VOB editing software

[united]

What are some of the VOB editing software?

Specifically, I want to be able to do a few things.

1. To merge two VOB files together,
2. To split a VOB file into two, and
3. To make one of the subtitle streams to be default on the screen.

Is there any software(s) that all do the above? Thanks.

[Dimmer]

VobEdit is very powerful software. You can split VOB files by Vob ID or Cell ID using Demux button, and you can also merge the cells back together in smaller VOBs through Join Clips function.

Default subtitle stream has nothing to do with VOB files, you set it in IFO files. You can use IfoEdit for this purpose. Look for the guides on this site.

[sarahjh69]

or dvd author
www.pegasys-inc.com
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[united]

Thanks.

However, my practice is that after ripping a DVDs into VOB files, i dont keep the IFO file... I delete it. However, the subtitle streams are still embedded in the VOBs.

Is there a way I can place one of the subtitle streams on the video as a default? I mean... to embed it on the video.

united

[Dimmer]

No, without IFO files you're out of luck. Unless someone can correct me, these is no software player that would display subtitles straight out of VOB files. There are several reasons for that, for example subtitle colors are stored in IFO, not VOB. Embedding, or "burning", subtitles into video is definitely not worth the trouble as it would require re-encoding of the entire video.

But not all lost, you still can re-author a DVD out of your VOB files and keep your subtitles. You can do it using VobEdit and IfoEdit:

1. Open your VOB in VodEdit, click Demux, check Demux All Audio/Video/Subp streams boxes. It'll produce one .m2v file, one audio file for each audio stream (probably .ac3), one .sup for each subtitle stream. You can discard audio for the languages you don't need, but you'll have to keep all subtitles since you can't tell what language they are for.

2. Open IfoEdit, go to menu DVD Author - Author New DVD, in the window that pops up enter your video, audio, and subpicture (subtitles) files. You can add only one video but multiple audio and subpicture streams. Leave Chapters blank for now. Select destination, click OK, and you'll get a complete DVD structure in the specified folder. You can play your DVD with many software players like PowerDVD v.4+. Don't close IfoEdit just yet.

3. Now if you wish you can make subtitles always come up automatically, click on VTS_01_0.IFO file that appeared in the top panel, then double-click on Subpicture 1 in the bottom panel and change coding caption to Forced Caption, then save the file. If you have more that one subtitle stream, you might want to do this with some other subpicture instead. Play your DVD in a software player to verify what language comes up. In IfoEdit all the streams will probably be marked English.

4. By now, you must have noticed that all subtitles have green color and not as nice as the originals. The color palette for your subtitles is stored in VTS_01_0.IFO - VTS_PGCITI - VTS_PGC_1. There are 16 colors in the palette, but subtitles use only 4 (in reality, usually only 2). I'll leave it to you to play with colors, get used to YCrCb color scheme and read the guides.


or dvd author
www.pegasys-inc.com
free fully working trial for 30 days
Great program but it'll strip subtitles and leave only one audio stream.

[united]

This is great help!

Anyway, where can i download VobEdit and IfoEdit?

I can find a vobedit... but it is the 2002 version... is there a more updated one out there? Thanks.

[Dimmer]

On this site in the download section (http://www.doom9.org/software2.htm), of course:
IfoEdit (http://www.doom9.org/Soft21/Vobtools/Ifoedit096.zip)
VobEdit (http://www.doom9.org/Soft21/Vobtools/Vobedit06.zip)

[Dimmer]

Forgot to mention another even faster option to get your IFO files back. Open IfoEdit, click on the Create New IFOs button, browse to your VTS_01_1.VOB file and set it as 1st VOB of Titleset. Check the box Destination directory Same as source, and leave other options as is. This will make a complete DVD structure out of your VOBs that you can play in a software player (or burn on a DVD-R). Then follow the steps 3&4 as per above. You'll get to keep all audio streams this way, see IfoEdit guide how to strip some of them if you want to save disc space.

[united]

Thanks, dimmer.

But... I followed your exact procedures with VobEdit and IfoEdit and it did not work. The resulting VOB is the same as before... that is, the forced subtitle stream is not default on the screen (I use PowerDVD) and that I have to select it form the subtitle option. The only change is that the subtitle, once selected, has become green.

I really do not mind about the color... green is good.

If there really is no software player than can play a subtitle stream as a default (but then, why do these software players always play a default audio stream?), and if I do not mind re-encoding the entire a VOB file again so that the one subtitle stream i want is embedded on the video stream... then what software should I use?

By the way, I have no plan to keep other supporting files other than the VOB files. Is that going to be a problem for me? I seem to be able to play my VOB files (after ripping them from a DVD using DVD Decrypter) even after I have deleted the ifo and other files. It seems that everthing I need... video, audio, and subtitle (in most cases) are already included in the VOB files. Do I make sense?

[Dimmer]

Your reluctance to keep IFO files sounds strange since you lose a lot of DVD capabilities like chapters, menus, and navigation in general.

Anyway, if you re-created the IFO files as I described above, you have to play the video using Open DVD File On HDD option in PowerDVD where you select VIDEO_TS.IFO file. If you just play a VOB, you won't get any results.

To make sure that forced subtitles always work, add only one subtitle stream when re-authoring your DVD with IfoEdit. By now you should have figured out which stream contains your subtitles. Since there is only one stream, it will always be selected by default, and will always be displayed provided the forced option is set.

Here's a detailed guide if you want to go into this:
Turning Subtitle (On/Off) by Default Guide (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=45440)

Alternatively, search for the methods of "burning" subtitles into the video. It's not a very popular strategy since it'll take hundreds of hours, reduce video quality and increase file size.

By the way, please don't double-post (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&postid=447810).