Reversing Fields

[Kroma]

Hi,

About 18 months ago, I spent several days capturing my old home videos to PC and then burning them to DVD. Everything appeared to work flawlessly and the results looked good on PC. At the time I did not have a dedicated DVD player.
I recently bought a DVD player and, shock horror - it would appear that I captured with the fields reversed - on my tv via the DVD player, all the DVDs are jerky.

I haven't got time to start from scratch and I'd spent ages adding chapters and menus.

Is there any tool which will simply re-author the DVDs with reversed fields?

Thanks in advance,
Kroma

PS The DVDs are in UK PAL format.

[byteguy]

Did you capture straight to DVD ready MP2 files?

DVD players can handle both top-field-first and bottom-field-first files. I know. My capture card captures in "top" but my slideshow program creates "bottom." I have mixed them on the same DVD (as long as they are their own titles) and everything was perfect.

The problem comes in when one of two things happen

1) You mix "top" and "bottom" files in the same movie. Many editing programs pick one or the other format so one bit will look fine while another bit is all jerky. To fix that you have to make both source files match by re-encoding one to match the other. VirtualDub has a filter for that.

But it sounds like you might have the following problem

2) There is a flag in the file that says what encoding method is used. ReStream can be used to check and change that flag. NOTE: it does not actually change the field order in the file, it only changes the flag and is only useful when the flag is wrong (I talked to the author about this to make sure I understood). You can try flipping the flag and reauthoring the DVD to see if that helps.

If none of this helps... it could be the way you captured your file.

Give us the details that ReStream reports and also tell us about the hardware you used (and any settings you can remember).

[Kroma]

I'm getting there - I've used PVAstrumento to take the VOB files and demux them - then to take the demuxed files and save them as mpv files which I've then used Restream to correct. These can then be made into a DVD using DVD Movie Factory without flicker (not sure about the audio yet as my first trial was with an old silent cine film)!
Is there a way to convert the mpvs to vobs again - if so, I'll try to put them back with the other DVD files to see if my menus remain intact and continue to work without starting all the menu work over again. VideoRedo refuses to open the mpv files.
Thanks,
Kroma

[Sartori]

You could convert the VOBs to MPG (using vob2mpg ) then use Restream to correct the field , then remake the DVD using the MPGs . Although this guide is for replacing a stream / postprocesing made dvds , its really tantamount to the same thing you would wish to do ie postprocess a stream and remake the dvd keeping the menus intact https://www.videohelp.com/guides.php?guideid=937#937

[Kroma]

I did convert to mpgs using PVAstrumento (see above) but Restream wouldn't correct the fields of mpg files - it demanded that they were demuxed first. That's why I went down the mpv route which restream accepts.
How can I make a re-fielded mpg?

[Sartori]

Sorry , I posted just before I went to bed and went off on a slight tangent to what I tried to type (yup had a couple of beers earlier on as well ) , my post was meant to be more of how to integrate the VOBs back into the dvd and still use the menus without recoding .
You need to Remux the audio and your new refielded video file together , I use TMPGenc DVD Author which allows you to do this when you are making a dvd , otherwise use any Remux program on this site , Ive used TMPGEnc Tools , but there are others , that`ll give you a refielded mpg .

[Kroma]

I think I've done it (not tested it on a hardware player yet as it's just finished encoding)... I took my mpv files and processed them with muxman as shown in the guide you pointed to then used vobblanker as described. There were a couple of warnings which I'll have to investigate but it appears to work using winDVD. I'll keep you updated.
Thanks for your help!
Kroma
Update... Bah - some of my submenu items are broken. WiniDVD just goes black. I'll have to investigate later.

[Kroma]

Can't get it to work. Have tried selecting 'replacing' for all PGCs in VobBlanker but that produces a DVD in excess of 10Gb. Where am I going wrong?
I've succeeded in producing vobs which arein the correct field order - how do I reassociate them with my original menus? Are the tools you suggest above the way to go for this? I see that they're not totally freeware. Are there any freeware apps which can do this (I have quite a few DVDs to sort out - might take me a while).
Thanks,

Kroma

[Sartori]

My project is on a slightly similarish theme , I have the video but I want to change the audio , so it needs demux then remux with new audio and at this point Im in the same boat as you - menus I want to use but with bare mpgs to somehow to reinsert into the dvd . I`d saved those pages as they were the method I was going to use but if they dont work , Ive been thinking of a plan B .

