VOB question

[danielmak]

I have a DVD-R that won't copy in Toast (I get a copy protection error even though it is not copy protected), won't play with Apple's DVD player, and can't be read by MTR. I can, however, drag and drop the individual VTS_VOB files from the DVD to my desktop and those VOBs can be read by Toast in the Video burning setting, so I am assuming that the IFOs, BUPs, or VIDEO_TS.VOB is/are corrupt. I have a three-part question:

1. The video is 50 minutes long. The first VTS_VOB contains the first 15 minutes of the DVD (more or less), the second contains the first 30 minutes, and the third is 50 minutes long (it contains the complete image). Why are all three VTS_VOBs in the VIDEO_TS folder if the 3rd contains the full video? I guess this is sort of an anatomy of the VIDEO_TS folder question.

2. If I only burn the 3rd VTS_VOB am I losing something in terms of quality?

3. Because VTS_VOB 1, 2, and 3 contain the same basic information, it seems as if I only need to burn the third VTS_VOB. Given the possible answers to #2, should I burn all three VTS_VOBs? My sense is that doing that will just produce the first 15 minutes X 3, the first 30 minutes X 2, and the full video once; watching the DVD would feel like one of those movies where the day starts over again (over and over).

Thanks for the help.

[rumplestiltskin]

Wow! That's a weird situation. I'd say copy the VOB#3 to your hard drive, eject the DVD, and play the VOB with VLC. If it all plays properly, then drop the VOB into Toast and let it come up with the proper structure for a DVD. Set the encoding to "never" and, perhaps, it will all just come out fine.

Let us know what happens.

[tomlee59]

That structure may seem odd, but actually some DVDs are deliberately authored that way. A common use is to give the viewer an option to watch, say, special features which may have multiple parts. You can choose to watch Part 1 alone, or Part 2 alone, or both Parts 1 and 2 together. These three options could be authored as three separate titles, corresponding to the arrangement you've described.

Since you are able to copy the individual VOBs to your HD, but you suspect a corrupt IFO file is causing problems, rename the suspect IFO's extension to something else, like IFX, and place it in some other folder. Then make a copy of the corresponding BUP, and change its extension to IFO, and see what happens. That might fix the problems you are having (the BUP file is not always automatically used in place of IFO, hence this explicit renaming ritual).

[pixel zombie]

see if you can extract it with YADE...

[danielmak]

Thanks for the replies and apologies for my delayed response. Busy week. I am able to play all 3 VOBs with VLC and all 3 can be read by Toast in the Video setting. Because the 3rd one is the longest and the full length of the footage, I went with that one. Toast creates new BUPs and IFOs when the DVD is burned.

I can't say why there are 3 VOB files. I am mostly dealing with video footage of old soccer games, so sometimes the original DVD was made on a set-top DVD recorder with a menu that has 1st half, 2nd half, and Play All. But this particular DVD is 50 minute highlights (a normal game is 90 minutes). I think the splitting of VOBs is standard when recording on a set-top. For example, I have another game right now that has only 1 title but there are 3 VTS_VOB files. I haven't looked at the files to see if the 3rd one is complete and the other 2 are shorter versions of the footage that is complete in the 3rd. But in the end, I was hoping to learn from y'all if there will be a drop in quality by just burning the single VTS_VOB and I get the sense that that's not the case. Thanks again.

EDIT: Forgot to add that I didn't test it with YADE since I didn't have the program until now, although I could only find a French version, which shouldn't be a problem given the general similarity of ideas when it comes to software programs and where one would find commands, but my initial scan of the program runs counter to that (i.e., I can't figure out what I should select to try to rip from a DVD or what I would select if I want to rip a specific VOB). Searching this forum, I found a post from 2006 about a Yade English version. Anyone know where I could find that and if it would still be useful in times when MTR won't read a file?