Rips are missing replicated still frames

[jond]

I have tried a number of tools but I have several DVDs that do not rip well. They have still frames that are replicated a number of times before the remainder of the scene plays at full rate, yet the audio plays without pause. The result in the rip is the missing the replicated still frame and a significant audio offset.

This can also be reproduced by attempting to rip a DVD "screen shots" section where the video is a few dozen frames yet the audio continues for a number of minutes.

I have found out how to replicate a frame multiple times and keep the proper frame rate using VirtualDub and I found a way to take that result and prepend it to the remainder of the video stream so that both the replicated frame is present in the final output and the audio is in sync but it is very 'trial-and-error' - trying to determine the length that the still frame plays can only be determined by trying to find a speaking part and adjusting the audio until they are in sync and then using this offset to determine the length that the still frame should be replicated.

I know that all of this information that I must approximate empirically are exactly contained within the DVDs IFO files but I don't have a clue as to how to interpret them. I have used ifoedit but its output is gibberish to me.

So I am asking for:

1) A tool that can rip a DVD following the VIDEO_TS.IFO file but allow me to remove unwanted sections; or
2) A better method other than trial-and-error to determine the length of the still frames; or
3) A way to interpret the VIDEO_TS.IFO file to obtain the exact length of the still frames

Please advise,

Jon D.

[poisondeathray]

I have tried a number of tools but I have several DVDs that do not rip well. They have still frames that are replicated a number of times before the remainder of the scene plays at full rate, yet the audio plays without pause. The result in the rip is the missing the replicated still frame and a significant audio offset.

This can also be reproduced by attempting to rip a DVD "screen shots" section where the video is a few dozen frames yet the audio continues for a number of minutes.

I have found out how to replicate a frame multiple times and keep the proper frame rate using VirtualDub and I found a way to take that result and prepend it to the remainder of the video stream so that both the replicated frame is present in the final output and the audio is in sync but it is very 'trial-and-error' - trying to determine the length that the still frame plays can only be determined by trying to find a speaking part and adjusting the audio until they are in sync and then using this offset to determine the length that the still frame should be replicated.

I know that all of this information that I must approximate empirically are exactly contained within the DVDs IFO files but I don't have a clue as to how to interpret them. I have used ifoedit but its output is gibberish to me.

So I am asking for:

1) A tool that can rip a DVD following the VIDEO_TS.IFO file but allow me to remove unwanted sections; or
2) A better method other than trial-and-error to determine the length of the still frames; or
3) A way to interpret the VIDEO_TS.IFO file to obtain the exact length of the still frames

Please advise,

Jon D.

Do the DVD's play ok in a normal DVD player ?

If so,

4) Sounds like either you had problems decrypting the DVD (is it commercial, copy protected ?) - if so try something else like dvd decrytper, dvd shrink, anydvd, dvdfab. When you "rip" a dvd it's just a copy. If you're cutting stuff out, that's editing.

5) Or that you 're not cutting on GOP boundaries ("keyframes"), causing the problem with frame repeats. There are specific frames that you are only allowed to cut on, between GOPs, unless you use frame accurate software (which re-encodes the few frames between GOPs if you make cuts within the GOP - eg. videoredo, solveigmm video splitter

[jond]

They were copied to my HD using AnyDVD and they play fine, including the replicated frame(s). when using VLC when given the VIDEO_TS file.

I am confident the data is uncorrupted as VLC plays the replicated frame(s).


And, no, I do not want to rip the DVD with VLC.

Jon

[poisondeathray]

Are the repeated frames in a pattern or randomly distributed ?

Let's assume you are correct and it's a good rip - if it "plays fine" with VLC including the repeat frames, that implies the repeat frames are supposed to be there to keep everything in sync . (everything is in sync with the rip, the "data is uncorrupted" as you say) .

As soon as you edit it to cut parts out - you experience sync issues - is that an accurate description ? If so, see #5 above

Did you check in a normal DVD player ?



Or am I misreading what you're trying to say ? Does it not play ok to begin with ? Before you do anything (ie. just rip with anydvd), it's already out of sync before you even edit it. Because that would imply a bad rip, especially if it plays ok in a normal DVD player . If so, see #4 above.

[jond]

It appears I need to clarify my situation. As an example:

I have a DVD that I have copied to my HD while AnyDVD was active. The copy was successful; AnyDVD did not report any protection.

The copy plays correctly with VLC, and MPC-HC. All menus are intact. All extras are present and play correctly.

