Strange Multi-VTS problem

[niccador]

Hello all.
I've been wracking my brain over this problem all day, and haven't come any closer to a solution, so I hope someone here is able to help...

I've been working a homebrew DVD for a friend, converting some old VHS stuff he wanted archived. The DVD content consists of 3 titles.

My normal procedure is to compile the base dvd content using TMPGEnc DVD Author 1.5, and then use DVD-lab Pro (v1.00 Build 041014)and IFOedit to create and insert the menus, as per petar's guide here:
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=220758
(Yes, I know my tools might not be the latest and greatest....but if it ain't broke....)

I've done this several times in the past on dvds with only 1 or 2 title sets...3 should be no different, and yet, in this case, it appears to be.

The DVD menus consist of a Main Menu (with Play All option), and Chapter Selection menus for each of the 3 title sets.

The menus appear to function normally, and playback of the first title seems fine (whether Play All is selected, or a specific Chapter point).

At the end of the first title, it should either loop back to the main menu, or continue to the next title (if Play All is selected). However, it does neither, the disc simply stops.
Any attempt to start playback of Title 2 or 3 via any particular Chapter also fails outright.

It would seem to me that the problem is clearly in the IFO code somewhere, but I just cannot find it.
Can anyone possibly shed some light on this?

I've (tried) to attach the VIDEO_TS.IFO to this post. If more info or other IFO files are needed, just let me know. I'm anxious to get this dang thing working....

video_ts.ifo

[Spudboy]

While looking at your "video_ts.ifo" file in IFOedit, the "VMG Overview" only lists the "Title Set 1". It appears that Title 2 and 3 are not there. Maybe that's why it only plays Title 1. At this point, that's all that I can see that may be the problem. Hope that helps, if you haven't already figured it out.

[guns1inger]

I would upgrade to at least 1.53. It fixes and adds a lot of things.

Can you post a screenshot of your connections window as well, so we can what is pointing where.

[niccador]

I noticed that and considered it myself....although, that's the way DVD-lab compiled it, even though 3 movie VTS's were part of the project. (I actually allowed DVD-lab to compile the full DVD from the source once...aside from inserting proper chapter points...and it still only gave a single Title in that portion of the file.)

I attempted to alter that section at one point, adding the appropriate additional titles, however, it didn't work....most likely because I do not know offhand what the appropriate "starting sector" for each title should be.

If anyone knows how to discern that key bit of information, then properly altering that section would probably fix it....

EDIT:
guns1inger - You replied while I was responding...lol I'm going to try updating to 1.53, per your advice.... Since DVD-lab compiled the IFO in that manner, perhaps it's jsut a bug after all....hopefully that will fix it.

[Spudboy]

Another part says "Number of Video Title Sets on this DVD: 1" but it should say 3 since you have 3. Also, it has "VTS_01" for all 3 titles when I think that 2 should have "VTS_02" and 3 should have "VTS_03". Maybe I'm wrong about that but I was just brainstorming.

[niccador]

Spudboy, good eye!
I had completely overlooked the VTS numbering in the VMG_PTT_SRPT section...

It listed three titles, but as you pointed out, had "1" for each "VTS#" and the appropriate number (1-3) for each "VTS_TTN".....simply reversed those two lines for each Title, and viola, it WORKS!

The question remains, though, as to why DVD-lab would transpose those numbers to begin with (especially after doing it properly for multiple 1 and 2 Title DVDs).....even after updating and recompiling with 1.53....

Very strange....

So glad that it works now!
Thanks so much for your help!

So....who's interested in a Tears for Fears DVD featuring the "In My Mind's Eye" and "Going to California" concerts? (Otherwise currently unavailable, as far as I know.) lol

[niccador]

Okay...looks like this topic wasn't over after all....
Sorry guys...

After "fixing" the problem described above, the disc seemed to work fine (when playing the DVD from the hard drive).

When I attempted to burn the DVD with Nero, it gave me an error of:
"Video title set containing 'VTS_02_0.IFO' is not required.
DVD-Video files reallocation failed."
(I do not typically get reallocation errors with Nero, so it surprised me...)

Regardless, I ignored the error and burned the DVD.

The resulting DVD played just fine on my PCs, so I thought all was well.
Until I played it on my Philips DVP-642, which rejected the disc with the same problem as before: anything past the first title set fails to play, stopping the DVD dead in its tracks.

Attached is the most recent VIDEO_TS.IFO
Hopefully, someone can help make sense of this....

video_ts.ifo

[Shadowmistress]

Don't mind me, I'm just being curious. What exactly did you "author" in TDA? Just chapters? Anything else? Why do people author first in TDA and then use dvdlab menus when they could just use dvdlab for the whole thing?

