I have read some posts from people unable to feed VOB files or m2v /mpg streams to VirtualDUB-mod, Tmpgenc or Mainconcept. Those programs normally take such streams, but there are some cases where the whole thing fails.

I have had this problem sporadically, with some movies, and in the past I resorted to FlaskMpeg->AVI(huffyuv) and then encoding. Too much time and frustration.

I had the same problem with a set of episode disks (Stargate) and decided to investigate.

First the symptoms:

(Assume that the original disk is back-up'ed to the PC with DVD-Decrypter or SmartRipper. Hint: Smartripper failed miserably to decrypt the above disks. DVD-Decrypter did ok, but a bit slow!).

Opening any VOB file with VDUB, causes VDUB to appear locked-up. Checking processes with Task Manager (enabling column "I/O Read Bytes"), shows VDUB busy reading lot's of data. After a while, VDUB either fails to open the file, or opens the file but can't seek to any point without an equally huge delay).

Opening any VOB with Mainconcept takes an equal amount of time. Eventually the file is accepted and encoding can start. However, MC will fail encoding after a while and crashes.

Same thing with Tmpgenc.

Alternative symptoms:
I tried to demux the original vobs and extract the video stream into an m2v file. Same results exactly. Additionally, Windows Media player cannot open the file. One movie file was opened but gave me a total playing time like 47435:34:11 minutes

Now the findings and solution:
I examined the demuxed m2v files with several programs. Most of them showed me just the basics (resolution and fps). However, a little jewel, called ReStream, gave me the answer and the solution.

Looking at the time code for the first GOP, it showed me a stupid time like 1:42:59:8. It should be 0:00:00:00 (or if encoded with CCE may be 1:00:00:00). Also movies re-encoded with DVD2One show 1:00:00:00.

I reset the timing for the first GOP to 0:00:00:00 and it helped to open the m2v file fast, but did not cure the crashing.

I then selected to both reset time-stamps (to 0:00:00:00) AND zero broken link flags. (This is a drop-down menu next to GOP Options).

This corrected the problem. Windows Media player played the program just fine, and VDUB, Tmpenc, and Mainconcept were able to open the file. Mainconcept and Tmpgenc were able to encode it (did a part of one file only with Tmpgenc because it's slow but 20 whole files with Mainconcept). Furthermore, seeking frames with VDUB is a snap. Just like with AVI files.

And now the summary-conclusion:
For some reason (don't know why), some VOB files are either badly authored or badly decrypted (both by SmartRipper AND DVDDecrypter). These files cannot be fed to encoders or players. Either in VOB format or in demuxed m2v format. The reason appears to be bad timestamps in GOP headers and bad links in GOPs. Restream can solve this by demuxing the m2v from the VOBs, opening it with it and resetting the start time of the first GOP to 0:00:00 - if not zero - and selecting to zero broken link flags.

You can find re-stream in the home page http://shh.dvdboard.de The program is free. The author only asks for an optional donation, which, this program totaly deserves.

Hope my little adventure can help others with similar problems. I would be most interested to hear from anyone with the same problem and how they managed with the above hints.