Authoring Woes

[Zeek]

Hi.

I was hoping some of you could help me with the headache that I've created for myself w/ DVD Decrypter. I have 3-4 movies that are copied to hd and are apparently missing some files. Think I probly just boobed on the settings with DVD Decrypter, but I guess it's a moot point now.

Anyway, what I have are several movies that all have an .ifo file and 4-5 (or whatever number of) titleset .vob files. I do NOT have the VIDEO_TS.VOB file, nor do I have the .bup. My question is: now what? My knowledge in this area is pretty limited, I have gotten quite a bit from these forums. Closest I've come to a solution is by using DVD-Lab to demux and remux the .vob's I have, but unfortunately the result hasn't been a happy ending for me. (Think there's a problem with my menu settings...either way, the "new" movie isn't playing.)

What are my options here? Frustrating to be able to play the sucker from hd, but in standalone. Any help would be much apprec...

Thanks!

Zeek

[ImaWeTodd]

I'd say the TS.vob file contains the menu stuff. So you lost that.

You may be able to use IFOEdit to create a new IFO file. If that does not work, you can definately use VOBEdit to demux the sound and the video out of the vobs, and then use your favorite authoring program to recreate the dvd without the menu and FBI warnings.

[Zeek]

I'd say the TS.vob file contains the menu stuff. So you lost that.

That's what I was afraid of. Oh, well.

Anyway, thanks for your advice. As I mentioned, DVD-Lab didn't work out so well for me. Not sure if it was something I did, or if it was the software itself as I've seen quite a few posts from ppl who've had problems with it. Trouble for me is that, if it IS the software, I really dunno if my problem is occuring during demux or authoring (I used DVD-Lab for both). I will definitely give your way(s) a try later tonight and will try another authoring program, as well. Thanks a bunch...

Zeek

[mkelley]

DVDLab should be able to help you here -- did you try importing your VOBs both with and without demuxing?

And exactly what problems are you encountering? I've been using DVDLab since the first beta and have burned dozens of disks without any problems at all. If you have problems you might want to post them on the DVDLab forum where lots of knowledgable users can help.

[Zeek]

mkelley,

The problems I described earlier where encountered when I let DVD-Lab do my demuxing for me. I was not able to try it the other way...I'll come back to why in a minute.

After demuxing, I've tried authoring using the same software and have ended up with the usual VIDEO and AUDIO_TS folders with (I blv) the usual goodies inside. My exact problem, and I apologize for not specifying before, is that when I try to play the newly authored file with PowerDVD, I see the PowerDVD logo come up (business as usual), then get a glimpse of the menu...and I do mean a glimpse...and then I'm back to PowerDVD. (How's that for a run-on sentence?) If I close the program and try again from scratch, I get the same result. If I try again without closing, I see only the PowerDVD logo. This is why I'm suspecting the problem may be with my menu.

Btw, to the best of my memory, this is how I went about things:
1. Opened DVD-Lab and dragged the vob's I have into the assets area.
2. Chose to demux.
3. Dragged my separate audio and video files into the movies section.
4. Regarding menu, I chose to add from template, dropped some text in
and created simple link to just start the movie.
5. Tried to compile, thought I succeeded (twice) and here I am. Movie
does not play on my standalone either.

As to why I did NOT demux, this will probably make you laugh...but I haven't yet figured out how to do it without making 5 separate movies for 5 sep .vob files. So that chapter is much shorter.

Sorry, I should've been a lot more informative in my earlier post. Hope this is better, and thanks for your help.

[Zeek]

Update: Vobedit/ifoedit worked fine. If anyone has any ideas on DVD-Lab, please do tell!

[jnk76]

Which movie do you not have the VIDEO_TS files? Which region?

[willy_annand]

Update: Vobedit/ifoedit worked fine. If anyone has any ideas on DVD-Lab, please do tell!

I use DVD-Lab and was reading through the documentation (sorry not sure if it was website, help file or PDF Manual).

I came across a comment from the author. Apparently Power DVD has trouble reading menus if the DVD was authored in anything other than Full-D1. If you author in Half-D1, CIF or a custom format with DVD-Lab, Power DVD has troubles.

Try the DVD on a stand alone that you know supports the burned format.

[Zeek]

Which movie do you not have the VIDEO_TS files? Which region?

JFK movie. I'm not at home at the moment, but I'm sure it's region 1.

willy_annand: If, after these last 2 days of headaches, it ends up that I did 99% of this thing right the first time, I'll be having some serious business at the post office...and I'm all out of mail.

[jnk76]

I would send you those files but I don't have that movie. Maybe someone else can just send those files. It should be very small file size.

[mkelley]

You can join VOBs into one using a wide variety of tools -- I even think TMPGEnc will do this -- so that would be your approach if you wanted to try DVDLab without demuxing. But I'm not sure that's your problem -- I don't think it's the movie that's causing difficulties.

You can easily test this -- use the "Dummy Movie" option when you compile your DVD. This writes out your menus without the actual movie, putting a placeholder in its place. (It's also extremely fast -- this is a good way to compile and then check your basic menu layout structure with PowerDVD).

My hunch is that even without the movie you'll have problems -- if so, then one of the earlier posters may be on the right track. Make sure you're compiling a full D1 project. But if the dummy movie one plays fine, at least then you know it's something to do with your VOB.

And be sure and post this situation on the DVDLab board (and let us know here what you found as well -- we all are learning *all* the time).

[Zeek]

Thanks, both of you.

mkelly, i will post in the other forum and will also re-test with the dummy option later today/tommorrow. Considering that I've already succeeded w/ vobedit and ifoedit, I can't see there being a problem with my vob's though. So, I think your hunch is right on. Even so, I'll give it another whirl and let you know what I find. As always, thanks for your help.

Z

[Zeek]

Ok, a few things:

1. I'll be damned. DVD-Lab worked this time. I first ran the dummy test,
it passed, and then I got my movie w/ no problem.

2. Do not know what Full-D1 is, but it is the default setting - and, for sure,
it was on for all my attempts.

3. I did read the help file and followed it to the letter, but it DEFINITELY did
not lead me into doing anything differently than what I did before, with
one minor exception: Last time I created links to my text in the menu, I
did it by right (alternate) clicking on the text box and adding the link.
This time around, I simply dragged and dropped from project window
into the menu one, as the quick tutorial says to.

4. Probably doesn't matter a bit, but I mis-spoke on the title. It was
Faceoff, not JFK. Region code is the same.


Sorry for no ball of fire type answer to this, but I am quite sure that things were done the same way every time with the one exception being noted above. Only possibilities for the mess that I can think of are a bug somewhere in the menu settings, a difference that was somehow made by my running the dummy test, or me boobing something up during the first tries I had at it. Now that the program IS working, I really like it. Hopefully this post will be of some use to someone else if they end up stuck in the mud like I was.

Thanks again. Definitely, I am learning *all* the time here, as well.

[mkelley]

Hmmm, interesting. If you have more time to experiment you might try and pin down if it IS the right-clicking versus drag thing (I have to say I've never used either -- I just go to the link setting on the right and choose the link from the box there).

Keep learning -- maybe one day we'll have all this stuff figured out <g>.

[willy_annand]

Do not know what Full-D1 is, but it is the default setting - and, for sure, it was on for all my attempts.

Full-D1 is 720x480, 4000-8000 Kbps
Half-D1 is 352x480, 2400 Kbps
CIF is 352x240, 1500 Kbps

[Zeek]

Thanks all. You're big help.