DVD Chapters (again...)

[Arianos]

DVD (or fixed) Chapters do not work for me, most of the times, on two PCs with WinXP (P4@1500-640ram-20+15gig & P3@800-512ram-15+30gig, the second being a machine dedicated solely, day and night to DVD2SVCD with barebones WinXP and just the essential programs for DVDs and making SVCDs (Yes, I am a film buff, what can I do???). I operate both of them with Remote Desktop from my laptop on a 100 LAN)
I use SmartRipper (2.35 up to 2.41), but Internal routines, or vStrip make no difference.
Mind you that both machines have brand new "clean" installations of the latest bundle (1.0.5 b4).
The alterations from the default (e.g.: out of the...box) settings are:
aspect ratio: 4:3 instead of 16:9
SVCD subtitles: Lang1 Greek, Lang2 English
Audio 192 or 224 instead of 128, 48->44 : None
Bitrate: All CD sizes to 800, sometimes on a 125mins movie I set it for 2 800MB CDs.
CCE: Multipass, 3 passes
Examples: Legally Blonde R1, The Cotton Club R2 work, - MI2 R2, Mummy 2 R2, The Ghost and the Darkness R2, Anastasia R2, The Dish R1, don't work. I've kept the small files of some of them on my HD for possible future reference.
BUT
I discovered an alternative and relatively easy method: I check the DVD2SVCD chapters file, sometime after it's created, and if only the word [CHAPTERS] is there, I copy the chapter info from the VTS_XX_INFO.txt file that smart ripper produces, paste it to the DVD2SVCD chapters file, and all is OK. It also works when in the morning, after the dream phrase "SVCD creation finished" appears, I check the log, says No. of Chapters 1, check the DVD2SVCD chapters file, and only the word [CHAPTERS] is there. I do the same and using crash recovery, I just redo from SVCD Authoring.
It seems that noone has the same problem (or is embarassed to tell, or doesn't care...)
I don't see this "problem" mentioned on the forum for the new version, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to post it for the rare-rare-rare minority, if such, besides me, exists...
If the matter is already solved or mentioned somewhere else, or if you think I'm talking nonsense, feel free to delete this.
Have fun! I do!!

[mrbass]

chapters work fine for me 1.0.5 build 3 and build 4.
Only time they don't work is when I used Nero 5.5.6.4 to burn. They worked on standalone dvd player but not with WinDVD. When I burnt with cdrdao, WinDVD and standalone DVD player chapters work 100%.
I think there should be a dvdchapters.ini (forgot exactly what it's called) which lists the chapter times. Is that present at all?

[Arianos]

Yes, it is present. That's what I was referring to. It is called dvd2svcd chapters file.ini, and the only thing in it is the word

[CHAPTERS]

instead of something like:

[CHAPTERS]
Chapter0001=0
Chapter0002=5205
Chapter0003=7568
Chapter0004=15752
Chapter0005=19112
Chapter0006=23284
Chapter0007=26860
Chapter0008=30941
and so on...

[mrbass]

Can you try ripping the same DVD with smartripper and look at the info.txt file to see if it shows the chapter times, etc.

you mentioned Legally Blonde R1...I ripped that with 1.0.5 build 3 I believe and chapters worked for me.

[barbas]

Are you ripping the full dvd with smart ripper?

I had a problem that to save space i would only rip english audio, english subtitles and portuguese, guess what no chapters...

Then what i did was to have a fire in my computer room and dance like an american indian shouting to have rain soon.

I also checked the "others" option that you have in the list of what to rip in smart ripper...

Guess what no rain... but the chapters did work!

Cheers

Barbas

[Arianos]

@ mrbass:
Every vts_XX_INFO.txt file I have kept, whether chapters work or not in the final image, has chapter information. That's where I copy it from.
I haven't compared entries on "working" and "not working" files line by line, just found the similar to DVD2SVCD entries and used them.
Legally Blonde file (vts_10_INFO.txt, ripped with SmartRipper) shows a long list of variations of chapter entries, one of which is in the form used by DVD2SVCD. It's only 7K, but I would hate to post it here, as it's loooooong. But, chapters worked fine on that one, anyway.

