Confused by DVD behaviour...

[Darkwhisperer]

So I have this foreign movie dvd. Ripped it to HDD. Used DGIndex to index it. Using AVIsynth, I converted to x264 and muxed to mkv. I notice about 15 minutes into the movie, theres a chunk of menu! The sound goes all super speed (and loses sync thereafter). So I figure, open the dvd in vobblanker, chop out the offending menu bit, and move on. But alas, vobblanker acts strange when that comes up (I cant scroll, the time and frame number doesnt change). My next idea was to re-author it in DVDShrink. But that didnt work exactly. The menu is gone, but so is the content that supposed to be there. And the sound is off-sync after that point. So I strongly suspect that the dvd jumps to somewhere else when that point comes up, and then jumps back to a point after the menu. But resolving this is above my understanding. I've tried googling, but Im not even sure what Im looking for. If someone can pass me to a guide, or even some ideas, it would be much appreciated.

[Inspector.Gadget]

You need to work on a single title, not just a bunch of VOBS with multiple titles. Start from the ripped VIDEO_TS folder (or rip it again) and use PGCDemux to find the main movie and remux it with "by PGC" and "by title" selected. It's safe to leave everything in the lower left column unchecked except "Create a PGC VOB"; this will leave you with a set of VOBs that you can DGIndex as usual.

[Darkwhisperer]

Well, followed your suggestion. It did change something, but hasnt helped my problem. The menu has moved to about 5 minutes earlier, and the place where it was is still missing the video that supposed to be there. This is so confusing!

[Ghitulescu]

Without a "schematic" of the DVD nobody can help you.

DVDshrink (and any other shrinker, like nero) and pgcedit should be able to sort the main movie out. However I don't understand the two contradictory conditions you wanna have: no menu, but with menu.
The menu is gone, but so is the content that supposed to be thereopen the dvd in vobblanker, chop out the offending menu bit, and move on

[setarip_old]

@DarkWhisperer

As an experiment, use MakeMKV DIRECTLY (NO other software needed) to convert the original DVD's main movie to an .MKV file.

Does this method also result in "a chunk of menu" appearing?

[Darkwhisperer]

@Ghitulescu: If theres a way to give to upload a "schematic", please suggest it.

Also, it seems you misunderstand what I mean. Using my dvd player, I have menus and movie. I navigate the menu, and play my movie. All plays well. There is no "menu-type" video appearing in the middle of my movie.
However, after ripping and indexing, something is not right. For about 5 minutes (20 minutes into the movie), the original movie content is replaced by menu content (the video behind the menus, going from menu screen to menu screen). So I have 5 minutes of menu content, and no movie content. After that, the movie continues, but the sound is off.
After using PGCEdit, things changed, but not for the better. The menu-type video moved to about the 15 minutes mark. The content it had previously replaced is still missing. So now I have menu in the middle of my movie, and a 5 minute hole in my movie. I hope this helps clarify the situation.

@setarip_old: I have tried your solution. The title with the movie doesnt appear as a selectable option. The message in the log is :

Title #2 declared length is 2:17:01 while its real length is 3:06:51 - assuming fake title

Hope you can help.

[Ghitulescu]

One or more screenshots of the PGCedit would help.

Let me understand it straight:
Close Tray. Press PLAY. DVD jumps to Menu. Select Film from menu. Film runs for 20 minutes. Menu (or menu video appears) runs for 5 minutes. Film continues (resumes?) without sound.

[The Scientist]

Ripped it to HDD. Used DGIndex to index it.How did you rip it? What program? What method? Did it have multiple PGCs? angles? seamless branching?
Which file/s did you load into DGIndex?

[Darkwhisperer]

@Ghitulescu: No. Menu and movie plays perfectly when using dvd player. Only after ripping and indexing, the menu video appears in the middle of the movie. If you can be a bit more specific about what you need from PGCEdit, I'll upload accordingly.

@The Scientist: I used DVD-Decryptor, File Mode. There doesnt seem to be any encryption on the disc. Multiple PGC's? Below is "PGC's list as text" from PGCEdit. Angles? Dont know. Seamless branching? Dont even know what that is. If I had to make a guess as to what that is, I would say its where the DVD jumps from where it is to somehwere else without the viewer knowing. Sounds like the problem Im having.