The video contains several scenes, each preceded with a title that lasts for about 4 seconds when played. It also contains an extra feature of snapshots of the feature film.

All of this plays correctly when viewed from one of these media players.

When I attempt to rip this DVD image using handbrake or WonderShare, all the 4 second titles are lost. The snapshots are lost. The Audio is out of sync.

When I load the VOBs for a given scene into VirtualDub, I can see a single frame that contains the title information, followed by the remainder of the video scene. The audio is out of sync as well. Clearly, this single frame is meant to be repeated a number of times (about 4 seconds worth) prior to playing the remainder of the video while the audio plays without interruption.

When I load the VOB for the snapshots, I can see a few dozen frames but the audio continues for a few minutes.

I can compensate for all of this using VirtualDub if I only knew the values to use. They are contained within the IFO files but I need to know how to interpret them. Either that or a DVD ripper that honors the IFO files.

Regards,

Jon D.

[jagabo]

Try VOB2MPG. It parses the IFO file to build the resulting MPG. Then perform subsequent processing with the MPG file.

[jond]

I can try it but what sort of controls does it give?

[jond]

While VOB2MPG v3.0 played it correctly, the rip just hung for about 4 seconds with a black screen, flashed the title image, and then began the scene. I saw a similar behavior with VirtualDub when I turned on opened the Video frame rate control pane and disabled the 'process all frames' mode.

Unless there is a way to make the same adjustment and achieve he same result, this is not a solution...

[manono]

1) A tool that can rip a DVD following the VIDEO_TS.IFO file but allow me to remove unwanted sections

Decrypt the DVD onto the hard drive and then use VOBBlanker to remove what you don't want.

http://download.videohelp.com/jsoto/guides/VobBlanker/blanking/index.php
http://download.videohelp.com/jsoto/guides/VobBlanker/prevcut/index.php

Either that or a DVD ripper that honors the IFO files.

As, apparently you know, those are a whole lot of single frame pictures that use the IFOs to tell the player how long they are to play. No encoder such as Handbrake is going to play them to their real length because the pics are stored on the DVD for only a single frame.

If the plan is to convert the DVD or part of it to a different format (why?), one such as MKV or MP4 using Handbrake, I think you have a problem. I'm pretty sure the information you want (how long each pic is to play) can be found in IFOEdit, but I wouldn't know where to look.

I'd bet r0lZ would know. He developed PGCEdit and can be most often be found at Doom9. The info might even be found in PGCEdit as well.

[r0lZ]

I'd bet r0lZ would know. He developed PGCEdit and can be most often be found at Doom9. The info might even be found in PGCEdit as well.

Not sure. The problem can be caused by the "VOBU Still Mode", a trick used for example for the slide shows (where the VOBU contains a single frame with a certain duration of audio). It is well known that most video converters ignore the VOBU still and convert only the single frame, hence the audio sync problem.

Unfortunately, the duration of the still is never written explicitly in the IFO or VOB file. You may discover it by examining the time codes of the current and next VOBU with VobEdit, but it's not easy. However, it is easy to find the right duration if the VOBU still is used only once in the cell (like for most slide shows). You can compare the duration of the whole cell with the duration of the video really converted by the program to compute the number of frames that must be added to be in sync with the audio. You can easily see the cell duration of the cell with PgcEdit: Open the DVD, select the title to examine in the left pane, and click the Edit PGC button to open the PGC Editor. Examine the "Playback Time" of the cell containing the still VOBU. (The time codes are in the form HH:MM:SS:FF, where FF is a number of frames at 25 fps for PAL or 29.97 fps for NTSC.) If you know exactly the number of frames or the duration of the video extracted by handbrake, it is trivial to compute the number of missing frames. It might be more difficult to compute the info if the PGC has several cells and you don't know in which cell the VOBU still is used, but that should be possible anyway.

Good luck!

[manono]

If I'm understanding you correctly, there's nothing in the IFOs that says for how long the frames are to be displayed. Each is an authored PGC whose length is determined by the length of the audio with which it's associated. Makes sense, thanks.

The question remains how jond can make use of the information. In his first post he asked for a solution in one of three ways. I think you've given him the answer to his 2):

2) A better method other than trial-and-error to determine the length of the still frames

You've supplied him with that, I think. He says he knows how to duplicate frames using VDub. Me, I'd use the Loop command in AviSynth but if he has a solution that works for him, that's what counts. Thanks very much for your help. I hope jond sees your reply. It'll be a lot of work (and I doubt he can use Handbrake unless he creates an intermediate lossless AVI in VDub for feeding into Handbrake) but at least there shouldn't be any more trial and error.

