How to Do a Mock Strip using IfoEdit

[blutach]

Originally posted by jsoto
[B]@blutach
I cannot believe this....
A VOB file is made of 2048 byte sectors (called packs). You can join (in a binary way, of course) all of the files and split them between the two sectors you want, without affecting any pointer!!, neither internal nor the ones in the IFO . I think this is the efect you are seeing. So:
- Each file size MUST be a multiple of 2048 bytes
- The total file sizes MUST be the same than the originals.

After a mock strip, the new VOBs ARE multiple of 2048k, but each VOB is a different size from the original (1,048,574k). It seems the mock strip decides to change slightly the size of the VOBs and make up any difference in the last VOB of the VTS. Really, a reallocation of the total VTS size. I wonder why?

Still present in 1.5.0.6? I've to check, I was thinking I had fixed this (minor ) bug.

'Fraid so. Just a few frames here and there in SOME cells (not all). Not seconds, just 6 or so frames here and there. But they can add up. I've found it doesn't do any damage, though.

Strange as it seems, a mock strip brings all back into line with the originals . But it would be nice if a mock strip was not needed.


OAM:

I use AddChapter a lot and find it wonderful. However, there appears to be a minor bug. After using it and reopening the TTN for editing in PgcEdit, that program reports the playback time of the PGC doesn't match the total time of the chapters. And it is out by 12 frames . PgcEdit offers to fix it (and does so), but you might like to look into it.



Best regards and thanks

[blutach]

Originally posted by jsoto
Ah!, other very useful "test" (faster than IFOedit) is to load the files in dvdshrink. When dvdhrink loads a DVD, a lot of IFO pointers are tested.
jsoto [/B]

I've found that Shrink loads up a disk just fine which has not been mock stripped but which has slightly different chapter times (after VOB Blanking or PgcEditing, for example). Worries me a bit, actually.

After Shrinking, there is no change to the chapter times, so DVD Shrink does not totally mock strip, if at all.

Proof of the pudding is in the playing, though - and they work!

[r0lZ]

So each and every time you've "messed" with a disk, you'll have to do a mock strip to be sure that the ifo files are ok?
Does that also apply to changes made to the DVD with DVD-Rebuilder, PgcEdit, VobBlanker, MenuEdit, IfoEdit etc.?

PgcEdit is not designed to edit the VOB files. However, in some cases, a VOB may be created, deleted, copied or a new cell may be appended at the end of the current VOB. In any of thoses situations, the VOB pointers in the IFOs are updated, so you will normally never need to do a mock strip.

However, when importing a VOB (Import VTST Titles, Import First-Play Clip, Import Title's Intro Clip, Import Title's Closing Clip, Import Menu), PgcEdit retrieves the tables in the original source IFOs. This means you may need to do a mock strip if the source DVD needs one too.

Note that PgcEdit doesn't verify if a DVD needs a mock strip. Use DVDShrink for that purpose (as jsoto said, it's a good and fast test). Nero is also a good test.

I use AddChapter a lot and find it wonderful. However, there appears to be a minor bug. After using it and reopening the TTN for editing in PgcEdit, that program reports the playback time of the PGC doesn't match the total time of the chapters. And it is out by 12 frames . PgcEdit offers to fix it (and does so), but you might like to look into it.

When PgcEdit displays the Cell's table of a PGC, it retrieves the playback durations of every cell in the IFO, and add them together to calculate the total playback time of the PGC. If the total do not match the PGC time stored in the IFO, it gives the warning, and fix the total time.
The cell's durations are not computed from the VOB. This means that if a cell's time is wrong, the total time will be wrong too. So, my advice is: Do a mock strip when PgcEdit displays this warning, just to be sure.

[CoNS]

@jsoto: How 'bout messing with the DVD with the other programs I mentioned above... Is that considered "dangerous" in this respect / does that call for a mock strip?

A question inspired by blutach's posts about vob sizes (bear with me, I'm a nOOb!): A mock strip should only change the .ifo files, right? And the .vob files, too?

[jsoto]

After a mock strip, the new VOBs ARE multiple of 2048k, but each VOB is a different size from the original (1,048,574k). It seems the mock strip decides to change slightly the size of the VOBs and make up any difference in the last VOB of the VTS. Really, a reallocation of the total VTS size. I wonder why?

