Vobblanker: No(t) enough room for IFO growing

[moviefan]

Hey guys,

I have created a kind of "template" for captured TV shows which can be applied to any show I want to store on DVD. Depending on the show I want to replace the background image of the menu and of course the episodes. Right now the titles consist of blank material, but I want to replace them with episodes. I thought of having about 9 episodes per DL-Disc which uncompressed makes about 15,5 GB at the moment. My plan is to first replace the "dummy-titles" with the actual movies and then reencode the whole thing using DVD-Rebuilder. When I replace all 9 dummies with the eps, Vobblanker returns "No enough room for IFO growing" when it comes to rewriting the Nav-packs. When I replace only say 5 blanks, it works. Why is this and how can I replace all eps at once?

Thanks for your help!

Edit:
I have been able to complete my plan, but I had to split it into two steps. I first replaced only 5 dummies and then, in a second step, replace the missing 4. Why can't I do this in one step?

[jsoto]

Sorry, it is a limitation in VobBlanker.
VobBlanker allocates the actual size + a fixed amount of free space (in memory) for each IFO. The free space is reserved for IFO growing and you method (in one pass) requires more space than the reserved one.

jsoto.

[moviefan]

I have now replaced the 9 dummy titles in two steps - I thought successfully. The first step replaced titles 1-5 and the second step titles 6-9. When playing a title replaced in the second step, the DVD player returns to the menu, which then is in pause mode. When opening the DVD in VobBlanker, it says:

Detected ini/end cell pointers out of range in TITLES domain
Affected titlesets are:

VTS_01_0.ifo

A FullScan is required: See Menu->File->FullScan...

What does this error message mean? Is there a limit of cells or chapters or something? I have 54 chapters, each title has 6 chapters.

[blutach]

It means run the scan after which VobBlanker (http://jsoto.posunplugged.com/vobblanker.htm) will process the DVD correctly, fixing the bad pointers.

Regards

[moviefan]

So I have to run the scan and process the DVD again and this time VobBlanker will succeed? Why does VobBlanker create bad pointers in the first place? Can I maybe run the FullScan after my first step so that the second step is correct without re-running the scan and re-processing the whole thing?

[blutach]

It doesn't AFAIK.

Running a scan just gives VobBlanker (http://jsoto.posunplugged.com/vobblanker.htm) info to work with. It should never have produced a DVD with mismatching pointers. You authored these with the replace fucntion. All the pointers, internal to the VOB and in the IFO should be OK.

Your number of titles and chapters are within spec.

Regards

[moviefan]

Sorry blutach, but I don't get your point. You say the pointers should be okay, but they obviously aren't... Further you say VobBlanker shouldn't have produced a DVD with mismatching pointers, but why did it do that? (It does it everytime I replace the 2nd set of dummies) And how exactly is FullScan supposed to help? Please explain the steps you think I have to do to succeed in replacing my dummies.

Thanks a lot!

[blutach]

I can't pinpoint for sure, as I donlt know exactly what is happening. Have you got always fix SNCI/SRI pointers checked in the replacing section of "More settings"?

In any event, run it thru again to see if it gets fixed. You may need a full mock strip in IfoEdit (http://ifoedit.wh.fr0zen.com/).

Regards

[jsoto]

I have now replaced the 9 dummy titles in two steps - I thought successfully. The first step replaced titles 1-5 and the second step titles 6-9.

Did you close VobBlanker and launch it again to run the second time?
At least, did you re-open the DVD with the first created one?

In the last version VobBlanker allows to re-run w/o opening again the DVD, but this has to be used with care..


Detected ini/end cell pointers out of range in TITLES domain
Affected titlesets are:

VTS_01_0.ifo

That means a wrong IFO. I do not imagine why VobBlanker has created this wrong IFO (except if you did not open again the DVD in the second run)
Is there a limit of cells or chapters or something? I have 54 chapters, each title has 6 chapters.No, no problem with cells/chapters.

jsoto

[moviefan]

Have you got always fix SNCI/SRI pointers checked in the replacing section of "More settings"?

I have tried it before and VobBlanker always freezes when it comes to fixing the pointers.

