive
   3. Target: the path where you want the output files saved. IMPORTANT: You must click the icon with a paper and blue circle on it that is to the right of the folder icon. This is the CREATE ISO IMAGE icon. Now choose a path and name for the ISO.
   4. Choose the movie track to rip, typically the longest. Chose the audio channel, (deselect one of there are more than one selected) Some audio tracks may contain unnecessary crap like director commentary. Best guess, try the first track first.
   5. Subpicture: rip subtitles as they will be needed later even if you don't care about subtitles, some movies have [Forced Subtitles] and therefore all must be obtained from the DVD.
3. Screen 2
   1. mostly defaults here. copying make sure DVD-Video is checked. Give it a volume label. DVD5 is typical.
   2. click START

Create H.264 Single File Output With FairUse Wizard

1. Open FairUse Wizard
2. Screen 1
   1. Create a new project. Type in a project name.
   2. click next
3. Select DVD Drive popup dialog, click BROWSE and navigate to the ISO image. Select the ISO image and click OK.
4. Screen 2
   1. mostly defaults. Cache the selected program chains (multisession) should already be selected.
   2. click next
5. Screen 3
   1. wait while FairUse Wizard does "Building program chain index..." This takes around 2-5 minutes.
6. Screen 4
   1. There's a lot to do on this screen. First, use the slider below the video preview to find a good video frame which is nice and bright, making the dimensions of the screen area fully apparent.
   2. In the Cropping Region area click the Auto Set button. wait for it to calculate. Now make minor adjustments so that the crop area doesn't exclude any of the video.
   3. Frame Range - you can leave this or you can choose to cut out any studio stuff in the beginning. Some people cut out the credits at the end. If you do cut credits, do it after the main characters are named.
   4. Check Include Subpictures, Show forced subtitles only, and extract subtitles
   5. click next
7. Screen 5
   1. For field combination simply click Auto Detect. It will almost always choose IVTC mode. Whatever it auto detects is what you want to use.
   2. click next
8. Screen 6
   1. For video encodings choose x264
   2. Choose the Size radio button and check Two pass (only one pass or constant quantizer seems to work in this version. two pass crashes).
   3. The base file size default is 700mb. A huge file is not necessary with H.264. If you are looking to produce a 2gb out file or larger, then XviD will work just as well as H.264. Where H.264 shines is with higher compression. It is recommend you target a file size between 600mb - 900mb depending on the size of the movie. 700mb is good for a 120 minute movie. But there is more on how we recommend you select what file size to use, below in the fine tune file size...
   4. Now to fine tune the file size, --- Use the up arrow clicker to increase the file size one MB at a time. While you change the file size observe how it effects the Resolution settings below, specifically, the Output Video Size and Bits/Pixel. It is recommended that you increase the MB until the Output Video Size = 640x288 and the Bits/Pixel = 0.200. You can adjust the MB up and down until you hit this key target.
   5. Encoding Speed - always choose Quality over speed. Slider should be all the way to the right.
   6. Audio is MP3 128kbps
   7. defaults for the rest. (Files 1 unchecked)
   8. click next (it may seem like nothing happened when you click next, just wait a bit)

The process of encoding will begin after the delay.

Constant Quantizer versus 2-Pass

When dealing with H.264 video, 2 pass is recommended when targeting an output size. It is also believed to produce a superior quality output stream. Some argue the output is nominally better or the same.

The MEncoder documentation says The problem with constant quantizing is that it uses the given quantizer whether the macroblock needs it or not. That is, it might be possible to use a higher quantizer on a macroblock without sacrificing visual quality. Why waste the bits on an unnecessarily low quantizer? Your CPU has as many cycles as there is time, but there is only so many bits on your hard disk.

akupenguin, the x264 author: "CRF and 2pass are at the same point on the CBR-to-CPSNR continuum, because they have the same target bitrate distribution. 2pass just ends up slightly closer to that target.)"