Well, not absolutely sure, but seems to me IFOEdit mock's strip cuts the VOBs between two VOBUs. Why? Because probably it fixes all the pointers of one VOBU, write it, read another VOBU, fixes it, write, etc. It is not required to cut the VOBs in "exact" VOBUs, just in exact packs (2048 bytes). One VOBU has a variable number of packs and starts always with a Navpack.

Just a few frames here and there in SOME cells (not all). Not seconds, just 6 or so frames here and there. But they can add up. I've found it doesn't do any damage, though.

Mmm. I hope I'll be able to reproduce it. I do not like this kind of bugs difficult to find.... In any case, don't worry, the only problem (I think) of these inaccurate times is when you use the GOTO <time> function you will go to an inexact point (but only in a few frames)

I use AddChapter a lot and find it wonderful. However, there appears to be a minor bug. After using it and reopening the TTN for editing in PgcEdit,

You are right, I'm not adding the 12 frames to the PGC duration time (It wasn't indicated in the original 2COOL's guide , and I did't notice ). Easy to fix.

jsoto

[jsoto]

How 'bout messing with the DVD with the other programs I mentioned above... Is that considered "dangerous" in this respect / does that call for a mock strip?

dangerous=manual.
(may be also beta/unproven versions of any tool)

A question inspired by blutach's posts about vob sizes (bear with me, I'm a nOOb!): A mock strip should only change the .ifo files, right? Not the .vob files, too?

See my post before describing what a mock strip does inside the VOBs. The more complex part! There are thousands of pointers which are fixed.
jsoto

[2COOL]

@CoNS

Originally posted by CoNS
A mock strip should only change the .ifo files, right? And the .vob files, too?

Not to go into details like jsoto but if you look at your VOB Extras dialog, your brief answer was there.

[dave2003]

Originally posted by jsoto
Useful guide. Thanks 2COOL

I usually do my mock strips without copying the files. It saves disk space and time and, up to now, I'm very happy with the results. Seems to me the results are the same.

So, the modifications to your guide are:

Titles stripping:
Options

[ ] Strip Streams'
[ ] Strip VobID's
[X] Correct Vob-Unit (Navigation Pack) pointers in VOB-files
[X] Correct original IFO files

VOB EXPERT Options

[X] Remove P-Uops
[X] Remove Macrovision
[X] Adjust Vob-Unit pointers.
[X] Adjust Audio/Subp point.

Also, uncheck
[ ] Auto-copy Menu Files to destination

[EDIT]
Steps 6, 7, 8 & 9 do not apply anymore.
Instead, select your ifo in the IFO tree window of IFOEdit and save it.
Continue with get VTS sectors, step 10 in 2COOL's guide
[/EDIT]

Menu stripping:
Options

[ ] Strip VobID's
[X] Correct Vob-Unit (Navigation Pack) pointers in VOB-files
[X] Correct original IFO files

VOB EXPERT Options

[X] Remove P-Uops
[X] Remove Macrovision
[X] Adjust Vob-Unit pointers.
[X] Adjust Audio/Subp point.

Also, uncheck
[ ] Auto-copy Menu Files to destination

It may save time and disk space, but isn't the process fundamentally different from that of 2COOL's if you uncheck the specified selections above? I thought that the stripping of streams and VobIDs accounted (possibly) for the correctional utility of the "mock strip." Is my understanding incorrect? Please excuse my ignorance; DVD video manipulation is new territory for me.

[ux-3]

Hello,
I drop in on this, because I am still struggling with a problem, I outlined in another thread. (about splitting and remerging episodal DVDs)

Basically, I tried to remerge back two formerly blanked episodes into a DVD, using Vobblanker for the process. The matters are complicated, cause all 4 episodes are part of a single huge VTS_02 set, including the menues.

After I remerge the two episodes, the disk behaves as before, as if the newly merged episodes are not there. This makes sense, since post commands had been changed to pre-commands during the initial blanking.
(Can I change that back somehow?)

I therefore tried to use the initial ifos along with a mock strip, but this turnes the DVD into something rather garbled. When playing, it almost immediatly loops a small part of the intro.

Does anyone have an idea, what mistake I have made? Which files should I restore to origial status?

EDIT: I just found that I could get the reassembled structure to play properly, when I exchange the Menu vob (VTS_02_0.VOB) with the original file. Perhaps this info could be of help in understanding, what goes wrong?

Thanks for Help!

