Reencoding _single_ vob in set to make movie fit on DVD-R?

[ourang]

My problem is with Ifoedit I've stripped the Memento DVD of everything possible, extra audio tracts/subtitles/unneeded menus, while keeping the main menu and now it's only oversize by 100 megs. Instead of spending nearly a day reencoding all the video vobs, is it possible to say take the last vob, vts_01_05.vob which is 500 megs as opposed to 4.6 gigs, reencode just that and reinsert it back into the title set? If so would the chapter points remain the same? I've checked the guides on doom9 and they only talk about transcoding the whole video.

[VidHack]

ourang

The perfect question, actually this should be a POST topic, anyway, so you rippped/squeezed/stripped out all the junk from the original DVD? The dam thing is just a hairball over 4.3gb. BOY, I share your pain, asumming you killed the credits, lets shrink this pig.

Tools needed: ReMPEG/IFOedit/VOBedit/IFOupdate/vstrip(with GUI)/ and alot of patience....

First of all, this wont be a step by step guide, if you have mastered IFOedit, then this will make sense, if not, then reEncode.

First trick, I did this on Spiderman, to keep the original menu, I just cut out some of that 3 min credit intro in the beginning of the movie. All you have to do is cut out a slice of the VOB, create new IFO's, run IFOupdate. Walla! 100mb bye bye. How to do it. Load in your first VOB into VOBedit. You will see the LBA of the VOB on the left, now VERY IMPORTANT!!! IFOedit will only accept VOBS that have been cut so that the first byte is a NAVIGATIONAL pack! So, examine the video on the left and write down the LBA of a NAVIGATIONAL PACK, now you have to cut out a section between nav packs, use vStrip START/STOP LBA to do this.
Now you just have to save the VOB, rename it back to VTS_01_XX. Run IFOedit, create new IFO's, run IFOupdate...Walla..done.

OK, totally confused? How about a simpler way and its actually the answer to the question you asked. ReMPEG a chapter. Thats it.

How to do it: Load in your last VOB into vStrip, now on the output tab select Split by cells. You now have the last few chapters of your movie seperated. Now you can ReMPEG them down, lets say 50% (you will have to figure the % depending on the VOB size to shrink) So, take the last chapter vob, shrink it with ReMPEG, then take the resulting .m2v file back into IFOedit (remux video option), then combine all the split up VOBS back together with vStrip (Append). DONE. Yowser.

HINT: ReMPEG quality is always a big flamewar, I have the solution to the problem. As stated in the README file that comes with ReMPEG, the first few frames can be WAY off, oh boy it is. If you ever remuxed a ReMPEG video file back into a chapter there is sometimes a 2 frame bad block. So, when you watch the DVD, there is a green blocky video crappy insert point.

Solution: When using ReMPEG, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, add a little extra video to the front of your target chapter that you want to reEncode, then reEncode it, then remove the fake front video, that way the bad 2 blocks are stripped away, RESULT: PERFECT reInsertion of the targetted video.

OK, my hands are tired from typing, good luck, it took me about 6 months to figure out all these tricks, so pass them on and enjoy!

VidHack

[ourang]

Thanks for the quick reply VidHack! I'll try the second option. Wondering though, if quality is the issue, could Tmpgenc be substitued for ReMPEG.

[VidHack]

Absolutly NOT!,
We are not Re_Encoding, we are TRANSCODING.

IF you use CCE or Tmpgenc to ReEncode this DVD chapter, the reInsertion of the video stream will not line up to the audio, and the chapter points will be off. Please learn about ReMPEG. Its a TRANSCODER. It is the solution to your problem, simply said.

The quality issue is the age old CCE vs Tmpgenc battle, but ReMPEG is a totally different approuch, it lowers the bitrate per frame of video. In other words if its VBR 8500, ReMPEG will lower this value, say to 7500 to TRANCODE the frame down, the quality issue arrives when the frames you want to transcode are already 300 and you want it lowered. This will yield a blocky picture, so if you have to set ReMPEG to a factore below say 50% reduction, of course the quality will suffer, but a slight value of 10% wont even be seen. Get it? I hope so.

VidHack

[leebo]

Can DVD X be used, or is it the same as TMPEGEnc?

[VidHack]

HUH?

My post is very, very specific to ourang's question. I figure after 691 posts leebo, u should be a master at this.

"Can DVD X be used, or is it the same as TMPEGEnc?"