Im going to make the new mpgs and then make a new dvd from them , no chapters or anything , then delete the IFOs and BUPs and insert the ones from my original DVD , the IFOs contain the chapters , and as I recall the VOBs contain their own bitrate , resolution etc in their header , Ive looked for more technical reasons why this might not work , the only reason I could speculate on is the IFOs have intricate details of what the vob should be like . Im putting this up here Im slightly busy at the moment , so this is just floating ideas out rather than seem Ive left the topic , before I actually get some time to do this . I`ll also gladly be corrected as to whether this being a viable option ie along with chocolate teapots .


Ive seen posts on this forum saying that they had just changed the mpg suffix to vob and it worked but I`m sceptical of this and even it did work , I have 3gig of VOBs in one title to sort out but I mention it just in case .

[Kroma]

OK, having looked around old forum messages I'm sure I'm VERY close. My problem occurs at the last stage. The problem is that all the PGCs in the selected title set are part of my movie. There are no bits to 'blank'. If I only select the largest one as shown in the guide and choose 'replace', my sub menus are broken. If I select all PGCs and select 'replace', my DVD bloats to 10Gb. Why is it bloating if VideoBlanker is set to 'replace' - this is the bit I cannot get my head round and I'm sure if I can solve this final step then my DVD will work fine with my new re-fielded video.
TIA for any help,

Kroma

[Sartori]

I did my project this afternoon , demuxed , made new audio , converted it to the same as the original audio (256kbps mp2) and then remuxed , then made a dvd on my hard drive using just the new mpg I had , then copied the new VOBs over the old ones in the dvds folder on my hard drive and then burnt it - it worked fine . My point to you is that unless you change anything and are just demuxing , refielding and then remuxing , just remake a new dvd to your hard drive with those new mpgs and then just use them instead , this will of course keep your old menus .

[Kroma]

The problem I have here is that if I demux, change the field order (so far so good) and then remux using Muxman, I end up with less vobs. Any ideas?

[Kroma]

OK - it would have helped if I'd included the audio. There are now enough VOBS (although the final one is a bit smaller) and VOBblanker complains that 'ini/end cell pointers out of range'. How do I fix this?
The DVD appears to run using WINDVD although there's a momentary freeze when selecting each menu item. Whether it runs on a hardware player remains to be seen as I've got to go to work - I'll try it later.

[Sartori]

Im going to have to do my project the same way as you , (after reviewing all of the dvd I made , it doesnt work 100% - if you substitute VOBs albeit in effect the same ones , its doesnt work as the chapters must be hardwired somehow and mine jumped here and there , so it has to be the way I originally suggested to you) . Ive no idea how to do as you ask as you`re now quite a few steps in front of me , I`ll do my best to catch up and see I can help . The only smidgen of help is to google for the errors you are getting along with "vobblanker" in the search as well .

[Kroma]

Well, my DVD is almost complete (just in time).
In the end, I decided not to add the refielded video to the already authored menus but to add more home video footage from other DVDs and make new menus.
My original silent movie was easy: Demux with PGC Demux and then use Restream to change the field order.
The others were a bit harder - some DVDs had footage with varying field orders which meant that some footage couldn't be seen by various bits of software!
Again, I used PGC Demux to extract the bits I wanted (and those I didn't want so I could verify that there weren't needed), then Restream. Then I used Muxman followed by VideoRedo to make fresh mpgs for use in DVD MovieFactory.
I had a couple of items which Restream showed as being in the correct field order but, no matter what I did to them, they still flickered. I think they were slightly flawed so after using Muxman to allow access to standalone VOBS, I ran them through video redo, then had to run then through DVD Movie Factory to create files which PGD Demux would read. Then I used restream (if neccesary), Muxman, VideoRedo again and finally added them into DVD Movie Factory along with the rest of the files. The final result looks good so it's only the menus to complete now!
Thanks for your help - I hope this thread is of use to others (I know I'll refer back to it when I re-field my other DVDs one day).
Incidentally, if anybody DOES know how to put the VOBS back in with the original menu, I'd still be interested for future use
Thanks,
Kroma