problems with flipper disk merge

[itchione]

This is my 1st post on this forum so be gentle with me :)

First off, i bought "The Pelican Brief" from a video store and was told that one side of the DVD was 16:9 while the other side was 4:3. Imagine my frustration when 1/2 way through the film i was asked by a 'slide' to flip the disk :eek: My first and only flipper disk :)

I then thought how hard could it be to backup both sides of the main film and join them :confused: .
Hard doesn't begin to describe the learning curve i had to climb (and still have so much more to learn) but here is the process i used (written as a guide of sorts in italic):


1).
Create some directories to store the rips using the following convention:
d:\dvd\film_name\final\VIDEO_TS
d:\dvd\film_name\combined\VIDEO_TS
d:\dvds\film_name\side-a\VIDEO_TS
d:\dvds\film_name\side-b\VIDEO_TS

2).
Using ReAuthor mode of DVDShrink and selecting only the main movie, rip Side-A of the flipper disk to side-a\VIDEO_TS directory.

3).
Flip the disk and repeat the rip for Side-B, saving it to the side-b\VIDEO_TS directory.

4).
Change the Side-B VOB files "VTS_0X_Y.VOB" to "VTS_0X_00Y.VOB".
That is, from VTS_01_1.VOB to VTS_01-001.VOB, VTS_01_2.VOB to VTS_01_002.VOB and so on.
Make sure you do this for all the VOB files within side-b\VIDEO_TS directory.

5).
Start VobEdit and <Open> the last VOB file of Side-A.
Move to the bottom of the right pane and start searching up for the (last) Navigation Pack.
Click on this (last) NavPack and search the right pane for the "Vob ID" and "Cell ID" numbers.
Make a note of this "VOB ID" number which is need later.
(The Cell ID is usually the same as the chapter number, in this case the last chapter number of Side-A).
Close VobEdit.

6).
Start VobEdit and <Open> the first VOB file of Side-B (the one you renamed earlier).
Press <Edit><Join Clip>.
Specify "combined\VIDEO_TS" directory as the place to save the result leaving the suggested file name as VTS_01_01.VOB.
When asked for the first VOB ID, add 1 to the VOB ID number noted within step 5 and specify this new value in the dialog box.
Have a coffee and wait for all files to be written.

7).
Once the VobEdit "join clip" finishes writing the files, rename the VOB files so that they continue from the last VOB file of side-A.
That is, if the last side-a VOB is VTS_01_4.VTS, rename combined\VIDEO_TS file VTS-01-1.VOB to VTS_01_5.VTS, 2 to 6, etc.

8).
Now copy the VOB files from side-a\VIDEO_TS to combined\VIDEO_TS.
We should now have all the original side-a VOBs and all the modified and renamed side-b VOBs in this directory.

9).
Open IfoEdit and press <create IFOs>.
Specify the 1st VOB within combined\VIDEO_TS, that is VTS_01_1.VOB and destination directory for IFOs being the same as the source directory.
Press <OK> and have another coffee :)
Close IfoEdit when the task has completed.


At this point, WinDVD will open the combined\VIDEO_TS directory and play the film in a basic way.
WinDVD shows 44 chapters within the chapter list button.
However, after chapter 23, the next chapter (1st chapter of side-b) is displayed as chapter 1.
Also the chapter list within WinDVD has chapter 1 ticked when playing what should be chapter 24.
Pressing next chapter takes me to the next logical chapter in the film sequence as expected despite that chapter numbering.
Pressing previous chapter tends to have less than predictable results.
Usually it takes me back as expected but not always.
Also DvdShrink will not open the directory complaining about "invalid data in the file VTS_01_7.VOB" (the last VOB file).
So continuing along with the process:


10).
Run IfoEdit and <open> VTS_01_0.IFO, press <VOB extras> and tick the following
Rebuild PTS
Strip Streams
Correct Navigation Packs
Correct original IFOs
Remove POU
Remove Macrovision
Adjust VOBU pointers
Adjust Audio/Subp pointers
Specify the destination directory final\VIDEO_TS and press <OK>
Tick Audio1 & all subpicture streams, tick correct ifo tables and press <OK>


Now chapter numbers are OK within WinDVD :)
However, subtitles work but there is no specification for what they are and the subtitle colors are all wrong :(
Although DvdShrink will now open the DVD, the audio and subtitles info are also not specified within DvdShrink :(
So continuing along with the process...


11).
Start IfoEdit and open VIDEO_VTS.IFO within final\VIDEO_TS and highlight the DVD (top level)
Double click on VTS_1 Audio.
Specify the correct language (English) and extension (normal), etc, for the audio attributes and press <OK>
(You can compare the IFO data from side-a\VIDEO_TS to know what to add)
Double click on SubPicture 1.
Specify the correct language Type, language and Coding caption, etc, and click <OK>
<Save> and <quit>.

Obviously you can compare the IFO data from the same file within side-a\VIDEO_TS to know what to add :)

12).
Repeat the above changes for VTS_01_0.IFO to correct the audio and subpicture specifications.


This fixes the audio and subpicture specs within WinDVD and DvdShrink.
But the subpicture colors are still wrong within WinDVD.
So more processing.


13).
Seems that subtitles use 2 colors, 1 for the character and 1 for the outline.
Each color has 3 hex values, first is brightness, second red, and third blue.
Green is fixed at 128 (Hex 80).
By setting the last 2 hex values to 80 will set the color to grey.