DVD: "C:/Dump/H/dtm/VIDEO_TS_CLEAN"
DVD-TEXT General Name: ""
Provider ID: ""
Number of VTS: 2

VMG , First-Play PGC
VMGM , LU 1 (en) , 1 (dummy) TitleM
VMGM , LU 1 (en) , 2 (dummy)

VTSM 1 , LU 1 (en) , 1 (dummy) RootM
VTST 1 , 1 TTN 1 (0:15) Title 1 (Chapters: 1, Programs: 1, Cells: 1)
VTST 1 , 2 TTN 1 (0:10) (Chapters: 1, Programs: 1, Cells: 1)
VTST 1 , 3 TTN 1 (0:25) (Chapters: 1, Programs: 1, Cells: 1)
VTST 1 , 4 TTN 1 (0:00) (Chapters: 1, Programs: 1, Cells: 1)
VTST 1 , 5 TTN 1 (0:00) (Chapters: 1, Programs: 1, Cells: 1)
VTST 1 , 6 TTN 1 (0:00) (Chapters: 1, Programs: 1, Cells: 1)
VTST 1 , 7 TTN 2 (0:00) Title 2 (Chapters: 1, Programs: 1, Cells: 1)

VTSM 2 , LU 1 (en) , 1 (0:39) 5b. RootM (Programs: 2, Cells: 2)
VTSM 2 , LU 1 (en) , 2 (0:27) 5b. (Programs: 1, Cells: 1)
VTSM 2 , LU 1 (en) , 3 (0:39) 10b. (Programs: 2, Cells: 2)
VTSM 2 , LU 1 (en) , 4 (0:39) 10b. (Programs: 2, Cells: 2)
VTSM 2 , LU 1 (en) , 5 (0:39) 10b. (Programs: 2, Cells: 2)
VTSM 2 , LU 1 (en) , 6 (0:39) 10b. (Programs: 2, Cells: 2)
VTSM 2 , LU 1 (en) , 7 (0:39) 10b. (Programs: 2, Cells: 2)
VTSM 2 , LU 1 (en) , 8 (0:39) 7b. (Programs: 2, Cells: 2)
VTSM 2 , LU 1 (en) , 9 (0:39) 6b. (Programs: 2, Cells: 2)
VTSM 2 , LU 1 (en) , 10 (0:39) 5b. (Programs: 2, Cells: 2)
VTSM 2 , LU 1 (en) , 11 (0:39) 4b. (Programs: 2, Cells: 2)
VTSM 2 , LU 1 (en) , 12 (0:01) (Programs: 1, Cells: 1)
VTSM 2 , LU 1 (en) , 13 (0:01) (Programs: 1, Cells: 1)
VTST 2 , 1 TTN 1 (2:17:14) 18b. Title 3 (Chapters: 27, Programs: 27, Cells: 27)
VTST 2 , 2 TTN 2 (0:57) 5b. Title 4 (Chapters: 1, Programs: 1, Cells: 1)
VTST 2 , 3 TTN 3 (4:15) Title 5 (Chapters: 1, Programs: 1, Cells: 1)
VTST 2 , 4 TTN 3 (3:08) (Chapters: 1, Programs: 1, Cells: 1)
VTST 2 , 5 TTN 3 (4:56) (Chapters: 1, Programs: 1, Cells: 1)
VTST 2 , 6 TTN 3 (2:45) (Chapters: 1, Programs: 1, Cells: 1)
VTST 2 , 7 TTN 3 (4:13) (Chapters: 1, Programs: 1, Cells: 1)
VTST 2 , 8 TTN 3 (5:07) (Chapters: 1, Programs: 1, Cells: 1)
VTST 2 , 9 TTN 3 (2:30) (Chapters: 1, Programs: 1, Cells: 1)
VTST 2 , 10 TTN 4 (0:57) 5b. Title 6 (Chapters: 1, Programs: 1, Cells: 1)
VTST 2 , 11 TTN 5 (26:57) Title 7 (Chapters: 7, Programs: 7, Cells: 7)
VTST 2 , 12 TTN 6 (0:57) 5b. Title 8 (Chapters: 1, Programs: 1, Cells: 1)

[Ghitulescu]

So it appears that Title 3 is the movie and Title 7 is the bonus (interviews or deleted scenes, etc.).

