Need help w/ GUI For dvdauthor - Demuxed mpg throwing Discontinuity error.

[palouse]

What do I need to do to demux .mpg files so that GUI For dvdauthor (GFD) will create a DVD without "discontinuity" error?

I have 10 sets of demuxed files I want put into one DVD. At the point where I attempt to "Create DVD" in GFD, I am receiving the following error, as seen in the log:
"WARN: Discontinuity 4702 in audio channel 8; please remultiplex input."

The error occurs thousands of times, and very quickly the application seems to lock up. Every 5th error will be "Discontinuity 7053" instead of 4702. GFD continues to run, and even puts out vob files, but takes 5 hours to get through the first two 5 minute segments, and start the third (of 10 segments).

Goal: Put 10 individual VHS segments onto one DVD with simple main menu, playable in any cheap home DVD player.

Source: 9 low-quality copies of original home videos (VHS tapes), 1 studio-quality VHS-S segment. Play back on quality, JVC TBC-enabled player (HR-8500?)
Capture: ATI MMC 9.xx software, and ATI VIVO enabled video card. Result is 10 individual, muxed .mpg files.
DeMux: DGDecode v1.4.9. Result is 10 sets of .mv2, *.demuxed.mpg, and .ac3 files.
Author: GFD, latest available version.
Author Hardware: AMD X2 @2800MHz, 2 GB memory, 2 HD: one for source and one for target.

History:
In order to preserve important home videos, make them available on DVD players. It took forever to find a MMC version compatible with my hardware, but it now captures .mpg files that look and sound as good as the original VHS, when viewed on a computer flat panel. I can play back each .mpg file using Intervideo-4 that was bundled with a DVD drive. I captured at high resolution, 720x480, guestimating the size would be about right for one 4 GB DVD. I chose 720x480 over 352x480 just because I could. I spent much time on How to Capturing MPEG with an ATI card. Re-capturing 2 hours of video of screeming grade school kids is not an option, and I otherwise like the GFD user interface.

After much research, I chose GFD to author the DVD, and after the fact I found that GFD requires demuxed .mpg, no GOP otherwise. I had muxed .mpg. ATI MMC does not allow demuxed capture.

After much research, I chose DGDecode to demux the .mpg files.

When I attempted to author the demuxed files with GFD, my guestimate was off by 5 minutes. Total size of files were too big by about 5 minutes. Authoring process ran through the initial vob creation, and stopped (failed).

I tried DVFlick to author the .mpg, and it accepted the muxed format and seemed to work, except for the file size. However, the menu function was too simple, and I read something about problems with the resulting DVD format being compatible on all reader formats.

I chose one larger VHS segment, recaptured at 352x480, and this one video/audio file set is now significantly smaller, enabling the whole to be under 4 Gb. Now, GFD says size is acceptable, but throws the "discontinuity" errors. The re-captured file is the third in the sequence. The errors are thrown for the two file sets before getting to the third.

I found one post from Abond suggesting to take demuxed files, remux using MuxMan into one large vob file, import into GFD for authoring. It sounds similar to my issue, but capture-demux-remux-author seems a bit excessive.

Anomalies (are these part of the problem?):
1) When I first bring a demuxed video file into GFD, the file properties popup screen shows the "FPS" in red letters (indicating a warning) of "29". All 10 files show this FPS.
2) I very carefully captured audio at 48000KHz. The GFD audio file properties popup shows the audio as "44100 KHz". If this is significant, why?

Can I not mix 720x480 and 352x480 formats on the same DVD using GFD?
Is it the demux program or process?
Is there a way to author the captured (muxed) .mpg files without the demux intermediate step?

Enough detail?

[borax]

Enough detail?
Yes (at least for the moment...).
Let's start with the most obvious problem:

I very carefully captured audio at 48000KHz. The GFD audio file properties popup shows the audio as "44100 KHz". If this is significant, why?

This is significant!
IMHO GfD shows you the correct (wrong!) setting. Your audio is 44100 KHz. I don't know why, but the error: Discontinuity in audio channel 8; please remultiplex input' is just the way dvdauthor itself tells you there is a problem with the audio... Please recheck the audio file(s) with gspot, audacity or similar.
The second problem is the video framerate. FPS 29 is not allowed for DVDs. It has to be 29.97 (or 25 if it is PAL standard).

Other topics:
Using MuxMan is now simple (as it is just a setting in GfD). In the default permanent settings select MuxMan as authoring engine and the whole DVD will be created using MuxMan (multiplexing and authoring).

You can mix 720x480 and 352x480 formats on the same DVD, if you put the movies in different titlesets (make sure you set the tag for 'Use Titlesets' in the default project settings)

Is there a way to author the captured (muxed) .mpg files without the demux intermediate step?

. Yes, maybe. If the files are DVD compliant and contain navigation packs, GfD and dvdauthor (not MuxMan!) will happily use it...
One way to achieve this could be using VideoReDo

[palouse]

[quote="borax"]IMHO GfD shows you the correct (wrong!) setting. Your audio is 44100 KHz. I don't know why, but the error: Discontinuity in audio channel 8; please remultiplex input' [quote]
Thank you for your reply. I'm on vacation with only dial up access, I'll post a better follow up question next week. I'm not pointing a finger at GFD, but I do need to know what GFD will accept. Every new tool I put into the stream adds new variables. Is the problem the undocumented capture software, is it a missed parameter in the demux software, etc, etc. When I get back, I will play with the possibilities, again.

[borax]

Is the problem the undocumented capture software

That's the point to start with. The captured movies should be the best possible solution. Everything that comes later in the chain, can only try to fix problems/errors in the captured files which complicates things... Maybe it would be better to capture in another format and use a good encoder to create dvd compliant mpeg files.

[Nelson37]

There is a serious error or omission in your procedure chain.

I do not see how it is possible to get AC3 files from the way you are proceeding.

These must become encoded from the original MPG-2 audio at some point, this is most likely where the change to 44k happens.

Strongly recommend using 720x480 to capture. Reduce bitrate slightly so as to reduce the File Size. The File Size is too big, not the Running Time.

On your MMC, the "xx" in "9.xx" is extremely important, as the program changed fundamentally at 9.12.

Captured files in general, and ATI ones in particular, require some special handling. Progs must be able to deal correctly with the Padding stream.

Your error seems specific to audio sampling rate, please illuminate this area more thoroughly.