[r0lZ]

With the IFO, you can only add a Cell Still Time, but it's not as flexible as the VOBU Stills. The Cell Still Time must happen at the end of the cell, it must be an integer number of seconds, and it cannot have audio during the still (and therefore it cannot be the method used for this DVD). It is used mainly for still menus without audio or games.

Given the behaviour of this DVD, I guess it's a VOBU Still (that can be almost anywhere in the cell and can last any number of frames), but I'm not absolutely sure. Anyway, deducing the duration of the re-encoded video from the duration of the cell table in the IFO should give the exact number of frames to add to keep the audio in sync (as long as there is only a single VOBU Still in the Title, of course), and that's not related to the method used to do the original still in the DVD.

[hello_hello]

Coincidentally, I came across this very same problem only a couple of days ago, for the first time. The problem was some DVD extras with a frame showing text that displayed for about 10 seconds, followed by normal video, then another still frame, then more video etc.

They played fine with media players, but not for encoding. Do you use Avisynth? I tried DGIndex, FFMS2, Lsmash etc and they all treated the single frame as a single frame, then good old DirectShowSource came to the rescue. In my case it let me discover courtesy of Avisynth's Info(), just how long each frame should have displayed (it was the same duration for each), and as it turned out, each frame was a complete chapter so I could easily edit the title down to the single frame with DVDShrink, then armed with the information provided by DirectShow, I could make it display for the correct duration and shoe-horn it into the rest of the encode later.

In the end I probably could've encoded the whole title using DirectShowSource and saved myself some agro..... or used DGIndex and just repeated each offending frame by an appropriate amount.... except there was no audio to match the 9 second single frame durations, so encoding the title in sections and inventing audio to fill the gaps before patching it back together seemed easier at the time.

Below is a zip file containing a set of IFO and vob files, whittled down to a single 9 second frame courtesy of DVDShrink. Maybe someone clever can have a look and explain how it works.

Below is a screenshot of DirectShowSource giving all the frame accurate decoding methods the finger.

DirectShowSource("E:\test\VTS_01_1.VOB")
AssumeFPS(30000,1001)
Info()

This script was for DGIndex to impersonate DirectShowSource with bob de-interlacing (doubling the frame rate):

LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files\MeGUI\tools\dgindex.dll")
DGDecode_mpeg2source("E:\test\VTS_01_1.d2v")
Loop(570,0,0)
AssumeFPS(60000,1001)

I don't know if you use Avisynth and I know almost nothing about the DVD structure or why DirectShowSource was successful, but it worked for me....

[jond]

I have never used AviSynth before but I installed it and created an avs file with:

DirectShowSource("C:\Users\jond\Desktop\DVD Temp\_TEMP_BUILD_\test\test [DVD]\VTS_02_1.VOB")
AssumeFPS(30000,1001)
Info()

I dragged this file onto virtualDubMod and it spit out an error:

Error decompressing video frame 0: The source image format is not acceptable. (error code -2)

I installed virtualDubMod in the same folder as my latest virtualDub so I assume it can pick up the same plugins (especially the MPEG2 plugins) so this is a dead-end for me...

Clearly I am doing something wrong, so any advise is appreciated -- I don't want to become an expert on aviSynth, I just want to get the data about the single replicated frame.

Regards,

Jon

[jond]

Ping r0lZ:

So, it is as if I am in junior high math and you are in advanced calculus. This is meaningless to me...

Not sure. The problem can be caused by the "VOBU Still Mode", a trick used for example for the slide shows (where the VOBU contains a single frame with a certain duration of audio). It is well known that most video converters ignore the VOBU still and convert only the single frame, hence the audio sync problem.

Unfortunately, the duration of the still is never written explicitly in the IFO or VOB file. You may discover it by examining the time codes of the current and next VOBU with VobEdit, but it's not easy. However, it is easy to find the right duration if the VOBU still is used only once in the cell (like for most slide shows). You can compare the duration of the whole cell with the duration of the video really converted by the program to compute the number of frames that must be added to be in sync with the audio. You can easily see the cell duration of the cell with PgcEdit: Open the DVD, select the title to examine in the left pane, and click the Edit PGC button to open the PGC Editor. Examine the "Playback Time" of the cell containing the still VOBU. (The time codes are in the form HH:MM:SS:FF, where FF is a number of frames at 25 fps for PAL or 29.97 fps for NTSC.) If you know exactly the number of frames or the duration of the video extracted by handbrake, it is trivial to compute the number of missing frames. It might be more difficult to compute the info if the PGC has several cells and you don't know in which cell the VOBU still is used, but that should be possible anyway.

