Ripping Wii Discs

Kumatora · Post by **Kumatora** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 10:52 pm

Yeah, it's similar to my capturing topics, but whatever.

I rather not go searching online for an ISO of the game online to extract cutscene footage from a game, especially when I own the game in the first place.

If it's possible, how do I extract them? I'd like to remake one of my videos that was just a quality nightmare.

Org Profile · Post by **LantisEscudo** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 11:28 pm

It's possible to rip Wii and Gamecube disks, but you need one of about 4 specific Hitachi-made DVD drives. They're DVD-ROM only drives, though, and all are now discontinued, so it's difficult to get your hands on one.

If you can get one, a program called RawDump 2.1 can rip the ISO file for you; I'm not sure how to pull files out of the ISOs on Windows, though, I've been using a Unix-based application on my Mac to do it.

Org Profile · Post by **LantisEscudo** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 11:33 pm

Just to follow up, the four drives are manufactured by Hitachi, but are frequently branded with the LG name. The model numbers (all with a GDR- prefix) are 8161, 8162, 8163, and 8164 (so, for example, I have a GDR-8161).

Kumatora · Post by **Kumatora** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 5:46 am

Thanks. It looks like it may not be worth it though since they're discontinued. Looks like I'll have to stick to analog capturing for now at least.

shirohamada · Post by **shirohamada** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 4:48 pm

what kind of video to look for? mpeg2? 4?

Org Profile · Post by **LantisEscudo** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 4:57 pm

Wii and GC games' video is usually in an unusual form of MJPEG, called THP (there are also some videos in a minor variant called MTH). ffmpeg is able to handle THPs, last I checked, MTHes fail, though.

A few games use a format known as H4A, which there isn't a decoder for yet, and I think there's one or two other formats I'm forgetting.