keep menu/chapters after remuxing?

[manono]

Hi-

Did the chapters get mixed up?

Not if the reencoded movie had them correct. Play the reencoded and reauthored DVD (before replacing in VobBlanker) and skip around in the different chapters. If they're correct there, they'll be correct after doing the replace. At the very most, the chapters get changed by a half a second or so when authoring the reencoded DVD. That's because chapter points have to fall on I-Frames. You're not talking about a small change like that, are you? If you used Muxman for the reauthoring, you can check the log (in the root of the C Drive) for information on where the chapters were set, if they were changed from the original, and by how much.

Now, if you do a PAL<->NTSC conversion, then the chapter frame numbers will have to be changed. But you wouldn't be using VobBlanker to keep the menus if that were the case.

[bmwracer]

Have you used Vobblanker to replace one movie with another - in order to use the menu? Did the chapters get mixed up? Vobblanker has settings that can be changed when "Replacing," so I'm wondering if I need to change them.
Also PGCedit might be necessary. manono indicated using it after Vobblanking to activate subtitles or extra audio tracks.

I didn't have a problem: I took a Japanese DVD and demuxed it to get the subtitles, then reauthored it with English menus and chapters, and finally used VOBblanker to replace the existing video with the subtitled video... Finally I used PGCEdit to turn on the subtitles and DVDSubEdit to alter the subtitle colors.

No chapter mix up at all.... Did you remember to import the celltimes.txt file when using Muxman?

[spiritgumm]

bmwracer - no offense, but I'm really addressing manono about this. If you read back before your posts here, I did successfully make some dvds in the way you described. I'm talking about a different situation than demuxing, importing celltime, etc.
In this case I'm using a chapter-making program called Chapter edit. If you author a dvd with Vobedit & Ifoedit, it leaves you with 60-70 misc. chapters. I run the video thru Chapter edit, delete all the misc. chapters, then choose and add chapters (usually about 15). Preview it in 'shrink, the chapters are where I want them.
When I re-insert this video into a TDA-made menu (or the original, if I'm using a commercial dvd) Vobblanker will mess up the chapters. All the chapters might be assigned to the first 10 minutes of the film. In one experiment, I checked the video in Pgcedit, and all 60-70 original "cell ids" (the original sin of misc chapters from Vobedit/Ifoedit) are still there. Chapter Edit doesn't delete them while it's deleting chapters. Shouldn't be an issue, but in one trial, shrink saw the cells as chapters. I've repeated this in many permutations -- it also seems to matter what, if any, chapters are present on the movie that you are copying over.

In a situation where no celltime is available, and/or you don't want to demux/remux, then things get very difficult. TDA can also hamper the problem - it doesn't allow more than 1 subtitle and 1 audio channel. In my recent project, it also put the audio out-of-synch, so I'm trying to take the TDAmenu-part and insert the original working video, with chapters made in Chapter Edit. Just aint working right, which is why I'm wondering if there are some settings besides "Default" I should tweek in Vobblanker. Also wondering if replacing a movie replaces everything incl chapters? Eh, manono?

[bmwracer]

bmwracer - no offense, but I'm really addressing manono about this.

Oh.

[manono]

Hi-

I've been investigating this problem of changing the chapter points and then doing the "Replace" using VobBlanker. And I've found out I was completely wrong, and I apologize for wasting your time. In my defense, I usually work with retail DVDs, where the chapters are already where they're supposed to be, and was assuming that if you change them, when you then "Replace", the changes stick. No such luck, as you already found out.

But... don't despair. There's another way (or 2) to accomplish what you want:

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=105628

I think I would try goonix's solution, if I were you, before trying the OP's solution. If you reauthored with the chapters the way you want, I'd try his "Replace VTS Titles" in PGCEdit suggestion, rather than using VobBlanker for the job.

[spiritgumm]

Yes, it worked for me only with retail dvd. These other movies are home recorder dvds.

