Bad VOB files from DVD Camcorder

[fredfillis]

I've had a number of bad mini DVD's from my camcorder. For the most part, I can play most of the disk in the camera. I can't play 100%, some entire scenes are bad and look like a really really bad satellite TV picture in a storm! When I try to copy (not capture!) from the camera to the computer or put the disk into the PC one or more VOB files will give me a CRC error.

Using Isobuster I managed to get all of the bad disks copied to my computer.

Now that I have the content of the disks on the PC, what I would like to do is some surgery on these files to restore the bits I can't get to via capture or demux / remux.

Being a newb, I'm not sure if this is even possible. But I'm willing to learn. I've had a quick look at a few things like vobblanker, fixvts and vobedit which give me a bunch of stuff that I don't understand just yet. On one disk there are like 10 cells in sequence that are bad and just get skipped over.

I guess what I'm looking for is a way to "correct" or edit those bad cells in some way so I can get to the content.

Does any such tool exist?

[fredfillis]

No takers on this one?

[redwudz]

If you don't have good data in those parts, there is likely no way to restore it. You can cut out the bad parts with a MPEG editor. Try VideoReDo or MPEG Video Wizard. I assume you have converted the VOBs to MPEG?

[fredfillis]

Yeah, I could cut out the bad parts.

When I look at one of these bad vobs with say Vobblanker, I get something like this:

VTS 01: Keeping Cell VID/CID: 16/01 --> 16/01
    WARNING: Packs unsynchronized. Skipping packs...
    WARNING: No Navs found!: outputting a blank cell
    A total of 6355 packs have been skipped
VTS 01: Keeping Cell VID/CID: 17/01 --> 17/01
    WARNING: Packs unsynchronized. Skipping packs...
    WARNING: No Navs found!: outputting a blank cell
    A total of 8234 packs have been skipped
VTS 01: Keeping Cell VID/CID: 18/01 --> 18/01
    WARNING: Packs unsynchronized. Skipping packs...
    WARNING: No Navs found!: outputting a blank cell
    A total of 8228 packs have been skipped
VTS 01: Keeping Cell VID/CID: 19/01 --> 19/01
    WARNING: Packs unsynchronized. Skipping packs...
    WARNING: No Navs found!: outputting a blank cell
    A total of 8223 packs have been skipped

I guess I outstmarted myself initially. Isobuster filled the bad sectors with blanks when it could not read the disk. Now I'm having isobuster make an image, a process that looks like it will take two or three tries and a couple of days.

Assuming that I can make a complete image, then the question is, assuming I find similar issues to the above, how can I correct the error. I'm sure it must be doable. My limited understanding so far tells me that the VOB is as much about structure as it is content. Some tools appear to provide the ability to edit the vob (such as vobedit) and I would definitely want to give it a try if there was a chance I could restore some or all of the bad sections.

I would not even bother if this were generic crap home video, but this is important to my wife and I.

[Wile_E]

You could try running the video file through Restream or using the Quickstream fix option in VideoReDo. Besides using tools like these, there is no manual way of fixing these files yourself. Especially if the data is not there. From the Vobblanker logs, it appears that it inserted blank cells to fill in the lost data.

As a last resort, you may be able to take it the disc to some data recovery place, but this will cost you big money. Even then, there is no guarantee.

The DVD burner in the camcorder probably messed up or you had a bad DVD. This is why I would never buy a Camcorder that uses DVD's. Mini-DV tapes are much more reliable and give you better quality. Yes, they are not convenient, but you trade this for being reliable. May I suggest that you sell your DVD camcorder as soon as possible and buy a tape based one.

[fredfillis]

This is why I would never buy a Camcorder that uses DVD's. Mini-DV tapes are much more reliable and give you better quality. Yes, they are not convenient, but you trade this for being reliable. May I suggest that you sell your DVD camcorder as soon as possible and buy a tape based one.

Correct!!!

I had come to that decision 2 months ago when I discovered that several of the disks were bad. I'm now looking to get a Panasonic GS500. I don't really care whether it's the media or the camera, the end result is the same ... lost video!

I will continue to try and recover the entire file and maybe, if I can get a complete file without blanks added for bad cells I might get lucky with Restream or VideoReDo (which I already use).

Thanks!