DVD4 produces no TS Folder (or anything)

[rtraill]

I am new to FFMPEGX and I am registered but am having some difficulty getting DVD4 to work.

Using the latest binary version (0.0.9w_r2) on a MacBook Pro with 2G of memory and the video files on an external La Cie T2 drive.

I used Mactheripper to rip the DVD Alexander (which I own), this ends up with a file that contains 8 individual VOB files.

I used D-Vision 3 tools to join VOB files (selecting all the VOB files in the TS folder and sorting them into the correct order - .0, .1 etc).

This is then saved as a "Alexander.vob" at the root level of the HD with the TS folder on it. (this was quite quick).

Then I selected "Alexander.vob in the DVD4 section (there seems no place to select where the resultant TS folder will be created).

Alexander.vob plays perfectly in VLC.

I let the option "track1" for audio be selected (I have no idea which audio track D-Vision 3 might be using).

The process launches runs for 40 minutes, "bings" that it is completed with no error messages but all that is present now is the same Alexander.vob file (6.92gb) and two other files called Alexander.vob.ac3 and Alexander.vob.i.ac3. both 442mb in size
I can't find any TS folder anywhere.

Any suggestions?

[major]

You should use "Title/Chapter" mode in MTR so as it will create a single VOB file straight from the beginning.

[rtraill]

What is "MTR" I can't find it on version tracker or macupdate. There is a link on another topic but it doesn't work.

The issue isn't not having a single VOB, as I said in my original post I get a single vob called "Alexander.vob" but using DVD4 I don't get a video TS folder or any compressed file only the two files mentioned in my original post but the process says it has worked.

[major]

MTR is MacTheRipper. Using it to create a single VOB will lead to a clean VOB, while the join method you used possibly broke it.

[rtraill]

I must be missing something "Title/Chapter" mode only does one "chapter" at a time and they are all very small files, eg 90mb. Even the one with (MF) after it.

If you select "Title Only Extraction" on the other hand it produces a single VOB with all the main feature in it.

The running DVD4 in ffemeg gives the two extra sound files (as above and the original VOB is the same size.

Slightly annoying registering a product and the one thing I want it for doesn't seem to work.

[major]

It has been working since some years with no negative report. Please email me the complete process output (blue "i" icon in the Progress window) to major4@mac.com and I'll check what it could be.

[rtraill]

Ok an update I seemed to have got it to work (on Lord of the Rings).

I used MTR to do a "Title Set Extraction" which seemed to give the same output as "Feature only" then I opened the VOB files in MPEG stream clip (which automatically recognises that there are linked .vob files an offers to open them all). Then I simply saved it as VTS_01_1.vob (the default name) (6.35gb).

I then chose this as the input in DVD4. After a while I got the VTS_01_1.vob.DVD with the Audio/Video TS folders (4.12gb), with 5 .vob files in it adding up to a bit more than 4gb. It seemed to work fine.

I also got two other files created:
VTS_01_1.vob.ac3 (548mb)
VTS_01_1.vob.m2v (3.47gb)

?should these have been trashed automatically once the .dvd file was created.

I wonder if the problem before was that I named the .vob file "Alexander" rather than a "VTS_01_1"?

Once this is worked out I think the help section of the web should be re-written to allow idiots like me to know what to do in a step by step way (without abreviations like "MTR"). From reading the forum I am not the only one who doesn't get how to do this.

As an aside do most DVDs not have a single .vob file in them? If so then the instructions should read something like:

After extraction you are likely (may) have more than one .vob file insider the TS_Video folder. You will need to join them to create a single .vob file before using DVD4.

Their are several ways to do this, the easiest is......

[major]

I also got two other files created:
VTS_01_1.vob.ac3 (548mb)
VTS_01_1.vob.m2v (3.47gb)

These intermediate files are kept in case you want to reauthor the content in programs like Sizzle or DVDSP, eg. to add menus. Otherwise you can trash them.

I wonder if the problem before was that I named the .vob file "Alexander" rather than a "VTS_01_1"?

I don't think the name has any effect, I guess it could have been the effect of joining.

From reading the forum I am not the only one who doesn't get how to do this.

Yes, I plan to completely redo the ffmpegX site and add more howtos.

As an aside do most DVDs not have a single .vob file in them? If so then the instructions should read something like:

All DVDs have several VOBs each about 1GB in size. Simply stitching them together is not clean and not always work. It is better to create a single VOB at the extraction step. I agree that this information has to be written in a how-to.