"benchmarking the existing implementations of crf vs 2pass on several movies. Result: 2pass was better by anywhere from .01 to .12 dB (equivalently, up to 2.5% bitrate at the same psnr). This includes both the effects of ratecontrol (smarter I-frame qp decision) and the fact that direct=auto only really works in 2pass."

"x264 keeps track of the "complexity" of each frame, and then determines quantizer from that using the ratecontrol equation (rc_eq) and a quantity called "rate_factor". Assuming an ideal rc_eq, then constant rate_factor would be optimal perceptual RD (not constant quality, but allocating a little more quality in places where it doesn't cost much). ABR and 2pass use the same rc_eq, the primary difference is in how they determine rate_factor. In ABR, we only have statistics about the past frames, so we continually update the estimate of the rate_factor needed to meet the target bitrate. In 2pass, we have all the stats, so we pick the right rate_factor to begin with. To make a 1pass encode that is nearly identical to a 2pass, you'd need to specify rate_factor instead of bitrate or QP. (There will still be some differences: 1pass uses SATD for complexity, 2pass uses 1st pass's bitsize; I-frame quants are selected differently.)"

For a full discussion, see xvid: constant quantizer or 2 pass? on doom9, where xvid and h.264 are both discussed.

Recommendation: For H.264 it is recommended that you use 2-pass as described in the encoding process of this guide.

DVDfab: Troubleshooting

Determining which Title(Angle) to rip

Some DVD have 2 complete movie tracks, often a "rated" and "unrated" version. Typically the longer one is what you want, but not always. Sometimes it has been observed that the more desirable "unrated" version was a minute or more shorter. DVDFab seems to favor the first of the two occurrences without regards to size or which version. The point was originally with DVD to have 2 different camera angles but that is less common. Sometimes you have to use the Internet search to find out which is the correct angle. A list of Movie Censorship information sources is also useful to determine which track you want to make a backup of.

There are online resources to locate information about your DVD and which track is the unrated version.

1. http://www.movie-censorship.com/
2. http://www.cduniverse.com
3. http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/43598/hot-tub-time-machine/
4. http://video.barnesandnoble.com/DVD/Hot-Tub-Time-Machine/John-Cusack/e/883904206040#TABS

Error while reading! Please choose what to do? retry, abort, ignore, ignore All

1. Clean this movie disc and your drive tray first, and then insert the disc in to see if DVDFab can read it successfully;
2. Open "Common Settings" window, click on "Read", select "Ignore all the reading errors automatically", then try again to see the result;
3. Go to "Common Settings/Pathplayer" setting panel, deactivate pathplayer to copy this DVD again to see if this works.

How to copy scratched movie with DVDFab

Choose "Full Disc" mode for backing up a scratched disc. This mode will skip all the sectors which can't be read, and fill the gaps with empty sectors.

FairUse Wizard Troubleshooting

Logging / Tracking down errors

FairUse creats logs in the directory of the video output file. The log has the same name as the project name. If your project name is Nosferatu, then look for Nosferatu.log. Below is the first few lines of a sample log file for your familiarity:

10:29:31	512	FairUse Wizard 2.11b log file
10:29:31	512	1 processor(s) detected
10:29:31	512	Directory set to : C:\Program Files\FairUse Wizard 2\
10:29:41	512	DvdCache::_PhysicalInit() : initialising physical dvd access

The DVD could not be converted error

There are multiple reasons for this error. They will be broken down by each occurrence.

Initializing the compression _TranscodeProcess() The DVD could not be converted on the second pass

The first pass completes successfully, but the second pass fails on a 2-pass encoding using H.264. The log indicates:

14:00:09	1012	Using x264 codec : 2 pass, pass 2, speed 5
14:00:09	1012	Opening the codec driver
14:00:09	1012	Opening the codec driver OK
14:00:09	1012	Initializing the compression
14:04:16	512	_TranscodeProcess() : The DVD could not be converted

Solution: currently unresolved.