HELP DVD-9 to 2 DVD-R - Movie doesn't have chapters

[spenserj]

I'm trying to rip Mulholland Drive by splitting it to 2 DVD disks. I can get the first disk running fine (used SmartRipper and IfoEdit). But I can't get the 2nd disk to run. I'm wondering if the problem is some command or something that needs to be changed. The movie has no chapters so when it splits, the 2nd disc has cells shown (with no chapter id). Does the 2nd DVD need some sort of faked chapter? Has anyone successfully ripped this DVD?

[Akai Rounin]

A Very Similar Question...

Heh, someone asked almost the same question elsewhere:

OT: I'm just burning my first DVD-Video

They were directed to a thread in the forums at Doom9:

splitting a dvd-9 with 5 anime episodes

Stop by Doom9 and look in The Guides | IfoEdit guides | Copying a DVD-9 to 2 DVD-Rs, which leads to an article titled Split a DVD to 2 DVD-Rs. I would put a direct link, but it is a framed site for a reason I suppose. I hope this helps!

Unta Glebin Gloutin Globin,

Akai Rounin, The Cyber Sage

[spenserj]

I've used the guides you mention and have had success with 3 other DVDs, however, Mulholland Drive doesn't work. The 2nd disc won't jump into the movie, even though it starts and I get a menu, it just stops playing. I was thinking it may have something to do with the lack of chapters - is this possible?

[Akai Rounin]

I have no DVD burner, so this isn't something I've run into personally. Are you certain there are no Chapters whatsoever? That's strange... Is there an IFO file that was created when you ripped the disc? If there were any chapters at all those should be listed there. If not, then you could try using Chapter X Tractor, which you can find in the Tools section of this site. I would find it very strange for a modern DVD to have either no chapters or entry points of any kind, especially if it is dual layer.

HUN-YA!

Akai Rounin

[spenserj]

That's David Lynch for you. The fact that he published a DVD without chaprters or any extras has been widely discussed. Thus, I was curious, if the lack of chapters is unusual in a DVD, would IfoEdit be unable to fully deal with this automatically? In the meantime, I'll try the tools you mention.

[spenserj]

I think I see the problem, but I don't know how to fix. On Disk 1 (which plays fine), the Movie IFO looks like this (I left out the timecode info to the right:

[Ch 01] [Pg 01] [Cell 01] [V/C Id: 1/1]
[Cell 02] [V/C Id: 1/2]

...And so on down to [Cell 12] [V/C Id: 1/12]. The only chapter is the Ch 01 reference on the first line, no chapters show for the other lines.

On Disk 2, the Movie IFO looks like this:

[Cell 01] [V/C Id: 2/1]
[Cell 02] [V/C Id: 2/2]

...And so on down to the last line which looks like this:

[Ch 01] [Pg 01] [Cell 14] [V/C 3/1]

This last line has a time of 00:00:00.01 so it looks like when Disk two plays, it jump directly to Chapter 1, plays the second of black screen then stops. In Power DVD, I don't get an error, it just looks like it stops.

So the question is, how do I fix the IFO file so that it starts playing at the [Cell 01] reference?

I hope this helps solve the problem.

[spenserj]

One more piece of info. I just tried playing and before it could stop and hit the rewind button and the movie is there....I can rewinde and play. So, it looks like the Disk 2 is starting/jumping to the Chapter 01 Cell shown in the example above, which is the last 1 second of the film. Anyway I can get the naviation settings to jump to a specific Cell or can I add Chapters?

[Akai Rounin]

I know that Chapter X Tractor automatically deletes any clip reference of less than 6 seconds that appears at the end of a chapter listing. Perhaps because of the problem you are experiencing...? Maybe if you could just remove that last reference to a 1 second chapter, you would be fine. It shouldn't hurt anything, as such pointers are usually in place to cue a corporate logo or something.

HUN-YA!

Akai Rounin

[spenserj]

I don't see Chapter X Tractor in the tools section.

[spenserj]

Sorry, found it on Doom9. I'll give it a try.

[Akai Rounin]

Oh, and you can always add Chapters using VCDEasy... Oh wait - we're talking about DVDs, right? Well, it shouldn't be too hard, as long as you know the time entry points in the flick you would like to jump to... It's gawdawful easy with VCDs once you activate the PBC function. Maybe you could just select equidistant points in the film, around once every six minutes or so. Again, I haven't authored DVDs myself yet, just throwing out some ideas here. It's very likely that even if I did have a DVD burner, I'd just use the format to make really big capacity VCDs (longer play time, higher bitrate video) rather than try to replicate DVDs bit for bit.

HUN-YA!

Akai Rounin

[spenserj]

Well, I played around with Chapter Xtractor, but I can't save an IFO file from it. How can I edit the IFO file to add or delete chapters?

[spenserj]

Success, I think. I guess I need to learn all the ins-and-outs of IfoEdit. I went into the Movie IFO and just changed a setting from 14 cells to 13 cells. Now it plays fine....imagine the dumb luck.