TDaveJ
13th June 2007, 17:45
There are two fundamental ways to merge a movie that is authored split on two disks or two sides of a disk. The first, and easiest, is to use PgcEdit to open the first half, Import Title to get the second half, and then fix the navigation so the titles play sequentially. There are a number of other programs and methods that do essentially the same thing with some degree of automation. This method has some problems. There is a significant delay at the title change. This isn't always noticable if the split point was carefully chosen. But if the split point was badly chosen, it can be very noticable and annoying. Also various players react differently to chapter navigation across the titles.
The second way is to merge the two halves into one title. There are several methods to do this, but the two most discussed are the IfoEdit/VobEdit Join Clips method and the PgcEdit/VobBlanker Replace Cell method. While more complicated, these methods fix the chapter navigation problems. However, there is still a slight delay at the joint and potentially at other locations in the second half of the movie from introduction of VOB ID changes and the associated STC discontinuities. The delays are almost unnoticeable, IF they are carefully placed in a fade-out/fade-in scene change or some other cinematic technique to hide them. The problem comes when they are introduced at unplanned locations. My player (Toshiba SD-5980SU) generally causes about a third of a second or less "hitch" in the playback, which is just enough to be annoying.
After researching this and finding a great tool called VIDChanger on jsoto's site (Thank-you jsoto:thanks:), I have found a way to eliminate the VOB ID change delay with the result that you can merge the titles for the two halves of the movie into one seamless title. This method has to be used with care. It should not be used to merge titles that were not intended to go together, for example. Additionally, both halves of the movie should contain the same audio and subtitle streams. It also requires several temporary directories and the associated disk space to go through the process. As examples, I use the Region 1 NTSC versions of The Pelican Brief (141 min. 42 cells) and Wyatt Earp: Special Edition (190 min. 64 cells). The Pelican Brief will go on a single layer disk and Wyatt Earp will go on a DL disk. This method does not address keeping menus, although it does not prevent adding menus back using other guides on that subject. The method assumes each half of the movie is in a separate folder on a hard disk in File Mode. It also assumes a basic understanding of DVD navigation and audio/subtitle stream setting.
Relevant Original Movie info:
The Pelican Brief
First half: Last VCID 1/23
Second half: Last VCID 1/19
Wyatt Earp
First half: Last VCID 1/28
Second half: Last VCID 30/14
Second half: Number of cells; 64, 28 blanked (cells 1/1 to 28/1)
Tools used
DVD Shrink 3.2.0.15
PgcEdit 8.2.1
VIDChanger 1203
IfoEdit 0.971
VobBlanker 2.1.3.0
FixVTS 1.6.0.3
ImgBurn 2.3.2.0
FixVTS and VobBlanker are set up to run from the PgcEdit Tools menu, and ImgBurn is set up to run from the PgcEdit File menu.
This is the procedure.
Use DVD Shrink to extract the "main movie" from each half of the movie to separate temporary folders using Re-authoring mode, and keep only the audio and subtitle streams you need. Do not shrink the file size at this point (keep at 100%). Open the movie only first half in PgcEDit, open the PGC Editor and write down the last VOB/Cell ID and the number of cells, if there are more than one VOB ID. If there are more than one VOB ID, you can use VIDChanger as below to reduce it to 1, but it may not be necessary if the VOB ID changes don't show in your player. Then make any changes to the navigation that are necessary to play the movie, for example, setting audio and subtitles if you do not want to use the defaults. Save the DVD and then run it through FixVTS to ensure there are no errors. Open the movie only second half in PgcEdit and look at the cell organization as above and write down the total number of cells. Also note any cells that are not chapter points. At this point remove any whole cells you do not need to keep. There is nothing to do here in The Pelican Brief, but in Wyatt Earp, use the PGC Editor to remove the first 28 cells. Let it fix the time maps. Then run FixVTS, which will remove the cells from the VOB's and renumber the two remaining VOB ID's from 29 and30 to 1 and 2. Note that original Cell 50 (now cell 22) does not have a chapter point and there are now 36 cells. Close PgcEdit.
Open the movie only second half in VIDChanger and select a Temp directory for output. In Next Cells, set Fix Vob_Id. Set the Starting Vob_Id to 1 or the last VOB ID in the first half, and the Starting Cell_Id to the next sequential cell after the last Cell ID from the first half. In the Pelican Brief, it's 1 and 24. In Wyatt Earp it's 1 and 29. Then press PROCESS!. You end up with a set of VOB files in which the VOB IDs run from 1/24 to 1/42 in The Pelican Brief and from 1/29 to 1/64 in Wyatt Earp.
