DVD Shrink "out of memory" with home videos

[suroit]

I have seen this issue discussed a lot in relation to ripping DVDs, but this is different (no encryption issue):
- I captured VHS home videos on a DVD-RW using a Liteon burner
- Transferred to my HDD using DVD Decrypter
- Demuxed and cut out bad parts using ProjectX
- Authored with animated menus using GUI for dvdauthor and got a DVD folder

I then started DVD Shrink, configured to just create the ISO so I can check it prior to burning. DVD Shrinks stops the analysis at around 50% with the "out of memory" message. First time it ever happened.
I am pretty sure I have plenty of memory and hard drive space.
I suspect some corruption in my VOB files.

Any suggestion?

[Baldrick]

if you aren't shrinking why not create the iso with something else? like imgburn.

[ron spencer]

why even make an iso to begin with?

[suroit]

Well, My DVD is a little over 4.4GB, but I can cut a little out of it, and re-author a version that will just fit on the DVD-R, and try imgburn, hopefully tonight, and let you know.

Thanks for the suggestion.

[suroit]

Ron, I am not sure I know how to burn my DVD from the DVD folder without the ISO. I use DVD Decrypter, it requires an ISO file to burn a DVD.
Can you explain?

[handyguy]

Is Windows managing your virtual memory?

What do you mean by having plenty of hd space & memory? How much?

Also, there are numerous versions of shrink, try another version.

[suroit]

Handyguy,
512MB RAM (and 3.46GHz Pentium 4 with HT)
Internal HD has ~20GB available,
The DVD folder is on an external HD with around 16GB available -- from memory, but I will check tonight (I am not close to my machine right now).
Yes, Windows is managing my virtual memory.

[Jim44]

Ron, I am not sure I know how to burn my DVD from the DVD folder without the ISO. I use DVD Decrypter, it requires an ISO file to burn a DVD.
Can you explain?

Use ImgBurn in "Build" mode - burns from the DVD folder without the need for an ISO file.

Guide here:
http://forum.imgburn.com/index.php?showtopic=1779

Jim

[suroit]

Use ImgBurn in "Build" mode - burns from the DVD folder without the need for an ISO file.

Guide here:
http://forum.imgburn.com/index.php?showtopic=1779

Jim

Sounds good, I will definitely try that!

[VegasBud]

suroit,

Your hunch:

I suspect some corruption...

would be my guess too.

DvdShrink usually gives an "out of memory" error when the the dvd files aren't close enough to the specifications for DvdShrink to deal with. You should try running your project through FixVTS, to correct any internal problems, then see if DvdShrink will work.

Even if that does solve your DvdShrink problem, I still agree with Jim44 that using ImgBurn in "Build Mode" is a better way to handle the burning part.

[suroit]

OK, I ran FixVTS through the DVD folder. No improvement regarding DVD Shrink. I still get the "out of memory" error.

BUT...ImgBurn worked great! I burned a DVD, works fine with VLC Media Player, works fine on my standalone RCA PVR. I will try other hardware players tomorrow.

Problem solved for that project. Thanks for suggesting ImgBurn, it looks like a better burn software than DVD Decrypter.

I am still curious about the DVD Shrink issue, as this software is so convenient when you really have to shrink. Apparently, whatever it is DVD Shrink doesn't like in the DVD folder, it doesn't seem to bother ImgBurn, or the DVD players when the DVD is done. Still a puzzle...

[VegasBud]

suroit,

If you still want to try to fix the cause of the DvdShrink error, you could also open the project in PgcEdit, to see if it offers to fix anything. If so, let it go ahead, save the project, and then try DvdShrink again. If it doesn't find any errors, just close PgcEdit without saving.

You can also take a look at this page to see if anything sounds like your situation.

[handyguy]

"DvdShrink usually gives an "out of memory" error when the the dvd files aren't close enough to the specifications"

Yes, I remember some versions of Shrink got this msg.

[suroit]

Vegasbud,

I checked the project with PgcEdit, nothing offered. However, I noticed something strange. I have four titles on the DVD, each of them in the 35-45 minute range. But PgcEdit reported titles 3 and 4 at over 2 hours!

At the same time, it seems to me that DVDShrink seems to be doing OK when it's analyzing the files until it gets to 50% progress. It always chokes on the same frame, which I suspect is in title 3 (I will check).

I was also checking virtual memory utilization, and I had the feeling, based on the timeline, that while DVD Shrink was analyzing title 1, it was using ~450MB flat, it grew to ~900MB with title 2, and staid flat there as well, and hit 1.6GB in title 3, just before stopping with the out of memory message. I think 1.6 GB is close to the maximum virtual memory I have.
I tripled the virtual memory with allocations on two external hard drives, but by then it was getting late, and I am not sure if it has been recognized by the system, and it didn't change DVD Shrink behavior.

