change aspect ratio in .vob files

[donut_shop]

I have a DVD that has the main movie set to play in 4:3 when it should be played in 16:9. So I used IfoEdit to set it to play in 16:9 when I play the disc (VIDEO_TS) but the .vob files still are set to 4:3 and play as 4:3 when I play them individually. So I set about to try to change the AR in them but still haven't figured out a way to do this with leaving everything else unchanged.

I first tried to demux with PgcEdit, then change AR with ReStream, then remux with Muxman. But the end product was slightly different. There are 3 .vob files and the first 2 are the same size as before but the 3rd .vob file is 4,096 bytes smaller. In Mediainfo, there are also slight differences in length, frames, audio delay, etc. for all 3 files. VobEdit also shows small differences.

I then tried to demux individually with VobEdit but then, after running them through ReStream like before, I can only remux back the first file. The remaining ones give errors saying that it is not a valid file.

So then, I tried remuxing with IfoEdit to overwrite just the 4:3 .vobs with the 16:9 .vobs but that didn't work either.

Finally, I tried DVDPatcher and it worked perfectly for the first 2 files (looks exactly the same as before in Mediainfo and VobEdit except that it is 16:9) but gives me "no Sequenceheader found" when I load up the 3rd .vob!! :angry:

In a hopeless follow-up effort, I tried joining the 2nd and 3rd file with VobMerge, running the merged file through DVDPatcher (which was successful) and then subsequently splitting the file back but it seems the merge/split is accurate only one way and splitting, even with the few frame-accurate tools like MPEG2VCR still yields files different from the original in more ways than just AR.

So, is there anyway I can accomplish this? I must have tried pretty much every combination of settings for all the tools mentioned above. I tried demuxing by PGC, Vob_ID, cells, tried remuxing single files in a segment, multiple files (after demuxing by cells), tried remuxing with menus somehow, tried creating menu language unit by clicking on scene (in muxman) and attempting to duplicate what I saw in IfoEdit, tried various options in remuxing .m2v stream in IfoEdit (modify/don't modify old IFO files, create/don't create new IFO files, change/don't change pointers, etc.), tried remuxing with other programs... nothing worked.

I mean, isn't there like a flag in the .vob that tells the player what AR to use, that I can just set without doing anything else to the file? It seems like it should be easy, just modify one thing in each frame... I mean I'd be willing to go through the file, frame by frame and change one value if there is program out there that can do it... DVDPatcher seems to do something like this if only it could read the third file. Is there any way to add a sequenceheader to a file? Like in a hexeditor or something? I just want it readable so I can run it through DVDPatcher.

I know... there's really no point to it since IfoEdit can make it play in 16:9 but I'm just really anal when it comes to stuff like this. I would really like the individual .vobs to be 16:9 if possible. I would appreciate any help or info. Thanks for taking the time to read this!

[DB83]

Open the dvd in PgcEdit. Select the VST for the movie and click on Domain Stream Attributes (the movie reel) to change the AR.

Do the same for the menu.

[donut_shop]

Hi thanks for the response! Unfortunately, doing what you said in PgcEdit seemed to do the same thing that IfoEdit did (DVD plays in 16:9 when the whole disc is loaded but the 3 .vobs are still 4:3). So I think it only modifies the .IFOs and .BUPs. I would still like to be able to modify the .vobs, possibly without demuxing and remuxing as that seems to alter the .vobs... Any program can add a sequence header so DVDPatcher could recognize the 3rd .vob?

[Chris K]

Never Mind! Didn't read your first post very well.

[manono]

I first tried to demux with PgcEdit, then change AR with ReStream, then remux with Muxman. But the end product was slightly different.

I take it you mean you demuxed using PGCDemux. Anyway, so what if the end result is slightly different? Nothing was reencoded. The audio and video are still identical. You just used a different (and better) authoring program than was used originally, which accounts for the differences. Doing it that way - if you absolutely have to have the VOBs themselves set as 16:9 - is the best way if for some reason DVDPatcher didn't work.

And, as you freely admit, changing the IFOs in IFOEdit or PGCEdit is all you really need to make it play correctly and you're being silly to want to change the DAR of the VOBs as well.

[usually_quiet]

I first tried to demux with PgcEdit, then change AR with ReStream, then remux with Muxman. But the end product was slightly different.

I take it you mean you demuxed using PGCDemux. Anyway, so what if the end result is slightly different? Nothing was reencoded. The audio and video are still identical. You just used a different (and better) authoring program than was used originally, which accounts for the differences. Doing it that way - if you absolutely have to have the VOBs themselves set as 16:9 - is the best way if for some reason DVDPatcher didn't work.

And, as you freely admit, changing the IFOs in IFOEdit or PGCEdit is all you really need to make it play correctly and you're being silly to want to change the DAR of the VOBs as well.

It is better if both the IFO's aspect ratio and the video's aspect ratio agree as insurance. While most DVD players play video according to what the IFO's aspect ratio, some machines will ignore what the IFO says and obey the video's aspect ratio instead if the two are not the same. I quickly found out that I have to change the aspect ratio for the video too (using Restream) for my Panasonic DVD recorder to play the video with the correct aspect ratio.