mix portions of separate runs of vob files?

[fuzzzz]

I ripped a DVD with 2 problem areas - twice. The first time, I got pretty good read of the first bad spot on the DVD but could not complete on the second bad spot. Then I cleaned the goo off the edge of the disk and got many (skipped) errors on the first bad spot but read the second spot perfectly, since it was not bad anymore. I ripped to 1GB files & ignored read errors both times, so the content of the file that has the first bad spot in it is not the same for the first rip as for the 2nd rip.

Is there any way to strip away everything after the first bad spot in the first rip and strip away the first part of the 2nd rip and merge these two sets of vob files? Or is it better to continue the process and do the editing on the mpg files? If so, how?

1st rip thru 1st bad spot---|---2nd rip after 1st bad spot---end|

I have put separate files on one SVCD using nero, but this causes pauses of several seconds between files, so just making separate mpeg files is not a very good solution.

I use dvd decrypter, dvd2avi & tmpgenc v 2.5

thanks in advance

[Gazorgan]

DVD Players ignore errors while programs on a PC don't. Try toothpaste and your fingures for 15 minutes, it's pretty good about buffing out scratches.

You cna use DVDDecryptor to rip the files, ignoring errors. The problem will arise when you try and convert it. You can open the VOB's in VDUBMod and redact (edit) out the bad part. The problems arise with the sound, since VDUB doesn't do AC3 sound worth a dam (it won't edit out the sound correctly). You can try it, but I don't think you will ever get the 2nd half sound in sync.

I have worked with M2V and AC3 in Adobe Premiere and worked around a scratched disk. I did it once and went to alternative methods for my kids DVD's after that.

[fuzzzz]

Here's what I did:

Rip 1: |fair BS 1 ... bad BS2|

broken into 4 1gb vob files. the last one, *4.vob looks like this:
|starts OK .......... doesn't end due to BS2|

Rip 2: |chapter 1-3| is before BS1
couldn't get chapter 4 since it has BS1 in it.
|Chapters 5++ after BS1 ... finishes OK| - broken into 4 1gb vobs.

I played the start of Rip2_4.vob with powerDVD to see where it started (before BS2). This file plays for 17 minutes. Then I copied it (Rip2_4.vob) into the directory that has the Rip1_*.vobs as Rip1_5.vob. I knew it would be the last 17 minutes of the resulting concatenation.

Ran dvd2avi and deleted from before BS2 in Rip1_4.vob to after BS2 in Rip1_5.vob. dvd2avi has a 'cut' edit feature that will do this. I had a clean input spec for dvd2avi, but it wouldn't work.

BS2 in Rip1 is so bad that dvddecrypter made a vob file with errors in it. These read errors stop dvd2avi. Even though I had cut out that portion, when dvd2avi runs, it tries to read the cut out portion so that it can cut it out and then process what's left.

So I worked from the other end. Again, I played Rip1_1.vob to see how it ended and noted that it was 26 minutes long so I would know where the splice is in my input.. Then I played the start of
Rip2 |Chapters 5++ after BS1 ... finishes OK| to see how it started &
to be sure they overlapped. I had to rename these Rip2_*.vob files to make the Rip1_1.vob be first (Rip2_4.vob renamed to Rip2_5.vob; Rip2_3.vob renamed to Rip2_4.vob; ... Rip2_1.vob renamed to Rip2_2.vob) and then copied Rip1_1.vob to the directory with the Rip2_*.vob files as Rip2_1.vob.

Then within dvd2avi, I cut out the overlap between Rip2_1.vob & Rip2_2.vob. Now this concatenation does not have any read errors in it so it worked.

I didn't know whether the header txt & info files would let me just add a vob file, but dvd2avi picked them all up, so it seems to be OK to do it. I am running TMPEGenc to get the mpg files while I type this, so I don't know for sure yet. I have cut sections from vob files with dvd2avi before, so I am not worried about that part - no audio synch problems. dvd2avi only does LINEAR editing, though (you can delete but you can't add or move around) If it ends up not working somehow, I'll post again on this topic.