VOB file, second half doesn't play most of the time

[Santuzzu]

I have a problem with a VOB file. I can play the first half without any problem but the second half of the video won't play most of the time. "Most of the time" means that after a few attempts to "rewind" and play the second half, only sometimes it plays normally. Sometimes it starts playing normally from that point on but with increased speed. If I try to jump to another part of the second half of the video while it's playing, it stops playing again. The playback time keeps counting normally. What is noticeable is that CPU and Hard Disc usage get increased each time the second half of the video is "playing". I suspect that it has something to do with a bad reencoding. I have also tried to extract the mpeg file from the VOB but I could extract only the first half.

Is there any way to save this damaged video file?

[hech54]

If this VOB file is larger than 1GB....the damage has already been done.

[Santuzzu]

It's a 100 minutes long video, above 4GB in size... But isn't it possible to recover something, it seems the content is there...?

[johnmeyer]

You need to remove all the "extra" stuff in the VOB by extracting the MPEG-2 (and audio) files. You say you tried to do this. What software did you use? VideoRedo and Womble are designed correctly and will produce a file that will play. You can also use free DVD tools like DVD Decrypter, and tell it to create a single MPEG-2 file from the VOB files, but in my experience, they don't always give you a clean file that will play all the way through.

[Santuzzu]

I tried some DVDVob2Mpg software. After that I tried MKVToolNix to convert it to MKV but it also gave me error at 45%. Now I tried a trial version of VideoRedo and it again got stuck at 45% with the message "Mpeg stream error: Audio Packet Without a syncword".

[davexnet]

What is the origin of this big VOB file. Did you create it yourself?
It sounds as if smaller VOB's were joined and something went wrong at the join point.
Can you scrub through it with avidemux ?

[Santuzzu]

No, I haven't created it myself. I downloaded 2 video files of a similar visual quality and with a similar content. In other words, I'm pretty sure that both video files had very similar properties, the second one is AVI file and is only 600 MB in size. I think this VOB file also was at most 700 MB in size but during reencoding something went wrong.

No, avidemux can't do anything. It gives some "fatal error" and terminates.

[davexnet]

No, I haven't created it myself. I downloaded 2 video files of a similar visual quality and with a similar content. In other words, I'm pretty sure that both video files had very similar properties, the second one is AVI file and is only 600 MB in size. I think this VOB file also was at most 700 MB in size but during reencoding something went wrong.

No, avidemux can't do anything. It gives some "fatal error" and terminates.

What does this 600MB AVI file and 700MB VOB have to do with the VOB mentioned above that you stated
was 4GB or more ?

[Cornucopia]

You need to remove all the "extra" stuff in the VOB by extracting the MPEG-2 (and audio) files. You say you tried to do this. What software did you use? VideoRedo and Womble are designed correctly and will produce a file that will play. You can also use free DVD tools like DVD Decrypter, and tell it to create a single MPEG-2 file from the VOB files, but in my experience, they don't always give you a clean file that will play all the way through.

In my experience, DVD Decrypter ALWAYS gives you a clean file. That is one reason I continue to use it to this day.

Scott

[johnmeyer]

I tried some DVDVob2Mpg software. After that I tried MKVToolNix to convert it to MKV but it also gave me error at 45%. Now I tried a trial version of VideoRedo and it again got stuck at 45% with the message "Mpeg stream error: Audio Packet Without a syncword".

If you still have the VideoRedo trial installed, first run the "Quickstream Fix" on the file. See if that helps. I have a Hauppauge capture device that often produces video files that won't play all the way through and this tool fixes the problem.

In my experience, DVD Decrypter ALWAYS gives you a clean file. That is one reason I continue to use it to this day.

I still use it for the same reason when editing DVDs for a sports collector for whom I do various jobs. However, I have recently had problems with it when trying to extract MPEG-2 from DVDs created on one of those VHS to DVD converters. Even though the disc had been closed, there was a really odd structure to the various titlesets. So, while DVD Decrypter created the single, large MPEG-2 file (including the audio), I had to run either Womble or VideoRedo to get the MPEG-2 into a state where I could reliably edit it.

[Santuzzu]

What does this 600MB AVI file and 700MB VOB have to do with the VOB mentioned above that you stated was 4GB or more ?

Sorry, I wasn't precise enough. I suspect that this 4GB VOB file as a source had some 700MB AVI file. After that something went wrong during reencoding.

If you still have the VideoRedo trial installed, first run the "Quickstream Fix" on the file. See if that helps. I have a Hauppauge capture device that often produces video files that won't play all the way through and this tool fixes the problem.

No, after running "Quickstream Fix" it extracted only this first half of the video for both video and audio track. Actually, it extracted and connected first 45% of the video and last 5-10% which were playing normally. Anything between these two parts couldn't be extracted. I wouldn't try so hard to fix this in case I couldn't play this damaged part sometimes. This way it seems as content is there but can't be decoded properly for some reason.