You may need a full mock strip in IfoEdit.

Sorry for asking some stupid questions, but what is a "full mock strip"?

Did you close VobBlanker and launch it again to run the second time?

Yes.

The weird thing is that VobBlanker creates a perfect DVD when I replace the first set of dummies, but fails when it comes to the second part.
Any idea, why fixing the pointers causes VobBlanker to freeze? This does always happen, even in the first replacing round.
I hope you guys still have suggestions/ideas how to get rid of this problem.

Thanks for your help so far!

[bigotti5]

Sorry for asking some stupid questions, but what is a "full mock strip"?

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=84097

[jsoto]

The weird thing is that VobBlanker creates a perfect DVD when I replace the first set of dummies, but fails when it comes to the second part.
Please zip the IFOs before and after the second round. Also, include VobBlanker's project file and VobBlanker's log file. Please send the files to me. I'll take a look.
jesus_soto_viso [at] terra [dot] es

Any idea, why fixing the pointers causes VobBlanker to freeze? This does always happen, even in the first replacing round.
Does it freeze w/o any indication?
Note fixing pointers take more than a while, and this time is not computed in the global progress bar, so VobBlanker seems to freeze, but in the log file you can see what is it doing, cell by cell.

jsoto

[moviefan]

I'll try your ideas this evening and only after that I can send you the IFOs... So it will be either this evening or tomorrow.
I think VobBlanker simply freezes. I kept the log open in which the first line of the fixing pointers part indicated it was working at the very first cell. This status remained for maybe 20 min when I couldn't be bothered to watch the frozen program do nothing... When I focused the main window of VobBlanker it looked frozen - don't know how to explain -, but some parts of the interface became white. (I hope you know what I mean ;-))

However I'll do the whole thing again, following your advice and maybe this time with success. Otherwise you'll get a mail soon.

Edit: I just tried 'fixing pointers' with only one replaced dummy so that it doesn't take long to process the DVD. This time it worked... I'm now a little confused. Is it possible that fixing pointers in a large DVD (15,5 GB) causes VobBlanker to freeze or at least it causes the interface to appear frozen?

[jsoto]

Ah! Yes, a very large DVD like yours can cause problems...
VobBlanker keeps in memory some info of the nav/audio/subs packs like their PTSs and LBAs, to be used later. It dynamically allocates the required memory space
It is not the first time I received a report about problems replacing large LPCM audio tracks
However, I thought I had put all the errors/warnings in the code when allocating memory..... May be there is a case not covered. I'll take a look

In any case, I'm going to be out one week starting from today, so do not expect an answer soon.

jsoto

[bigotti5]

fixing pointers in a large DVD (15,5 GB) causes

:D ...

[moviefan]

Since fixing the pointers after the replacement of only one dummy succeeded, I tried it with the first half of my titles (1-5). Again VobBlanker froze! The taskmanager says "no response" for VobBlanker and I can't even maximize it from the taskbar again. CPU usage is constantly at 100%. This time it was only 8,7 GB or something like that. Do you consider this a
very large DVD
as well?
What's wrong here...?!

[bigotti5]

You have to use different VTS if you have more than 9 GB
One VTS can only hold 9 GB..

[moviefan]

The thing is that I would like to create the DVD first and then reencode it to DL size (~7,95 GB). Is this a general DVD limitation or a limitation of VobBlanker and is there definitely no way around? If not, what in your opinion should I do to get my DVD working?

By the way, my last attempt to create a working DVD encompassed < 9 GB (~8,7 GB) of material stored in VTS_01 and VobBlanker appears to freeze (can't tell for sure, but as I said I can't maximize it from the taskbar...)

[bigotti5]

Is this a general DVD limitation or a limitation of VobBlanker and is there definitely no way around?

A general limitation ...one VTS can only hold 9 chunks of 1 GB
VTS_01_1.VOB
....
VTS_01_9.VOB

[moviefan]

So there is no way to avoid this limitation only temporarily until I have encodet the files? Because after the encoding process the DVD will only have 9 VOBs in VTS_01. Encoding the files before replacing the dummies with VobBlanker will probably result in problems with the DVD size as I'm sure I can't exactly calculate the average bitrate for the vids to pretty much exactly fit on a DL-DVD.

