Very interesting DVD-R Title recovery question/problem...

[Renaissance_Man]

I record OTA TV shows/movies with Magnavox ZC320MW8B DVD Recorders. Excellent little units...nary one coaster yet although I have recorded over 300 DVDs at 6 hour speed each.

Excellent little units.

I was so impressed I bought 4...got 'em for $78, $78, $68, and $68...I mean, where ya goin' with those prices?! Wal*Mart...and haggling on price with the store managers.

I use DVD-R (Memorex, for price) for lowest common denominator compatibility with other and older DVD players. Again, nary a Memorex coaster yet...I think I have found the perfect consummation of recorder and media.

I am a collector of TV shows and movies...one of my many collections and interests. As such, one of my many hobbies is creating my own DVDs of TV and movies. Every disk is important to me.

Recently, I accidentally erased a Title on one of my unfinalized Memorex DVDs.

First time ever for this kind of "brain fart" for me.

I want to recover the Title but Magnavox states "officially" (owner's manual) there is "no way".

~27+ years in IT, I know there's always a way.

I have not finalized the DVD yet.

Any suggestions?

I found this: https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/315387-How-to-recover-a-DVD-R .

I don't know if it applies but, more importantly, to be able to use
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/315387-How-to-recover-a-DVD-R ,
I need to be able to access the DVD on a computer. To access the DVD on a computer, I need to finalize the DVD. I am afraid if I finalize the DVD it will finalize the erasure of the Title I want to recover. However, I do not know this for sure. For all I know, finalizing the DVD will simply index the Title as erased even though all the AV data will still be there.

Again, any suggestions?

I'm technical, so feel free to "talk the talk".

[aedipuss]

if there is something there on the disc cdroller or isobuster should be able to find it. neither is free but they used to have trials so you could test them first, i haven't checked recently though.

[Cornucopia]

You are using R discs, so every recording once on the disc are NEVER gone regardless of what you do subsequently. They may be invisible or confounded, but it's still there.
I strongly recommend ISOBuster, though to get full utility features, you might need to pay/register.

Scott

Btw, WARNING: GIGO! Memorex quality will some day come back to bite you on the ass.

[Renaissance_Man]

aedipuss:
Thanks for the information.

Cornucopia:
Memorex, yeah, I know. You are correct. Trouble is, Memorex on special for $24.99 per 100 is about all I can afford presently. I'm concerned about getting the shows before they go off air. Many of the old shows I love won't be around forever and I cannot afford to purchase the production DVD sets. My costs right now run ~$1.25 per finished DVD per 6 hours recording time (media+recorders cost...haven't factored cases+labour yet) which even I'm astounded at. With an ongoing hobby of it, eventually I want to transfer everything to media server and storage for local on-demand...which is, right now, in the planning and architecture stages.

I know the Memorex MIDs Media Identifiers are from "cheapest soup of the day" manufacturers for Memorex outsourcing to put a Memorex label on. Again, trouble is, Memorex on special for $24.99 per 100 is about all I can afford presently.

In any event, should I then go ahead and finalize before attempting to recover? Is that pretty much the way?

Again, thanks guys. I'm new here but this is a great web site and forum.

[jman98]

Memorex discs are crap. Worst discs I ever bought. Eventually you'll be like so many others here. One day you will post something like this - "I've made hundreds of burns to Memorex discs in the past and never had a problem and now I can't get good burns" or "I can't read my old discs". You've been warned.

The odds of you being able to successfully finalize the DVD on your PC are close to zero. We've had a few unconfirmed reports of Nero being able to do so, but usually that doesn't work. You've got maybe a 1 in 100 chance of being able to finalize it on a PC. I believe you are correct in your guess that finalizing the disc will likely NOT recover the missing title, although it will still be on the disc.

You have to use ISOBuster, but do be warned. ISOBuster is almost useless in its free demo mode. You will have to pay very close attention to the output it gives you to make any sense out of it. However, it's about the only tool around that can recover unfinalized DVDs. And be prepared that assuming ISOBuster tells you it can recover the data that you'll have to buy it to do so.