Is this actually a legit question, again I am posting answers specifically to the problem of reEncoding a single VOB. I hope I have answered this problem for ourang. There are tons of posts about DVDXcopy / DVDx. Good luck on your search.

[leebo]

Yeah, I found it.

Actually, my other 600+ posts were asking for info on making a VCD.

[ourang]

VidHack, which ifo do you load up during the step where you are remuxing the m2v gotten from ReMPEG inside IFOedit? And is it the Vob Extra or Movie Only remux options? After some time I'm still stuck at this step. Never used those features of IFOedit before

[VidHack]

ourang,

Sorry for the confusion, you should be using VOBedit v.06 to remux the newly created .m2v file back into the original VOB.
1. Load up your original VOB (OPEN)
2. Press EDIT (remux m2v)
3. Save as....
3. Wait
4. DONE!

Now, you have 2 copies of the original chapter VOB, 1 is the master original and 1 is a shrunk version with the original sound track and chapter points perfect.

Now, just recombine the split up chapters using vStrip (Append) and name it whatever VOB VTS number it was when you began this procedure.

If you followed my cheesy guide, all should work perfectly. Enjoy!

VidHack

[ourang]

Thanks again VidHack! It did work great, though I'm still working on how to add an extra bit of footage to get rid of those 2 frame green blocks. I even used Remepg to reduce the menu bitrate for Dogma and it fit nicely! As you said before, this SHOULD be a guide or a post topic. Very helpful.

Ourang

[VidHack]

ourang,

Lets continue the super cheesy guide, and get you a perfect transcoded VOB. The trick to kill the 2 frame error is this. You need to add just a single NAVIGATIONAL frame pack to the beginning of the target VOB, it has to be the preceeding NAV Pack, that way ReMPEG works perfectly. So, lets say you want to TRANSCODED Chapt 20 of some DVD. Then you just slice off the end NAV pack of CHAPT 19 using vStrip, append it to the beginning of Chapt 20. Then ReMPEG it down, then use vStrip to cut the fake front video off. Walla, a perfectly transcoded VOB, with perfect reInserted video, and NO bad frames. Hope this makes sense. Any other problems I will give you detailed explaination. I do this all the time and it will be seamless. Good Luck.

VidHack.

[spudz2]

VidHack,

I've been reading your little guide and it's very interesting.. I'm curious if you think your suggestions would be best for the title I'm trying to do or if this (http://www.doom9.org/mpg/maestro2.htm) would be better?

The DVD is Deuce Bigalow and as it comes it's just barely over the 4.37gb limit. (4,804,233,216 bytes). The main movie is structure is like this....

12/17/2002 02:12 AM <DIR> .
12/17/2002 02:12 AM <DIR> ..
12/13/2002 01:46 AM 20,480 VIDEO_TS.BUP
12/13/2002 01:46 AM 20,480 VIDEO_TS.IFO
12/13/2002 01:46 AM 38,311,936 VIDEO_TS.VOB
12/13/2002 01:46 AM 65,536 VTS_01_0.BUP
12/13/2002 01:46 AM 65,536 VTS_01_0.IFO
12/13/2002 01:46 AM 1,394,688 VTS_01_0.VOB
12/13/2002 01:50 AM 1,073,633,280 VTS_01_1.VOB
12/13/2002 01:52 AM 1,073,565,696 VTS_01_2.VOB
12/13/2002 01:54 AM 1,073,733,632 VTS_01_3.VOB
12/13/2002 01:55 AM 897,918,976 VTS_01_4.VOB
12/13/2002 01:55 AM 24,576 VTS_02_0.BUP
12/13/2002 01:55 AM 24,576 VTS_02_0.IFO
12/13/2002 01:55 AM 126,976 VTS_02_0.VOB
12/13/2002 01:56 AM 452,968,448 VTS_02_1.VOB
12/13/2002 01:56 AM 18,432 VTS_03_0.BUP
12/13/2002 01:56 AM 18,432 VTS_03_0.IFO
12/13/2002 01:56 AM 120,832 VTS_03_0.VOB
12/13/2002 01:57 AM 192,200,704 VTS_03_1.VOB
18 File(s) 4,804,233,216 bytes

Ok it's obvious where the movie is... VTS_02 is the previews that play when the disc is first inserted and then you can also play them from the main menu as well. VTS_03 is the storyboard videos..

