RE: audio skew with VobEdit joined DVDs

[ducky303]

I have 12 Carnivale episodes - two on each DVD. Each episode is contained in two VOBs. I want to put 4 episodes on one disc thereby only requiring to burn 3 DVDs.

As I mentioned before, each episode is contained in two VOBs, so I copied the four from disc 1 and the four from disc 2 to another location. I renamed them VTS_01_001.VOB to VTS_01_008.VOB. Then I joined them using VobEdit. Next, I opened DVDLab Pro v1.53 using the SIMPLE project template, and loaded the new VOBs into the Assets Window. DVDlab demuxed them into the mpv video and two ac3 files (dolby 5.0 and 2.0). I added the demuxed video and audio into the appropriate places and DVDlab compiled the DVD files. I shrunk them with DVD Shrink, and then used Nero to burn to DVD+RW.

When I viewed the DVD on my TV, the first two episodes (from disc 1) were fine, the audio and video were in sync. Then when I viewed episodes 3 and 4 (VOBs copied from disc 2) the audio and video were out of sync.

I am at a loss why this problem is occurring. Would someone be able to help me?

Thanks,

ducky303

[guns1inger]

There are a number of places thing might have gone wrong here.

1. Renaming VOBs is not a good idea. VOBs contain more than just video and audio data, so renaming them might produce unexpected or undesirable results.

2. DVD Lab's demuxer usually works, but can simetimes cause issues. I usually use ReJig to demux before going into DLP.

3. Joining VOBs can cause issues from time to time. Using rejig to demux will produce a joined audio and video stream without issues.

If this were my project, I would use Rejig to demux the audio and video from the original VOBs without renaming or changing them first. Rejig will produced joined output, so you will get a contiuos video and audio stream to work with. Bring the streams into DVD Lab Pro to author. I would then test them before doing anything else to them. Finally, Shrink if you must.

[ducky303]

Thanks for the reply guns1inger, much appreciated.

I'm a little confused. As I mentioned before I want to create a DVD with two episodes from disc 1 and two from disc 2. Using Rejig to demux the original VOBs on disc 1, I will get a video stream. And doing the same for the VOBs on disc 2 will give me another separate video stream.

Will DVDlab allow me to specify two separate video streams in one project? As far as I am aware, DVDlab will only accept one video stream that is why I decided to join all the separate VOBs and then demux them into one big video stream and subsequent audio streams.

[guns1inger]

You can have multiple titles in DVD Lab, but only one titleset unless you use the Pro version. Should not be a problem so long as they have the same audio format. If you use DVD Lab Pro then they can even have different audio formats because they can be in different titlesets.

[ducky303]

Oh, that's excellent. I'm a novice user to DVDlab Pro, is there an easy guide on how to add another titleset to a project?

[guns1inger]

If these are from the same set then you should need to to add another titleset, just add another movie. Import both mpegs as assets (with associated audio, of course). Drag the first mpeg and audio to the default movie object, then add another movie object and do the same for the second mpeg.audio files.

As for guides, start here https://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=DVD-lab. They are for DVD Lab, but apply to DVD Lab Pro and are generally pitched at beginner level.

[ducky303]

brilliant. thank you so much for your help. adding a movie like you mentioned above should not be a problem. And I will download Rejig now for the demuxing process.

Have to wait til works ends before I can try this out. 6 hrs 08 minutes to go...

[ducky303]

It worked wonderfully - I add 4 movies, one for each episode, to the project and linked the menu buttons to the appropriate ones.

I encountered a small problem along the way though. I used ChapterXtractor on the original IFO files to get the chapter information for each episode. I told ChapterXtractor to save the chapters by frame number to a text file. I then frame indexed the movie, and imported the chapters text file. DVDlab imported the chapters fine. However, when I added a Chapter Play List for the first movie and wanted to add the relevant chapters for the episode, I noticed that all the chapters I had imported had minus signs next to the time eg. chapter 2 was at 00:-59:-24, and chapter 3 was at 00:-48:-12. As the chapter number increased the time got smaller.

Should I let DVDlab automatically put in chapter points instead?

[guns1inger]

It is really up to you. I'm curious as to why DLP has mis-read the file, and it is probably worth chasing that up over at the mediachance forums. There might even be a solution there. For most of my avi conversions I let DLP add the chapters because they really don't mean much. Just a quick way to get from a to b. Sometimes I just add 22 chapters (arbitrary number), sometimes I let DLP do the work. I find a sensitivity of around 204 is pretty good in most cases.

For personal projects I always place them by hand.

[mikiem]

Could the vid file start time be wrong? I've seen a few that when imported into DL or DLP show other then 0. Restream or DGPulldown fixes the timestamp prob.

[ducky303]

hi mikiem, I dont think the vid stat time is wrong - chapter 1 is 00:00:00. I found a workaround though, I imported the chapters from the text file, clicked on each one, deleted it, then added a new chapter at exactly the same location. Previously, there was no time code or frame information above each chapter point, but when I got DVDlab Pro to create the new chapter points, the correct information appeared.

[ducky303]

@guns1inger - I used Vobsub to obtain the subtitle files from the Carnivale episodes. Then I used Subresync to convert the .sub files to .srt. During the conversion process, I noticed there were instances where the subtitles were italicized. I used a program called DivXland Media Subtitler to edit the .srt file and add in the italics at the appropriate places.

When I imported the .srt file into DvdLab Pro v1.53, I noticed that the italics were gone. Is there a subtitle format which when imported into dvdlab pro will actually keep the formatting, or is it that the version of dvdlab pro that I have cannot accept formatting in subs?

thanks again for your help.

d.