DVD Audio Extraction with GraphEdit

Graphedit is by far the best method for extracting audio from a DVD. The quality is perfect, the sound doesn't need normalizing (i.e. increasing the volume). It rips 10 times faster than ac3dec and there is almost never any synch problems! As always the DVD Vob files need to be decrypted to your hard disk or GraphEdit will not be able to read them.

Put GraphEdit in a folder somewhere and register all the filters with RegDrop. This is easy, you simply drag the .ax file over the RegDrop program and your files are registered. Like this:

Or you can just use the DOS line command Regsvr32 (ie. regsvr32 "C:\folder\filename.ax").

MAKING A LIST FILE (*.LST)

Next we need to have a text file with a list of all the DVD movie files that we wish to extract the sound from. If you used SmartRipper to extract the movie files in its 'movie mode', it would have created a list file for you called something like vts_0x.lst. If you used Mpeg2avi to encode your movie you should still have one.

If not, open notepad or wordpad or whatever text editor you like and put the names of the vob files you want to extract the audio from on it, like this:

Save the file as whatever name you like and put a .lst extension on it. For example, you can save the file as "dvd.lst", but please remember to add the quotation marks to force the text editor to save the file as a .lst extension, otherwise it will save it as dvd.lst.txt or dvd.lst.doc or whatever and it wont work! We do this so that, instead of choosing just one individual .Vob file at a time, we can just select the dvd.lst file instead! Then all the files written in it will be encoded and joined together into one whole file!

GETTING THE AUDIO

GraphEdit looks baffling to the newbie because its vague about what it says it does! Basically, all windows media files need codec's to play them; that is why you need to install the DivX codecs so you can play or encode to DivX. GraphEdit lets you connect one decoder directly to another by dragging a line between them. Each codec is represented by a box with the codec's name writen on it. By connecting the correct encoder and decoder boxes between your Vob file and the output 'File Writer' filer you can convert any Vob audio to a Wave.

So, open up Graphedit. Go to Graph > insert filters and up will pop the following box. All of the files you need will come under the category of Directshow Filters because they are designed to play Audio and Video.

First, insert the 'I-Media Multiple MPEG2 Source' filter. It will ask you for the location of the .lst file we made and called dvd.lst. Select it and press open. Then the first box (top left of the picture below) will appear. If you only have one Vob file, you can use 'File Source (Async.)' instead of a dvd.lst file.

Next, tell it the output location by inserting the 'File Writer' filter. Again another browser window appears and ask you where you want the audio saved. You can see this box at the far right of the picture below saying C:\rip\output.wav.

Next we must choose all those conversion filters placed in-between the in and out. Choose the following: MPEG-2 Splitter (or Ligos Mpeg Splitter); WAV Dest and InterVideo Audio Decoder. Finally, you must drag the arrow from the first 'Output' box to the Mpeg-2 box; then drag from the AC3 peg to the Intervideo Audio Decoder; then finally again to the in box where you save your file. Well, as long as it looks like the image above you are fine.

Notice also the AC3 points (encircled in red). These represent alternative audio tracks (ie. German, French etc.,) if you don't get the audio track you want, try the next one in the list until you find it. English is usually the first one, though, and I have chosen that in the above picture.

If you want to set the WinDVD to stereo just right click on the InterVideo box and choose properties, like so:

Okay, once you are finished setting it up press the play button and wait for your finished Wave audio. Remember this could end up about a Gigabyte or two in size so make sure you have the space free. There are many other ways to use GraphEdit to get sound and even video, but this is the most common and most effective method I know.

Graphedit may appear like its not doing anything because there is no progess bar. But as long as the 'play' button is grayed out it will be processing. You will know when its finished when it turns dark again.

OTHER GRAPHEDIT TRICKS

Note: The following additional information is for novelty value and come with no guarantee's. Connecting graphs can be tricky, so please don't email me if the following don't work for you.

EXTRACTING AN AC3 AUDIO FROM A DVD

Now that you understand how Graphedit works it will be easier to show you how to do lots of other things. For example, to extract the AC3 audio from a Vob file you can do this.

First use 'File Source (Async.)' and locate the vob file you wish to get the audio from. Then insert the 'Mpeg-2 Splitter'. And finally insert the 'Dump' filter and locate where you want to save the ac3 audio. Name it something.ac3 and press ok. Then Press play and wait.

EXTRACTING THE VIDEO FROM A DVD

Same again, only instead of connecting the 'Dump' filter to the AC3 pin we connect it to the Video pin. We then name the video something.mpv (which is an Mpeg-2 file extention).

COMPRESSING AUDIO WITH GRAPHEDIT

While I'm at it, it may be interesting to know that you can also compress most audio types if you use the 'Wav Dest' and 'File Writer' filters. This can be useful if you are running short on Hard Disk space. Lets say you want to extract an AC3 file but its too large as a PCM, you could convert it to Mp3. But before I show you that, lets see what we need to change a PCM Wav into Mp3, select:

Then go into the Audio Compressor's section and choose MPEG Layer-3.

Select either an wave audio file or an .AVI file using the 'File Source (Async)' Filter. Then drag it to the 'MPEG Layer-3'.

Bingo! Two more filters will appear between them, namely, the 'Wave Parser' and the 'ACM Wrapper'.

Finish the connections, press play and you will have mp3! But this is not the ideal way to compress audio o mp3! There is little no control. It will defaut to the first setting (i.e. 320kbit/s mp3) and the mp3 will also only take standard samplerates! =(

NOW FROM AC3 to MP3

The only differnce with this one is that InterVideo does all the Wav Parsing and so forth for us. We must set it to stereo too to make sure it converts correctly. This is done by right-clicking on the box and selecting it as in the picture below.

EXTRACTING THE AUDIO & VIDEO FROM AN MPEG-1 FILE

Graphedit can also be used to extract audio or video from other file formats, not just DVD. Lets take Mpeg-1 as a final example, we use:

Mpeg-1 audio and video extraction is just as easy. We select the input file 'File Source (Async.)'. Split it with Microsofts 'MPEG-I Stream Splitter'. And use the 'Dump' filter twice - once to save the file: audio.mpa and the other to save: video.mpv.

I have highlighted some of the most useful things you can do with graphedit, but I'm sure now you have the idea you will find many more ways to do things.