Merging Multiple DVD files onto a single DVD

[Big Phil]

I have a Mini-DVD video camera, each disc holds about 1.4 GB of video. I'd like to merge three of these Mini-DVDs onto a single large DVD, but each of the files on the Mini-DVD is named identically, and my DVD burning software won't allow me to burn DVDs to the large disc.

Does anyone know how to merge files from mini-DVDs onto a full size DVD and burn a playable DVD?

[Dominus Atheos]

K3b can do this. Download the source code here, then open up Konsole and follow these instructions:

Extract the source to a temporarly directory:

# tar -xjvf k3b-1.0.tar.bz2

and change to the created directory:

# cd k3b-1.0


Configure the source:

# ./configure

(with older versions of K3b one needed to provide a prefix but the new KDE build system is able to guess it properly)



After the configuration finished you will see a summary. If one of the features you want to be enabled is not you need to check the requirements again.
Start the compilation:

# make


And finally if the command above did not show any errors install K3b:

# su -c "make install"

(You will have to type in your root password.)


Now you may start K3b from the KMenu (Multimedia section) or run it from a shell or the Alt-F2 menu via 'k3b'.

[phongn]

D13 has the best option.

And WTF's with the Linux hackery? I don't think Sanchez uses it, and even if he did, K3B is usually available as a package in most distributions.

[Big Phil]

I don't use Linux, and Dominus's solution is far too complicated for what I'm looking for. I figure I probably need video editing software, but I'd rather not buy a $400 package for something I might do once a year. I found something called AVS Video converter (http://www.avs4you.com/AVS-Video-Converter.aspx) and the shareware version seems like what I need, but it seems liked it degraded the quality significantly when I burned three separate Mini-DVDs to a single large DVD.

I suppose I can always copy the files in separate directories to a data DVD, but I'd really like to have a playable DVD backup.

[Big Phil]

You might need a video editing thing. The files on a video DVD always have the same names, but different contents crammed together; just shoving the files in without editing them won't be playable.

Rip each mini disc, append the videos together, then burn that as a regular DVD.

How?

[charlemagne]

There's freeware tools like "Auto Gordian Knot" (for ripping DVDs) and "VirtualDub" (for video editing).

It propably will be enough though to extract the video from your mini-dvds, put them on your harddrive and rename the files - adding 01, 02, 03 should be enough - then try creating a full size DVD with Nero. Or is that what you did and Nero wouldn't allow you to do?

[Big Phil]

There's freeware tools like "Auto Gordian Knot" (for ripping DVDs) and "VirtualDub" (for video editing).

It propably will be enough though to extract the video from your mini-dvds, put them on your harddrive and rename the files - adding 01, 02, 03 should be enough - then try creating a full size DVD with Nero. Or is that what you did and Nero wouldn't allow you to do?

Did exactly that, and had exactly that problem

[charlemagne]

Ok, then you can try this:

- get VirtualDub
- load the first of your mini-DVD-files, and append the others. There should be a option saying exactly that, "append file" or "append video"
- save the outcome (and check the new file for possible audio sync errors)
- try to burn that with Nero when it checks out

I'm sorry for this rather basic outline of the procedure, it's been a while since I did video editing and I don't have VirtualDub installed at the moment.

[Big Phil]

Only problem with Virtual Dub as a solution is that Mini-DVD files follow the same naming conventions as larger discs. i.e., there are multiple files required to make the video run (four separate files, I believe) that are all named similarly. So it's not as simple as merging three files together; it's more like three sets of files, all named the same thing.

[Instant Sunrise]

You can use DVD Shrink to do exactly this. It's a two-step process but really straightforward.

1. Rip the DVDs you want to your hard drive.
2. Click the button that says re-author and then browse to where you ripped each DVD, and copy across the title that you want.

And there you have it, little to no re-compression needed.

EDIT: Also, Virtualdub is not really an editing program at all. All it lets you do is recompress and re-encode video, and add a few effects.

[Dominus Atheos]

I don't use Linux,

I kind of figured, but was trying to make a point about how important it is to mention what operating system you are using when asking these type of questions. Especially in this case, since Windows Vista Home Premium (and Ultimate) come with a program that can do this, but XP, Vista Basic and Business do not. So the next time you need advice, please list what operating system you are using.

Anyway, as others have explained, you are going about this the wrong way. You can't take the .vob files from the mini-dvds and burn them all as a data disk, you need to burn it as a video dvd. Like I said, Vista Home Premium comes with a program that can burn video dvds called windows dvd maker. If you don't have that version of windows, then you need to install a program that can do it.

Looking over download.com, it looks like the most popular program that can do this is BurnAware Free. Others are here, just look for one that says it can make video dvds. After installing one, when it asks you what files you wants to burn, just select each of the vob files and the program should make one video dvd out of them. (or at least Windows DVD Maker was able to do that when I tried it just now, I assume any others should work the same)

[Dominus Atheos]

Also, please, please don't use virtualdub or some other program to convert the files to divx or xvid, or some other mpeg-4 format and then burn it on to a video dvd. Every time you convert a video file, you lose some of the quality, so just keep them as mpeg-2.

[Big Phil]

You can use DVD Shrink to do exactly this. It's a two-step process but really straightforward.

1. Rip the DVDs you want to your hard drive.
2. Click the button that says re-author and then browse to where you ripped each DVD, and copy across the title that you want.

And there you have it, little to no re-compression needed.

EDIT: Also, Virtualdub is not really an editing program at all. All it lets you do is recompress and re-encode video, and add a few effects.

Thanks IS - the other programs folks mentioned didn't quite do what I needed, but DVD Shrink appears to have worked perfectly.