Good luck!

Do you have a primer available for this tool, or since my need is much simpler, can you dumb it down a bit more? I have a DVD where each scene has its own VOB set. Referring to your reply above, "select the title in the left pane" -- each scene has 4 VTSM entries and 1 or more VTST entries which correspond to the number of files of its VOB set.

When I look at the first VTSM entry (the rest say dummy), if I select EDIT PGC, I see some interesting stuff:



None of this makes any sense to me. For each scene, there is a single frame that is repeated for about 3.5 seconds. I don't see a value anywhere close to that in the above screenshot.

It is also interesting to note that VLC plays the single frame, followed by the video when given the VIDEO_TS.IFO file but sort of hangs for the same amount of time, and then plays the video when given the VTS_XX_01.VOB file.

I hope you can clarify this for me -- clearly you have a way to determine the number of frames to replicate the still frame for, but I'm currently too uneducated to understand.

Regards,

Jon

[poisondeathray]

Did you try opening the avs in vdub instead ?

Do you have avisynth installed ? is it 32bit ? is your vdub 32bit ?

Can you try a one line script, just

version

save it, rename the extension to .avs and open it in vdub



But your situation is slightly different than hello_hello's isn't it ? Your VOB has both audio & video, but the duration of the audio should be longer than the video (or at least the coded frames in the video) . If that's the case, then DirectShowSource() should return the clip length, which corresponds to the audio length, which might not be that helpful because you presumably can get that with other tools like mediainfo, gspot etc.. But it's definitely worth checking out

If the VOB has audio & video , maybe another method is to use a video editor. The audio should be longer than video. So if you snap/align the ends and stretch the 1st frame to repeat, it should work in theory . At least you can verify sync and "see" the waveform too

Do you have a sample VOB you can upload ?

[r0lZ]

Ping r0lZ:
Referring to your reply above, "select the title in the left pane" -- each scene has 4 VTSM entries and 1 or more VTST entries which correspond to the number of files of its VOB set.

The left pane shows you the "domains" of the DVD, for each VTS (Video Title Set). The VTSM domains are reserved to the menus, and the associated VOB file are VTS_XX_0.VOB (where XX is the VTS number). You are not interested in that domains. (The first domains, VMG and VMGM are also dedicated to menus and startup stuff, and are also of little interest for you.)

The VTST domains contain the Titles (the movies or episodes). The video content of a title is somewhere in the VOB files VTS_XX_1.VOB to VTS_XX_9.VOB (depending of the duration and compression of the video). Note that the VOB files cannot be larger than 1GB, and therefore a single title may require several VOB files. Similarly, several short Titles can be in the same VOB file. So, do not try to process the VOB files directly. That doesn't make much sense, as usually they do not contain exactly what you want. Only the IFO files are meaningful, as they describe exactly where the video of a specific title resides. Normally, you don't need to know that, but in the case of your DVD, we will use the IFOs to discover the "real" duration of the Title you want to process.

If you know already in which VOB files the title you want to process resides then you know the number of the VTST to select in the left pane. If there are several Titles in the same VTST, or if you don't know the VTS number, select a VTST with a duration approximately compatible with the duration of the title you want to encode, and use the preview to confirm.

When I look at the first VTSM entry (the rest say dummy), if I select EDIT PGC, I see some interesting stuff:

Your example comes from a VTSM, and is contains a still menu, with only a single frame and an infinite Cell Still Time (255 is a special value meaning "infinite"). It's a special kind of menu with a single frame and no audio, shown on screen until the user activates a menu button. Of course, you are not interested in this VTSM.

Select the Title as explained above and have a look at the cells list. In a Title, there are (almost) always several "cells", with at least one cell per chapter. The last cell is at the bottom of the list, and in the "End Time" column, you will see the total duration of the Title. It's that duration that I suggest to use to compute the number of times you have to repeat the still frame to obtain the correct duration. For example, if the duration of the first encoding (without the repeated frames) is 1 second shorter than the end time of the last cell of the title, then you have to loop the still frame 25 times (for PAL) or 30 times (for NTSC).

Remember that the timings displayed in PgcEdit are in the form HH:MM:SS:FF (where :FF is a number of frames). If the duration of your first encoding is shown in the form HH:MM:SS.DD (where .DD is a decimal fraction of seconds), you will have to convert it to frames to obtain the right number. That should be easy if you know if your DVD is encoded in PAL or in NTSC.

