endy
July 18th, 2005, 10:18 PM
Today we'll learn how to download a film, transcode it ready for DVD, create the file structure of a DVD, make a DVD ISO and burn the damn thing :) Yep, you heard me, download a film, but not just any film, the worst film ever! Why? -- Why not!
You may have heard the other day that Edward Wood's film flop 'Plan 9 from Outer Space' was released to the public domain (http://www.archive.org/details/Plan9FromOuterSpace) so that means you can download it absolutely free. Now just before we start you may want to read this review from the IMDB (http://imdb.com) if you don't know the film:
Poor poor Plan 9: So bad people just watch it to laugh about how bad it is, yet this fundamental flaw pushes it above bad movies, and so it's stuck in between the bottom 100, and well, no where near the top 250...
Anyway, back to the movie. It is as bad as you've no doubt heard. The scene changes from night to day to night, the spaceship is a hubcap (you can see the string it hangs from catch on fire at one point), I could do a better job acting, etc. ad nauseum. But it takes a hell of a lot to be almost universally considered the worst movie of all time, and here is Plan 9's true strength. There are many horrible of movies, but most of them are so bad because they are too bad to be truly bad, and therefore sink into mediocrity. Plan 9, however, has no redeeming quality's, and so it stands out. Few will recognise a movie such as "The Medallion," but every movie-goer knows Plan 9.
As I said before, it takes a hell of a lot to be the worst. Because of this, Plan 9 is some of the most fun you'll EVER have watching a movie. Almost every scene is so bad I broke out laughing. Few other movies achieve that kind of humor, whether intentional or not. For that I give it a very intentional 10/10.
Prerequisites: Just before we start you may want to check you have all of the following:
1. The 'dvdauthor' and 'ffmpeg' programs, first follow this link (http://www.ubuntuguide.org/#extrarepositories) to add the extra repositories if you haven't already then:
sudo apt-get install dvdauthor
sudo apt-get install ffmpeg
2. A DVD burner as we will be burning a DVD, also a DVD+/- R/W disc could be useful ;)
3. Broadband connection, may god help anyone downloading a 1.8G file on 56k :S
4. A love of films.
Still interested? Ok then, lets begin.
1. Download the film from the link on the page below and let bittorrent do the rest. Remember to share the file back (at least 100%) when you're done too, thats very important. I did it so you can too :) This is a 1.8G file so it could take a while to download.
http://torrents.pdmdb.org/details.php?info_hash=686368294eb5b9226a60534a442b 497351c8b7c5
2. Open up a terminal and change directory to where you downloaded the film. Now lets use ffmpeg to transcode the file ready for a dvd:
ffmpeg -i ./Plan_9_From_Outer_Space.mpeg -target dvd -hq -aspect 4:3 ./plan9.mpeg
Right, go do something for a few hours, this will take a while. Take in some TV, sports or go for a drink with friends.
3. That's the donkey work out the way now lets use dvdauthor to create the DVD filesystem:
dvdauthor ./plan9.mpeg -o plan9
4. Now we need to create the titles in that filesystem. Nothing fancy, AFAIK these are just techincal titles as you wont actually see anything when you run this DVD in your DVD player:
dvdauthor -T -o ./plan9
5. Now it's time to master the dvd iso:
mkisofs -dvd-video -o plan9.iso ./plan9
6. Lets check the iso and make sure it looks good as DVD's are quite specific:
isoinfo -i plan9.iso -l
You should get output similar to what I got below:
Directory listing of /
d--------- 0 0 0 2048 Jul 18 2005 [ 276 02] .
d--------- 0 0 0 2048 Jul 18 2005 [ 276 02] ..
d--------- 0 0 0 2048 Jul 18 2005 [ 278 02] AUDIO_TS
d--------- 0 0 0 2048 Jul 18 2005 [ 277 02] VIDEO_TS
Directory listing of /AUDIO_TS/
d--------- 0 0 0 2048 Jul 18 2005 [ 278 02] .
d--------- 0 0 0 2048 Jul 18 2005 [ 276 02] ..
Directory listing of /VIDEO_TS/
d--------- 0 0 0 2048 Jul 18 2005 [ 277 02] .
d--------- 0 0 0 2048 Jul 18 2005 [ 276 02] ..
---------- 0 0 0 6144 Jul 18 2005 [ 282 00] VIDEO_TS.BUP;1
---------- 0 0 0 6144 Jul 18 2005 [ 279 00] VIDEO_TS.IFO;1
---------- 0 0 0 49152 Jul 18 2005 [1159328 00] VTS_01_0.BUP;1
---------- 0 0 0 49152 Jul 18 2005 [ 285 00] VTS_01_0.IFO;1
---------- 0 0 0 1073709056 Jul 18 2005 [ 309 00] VTS_01_1.VOB;1
---------- 0 0 0 1073709056 Jul 18 2005 [ 524581 00] VTS_01_2.VOB;1
---------- 0 0 0 226252800 Jul 18 2005 [1048853 00] VTS_01_3.VOB;1
Don't worry if some of the number are slightly different, the line in bold is the important bit, It has to contain the lowest number after the "." and ".." entries above it. All should be Ok though.