I'm thinking if I were to use your method to have rempeg just reduce the quality of the VTS_02 set only and make that as the only change then it would fit on a DVD-R just fine. And who cares if the previews don't look quite as good. I know you may be thing I could just rip the previews out but call me picky I just like to have the DVD in the same way it originally was...

I haven't tried it yet but will if you think it will work and is the best method.

Thanks for your response.

Spudz

P.S. I forgot to say that there is only 1 audio stream in this movie as well so that is not an option of reducing it or I would have just done that.

[VidHack]

spudz2,

I dont want to get into specific DVD titles in this post, I am trying to keep this thread very specific to the problem of Transcoding/ReEncoding a sigle VOB. If you want help with your Title, start a new thread, and I will help you out.

I have literly printed out hundreds of pages of help from this message board. I would like to thank all for their past knowledge by starting this basic guide. If you have tried my guide and are still having problems, please ask the question here and then many others can learn from it.

Perhaps this thread will turn into a full blown technical guide for all to enjoy. Share the knowledge, so many others can save hours of ReEncoding.

VidHack

[leebo]

I have a question re making those extra frames.
If I want to re-encode the whole movie to fit on one DVD (inc. menus and all), how do you suggest I create those extra frames?

[spudz2]

VidHack,

Ok forget the title specific thing.. I was just using it as an example trying to give you as much info as possible... And what I want to do is exactly what you mention.. I want to reencode a single vob with Rempeg.

I'll be more to the point.. I have single .vob that is 450mb or so (movie previews) and I want to shrink that down with Rempeg so it will fit. (say to 300mb)

Your instructions for the other aurang's post is a little different then mine. I don't want to do just a chapter of a .vob I want the whole .vob done.

I tried doing this with Rempeg by first demuxing the audio to a file.. After that I transcoded the .vob by 30% which created a mpeg file that I gave the ext .m2v. After that I loaded up Maestro and dropped in the .m2v and the .ac3 file and then created the dvd files.. Which I then took the 250mb .vob file and renamed it to the same filename as the original dvd, and copied it into that folder..

When I tried it, it plays fine but the chapters points are off...

I suppose there are better ways to do it but this is the only way I could figure out...

Spudz

[leebo]

Reading through vidhacks posts, shoulden't you be using VOBedit v.06 instead of Maestro?

[VidHack]

Spudz2,

Leebo is indeed coorect, Maestro is for ReAuthoring. We are not going to be processing the audio at all. I will fully answer this post tomorrow, the library where I am typing this is closing. Sorry, for the incomplete post. Talk to you soon.

VidHack

[spudz2]

VidHack,

Hmm.. I'd never used Rempeg before you mentioned it although I had heard about it.. I always heard the quality was crap, but then I didn't that it just reduced the bitrate and no reencoded the video till you mentioned it..

Anyway when I first tried transcoding the 450mb vob file mentioned with Rempeg the file it produced had no sound.. so that's why I used the tool in Rempeg that extracts the audio from the vob file..

I guess I must have missed something cause I assume it should have done the audio...

I'll wait for you next reply when you have more time and see what you have to say...

Spudz

[VidHack]

Hello All,

Now that I have some time to write, lets back up a few posts and answer all of your questions.
OK, lets talk about ReMPEG v1.5.2 for a second, I had mentioned my trick to add a few extra frames to the begining of a VOB/Chapter to fix the 2 frame error that ReMPEG can generate. ReMPEG does NOT always produce this error. Sometimes you DONT have to add the extra frames of video to the front. It only happens on some High VBR DVD's when you are trying to Transcode a chapter that is high action. For example, LOTR extended, I Transcoded the final Chapter down 40% to make it fit. The VBR rate on that movie is maxed out, so my new Chapter jump in point was green blocky for 2 frames. ReMPEG must analyze the preceding frames to calculate the new bitrate, so if you want to junp into a Chapter mid-movie, the jump in point is a bit messy. This is why I offered the solution of just adding the preceding frame of video from the previous chapter, ReMPEG the whole thing, then strip away the fake added video. Believe me, it works. Then ReMPEG calculations are perfect. Hope that clearifies any problems. I also offer this trick for people who try to ReMPEG a VOB and ReMPEG crashes, also for you who have tried to import a VOB/IFO into IFOedit and it crashes/shuts down. This is because the VOB didnt start with a Navigational PACK. If you stream rip a VOB down and have it cut at 1gb, that doesnt mean that it cuts at a Navigational pack! So, when you try to import, lets say VOB VTS_01_03 into IFOedit/ReMPEG it just crashes.