[jsoto]

Ah! I understand now why bigotti5 was laughing about the large DVDs..

The recommendation is clear
- Change your "template" DVD, using one VTS per episode

The navigation across the episodes can be adjusted with pgcEdit. Although you cannot jump directly from a VTS to another one it's not difficult to do it using a dummy PGC in VIDEO_TS.IFO. PgcEdit is your friend for all these things.

As a consequence of split the episodes in different VTSs, you will be able to:
- Do all the work in only one VobBlanker session.
- Use different video resolutions in any episode (if all the episodes come from the same source, this probably has no sense, but ...)

jsoto

EDIT: BTW, the maximum number of VTSs in a DVD is 99, so it will not be a problem, seems you are managing less than 10.

[blutach]

@bigotti5

I thought that too, but I learned that while the spec limited a VTS to 10 files (0 through 9), I also learned (possibly incorrectly) there is no reason for a VOB to be limited to 1Gb (except for players). Traditionally, big VTSs have been solved by using the DOS copy/b command to join 1Gb VOBs, so you might end up with 8 1Gb VOBs and a larger 9th one. I know for sure that DVD Shrink will accept this and transcode it.

Interested in others' thoughts.

Regards

[blutach]

@jsoto - moviefan was also having trouble after adding just a few eps (post 16). Strange. But he should try your suggestion for sure.

Regards

[moviefan]

But using one VTS per episode is going to complicate the DVD structure a little... Now I have 11 titles for my 9 episodes:

1) Play all episodes
2-10) the single episodes
11) dummy PGC that does some stuff with the GPRMs (resume etc.)
Using one VTS for each episode would mean restructuring almost the entire structure of the "template".

Would at least encoding the eps first and then replacing the dummies, using 1 VTS, work? If so, I probably prefer to proceed that way as I really can't be asked to restructure the whole DVD, especially because there are no limitations forcing me to. So what's your opinion?

[bigotti5]

I thought that too, but I learned that while the spec limited a VTS to 10 files (0 through 9), I also learned (possibly incorrectly) there is no reason for a VOB to be limited to 1Gb (except for players)

its only 9 files - 0 is used for VTSM domain

I know that shrink can handle it but is there a possibility in vobblanker to disable vob file splitting?

[blutach]

I do not believe so. And yes, 9 title domain files + 1 menu domain. It would be a useful additon to VobBlanker (http://jsoto.posunplugged.com/vobblanker.htm), but not used all that much. Really up to jsoto to decide whether to implement it.

Regards

[moviefan]

An option to disable 1 GB splitting would be the solution to my problem.

@ jsoto: Is it very complicated to add an option that disables the 1 GB split?

[moviefan]

I've just been rethinking the idea about having VOBs bigger than 1 GB. Would it work, if I replaced the VOBs like before (which results in problems with the number of titles) but afterwards made a mock strip with IfoEdit setting the VOB size option to "no split"? Or would this not work because the IFO I would be opening in IfoEdit is damaged? After having encoded the DVD I would of course split the VOBs to a maximum 1 GB each again.

[jsoto]

An option to disable 1 GB splitting would be the solution to my problem.

@ jsoto: Is it very complicated to add an option that disables the 1 GB split?
Not difficult, but too much work... unfortunately there are a lot of points in the code assuming a max of 9 files of 1 GB.
In any case, I'll take a look.

But I do not understand why VobBlanker hangs..., this has to be a different problem,

jsoto

[moviefan]

I have managed to get everything done using a little workaround for everything. I created a simple template so that every episode is stored in an extra VTS (no links or something). Then I replaced the dummies with the videos and encoded the "DVD" with DVD Rebuilder. Afterwards I demuxed the video material and replaced the dummies in the actual template with the now encoded episodes. That way it works, but takes a lot of effort. However, I cannot use the option "Fix always VOB SYNCI/SRI pointers in titles" in no case. The final DVD works perfect, also without this option. This method is uncomfortable, but gives me the result I want.