7. Next is the burning:
growisofs -dvd-compat -Z /dev/dvd=plan9.iso
Now sit back, wait for it to burn, eject it and go watch it with your friends and family with some pop corn :D
You may have heard the other day that Edward Wood's film flop 'Plan 9 from Outer Space' was released to the public domain (http://www.archive.org/details/Plan9FromOuterSpace) so that means you can download it absolutely free. Now just before we start you may want to read this review from the IMDB (http://imdb.com) if you don't know the film:
Poor poor Plan 9: So bad people just watch it to laugh about how bad it is, yet this fundamental flaw pushes it above bad movies, and so it's stuck in between the bottom 100, and well, no where near the top 250...
Anyway, back to the movie. It is as bad as you've no doubt heard. The scene changes from night to day to night, the spaceship is a hubcap (you can see the string it hangs from catch on fire at one point), I could do a better job acting, etc. ad nauseum. But it takes a hell of a lot to be almost universally considered the worst movie of all time, and here is Plan 9's true strength. There are many horrible of movies, but most of them are so bad because they are too bad to be truly bad, and therefore sink into mediocrity. Plan 9, however, has no redeeming quality's, and so it stands out. Few will recognise a movie such as "The Medallion," but every movie-goer knows Plan 9.
As I said before, it takes a hell of a lot to be the worst. Because of this, Plan 9 is some of the most fun you'll EVER have watching a movie. Almost every scene is so bad I broke out laughing. Few other movies achieve that kind of humor, whether intentional or not. For that I give it a very intentional 10/10.
Prerequisites: Just before we start you may want to check you have all of the following:
1. The 'dvdauthor' and 'ffmpeg' programs, first follow this link (http://www.ubuntuguide.org/#extrarepositories) to add the extra repositories if you haven't already then:
sudo apt-get install dvdauthor
sudo apt-get install ffmpeg
2. A DVD burner as we will be burning a DVD, also a DVD+/- R/W disc could be useful ;)
3. Broadband connection, may god help anyone downloading a 1.8G file on 56k :S
4. A love of films.
Still interested? Ok then, lets begin.
1. Download the film from the link on the page below and let bittorrent do the rest. Remember to share the file back (at least 100%) when you're done too, thats very important. I did it so you can too :) This is a 1.8G file so it could take a while to download.
http://torrents.pdmdb.org/details.php?info_hash=686368294eb5b9226a60534a442b 497351c8b7c5
2. Open up a terminal and change directory to where you downloaded the film. Now lets use ffmpeg to transcode the file ready for a dvd:
ffmpeg -i ./Plan_9_From_Outer_Space.mpeg -target dvd -hq -aspect 4:3 ./plan9.mpeg
Right, go do something for a few hours, this will take a while. Take in some TV, sports or go for a drink with friends.
3. That's the donkey work out the way now lets use dvdauthor to create the DVD filesystem:
dvdauthor ./plan9.mpeg -o plan9
4. Now we need to create the titles in that filesystem. Nothing fancy, AFAIK these are just techincal titles as you wont actually see anything when you run this DVD in your DVD player:
dvdauthor -T -o ./plan9
5. Now it's time to master the dvd iso:
mkisofs -dvd-video -o plan9.iso ./plan9
6. Lets check the iso and make sure it looks good as DVD's are quite specific:
isoinfo -i plan9.iso -l
You should get output similar to what I got below:
Directory listing of /
d--------- 0 0 0 2048 Jul 18 2005 [ 276 02] .
d--------- 0 0 0 2048 Jul 18 2005 [ 276 02] ..
d--------- 0 0 0 2048 Jul 18 2005 [ 278 02] AUDIO_TS
d--------- 0 0 0 2048 Jul 18 2005 [ 277 02] VIDEO_TS
Directory listing of /AUDIO_TS/
d--------- 0 0 0 2048 Jul 18 2005 [ 278 02] .
d--------- 0 0 0 2048 Jul 18 2005 [ 276 02] ..
Directory listing of /VIDEO_TS/
d--------- 0 0 0 2048 Jul 18 2005 [ 277 02] .
d--------- 0 0 0 2048 Jul 18 2005 [ 276 02] ..
---------- 0 0 0 6144 Jul 18 2005 [ 282 00] VIDEO_TS.BUP;1
---------- 0 0 0 6144 Jul 18 2005 [ 279 00] VIDEO_TS.IFO;1
---------- 0 0 0 49152 Jul 18 2005 [1159328 00] VTS_01_0.BUP;1
---------- 0 0 0 49152 Jul 18 2005 [ 285 00] VTS_01_0.IFO;1
---------- 0 0 0 1073709056 Jul 18 2005 [ 309 00] VTS_01_1.VOB;1
---------- 0 0 0 1073709056 Jul 18 2005 [ 524581 00] VTS_01_2.VOB;1
---------- 0 0 0 226252800 Jul 18 2005 [1048853 00] VTS_01_3.VOB;1
Don't worry if some of the number are slightly different, the line in bold is the important bit, It has to contain the lowest number after the "." and ".." entries above it. All should be Ok though.
7. Next is the burning:
growisofs -dvd-compat -Z /dev/dvd=plan9.iso
Now sit back, wait for it to burn, eject it and go watch it with your friends and family with some pop corn :D