dvdbackup - how to read from hdd

I've copied some DVDs to an hdd - VIDNAME/VIDEO_TS which contains the usual IFO, VOB and BUP files.

dvdbackup is a great program, it can extract titles and chapters as you wish but it only reads from an actual dvd drive:
-i, --input=DEVICE where DEVICE is your DVD device
if not given /dev/dvd is used

My dvd drive is sadly no longer but I did manage to copy a number of dvd's to an hdd.

How can I simulate a dvd drive for dvdbackup to process a folder with the dvd folders in it?

Oddly dvdbackup can read the structure of the dvd with the -I switch
-I, --info prints information about the DVD

Code:charlie@charlie-machine:/home/charlie/BillAbbot$ pwd dvdbackup -I -i .
libdvdread: Couldn't find device name.
Cannot read title from DVD device .
DVD-Video information of the DVD with title ""

File Structure DVD
VIDEO_TS/
VIDEO_TS.IFO 20480 20.00 KiB
VIDEO_TS.VOB 40775680 38.89 MiB
VTS_00_0.IFO 20480 20.00 KiB
VTS_00_0.VOB 40775680 38.89 MiBOne of the messages I get is:
Code:Cannot open specified device /dev/dvd - check your DVD deviceSo maybe I need to mount the folder /home/charlie/BillAbbot as /dev/dvd

Any ideas folks?

BTW I tried gcdemu without any success.