mpeg2enc "GOP headers" question

[drenkin]

This is a nitpicky little question, but:

When I encode VOBs with the mpeg2enc engine, the track timer on my set-top player shows "00:00:00" the entire time I'm playing the finished DVD--the titles play just fine, but there's no track duration/track elapsed information. Would checking the "GOP headers" box on the Options tab when I encode help resolve this, or is it unrelated?

[major]

I would guess it will not change, but you can always try. Does the issue also appear with "DVD ffmpeg"?

[drenkin]

Okay, a mad flurry of DVD burning later, I've found the following:

DVDs burned directly from the ffmpeg or mpeg2enc output VIDEO_TS folders do play with correct timecode...(but with no menu, of course).

DVD assembled from iDVD-originated menu (VIDEO_TS.BUP, VIDEO_TS.IFO and VIDEO_TS.VOB files) played iDVD-originated VTS1 with proper timecode, but played ffmpeg-encoded VTS_02 and mpeg2enc-encoded VTS_03 (each with their associated .IFO and .BUP files) without timecode.

So this suggests that the timecode information for all VTS files resides in the VIDEO_TS files for the volume, rather than in the individual VTS_X files. Hmm. This now moves outside the realm of ffmpegX--but if you have any advice or suggestions about what information might need to be edited to update the timecode information for a volume, it would be enthusiastically accepted... : )

[drenkin]

Another experiment:

I tried swapping in ONLY the .vob file from the mpeg2enc encoding, but keeping the vts .ifo and .bup files from the original VIDEO_TS folder structure:

Now the TIMECODE worked--briefly--but the vob played back without sound and then froze.

So.

The timecode resides in the .ifo/.bup files for the VTS...but can only be found if those files were created at the same time as the volume's video_ts.ifo/.bup/.vob? (Again, when I swapped in a matching set of vts_0x.vob/.ifo/.bup, I got no timecode on playback.)


Again, help very appreciated--I can't find any information discussing this specifically. (I may be seaching for the wrong sorts of key terms, though.)

Thanks!

[drenkin]

Or, alternatively, it might be very simple. Grin.

The mpeg2enc encoded "stand-alone" vobs had their "still time" set to infinite. Changing that setting to "none" with an editor produced BOTH happy time-clocking and a return to main menu at the end of the title, which had simply stalled on the last frame.

Some days, things seem to make sense.