So I would try this to select the main movie only:
1. reroute FirstPGC to directly launch Title 3
2. reauthor the movie in DVDshrink
3. use the former procedure (dgindex&Co) upon the reuthored DVD

There could still be problems, eg when there are cell commands

[Darkwhisperer]

How would I do step one? Step 2 & 3 I understand. I have tried step 2 & 3 by itself, it didnt help.

[Ghitulescu]

(JumpTT) Jump to Title 3

[Darkwhisperer]

@Ghitulescu: Ummmm, and what app would I use to do that? :o

Now, I cant believe I havent mentioned it before, mainly because I didnt realise it. But the menu in the middle of my movie is from another movie! Its not the same set of menus for this movie. They look similar, so I didnt notice at first.

Well, I've been playing with PGCEdit. Dont understand much of what Im doing, but something interesting came up. Im using the trace functionality, to try to figure out what its doing. I start the trace, usual nonsense messages at the start of the dvd. Then it gets to the main menu. So far so good. I select the "Play Movie" option. It then goes to the menu that not supposed to be there. If I choose skip, it bypasses it. If I press any of the buttons on that menu, the trace just halts (I then have to start again).

Not sure if its much help, but here's what the commands are at each stage:

At the correct menu: (JumpVTS_PTT) Jump to TTN1, Chapter 1.

I select "Play Movie", which leads to the incorrect menu:
(SetHL_BTN) Set Highlighted Button =(mov) 1024 (button 1) ; LinkPGCN PGC 3

If I skip, this leads to the main movie. I play this, and at the end of the first cell, the incorrect menu-video appears again. And then the preview pane breaks.

This is starting to look like whomever created the menu system used a previous movie as a template, and seriously screwed things up.

[Ghitulescu]

Oh my God ;) with PGCedit you're using already. Also with IFOedit and so on ...

Ok, take a break, go to dvd replica web site, spend a week reading and learning what a DVD is and how it's organised, then come back and redo the DVD.

You do something wrong all along and I cannot help you with the info you provided (for instance which is the correct bzw. incorrect menu).

[Darkwhisperer]

*sigh*

I was afraid someone would say something like that. Ah well. Lets go visit dvd replica...

[r0lZ]

VTST 2 , 1 TTN 1 (2:17:14) 18b. Title 3 (Chapters: 27, Programs: 27, Cells: 27)
It appears that PgcEdit has found menu buttons in the main movie. So, I guess the files are bad on your hard disc. Maybe you should try to re-rip the DVD properly.

BTW, I've had a similar problem in the past. A part of a video from another movie has been suddenly "inserted" in the DVD I was working on. The problem was due to my hard disc, that was silently and slowly crashing! I've lost it completely some days later. So, I suggest to do a file system check, and certainly to back your important data up as soon as possible. And if you re-rip the DVD and if you have a second disc somewhere, rip it to the other disc.

[Ghitulescu]

You know better, r0lZ. I've notice that myself - I just thought maybe PGCedit got confused because (what I thought initially) of the reusing of cells both in the menu and in the main movie.

[r0lZ]

That's theoretically possible, but why should be menu buttons in the main movie PGC? They could be BOVs, but obviously, given the description of the problem, it's not the case. It's why I suspect a file system problem, either of the original DVD (but since it plays well, that should not be the case), or of the hard disc. I hope for Darkwhisperer that a file system check and fix will be sufficient, but given the problem I have had, I think it is time for a good backup.

[Darkwhisperer]

I very much doubt that its a hard disk problem. The reason being that I dont actually have any of that foreign video existing anywhere else. Never have.

It seems solving this is much beyond my complexity. Hence Im currently just chopping off the foreign video using vobblanker. My understanding has increased sufficiently for me to be able to do that now :)

My thanks to all you guys who have tried to help. Your'll make this forum a great place :)