Strange behavior after added cell

[hf]

I used addChapter 1.2.0.2 to add a blank cell to the
end of a title and then used VobBlanker (1.6.0.6 and 2.0.0.1)
to replace the blank cell with a new clip. It worked fine,
but I noticed that when playing it on my PC with PowerDVD,
if I rewind during the added clip, the time clock gets
messed up. This does not happen on my standalone player,
but I am reporting this because I am wondering if there is
minor bug in the way the cell replacement is done. Let
me explain what I mean. I have a 30 minute program, I add
a blank cell and then replace that cell with a 5 minute
clip so now the program is 35 minutes long. If I play it
with PowerDVD and lets say at the 20 minute mark, I rewind
1 minute and then press play, the time clock shows me being
at the 19 minute mark like it should. Likewise, if I am
at the 32 minute mark (in the replaced cell) and rewind a minute
and press play, the time clock shows me being at the 31 minute
mark like it should.

However, if I am at the 31 minute mark and go back 2 minutes
and press play the time clock does not say 29 minutes, it says
30:something. If I keep going forward to 31, then back to 29
several times, eventually the display shows that the current
time stamp is minutes past the end of the clip!

Since it behaves fine in my standalone, I am tempted to not
worry about this, but then again PowerDVD must be getting some
incorrect info from the modified dvd that causes it to act
this way. Any ideas?

[blutach]

Does a mock strip fix it up, hf?

Regards

[jsoto]

You are replacing a cell, aren't you?.
Where does this cell come from? Is it a "complete" cell, or is it a part of a cell (a cut)?

Check with VObEdit the elapsed time of the first Nav in the cell (Offset 0x0045) It should be zero. If not, try checking the "Special" box "Fix elapsed time replacing cells"

jsoto

[hf]

@blutech: a mock strip didn't help

@jsoto: In my original attempt the cell I was adding was created
from a series of still images I put together using muxman, but
I thought I might have done something wrong there, so I just
picked a studio logo that was in it's own VTS from another DVD.
That VTS actually had 2 cells: the studio logo followed by a blank
cell. Vobblanker gave the message: "WARNING: Number of Cells
in replacing VOB higher than one. Continuing with same cell
VID/CID". I assume this is ok? It just used the first cell and
ignored the 2nd?

In vobedit, offset 45 for the nav pack is 192 (time
code 00:00:00.00) which I guess is what you meant. I just retried
it with the "Fix elapsed time replacing cells" feature checked.
The playback behaves the same and vobedit shows the same value.

I don't think it is important, but because there are other programs
in the VTS that I am trying to add the cell to, the last vob/cell
id of the original program is 24/1 and the replaced cell is 35/1
But I am guessing that is not a problem.

Also, I just noticed that the original program has 2 audio (6ch
and 2ch ac3) and a subpic stream and the added cell just has one
audio (2ch ac3). Is that a problem?

[hf]

Hi jsoto,

Just a quick update. It looks like the problem is caused by
the different number of audio tracks between the original
material and the replacement cell. In vobblanker, if in addition
to replacing the cell, I also strip the 6ch audio and leave
just the 2ch and subpic, there are no problems with PowerDVD.
I can also strip the 2ch leaving the 6ch audio in the original
to combine with the 2ch audio of the replacement cell. The
replacement cell I was using didn't have much actual sound,
so I am not sure if this really plays correctly, but it seemed to.

I also noticed another bug. If I replace the cell first and
then strip the audio channel, the cell is not replaced. If
I strip the audio first and then replace the cell, it is replaced.

[blutach]

No doubt hf. The domain stream attributes must be constant for all PGCs in the domain.

Regards

[hf]

@blutach: Thanks. That makes sense. What I was originally
trying to do was convert the end credits of an episode dvd
to still frames. I was inspired by a guide I think you wrote
on how to do that using pgcedit's "Import Title's Closing Clip"
feature. What I did was use pgcedit's preview to get a bmp for
each screen I wanted. I then imported the bmp files in muxman
and saved the project. I edited the project (.mxp) file and
for each bmp changed the "Duration=default" line to
"Duration=00:00:05:00" then imported the project in muxman and
generated the output and then replaced the muxman cell with
the original end credits. This is what I originally saw the
PowerDVD problem with. Thinking there may be something wrong
with the way I mux'd things I started experimenting with
unchanged cells from dvds. That is when I discovered that the
number of audio streams has to be the same.

Unfortunately, that didn't work for my mux'd clip. I used jsoto's
silence utility to create a 2ch and 6ch AC3 clip of the right length
and added them to the muxman project. I still get the strange
PowerDVD behavior. I'll have to try it again and see if there
are any differences in the stream attributes. I guess I need to
look at the VTSI_MAT section in ifoedit? Is that correct?

Another odd thing I noticed is that in vobblanker when I am
using "Prev/Cut" to preview the credits that I muxed, if I press
the "Next" button, the LBA numbers go 0, 52, 116, 189, 254. But
if I am at LBA 189 and press "Prev." the LBAs go 188, 187, 186,
185, 184, 183, 182, 181, 180, 116

[jsoto]

"WARNING: Number of Cells
in replacing VOB higher than one. Continuing with same cell
VID/CID". I assume this is ok? It just used the first cell and
ignored the 2nd?
Vobblanker 2.0.0.1 has a reported bug in this situation (replacing title having more cells than the original)
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&postid=635924#post635924

Another odd thing I noticed is that in vobblanker when I am
using "Prev/Cut" to preview the credits that I muxed, if I press
the "Next" button, the LBA numbers go 0, 52, 116, 189, 254. But
if I am at LBA 189 and press "Prev." the LBAs go 188, 187, 186,
185, 184, 183, 182, 181, 180, 116 I know there is a bug going backwards, and this part is something I have to rewrite completely... but I'm lazy...

jsoto

[blutach]

hf - there is a foolproof guide on using stills for end credits. It does NOT require the domain stream attributes to be the same as the original, because, as you said, it uses PgcEdit's Import Closing Clip macro, which places the video in a new VTS. One thing you need to be careful of is matching the video attributes as muxman is still a little testy with getting to 16:9, but this is easy in PgcEdit/IfoEdit.

I thought I posted this guide here - the link is on the PgcEdit home page, but here it is anyway - http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=48866

Regards

[hf]

Yes, that guide is what got me started on this path. I
followed the guide, and the results worked fine, but you
can't rewind backwards thru the still screens. That is why
I wanted to try using muxman. I was experimenting some more
and even after adding audio tracks to the muxman clip it
still doesn't behave right. I think it is just the way
the muxman clip is. The end of the muxman log says:
"Fields: 298, Still Fields: 296..." so I'm guessing the
muxed segment is not "normal" video and that is throwing
PowerDVD off. It plays fine in my standalone, so I think
I might just continue with what I'm doing and not worry
about it. Even if I don't include audio tracks, it still
plays on my standalone.