Never been seen VOB Blanker behavior

[jamesd3rd]

Can someone tell me what this means and how to go about resolving it? I wanted to separate the theatrical version from the director's cut of a DVD but still retain the menus. I've been able to keep menus with episode TV series DVD but this time I got this.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1142/5103247567_310b91164d.jpg

After clicking Ok I got this

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1131/5103840584_c8b762ab00.jpg

I don’t know what any of this means because I’m no expert when it comes to deciphering the filenames. After doing a search, I came across some information that said something about multiangles and blanking the angles I don’t want. It also said to use PGCEdit instead of VOB Blanker. So how do I know what angle to blank? In PGC Edit, after going to the title I want, I can click Del Angle. When I do that, I get this

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1163/5103840592_141f8d8b84.jpg

Now what?

[r0lZ]

Welcoms to the Doom9 forums, jamesd3rd!

Apparently, the movie is not multi-angle. It's almost certainly a multi-story movie. It's usually the case when there are two similar versions of the same film on one DVD (here theatrical version and director's cut). Multi-angle is usually used when there are some images containing text in several languages in a single version of the movie.

Your DVD files are somewhat wrong. The first VB message is caused by bad pointers, and it's something that should never happen. Try to re-rip the DVD properly, perhaps with a better ripper.
If you cannot rip it properly, that means probably that your DVD is ARccOS/RipGuard protected, and that some protected cells remain.

According to the message, the wrong pointers are in the first cell. I suggest to verify if that cell is really useful.
Open the PGC in PgcEdit's PGC Editor, and click the "Play" arrow in the rightmost column of the first cell of the cells table.
If you can confirm that that cell is black and extremely short (less than one second or so), click on the button with the VOB/Cell ID (near the play arrow), and change the cell to another tiny black cell. (There are usually several tiny protected cells in the movie. Be sure to select a cell that the PgcEdit preview can play. If you cannot find a good tiny black cell, use the PgcEdit option to create a new cell.)
You may have to do the same operation in the two PGCs corresponding to the two versions of the movie (but you can re-use the same good tiny black cell in all cases.)

I don't understand why you want to separate the two versions. You will not regain any disc space, since both versions use the same video cells. It's the interest of the ILVed cells. (Most cells are re-used in the two versions, and only the cells that differ are interleaved.)
You can perhaps regain the space occupied by the cells that are present in one version and not in the other one, but only if you remove completely one version. If you want to "separate" the two versions, you will need to copy the DVD twice. Is it really what you want? What's the benefit?

Anyway, if you really want to do it, you have to locate the two PGCs corresponding to the two versions of the movie. (On an ARccOS protected DVD, that might be difficult. Use PgcEdit's Trace mode, and skip the fake menus with short black cells with numerous buttons over a monochrome background, without activating the fake buttons.) The two versions of the movie are certainly in the same VTST domain.
Then, Kill Playback of the version you won't want to keep, and accept the suggestion to blank the cells. If there are fake ARccOS titles in the same VTS (some titles that are never played and that contain a similar content than the movie), you will have to kill and blank them too.
Then, delete the ILV information of the remaining PGC (the one with the version you want to keep).
Finally, process the DVD with VB to remove the useless cells and rebuild the bad pointers. VB should not display its warning about ILVed cells any more.)
Anyway, test carefully, as I'm not sure VB will fix the pointers correctly.

If the DVD is ARccOS/RipGuard protected, cleaning it might be very complex, especially if the ripper did not its job well, so be sure to work on a copy of your DVD files!

[jamesd3rd]

Welcoms to the Doom9 forums, jamesd3rd!

Apparently, the movie is not multi-angle. It's almost certainly a multi-story movie. It's usually the case when there are two similar versions of the same film on one DVD (here theatrical version and director's cut). Multi-angle is usually used when there are some images containing text in several languages in a single version of the movie.

Your DVD files are somewhat wrong. The first VB message is caused by bad pointers, and it's something that should never happen. Try to re-rip the DVD properly, perhaps with a better ripper.
If you cannot rip it properly, that means probably that your DVD is ARccOS/RipGuard protected, and that some protected cells remain.

According to the message, the wrong pointers are in the first cell. I suggest to verify if that cell is really useful.
Open the PGC in PgcEdit's PGC Editor, and click the "Play" arrow in the rightmost column of the first cell of the cells table.
If you can confirm that that cell is black and extremely short (less than one second or so), click on the button with the VOB/Cell ID (near the play arrow), and change the cell to another tiny black cell. (There are usually several tiny protected cells in the movie. Be sure to select a cell that the PgcEdit preview can play. If you cannot find a good tiny black cell, use the PgcEdit option to create a new cell.)
You may have to do the same operation in the two PGCs corresponding to the two versions of the movie (but you can re-use the same good tiny black cell in all cases.)

I don't understand why you want to separate the two versions. You will not regain any disc space, since both versions use the same video cells. It's the interest of the ILVed cells. (Most cells are re-used in the two versions, and only the cells that differ are interleaved.)
You can perhaps regain the space occupied by the cells that are present in one version and not in the other one, but only if you remove completely one version. If you want to "separate" the two versions, you will need to copy the DVD twice. Is it really what you want? What's the benefit?

Anyway, if you really want to do it, you have to locate the two PGCs corresponding to the two versions of the movie. (On an ARccOS protected DVD, that might be difficult. Use PgcEdit's Trace mode, and skip the fake menus with short black cells with numerous buttons over a monochrome background, without activating the fake buttons.) The two versions of the movie are certainly in the same VTST domain.
Then, Kill Playback of the version you won't want to keep, and accept the suggestion to blank the cells. If there are fake ARccOS titles in the same VTS (some titles that are never played and that contain a similar content than the movie), you will have to kill and blank them too.
Then, delete the ILV information of the remaining PGC (the one with the version you want to keep).
Finally, process the DVD with VB to remove the useless cells and rebuild the bad pointers. VB should not display its warning about ILVed cells any more.)
Anyway, test carefully, as I'm not sure VB will fix the pointers correctly.

If the DVD is ARccOS/RipGuard protected, cleaning it might be very complex, especially if the ripper did not its job well, so be sure to work on a copy of your DVD files!

Thanks for the reply. I'll try to follow along with your instructions and see if I can make sense of it. I was attempting to keep the menus and bonus features along with the director's cut of the movie. My limited knowledge of how DVDs are created is evident by the fact that I didn't know the two versions used the same cells and that the different ones are interleaved. I figured they would just be two completely separate entities.

[Ghitulescu]

... I didn't know the two versions used the same cells and that the different ones are interleaved. I figured they would just be two completely separate entities.

It's not needed to be like that, but it would save space :) and thus bits for video.