And by the way, if you're using 6 hour mode you should be aware that you are recording 352x480 video, which is known as "half D1" video. This is half the horizontal resolution of standard DVD. Some here would blast the quality you'll get in that mode, but it's up to you whether that is good enough or not. You should be aware that on most DVD recorders anything above 2 hours recording time will switch to half D1 and when you get to 4-6 hours I am not aware of even one DVD recorder that does not use half D1 for that. To get 6 hours you are using VCD bitrates. You may be watching on an HDTV and it will do a lot of sharpening and filtering to make your recordings look better than they really are. Play one of those recordings on a PC and blow it up to full screen and you'll see the defects in it clearly.

[Renaissance_Man]

jman98:

Thanks for all the great information. Finalizing the unfinalized DVD is not an issue as the unfinalized DVD is not corrupted nor damaged. The unfinalized DVD simply has an deleted Title on it and is, as of yet, unfinalized. I can finalize the unfinalized DVD right now in the Magnavox ZC320MW8B DVD Recorder. I just didn't know if I SHOULD finalize the unfinalized DVD before attempting to recover the Title.

Your information RE: quality and resolution is great...and very much appreciated. Presently, my time and schedule does not allow me to "babysit" my real-time recordings and I cannot be around to swap media every two hours. I guess I go for quantity over quality right now. I will probably (or certainly) regret that later and, really, I should re-think my recordings methodologies. Thanks for that "kick in the ass" RE: my being "penny wise and dollar foolish".

I also haven't yet accomplished one of the tasks I set for myself RE: these Magnavox ZC320MW8B DVD Recorders I purchased. I wanted to complete test recordings at ALL speeds and analyze the fidelity of the recordings at each speed. I haven't gotten around to that yet.

In any event, should I go ahead and finalize before attempting to recover? ...or should I attempt to use the recovery software on the unfinalized DVD?

FYI:
I inserted the unfinalized DVD into an iBook G4 OSX.4-Tiger and the iBook didn't do anything with the DVD. The drive didn't even turn...and I had to reboot to eject the unfinalized DVD from the iBook drive. I guess OSX either didn't recognize, or became confused with, the unfinalized DVD. I haven't yet tried the unfinalized DVD in one of my x86 PCs.

Again, should I go ahead and finalize before attempting to recover? ...or should I attempt to use the recovery software on the unfinalized DVD?

Thanks for the help.

[usually_quiet]

To recover recordings from an unfinalized DVD using free tools:
1. Make a tao disk image on your HDD with ISOBuster free.
2. Use VOBEdit to open and then demultiplex the .tao file. This creates elementary audio and video streams in 2 separate files which some MPEG ediors can use. (The .tao file won't work with any MPEG-2 editors I know of.)
3. Edit the elementary audio and video files to remove commercials and create separate clips for each episode.
4. If your favorite editing program does not accept elementary streams multiplex the elementary audio and video streams first. Imago MPEG Muxer is a simple free .mpg multiplexer that works for standard definition video if the editor doesn't have its own multiplexing tool.
5. Author the edited clips to a DVD with your favorite authoring program

To create a tao disk image on your HDD:
1. Open ISOBuster
2. Select DVD drive (If you can see "Track 01" in the left hand pane, it can recover at least some of your data)
3. Open Options menu
4. Select "Image File"
5. Select "ISO/BIN/TAO" Tab
6. Uncheck both boxes
7. Close dialog window
8. Right click on "Track 01" in left-hand pane
9. Select "Extract Track 01"
10. Select "Extract User Data (*.tao, *.iso, *.wav)"
11. Choose where you want to save the data. (It will copy everything it can find as one large file with the .tao extension)

To demultiplex:
1. Run VOBEdit
2. Click the "Open" button
3. Under "Files of Type" select "All Files"
4. Select the .tao file.
5. Click "Open"
5. After the file loads. click Demux
6. Select "MPEG Stream" and click "OK"
7. When it finishes, do the same for the audio. Select AC-3 for the audio stream.

[Edit] Do NOT try to finalize before recovering data. It is not necessary or at all helpful to this process. Use a PC to recover, not an OS X system.

