Having problems with MPG-HD to MKV

[SpydaMan]

Ok I will give a long version for those that really really care to help and a summary version as well.

Basically I've been trying to back up all my DVDs onto an external HDD that I bought. I've been using a tutorial I found that converts the VOBs to MKV to save space while having the greatest over all quality. The tools I use are Gordian Knot and Megui. Well today I wanted to go a little farther as I've already done a few DVDs. Today I captured something from my TV that is in HD using a firewire and CAPDVHS. I had to trim the file (as when capturing you have to give it more time than what you are capturing as the stream is not 100% and lags a bit) so I lopped off a good 5+ minutes using MPG Video Wizard.

So the next step is to "Prepare the VOBs" in Gordian Knot. But when I go to import the .mpg files of the captured video it tells me "No data. Check your PIDs." Now I am no video expert at all and have no clue what any of that means. I even tried the original mpg file with the extra blank video on it as well, which gets me the same result. Any clue as what to do?


Summary:
Basically I capped a HD MPG video, and am trying to convert it to mpg using both Gordian Knot and Megui. With the first step in Gordian Knot ("Prepare the VOBs") I continuously get the message "No data. Check your PIDs." Any clue as what to do?

[poisondeathray]

Summary:
Basically I capped a HD MPG video, and am trying to convert it to mpg using both Gordian Knot and Megui. With the first step in Gordian Knot ("Prepare the VOBs") I continuously get the message "No data. Check your PIDs." Any clue as what to do?

I don't understand maybe you can clarify:

Is your end goal h.264 video in .mkv container? I can't understand the workflow "trying to convert it to mpg using GK and Megui?"

Isn't your capped footage .mpg?

[SpydaMan]

Oh yes, that was a mistake. That is indeed my end goal.

[poisondeathray]

Why not use MeGUI's d2v creator to create a d2v file, then use MeGUI's avisynth script creator, and run it through MeGUI?

I don't understand the intermediate requirement for GK

[SpydaMan]

I don't know how to use that, but I'm sure there's a tutorial on this site that could help me.

That step that I'm trying to do, I'm pretty sure it just extracts the ac3 file, then you convert it to wav, then you use MeGUI to convert that to mp4.

However I would like to use GK's little crop tool it has, as I don't know of a better one.



Edit: I just tried that, but the problem is clearly either with DGIndex or with the mpg file it self.

[poisondeathray]

SpydaMan, when you use the d2v creater, make sure you select "demux all audio tracks" (its the 2nd option)

This will leave you an AC3 file that you use as the input for the audio portion. You cannot use the .mpg or .d2v directly as audio input.

If none of this makes any sense to you just ask, and I'll put up some screen shots.

EDIT: If you want to edit you .mpg beforehand (like cutting out commercials, etc) you can use videoredo (trialware), womble(trialware) or mpg2cut2 (free).

[SpydaMan]

Still won't work.



That's the message I get every time. But there definitely is video and audio.

Edit: I do you Womble . I use MPG Wizard.

[poisondeathray]

I haven't used Womble for a while, but did you edit at the GOP level (I don't know if that's the right term, I'm trying to say something analagous to key frames) => I'm guessing that might cause an error

Also, what version of MeGUI (0.3.0.1004), dgindex (1.50b10-1) are you using?

This might be unrelated but I had errors with avisynth 2.5.8 which were fixed with 2.5.7

[SpydaMan]

MeGUI 0.2.6.1041 (always asks me if I want to uploads, and always fails).
DGIndex 1.43

[poisondeathray]

I am certain you don't need the intermediate step of GK, I have done many conversions without it.

I doubt it will help, but if you want to update to the latest beta software

options=> settings=> extra config tab => configure servers => drop down menu select "development"

I think there is an error in your .mpg file, perhaps induced by the editing step. The expert on dgindex is neruon2 at doom9 forums. If you still can't solve your problem post here:

http://forum.doom9.org/forumdisplay.php?f=5

EDIT: maybe you should try updating dgindex. If you check the release log, several revisions above 1.43 have improved PID detection.

[SpydaMan]

That actually did it man! Atleast so far! I updated to the next version and that seemed to pick it up. I guess because it was DVD. Thanks a lot for your help and patience!