Problem with Mini Dvd from camcorder

[jinjin]

Edit: I have sort worked the following problem out. Please see this post for the next one

I have a friends camcorder (Panasonic) mini-disc which she wants me to extract some of the chapters and author a normal dvd from. After a few fails with other methods, I am now using DvdDecrypter to rip/split the chapters in ifo mode. But there seems to be problems with timecodes in the recordings. The individual chapter vobs give different play times in different software players, and seem to skip during play. What's more, importing them into GFD gives warnings like the following:

Inconsistent Timecodes! SCR=5.89 sec. GOP=64.80 sec.
ChapEditGFD will probably not work properly.
GFD will use GOP for duration...

Not knowing exactly what is causing the warnings, I tried ripping the complete disc and running FixVTS on it. But this doesn't remove the timecode problem.

I would like to author this in TDA. However some of the vobs seem to import fine as are, while others give "The source range has not been selected properly" error and show a blank clip in the chapter edit window.

How do I go about fixing these problems? What software should I try?

[fredfillis]

Don't know what model you have, but as a previous owner of a Panny mini-dvd camera, I have only two words ... RUN AWAY!

Ok, that said, I had a lot of bad disks from the panny camera. Two ways I got over it, to a certain extent. One was to copy the entire disk to the HDD and then use VOB2MPG, worked well in most cases. The last resort was to play the disk in the camera and capture via s-video.

Now, neither of these address your specific problem but might be worth a shot.

[jinjin]

Thanks fred. Yeah heard bad things about the cams too. I started using VOB2MPG the other night but ran out of time. It's sooo slow. On these sources anyway.

I will give it another shot though.

[fredfillis]

Slow? Interesting. Never had that problem. Especially with a mini-DVD. Usually will run through that in less than a minute. Somewhat machine dependent I suppose.

I'm running a P4 @ 3.4 GHz with 2GB RAM under XP (32 bit).

[jinjin]

Well my machines is slower than yours. But I was using VOB2MPG on the vobs that had been ripped. They only average around 60mb each and it was taking a few minutes to do one. Maybe because of problems in the files? Demuxing etc with other programs aren't this slow.

I was just reading about a program called cdroller. It's not free but it sounds like it would fix problems such as this. Anyone have experience with it?

[fredfillis]

Sounds similar to isobuster and isopuzzle.

[jinjin]

Yeah after downloading it to have a look, isobuster would probably do the same job.

Anyway I ran one of the troublesome vobs through PVAStrumento and there are open GOPS and "PTS Discontinuities". The output will now import into TDA but PVAS reports problem sections at a couple of points. Sure enough when played the fixed clip jumps a bit at those timestamps. So does this mean nothing can be done for the glitches? I doubt it will be all that noticeable on the final dvd. At least the audio seems to stay in sync.

[fredfillis]

Hmmm, you're above my head now.

I've done some messing around with tivo stuff and occasionally run into similar issues. In those cases, I've found it helpful to demux. I've used dgindex with some success in the past. I've used hcenc to encode after the fact. Then I can set the GOP etc to what I need. Not always 100% and somewhat sloooooow, especially hcenc.

[jinjin]

Over my head too

I did try setting DvdDecrypter to demux the streams as well. This might be the way to go. But how can I fix the audio delay? All the audio streams from the chapters have -120ms delay (going by DvdDecrypter's output). I don't think there's a way to set this value in TDA. I thought there was a program that will trim or add silence to the audio file so it will sync when remuxing but I can't find it. And I need something which will handle AC3. Any suggestions?

[jinjin]

Delaycut is the one I was thinking of. Will see if that works

[jinjin]

Another problem now.

I just demuxed one of the vobs with dgindex and the video seems to play without the glitches. But it reports an audio delay of -40 ms. Why is it different to the -120ms as DvdDecrypter says?

Edit:
Just found out dvddecrypter often gets it wrong. Vobedit agrees with DGIndex so I guess that's the correct value.

[jinjin]

So I think DGMPGDec is the way to go for the original problem. Cool! - sort of. Now there's an issue with the aspect ratio.

When the disc is played in a standalone player, you get a chapter menu in 4:3 format. But the actual video footage plays in 16:9 widescreen.

On the pc however, GSpot and DGNPGDec say the original vobs are 4:3 format. I'm still sketchy on DAR etc so this is confusing. VLC seems to play the vobs correctly (widescreen) but MPC squishes them to 4:3. I'm talking about just opening one of the vobs, not the whole dvd.

Now I just read that standalone players get the aspect ratio from the ifo, no matter what the DAR flag is in the video stream. I understand this could be true for an authored dvd. But if the vob is really 4:3, why does VLC play it at 16:9 when MPC doesn't? Are there other flags apart from DAR that VLC uses? And what do I do about it? Should I use DvdPatcher on the demuxed m2v's then import them to the authoring software, or should I author the whole disc and then patch DAR in the ifo?

Oh, and is all this trouble caused by the stupid camcorder not being a true widescreen model? No way I'd buy one of these after all this trouble.

[andie41]

Mini-DVD's are a pain, in my experience. I have a friend with an Hitachi Mini-DVD and I always have problems with at least one of her mini's; it will not copy to my HD, or only part of it. I think you are on the right track with DGMPGDec, as I also use it to demux; however I find there are problems with the time code when attempting to author to DVD and I run the demuxed video through Restream to reset the timecode.

As you stated, GSpot reports 4:3 aspect. It has been a while, but I think it was DVD Decrypter that showed 4:3 for the menu and 16:9 for the video. I author with Guifordvdauthor and leave the aspect as is. When played on my standard TV, the menu fills the screen at 4:3 and the video plays with letterboxing; when my friend plays the video on her 16:9 TV; it fills the screen.

[jinjin]

Hmmm, I haven't tried the finished dvd on a standalone yet. But WinDVD still plays it as 4:3 aspect. I think think this is because TDA sets the imported clips as 4:3 and authors it that way.

I would really like to know the correect way to fix this. Should the demuxed video be patched and then imported to TDA, or should I just author the dvd and patch the ifo? If it's the latter, then how is it done? Just tried using ifoedit to patch DAR in all the ifos but it is still playing back as 4:3.

Edit: I just read the "patch" method doesn't play correctly in all standalones. So what am I to do? Is re-encoding the source the only way to get a proper dvd spec disc in widescreen? There must be a few people here who have dealt with this before.