[jman98]

Don't finalize. Try usually_quiet's detailed (very nice) suggestions, but there is some small chance that this won't work. Sometimes you have no choice but to buy ISOBuster to get back your files. They make it incredibly difficult to recover anything via the free one to force you to buy it.

[Renaissance_Man]

usually_quiet:
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! You are too cool! I will try fix and let you know the results...!

jman98:
You, too, jman! Just too cool!

Thanks to everyone...aedipuss, Cornucopia, jman98, and usually_quiet (order of posting).

I will post results...

Man...this web site is just kickin' with intelligence and information!

[orsetto]

Some backup info to the excellent advice already given by members above:

http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/video-capture/1397-how-recover-video.html

http://www.dvdrepairtips.com/unfinalized-dvds.html

Only thing I would clarify is that you can't do jack-all on your Macintosh: with the introduction of OSX some years ago Apple pretty much blew off any disc capabilities beyond basic DVD authoring of camcorder files. There are virtually no disc recovery or advanced disc tools available on the OSX platform, and the built-in slot drives on most Macs are terrible at recovery anyway. So you will need to use a Windows-based PC to recover your disc. I am not being a Windows fascist here, I work with both platforms constantly for different projects, but Macs are currently just not suitable for this specific task.

Ask around if anyone you know has Nero software: it comes free with nearly every DVD drive sold. Give it a shot using the instructions at dvdrepairtips, you have a 50/50 chance it might work and not cost you anything. Otherwise, you need ISObuster as recommended by others. The interface is brutal, and ISObuster forces you to pay for it before it will save the recovered video files. A few years ago I did manage to somehow trick the free trial version into doing it, but it was random luck. (The developer of ISObuster assumes most people will only need it once or twice in their lifetime, so if the free version was 100% functional they would never sell the paid version.) If you do end up buying ISObuster, its a unique tool that can also recover scratched or damaged discs. It can be extremely slow, however: it took nearly two days to recover a DVD with a slight scratch for me.

[Renaissance_Man]

orsetto:
Thanks for the great advice and resources.

Problem:
Obviously, Mac is out. However, my PCs' DVD drives are not reading the unfinalized DVD. The unfinalized DVD just spins in the drive(s)...assumably because it's unfinalized. The advice above was to NOT finalize the DVD before recovery but I cannot recover if I cannot read.

Catch-22.

One of the web sites orsetto recommended ( http://www.dvdrepairtips.com/unfinalized-dvds.html ) seemed to allude to, by OEM device or Nero, get the DVD finalized before proceeding with recovery...or I may just be interpreting that wrong.

I dunno. Finalize or no? Hump or death (for you Monty Python fans)?

Any ideas?

Thanks.

[usually_quiet]

orsetto:
Thanks for the great advice and resources.

Problem:
Obviously, Mac is out. However, my PCs' DVD drives are not reading the unfinalized DVD. The unfinalized DVD just spins in the drive(s)...assumably because it's unfinalized. The advice above was to NOT finalize the DVD before recovery but I cannot recover if I cannot read.

Catch-22.

One of the web sites orsetto recommended ( http://www.dvdrepairtips.com/unfinalized-dvds.html ) seemed to allude to, by OEM device or Nero, get the DVD finalized before proceeding with recovery...or I may just be interpreting that wrong.

I dunno. Finalize or no? Hump or death (for you Monty Python fans)?

Any ideas?

Thanks.

Do the PC drives recognize DVDs from your DVD recorder that were finalized? If not, then finalizing isn't going to do anything for you.

[jman98]

Have you tried ISOBuster yet? It may be able to "see" the disc anyway. It is unclear if you have tried using it yet. Even if your drive can't see the disc ISOBuster may yet be able to access it.

Please do NOT use Nero. I said earlier that usually this doesn't work. I was given an unfinalized DVD by my step-mother who in turn got it from her brother (lives in another country). Nero couldn't do squat with it to finalize it. Nero is pretty expensive to gamble with.

I do not recommend that you finalize, but if you get desperate enough to do that, then do it with the understanding that it may make things worse.

