Vobblanker vs Ripit4me

[spiritgumm]

I'd like to make dvds go immediately to the Main menu, and get rid of minor "extras"(previews, etc). Ripit4me does thie Menu-jumping perfectly - Main menu starts effortlessly and immediately. However, Ripit doesn't really blank out all the unwanted material, and author-files at the very end of dvd still play.
I fumbled thru with blanking unwanted files/menus with Vobblanker, and it seemed to work perfectly, except my dvd player makes several groaning sounds trying to find the Main menu at the start. Can I make this jump more direct while I'm working on the dvd in Vobblanker? I tried to fix it in Pgcedit but couldn't successfully get the "jump to" macro to work with it.

Also I noticed if you do any cell-trimming in Vobblanker, it gives a warning window that "Vobblanker will mark this as a broken GOP so it will be decoded properly." Is this an issue to worry about?

[manono]

Hi-

Can I make this jump more direct while I'm working on the dvd in Vobblanker? I tried to fix it in Pgcedit but couldn't successfully get the "jump to" macro to work with it.

Nope, not with VobBlanker. Your DVD player still has to pass through all the blanked PGCs, which can mean delays of up to several seconds before it reaches the menu. The best and easiest way is using PGCEdit. I don't know what your problem is with it, but Trace to the Menu, right-click it and "Toggle PGC pre/post Breakpoint". Trace again back to that menu, and then, up at the top, PGC->Jump To PGC Upon DVD Insert. Save and test. Works every time for me.

Is this an issue to worry about?

I see the warning sometimes too, but haven't seen any problems resulting from the cut, like corrupted video or anything.

[spiritgumm]

That's good to know the video probably isn't corrupted.
Is Vobblanker really meant for edting, or is the cell function just for minor adjustments? And is there a way to get some audio during the preview/cutting?
Also wondering if deleting (instead of blanking) is a good or bad thing to do?

I followed Blutach's Pgcedit tutorial (in doom9 forum), which is the same as your description. He describes certain errors one might get and recommends repeating the run-trace until it works. I've tried and done one dvd (got predicted errors, so re-ran it and succeeded) but this time, I'm getting an error he didn't account for - that there's no video in the vts. Since it's the only method, I'll give it another shot.
Too bad Ripit4me doesn't have that specific function individually accessible (for a movie on the HD, rather than having to re-rip the dvd).

[VegasBud]

spiritgumm,

Since you pick where to put the breakpoint, if it's going to the wrong location, it sounds like the breakpoint wasn't placed right. Are you clicking the little button at the bottom left of the PgcEdit window to restart the trace each time?

Like manono, I've used the "Jump to..." macro many times, and have never had a problem with it.

[spiritgumm]

I, er, forgot-to-leave-the-cursor-on-a-line in-the pgc-window-after-setting-the-pre/post-command, but anyway, enough of that trivial problem. Jumps right to the menu. I never had any doubts.

Any suggestions/info about my other questions?

[Alex_ander]

You need not blank anything (new problems may occur) unless you have to clear space for rebuilt DVD. Usually you have to edit a command linking from first play to the first shown menu and re-address it to another menu item.
From my recent experience (I'm a DVDRemakePro user). I wanted to bypass language selection menu followed by FBI warning (or warning in another language) and to go directly to title menu. I had to simply change one digit in a pre-command of one menu PGC and it went to the menu item I wanted.
Probably this could be done in IFOEdit or PGCEdit, the problem is to identify that place. DVDRemakePro gives proper visual access to your DVD structure.

[VegasBud]

spiritgumm,

No, the order shouldn't matter at all. I normally use VobBlanker first, then PgcEdit, so that PgcEdit has the "end result" to work with.

Is this the guide you're using? If you're using another guide, please switch to this one.

[manono]

Probably this could be done in IFOEdit or PGCEdit, the problem is to identify that place. DVDRemakePro gives proper visual access to your DVD structure.

You can do all that just as easily using PGCEdit. Plus it's free.

[VegasBud]

Alex_ander,

The remake method you suggest is not a good idea. While it may work in some cases, it absolutely will cause all kinds of problems in many other cases. It is completely different from what PgcEdit is doing.