[niccador]

I author the video in TDA because dvd-lab gives me serious audio sync issues whenever it muxes/demuxes anything.

Plus, I seem to have a real pain of a time adding chapters in DVD-lab, but that's secondary....my main concern is the audio sync.

But, of course, TDA is pretty much useless for custom menus, so....

Believe me, I would very much LOVE to use DVD-lab for everything, and not have do all this blasted IFO editing....

[Shadowmistress]

Are you converting your source files from avi or are you getting them as mpeg? Do you know what program was used to make them mpegs?

You *can* import assets into dvdlab without demuxing if they conform to proper dvd specs.....

Adding chapters isn't that hard. I could walk you through it...

[niccador]

My initial source is a ridiculously high-bitrate MPEG2 files(s), as recorded by WinTV on my PVR-150.

Well before I get to the real video authoring stage, that source gets heavily edited into many, many individual clips using TMPGEnc Plus 2.5, or more recntly, womble mpeg-vcr.

I join all of those many clips into one or more title sets with TDA, and if the resulting DVD is too large, I'll run it through DVDShrink or go back and re-encode it from scratch with TMPGEnc, depending on just how much compression leeway I think I have. (Lately, I've been skipping re-encoding with TMPGEnc [pre-TDA], instead using mpeg-vcr edits alone to create an oversized disc and then just shrinking it....saves a lot of time, and still produces good quality for most things....though I still have to use TMPGEnc for some clips that run into GOP errors in TDA.)

dvd-lab doesn't me to re-author all those individual clips into a proper title set, at least not that I've found. If I'm wrong there, PLEASE correct me.
It's possible that I could use mpeg-vcr to combine all those clips, and then feed the resulting file into dvd-lab, but in my past experiences, even mpeg-vcr would experience sync issues with some files....TDA, again, produced nicely synced results.

As you can see, I tend to go on tangents....lol

Anyway, that would be my pre-menu process. lol
Compiling all those clips properly would be one of the main draws of TDA.
Assuming the above process, and assuming I've not found some better way to effectively combine all those clips with no loss of sync, I'm kind of stuck using TDA...and since it produces perfectly usable VOB sets, there's been no point in me allowing dvd-lab to demux and remux then.

I'll admit that it's been some time since I last tried letting dvd-lab mux my video, and I suppose it's entirely possible that the sync problem may have been fixed in any one of the updates since then.

...

Also, I've gone on for so long, I think I've completely lost my train of thought....lol...

[Shadowmistress]

That was exactly the kind of info I was asking for. But I'm a little confused.

You're capping and outputting mpeg2 instead of avi, right?

You're using tmpgenc to cut out the commercials but using the editor and NOT the converter, right? (or that mpeg-vcr thingy but still not converting, right?)

You're using shrink just to get them to fit?

You're using TDA just to join? Why not use tmpgenc editing?

And all this saves you time?

Why not just do all your editing in tmpgenc, use a biterate calculator, and convert to proper size all within tmpgenc to begin with? You can make one large file with multi episodes in it and just make it behave like separate files in the authoring process. (Depending on if you don't want separate episodes to go to different places from eachother when they end.)

Dvdlab does let you join separate title sets, with the exeption that you can't access individual chapters from a menu, but you can within the movie. And you wouldn't have to add them, they're automatically dropped in between clips.

With all the processing these files go through, it's no wonder dvdlab gets confused. I bet it's dvdshrink that's the culprit....

Do you have a TBC? I hear it can prevent frame drops when capping.


If you still have your source files/ title sets, try dropping a few into dvdlab without demuxing and do a test compile. See if that works for you.
In dvdlab go to Project> project properties> Options tab> change the two dropdown boxes to read Use without demultiplexing. Then import your assets.

Go to connections window and "Add movie segment". Then drop your clips into there and it will add them as one movie. Set a quickie menu and test.

Let me know how it goes.

EDIT: Afterthought: can dvdshrink output elementary streams after it's shrunk? Maybe if you fed those into dvdlab already demuxed that might make things ok? (Can you tell I don't use dvdshrink either? )

[niccador]

Yes, I know, it all sounds like a mess...lol
It's not really quite as complex as I make it sound (I was never good at explaining things simply), but then I'm also used to it, so...

I'm going to respond to all that in a while, but privately, since it's a whole other discussion...lol (Don't worry, I'm not dismissing you...I'm always keen to learn new or alternate ways of doing things...)

Just wanted to turn this back to the topic way back up there...

[Shadowmistress]

No problem. Feel free to pm me.