Delete cells, merge two cells

[wingchun]

I'm backing up a DVD with 4 episodes of a cartoon, for each episode there are an opening and an ending title that are always the same.
So I decided to keep only one copy of them.
Here's the tricky part:
The VTS_01_1(to 6).VOB has 20 programs and 21 cells.
The 20 programs are the "chapters" of the episodes, one chapter contains the layer break and is split in TWO CELLS, therefore there are 21 cells (one more).
I want to delete the titles, in order to have a vob with cells
1-2-3-Cut-6-7-8 and so on...
I think I can use IFOedit, please help me on this, I used Smartripper to cut the cells, but obviously it didn't edit the IFO.
Then I found out how to delete the layer breakin IFOedit and I found out that it considered cells 12-13 (where the layer changed) as chapter 12, exactly as I wanted.
But how if I wanted to join two cells inside a vob?
Can someone help me on this point as well?
Thank you very much.

[sweetness]

sorry i have to ask, why?
this can be more trouble then good. i don't see any need to do this.

[blutach]

You can use PgcEdit to:

1. If needed, make a new play all title, which will contain all the VC IDs.

2. Re-arrange the programs by combining the various cells.

3. Remove the cells you don't want.

Item 1 is done with the utilities menu. Items 2 and 3 are done within the PGC Editor.

Then use VobBlanker to strip/blank the VCIDs that are now no longer referenced.

Regards

[wingchun]

Thanks.
I'm deleting the titles, because they're repeated four times and they waste 1gb of space I can use to improve the quality of my backup.
Also, I'm interested in the procedure itself, I could need this knowledge in the future.

[2COOL]

Your situation looks exactly as in this thread (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&postid=569216#post569216). I posted a small tutorial on what I would do to keep just one copy of intro and ending and remove the duplicates. It's more about learning how to re-use cells.

[sweetness]

i did that once(change the ids) before running it threw dvd-rb and got a error in the rebuild stage.(don't know if newer versions of dvd-rb does the same).

my suggestion is if you are using dvd-rb to blank first> compress> then change the ids.

don't think dvdshrink will give you any problems so it doesn't matter what you do.

[wingchun]

Thanks, I'm studying everything.
I thought I could delete the layer break by using Ifoedit and PGC Edit.
My layer break is between cell 12-13 (one chapter split in two).
I deleted cell 13 in PGC Edit, then in IFOedit I tried to change cell 12 limits:
Here's the ifo before the changes:

[00000300] Cell_12: Cell type (Angle) 8 [08]
type normal
Block type normal
seamless playback linked in PCI: yes
interleaved: no
STC discontinuity: no
seamless angle linked in DSI: no
[00000301] Cell_12: Cell restricted? 0 [00]
restricted: no
[00000302] Cell_12: still time (seconds, 0xFF = Infinite) 0 [00]
[00000303] Cell_12: command Nr (0 = no command) 0 [00]
[00000304] Cell_12: playback time (BCD) 280643 [00044843]
playback time (hh:mm:ss.frame) 00:04:48.03 / 25 fps
[00000308] Cell_12: entry point sector 1747374 [001aa9ae]
[0000030c] Cell_12: first ILVU VOBU end sector 0 [00000000]
[00000310] Cell_12: start sector of last VOBU 1904145 [001d0e11]
[00000314] Cell_12: last sector of this cell 1904767 [001d107f]

[00000318] Cell_13: Cell type (Angle) 8 [08]
type normal
Block type normal
seamless playback linked in PCI: yes
interleaved: no
STC discontinuity: no
seamless angle linked in DSI: no
[00000319] Cell_13: Cell restricted? 0 [00]
restricted: no
[0000031a] Cell_13: still time (seconds, 0xFF = Infinite) 0 [00]
[0000031b] Cell_13: command Nr (0 = no command) 0 [00]
[0000031c] Cell_13: playback time (BCD) 394081 [00060361]
playback time (hh:mm:ss.frame) 00:06:03.21 / 25 fps
[00000320] Cell_13: entry point sector 1904768 [001d1080]
[00000324] Cell_13: first ILVU VOBU end sector 0 [00000000]
[00000328] Cell_13: start sector of last VOBU 2108953 [00202e19]
[0000032c] Cell_13: last sector of this cell 2109506 [00203042]

I thought I could just put the values from cell 13:
Cell_13: start sector of last VOBU 2108953
Cell_13: last sector of this cell 2109506
And get a longer cell 12, but it remains 00:04:48.03
If I add:
Cell_12: playback time (BCD) 280643
And Cell_13: playback time (BCD) 394081
Ifoedit says that fps isn't valid for frame 12.
What I'm doing wrong?

[2COOL]

Originally posted by wingchun
I'm backing up a DVD with 4 episodes of a cartoon, for each episode there are an opening and an ending title that are always the same.
So I decided to keep only one copy of them.Maybe, I'm not fully understanding your goal. Are the opening and ending cells of each episode belonging to different V/C ids? Can you clarify again on how you want your DVD flow? I assumed you wanted this.

Opening > Episode1 > Ending > Opening > Episode 2 > Ending > Opening > Episode 3 > etc...

[wingchun]

That procedure to obtain that is quite well explained in that tutorial above, but before I do that I still have a chapter split in two cells due to the layer break.
Chapter 12 is still split in cells 12 and 13 and I'm trying to merge them into one.

[2COOL]

Originally posted by wingchun
That procedure to obtain that is quite well explained in that tutorial above, but before I do that I still have a chapter split in two cells due to the layer break.
Chapter 12 is still split in cells 12 and 13 and I'm trying to merge them in one. A chapter or program CAN hold multiple cells. Does it show a layerbreak checkmark in PgcEdit or IfoEdit? Were you experiencing a slight pause between Cell 12 & 13?

[wingchun]

Exactly, Ifoedit tells me there's a layer break in that position.
DVD apart, I'm intereste in the procedure itself.
The first idea I had was to do the DVD like this:
Intro>Episode1>Episode2>Episode3>Ending that is much easier than the other (more elegant) way.
The problem was the layer break because deleting the intros and the endings resulted in a shift of the cells.
Now, thanks this post, I know how to change the layer break and a lot of other new things, but I still can't merge two cells :-(
The only way I did that was using demuxing the two cells and remuxing them in IFOedit as a new vob, the substitute the cell 12 in DVD Remake Pro with the merged cells.
I'm pretty sure there should be a faster way.
Just extending the limits of cell 12 to the ones of cell 13 resulted in an error in ifoedit.
Maybe I'm missing to change some other important values.

[r0lZ]

To remove the layer break, don't remove the cell!
Just change the layer break checkbox in PgcEdit. It's located in the cell table of the PGC Editor. That's all. Your chapter points will not be modified.

Intro/Credits:
To reuse the same cell in several PGCs (of the same domain), you must locate the cell you want to keep, and note his VOB/Cell ID. Then, locate the duplicates, and change the V/CID to the one you noted. PgcEdit will take care of the cell flags for you. Note that you will have a seamless discontinuity between the replaced cells and the original ones. This will cause a 2 seconds delay during playback.
When everything is done, process the VOBs with VobBlanker, to remove the unused duplicate cells. (Just click process: it's all automatic ;))

If you want to delete the playback of some intros or credits cells, it's better and easier to locate and blank them with VobBlanker.