Rename the output VOB files so they sequentially increment the first half VOB files. For The Pelican Brief, the first half had VTS_01_1.VOB through VTS_01_3.VOB, so rename the second half files VTS_01_4.VOB through VTS_01_6.VOB. For Wyatt Earp, the first half had VTS_01_1.VOB through VTS_01_4.VOB, so rename the second half file VTS_01_5.VOB through VTS_01_9.VOB. Copy these files to the directory containing the movie only first half files.
Start IfoEdit and open the VTS_01_0.IFO file in the first half movie only directory. The VTS overview and the VTS_PGC_1 directories only show the first half of the movie. To correct this, we have to edit the VTS_PGC_1 directory. The number of cells (42 for The Pelican Brief; 64 for Wyatt Earp) and the VOB/Cell ID numbers in the second half of the movie, which should be a straight sequence continuing on from the first half with no VOB ID change are what need to be changed. In the VTS_PGCITI/VTS_PGC_1 directory, double click on Number of cells (line 3) and change it to the new value(from 23 to 42, or, from 28 to 64). Next, scroll down to the bottom where the "Cell Position in VOB" list is and double click on each 0 in the second half of the movie to change it to the new value (1/24 to 1/42 for The Pelican Brief and 1/29 to 1/64 for Wyatt Earp). Yes, it's tedious. You have to change 38 entries for the Pelican Brief and 72 for Wyatt Earp. When done, the cell list should read 1/1 to 1/42 for The Pelican Brief and 1/1 to 1/64 for Wyatt Earp.
Check your work. A mistake here makes a big mess. Highlight the first line in the top window (VTS_01_0.IFO) and, from the VOB Extras menu, select the Create new IFOs option. Uncheck "Create new IFO files.(Movie only)" leaving "Correct original IFO files" and "Correct Vob-Unit (Navigation Pack) pointers in VOB-files" checked and, on the right, uncheck "Remove P-UOps" and "Remove Macrovision" if that was done when the files were transfered to the hard disk. Clicking OK will start reading all the VOB files in sequence and then changing VOB information and correction of the VOBU pointers. Click on finish and then, down at the bottom, Save. Save the backup also. Then close and reopen IfoEdit.
The VTS overview now shows the second half of the movie, but chapters only go down to the end of the first half. To fix this, close IfoEdit and open the files in PgcEdit. If it warns about empty menu VOBs, let it fix that. Highlighting Title 1 and right click selecting Edit PGC allows you to set chapter points for the second half of the movie by clicking on the buttons in the Program column down the left side. Skip cell 50 in Wyatt Earp to preserve the original chapter points. Then clicking on the "Edit Chapter (PTT) table" button allows you to add chapters to those cells. For The Pelican Brief, click "Add chapter" 19 times and then click "Set selected Programs=PTTs". For Wyatt Earp, click "Add chapter" 35 times and then click "Set selected Programs=PTTs". When done click OK. The chapters should now be correct. In the two example movies, all Type Flags with the exception of the first one should be 8. Save the DVD.
Next look at the joint between first and second half. This can be done in VobBlanker. Selecting the VTS and then expanding the cells allows viewing and cutting, if necessary, the last cell of the first half and the first cell of the second half. You should also look at other areas of the DVD that may need attention, like the end of the second half, if there are things that need to be cut there, and the beginning of the first half. Wyatt Earp doesn't need any additional processing here, although you may want to trim a second or so from the end of cell 28. It's a matter of personal preference you will have to decide for yourself. The Pelican Brief has a total of about 5 - 6 seconds of black video at the break, half at the end of cell 23 and the other half at the beginning of cell 24, so you will want to trim most of that out. Exactly how much is up to you. If you do any cutting, reopen the finished product in PgcEdit and recheck that the seamless flag is still set where you cut. VobBlanker sets the STC discontinuity flag at a cut and removes the seamless flag, which must be reset. VobBlanker sets the STC discontinuity flag to insure player compatibility. My player doesn't seem to care, much in the same way it doesn't care if I set the seamless flag at a layer break, but this should be tested on the players you have. I usually use DVD menu>Set DVD-TEXT General Name to enter the movie title at this point, but it's not necessary. If you are going to do anything else, like adding menus back in, now is the time to do it.
At this point, use DVD Shrink in Full Disk mode to reduce the files to the desired size , if necessary. The Pelican Brief will have to go to about 80% to fit on a single layer disk, but if you have added menus back in, it will probably go down to about 76%. Wyatt Earp needs to use a Custom Ratio set at about a hair under 8.0 Gb total size for all streams. If you do that, you should get a layer break between cells 31 and 32. If you chose to shrink to the DL size, you will probably have to split cell 32. Again, if you added menus back in, you'll have to shrink it more. Once done, open the shrunk files in PGC Edit, check the structure, run FixVTS (In-Place) as a safety check, and use PgcEdit to burn the disk with ImgBurn.