Not sure what you mean by the "OPs solution," tho I'm curious about it. I also saw an intriguing notion to use Vobblanker to split a cell and Pgcedit to do something with chapters, tho they didn't elaborate on the details. Sounds simple...
Good news/bad news:
So I added chapters with Chapter Edit and inserted movie into the TDA menu-video with Pgcedit. Didn't quite know what I was doing, but it worked. However...since I can't use TDA to edit with these dvds (because it messes the audio sync), my "good" movie was the result of editing with 'shrink, joined together with Vobedit and finished with Ifoedit. After inserting ("replacing") and burning, I could see all the edit-points are momentarily blocky. I don't recall this FX when editing with TDA, so it's either shrink or vobedit. I'd like to redo the editing part...

I've previously added 1-2 seconds of black screen to the start/end of movies with no sync issues, but now TDA audio is getting a hair out-of-sync when I do this - two more stand-alone recorder dvds from two other sources. In these cases (unlike the LG recorder dvds) if I don't add the black, the audio is fine.

I have Nero 6.whatever, and tried that for movie/menu-making. I haven't burned an RW of it yet so I don't know if the vob & edit points are blocky or not, but I did notice it lowers the audio bit rate (not referring to volume, which I reset to 100%). Audio stays synced, and I maxed out the quality output.
I previewd the resulting movie in 'Shrink, and after the first vob joint, the audio has regular dropout every 5 -10 seconds. I've joined other clips and it's a consistent result. In reality it sounds fine on Windows Media player, but the drop worried me, so I wanted to see what the bitrate was - loaded it into TDA and it showed the audio had dropped from original 256 to 192. Didn't like that, but still, it shouldn't make the odd dropout in 'Shrink happen. Should I worry?

This is all somewhat funny (in a gallows humor way) - many scenarios with different ware which all have contingencies that screw up the next step. Now I know what it feels like to be "Norman,""Nomad" and the "M5" in the old Trek show.

[manono]

Hi-

OP=Original Poster. His solution is in the 2nd to the last post in that thread. I didn't really understand what he did anyway. I think goonix's solution is fairly elegant. Open the TDA authored DVD in PGCEdit, highlight the movie for which you made another version with different chapter points, and then go File->Replace VTST Titles. Give it your newly authored DVD with the chapters in the right places. It's very similar to the "Replace" button of VobBlanker, but allows the new video to have different attributes than the one being replaced.

I also saw an intriguing notion to use Vobblanker to split a cell and Pgcedit to do something with chapters

Yes, easy in principle, but you're not changing or adding just one chapter, but a whole lot of them. I don't think that's the most efficient way to go about it.

So I added chapters with Chapter Edit and inserted movie into the TDA menu-video with Pgcedit. Didn't quite know what I was doing, but it worked. However...since I can't use TDA to edit with these dvds (because it messes the audio sync), my "good" movie was the result of editing with 'shrink, joined together with Vobedit and finished with Ifoedit.

I didn't really understand that. I take it that my PGCEdit suggestion worked, but you wanted to do some other work on the video besides just remaking the chapters, which is why you were using those other programs. Since I didn't understand all you were doing, I don't think I can help with such things as the blockiness, the slightly out-of-synch audio, or the change in audio bitrate. Good luck.

[spiritgumm]

Clicking "Replace VTS" prompts a window asking a Yes/No question "Do you want to keep..." and it lists several parameters. I wasn't sure which movie it was referring to. I think I answered wrong, because in the end, it beeped it couldn't keep the parameters I indicated. Since it worked, it must have reverted to the new movie parameters (despite my wrong answer).

That seemed to work. The new problem was a result of how the movie was edited, which left blocky (artifacts?) video at the edit points. They weren't visible until I watched the dvd on TV. Wish I could go back to TDA, as it didn't make rough cuts, but it's progressively unsyncing my audio.

[r0lZ]

I haven't read the whole thread, so I'll probably repeat some things, but let's clarify. I'll explain my method to add or replace audio and/or subpic streams to an existing title using PgcDemux, Muxman and PgcEdit (plus DVDSubEdit in some cases.)

Note that this method works ONLY if there is only ONE Title in the titleset you want to replace (ie, in PgcEdit, the title must be labelled like that: "VTST N1, 1 TTN 1 (duration) Title N2", where N1 and N2 can be any number, and you cannot have any other "VTST N1,..." PGC. If it's not the case, you will have to use VobBlanker as explained above.