[Renaissance_Man]

Sorry for disappearing guys.

Mother in hospital.
Aunt just died.
Laptop I need for this DVD restore just took a HDD shit..."Bill Gates" rewrote my NTFS to FAT via lovely XP fixes CHKDSK, FIXBOOT, FIXMBR...and even Knoppix cannot read HDD data right now. I gotta save the laptop HDD data before saving the DVD video data...laptop HDD much more important.

Man, I need an exorcist.

I'm kinda like Sheldon @ the BiG BANG THEORY. This stuff doesn't affect me emotionally that much but is a logistical nightmare in my schedule. I'm both right AND left brained so I am somewhat frying right now.

Always:
actual fix time in IT = assumed time x Pandora's Murphy's Law Box...

But I always get it all in the end.

Again, didn't mean to disappear. This site, you guys, and the information is stellar.

To be continued...

IIIII''LLLLL be back...

[jman98]

Laptop I need for this DVD restore just took a HDD shit..."Bill Gates" rewrote my NTFS to FAT via lovely XP fixes CHKDSK, FIXBOOT, FIXMBR...and even Knoppix cannot read HDD data right now. I gotta save the laptop HDD data before saving the DVD video data...laptop HDD much more important.

How is that even possible? NTFS -> FAT-anything should not be possible without DESTRUCTION of data.
I've seen a lot of bizarre Windows things in my days, including critical Windows programs disappearing from a hard drive, but I've never heard of this one. If somehow your drive really got converted from NTFS to FAT I think you're screwed unless maybe an expensive data recovery service can somehow get your data for you. By the way, converting from FAT to NTFS should be possible in a non-destructive way.

Sorry for your problems.

[sanlyn]

I know the Memorex MIDs Media Identifiers are from "cheapest soup of the day" manufacturers for Memorex outsourcing to put a Memorex label on. Again, trouble is, Memorex on special for $24.99 per 100 is about all I can afford presently.

Verbatim's best "AZO' costs the same. Get two (free shipping). http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003ZDNZT2/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&keywords=Verbatim%20AZO...5732239&sr=8-6. If there is a MicroCenter nearby, they cost about the same. Stay away from BestBuy.

[orsetto]

my PCs' DVD drives are not reading the unfinalized DVD. The unfinalized DVD just spins in the drive(s)...assumably because it's unfinalized. The advice above was to NOT finalize the DVD before recovery but I cannot recover if I cannot read. Catch-22.

Yeah, DVD recovery can be a little counterintuitive: the problem in the first place is the disc can't be read, but if it can't be read then how do you read it for recovery? The trick is to open the recovery software before loading the DVD: this helps short-circuit Windows own "What the hell am I supposed to do with this?" reaction to a bum disc. With the software already open, Windows OS can spin in circles all it wants while you use the application interface to examine and possibly read/recover the disc. While the disc won't appear in Windows Explorer, because Windows is not equipped to read damaged or weird file structures, it often will be found and read by the navigation tools in recovery software. (And you'd be surprised how often you can simply *play* a screwy disc by opening it directly from a software player like KMP or Media Player Home Cinema, even if the disc is unloadable by Windows itself or a hardware DVD player.) So... open ISObuster or Nero first, then load the bad dvd and try to "find" it within the app interface.

One of the web sites orsetto recommended ( http://www.dvdrepairtips.com/unfinalized-dvds.html ) seemed to allude to, by OEM device or Nero, get the DVD finalized before proceeding with recovery...or I may just be interpreting that wrong.

I dunno. Finalize or no? Hump or death (for you Monty Python fans)?

DINSDALE! Yep, in trying for a "cutesey" tone the dvdrepairtips site goes too far and just makes things more confusing. The part you should look at regarding Nero is the second one, underneath the first "Finalizing With Nero" tutorial. Under the heading "Second (Half) Bite!", scrolled about halfway down, are the instructions for using Nero in a somewhat similar fashion to ISObuster: instead of finalizing the actual bad disc, you try to extract the contents of it to your HDD, where you can then tinker with it to either repair the structure and make a finalized copy disc, or use another application to re-author or reformat the video files into something viable.

