ERR: Cannot infer pts for VOBU at inoffset 0x10bb36800 with DVDStyler

[txlogicguy]

I am trying to transfer some VHS tapes to DVD. My source files come from a VCR feeding a Haupauge WinTV-HVR-1950 video to USB converter. The output from the video converter is viewed on a Windows app called WinTV. The output from WinTV is a .ts file.

DVDStyler shows up on several lists as a recommended DVD authoring app. It appears to be a good program with the capabilities I need. I try to create a DVD, and DVDStyler appears to be working away on it, and then stops with this error:

...
STAT: VOBU 10992 at 4270MB, 1 PGCs
STAT: VOBU 11008 at 4276MB, 1 PGCs
STAT: VOBU 11024 at 4282MB, 1 PGCs
ERR: Cannot infer pts for VOBU at inoffset 0x10bb36800 if there is no audio or video and it is the
ERR: first VOBU.
Failed

I tried converting the .ts file to .mpg with XMedia Recode and I get the same error in DVDStyler. I tried converting the file to .vob. Same error.

I have captured several video files of various lengths with the VCR/Haupauge WinTV-HVR-1950/WinTV path and they all give the same error in DVDStyler.

The error always seems to occur on the last VOBU of the video file, regardless of its length. I'm getting the impression that WinTV leaves a truncated VOBU, or some such, at the end of a video file. Is there some way I can trim a video file so that it ends on a good VOBU boundary?

These files all seem to play fine with VLC.

Any suggestions?
(I tried posting a description of this problem on the DVDStyler forum. It got many views but no replies.)

[davexnet]

Try dropping the .ts file into mkvtoolnix GUI , create an mkv, use that in Dvdstyler

[davexnet]

Dup post

[txlogicguy]

Thanks you for your reply.

I installed mkvtoolnix and converted a test .ts file captured from WinTV to a .mkv file. The mkvtoolnix tool gave the following warning when doing the conversion:
--- Warnings emitted by job 'Multiplexing to file "DVD_debug.mkv" in directory "F:\WinTV"' started on 2024-08-24 22:25:46 -05:00 ---
Found at least one B frame without second reference in a non closed GOP.

Then I replaced the .ts file in DVDStyler with the .mkv file and told it to generate the DVD file structure.
I got error messages similar to what I got before:
STAT: VOBU 272 at 104MB, 1 PGCs
STAT: VOBU 288 at 111MB, 1 PGCs
STAT: VOBU 304 at 117MB, 1 PGCs
STAT: VOBU 320 at 123MB, 1 PGCs
WARN: Video PTS does not line up on a multiple of a field.
ERR: Cannot infer pts for VOBU at inoffset 0x7ca0000 if there is no audio or video and it is the
ERR: first VOBU.
Failed

It appears that the files created by WinTV always have a coding error in, probably the last, frame or GOP or something. It appears that when I convert the file to a different format that the tools just copy the flawed MPEG data to a different container file structure. I think I need some tool that can clean up the file and trim off that last non closed GOP.

Any suggestions?

[davexnet]

Try TSdoctor
Another possibility is to convert the MKV to something like ffv1. Probably
Vdub2 would work

[txlogicguy]

I installed TSdoctor. When I load one of my .ts files the program reports 0 warnings and 0 errors. I was surprised to learn that these files contain 3 streams: video, audio, and teletext/subtitles. If I select "Check only" and look at the log file, these messages caught my attention:
0.
stream_type : 2 = ITU-T Rec. H.262 | ISO/IEC 13818-2 Video | ISO/IEC 11172-2 constr. parameter video stream
elementary_pid : 1001 (03E9)
ES_info_length : 0

1.
stream_type : 3 = ISO/IEC 11172 Audio
elementary_pid : 1002 (03EA)
ES_info_length : 0

2.
stream_type : 6 = ITU-T Rec. H.222.0 | ISO/IEC 13818-1 PES packets containing private data
elementary_pid : 1003 (03EB)
ES_info_length : 0

PCR PID is 1001 (03E9)

searching for channel: SID=1, TID=0, VPID=1001
First video PTS is 19144353 00:03:32.715
Last video PTS is 33654849 00:06:13.943

First PCR is 5736655500 00:03:32.469
Last PCR is 10087275299 00:06:13.603
Duration of video stream is 14502066 00:02:41.134
Video PCR to PTS difference -399 ms
Warning: No first PTS found for PID 03EB

This led me to believe that maybe my problem is not with the video or audio stream but with the subtitle stream, which is probably empty, because I don't have source of data to put anything there. I don't need the subtitle stream so I had TSdoctor save a new version of the file with the subtitle stream removed. I loaded that into DVDStyler and got the same error as before:
...
STAT: VOBU 272 at 104MB, 1 PGCs
STAT: VOBU 288 at 111MB, 1 PGCs
STAT: VOBU 304 at 117MB, 1 PGCs
STAT: VOBU 320 at 123MB, 1 PGCs
ERR: Cannot infer pts for VOBU at inoffset 0x7ca0800 if there is no audio or video and it is the
ERR: first VOBU.
Failed

These files play fine with VLC and the viewer that is in TSdoctor and several other tools, and TSdoctor doesn't report any errors. DVDStyler runs dvdauthor under the covers so this must be a bug in dvdauthor or it's not being supplied with the right options.

[davexnet]

Either upload one of the failing .ts files so we can investigate from here,
or open the file in vdub2, set video/compression to ffv1 and file/save video/ save as avi
then use that in DVDStyler

[txlogicguy]

Here is an 8 sec .ts file that illustrates the problem.

The file name is https://files.videohelp.com/u/311328/S-Video_%28NTSC%29_20240824_2302.ts

[davexnet]

Your sample worked as is in the latest version of DVDStyler

[txlogicguy]

The dvd files you sent back were re-encoded to PAL format. The file I sent was in NTSC format. Is it possible to use my original .ts file without re-encoding? If not, I'm curious as to why not?

[davexnet]

Oops my bad....I tried it again. This time I took your .ts source into Avidemux and remuxed it to mpeg-ps.
Here's the source and the log, encoded OK in DVDStyler

[txlogicguy]

Thank you! That remuxed .mpg file worked for me too. I need to look into Avidemux.