I'm trying to rip the AC3 stream on the DVD-Audio disc "Linkin Park - Reanimation". I don't care about the hires PPCM stream, I know its impossible to copy, but the disc also had 6 channel AC3 stream which I would prefer over my regular CD copy.
As it was stored in the video_ts folder, I assumed it was easy to rip, like with my other DVDA disc, "Iron Maiden - Dance of Death". But unfortunetaly, that was not the case.

files like VTS_01_0.BUP/IFO/VOB hold the info for the extra music videos on the disc, the actual 6 channel music is located in these files::



unfortunetaly, DVD Decrypter does not recognize these files as a stream, so I am unable to extract it. With BeSweet, I managed to extract the AC3 from it, but it's just one huge stereo file - even though it has both the 6chn and stereo streams in it, followed by one after another. (Foobar reports the file to use two channels, and to be 2 hour long - the first 1 hour has the 6chn stream, the next hour has the stereo version)
This file also stores the DVD menu in it, if that introduces any difficulties (the menu music was included in the ripped AC3 file).

I'm stumped at this point. I either need a tool that can splice up the AC3 stream without reencoding, or a more capable tool then DVD decrypter that can extract the music based on chapter info from those files. The latter would be preferred.

I know exactly what you mean - I've faced the same issue when ripping the regular DVD content from certain DVD-As where the song content is actually in VIDEO_TS.VOB. Here's what I do with these DVD-As:

1. Rip the whole disc using Decrypter (using file mode and ripping everything it can, with file splitting set to file).

2. Open the resulting rip in DVDShrink.

3. Click on 'reauthor'

4. Doubleclick on the part that contains the songs to 'load' it to the left pane.

5. One of the toolbar buttons allows selecting the portion to be reauthored. Use that to select the first song.

6. In one of the tabs you can select which streams to rip. I.e., I usually deselect DD2.0. If there's DTS available then I deselect DD5.1.

I then reauthor it to a folder and copy/rename the vob file to have name consisting of track # and song title.

I'm not at the computer right now where I normally do this, but if you try above and get stuck let me know and I'll post more detailed steps.

Well, the problem is that the songs seem to be stored IN the menu. Which does not seem to appear after I enter Reauthor mode.

In fact, now that I look at it, the whole AC3 music seems to be part of the menu system. The audio of it is specified as 2 channel even though half of it is actually 6chn.

The music videos on it work fine, as the "main movie". They also show up in Decrypter, and I can demux and extract the AC3 music out of those easily.

So it looks like I have to rip the audio out from the menu itself. Which does not have chapters, only a jump button from a playlist to every track seperatly.

It seems that chopping up my huge preripped AC3 file seems to be the only option.

Yes the songs are in the structure normally used for menu in DVDs, that's what I meant earlier. I've seen these kind of things in DVDAs many times before, believe me it is possible with DVDShrink in reauthor mode.

While in the reauthor screen...

... doubleclick on a VTS 'folder' that is in the right pane under the Menus heading. You can make a good guess as to which one by looking at the value in the size column. This opens the 'folder'. You can keep drilling down until you get to a nonfolder item which will have nonzero duration. If you don't find anything that has duration approximately the same as all your tracks, go back up and check other VTS folder(s) until you find it. Note - you go back up using the up arrow in the upper right of the screen.

Eventually you'll find the 'file' that contains the DD/DTS audio. Drag it over to the left pane under DVD Structure. You may get a warning message about not being able to retain menu functionality - dismiss the warning since you're not trying to make a DVD.

Click on the left/right arrow button to select chapter or part of chapter you want to reauthor. In this case chapters should correspond to songs. Sometimes the first song corresponds to the 2nd chapter, and sometimes the first. Same thing at the other end, sometimes the last song corresponds to the last chapter, and sometimes to the 2nd to the last chapter. After selecting the chapter you can click the play button to play what you've selected to see if its what you want.

After selecting your chapter, go to the compression tab pick the audio stream(s) you wish, i.e., DD5.1. (make sure you have No Compression selected in the pulldown too)

Click on the backup button, select the location to extract to and let it do its thing. You'll end up with a VOB file that contains the song/chapter you selected in the earlier step.

BTW, there's other variations on how to do this. i.e.,

1. Rip the disc using DVD Decrypter in file mode with the 'file split' setting set to Cell ID.

2. In the resulting files, find the ones that correspond to your songs
- at this point, if the VOB files play with the desired audio, i.e., DD5.1, then just simply rename the files to your track number-title and voila. IF not ....

3. Copy the vob files containing the songs to a separate folder named VIDEO_TS and rename them sequentially as if normal VOBs, i.e., VTS_01_0.VOB, VTS_01_1.VOB etc...

4. Use a program called IFOEdit and use it to generate new IFO files/structure.

5. Now open up that VIDEO_TS folder with DVDShrink and reauthor it (this time the songs will be in the 'main movie' or 'extras' instead of the menu. Follow the earlier steps and extract desired audio.

You could try using Ciler's AC3 Tool... I've used it successfully in the past to extract AC3 streams from VOB files ...worth a shot!

http://www.digital-digest.com/dvd/downloads/ac3tool.html

This is how Reauthor mode looks - none of the menus are there.
http://web.axelero.hu/fka2636/dvdshrink.png


However, extracting the files in DVD decrypter with the preferences set to Cell ID worked fine - I ended up with tons of VOB files, from which I just have to seperate the audio.

This introduced another problem though. It seems the DVD was SO badly put together that every song is about 2 seconds off from the Cell ID. Argh. It looks like I have to find some kind of offset correction option, OR edit the ifos so they point to the correct address and extract it once more.

Or just cut up that already ripped huge ac3 stream.

HOWEVER, as the start and the end of the stream is at the right point, it seems that its just the Cell ID that is wrong. So I ripped it using VOB_ID instead of CELL_ID and ended up with the VOB file that holds the 6chn music stream, I have to cut up that now.

This seems easier then I thought, the cuesheet of the original CD version fits almost perfectly for the AC3. (tested it by stripping the AC3 from the VOB and loading it in foobar via the cuesheet of the CD version, with the filename edited from "cdimage.wav" to the corresponding AC3 file)

So now I only need a tool that can cut up an AC3 without recompressing it, from a cuesheet.

Great, sounds like your making progress

I think your problem with DVDShrink is that your using an older one, v2.3. I'm using v3.2 - seem to recall there were a lot of changes when v3 came out.

Yes, quite possibly. I overlooked the version # when I got it, I downloaded a version that didn't required installing but was a standalone program.

Great!!! I know I'm resurrecting an old thread, but this solution helped me solving a problem I've been trying to solve for literally months!

Becasue cracking DRM and telling people how to crack is against teh DMCA.

At least you can backup discs that don't have DRM. Here in NZ our copyright has no copying at all even for backup or format shifting.