Please do NOT use Nero. I said earlier that usually this doesn't work. I was given an unfinalized DVD by my step-mother who in turn got it from her brother (lives in another country). Nero couldn't do squat with it to finalize it. Nero is pretty expensive to gamble with.

Nero is dodgy, but a LOT of people have it or know someone who does. I agree with you that its best not to attempt finalizing the problem disc directly with Nero, because it could kill the disc permanently, but there's no harm in seeing if Nero can pull off an "extract to HDD/make finalized duplicate disc" miracle. Thats pretty much what we try with ISObuster anyway, so we may as well try it with Nero first if its already at hand. On rare occasions, Nero has been reported to copy and recover discs that ISObuster can't, although generally ISObuster is the first/last/only option.

[Renaissance_Man]

TO: jman98:

Yeah, this ridiculous problem is quite common. If you research it, it is a massive problem with MS XP recovery utilities. The author of the OS (MicroSoft) cannot build their own recovery tools properly. CHKDSK, FIXBOOT, FIXMBR in XP Recovery Console are DANGER WILL ROBINSON...

The data is there. It is the file tables that get f'd up. FAT and MFT. Many times, Knoppix Linux is so smart it can recognize the preamble header of files and recognize what disk format file was originally saved in. In this fashion, Knoppix can RECOGNIZE file storage format for data and read data without using original file tables. Knoppix loads virtually and uses its own Linux file tables to recognize data files on f'd drive. If Knoppix cannot read, there might be trouble...lots of trouble. Normally Knoppix can read/write data files from an otherwise corrupted file system.

Recovery tools for x86 can include PartitionInfo and PTEdit among many others.

So far, I cannot get Knoppix to recognize the original NTFS MFTs. Knoppix DOES see an FAT32 FS with data. This usually alludes to the fact that the data is there and may be OK. I have to step tepidly now and find the RIGHT recovery tool to rebuild the NTFS file tables without changing the data. All data will have to be re-read in real time for the NTFS rebuild.

The file tables were damaged by CHKDSK, FIXBOOT, FIXMBR in XP Recovery Console but the data was untouched. This means the data has to be read in real time and the tables rebuilt...by the proper recovery utility that won't make things worse. Recovery is like stepping through a Vietnamese mine field at this point.

Thanks for the empathy...and the info.


TO: sanlyn:

Thanks for the media tip. OfficeMax also selling Verbatim presently on sale at 24.99/100. 'Course, that's a sale and won't last. Your price rec.'s are probably daily prices. Thanks.


TO: orsetto:

Thanks for the excellent detailed information. That pretty much clears up the process logistics I was a little confused about. I'll try for ISOBuster (Nero, second) to read DVD mutually exclusive of Windows lack of read ability.

I'll get it...with all your guys help.


Thanks to all again.

To be continued...

[jman98]

Interesting information. While I have been able to do things like CHKDSK and FIXMBR I have never heard of this problem. I have a pretty negative view of CHKDSK so while this has never happened to me, I also can't say I'm surprised at all to read that Microsoft's own tools caused this issue.

Please be careful about WHICH Verbatims you see at Office Max. The North American marketplace demands low price over quality so Verbatim has been forced to outsource their cheap media production to the same low quality manufacturers that everybody else uses. Be very careful that those discs at OfficeMax are not the infamous Life series that Verbatim sells. Those are cut rate junk. It's getting harder to find the good Verbatims in stores so I just buy all my discs online from reputable sellers like rima.com and supermediastore.com so I know for sure what I am getting. Note that all of Verbatim's DVDs except the Life series use AZO.

[mackado]

I hope it's alright to bump this thread instead of starting a similar one ?.

I have a similar issue with my OTA recordings and a few DVD-R that crashed for various reasons on my old RCA DRC8030 DVD recorder.

Last night another one froze while transferring from HDD to DVD-R taking a few videos I was hoping to keep and decided to look into ISOBuster again.