Here is a concrete example (for PAL):

As you can see, the total duration of this (short) Title is 26 minutes, 20 seconds and 1 frame. Now, suppose that the duration of the movie you have encoded is 26:15.04. You have to convert both timings to frames:
26:20:01 = ( ( ( 26 minutes * 60 seconds per minutes ) + 20 seconds ) * 25 fps ) + 1 frame = 39501 frames
26:15.04 = ( ( 26 minutes * 60 seconds ) + 15.04 seconds ) * 25 fps = 39376 frames
The number of missing frames is therefore 39501 - 39376 = 125. You have to repeat the frame used for the still 125 times and the audio should be in sync. (For NTSC, you should replace 25 fps with 29.97 fps to do the calculations, and round the results to the nearest integer number of frames.)

Of course, this method works only if I was correct when I have assumed that the "missing video segment" was due to a VOBU still. Let us know if that works with your DVD. Good luck!

[hello_hello]

jond,
I'm not sure if it's 100% applicable to your problem but I played around a bit more with my DVD as a learning exercise. If it is, I assume the only way to encode this correctly would be to use AVIsynth but that'd probably require a crash course in using it. You probably should upload a sample for someone to look at.

I might have to take back what I said about DirectShowSource earlier as it only works when I edit the frame in question down to it's single chapter and it appears not to be accurate anyway. DirectShowSource says the duration is 9 min, 509ms whereas PcgEdit and DVD Shrink both say it's exactly 10 seconds.

That doesn't matter in my case as the repeated frames in question have no audio anyway, but the "DVD extra" I was playing with, edited down to a single title with DVDShrink, looks like the screenshot below. Chapters 2, 4 and 6 consist of a single frame. Mind you a ten second duration seems like a bit of a problem given it's not evenly divisible by the NTSC frame rate, although if you assume the frame rate is 30fps (because it's the frame rate PcgEdit displays) then 300 frames is exactly 10s.

Anyway, in my case it appears the following script should do the job:

LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files\MeGUI\tools\dgindex\DGDecode.dll")
DGDecode_mpeg2source("D:\test.d2v")

The_Clip = last

A = The_Clip.Trim(0,629)
B = The_Clip.Trim(630,630).Loop(300,0,0)
C = The_Clip.Trim(631,2879)
D = The_Clip.Trim(2880,2880).Loop(300,0,0)
E = The_Clip.Trim(2881,16980)
F = The_Clip.Trim(16981,16981).Loop(300,0,0)
G = The_Clip.Trim(16982,0)

A ++ B ++ C ++ D ++ E ++ F ++ G

I picked the frames to repeat based on the frame numbers being displayed by MeGUI's preview. After adding the above and refreshing the preview, MeGUI shows the total duration as 10m 19s 418ms. PcgEdit seem to indicate it's around 10m 19s 180ms (10m 19s + 6 frames?). DVDShrink says 10min 18s + 24 frames, and when opening the VIDEO_TS.IFO file, MPC-HC says 10m 19s 200ms. Sigh.....

I can't test what's correct based on the audio sync as in my case the repeated frames have no audio, so adding the extracted audio without inserting extra silence throws the audio/video sync out. If chapters 2, 4 and 6 also contained audio, then the above script should output the same duration and the audio would be in sync. I assume if the frames in question don't have their own chapters, you'll have to calculate the number of times to repeat them based on the total duration? I've never used PcgEdit before so I'm not familiar with what it's displaying.

The screenshot below is the title for my DVD Extra, authored as a single title with DVDShrink. Chapters 2, 4 and 6 consist of a single frame.

[r0lZ]

Yeah, that's a good example of the method I've tried to explain above, although this title is somewhat more complex than jond's one, because it has 3 different parts with a still frame, but the principle of comparing the duration of the movie (here chapter) encoded in the VOB and the duration in the IFO remains, with a little difference. Here, you have to know that the chapters 2, 4 and 6 contain only a single frame, and look at the duration of the corresponding cells (in the Playback Time column) to see that their duration is 10 seconds. It is therefore sufficient to repeat that single frames 300 times (for NTSC) to encode the clip correctly. You did it with avisynth, but it should be possible to use any other video editing tool able to repeat a single frame.

The same principle can be applied to jond's clip, but since there is only a single part that is repeated, and we don't know for sure in which chapter it resides, I have explained how to compare the duration of the full clip with the end time of the last cell, that is, of course, the total duration of the title.

