Help with Tmpgenc DVD Author and some questions.

[erik*a]

Hello all--I've got a bit of a problem--and I've tried to find all the posts I could with this problem, but I'm not finding exactly what I need.

I'm pretty new to authoring DVD's so I'm not too sure what to do next.

I copied a DVD to my hard drive with DVD X Rescue due to some errors in the original one. I've got all the VOB's--there ended up to be 4 different VOB's, and I began to demux them (hope that's the correct term!) into the m2v, and .ac3 (the audio portion--don't remember if that's the correct term.....anyhoo).

I then opened TMPGEnc DVD Author up and imported the first one. Worked great. Figured I was home free.

I tried it with the 2nd and 3rd and 4th part (there's a 5th, but that was on a separate DVD, and that worked fine) but after trying each m2v and ac3 the program kept saying that it's not compliant with the DVD format--needs to be MPEG 1 or 2--but the frustrating thing is they ARE mpeg 2's....

I thought I could then take the m2v's and ac3's and then put them back together with TMPGEnc Plus into a compliant mpg file, but that didn't work, because it made the file much smaller--when the original lenghth of one of the files was 30 minutes long, it cut the darned thing down into roughly 15 minutes--not all the video is there--and what's there is choppy, and there's no sound (hope I explained that clearly enough)--I'm beginning ot get frustrated....

So, my questions are:

1. If I were to take all 4 parts of the files and combined them into one big file, would TMPGEnc DVD see it as a correct and compliant file? And, then, what program could I use to combine all parts? Besides TMPGEnc Plus, that is? I don't think TMPGEnc plus likes me too much If I wanted to keep it in a VOB file, would VOBEdit work to combine the parts?

2. Since TMPGEnc DVD doesn't see parts 2,3,&4 as compliant MPEG1 or 2, I believe I could convert it to be compliant. Would ReStream work to do that? Would the reason be since these parts aren't being read correctly, they need some sort of headers?

3. If I don't want to fool with trying to convert everything into an MPEG file, I believe I read that DVDLab works with VOB's....suppose that would just solve all my problems? Or to the VOB's have to have these headers too?

Oh, PS I did try to change the extensions of those VOB files to .mpg, then use Ulead DVD Workshop to do what I wanted to do, and it just didn't work very well--it was slow, the video was choppy, and the darned program would freeze up every few minutes when trying to make chapters

I apologize if any of this has been discussed before, I tried to find all the msgs I could, but I'm sure I missed some here and there...

[BobK]

You don't have to demux- You can import the vobs directly into DVD Author. Just click on the Add DVD Video button, open the folder that contains the vobs (and ifos, bups) and it will open the video.

[erik*a]

Thanks, but doesn't work for me

The DVD was one someone made for me.....and one of the BUP's are corrupt.

I've tried importing the VOB's but when asked to choose your files, the screen comes up totally empty. I've tried importing from the DVD, too, and the choose file screen still comes up empty....

There's got to be another way....

[Poppa_Meth]

delete your BUP and IFO files. download IFO Edit. open IFO edit. at the bottom click Create IFOs button. select the first VOB file in the first dropdown. It'll get the rest automatically. Check the same as source box. click OK and after a few minutes you'll have new IFO and BUP files and you can import it directly to TDA.

[erik*a]

Poppa_Meth:

Thanks! That worked perfectly