IFOedit

[Sakuya]

I have a segmented movie that won't work well when joined. But I cannot figure how to add 2 titles in IfoEdit. After I click ok to multiplex the first segment, it won't let me add another.

[Tommyknocker]

You can join the the two segments in TMPGEnc Plus! MPEG Tools, or some other MPEG joining software.

[Sakuya]

It won't work. There is something wrong with the files. They have AC3 files to go with them. Whenever I joined the M2V and the AC3 separately, it wouldn't sync. Or rather, whenever I author/burn to DVD using the joined outcome, the DVD would stop playing right where part 1 ends. So I'm assuming it would be the same in IfoEdit.

I am authoring part 1 and 2 separately in IFoEdit. Then I will open them and re-author using DVD Shrink. Not sure if it will work though because I want them to play seamlessly without having to pause in the area where they connect. I'll post here on my result!

[petar]

If you're authoring a DVD, don't join the videos/audios. The authoring application can do this for you (bar the most basic ones, they can all do this). If they were encoded at the same bitrate they can play seamlessly.

Authoring with IfoEdit and re-authoring with DVD Shrink will work just fine but your movies will be in separate VTSs so no way they'll play seamlessly.

[Sakuya]

I meant that my movie is divided into two segments. So I have 2 M2V files and 2 AC3 files. When I merge the M2V files, I get 1 M2V file for the whole movie. Same thing for the AC3. However, whenever I merge them, they don't play properly. Therefore, I can't merge them.

I tried but there is no way to put two video file on the same track in IfoEdit. So I authored each segment separately and then re-authored in DVD Shrink. As you said, there is a pause in the middle of the movie because the second segment is on the second track.

Isn't there some way to put the first video file as TRACK 1 TITLE 1 and the second video file TRACK 1 TITLE 2? I know this is possible in TMPGEnc DVD Authoring but I have selectable subtitle stream that TDA doesn't support. But I guess this will work.

[sihyp]

I know this is possible in TMPGEnc DVD Authoring but I have selectable subtitle stream that TDA doesn't support

Re-author your Ifoedit's VOBs with DVD-lab instead of DVDshrink.
After that, you need to edit the new IFO file, to ajust colors and subtitles with the same addresses you got in first authoring with IfoEdit.

[Sakuya]

But DVD-lab does not support subtitles. Anyway, it won't work for me because last time I used it (along with DVD-lab PRO), it wouldn't author for me (possibly because of that error). By not authoring, I mean, it multiplexes the title and then it finishes but the output folder is empty. So I gave up on it.

[petar]

What sihyp meant was to import the VOBs without multiplexing. There's a guide somewhere on this site (do a search) on how to do it. Use the last stable version of DVD-Lab that worked for you. I think all versions from day one allowed importing of VOBs.

But if you want to do the job right you'll need to use an authoring tool that supports subtitles (but a proper one, not IfoEdit). That's the only way to get seamless play.

Or you can try merging everything before authoring but it's not easy. You said you tried but with no luck. Both mpeg and ac3 have built in timecodes and headers with info about the stream so you can't just join the files together. For mpeg try the MPEG tools in TMPGEnc as I think it re-writes the header when merging. For the AC3 I don't know any tool. I'd convert to WAV first because WAV doesn't have timecodes and you should be able to merge without problems with something like addawav. Then convert back to AC3. There are several guides on this site on how to do it. Though Dolby owns AC3 so I don't know how compatible all these freeware tools are. If your player supports mp2 convert to that (but if the AC3 has more than 2 channels probably you wouldn't be too happy about loosing a nice surround sound).

I don't normally merge files so all these are just suggestions I could think of but I've never done anything like this. I'd get a good authoring tool for this job (or borrow one from a friend).