[jond]

Okay, I think I am making some progress...

What I see with PgcEdit is:



When I push in on VTST 3,1, I see:



This duration is also the duration I see with VLC. So, converting to frames, I get:

(((27*60)+01) * 29.97) + 27 = 48,608 frames.

When I load this same VOB set with vdub, I see:



So it appears that the still frame is replicated 100 times. This works out to 3.33 seconds which is about the duration I see with VLC.

I will try this out and let you know my results.

Jon

[manono]

(((27*60)+01) * 29.97) + 27 = 48,608 frames.

Are you equating 27 hundredths of a second to 27 frames?

[jond]

Ping manno:

I am going by the post by r0lZ:

Remember that the timings displayed in PgcEdit are in the form HH:MM:SS:FF (where :FF is a number of frames). If the duration of your first encoding is shown in the form HH:MM:SS.DD (where .DD is a decimal fraction of seconds), you will have to convert it to frames to obtain the right number. That should be easy if you know if your DVD is encoded in PAL or in NTSC.

So, for this math, I believe 27 is frames, not 27 hundreths/sec

Jon

[jond]

ping hello_hello:

Well, I have no idea what a d2v file is but it appears to be from a tool that creates a representation of an mpeg2 and it is no longer supported. I D/Led it and it is extremely primitive. I could not see the entire path/filenames of the files I was adding, nor could I select multiple files to add, so I have no idea what I actually created, nor what data it actually contains.

I don't want to go down this path unless there is a better tool or some sort of tutorial.

[manono]

So, for this math, I believe 27 is frames, not 27 hundreths/sec

It's not :27 but .27. Did r0Lz make a typo? Or is it in "HH:MM:SS.DD (where .DD is a decimal fraction of seconds)". He'll be back to explain, I'm sure.

Well, I have no idea what a d2v file is but it appears to be from a tool that creates a representation of an mpeg2 and it is no longer supported.

It is far and away the best method (together with the DGDecode.dll and MPEG2Source) for opening and working with a DVD or any kind of MPG files in an AviSynth script. Any questions you might have about it are thoroughly covered in the docs accompanying the DGMPGDec package.

...nor could I select multiple files to add...

Yes you can, easily.

[r0lZ]

So, for this math, I believe 27 is frames, not 27 hundreths/sec

It's not :27 but .27. Did r0Lz make a typo? Or is it in "HH:MM:SS.DD (where .DD is a decimal fraction of seconds)". He'll be back to explain, I'm sure.

Yes, sorry. I did not remember the format used in PgcEdit. (It is already far away from my current jobs.) Jond is right, and it's a number of frames, so his computation is correct. Sorry for the misleading information.

Jond, the D2V file is some kind of index. Many video decoders need to create an index first, to be able to jump to any frame without having to decode the whole video stream from the beginning, again and again. So, this file is created during a first scan, and then your job will be fast and easy in Avisynth. Do not reject the DG decoder just because it looks outdated. It is a very good and accurate decoder for avisynth, itself one of the most (if not The most) powerful free video editing tool for Windows.

[hello_hello]

ping hello_hello:

Well, I have no idea what a d2v file is but it appears to be from a tool that creates a representation of an mpeg2 and it is no longer supported. I D/Led it and it is extremely primitive. I could not see the entire path/filenames of the files I was adding, nor could I select multiple files to add, so I have no idea what I actually created, nor what data it actually contains.

I don't want to go down this path unless there is a better tool or some sort of tutorial.

DGIndex just works, so it doesn't get updated. There are newer versions that support more types of video and additional containers, but for vob files you can't go wrong with DGIndex. Almost every Avisynth based encoder GUI would open vob files with DGIndex. If the video in question isn't a single title on it's own, open the DVD files with DVDShrink and use it's re-author function, then backup just the title you wish to encode (make sure you disable DVDShrink's compression). That'll give you a single IFO file and a set of vob files to work with.

If you want to use a GUI for indexing and encoding, try MeGUI. Use the File/Open menu and MeGUI should offer to index it. Add the indexing job to the queue and run it. When it's finished the Script Creator will open for creating a script for encoding. It lets you apply all the usual filters as required (cropping, resizing etc) via the GUI using a preview, but you're also free to edit the scripts it creates yourself. If you do, there's a button for reloading the script and previewing the changes.

Normally when you have a set of sequentially numbered vob files you only need to open the first one and the rest will be included in the indexing. MeGUI does that by default, and chances are so does DGIndex itself (but if not you can add them as manono showed you).