Next test, maybe tonight, will be to check if more virtual memory would help. I will also check where is that frame which causes DVD Shrink to stop running.
If anyone has an idea how to check the files and find why PGCEdit indicate the wrong duration for these titles, I would appreciate. As a reminder, I already ran FixVTS on the files.

[VegasBud]

suroit,

You could try rebuilding the time maps in PgcEdit. If you want to go the global route, click "DVD" - "Rebuild all time maps of DVD". That would probably be the best idea.

If you want to be more surgical, you can use "Title" - "Rebuild time map of current PGC" and/or "Rebuild time maps of current VTS" on title 3 and then title 4 (in steps). This way would be more likely to pinpoint what part was screwed up in your processing chain, although it won't tell you which program introduced the error...or why.

It probably won't matter in your case, but r0lz updated the Time Map plugin about a week ago. If you want the latest version, you can get it by clicking here. Just unzip it and put it in the plugins subdirectory of PgcEdit.

For safety's sake, it would be a good idea to create a backup in PgcEdit before doing anything like this. Or work on a separate copy of your project...your choice.

[suroit]

VegasBud,

Thanks for the advice. I started last night using PdcEdit and the Time Map plugin on the whole DVD (I downloaded the last version as I didn't have any, anyway). It detected the issue on the two suspicious titles, noting the difference between the actual duration and the declared duration, and offered to fix the time maps. Then I am not sure what happened, and if I proceeded the right way (I need to become more familiar with PGCEdit). I will spend a little bit more time on it in the coming days, but this is very encouraging.

[suroit]

This is what happened: I ran PGCEdit and the Time Maps plugin on the whole DVD as indicated above. This is what the plugin reported first:

Time Map tables
DVD: "G:\Videos\91-95_famille070326\DVD\VIDEO_TS"
DVD-TEXT General Name: ""
Provider ID: "DVDAuthor 0.6.14-GfD-1"
Number of VTS: 4


-------------------- VTS 1 --------------------
1 VTS_TMAP tables defined in VTS_TMAPTI for 1 PGCs.

VTST 1 , 1   TTN 1  (51:08)  Title 1  (sequential title)
1534 x 2 seconds =   51:08


-------------------- VTS 2 --------------------
1 VTS_TMAP tables defined in VTS_TMAPTI for 1 PGCs.

VTST 2 , 1   TTN 1  (45:27)  Title 2  (sequential title)
1363 x 2 seconds =   45:26


-------------------- VTS 3 --------------------
1 VTS_TMAP tables defined in VTS_TMAPTI for 1 PGCs.

VTST 3 , 1   TTN 1  (2:00:42)  Title 3  (sequential title)
361 x 4 seconds =    24:04 ; ********** WARNING! **********


-------------------- VTS 4 --------------------
1 VTS_TMAP tables defined in VTS_TMAPTI for 1 PGCs.

VTST 4 , 1   TTN 1  (2:45:09)  Title 4  (sequential title)
534 x 5 seconds =    44:30 ; ********** WARNING! **********


------------------- Summary -------------------
VTST 3 , 1   TTN 1  (2:00:42)  Title 3: Wrong TMAP duration
VTST 4 , 1   TTN 1  (2:45:09)  Title 4: Wrong TMAP duration

As I said, PGCEdit detected the wrong TMAP duration. The correct duration is the short one: for example 24:04 and not 2:00:42 for VTS 3.

But after rebuilding the time maps, this is what I get (showing only the relevant VTS 3 and 4:

-------------------- VTS 3 --------------------
1 VTS_TMAP tables defined in VTS_TMAPTI for 1 PGCs.

VTST 3 , 1   TTN 1  (2:00:42)  Title 3  (sequential title)
1812 x 4 seconds =   2:00:48 ; ********** WARNING! **********


-------------------- VTS 4 --------------------
1 VTS_TMAP tables defined in VTS_TMAPTI for 1 PGCs.

VTST 4 , 1   TTN 1  (2:45:09)  Title 4  (sequential title)
1983 x 5 seconds =   2:45:15 ; ********** WARNING! **********


------------------- Summary -------------------
VTST 3 , 1   TTN 1  (2:00:42)  Title 3: Wrong TMAP duration
VTST 4 , 1   TTN 1  (2:45:09)  Title 4: Wrong TMAP duration

Now, I am really at a loss: the rebuilt time maps are wrong. They picked the inflated number instead of the correct time that was calculated by the plugin:
361 x 4 seconds = 24:04 for VTS 3, and
534 x 5 seconds = 44:30 for VTS 4.