So I discovered this post and used the method described above by Usually_quite and using ISObuster 3.0 (free) was able to recover the video in ISO and Tao formats, converted TAO to Mpeg using 'Imago Mpeg muxer' as described and it works but the issue now is that the video and audio are out of sync, If I playback the ISO version using VLC media player there's no synch issue.

Any way to fix this ? My next step to try is to burn the ISO to DVD and rip (mpeg) back to my editing software to edit/split and author a new DVD, but much rather find other solution..

[usually_quiet]

I hope it's alright to bump this thread instead of starting a similar one ?.

I have a similar issue with my OTA recordings and a few DVD-R that crashed for various reasons on my old RCA DRC8030 DVD recorder.

Last night another one froze while transferring from HDD to DVD-R taking a few videos I was hoping to keep and decided to look into ISOBuster again.

So I discovered this post and used the method described above by Usually_quite and using ISObuster 3.0 (free) was able to recover the video in ISO and Tao formats, converted TAO to Mpeg using 'Imago Mpeg muxer' as described and it works but the issue now is that the video and audio are out of sync, If I playback the ISO version using VLC media player there's no synch issue.

Any way to fix this ? My next step to try is to burn the ISO to DVD and rip (mpeg) back to my editing software to edit/split and author a new DVD, but much rather find other solution..

Mux your audio and video files with Cuttermaran. It is not as easy to use as Imago MPEG Muxer, but will allow you to adjust the audio delay to correct video and audio sync. (Assuming they are out of sync by a fixed value throughout the recording.) Unfortunately I won't have time to write detailed instructions any time soon if you can't figure out what to do on your own.

[mackado]

Mux your audio and video files with Cuttermaran. It is not as easy to use as Imago MPEG Muxer, but will allow you to adjust the audio delay to correct video and audio sync. (Assuming they are out of sync by a fixed value throughout the recording.) Unfortunately I won't have time to write detailed instructions any time soon if you can't figure out what to do on your own.

Thanks for the quick reply, I'll try it right now since I have some time to kill. will post progress later on...

[mackado]

I've been reading a few 'how-to' online and even found a very helpful PDF with instructions to remove commercials using 'Cuttermaran', but I didn't find instructions on how to 'adjust the audio delay' to correct/minimize the sync issue.


My recovered video stream is 1.226 second longer than the audio stream clip according to Cuttermarand, and under 'tools' the options are 'cut audio' or 'audio/video', and I'm guessing I need to cut only the video or add 'soundless' frames to the audio stream?


In the meantime I tried fooling Roxio editor and was able to edit a second off the M2v video by renaming to MPG, but the resulting new Mpg video stream file didn't work with Imago Muxer even after renaming back to m2v.


My other choice is to burn the recovered ISO to DVD and rip back into my RCA STB recorder's HDD and split/edit there , many times in the past any attempts to edit/author any mpeg files in my PC originating from the RCA recorder always created audio/Video synch issues.

[usually_quiet]

I've been reading a few 'how-to' online and even found a very helpful PDF with instructions to remove commercials using 'Cuttermaran', but I didn't find instructions on how to 'adjust the audio delay' to correct/minimize the sync issue.


My recovered video stream is 1.226 second longer than the audio stream clip according to Cuttermarand, and under 'tools' the options are 'cut audio' or 'audio/video', and I'm guessing I need to cut only the video or add 'soundless' frames to the audio stream?


In the meantime I tried fooling Roxio editor and was able to edit a second off the M2v video by renaming to MPG, but the resulting new Mpg video stream file didn't work with Imago Muxer even after renaming back to m2v.


My other choice is to burn the recovered ISO to DVD and rip back into my RCA STB recorder's HDD and split/edit there , many times in the past any attempts to edit/author any mpeg files in my PC originating from the RCA recorder always created audio/Video synch issues.

To change the audio delay, import the audio and video into Cuttermaran. Right click on the audio Filename. Click "Adjust audio delay" in the drop-down menu. Enter the number of miliseconds for the delay. Click OK. Entering a negative number advances the audio, and a positive one delays the audio.

I can't say I have ever had audio and video files of different lengths after demultiplexing the image file. Did you try to re-multiplex the audio and video with Cuttermaran anyway to see what would happen?