To fix the subpicture colors, start IfoEdit and open VTS_01_0.IFO within final\VIDEO_TS.
Click on VTS_PGCITI and then click the + to expand the list.
Click on VTS_PGC_1 and scroll down to the section with a group of Color Y Cr CB lines.
Double click each line in turn and specify the hex values 80 80 80 then press <ok>.
Then in my case, change the following color lines
color 0 to 16 128 128 (hex 10 80 80)
color 7 to 235 128 128 (hex EB 80 80)
color 9 to 176 128 128 (hex B0 80 80)


Seems that somewhere must be a specification of what color pallets are available (and where within the IFO's they are stored but i couldn't find anything.

Does anyone know why this happened ?

The result is that I have a correctly working DVD compilation on my PC.
Next and final steps would involve using DVD shrink to encode the files to fit a DVD5.
Then use Nero of other program to burn these files to disk but that's never the case (is it).

Why after re-encoding with DvdShrink did the subpicture (subtitles) come out in green when playing the shrunk version in WinDVD? They were OK (having been corrected earlier on) :mad:

Am i doing something wrong which causes the loss of subpicture streams ?

If anyone can clarify the oddities I have experienced and if there is a better way of doing this, please let me know :)

How much harder would it be to keep the extras and the menu using these free tools ?

Cheers, Itchione

[setarip_old]

A much simpler solution would be to use (commercial software) DVD2One's (v.1.4) "Join" function (Select "seamless mode") and select the "Advanced Navigation Mode"...

[dialysis1]

If all you need to do is correct the subs, you might want to try DVDSubEdit.
http://download.videohelp.com/DVDSubEdit/

[BigCondor]

You can add empty cells (no. of cells of the main title in disc 2) at the end of the main title in disc 1 and replace it with the cells in disc 2 using VobBlanker.

[Video Dude]

BigCondor's method is what I would suggest. VobBlanker makes it really easy and the menus are kept. You could also extract the chapter menu from disc 2 and append it to the end of the chapter menus on disc 1. Use the same empty cell method, but some of the navigation in the menu might need to be corrected with PGCEdit.


You could also demux the movie on both DVDs with PGCDemux. Then join them all together in MuxMan. If you wish to retain menus, then just use PGCEdit to import the PGC that MuxMan made, replacing the PGC on disc 1.

[itchione]

Thanks for the feedback on alternative joining method using vobblanker and the use of dvdsubedit to fix the subtitle color mess-up (considered using it but instead wanted to understand why the process i used introduced these faults).

Thanks also for the suggestion of using DVD2One but i have a preference for open source or freeware tools (if available and usable).

At the moment, i am still a newbie, feeling my way around the DVD structures and having much more to learn before i can really claim to understand what i am doing :)

The vobblanker method looks interesting as it shouldn't involve lots of different free tools, just the ripper to get the files to the PC then vobblanker to do some processing :) As i am not familiar with vobblanker, what is suggested in terms of reading material to learn its tricks. Are there any guides on joining flippers using vobblanker ?

Although the process i used is long, is the basis of the process sound or could it be considered that vodedit or ifoedit are introducing faults and causing the problems with loosing the launguage spec, subtitle color spec, etc. ?


Thanks again :D

Cheers, Itchione

[setarip_old]

Thanks also for the suggestion of using DVD2One but i have a preference for open source or freeware tools (if available and usable).Although, obviously, the choice is yours, sometimes the word "free" is used to describe how much of your time is made available by using software that works quicker and more easily ;>}

[shrink0]

He itchione, I for one use all the freeware available and appreciate all the authors. having said that, I have to agree with setarip_old,and to avoid many headaches and time,I'd use commercial progs..DVDRemake ,or DVDFABplatinum, fab can now merge to one DVD...
But thats MO! btw your method looks alot like this thread which I've used..
http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=60724&highlight=IfoEdit

[itchione]

Thanks setarip_old, your right in that paid for tools can be a real time saver, but as i was wanting to learn a little more about the structure of dvd's and how to manipulate them i considered it was ok to spend the time learning a litle more :)

In hindsight, the best solution would have been to never to buy a flipper disk ! Live and learn :D

Cheers, Itchione

[setarip_old]

Live and learnAlways ;>}

[shrink0]

Hey itchione, I'm with you bro! how else are you gonna learn unless you get in the trench right!! after trying diff. methods and learning something everyday from these great pro's, it sure is sweet to do it the easier way! but when you get the itch (no pun intended) you want to soak it all up..........:)

[BigCondor]

If I were you, I would never have regretted to purchase this disc. It is an urge for you to learn, that's what we are after.

Here's some steps to follow, hope it can be of help.

1. Open disc 1 in PgcEdit, select the main movie and enter PGC Editor. Create new cell at the end of the pgc. Repeat until you have enough cells for disc 2.

2. Open disc 2 in VobBlanker, select the main movie and press Cells. Select ExtAll Multi to extract it at cells level.

3. Open disc 1 in VobBlanker, select the main movie and press Cells. Select the cells you want to replace and press Replace. VB will ask you the name of the cells and you add each separtely until you are done. Select a new directory to store your final disc and press Process.

4. Finally you might have to change the properties of cells and chapters of your disc in PgcEdit.

If there is a screen in disc 1 to tell you to flip disc then probably you need to replace it with the cells in disc 2 to wipe it out.