I'm working with a DVD out of a series which has multiple individual episodes on it. Each episode has 2 VOB files, a large and small one. One of the four episodes has an error in the second (smaller in size) of its VOB files. I was able to get the file copied to hard disk using DVD Decrypter by telling it to ignore the error sections. The resulting VOB file is slightly smaller than the orginal. I don't think that I can burn it to DVD now in this state. I'd like to edit the VOB to splice out any sections (audio and video) where the video alone is missing. I can't seem to find the right software or method for editing the VOB directly, and after reading several posts am still confused about converting from VOB to DivX, AVI, or MPEG to do the editing, and then converting back to VOB. I might would just delete the one flawed episode and all of its files and try to burn the rest to DVD (or try and simply split the error segment off the end), but I don't fully understand the file structure using the IFO and VOB files, and if the result would play if it's missing one of the original files. Please advise, and thanks in advance!
The first thing I'd do is open the VOB directly (not using the IFO) with a software DVD player like PowerDVD or WinDVD and play it all the way through to see what it looks like. If it plays and there's enough good material that it's worth keeping, I'd use DVD Shrink to re-author and see if it can trim out the bad sections. This guide will show you how to re-author with DVD Shrink: http://www.chrismccann.co.uk/dvd_shrink_3_re_author.htm _X_X_X_X_X_[small]Learn AviSynth The Easy Way: http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/avisynth_tutorial.cfm Afterdawn Guides: http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/ Afterdawn Rules: http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/6346 Always Read The Small Print[/small]
Originally DVD Shrink wouldn't open it, and that's when I used DVD Decrypt. I'll see if DVD Shrink will now open the file that DVD Decrypt created by ignoring errors (can't remember if I tried that or not). I'm doubtful of success, but will report what I find.
Thanks for hanging in here with me, vurbal. OK, the Dell media player plays the VOB file - I was impatient and ran it at 3x speed though, so I might not have noticed if it hung temporarily. However, when I ran DVD Shrink on it I got an "invalid nv_pckinv_vobu.ea" error, with the reason "Unknown". I can then run the scroll bar and see the preview all the way from the beginning (the IFO file accesses both the first 1GB and remaining VOB files). So, I'm not sure if I were going to re-author it where I would trim, and the problem may be more toward the middle than end of this second 800MB file. I've been thinking that if Shrink couldn't preview it without error of any kind, then CopyToDVD couldn't burn it without error. Let me know what you think.
Okay, down to the last couple of things I can think of. Try opening the VOB with DVD-Lab. If you don't have it you can download a 30 day trial. All you have to do is right-click on the assets area at the bottom left of the screen and select import. Select Demultiplex to elementary streams. If it gets past the demultiplexing, drag the video and audio files to Movie 1 and click the play button on the preview (bottom right). Let it go as far as it can. Let me know what happens.
OK, I followed your instructions and DVD-Lab returns the following: To Demux VOB title sets, Drag the first VTS_XX_1.VOB to Asset Bin - Error - you can't ignore this. This was after I had dragged the first 1GB portion of the VOB (VTS_05_1.VOB) to the asset window, and it had demuxed completely with success. The error occurred when I tried to demux the second (last) part of the episode's VOB (VTS_05_2.VOB).
Sorry, I haven't done this with DVD-Lab for a while so I gave you slightly incorrect instructions. When you add the first VOB there should be an option to join sequential VOBs without demultiplexing. Select this and let it join the VOBs and you will have a new VOB called joined.VOB. Highlight joined.VOB and hit the delete key to remove it from your assets. Now you should be able to add joined.VOB in Assets and demultiplex it. After that, go ahead and add it to Movie 1 and preview it all the way through like I mentioned before.
OK, joined the VOBs without error, added the resulting video and both 2 & 6 channel audio to the movie (2 channel file was listed, even though I ripped the movie with 6 channel only), and ran the preview. I guess the latter is why I didn't have sound on the preview playback. As an aside, do you know of an encoder that will let you playback DTS or Dolby Digital sound on a PC system? I have a new model Dell running XP. Didn't have time to watch it all the way through, so I saved the project and will have to do it later. Thanks again!
For listening to AC3 you can use AC3 Filter: http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/codecs_and_filters/ac3filter.cfm I'm not sure what's out there for DTS since I don't have a DTS capable receiver so I never mess with it. I'm glad to see things appear to be working out. If you need any more help when you get the time to work on it, just let me know. Good luck.