1. Firstly, demux your original title with PgcDemux. All streams must be demuxed (ie video, audio and subpic), and you should also tick Create CellTimes.txt (WITHOUT the option "Include end time".)
   
   Note that if you forgot CellTimes.txt, you don't need to demux everything again, since it is also possible to create the CellTimex.txt file from PgcEdit's PGC Editor. All you have to do is to click on the CellTimes.txt button, and accept the defaults, suitables for Muxman.
   
2. At this point, you should compare your new subpics and/or audio streams with the originals you have just demuxed, to be sure they are synchronized.
   
3. Remux all streams with Muxman: Import them in the right order, and add your new streams after the originals, or replace the streams you don't need by yours.
   
   Test the DVD created by Muxman: you should be able to select any stream with the remote. Verify also the synchronization.
   
4. Open the original DVD in PgcEdit, select the original title by clicking once on its label in the left pane. Now, use File -> Replace VTST Title, navigate to the new DVD authored by muxman and select VTS_01_0.IFO. Accept the option to keep the original tables unchanged. The key of the method is here: this option allows you to replace the title without modifying the original stuff you probably want to keep, such as the subpic colors, the chapter tables, etc... The tables that need to be replaced will be replaced anyway.
   
   If PgcEdit complains that the number of cells is not equal than in the original, then you did something wrong with CellTimes.txt, ans you should try to produce this CellTimes.txt file again with PgcEdit, and repeat point 3.
   
5. Now, the method is different when you replace or you add new streams.
   [list:2e5293e8b2]
6. If you have replaced the streams, everything should be fine now, except perhaps the language code of your new streams. Right-click on the title PGC and select Domain Streams Attributes. Verify the language codes of your new streams, and modify them if needed.
   
7. If you have added new streams, you should enable them in the PGC Editor. Double-click on the title to open the PGC Editor, and select the first audio or subpic stream button with "none" as its label.
   
   For the audio streams, change the number of the stream to the first number not yet used in the other audio buttons, and click the Set button.
   
   For the subpic streams, there are 4 values, one for each possible display mode. You should modify only the numbers with a normal, black label. Use the first number not yet displayed in the other subpic buttons for all values. The streams with a grayed out label are not used, and you can leave them to 0. Again, click Set when done.
   
   Now, you have defined some new streams in the PGC, but you have also to modify the global stream attributes. Accept the changes in the PGC Editor, and go back to the main PgcEdit window. Right-click on the title PGC and select Domain Streams Attributes. PgcEdit will warn you that there are more streams defined in the PGCs than in the Domain Stream Attributes, and will offer to expand the DSA to include the new streams. Accept. You should see now your new streams, but initialized with default values. Fill in the language code (and the stream function if you wish.)
   
   For the audio streams, you have to provide also many other parameters, describing the stream. Click on the audio mode button, and fill in exactly the same parameters than in the DVD produced by Muxman. (You can open another instance of PgcEdit to load the muxman DVD and read its audio attributes.) Accept everything.
   
   You should also be sure that it is possible to change the audio and/or subpic streams with the remote, since you have no way to do it with the DVD menus. Open the PGC Editor again, and click on the "..." next to the Prohibited User Operations field, and verify that Audio and/or Subpicture Stream Change are NOT ticked.

[*] Save and test.
[*] If you have added or replaced subpic streams, you have to carefully verify that the subpic colours are right, since the indexes in the colour lookup table will probably be different. The easiest way to remap them correctly is to use DVDSubEdit to remap the colours to the right ones. Don't forget to "Apply to All" before quitting![/list:2e5293e8b2]
I have never had problems with this method.
Good luck!

[Edit:] Of course, if you have edited the demuxed streams, the chapter points following your edits will probably be wrong. You should therefore recreate the CellTimes.txt file manually, or edit it. You can probably preview the modified m2v file with VirtualDubMod, as it is easy to use and it displays the current frame number in its status bar. It is easy to recreate the chapters, but don't forget that you MUST have the same number of cells (cells are NOT chapters!) than in the original!
Anyway, to cut some parts of the movie, it is safer and easier to use VobBlanker on the final DVD. I really don't like most of those programs claiming that they are able to edit the video. Most of the time, the job is not well done, and it is easy to introduce some stream desynchronization. VobBlanker is safe!