VOB Mix-up

[Sakuya]

Hi. I want to rip but there are several VOB files. The DVD says that the disc has 3 episodes. How do I know which is which?

[dafreak]

Hi. I want to rip but there are several VOB files. The DVD says that the disc has 3 episodes. How do I know which is which?

try playing them?

[Sakuya]

I did. And this is weird. The original DVD has three episodes. WHen I opened the DVD, here is its contents:

VIDEO_TS.BUP
VIDEO_TS.IFO
VIDEO_TS.VOB <-----copyright ad
VTS_01_0.IFO
VTS_01_0.BUP
VTS_01_0.VOB <-----menu
VTS_01_1.VOB <-----start of episode 1
VTS_01_2.VOB <-----continuation of above
VTS_01_3.VOB <-----continuation of above
VTS_01_4.VOB <-----continuation of above

VTS_01_1.VOB is the start of episode 1; meaning it contains opening credits as well as the episode number. However, at the end of this clip, it kind of cuts off. But, it continues in VTS_01_2.VOB and then after 34 minutes, it cuts off. Continues in VTS_01_3.VOB and so on. Where do I find episodes 2 and 3? I don't get it. The original DVD is PAL so I'm trying to copy each episode onto my computer, convert it into NTSC and then burn it back onto a DVD+RW for my friend (he doesn't have a PAL DVD player). Where is episodes 2 and 3 hidden?

[steveryan]

Just open with DVD Shrink and use it as a ripper, can't go wrong.

[skywize112]

Ah ya, a friend encountered that problem with his Stargate DVD set.
In the simplest case you got a new vob for each episode, but it seems on your DVD (as well as my friend's Stargate DVD set) an episode uses several vobs as well as several episodes use the same vob.
(in real english this means that there is more than 1 episode in each of your vobs which can cause trouble if you are trying to rip/backup the DVD since your software might only see the first episode)

[Sakuya]

Ok, after loading the DVD's contents, what do I do next? I don't want the menus. Just the episodes.

[Sakuya]

Ah ya, a friend encountered that problem with his Stargate DVD set.
In the simplest case you got a new vob for each episode, but it seems on your DVD (as well as my friend's Stargate DVD set) an episode uses several vobs as well as several episodes use the same vob.
(in real english this means that there is more than 1 episode in each of your vobs which can cause trouble if you are trying to rip/backup the DVD since your software might only see the first episode)

Yes, I just found a tool that can fast-forward through each VOB better than WMP. And I did find episode 2 and 3 in one of those continuation VOBs I mentioned above.

[steveryan]

Hit the re-author button, choose your episodes, compression etc then hit backup.

[Sakuya]

But I must switch the PAL videos to NTSC somewhere right? Can DVDSHrink do that?

[dafreak]

sounds like the dvd only has one title with all episodes combined into that title track. you can use dvdshrink to cut each episode into separate titles by using the start/end button.

so you would do something like this.
-load the dvd files into shrink
-click on reauthor
-move the title track over from right to left.
-click on start/end.
-choose the start and end of the first episode.
-click on backup
-repeat for all three episodes.


no dvdshrink can not convert pal to ntsc.
I would recommend searching the guides on how to convert pal to ntsc.

[Sakuya]

Thanks. But the each episode is still split:

VTS_01_1.VOB
VTS_01_2.VOB

VTS_02_1.VOB
VTS_02_2.VOB

VTS_03_1.VOB
VTS_03_2.VOB

Each episode is still split into 2 VOBs. Now what?

[dafreak]

like i mentioned earlier, you want to do a search on how to convert from pal to ntsc, unless of course, you have a dvd player that can play pal dvd's.

PS. please don't come to the boards expecting to be spoon fed, and hand held till you solve your problem/s. read the guides. There isn't a problem I haven't been able to solve after reading over the guides.

[jimmalenko]

You asked:

Hi. I want to rip but there are several VOB files. The DVD says that the disc has 3 episodes. How do I know which is which?

You now have each episode in its own set of VOBs. That is what you asked. Nowhere have mentioned any further goals.

