UNOFFICIAL Rifftrax DVD Creating Step-by-Step Guide (Now With Rifftrax Lite)

[MartyS (Gromit)]

Hey k1... I don't have an answer but I do have a question that I think you may be able to answer. Please forgive me if I've asked before but I've done most the work now and plan on authoring by end of this week, and I haven't been able to locate the answer on the forum.  My question is, do you know how to author a dvd using multiple, selectable audio tracks?  I have GarageBand, iMovie, and Final Cut Express.  Is it something I need to do with those or use a different app?  I'm trying to have one for the movie's audio, one for the RiffTrax (+movie, of course), and one for the isolated score.  Thanks.

Good question.  I was wondering that myself when I was making a dvd of our Burn-E riff.  (I ended up doing 3 separate video files on one DVD because I couldn't figure it out.  1 unriffed, 1 riffed, 1 riffed with our sing-along subtitles.)

I'm pretty confident that iDVD is smart enough to pull it off.  But I would be interested in doing that myself.  Anyone have any ideas?

All the research I've done shows that iDVD won't allow on-the-go switching audio tracks. The only thing I found was DVD Studio (but it costs like $30).

So... anyone have any ideas... that's also free?

Can you get rejig to work on a mac using a windows emulator?  That's a fairly small and self contained program, might work in an emulator.  All you really need it to do is combine the audio and video files...  I never do menus or chapters or subtitles so I just dump the video and the original ac3 and riffed ac3 into rejig and let it create the dvd files.

[k1]

That probably would work.  I would need to buy a copy of windows to install on boot camp though wouldn't I?

[stansimpson]

That probably would work.  I would need to buy a copy of windows to install on boot camp though wouldn't I?

Yeah, in which case, it'd be simpler/cheaper to piratebuy DVD Studio.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

That probably would work.  I would need to buy a copy of windows to install on boot camp though wouldn't I?

Are there no free or cheap windows emulators for the mac like there are for linux?  I'm not talking about installing a version of windows, I'm talking about an emulator that lets you run a windows program inside another operating system.

[Ragnar!]

As Linux was mentioned I just thought that I would jump in and comment that Audacity will export to AC3 in Linux so no need to export to wav and then reconvert. It saves a step. And I am having great luck using AVIdemux to convert the VOB's into XviD/avi format that are great to stream to the DLNA device of your choice from a media server on your home network.

[Thrifty]

As Linux was mentioned I just thought that I would jump in and comment that Audacity will export to AC3 in Linux so no need to export to wav and then reconvert. It saves a step. And I am having great luck using AVIdemux to convert the VOB's into XviD/avi format that are great to stream to the DLNA device of your choice from a media server on your home network.

The Windows version does that too, if you get version 1.3.  I don't think 1.3 was available at the time the original guide was written though, and its author has long since vanished from this board.

[pstokely]

For those of you interested in putting the riff-track on the rear surround-sound speakers, here's the procedure I used with free software.  I really like this system because you can control the volume of the riff separately using your receiver surround sound settings.

- do steps 1 and 2 in the official guide above (rip DVD files and fix audio track, you should read full official guide to get details on the full process)

- download Audacity 1.3.6 (I got it from audacity.sourceforge.net)

- go to Edit|Preferences, Import/Export tab, download FFmpeg library

- on same tab, in box "When exporting tracks to an audio file", choose "Use custom mix"


- load in fixed AC3 file (from step 2 in official guide), it should load in 6 channels which I believe are: left, center, right, rear-left, rear-right, subwoofer

- import rifftrax mp3 file, should load as track #7

- in Edit|Preferences, Quality tab, set sampling defaults to 48,000 Hz and 16-bit (default for DVD AC3)

- align rifftrax (channel 7) with main audio (channel #2) using time shift, silence sections as desired, copy/paste silent portion to the end (join any splits)

- select entire movie track, all 7 channels, from beginning of DVD audio (the rifftrax will start earlier if you used the time shift method above)

- select File|export selection and choose WAV format

- click OK on the Edit Metadata screen if it appears (there's an option to make it not appear)

- on the Advanced Mixing Options screen, choose 6 channel output and map the tracks (by clicking diagram) as follows:

   1st track (left) to channel 1
   2nd track (center) to channel 3
   3rd track (right) to channel 2
   4th track (rear-left) to none
   5th track (rear-right) to none
   6th track (subwoofer) to channel 4
   7th track (riff) to channel 5 and channel 6

* this ordering is necessary because the next step changes the order, and this makes it go back to the original DVD order

- use AftenGui (with aften.exe, I got both from videohelp.com) to encode the 6-channel WAV into 5.1 AC3 (I used all the defaults)

- use the newly created AC3 to make DVD folder with IFOedit or rejig (step 6 in official guide)

- option A: use DVD shrink to make iso file for burning (final step in the official guide)

- option B: use ConvertXToDVD (commercial software) to make DVD file with a menu screen (and shrink to fit on single-sided DVD); then use imgtool.exe to create iso file for burning

Good luck!

AftenGUI won't encode

[pstokely]

Subtitles in my re authored "The Last Airbender" copy are off

[k1]

Had a dead laptop that was apparently still under covered under Best Buy's protection plan!  Got a letter saying the plan was expiring, so I brought it in & they gave me a new one, so I'm back to doing reauthors on PC again! Still haven't found a really good way to do it on Mac without losing a ton of quality on the picture.

I've got everything reinstalled other than various ripping software that I'm sure will be needed with Twilight and the more tricky rips.  The only problem now is trying to remember all the settings on everything, I think I have everything all set & I'm burning a disc now to see.

Couple quick questions though...

Going to attempt trying to do reauthors in surround sound rather than just 2 channel stereo for the first time later this week.  Can someone point me to the settings I need for Clier's AC3tool to keep the 5.1? The tool seems pretty straight forward, but when I try to load the 5.1 wav into GoldWave it doesn't know what to do with it. (So maybe it's the settings I need to tell GoldWave on import rather than Clier's?)  And once I get it to load, it's just the same as normal as far as the reauthor goes right? Or is there anything else I need to do?

Second and more important question that I'm sure was answered somewhere but I probably missed it, my biggest complaint when I finish up a reauthor is that the audio on the DVD is much quieter than a normal DVD.  I typically have the volume at 15 on the TV for watching TV or DVD but with my reauthors I end up having to turn it up to around 45 or 50.  Not the end of the world, but sure can scare the pants off you if you forget to turn it down before switching back to watch something else.

Just thought of one more thing.  How can I get DVD Decrypter to stop throwing error messages when I close the program? I have this problem on every machine I've installed it on. 
The errors are:
Failed to set data for "
Failed to set data for 'DVDDecrypterPlayDVDMovieOnArrival'
Failed to set data for " (sometimes this last one repeats a few times)

[MrTorso]

Going to attempt trying to do reauthors in surround sound rather than just 2 channel stereo for the first time later this week.  Can someone point me to the settings I need for Clier's AC3tool to keep the 5.1? The tool seems pretty straight forward, but when I try to load the 5.1 wav into GoldWave it doesn't know what to do with it. (So maybe it's the settings I need to tell GoldWave on import rather than Clier's?)  And once I get it to load, it's just the same as normal as far as the reauthor goes right? Or is there anything else I need to do?

Second and more important question that I'm sure was answered somewhere but I probably missed it, my biggest complaint when I finish up a reauthor is that the audio on the DVD is much quieter than a normal DVD.  I typically have the volume at 15 on the TV for watching TV or DVD but with my reauthors I end up having to turn it up to around 45 or 50.  Not the end of the world, but sure can scare the pants off you if you forget to turn it down before switching back to watch something else.

Just thought of one more thing.  How can I get DVD Decrypter to stop throwing error messages when I close the program? I have this problem on every machine I've installed it on. 
The errors are:
Failed to set data for "
Failed to set data for 'DVDDecrypterPlayDVDMovieOnArrival'
Failed to set data for " (sometimes this last one repeats a few times)

Not sure about the 5.1 stuff. As for the volume goes when you downmix the 5.1 to stereo it is always low volume so I use the Maximize volume feature on Goldwave to bring the levels up as soon as I open the wav.