The result is a single title with no VOB ID changes that can be played seamlessly.
As this is my first try at this, comments and criticism are welcome:).
Edit: Changed part about the STC discontinuity flag in response to r0IZ's comments.
The second way is to merge the two halves into one title. There are several methods to do this, but the two most discussed are the IfoEdit/VobEdit Join Clips method and the PgcEdit/VobBlanker Replace Cell method. While more complicated, these methods fix the chapter navigation problems. However, there is still a slight delay at the joint and potentially at other locations in the second half of the movie from introduction of VOB ID changes and the associated STC discontinuities. The delays are almost unnoticeable, IF they are carefully placed in a fade-out/fade-in scene change or some other cinematic technique to hide them. The problem comes when they are introduced at unplanned locations. My player (Toshiba SD-5980SU) generally causes about a third of a second or less "hitch" in the playback, which is just enough to be annoying.
After researching this and finding a great tool called VIDChanger on jsoto's site (Thank-you jsoto:thanks:), I have found a way to eliminate the VOB ID change delay with the result that you can merge the titles for the two halves of the movie into one seamless title. This method has to be used with care. It should not be used to merge titles that were not intended to go together, for example. Additionally, both halves of the movie should contain the same audio and subtitle streams. It also requires several temporary directories and the associated disk space to go through the process. As examples, I use the Region 1 NTSC versions of The Pelican Brief (141 min. 42 cells) and Wyatt Earp: Special Edition (190 min. 64 cells). The Pelican Brief will go on a single layer disk and Wyatt Earp will go on a DL disk. This method does not address keeping menus, although it does not prevent adding menus back using other guides on that subject. The method assumes each half of the movie is in a separate folder on a hard disk in File Mode. It also assumes a basic understanding of DVD navigation and audio/subtitle stream setting.
Relevant Original Movie info:
The Pelican Brief
First half: Last VCID 1/23
Second half: Last VCID 1/19
Wyatt Earp
First half: Last VCID 1/28
Second half: Last VCID 30/14
Second half: Number of cells; 64, 28 blanked (cells 1/1 to 28/1)
Tools used
DVD Shrink 3.2.0.15
PgcEdit 8.2.1
VIDChanger 1203
IfoEdit 0.971
VobBlanker 2.1.3.0
FixVTS 1.6.0.3
ImgBurn 2.3.2.0
FixVTS and VobBlanker are set up to run from the PgcEdit Tools menu, and ImgBurn is set up to run from the PgcEdit File menu.
This is the procedure.
Use DVD Shrink to extract the "main movie" from each half of the movie to separate temporary folders using Re-authoring mode, and keep only the audio and subtitle streams you need. Do not shrink the file size at this point (keep at 100%). Open the movie only first half in PgcEDit, open the PGC Editor and write down the last VOB/Cell ID and the number of cells, if there are more than one VOB ID. If there are more than one VOB ID, you can use VIDChanger as below to reduce it to 1, but it may not be necessary if the VOB ID changes don't show in your player. Then make any changes to the navigation that are necessary to play the movie, for example, setting audio and subtitles if you do not want to use the defaults. Save the DVD and then run it through FixVTS to ensure there are no errors. Open the movie only second half in PgcEdit and look at the cell organization as above and write down the total number of cells. Also note any cells that are not chapter points. At this point remove any whole cells you do not need to keep. There is nothing to do here in The Pelican Brief, but in Wyatt Earp, use the PGC Editor to remove the first 28 cells. Let it fix the time maps. Then run FixVTS, which will remove the cells from the VOB's and renumber the two remaining VOB ID's from 29 and30 to 1 and 2. Note that original Cell 50 (now cell 22) does not have a chapter point and there are now 36 cells. Close PgcEdit.
Open the movie only second half in VIDChanger and select a Temp directory for output. In Next Cells, set Fix Vob_Id. Set the Starting Vob_Id to 1 or the last VOB ID in the first half, and the Starting Cell_Id to the next sequential cell after the last Cell ID from the first half. In the Pelican Brief, it's 1 and 24. In Wyatt Earp it's 1 and 29. Then press PROCESS!. You end up with a set of VOB files in which the VOB IDs run from 1/24 to 1/42 in The Pelican Brief and from 1/29 to 1/64 in Wyatt Earp.
Rename the output VOB files so they sequentially increment the first half VOB files. For The Pelican Brief, the first half had VTS_01_1.VOB through VTS_01_3.VOB, so rename the second half files VTS_01_4.VOB through VTS_01_6.VOB. For Wyatt Earp, the first half had VTS_01_1.VOB through VTS_01_4.VOB, so rename the second half file VTS_01_5.VOB through VTS_01_9.VOB. Copy these files to the directory containing the movie only first half files.
