Joining Elemental Streams in DVD Lab Pro

[SCDVD]

When importing multiple VOB files into the asset box in DVD Lab Pro, it offers to join the VOBs. Will it also join multiple elemental streams as well.

[guns1inger]

No. It assumes if you have elementary streams each stream is a title. You can join titles in DLP using a Mulit-PGC object, however you can only have chapter points at the start of each segment, and all segments must have the same attributes.

In short, join before you come into DLP if you are working with streams

[SCDVD]

What is the best tool to use to join elemental steams? I am doing an authoring job for someone who divided a single video into two parts. They are two halves of a single video. It sounds like I need to join them before I bring them into DLP. As I said, they are elemental steams so I need to join both the video and audio.

[SCDVD]

Just an explanation about why I am getting this video in two halves. The person who created the video did it in Edius. It is a large video that will wind up on a DVD-9. His audio is a WAV file which makes the video too big to output as a single elemental stream video from Edius. I will be converting the WAV file into AC3 when I bring it into DLP so it will then fit onto a DVD-9 but meanwhile I have to put the two halves back together first.

[aedipuss]

this may be the long way round, but to keep the audio in sync i would use this method. use dlp on the first set of streams to make vobs. in a different output folder do the same for the second. in the first folder delete all but the movie vobs. in the second folder rename the vobs starting with 1 more than the end vob of the first. cut the second vobs and paste them into the folder with the first. use dlp again to import all the vobs. allow it to demux and join. after importing use the rewrite gop timecode tool to fix the video stream. the 2 parts will now be usable as one.

[guns1inger]

I would output the audio in two parts, while producing a single video stream. I would then join the wav file in an audio editor, output an AC3 file, and bring this into DLP, ready to go.

[SCDVD]

So far so good. The total size of the VOBs is 6.9GB. But when I join them by moving them into the assets box, the joined file size it creates is only 4.3GB. Is there a setting in DLP that I'm missing where I need to set the size of the project to DVD-9?

EDIT - I found the DVD-9 setting. it's in the bottom right of the screen - strange place to put it. Also, the rewrite gop timecode function must run on the demuxed M2V file while it is still in the assets box.

[SCDVD]

After doing the above steps, I got the joined video onto the timeline in DLP just fine however the second half is slightly out of sync on the audio. The sync on the audio is fine on this section prior to joining. Any ideas on how to fix this?

[aedipuss]

from the question yesterday the answers are correct.

the one from today is it's a problem in the original wav files you received, or if you made ac-3 from them maybe you added delay by mistake?

[SCDVD]

I converted the WAV files to AC3 and then converted them to VOBs so I could join them in DLP. Both VOBs were perfectly in sync before they were joined. I used VOB Merge to join them. It was the joining that caused it.

[guns1inger]

I don't understand where the VOBs are coming from.

[aedipuss]

you could try again using the instructions i gave you the first time.

[SCDVD]

Since DLP can only join VOBs, I made two quick and dirty DVDs of each of the two elemental streams, without menus in DLP. Prior to creating the two DVDs, I converted the audio in both Parts from WAV to AC3. After creating the two DVDs. I saved only the movie VOBs of each part in two folders. I renumbered the VOBs in the Part 2 folder so that they were sequential with the VOBs in the Part 1 folder. At this stage the audio in both parts was in sync. I then merged them with VOB merge. When the resulting ~6.5 MB VOB is played, the part that was Part 2 has audio out of sync by a second or so. Something happened when the VOBs were joined that caused this. I did run the rewrite gop timecode function on the M2V file while in was in the asset box.

[guns1inger]

The tools page for VOBMERGE has a message from the author saying explicitly nor to use it to merge two discs, only vob sets within an existing title.

If you have a single video stream and two audio chunks, keep the video as is, import the audio into an audio editor that exports AC3, and export a single encoded audio file

[SCDVD]

I decided not to thrash around with the audio sync problem on Part 2 after joining the VOBs. The best way of course would be to have the person who gave it to me do the job right and re output the job with an AC3 elemental stream but he won't be available for three weeks. I'm sure I could play around with it and fix the part 2 sync issue but why bother? I am just going to author it with two VTSs and do a play through navigation from VTS 1 to VTS 2. It's not the "normal" use for multiple VTSs but it will play the same and it won't hurt anything to do it this way. As I mentioned, the audio sync on Part 1 and Part 2 was fine after I did the WAV to AC3 conversion. It was the joining that caused the out of sync audio (approx. 1 sec.) on the portion of the joined VOB that was Part 2.

[skaleton]

in the first folder delete all but the movie vobs. in the second folder rename the vobs starting with 1 more than the end vob of the first. cut the second vobs and paste them into the folder with the first. use dlp again to import all the vobs. allow it to demux and join. after importing use the rewrite gop timecode tool to fix the video stream. the 2 parts will now be usable as one.

Can you do the same with another software (cheaper, hopefully freeware. I know I'm asking a lot)?

[aedipuss]

yes. do the re-numbering of the vobs. then use vob2mpg to join them all together into one mpeg2. use restream to correct the timecode(reset timestamps). both are free.

[skaleton]

Thanks Aedipuss.
I copied all the VOB's in a folder and renumbered the ones of the second part of the movie.
I joined the vob's with vob2mpg
I demuxed the mpg with rejig
I corrected the timecode with restream
I remuxed with muxman
But the final step failed. It stopped at the end of the first part and I got a message that the bitrate was too high.
I checked with GSpot but every vob fluctuates around 5400 Kbps.
Any idea why it failed?

[aedipuss]

could be because of the wav audio and a spike in the video bitrate i suppose. try converting it to ac3 before muxing.

[skaleton]

Thanks Aedipuss but I I don't think I will mess up with the audio and probably end up with synch issues. Thanks for your help.