The PgcEdit "Jump to..." macro traces through all the commands to wherever you set the breakpoint, saves the state of the player at that point, modifies the nav commands to jump to the breakpoint, and then restores the state of the player. Consequently, when you play the modified dvd, the player's state is set identically to what it would be if you played the original dvd all the way from the beginning.

My advice is to forget remake, and use PgcEdit to do the job right.

[VegasBud]

spiritgumm,

Sorry, I didn't see your edits. To answer your questions:

While VobBlanker works fine for one edit per cell (or multiple cell in one pgc), it isn't set up for multiple edits per cell in one session.

No, you can't hear the audio in VobBlanker. Maybe in a future version, maybe not.

On the "deleting instead of blanking" question, I'm going to have to go with the "bad thing" option. I'm sure it could be done, but it would take a lot more work to ensure you didn't mess up the navigational structure by doing so. I would guess that's why there's a VobBlanker program, but no VobDeleter program.

To make sure you're aware of your options...since you seem to really like the RipIt4Me "Jump to Main Menu" function, you can use that if you want, and then use VobBlanker to remove the skipped over material. I only use the PgcEdit "Jump to..." macro because sometimes there's a video lead-in to the main menu that gets skipped doing it the RipIt4Me way.

[spiritgumm]

Since I got Pgcedit to work, I don't need Ripit4me to do anything. Considering what little it give you, it's a waste of time compared with Vobblanker/Pgcedit.

I would guess that's why there's a VobBlanker program, but no VobDeleter program.

Touche! Nevertheless, it does have the "Delete" option, which I've experimented with but am unsure what it did - dvd played the same. I forget if I compared the before-and-after in PGCedit to see if anything was really deleted.
Anyway, blanking is a dream come true. Thanks for all the info. Now to figure out how to edit with VOB's...

[SingSing]

The biggest drawback with ripit4me is it currently can't rip from a folder. Otherwise it is a great one-for-all tool.

[spiritgumm]

Yeah, that's a drawback, but it's not like it's doing much for you in the first place. Pgcedit (when done correctly) will re-do the Dvd starting point instanteously (no processing time). Ripit seems to bypass rather than blank-out warnings, etc. I'd just assume have them blanked.
I haven't tried Ripit's "Movie + Menu" or "Movie only" option, so I don't know if it will then eliminate the Dvd end-stuff (dvd authoring company credits, etc). When I backed up a multi-episode dvd, it kept the end-stuff which still played on the dvd.
Ripit takes longer than Vobblanker which processes in only 5 minutes whether the movie is on the HD or while it rips it from dvd to HD. Vobblanker is insanely good.

[SingSing]

I haven't tried Ripit's "Movie + Menu" or "Movie only" option, so I don't know if it will then eliminate the Dvd end-stuff (dvd authoring company credits, etc).

"Movie+menu" is one of the great features from ripit4me. It is much much better than "movie only", typically from DVDshrink reauthor mode.

It does get rip of everythings except the menu and movie.

The catch is copyright and studio spalsh screen often embedded as part of the movie, then VOBblanker is needed to take them out.

So, ripit4me then VOBblanker is the way to go.

[VegasBud]

Since I got Pgcedit to work, I don't need Ripit4me to do anything. Considering what little it give you, it's a waste of time compared with Vobblanker/Pgcedit.

Well...you would still need RipIt4Me to do the actual ripping of recent copy protected dvds. The other features are just options, made available to ensure everyone can get a rip that suits their individual preferences.

[spiritgumm]

Well...you would still need RipIt4Me to do the actual ripping of recent copy protected dvds. The other features are just options, made available to ensure everyone can get a rip that suits their individual preferences.

Yes, this is a drawback, tho one can use 'shrink, decryptor, etc, which are quicker than Ripit4me. This is an extra long 2 steps if you're ripping a DVD9 and will only shrink AFTER you've run it thru VOBBlanker.
I tried DVD43 (freeware-type version of Anydvd), and it seems to work fine in the background with Vobblanker.