DVDBACKUP - README

To gather info about the dvd

dvdbackup -i /dev/dvd -I

Gerneral backup information

If your backup directory is /my/dvd/backup/dir/ specified with the "-o" flag. Then dvdbackup will create a DVD-Video structure under /my/dvd/backup/dir/TITLE_NAME/VIDEO_TS.

Since the title is "uniq" you can use the same dir for all your DVD backups. If it happens to have a generic title dvdbackup will exit with a return value of 2. And you will need to specify a title name with the -n switch.

dvdbackup will always mimic the original DVD-Video structure. Hence if you e.g. use the -M (mirror) you will get an exact duplicate of the original. This means that every file will be have the same size as the original one. Like wise goes also for the -F and the -T switch.

However the -t and (-t -s/-e) switch is a bit different the titles sectors will be written to the original file but not at the same offset as the original one since they may be gaps in the cell structure that we don't fill.

To backup the whole DVD

dvdbackup -M -i/dev/dvd -o/my/dvd/backup/dir/
This action creates a valid DVD-Video structure that can be burned to a DVD-/+R(W) with help of mkisofs version 1.11a27 or later

To backup the main feature of the DVD

dvdbackup -F -i/dev/dvd -o/my/dvd/backup/dir/

This action creates a valid DVD-Video structure of the feature title set

dvdbackup defaults to get the 16:9 version of the main feature if a 4:3 is also present on the DVD. To get the 4:3 version use -a 0.

dvdbackup makes it best to make a inteligent guess what is the main feature of the DVD - in case it fails please send a bug report.

To backup a title set

dvdbackup -T 2 -i/dev/dvd -o/my/dvd/backup/dir/

where "-T 2" specifies that you want to backup title set 2 i.e. all VTS_02_X.XXX files.

This action creates a valid DVD-Video structure of the specified title set

To backup a title

dvdbackup -t 1 -i/dev/dvd -o/my/dvd/backup/dir

This action backups all cells that forms the specified title. Note that there can be sector gaps in between one cell and an other. dvdbackup will backup all sectors that belongs to the title but will skip sectors that aren't a part of the title.

To backup a specific chapter or chapters from a title

dvdbackup -t 1 -s 20 -e 25 -i/dev/dvd -o/my/dvd/backup/dir

This action will backup chapter 20 to 25 in title 1, as with the backup of a title there can be sector gaps between one chapter (cell) and on other.dvdbackup will backup all sectors that belongs to the title 1 chapter 20 to 25 but will skip sectors that aren't a part of the title 1 chapter 20 to 25.

To backup a single chapter e.g. chapter 20 do -s 20 -e 20
To backup from chapter 20 to the end chapter use only -s 20
To backup to chapter 20 from the first chapter use only -e 20

You can skip the -t switch and let the program guess the title although it's not recomened.

If you specify a chapter that his higher than the last chapter of the title dvdbackup will turncate to the highest chapter of the title.

Return values

0 on success
1 on usage error
2 on title name error
-1 on failur

Todo - i.e. what's on the agenda

Make the main feature guessing algoritm better. Not that it doesn't do it's job, but it's implementation it's that great. I would also like to preserve more information about the main feature since that would let me preform better implementations in other functions that depends on the titles_info_t and title_set_info_t strcutures.

Make it possible to extract cells in a title not just chapters (very easy so it will definitly be in the next version).

Make a split mirror (-S) option that divides a DVD-9 to two valid DVD-5 video structures. This is not a trivial hack and it's my main goal the next month or so. It involves writing ifoedit and vobedit libraries in order to be able to manipulate both the IFO structures and the VOB files. Out of this will most probably also come tscreate and vtscreate which will enable you to make a very simple DVD-Video from MPEG-1/2 source.