Simply renaming files is not going to work. m2v and mpg are different containers. From your description, Roxio is apparently not capable of working with elementary streams video streams and uses the .mpg container rather than the .m2v container for output, so you no longer have an elementary video stream after using Roxio. You would have to demultiplex the .mpg to get one again.

[mackado]

To change the audio delay, import the audio and video into Cuttermaran. Right click on the audio Filename. Click "Adjust audio delay" in the drop-down menu. Enter the number of miliseconds for the delay. Click OK. Entering a negative number advances the audio, and a positive one delays the audio.

Thanks so much for this info, this is really going to come-in handy , wished I knew this about a year ago when processing some VHS to MPEG transfers, I spent countless hours trying to fix synch issues with audio editors after extracting, and finally gave up.

I can't say I have ever had audio and video files of different lengths after demultiplexing the image file. Did you try to re-multiplex the audio and video with Cuttermaran anyway to see what would happen?

Maybe it has to do with my recovered videos ?, because Cuttermaran reports two errors listed below before opening the files,


“video contains errors in temporal_reference ….”
“not every GOP has a sequence leader..cutting this stream can have unexpected results or crash..”

Simply renaming files is not going to work. m2v and mpg are different containers. From your description, Roxio is apparently not capable of working with elementary streams video streams and uses the .mpg container rather than the .m2v container for output, so you no longer have an elementary video stream after using Roxio. You would have to demultiplex the .mpg to get one again.

I actually didn't expect Roxio to be able to read the renamed file, but I had some time and gave it a try, now I know that Roxio can edit .m2v videos after renaming.

I spent hours here trying to figure-out the correct delay setting, and created and examined a dozen test muxed videos from Cuttermaran (with Imago-plugin) using different values, but apparently since this are all different recordings dumped together by isobuster, after fixing the first video the next one is off, and so on, so what I plan to do is split the recovered mpeg video with Roxio and after demuxing then fix synch and mux the individual recordings with Cuttermaran again, later author a new DVD, its going to take a while since I have four more 'crashed' dvd to process, but I think this is the best way to move forward ....

[usually_quiet]

I can't say I have ever had audio and video files of different lengths after demultiplexing the image file. Did you try to re-multiplex the audio and video with Cuttermaran anyway to see what would happen?

Maybe it has to do with my recovered videos ?, because Cuttermaran reports two errors listed below before opening the files,


“video contains errors in temporal_reference ….”
“not every GOP has a sequence leader..cutting this stream can have unexpected results or crash..”

I have seen those error messages before when editing recovered files from an unfinalized DVD. Most of the time there was no problem. Cuttermaran did not crash or produce unexpected results.

Simply renaming files is not going to work. m2v and mpg are different containers. From your description, Roxio is apparently not capable of working with elementary streams video streams and uses the .mpg container rather than the .m2v container for output, so you no longer have an elementary video stream after using Roxio. You would have to demultiplex the .mpg to get one again.

I actually didn't expect Roxio to be able to read the renamed file, but I had some time and gave it a try, now I know that Roxio can edit .m2v videos after renaming.

I spent hours here trying to figure-out the correct delay setting, and created and examined a dozen test muxed videos from Cuttermaran (with Imago-plugin) using different values, but apparently since this are all different recordings dumped together by isobuster, after fixing the first video the next one is off, and so on, so what I plan to do is split the recovered mpeg video with Roxio and after demuxing then fix synch and mux the individual recordings with Cuttermaran again, later author a new DVD, its going to take a while since I have four more 'crashed' dvd to process, but I think this is the best way to move forward ....

Cuttermaran is an editor, so if you want to cut the file into segments, and export either .mpg files or elementary audio and video files that can be re-imported later to correct A/V syncronization, it can be done with Cuttermaran. You'd avoid the unnecessary complications introduced by using Roxio.

[mackado]

Cuttermaran is an editor, so if you want to cut the file into segments, and export either .mpg files or elementary audio and video files that can be re-imported later to correct A/V syncronization, it can be done with Cuttermaran. You'd avoid the unnecessary complications introduced by using Roxio.

