s/vcd to dvd Demux Failure

[promoter]

Hi Major,

I'm having difficulty using ffmpegX 0.0.9a's "s/vcd>dvd" function to convert some CVDs to DVD on a G4/533, 768MB RAM, OS X 10.3.2. Files are stored on an internal IDE drive w/~90GB free space. The processing appears to fail when attempting to demux the .mpg ripped from a CVD disk image.

Background: Each CVD contains a 1-hour TV show (NTSC) captured using a Canopus ADVC-100. I cut out the commercials in iMovie, then exported each segment of the show (6 segments total) as a separate .mov using the "iDVD" setting. Using ffmpegX's "CVD" preset, I created an .mpg from each .mov. I used VCD Builder to create a disk image, then burned the image using Toast.

To convert the CVDs to a single DVD-R, I did the following:
-Using Toast 5, saved an image of each CVD, replacing the ".toast" extension with ".bin" (thanks for the tutorial, Galactica!).
-Put ~4GB of disk images into a folder, then ran ffmpegX's "s/vcd>dvd" function & selected the folder. There are no spaces or special characters in the path to the folder or in the image file names.

ffmpegX successfully rips the 6 .mpgs from the first disk image, but appears to fail when attempting to demux the first .mpg. The output folder contains the following files:

avseq01.mpg
avseq01.mpg-0.m2v
avseq01.mpg-0.s.mp2
avseq02.mpg
avseq03.mpg
avseq04.mpg
avseq05.mpg
avseq06.mpg

Here's the Process Information:
------------ PROCESS INFORMATION BEGINS ------------
INFO: extracting avseq01.mpg... (start lsn 452 (+71191))
INFO: extracting avseq02.mpg... (start lsn 71643 (+22095))
INFO: extracting avseq03.mpg... (start lsn 93738 (+19060))
INFO: extracting avseq04.mpg... (start lsn 112798 (+51722))
INFO: extracting avseq05.mpg... (start lsn 164520 (+25629))
INFO: extracting avseq06.mpg... (start lsn 190149 (+37365))
INFO: done
Input #0, mp3, from '/Volumes/WD120/O2/O23346/O23334.bin.contents/avseq01.mpg-0.mp2':
Stream #0.0: Audio: mp2, 48000 Hz, stereo, 224 kb/s
Output #0, mp2, to '/Volumes/WD120/O2/O23346/O23334.bin.contents/avseq01.mpg-0.s.mp2':
Stream #0.0: Audio: mp2, 48000 Hz, stereo, 224 kb/s
Stream mapping:
Stream #0.0 -> #0.0
INFO: [mplex] mplex version 2.2.2 ($Date: 2003/05/13 20:27:15 $)
**ERROR: [mplex] File /Volumes/WD120/O2/O23346/O23334.bin.contents/avseq01.mpg-0.m2v unrecogniseable!
INFO: [mplex] File /Volumes/WD120/O2/O23346/O23334.bin.contents/avseq01.mpg-0.s.mp2 looks like an MPEG Audio stream.
**ERROR: [mplex] Unrecogniseable file(s)... exiting.
------------ PROCESS INFORMATION ENDS ------------

The ripped .mpg files all play normally under VLC, as does the demuxed .mp2 audio, but the demuxed .m2v fails to play. ffmpegX shows the following info:

avseq01.mpg
VIDEO: mpeg-2, size: 352x480, 29.970 fps, 2300 kbps. AUDIO: mp2, 48000Hz, 224 kbps.
avseq01.mpg-0.m2v
VIDEO: mpeg-2, size: 352x480, 29.970 fps, 2300 kbps.
avseq01.mpg-0.s.mp2
(none)

I've reinstalled all the ffmpegX binaries and the 0.0.9a application, but to no avail. Can you please suggest where I might be going wrong? Thanks for your help!

(P. S. I originally chose the CVD format because its resolution is one of the DVD "standards," anticipating that I might move the files to DVD one day. Am I correct in assuming that a DVD created with the "s/vcd>dvd" function using these source files will be compliant with the DVD specification?)