Anyone understands how this works, and why?

Thanks for any suggestion.

[VegasBud]

suroit,

I generally only try to figure out why something didn't work as a last resort. It's generally easier and faster to just try a different way. In this case, VobBlanker also recalculates a new VTS_TMAPTI as part of its' standard processing.

To use VobBlanker for this, you would:
Open the project in VobBlanker
Set the "Output Folder" to a new folder (wherever you like)
Click the "Process" button at the bottom.

It would probably be better to use the original project than the PgcEdit-adapted version, but you can try both ways if you're curious.

[suroit]

VegasBud,

The good news: VobBlanker did recalculate the time maps and found the right values.
The bad news: I still have the DVD Shrink issue. Exactly the same behavior.

These files must have some other corruption. I used first ProjectX and then GUI for dvdauthor. I think I will try to play a little with GFD first. I was trying to avoid this as it is more time consuming, but I will see if I can find some suspicious parameters that I can change in the GFD project before creating another DVD. Maybe in relation to the animated chapter menus.

Another solution would be to use another method to shrink my videos in a DVD. I will investigate this as well.

Thanks again for all the great suggestions, I learnt a lot. Feel free to continue posting other ideas.

[VegasBud]

suroit,

Yes, it appears at least one of the steps in your processing chain is not only screwing up the time maps, but causing other corruption as well. The easiest way to figure out the source of the problem would be to use DvdShrink as a "canary in a coal mine" after each step of your process. When the "canary" falls off its' perch and dies (DvdShrink goes belly up), you've identified at least one faulty step.

The same method would also help to rule out certain steps as introducing flaws. For example, you could open the disk the dvd recorder makes (the first step) in DvdShrink. If there's no problem, then you know the corruption was introduced after that step, and your source dvd can be excluded from any further consideration in your troubleshooting. Knowing what isn't the problem is helpful in narrowing down what is the problem.

Of course, you can also use PgcEdit after each step, as a "time map canary", to identify which step is screwing up the time maps (just in case they aren't being damaged in the same step where the other problem is being introduced).

I think most transcoders are more forgiving than DvdShrink, so using one of those might let you bypass whatever the problem is, but there's no guarantee they will fix the problem. It's your project, so it's up to you, but you're almost certainly going to get a better dvd in the end by preventing the corruption from ever being introduced in the first place, especially important since you're moving your family vhs tapes onto dvd. Personally, I think it was a stroke of luck that DvdShrink uncovered the problem.

[suroit]

Problem solved. I think I found out what caused Shrink to reject the files.
To all who provided input to help me solve my little problem, in particular VegasBud for his valuable recommendations, thanks to you. Here is my somehow simplistic interpretation of what happened.

I was trying to create one movie of around two hours containing a lot of scenes selected from the VHS tapes I had.

Normally, with Project X, you can enter all your VOB files, cut out parts you don't want, and get a single set of elementary .m2v and .ac3 streams, with all timing issues corrected, so you would end up with a single movie. With the vob files I had, Project X found a large number (at least 732) of errors/warnings related to PTS inconsistencies, and, in the process, deleted a large part of the audio files.

I then decided to create four sets of elementary streams out of ProjectX, to reduce the number of errors per file. This worked well in the sense that I didn't lose any of the sound, and had a number of errors per file that apparently ProjectX could handle.

Now that I had "clean" elementary streams, I decided to run them, ALL TOGETHER, a second time through ProjectX, hoping to create a single movie as you can do with VOB files. Of course, these were not VOB files but four sets of .m2v and .ac3 files. Well, ProjectX accepted the files, processed them, detected no error, but did not create a single file.

However, after running into the DVDShrink problem, I went back through the ProjectX logs and found out that, although PX didn't create a single movie file, it somehow concatenated the PTS, taking the last PTS of movie 1 and using that value as the first one of movie 2 etc. As a result, DVDShrink looking at the individual files were finding increasingly large values for the last PTS of movies 2, 3 and 4. The applications would then assume the durations of these movies were much larger that in reality, and all calculations in terms of average bit rate etc would be totally off, causing DVDShrink to stop and give an error message.

I now have re-run the Elementary Streams separately through ProjectX, replaced the files in my GUI for DVDauthor project, and ended up with a DVD folder that runs well, and that DVDShrink can handle flawlessly.

The other observation though is that, although DVDShrink is very sensitive to this type of error where it assumes the video duration is much larger than in reality, it doesn't seem bothered by rough VOB files out of my DVD recorder that have PTS discontinuities all over.