Question about editing VOB files

[C0SM0]

This may be a typical newbie question...if so I apologize in advance.

I'm trying to edit a dvd that I recorded using my stand alone dvd recorder. Basically, I want to edit out the commercials. I usually use Nero Vision for things like this, but this time it really degrades the quality of the video for some reason. Even the slightest motion causes the video to look blurry and shake. Since the original doesn't do this, I figure that it must have something to do with Nero reencoding the video...so I began looking for a way to edit without reencoding. After doing some reading on this site, I decided to use MPEG Video Wizard and was finally able to get the movie the way I want.

Now I have the trimmed VOB file with no IFOs to go with it. How do I proceed from here? I tried simply replacing the old VOB, but since the length of the video is now different, the dvd doesn't know what to do when it gets to the end of the title.

Is there any way I can successfully reimport the VOB file without having to reauthor the dvd?

Thanks in advance for your help

[louv68]

http://www.digital-digest.com/articles/create_ifo_files_from_vobs_page1.html

[C0SM0]

Thanks for the help, I'll give it a try.

[louv68]

Glad to help and welcome to the forums.

[C0SM0]

Ok, I tried creating the IFO's, etc. using ifoedit...and it seemed to work, but the results won't play on either a stand alone or software DVD player. Right now I've renamed the vob file with a MPEG extension, and I'm attempting to reencode with windows DVD maker. I've never used it before, so I'll see how it goes. I know its probably not the best choice, but its all I have at the moment (other than Nero, which didn't work very well).

Hopefully this will turn out ok. Wish me luck LOL.

If you have any other thoughts or recommendations, feel free to share them. I'm relatively new to all of this, so any help is appreciated.

Thanks again

[nomads]

I use TMPGenc Xpress. I works perfectly.

[louv68]

Will Windows Media Player play the renamed VOB file (*.mpeg)?

If so, DVDAuthorgui may be able to process it into a working DVD.

If this does not work, try changing the file extension back to .vob and use VOBedit to demux it. Then put the files into DVDAuthorgui

[C0SM0]

I just wanted to let you know that I finally got it working. I ended up authoring a new DVD using the edited vob file with TDA. Everything turned out fine, and the video quality is the same as the original.

The only thing is that I lost the video's closed captioning. Do you know if there's a way to rip the closed captioning from the original and convert it into subtitles?

Thanks again for your help.

[louv68]

I wish I could help you, but ripping Closed Captions to convert to subtitles is something I have just started learning myself.

I recently used VSRip to extract the CC's and SubtitleCreator to modify/correct the output to my liking: positioning, font size, type, color, etc. and convert to .sup to mux it in when authoring. I got it to work "sort-off", but now my subtitles are an ugly green after authoring the DVD with IFOEdit! I'm in no rush, but will revisit this when I get a chance. I'm sure someone with much more experience than I would be more than happy to help you.

Hold on to the "Original" from your recorder, in case your edited copy lost the CC's when you modified it.

Just an FYI - I noticed a quirk in VSRip with a tv show I recorded on my DVD Recorder. It was unable to extract the CC's because more than one program chain existed. It said something about not being able to open some "key encryption or something like that", close to when it was done extracting. I remedied it by ripping it in Movie Only mode in DVDFab HD Decrypter. Then VSRip was able to complete the process since now there was only one program chain.

[C0SM0]

Thanks for the info. I may give it a try when I have some spare time. Now that I've got my DVD made, I'm not in a hurry either.

It seems like every time you feel like you've got it all figured out, there's always something new to learn LOL.

Thanks again.

[manono]

I got it to work "sort-off", but now my subtitles are an ugly green after authoring the DVD with IFOEdit!

Your problem is a common one when authoring using IFOEdit. Fix the colors using DVDSubEdit or PGCEdit:

http://download.videohelp.com/DVDSubEdit/Guides/ChangingColors/Guide.htm

If using PGCEdit, just open the DVD, double-click the video in question, and change them in the CLUT.

[louv68]

Thank you manono

I actually re-authored it with DVDAuthorgui before reading your reply and it worked perfectly with the subs SubtitleCreator modified.