Yes, you are so right !, last night I started to edit and fixed and repaired half of them already, fixing the synch issue is working perfectly this way, but had to come-up with a work around because I can't figure out if Cuttermaran has certain time-saving features.
If I set a multiple cut list of the full recovered video, is there a way to generate Separate a/v of all 'cuts' or segments in the cut-list at once? I came up with a workaround of deleting all other cuts from the saved 'Project' except the cut to be processed (and re-loading saved Project and repeating for next cut).


How about a way to re-name the 'cut' in the cut-list area to avoid confusion? Of course the solution is to keep an eye on the scroll bar and which segment is next in line, but maybe I'm missing a better way? ..

And this one would really be helpful to me, a way to load a cut/segment on Cuttermaran and playback both a/v simultaneously to figure-out synch/delay setting without having to mux it first for playback in other player?

[usually_quiet]

Yes, you are so right !, last night I started to edit and fixed and repaired half of them already, fixing the synch issue is working perfectly this way, but had to come-up with a work around because I can't figure out if Cuttermaran has certain time-saving features.
If I set a multiple cut list of the full recovered video, is there a way to generate Separate a/v of all 'cuts' or segments in the cut-list at once? I came up with a workaround of deleting all other cuts from the saved 'Project' except the cut to be processed (and re-loading saved Project and repeating for next cut).


How about a way to re-name the 'cut' in the cut-list area to avoid confusion? Of course the solution is to keep an eye on the scroll bar and which segment is next in line, but maybe I'm missing a better way? ..

And this one would really be helpful to me, a way to load a cut/segment on Cuttermaran and playback both a/v simultaneously to figure-out synch/delay setting without having to mux it first for playback in other player?

You don't have to mux your cuts unless you want to. I didn't often multiplex any of the cuts because my preferred DVD authoring program uses elementary files.

The way I handled the situation with the streams from an unfinalized disc was to make the cuts on one recording session at a time, set a marker for the start of the next session, then save the cuts as elementary streams using an appropriate name. Afterwards, I'd clear the cut list and begin again at the marker for the start of the next recording session. When all the cuts were finished, I'd import each cut again and work on the A/V sync.

[mackado]

Yes, you are so right !, last night I started to edit and fixed and repaired half of them already, fixing the synch issue is working perfectly this way, but had to come-up with a work around because I can't figure out if Cuttermaran has certain time-saving features.
If I set a multiple cut list of the full recovered video, is there a way to generate Separate a/v of all 'cuts' or segments in the cut-list at once? I came up with a workaround of deleting all other cuts from the saved 'Project' except the cut to be processed (and re-loading saved Project and repeating for next cut).


How about a way to re-name the 'cut' in the cut-list area to avoid confusion? Of course the solution is to keep an eye on the scroll bar and which segment is next in line, but maybe I'm missing a better way? ..

And this one would really be helpful to me, a way to load a cut/segment on Cuttermaran and playback both a/v simultaneously to figure-out synch/delay setting without having to mux it first for playback in other player?

You don't have to mux your cuts unless you want to. I didn't often multiplex any of the cuts because my preferred DVD authoring program uses elementary files.

The way I handled the situation with the streams from an unfinalized disc was to make the cuts on one recording session at a time, set a marker for the start of the next session, then save the cuts as elementary streams using an appropriate name. Afterwards, I'd clear the cut list and begin again at the marker for the start of the next recording session. When all the cuts were finished, I'd import each cut again and work on the A/V sync.

Oh I see, your method is similar to what I'm doing but I was using 'cuts' instead of 'markers' I'll try your method later tonight.

But if you do not mux the streams (edits) how do you know if the video has a synch issue or what value to apply to adjust the delay?

[usually_quiet]

Oh I see, your method is similar to what I'm doing but I was using 'cuts' instead of 'markers' I'll try your method later tonight.

But if you do not mux the streams (edits) how do you know if the video has a synch issue or what value to apply to adjust the delay?

I could see the sync issues if there were any when i re-imported the cuts and played them back within Cuttermaran. I had to guess at the delay to use, but Cuttermaran used the delay I entered when playing back the files.