[Sakuya]

Sorry. I found a weird problem. When I re-authored using DVD Shrink, I opened the first episode in TMPGEnc to encode and it was fine. But when I opened VTS_02_1.VOB and VTS_03_1.VOB, there was no sound. However, VTS_02_2.VOB and VTS_03_2.VOB has sound. Why is this?

[jimmalenko]

PEBCAK.

[Sakuya]

What is that?

[jimmalenko]

PEBCAK.

Problem Exists Between Chair And Keyboard

It means the the user has done something wrong.

[Sakuya]

I found out in DVD Shrink that the DVD has 2 types of audio. One of them is AC3 5.1 while the other one is normal MPEG audio. But, when I click on "re-author", the choices disappear and you cannot choose which audio. I dragged Title 1 into the right hand side and set the start/end times. I then clicked "back up" and it backed up as VTS_01_1.VOB and VTS_01_2.VOB.

They are 2 segments of episode 1. I want to open TMPGEnc and then click "open sequence files as a movie." But when I selected VTS_01_1.VOB as the video source, the audio source is blank. When I selected VTS_01_2.VOB as the video source, the audio space is automatically filled in with the same filename as the video source. That's weird. I opened both VOB files in VDubMOD and they both have AC3 streams. This is so confusing. If I convert them as is, wouldn't one part have no audio and the other part have audio?

[jimmalenko]

I foresee two options here - the easy way and the hard way.

The easy way involves smashing your keyboard over your head.

The hard way involves a lot of reading.

How's it gonna be ?

[dafreak]

ok, i'm bored so I will tell you how i would do this.
the video and audio need to be processed in two parts.

VIDEO
-open the first episode using dvd2avi
-click file | open | select the first vob of the first episode and dvd2avi will select the rest of the vob's for that episode.
-then click on file | save project
-name the project what you want and save to the hd.
-repeat these steps for all 3 episodes

-load the project file dvd2avi created in tmpgenc
-convert the file from pal to ntsc and mpg 2 dvd standard.
-the most important settings for this is are:
1. change the framerate to 23.97
2. select 3:2 pulldown
3. on the advanced tab, check do not framerate convert
-convert only the video stream (ES (elementary stream)->video only)
-you should end up with 3 x m2v files for each episode


AUDIO
-open up the first vob file for the first episode with dvd2avi again
-click on audio | track number | select the track you want if there are more than one
-click on audio | output method | decode to wav
-click on file | save project
-save the file to your hd.

You could actually do this at the same time you're demuxing the video stream but I separated the steps for simplicity.

-load the wav file using goldwave or other audio editing software
-click on effects | time stretch
-slow the audio down to 23.97 fps
-save each audio file to your hd as 16 bit pcm wav
-repeat for all three episodes
-optional: load the wave files into ffmpeggui and convert wave to ac3
-you should now have 3 x wave or ac3 audio files

MULTIPLEX, AUTHOR, and BURN
use an authoring program such as tmpgenc dvd author to multiplex the files together to create menus and dvd compliant vob files.
-load each m2v file with it's corresponding ac3 file
-eg. episode1.m2v and episode1.ac3
burn the vob files using your favorite dvd burning software.


not sure if that's the best way or the fastest but it will work. Hope that helps.

[jimmalenko]

Good call Dafreak. That's how I would have done it.

[Sakuya]

Actually, I found a better way. I used VOBMerge to merge the 2 VOBs together. Then I used VDubMOD to extract the AC3 and then load the joined VOB to TMPGEnc to convert to an M2V. Thanks.

[dafreak]

Actually, I found a better way. I used VOBMerge to merge the 2 VOBs together. Then I used VDubMOD to extract the AC3 and then load the joined VOB to TMPGEnc to convert to an M2V. Thanks.

like i said, my method isn't the best way, not sure if there is a "best" way, but it will work. There are many different ways of approaching this. I'm glad you found your own method. More power to you.


if you use the ac3 file that you extracted without modifying it, you'll end up with synch problems.

if you're going to use virtualdub to extract the audio, use the save wav function. Save it to wave, slow the audio down to 23.97 and then convert back to ac3