Cutting frames with VOBBlanker - Possible?

[setarip_old]

Perhaps I've misinterpreted the purpose/limitations of the "Mark in" and "Mark out" radiobuttons.

I've been unsuccessful at removing a brief less-than-perfect area of an old DVD ("New York Stories" - Region 1). Can the "Mark in" and "Mark out" method be used to remove a very few (approximately 1 second's worth) consecutive frames? If so, what is the proper method of using them and how does one avoid generating the error message regarding "Broken GOPs"?

If VOBBlanker cannot be used for this purpose, is there another program that can?

[blutach]

Yes, it can. It cuts on a GOP basis. Don't worry about the Broken GOP message. It means that there's a couple of B frames that depend on an I frame that was cut out. No big deal.

Mark in is where the cut starts and mark out is where it ends. Choose cut movie between marks. Guide to cutting on the VobBlanker (http://jsoto.posunplugged.com/guides/VobBlanker/prevcut/index.php) site.

The other method you can use is DVD Shrink in re-author mode. Should menus be required, add them back. Guide (http://jsoto.posunplugged.com/guides/VobBlanker/adding_menus/index.htm).

Regards

[r0lZ]

How do you cut a part of a movie in the middle with DVDShrink in reauthor mode? Is it possible without creating 2 separate titles and VTS? I don't think so.

[blutach]

No, I guess 2 titles is what is created - but of course, they can easily be put back together again.

Regards

[setarip_old]

Mark in is where the cut starts and mark out is where it ends. Choose cut movie between marks.That is precisely what I did. The result was that the frames were not cut...

Additionally, regardless of where I set the marks, all "LBA" locations remain as -0-. Is this to be expected? (I am working with my hard drive rip)

EDIT: Success - and mystery solved regarding "LBAs" - The slider at the bottom of the screen cannot be used for setting "Mark in" and "Mark out" points (Using it does NOT identify the "LBAs"). Perhaps this could be more clearly indicated in the documentation.

[jsoto]

Sorry, I'm not too good doing documentation/guides...
Slider in the bottom is the original one from DVD2AVI and navigates across the whole VOB (not only the selected PGC/Cell). And, as you already discovered, it cannot be used to select the mark points.
jsoto

[setarip_old]

Sorry, I'm not too good doing documentation/guides...Nothing to apologize for. Your program is a wonderful tool and you are to be congratulated for it!

It was well worth the little bit of effort on my part to figure out how to use it properly for my tiny project.

Thanks again for making it possible ;>}

[setarip_old]

@jsoto

In fact, the "Broken GOP" message DOES appear to be of signficance (Contrary to the posting of others in thread). The resultant DVD shows obvious pixel blocking at precisely the point where the frames were eliminated.

So, I ask you, if it's possible, how does one locate the precise points to cut at, that WON'T generate the "Broken GOP" message?

[r0lZ]

Not a bad idea, stearip!
Jsoto, could you add an element in the GUI to show if the current GOP is open or closed? And, even better, Prev and Next Closed GOPs buttons, to jump directly to the closest safe I frame?

[jsoto]

Well, I'll try to do it...

@setarip_old
I'd like to know a little bit more about the case you are refering to...
Is is a cut/keep in the middle? or you are cutting from the start (or to the end) of a cell?
Could you send me the project file, the log file and the final cell?. Well, for the cell it is enough a small part (just after and before the cut)
May be VobBlanker failed to mark the GOP as broken.... Can you check it with Vobedit?

NOTE: If you are cutting inside, it is not so obious to find the cut point in the final cell, you have to do some calculations, but they are simple if you use as reference the start LBA of the cell.

Where do you see the pixelation.. In a SW player?

jsoto

[setarip_old]

If you are cutting inside, it is not so obious to find the cut point in the final cell, you have to do some calculations, but they are simple if you use as reference the start LBA of the cell.The cut is being made inside a cell (Not at the beginning or end of the cell. Approximately 6 minutes into a 13 minute cell - the cut out portion is a little over 1 second) Please tell me what the calculations are and I'll do them.
Where do you see the pixelation.. In a SW player?Three different brands of media (Verbatim, T-Y, Maxell), each burned at 4X, played on three different standalone players and WinDVD, VLC, and the oooold Microsoft DVD player (The one that's hidden on the Win98 installation CD ;>}).

Oddly, playing the VOBBlanker adjusted rip from the hard drive does not show the pixelation blocking, instead there's a very brief hesitation - and based on my previous statement, there's no way it's either media or player related...

Thanks for your help!

[jsoto]

Well, cutting inside is quite tricky...may be there is something VobBlanker is doing bad...

The best choice is to split the cell in two, and, after , to delete the first part of the second cell (or the last part of the first cell). In this way, the second cell is marked as non-seamless and it is much better... Audio/Video synch potential problems will not appear, and ( may be) the broken flag is honored by the player...
Could you test this method, please?

Note you have to split the cell w/o creating any additional program/chapter, so your PGC jumps/chapters are still the same than the originals..

Well, the calculations are:
Look in PGCedit the initial sector of the cell (in the PGC editor: Entry VOBU sector).

In the original DVD: EntrySectorOriginal
In the processed DVD: EntrySectorProcessed

Being InitialMark, the initial sector to be cut in VobBlanker, I need the some sectors before and after CutPoint:

CutPoint=EntrySectorProcessed+InitialMark

Once you have calculated CutPoint, you need to locate the sector in the appropiated file.
Note nSectors of a file= file_size/2048;
Being
nSectors[1]: number of sectors of VTS_XX_1.VOB
nSectors[2]: number of sectors of VTS_XX_2.VOB
....
nSectors[n]: number of sectors of VTS_XX_n.VOB

Just calculate

RelativeSector=CutPoint
i=1
while ( RelativeSector >=0 )
{
RelativeSector= RelativeSector - nSectors[i];
i=i+1;
}
RelativeSector= RelativeSector + nSectors[i];
i=i-1;


Now, "i" points the right VOB file and RelativeSector points the sector in this file.

Use CutFile to cut some sectors (say 50+50) before and after