Start IfoEdit and open the VTS_01_0.IFO file in the first half movie only directory. The VTS overview and the VTS_PGC_1 directories only show the first half of the movie. To correct this, we have to edit the VTS_PGC_1 directory. The number of cells (42 for The Pelican Brief; 64 for Wyatt Earp) and the VOB/Cell ID numbers in the second half of the movie, which should be a straight sequence continuing on from the first half with no VOB ID change are what need to be changed. In the VTS_PGCITI/VTS_PGC_1 directory, double click on Number of cells (line 3) and change it to the new value(from 23 to 42, or, from 28 to 64). Next, scroll down to the bottom where the "Cell Position in VOB" list is and double click on each 0 in the second half of the movie to change it to the new value (1/24 to 1/42 for The Pelican Brief and 1/29 to 1/64 for Wyatt Earp). Yes, it's tedious. You have to change 38 entries for the Pelican Brief and 72 for Wyatt Earp. When done, the cell list should read 1/1 to 1/42 for The Pelican Brief and 1/1 to 1/64 for Wyatt Earp.
Check your work. A mistake here makes a big mess. Highlight the first line in the top window (VTS_01_0.IFO) and, from the VOB Extras menu, select the Create new IFOs option. Uncheck "Create new IFO files.(Movie only)" leaving "Correct original IFO files" and "Correct Vob-Unit (Navigation Pack) pointers in VOB-files" checked and, on the right, uncheck "Remove P-UOps" and "Remove Macrovision" if that was done when the files were transfered to the hard disk. Clicking OK will start reading all the VOB files in sequence and then changing VOB information and correction of the VOBU pointers. Click on finish and then, down at the bottom, Save. Save the backup also. Then close and reopen IfoEdit.
The VTS overview now shows the second half of the movie, but chapters only go down to the end of the first half. To fix this, close IfoEdit and open the files in PgcEdit. If it warns about empty menu VOBs, let it fix that. Highlighting Title 1 and right click selecting Edit PGC allows you to set chapter points for the second half of the movie by clicking on the buttons in the Program column down the left side. Skip cell 50 in Wyatt Earp to preserve the original chapter points. Then clicking on the "Edit Chapter (PTT) table" button allows you to add chapters to those cells. For The Pelican Brief, click "Add chapter" 19 times and then click "Set selected Programs=PTTs". For Wyatt Earp, click "Add chapter" 35 times and then click "Set selected Programs=PTTs". When done click OK. The chapters should now be correct. In the two example movies, all Type Flags with the exception of the first one should be 8. Save the DVD.
Next look at the joint between first and second half. This can be done in VobBlanker. Selecting the VTS and then expanding the cells allows viewing and cutting, if necessary, the last cell of the first half and the first cell of the second half. You should also look at other areas of the DVD that may need attention, like the end of the second half, if there are things that need to be cut there, and the beginning of the first half. Wyatt Earp doesn't need any additional processing here, although you may want to trim a second or so from the end of cell 28. It's a matter of personal preference you will have to decide for yourself. The Pelican Brief has a total of about 5 - 6 seconds of black video at the break, half at the end of cell 23 and the other half at the beginning of cell 24, so you will want to trim most of that out. Exactly how much is up to you. If you do any cutting, reopen the finished product in PgcEdit and recheck that the seamless flag is still set where you cut. VobBlanker sets the STC discontinuity flag at a cut and removes the seamless flag, which must be reset. VobBlanker sets the STC discontinuity flag to insure player compatibility. My player doesn't seem to care, much in the same way it doesn't care if I set the seamless flag at a layer break, but this should be tested on the players you have. I usually use DVD menu>Set DVD-TEXT General Name to enter the movie title at this point, but it's not necessary. If you are going to do anything else, like adding menus back in, now is the time to do it.
At this point, use DVD Shrink in Full Disk mode to reduce the files to the desired size , if necessary. The Pelican Brief will have to go to about 80% to fit on a single layer disk, but if you have added menus back in, it will probably go down to about 76%. Wyatt Earp needs to use a Custom Ratio set at about a hair under 8.0 Gb total size for all streams. If you do that, you should get a layer break between cells 31 and 32. If you chose to shrink to the DL size, you will probably have to split cell 32. Again, if you added menus back in, you'll have to shrink it more. Once done, open the shrunk files in PGC Edit, check the structure, run FixVTS (In-Place) as a safety check, and use PgcEdit to burn the disk with ImgBurn.
The result is a single title with no VOB ID changes that can be played seamlessly.
As this is my first try at this, comments and criticism are welcome:).
Edit: Changed part about the STC discontinuity flag in response to r0IZ's comments.