@ barbas:
I think your suggestion hits the jackpot. Indeed, I do use selective ripping (Stream Process), not to save space, but because of some "glitch" Greek subs sometimes have:Example:The Mummy Returns-R2, could not be ripped with Greek subtitles when I did the whole movie rip with SmartRipper. vStrip failed too. The Greek subtitle example tab was empty, even though they showed as an option. Even when I said, the heck with it, I'll go on without Greek subs, DVD2SVCD would refuse to start with a message I don't recall. The only way I found for Greek subs to show, was by doing the stream processing thingy and selecting ONLY english audio, 0x20 English and 0x27 Greek subtitles, and that, ONLY with smartripper 2.35. All the latest versions failed on that too (2.39-2.41)!!! Weird... I saw no reason at the time to also select 0x?? Others.
Anyway, after that and because a lot of R2 DVDs came my way, I continued ripping the same way, foolishly thinking I would be on the safe side....
I still have to test it though, but I think that is probably it!
I also think that a little Indian rain dance and a little fire would not hurt at all, as at the time it's snowing heavily, we have momentarily power surges, and as I don't own a ^%$#@*& UPS the PCs restart, and crash recovery starts at, you guessed it,....CCE encoding :( !!!
Thank you for your time :)

[barbas]

@Arianos

I also had another interesting situation...

Wen ripping Gone in 60'' smartripper list of subtitles was not the same as the one dvd2svcd presented me.

I ripped english and portuguese in smart ripper and dvd2svcd presented me with english and spanish.

I found out the hard way that dvd2svcd was correct. Also my smartripper doesn't know the difference between leterboxed sub titles and wide.

I have no idea if this situation is due to the specific edition of this dvd for the portuguese/spanish market.

Regards

Barbas

ps: I saw the news about greek snow, you guys are going through though times

[Arianos]

Subtitles in R2 DVDs being sometimes in a kind of mess, is a fact I have grown to take for granded , among other things (Non anamorphic picture, terrible sound and picture transfers):( , especially on DVDs made for a smaller market. Here are a few examples, from Smart Ripper 2.41:
Gross Pointe Blank (British edition)
0x20 English
0x25 Portuguese
0x28 Greek

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (R2)
0x20 English
0x24 Greek
0x29 Portuguese

Stir of Echoes (Greek ONLY Edition)
0x20 Greek
0x?? Others

I thought the 0xXX meant something, but I am not so sure anymore...

I usually am absolutely thrilled with "free pies" that are offered to me, especially when they so wellllll made, but I am also a perfectionist. Well, as a sticker I keep at the office says: Computers Were Invented To Humiliate Me! Or as a saying goes: nothing is accidental with computers! They do it on purpose!!
Thank you for your info.

P.S.1
1.Just for the heck of it, I ripped "Nightmare Before Christmas" R2,using Smart ripper 2.41, following your suggestion for adding the 0x?? in the stream process. It has Greek and Portuguese subs, among others, so I added that too. DVD2SVCD Results:
a. CHAPTERS SHOWING!! So INDEED you were right!!! But,
b. No Portuguese :(. Just like it had happened in the Mummy 2 for Greek!!! I guess we still miss something there....

P.S.2
Sorry it took me that long to answer. I was out snowballing with my wife :D

[barbas]

I suspect that there is somekind of standard that not allways is respected.

0x22 could always mean english subtitles, but since you can re-map the streams to any adddress you like i guess sometimes the local editors re-map it to wrong standards.

Also i suspect that there is a bug in smartripper and that this software is not allways able to interpret the correct description of the streams. (this was the situation of gone in 60'').

I wonder wht dvd2svcd has to say about this...

[Mozart]

Originally posted by barbas
I suspect that there is somekind of standard that not allways is respected.

0x22 could always mean english subtitles, but since you can re-map the streams to any adddress you like i guess sometimes the local editors re-map it to wrong standards.



where did you heard this? There are officially almost 6000 different languages on Earth, and only 32 different subtitle stream ID. How can you explain this picture (http://www.doom9.hpg.com.br//subtitles.JPG)? Now, who is the "parvo"? :rolleyes:

[barbas]

You got it wrong there are 6123 on Earth.

I'm trying to count how many are on mars (i've just sent a fax there) but the numbers of the mars administration do not match the ones of the mpaa... so we have a problem.

Cheers
Barbas

[Mozart]

I'm sorry. I had had forgot those 123 Portuguese guys from barbas's city.