Panasonic DVD recorders

[garman]

A friend gave me a DVD disc. I'm having a terrible time trying to author the VOB files in TDA. I merged the split files (vobs) and when I play it back, TDA will not play at that specified point, ie merged section. Actually if you scroll futher it will eventually play. What gives. BTW I don't have the model of his set top disc/HD recorder. I only know because smart ripper gives me the disc info as "panasonic-pvr" Any takers-garman

[Baldrick]

how did you merge the vobs? have you tried just open the video_ts with tmpgenc dvd author(using add dvd video)? instead of the merged vobs.

[garman]

I use vob merge. If I don't merge the file I get a compliant error on the second vob file. Anyway I found the model # of the recorder "phillips dvdr 985" what's the word on this recorder and TDA. Thanks for your response -garman

[gshelley61]

You might want to try creating a single .MPG file from your VOB's and then load the .MPG in to TDA. Lately, I've been using Simple File Joiner (freeware available at http://www.peretek.com/sfj.php) to do this. I join the VOB's right off the disc and save to a new .MPG on my hard drive.

If TDA is still touchy about the new .MPG file, try this - demux the .MPG with TMPGEnc MPEG Tools or some other demuxer, load the demuxed files in to MPEG2Schnitt to select your chapter points, then author a simple no-menu DVD with IFOEdit. This works for me when TDA won't.

[garman]

I've been doing that with my recorder (daytek). But the philips 985 vobs can't be edited unless you resample to an mpeg2 format. This causes a quality drop. I like TDA. I can scroll to the commercial an delete it and save it as vob file again. No fuss no mess, no loss. anyway I'm trying to aviod re-encode. thanks -garman

[gshelley61]

I've been doing that with my recorder (daytek). But the philips 985 vobs can't be edited unless you resample to an mpeg2 format. This causes a quality drop. I like TDA. I can scroll to the commercial an delete it and save it as vob file again. No fuss no mess, no loss. anyway I'm trying to aviod re-encode. thanks -garman

MPEG2Schnitt doesn't re-encode, neither does authoring with IFOEdit. No loss of quality doing that way. They seem to be a bit less fussy than TDA about certain VOB/MPG files from what I can tell. I like TDA, too.

VOB's are just MPG's with a different extension that is used specifically in DVD-Video file structures. You can even just rename your VOB's to .MPG after you save them to your hard drive and they'll play just fine.

[garman]

Sorry, I go the impression from your last post that I would have to re-encode. Now knowing what was posted I'll try both apps and see how it goes. -thanks for all your efforts. -garman