The only problem I have now is the chapter timings. DVDAuthorgui accepts only HH:MM:SS input whereas PgcDemux gives chapters in terms of frames. Not a biggy though.

Thanks again.

[manono]

If you have the original DVD on the hard drive, then ChapterXtractor can read the IFO to give you the chapter points in a variety of formats.

[louv68]

Awesome! Looks exactly like what I need. I'll have to play around with it later.

Thanks.

[manono]

Be careful, though. DVDAuthorGUI wants them in 00:00:00.00 form. Note that one dot where the others are colons. So, you may have to take the 00:00:00:00 format you get from ChapterXtractor and edit it. No big deal. I understand you can customize to your own format, but I never bothered to learn how.

[louv68]

Thanks again dude. Much appreciated.

[usually_quiet]

Are you sure the CC's are really gone? Play the DVD with your DVD player's progressive display turned off and your TV's closed captioning turned on. If the CC's show up, all you need to do is use IFO edit to turn on both CC flags for each title. Just open the IFO for each title, check the CC flags and save. (You must save after each change.) Should be less work than extracting the CC's and creating subtitles. Of course if you would prefer to have the CC's as subtitles, just forget I said anything.

[Edit] If your video editor only re-encodes a tiny bit around the cuts, not the whole file, or does not re-encode at all, the CC data that was in the source file must still be there. It is your authoring program that is to blame. None that I have used detect the presence of CC data, or give the user the option of choosing to set the needed flags in the IFO's for CC'd titles.

[SLK001]

Are you sure the CC's are really gone? Play the DVD with your DVD player's progressive display turned off and your TV's closed captioning turned on. If the CC's show up, all you need to do is use IFO edit to turn on both CC flags for each title. Just open the IFO for each title, check the CC flags and save. (You must save after each change.) Should be less work than extracting the CC's and creating subtitles. Of course if you would prefer to have the CC's as subtitles, just forget I said anything.

[Edit] If your video editor only re-encodes a tiny bit around the cuts, not the whole file, or does not re-encode at all, the CC data that was in the source file must still be there. It is your authoring program that is to blame. None that I have used detect the presence of CC data, or give the user the option of choosing to set the needed flags in the IFO's for CC'd titles.

Any recoding of the original video will remove the CCs, since they are "USER DATA" in the GOP headers. If your MPEG cutter only cuts on GOP bounderies, then all your CCs should still be there.

[C0SM0]

Are you sure the CC's are really gone?

Yes they are gone. I double checked my dvd and the files that I ripped, and they both have the captions. It is after I use TDA to author and/or edit my video, that the captions are removed.

Thanks for the suggestion, though. It would've been really good if all I had to do to get them back was turn on the cc flags in ifoedit.

I haven't had time to try ripping the captions and converting them into subtitles yet, but I'll get to it when I have some more time.

Thanks again.

[usually_quiet]

Sorry my suggestion did not help.

When I tried the editor that came with the TDA demo, I didn't like it. Not because of CC, I just didn't like its user interface and features. (I don't remember it re-encoding, but I guess it must.) After that, I tried Video ReDo, both of Womble's editors and Cuttermaran (free, but requires that audio and video are demultiplexed first).

Video ReDo, both of Womble's editors and Cuttermaran all preserved the CC's because they do little or no re-encoding. A few frames around cuts may be re-encoded. and if that happens, I guess there is a possibility that a CC nearby may be affected by it. However, if you are only cutting out commercials, it probably won't affect CC at all. There is almost never any dialog that begins at the same point where the program resumes following a commercial. If CC's are important to you, and this is not a one time thing, it might be worth trying a different editor to see if that helps.

Unless it has changed since I tried it in 2005. TDA does not re-encode if it is simply authoring compliant video. My TV/DVD Recorder never nad a problem displaying CC on the discs I made with it. Windows Media Player displayed closed captions too, once I found out how to set the flags in the IFO's

Speaking of software players, they are a pain when it comes to closed captions. Some don't display them at all, and some don't display them correctly. I have 3 and WMP is the only one I have that does it right.