How to properly demux, remux, and reauthor multi angle DVDs.

[Damned]

Hey guys,

I was wondering if anyone had any experience working with multi angle DVDs. I am at the moment trying to sub a multi angle DVD for an anime series, and I've ran into some problems.

On these DVDs, there is a feature called "Story Mode". This feature removes some parts of episodes in order to make each episode flow more smoothly, almost like a story book or movie. Normally the episodes play like this...

Opening, Pre-Episode Clip, Title Card, Episode, Ending, Next Episode Preview

Story Mode presents each episode like this...

Pre-Episode Clip, Title Card, Episode

For some reason, when I demux the video (At least I think that is where the error is occurring.), extra cells are being added to the Story Mode feature of the DVD like so...

While it is supposed to be...

Pre-Episode Clip, Title Card, Episode

I instead get...

Pre-Episode Clip, Title Card, Episode, Ending, Next Episode Preview

Once I remux the DVD with Muxman, I get a bloated DVD that is 500 MBs bigger than it should be, which also seems to be screwing up the Layer Breaks (Imgburn tells me it can't find any). Vobblanker also gives me a warning about the replacement file having 38 cells instead of the original's 33.

I noticed that celltimes.txt had 38 chapters in it, so I tried deleting 5 of them. While Vobblanker indicated 33 cells in both files, I still get a bloated DVD, and I still get extra cells in the Story Mode feature.

I also took a look at the cells in Vobblanker, and I noticed five cells, each 100 MBs, that were mentioned as being "repeated". I tried blanking them, which seemed to solve the problem, as the DVD remained at its proper size, but then my subs were stripped from the video.

I use PGCDemux to demux, Muxman to remux, and then Vobblanker to reauthor. If I need to use a new program to accomplish my goal, please be very specific in what I have to do, because I am a complete noob with this process, and have only managed to be as successful as I have been because I am following a very detailed guide.

Thanks in advance.

[manono]

Unless you're willing to strip out all angles but one, you can forget about it.

[El Heggunte]

According to its authors, DVD-lab Pro supports proper multiangle authoring.

But if you need something even more detailed than its user manual, well, ......

I stopped using DVD-lab Pro years ago, and no, I have never created multiangle DVDs, sorry.

[manono]

According to its authors, DVD-lab Pro supports proper multiangle authoring.

Except he's not creating one, but dismantling one with the aim of adding subs. I still say, 'fugeddaboutit'.

[El Heggunte]

According to its authors, DVD-lab Pro supports proper multiangle authoring.

Except he's not creating one, but dismantling one with the aim of adding subs. I still say, 'fugeddaboutit'.

Ooops, I missed that part about ``adding subs´´
You are right, the problem is even more complicated than I thought.

[Cornucopia]

I've always authored multi-angle titles with either Scenarist, DVDMaestro, or DVDArchitect, so I don't think I could help much if you're bent on using that app for this task.
However, since you are reauthoring, much of the special encoding constraints of MA titles are already fulfilled.
With all those afore-mentioned apps you will have to (re-)author from scratch. You cannot just "rework" the ifos because there could be quite a difference in the multiple video stream packet checkerboarding once you include/change the subs, so just act like this is a new title.

Scott

[Damned]

Scott, I am willing to use whatever I need to add subs whilst properly authoring the DVD, provided said software is free. I would prefer to only do the bare amount of deviation from the programs I currently use, but if there is no way around that, then so be it. I would only ask that a step by step guide be provided since I have never done this before.

[manono]

Reauthor it, keeping all the angles, except with subs added, and using free software? And you've never done anything remotely like this before? And you want it all explained with simple, easy to follow directions. In what dream world do you live?

To give you an idea what's involved, and assuming you could afford it, here's Doom9's Scenarist guide:

http://www.doom9.org/mpg/scenarist.htm

As I said, if you're willing to keep only a single angle it's doable. Otherwise, not.

[Damned]

I have a small update to make. As it turns out, this DVD is not a multi-angle DVD after all. I checked it in Vobblanker and in PGCDemux, and I was told that there is only one angle in each of the PGCs. The Story Mode PGC is stored in a separate PGC.

EDIT: After taking a look at the reauthored DVD in Vobblanker, I'm noticing that the opening segment is being added onto the "Play All" playlist, in numerous spots where it should not be. This, in turn, apparently seems to be completely throwing the "Story Mode" playlist off. I noticed that five of these opening segments are mentioned as being "repeated" with the original DVD in Vobblanker. None of the other cells, all of which seem to be at their proper points, are not mentioned as being repeated. I'm going to try blanking different "Opening" cells and seeing if I can get the "Play All" playlist back to its original state, if that would possibly fix my issue.

EDIT2: Apparently, after looking through the original PGC with PgcEdit, the opening segment, unlike every other segment in the PGC playlist which all have their own unique VOB / Cell ID, has only one VOB / Cell ID combination, VOB 3 / Cell 1. This one particular video segment is then copied five times to the cells where it should be placed, so I get something like this...

3 / 1
1 / 1
1 / 2
1 / 3
2 / 1
2 / 2
2 / 3
3 / 1
3 / 2
3 / 3
3 / 1

I'm guessing PgcDemux doesn't know how to properly handle this (Or I have to use different settings, the guide I'm using doesn't mention other methods). I presume I have to figure out a way to either get PgcDemux to properly handle this situation, or give each of the "copy" Opening segments their own unique VOB / Cell ID, then shuffle else around so the original cell structure is maintained.

[r0lZ]

According to what I see in your post above, I suppose that you must re-order the cells before demuxing them. It's easy with PgcEdit. Just select the title, and then use Title -> New 'Play All' Title. Accept the dialog. A new, unreferenced PGC will be created, and that one should be easy to demux with PgcDemux. Of course, cell 3/1 will be present only once (before cell 3/2). The new 'Play All' title will be unreferenced (and therefore not reachable, unless you modify the commands of the DVD to call it). You can safely delete it when you have finished to demux the title.

Avoid physically blanking some cells. That will simply replace the cell with a short black cell, and it's probably not what you want.

[Damned]

I already tried something similar to that though and it didn't work. There were blank cells before each of the openings, so I deleted five of the actual 3 / 1 cells, and gave the blank cells the same properties of the 3 / 1 cell. Unfortunately, this made the video and audio slowly get more and more out of sync when I went to time the subs with Aegisub. I'm guessing the 0:0:0:15 blank cells are still "counted", for lack of a better word, in keeping the video and audio in sync.