I can't get those ifos and vobs working

[tm]

Please forgive me if I did a really dumb mistake but after reading every doom9 DVD ripping guide and trying it for myself for about a week I gave up. I tried to "edit" 2 different DVDs to make them suiteable for a DVD+R and failed over and over again.

1. DVD: Passwort Swordfish (European Version, PAL)
[list=1]
I ripped the whole DVD with DVD Decrypter
I made a list of all vob files, vob ids and corresponding movies parts with VOBRator
VTS_01 is an interview, so I didn't need to copy this to the new folder
VTS_03 is a making of, so I didn't need to copy this one also
VTS_02 is the movie. Since I only needed the German language files I dropped all other languages and subtitles but German language and English & German subtitles
I copied all needed files to a new folder (e.g. VIDEO_TS.*, VTS_02_0.* & VTS_02_1.vob)
I checked the newly created vobfile with VOBRator and was able to play the video streams. BUT as I tried it in IfoEdit I got an error message "error" whenever I tried to preview any chapter greater than 2. I tried to play the new files in PowerDVD and was able to play chapter 1 & 2 without any problems and could even switch between both. But as soon as the player has to load chapter 3 (or any chapter later) it hangs.
[/list=1]
Is there any explanation why I can play chapter 1 & 2 without problems but as soon as I tried to skip or play further into the movie the player hangs?

2. DVD: Love & Basketball (US Version, NTSC)
[list=1]
I ripped everything as I did it with Swordfish.
After checking all vobs I found out the only one really needed is VTS_01.
so I removed (via VOB Extras) all not needed stuff like legal warnings and left the new line cineam logo and the movie.
After IfoEdit had done its work I tried to watch the newly created file. And all I got was a fully working DVD up to the chaper 29. As soon as Chapter 29 starts I got a read error (I should check if the DVD is clean...) I tried the preview in IfoEdit and found out that up to chaper 29 everything works ok. But starting with chapter 29 every chapter was actually replaced by the new line cinema logo animation. So I had chapters 1-28 working fine and 29-48 where the newline cinema logos now.
[/list=1]
Can anyone explain to me what happend? I can't seen any reason why this would happen since Love & Basketball has only an English language track all I did with IfoEdit was to remove the unwanted VOB IDs.

And another general question without an answer (up to now): How can I tell IfoEdit to create VOBs of the size 0,99 GB. Evertyime I remove a language and the whole movie is splitted over let's say 7 VOB files (vts_01_1... vts_01_8) I get one big vob file in the end. Is there any hidden setting I didn't discover. (No, there's nothing in the guides).

System: WinXP.

Thanks,
- tm

[maltesers]

PRACTICE !!

[namechamps]

On your second movie there is a "hidden feature".
When you rip languages out make sure you have the option
"Correct VOB unit pointers in VOB files",
and the VOB size set to 0.99 GB.

The real question is DO YOU NEED TO. If you plan on re-encoding for a new lower bitrate then it doesn't matter if you feed the enocoder 5 1GB files or 1 5GB file (if you are running Win2K, or XP to get over 2GB limit). The output will still be the same 1 large m2v file that gets remuxed, and all remux software I know of will do the final cut at 0.99GB then.

[tm]

finally I got it working by setting the size for the VOBs in IfoEdit to 1GB. I didn't do anything else as before but change this single setting. Is there a bug in IfoEdit if it has to create a >4 GB VOB file?

The reason why I need those 1 GB is the ISO/UDF file format which needs file size below 2GB. (at least that's what nero told me)

Thanks.
- tm

[Eyes`Only]

Did you format your hard drive using FAT32? If so, the 'bug' you are experiencing isn't due to ifoedit at all. It's actually a limitation of the FAT32 filesystem, wherein files can have a maximum filesize of 4gigs.

[tm]

no, all my drives use NTFS 5.1 (WinXP), so the file system can actually handle something around terabyte files (I think). I don't have file system compression enabled. XP Installation is completely fresh on a pc around 2 weeks old, so there's not even one legacy device in it which could lead to any problem.

- tm

CHANGED: sorry, it's not NTFS 5.1 it's NTFS 3.2 which is included in Windows XP.

[klona]

Hi,
on swordfish, i am sure it's not that, but just to check.

You wrote : I copied all needed files to a new folder (e.g. VIDEO_TS.*, VTS_02_0.* & VTS_02_1.vob)

i guess you also put VTS_02_2.vob VTS_02_3.vob and so on..

If not this seems obvious why it failed to go further than chapter2.

I am pretty sure you put all the files, but...

[tm]

thanks klona, I already get swordfish working and it looks like the problem was only with the vob file sizes... but who knows :)