Thrifty's All New Comprehensive Rifftrax Reauthoring Guide (with visual aids!)

[Misty]

One more note (now that I've looked back at the first post here). I was able to rip The Matrix Revolutions with DVD43. I'm not sure if it'll work for the others on that list though. Obviously it didn't work for The Dark Knight and Star Trek.

[Compound]

Okay, I've run into another strange one.

I'm reauthorizing the last half dozen titles that I never got around to doing (Mostly iRiffs, and a couple of problem titles that I gave up on until now.) and I've run into a problem that I haven't had before.  (The problem title here is Minority Report, but I don't think that matters.)

I've got everything ready to burn, but when I use DVD Shrink to burn the disc, the audio disappears partway through the movie. When I open up the folder in VLC, the audio's still there playing nicely, but somewhere during the burn, 75% of the audio vanishes. Any ideas for the cause or a fix?

[deadking13]

I notice that this reauthoring guide ends up mixing the DVD audio down to a stereo track.  This is fine for most people but I like keeping my audio 5.1.

To do this I extract the AC3 audio out of the ripped DVD files with VirtualDub+MPEG2 plugin (File->Save WAV) -(though you don't need to do this if you extract the AC3 file in some other way, like the one in this reauthoring guide).  I open this in Audacity with the ffmpeg extension, it shows 6 channels of audio (FL,FR,Center,Sub,RL,RR).  I align the rifftrax with this and mix it into track 3 (you can mix it into track 1 or 2 if you prefer the audio to the left or right side).  Move the mixed track back up to being "Track 3".  Then in Audacity Preferences->Import/Export, choose "Custom Mix" instead of "Always mix tracks down".  Now, Export it in AC3 format (the ffmpeg plugin lets you do this too).

This preserves the 5.1 sound, and makes me happy.  Sometimes.

I'm interested in trying this.  I'm far from an expert in audacity, but this all makes sense to me except for one thing... how do I mix the edited riff into the dialogue track (track 3).  If I export it in a "custom mix" won't it end up with six channels instead of the normal 5 for a movie track?  i just need to know if i need to mix the dialogue track and the riff track into a single track and what is the easiest way to do that. 

[makphisto]

Very helpful guide, I'm reauthoring my first movie as we speak. One comment, when you get to the Audacity part of the instructions, step 7 says:
7) If you mouse over to the left hand side of the

It seems to be missing something. Probably not important, but I wanted to point it out. Thanks for the guide!

[Thrifty]

Very helpful guide, I'm reauthoring my first movie as we speak. One comment, when you get to the Audacity part of the instructions, step 7 says:
7) If you mouse over to the left hand side of the

It seems to be missing something. Probably not important, but I wanted to point it out. Thanks for the guide!

Oh hmm.  That is odd.  I can't quite figure what I was trying to say.  I probably got started, then moved to another section, and forgot to go back and finish.  I'll see if I can figure it out and revise that later.

[Danecho1967]

thanks again for your very useful guide.  i have a question.  what exactly is the point of taking the AC3 audio and making it into WAV format?  i've now done the reauthoring a few times without doing this and i can't seem to see any reason for doing so.  but i was wondering if there was a specific purpose for it or doing so avoids issues in the future. 

The non-beta version of Audacity can't handle AC3 audio files.  The newer, beta version can only handle them if you download the add-on.  Also, converting to WAV converts the original 6 channel audio track into a 2 channel track.

I highly recommend that Audacity users use the beta version, because the non-beta version doesn't have auto-ducking.  If you are using the beta version, you might as well get the AC3 add-on and learn to do 6 channel reauthors.  6 channel reauthors simply sound better, even when listened to with headphones or on a two speaker television or stereo system.

I plan to do a movie this weekend, and I'll take some screenshots and make a 6 channel mixing guide.  It's not that hard to do and it's worth the little extra effort.

[makphisto]

I plan to do a movie this weekend, and I'll take some screenshots and make a 6 channel mixing guide.  It's not that hard to do and it's worth the little extra effort.

I would very much like to see this guide. I've gotten the "bare bones" of reauthoring down now, and I'd like to add to the quality of my burns.

[Corny Commentaries]

Heyo!

Haven't posted here in a while, but since I (semi)recently switched to Mac, I'm wondering if someone has a handy guide for Mac users. The link in the original post by Thrifty isn't working, so I'm hoping someone has something awesome to share. I found one Mac guide, but that one requires Mac the Ripper, which the newest OS doesn't run. Thanks in advance for the help!

[Ryan]

This guide worked pretty well, except I had an issue with Titanic.
When using rejig to author disc 2 (I reauthored disc 1 and 2 of the 10th anniversary edition separately) I ended up with just a few kilobytes of data in my AUDIO_TS/VIDEO_TS directories.
To work around this I did the following:
   -While rejig is authoring, quit just before the multiplexing is done. Then I had a vob file of the disc in the output directory, it cut off when I quit so I may have lost a minute or two of credits.
   - Use DVDStyler to generate an ISO from the vob. I just dragged the vob and dropped it into the bottom window. I have a basic menu with a Play All button that goes to the vob.

Other than this disc, I re-authored a few movies without problems. A couple other tips I have come across,
-You can import the AC3 file directly into audacity. The channel order in audacity is L R C SUB SL SR
-Use autoduck in audacity. Put rifftrax on the bottom, then highlight all the other audio, Click Effect - > AutoDuck. I use .1 second for the time in/out of ducking and -10db duck.
-Make sure you Stop the audacity play back before trying to do any action like cut, Effect, etc. If you just pause instead of stop, you wont be able to do anything.
-When exporting audio from audacity, choose 6 chanels, keep the same channel order and add the rifftrax audio to whichever channels you want (I did 1,2,3)