[scotty47]

I am new to trying this mock Stripping and was wondering what version your using 2COOl to write your tutorial, I am using 0.96 and " Strip Streams" is not even highlighted for me to click, but I notice that Dave 2003 does not use it?
Where do i find " check all " and " Strip it " I have looked everywhere ( probably just like the wife says it could jump up and bit me and I would not see it ).
One other thing I notice no matter what dvd I open in IfoEditone one that works or one that does not it shows it as PAL format, this really is confusing me. Thanks in advance for your patience............scotty


Takes this old man a bit longer most times............

[scotty47]

dont look like I am going to get any help here.Cheers................scotty47

[sweetness]

hi scotty47
2Cool is MIA(maybe on vacation)

was wondering what version

use 0.971 the newer one.

" Strip Streams" is not even highlighted for me to click

if you press menu extra's you can't use this option but in vob extras you can.

Where do i find " check all " and " Strip it "

once you checked want you want in the vob extras option window click ok and another dialog(stream list) window will pop up with the check all and Strip it.
first window will have all the audio and subs. if you have strip vobid's checked, the stream list for the vobs will pop up after you press the strip it in the first list window. press strip it again and ifoedit will start to strip.
look here. mind you they don't have strip vobids checked so that window isn't shown.

[scotty47]

Thank you for your reply sweetness,have since discovered that it will not play in my vcr as it is PAL and not NTSC, can you or anyone here advise as to a good method to convert this Movie, if not I will keep on searching. Thanks again..............scotty47

[jsoto]

pal to ntsc I've to say I never did it.
It's not so easy as a transcoder, but you will find help (if you need it) in DVD2SVCD forums. Just read the FAQs and ask.

jsoto

[scotty47]

Thanks jsoto will go have a look...................scotty47

[de.lesse.bg]

Someone told me to do this with a mock strip!!!

so, i've followed this guide: http://ifoedit.wh.fr0zen.com/joinclip.html#joindbl

@DVD-A: One PGC(VobID 1), small menu
@DVD-B: One PGC(VobID 1), small menu

@DVD-B: done like guide, made VobID1 to VobID2.

So i have a couple VTS...

Ran IFOEDIT through it and?? then ???? (i'm stuck here...)
I can't find anything about this subject!!!
(http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=91822)

[mackaroon]

I thought I'd add my two cents.

I first used Ifoedit a couple of days ago to convert DVD to a single layer disk, because frankly, dual-layer disks are for the rich at the present time. Needless to say, I made a garbled mess of it and tried PGCedit which I also failed with. The disk I had was apparently way more complex than any in the guides.

Anyways in order to continue with my education I had to take some single layer DVDs off my HDD and burn to disk. I normally use ImgTool 0.91.5 and then Alcohol to burn.

For one VIDEO_TS folder, however, I got the same error reported here
(it figures, since it's a DVD my hapless friend made of another friend's band's performance) so I came to this thread.


I tried 2COOL's method and it did not work for me. I did it a number of times, checking everything, trying to find something, until I was satisfied that I would have to find an alternative method.
One thing I noticed about 2COOL's method for mock-stripping menus was that when un-checking "Correct Vob-Unit (Navigation Pack) pointers in VOB-files"
that the "VOB expert options" become greyed out. I think it did not grey out the first time thru, but it was indeed greyed out when I went through on subsequent attempts.

Luckily, however, jsoto posted an alternative which worked. It confuses me as to why because the method is only to save time by not having to copy and move around files, but it seemed to correct some other problem. It does seem different in that numerous options that were left unchecked by 2COOL are now checked in jsoto's method. Maybe there's something in that?

So thanks guys for helping me with this problem.

Oh... if mkisofs only reports an error with either faulty VIDEO_TS.IFO or VIDEO_TS.VOB sizes, can I just run the VTS files through another program to create completely new VIDEO_TS files? Because it seems like this is only a secondary fix here. I dunno, if jsoto hadn't posted his method that was what I was going to search for next.

[r0lZ]

It is possible to generate new IFOs with IfoEdit. But it works only for simple DVDs, without menus.

First, backup your original IFOs and BUPs, then delete them from the original DVD.
Launch IfoEdit, but don't load the DVD, and click on the Create IFOs button.
Click on the "." button next to the 1st VOB of Titleset. Navigate to your original DVD and select VTS_01_1.VOB.
Destination directory should be "same as source".
The options at the top of the dialog should be set according to your needs. Since your DVD is probably only one title long, the defaults should be fine.

[2COOL]

Don't forget to "Get VTS Sectors" after creating your IFOs.

[mackaroon]

hey thanks alot guys. I think I'm really starting to get this stuff. I haven't been posting that much, but I've been doing a lot of reading!