The solution to this is to always open up your source VOB/Chapter VOB in VOBedit, look at the first LBA 00000 it HAS to be a NAVIGATIONAL PACK, if not, you can make it one, by just adding a chunk of VOB using vStrip. Just load in your chunk VOB, and your Target VOB, and have vStrip APPEND them together (SAVE AS), then if you load this newly created VOB into VOBedit, you will now see that it begins with a NAVIGATIONAL Pack. Now you can use ReMPEG, then when your done, reverse this procedure and cut off the front of your VOB using the vStrip Start/Stop LBA functions, you can get the value by looking at the VOB in VOBedit.

Sudz2,

When you use ReMPEG, you have to SAVE AS, xxxxx.m2v. This is just a pure Transcoded Video stream only. When ReMPEG is finished, Open up VOBedit and use the REMUX function. This will basically open up your original VOB and reInsert the new video over your original. Your soundtrack will still be the original one from the original VOB.

Hope this answers all your questions so far, if not, ask away....

Hint: Just a note, please learn to use vStrip as a VOB cutter, VOB splicer. Its a must have tool.
I always use vstrip for cutting down the last VOB credits, You could just wack off the credits completely with IFOedit, but have you ever gotten that DVD that the credits arent exactly on a Chapter point.? Or you cut them off and then someone watches the movie and they say, Is the movie over? You can use vStrip to add just a few seconds of credits to get that "Movie over feeling" and the bonus of keeping your last Chapter point still linked in your menu. (Perhaps thats a topic for another POST)

Anyway, good luck

VidHack

[spudz2]

VidHack,

Thanks again for your help. Still problems however. I'm almost to the point if saying screw it and just backing up the movie only with IFOEdit but this shouldn't be hard so I'm going to give it a while longer...

Anyway here's the problems now.. 1). After remuxing the rempeg'd .m2v file with VobEdit into the original .vob file the video jerks/stutters every 10 secs or so I would say.. (btw: the .m2v file plays fine, no jerks/stutters). 2). The chapters (5 of them) are STILL in the wrong spots from the original. The chapters should be inbetween each trailer but it's somewhere in the middle or something. 3). The quality seems way less then the original .vob even though I had it set for 75% when rempeging (however to be honest I really don't care about this part at the moment as if I can just get it to play properly I'll be happy).

I'm not sure what the problem is.. I used all the default settings in Rempeg except I changed it to 720x480 from the default lower res it was set to.. That produced the .m2v file.. I then remuxed that with VobEdit using the source original .vob and then chose remux from the menu and it's asked for the .m2v file.. chose that and away it went..

I'm sure I did everything right.. Doesn't seem to hard but it sure ain't working. Let me know if you have any ideas.

Spudz

[VidHack]

Spudz2,

This will probably be my last Post on this thread as we are now getting into specific problems with your specific title. Since there arent any more Transcoding issues, lets finish the topic.

Your "Jitter" is most likely do to because you tried to TRANSCODE a interlaced movie trailer. ReMPEG, cant properly handle a interlaced video stream, please use it only on FILM DVD VOBS. There are many other Posts reguarding the "Jitter" problem. Please check them out. Good Luck.
Happy Holidays to all.

VidHack

[spudz2]

VidHack,

Ah... That explains it then.. I hadn't realised that.. Ok no problem.. I guess I'll try the last chapter method and see how that works.. Well I, and I'm sure a few others learned something from this anyway...

Thanks for your help.

Happy Holidays.

Spudz

[VidHack]

Spudz2 and all who have read this Post,

Lets put a nail in this coffin, I didn't properly finish this Post. So, here we go again. Spudz2 had 2 distinct problems. One, the interlaced video into ReMPEG, thats a big NO-NO. I didnt answer his Second problem, the Chapter Entry points were wrong.

My original Post stated to rip a VOB down to its Chapter components, ReMPEG the final chapter, then ReCombine them back together. If you followed this, then your last Chapter insertion point is still where it was when you started and your .IFO menu link is still accurate.

But, if you choose to ReMPEG an entire VOB, that contains multiple Chapters, then your Chapter points have been shifted (as Spudz2 has learned). Now, your Menu .IFO link is WRONG and jumps midstream into a Chapter. To reduce the Bitrate, ReMPEG dropped a few frames here and there, this altered the chapter point.