[major]

Try to mux manually the m2v and mp2 files with the "Mux as.." tool, does it also produce an error?

[promoter]

Try to mux manually the m2v and mp2 files with the "Mux as.." tool, does it also produce an error?

I'll give it a try tonight & let you know. Thanks for your reply!

[promoter]

Major,

No go on manually muxing the files. Here's the error log:

------------ PROCESS INFORMATION BEGINS ------------
INFO: [mplex] mplex version 2.2.2 ($Date: 2003/05/13 20:27:15 $)
**ERROR: [mplex] File /Volumes/WD120/O2/O23346/O23334.bin.contents/avseq01.mpg-0.m2v unrecogniseable!
INFO: [mplex] File /Volumes/WD120/O2/O23346/O23334.bin.contents/avseq01.mpg-0.s.mp2 looks like an MPEG Audio stream.
**ERROR: [mplex] Unrecogniseable file(s)... exiting.
------------ PROCESS INFORMATION ENDS ------------

Seems like it's the .m2v that's bad. Any thoughts? Thanks!

[promoter]

O.K., here's more information. In summary, none of the demuxing tools I have (they appear to us the UNIX mplex & mpgtx programs) can demux a valid .m2v video file from the .MPG ffmpegX rips from a CVD. I "tested" the validity of the .m2v by attempting to play it in VLC & QT Player. In all cases, the audio file played fine.

Missing MPEG Tools failed to mux the .m2v & .mp2 files produced by ffmpegX:

------------ MISSING MPEG TOOLS LOG BEGINS -----------
Last login: Sun Jan 25 08:22:02 on ttyp1
cd /Applications/AV_Apps/VCD/MissingMpegTools0.9.1/MissingMpegTools.app//Contents/Resources
./mplex -V -f 8 -O 0 -o /Volumes/WD120/O2/O23346/O23334.biWelcome to Darwin!
n.contents/movie-%d.mpg /Volumes/WD120/O2/O23346/O23334.bin.contents/avseq01.mpg-0.m2v /Volumes/WD120/O2/O23346/O23334.bin.contents/avseq01.mpg-0.s.mp2
[cpe-66-91-18-203:~] promoter% cd /Applications/AV_Apps/VCD/MissingMpegTools0.9.1/MissingMpegTools.app//Contents/Resources
[cpe-66-91-18-203:MissingMpegTools.app/Contents/Resources] promoter% ./mplex -V -f 8 -O 0 -o /Volumes/WD120/O2/O23346/O23334.bin.contents/movie-%d.mpg /Volumes/WD120/O2/O23346/O23334.bin.contents/avseq01.mpg-0.m2v /Volumes/WD120/O2/O23346/O23334.bin.contents/avseq01.mpg-0.s.mp2
INFO: [mplex] mplex version 2.2.1 ($Date: 2002/04/20 19:08:30 $)
**ERROR: [mplex] File /Volumes/WD120/O2/O23346/O23334.bin.contents/avseq01.mpg-0.m2v unrecogniseable!
INFO: [mplex] File /Volumes/WD120/O2/O23346/O23334.bin.contents/avseq01.mpg-0.s.mp2 looks like an MPEG Audio stream.
**ERROR: [mplex] Unrecogniseable file(s)... exiting.
[cpe-66-91-18-203:MissingMpegTools.app/Contents/Resources] promoter%
------------ MISSING MPEG TOOLS LOG ENDS -----------

More Missing Tools was able to demux the avseq01.mpg file, but with an error message. Here's the More Missing Tools Terminal session:

------------ MORE MISSING TOOLS LOG BEGINS -----------
Last login: Sun Jan 25 08:22:02 on ttyp2
cd /Applications/AV_Apps/VCD/MoreMissingTools.app//Contents/Resources
./mpgtx -N -d -b /Volumes/WD120/O2/O23346/O23334.bin.contents//chunk /Volumes/WD120/O2/O23346/O23334.bin.contents/avseq01.mpg
Welcome to Darwin!
[cpe-66-91-18-203:~] promoter% cd /Applications/AV_Apps/VCD/MoreMissingTools.app//Contents/Resources
[cpe-66-91-18-203:MoreMissingTools.app/Contents/Resources] promoter% ./mpgtx -N -d -b /Volumes/WD120/O2/O23346/O23334.bin.contents//chunk /Volumes/WD120/O2/O23346/O23334.bin.contents/avseq01.mpg
warning: couldn't find any valid system header. I'm continuing anyway
ProcessProgramStream
-------Done--------
[cpe-66-91-18-203:MoreMissingTools.app/Contents/Resources] promoter%
------------ MORE MISSING TOOLS LOG ENDS -----------

bbDEMUX demuxed the files without throwing up an error message, but again, VLC & QT Player wouldn't play the .m2v video. Demuxing with MPEG Power Tools yielded a similar result.

So, it seems that there's a problem demuxing a valid .m2v video file from the ripped .MPG. I also tried ffmpegX's Demux tool on another .MPG from the same disk, with similar results.

I'm at a loss now. Any tips on how to proceed?

[major]

Try to use VCDGearX to recover the ripped mpg file.

[promoter]

Try to use VCDGearX to recover the ripped mpg file.

Hi Major. Thanks for your reply. I wasn't sure what options I should run under VCDGearX. I left the first pulldown menu at "mpg2mpg" and checked the "Fix broken MPEG blocks during.mpg output (-fix)" box. In the "Source" box I selected the original "avseq01.mpg" file, named the Target "avseq01FIX.mpg," then clicked "Start Conversion." Demuxing in ffmpegX again produced an .m2v video file that wouldn't play, and an .mp2 audio file that would. Did I choose the wrong options?

Thanks for all your help. I've got a pile of CVDs I'd like to convert to DVD, so getting this option to work reliably would save a lot of time.

FYI, the VCDGearX log file follows:

------------- LOG BEGINS ------------
VCDGear v1.6e build 082401 coded by Dracore (dracore@home.com)

MPEG file source --> avseq01.mpg
MPEG destination --> /Volumes/WD120/O2/O23346/O23334.bin.contents/avseq01FIX.mpg
Extraction method --> mpg2mpg
- Fix MPEG errors enabled.

-> searching
0%
MPEG-2 extraction mode.

-> writing...
0% [00:00:00]
1% [00:00:00]
2% [00:00:49]
3% [00:00:49]
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completed. /Volumes/WD120/O2/O23346/O23334.bin.contents/avseq01FIX.mpg written.
initial sequence correction applied.
0 MPEG block correction(s) applied.
------------- LOG ENDS ------------

(Later) I also tried Gumby 0.47's MPEG Fixer with the same results.

[major]

I'll encode a CVD and try to experiment your issue.

[promoter]

I'll encode a CVD and try to experiment your issue.

Thanks for going through the trouble, Major. I look forward to learning what you find.

[promoter]

Hi Major,

I know you're busy working on the ffmpegX update, but did you get a chance to test the s/VCD to DVD function with a CVD? Thanks!

[major]

Not still, but I will do it this week-end.

[promoter]

Thanks!

[promoter]

Major, any word on your CVD > DVD experiment?

[promoter]

Major, any word on your CVD > DVD experiment?

Bump.

[promoter]

[quote="promoter"]

Major, any word on your CVD > DVD experiment?

Any update, Major? I'd sure love to see this feature work. Thanks!

[promoter]

[quote="promoter"]

Major, any word on your CVD > DVD experiment?

Any update, Major? I'd sure love to see this feature work. Thanks!

Major,

Any news at all on this? I hate to nag, but it's been almost 2 months since I first asked. Appreciate any advice you may have.

[major]

Hello. Sorry for the delay in replying to your issue. I managed to encode a CVD today and apply the S/VCD>DVD tool on it and it worked without errors.

Try to send me a link to your files so as I can test with them.