Solution: Delete your .IFO's (Actually back them up) YUP! I said Kill them. Then have IFOedit create NEW ones. Start IFOedit, use the CREATE IFO button, load in your First VOB, and let it go. When finished IFOedit would have analyzed the entire VOB Title set, and found the NEW NAVIGATIONAL pointers and updated the Menu/.IFO. Just do a GET VTS Sector when finished. There you have it, this should complete this post. As always though, any problems, let me know.....

VidHack

[q1aqza]

I haven't used it but I have read about a product called Chopper that you could use to cut off the end credits of the last VOB. The credits can sometimes take up more than a 100MB of space. Might be quick & easy solution for you.

[VidHack]

OK, really the END?,

I should clearify, If you do Create New IFO's. Then use IFOupdate to merge your new .ifo nav pointers into your old original menu .IFO's.

Basically, use IFOupdate as your last procedure to keep your Original Menu, as IFOedits new .IFO's are a Movie only type. Just read up on IFOupdate and how to use it. With that said, all should work perfectly.

Funny thing, I actually just used this trick yesterday on a DVD that was 4.9gb. I ReMPEGed the last VOB down, and it indeed had that crappy 2 frame green blocky entry point, so using my "add the prior NAVIGATIONAL PACK" trick, all went PERFECTLY, a seamless video entry.
So, It does work.

VidHack

q1aqza,

'Chopper' isnt as Frame accurate as you need it to be for this, and if you read the title of this Post, ReEncoding a Single VOB, we have ALREADY cut off all credits and extras, so Chopper is useless. But thanks anyway...

VidHack

[spudz2]

Vidhack,

I'm now trying your rempeg'ing a chapter method... I figured out all the steps and everything works fine except for one thing...

I'm still having the stuttering problem. I'm rempeg'ing the last chapter of a movie (ch 28). It's about 100mb too big so this would work great if it weren't for the stuttering I am getting.

I did some trouble shooting and the best I can tell is that the trouble with the stuttering happens after the VobEdit remuxing and not the Rempeg step. If I play the .m2v file that Rempeg produced in media player it seems to play fine with no stuttering but of course no sound as it should. After i remux the rempeged m2v using the chapter 28 vob file and then try and view the new .vob it creates I am seeing this stuttering.

It's starting to get on my nerves.. Any ideas what is wrong here?

Spudz

[VidHack]

Sudz2,

Hello yet again, Well dont know what to say. I would suggest trying this method out on another small VOB test file and see what you get. Perhaps the VOB you are Transcoding down has a low bitrate to start with and lowering it further is creating a 'studder' effect. You could run it threw Bitrate Viewer, check the rate and see. Hopefully, its not a Interlaced VOB, or some Anime, or some crazy framerate video VOB. I can only say to try again with another DVD title, or just forget my whole post and reEncode the whole DVD using CCE. Unless you really wnat to get into specifics, Exact DVD, and the exact, step-by-step what you are doing, I cannot remotely troubleshoot this problem. I have used my method on many DVD and its worked flawlessly. I wish you the same luck.

VidHack

[spudz2]

Vidhack,

First off I really appreciate your trying to help. The DVD I'm testing this on is Deuce Bigalow. It's the only DVD I have that's a hair over 4.37gb so that's what I was trying it on this one. I ran it though DVD2AVI and it's 23fps FILM. I tried doing some chapters earlier in then the first one I tried before but I get the same stuttering effect. I have confirmed that this stuttering only happens just after each scene cuts from one to another. I played the .m2v that rempeg created and it plays fine with no stuttering. I then played the same chapter file but now the newly created chapter .vob instead of the .m2v and it has the stuttering. So this would tell me that VobEdit is doing it. Or so it seems.

Here's the steps I used in Rempeg and VobEdit.

1) Load Rempeg.
2) Click Open and Choose the Chapter .vob file
3) Set Scale Factor to 70% or desired rate
4) Click output resolution radio button to 720x480
5) Click frame mode to Match Source
6) Click Encode and give it filename and path ie. chapter26.m2v

Now for VobEdit

1) Load VobEdit
2) Choose Open and pick Chapter .vob file
3) Go to Edit menu and choose "Remux m2v"
4) Select the .m2v file rempeg created



Well that's it. I'm sure I'm doing it already as I can almost do it with my eyes closed now.

I'm determined to get this to work as I think it is a great alternative for reencoding the whole movie. But I'm just not having any luck...

I think I'll give you suggestion about testing this on a chapter .vob from another dvd.

But let me know what you think from what I wrote above...

Spudz