recovering from stuffup

[itchione]

I was using fixtvs from within pgcedit and as i was running low on disk space, i aborted the fixvts task and restarted it with in-place (no backups). This casued an error.

The end result was the dropping of one cell (for chapter 6) with the next cell taking its place, and a repetition of a later cell. There was also an associated mix up in chapter numbering and the corresponding links from chapter selection menus for chapters 6, 7 & 8 due to the above. All other cells, chapters, menus were ok :) The thing is that the lost cell is still within the vob file :)

I tried using ifoedit to create new ifo's but shrink shows the result as unreferanced material although it plays all cells and chapters correctly. Doing this, i loose my chapter selection menu :(.

As i am still trying to understand the structure of the ifo's/vob's and although it would be simple to re-rip my dvd, i am a little curious how/if this could be repaired :).

Is there any way to reconnect the lost cell still within the vob to the pgc within the old ifo's ?

Cheers, Itchione

[blutach]

As discussed elsewhere a day or so ago, don't abort FixVTS. The VOBs are changed (not just the IFOs).

If you have a backup folder, try to restore it. Otherwise, you may need to begin the project again.

Regards

[itchione]

Before my 1st post on the PgcEdit V8.4 Released thread (where i wanted to raise what i felt was a fault with PgcEdit) i already tried restoring my project from the backups :)

But as the above mentioned tread was probably not the correct place to ask for more detailed help on recovering the lost cell, i created this new one.

So as i stated earlier, rather than re-rip my dvd, i thought i would try and correct the situation and try to learn a little along the way. After all that's what these forums are for :)

So are you saying that there is no way to stich the losts cell which is still within the VOB file back into the PGC specified within the current IFO file using PgceDIT ?

Also, given the VOB files, i used IfoEdit to create new IFO's but dvdshrink sees the result as unreferenced material. Any idea why this might occur ?

Cheers, Itchione

[blutach]

You don't know if the cells are still in the VOB. FixVTS might have eliminated them.

You can add cells within the cell table easily, but that won't fix the VOBs. They are probably mangled - especially given DVD Shrink's output.

I really would start again.

Regards

[itchione]

in my case most of the vobs are mainly leftovers from deleting stuff using pgcedit and have been blanked by fixvts and are kept by pgcedit, i guess, so that the ifo's and/or vob's don't need to be extensively changed.

however, vts_04_0.vob contains the menu's i wanted to keep (+ some i have removed access to by hiding the buttons).
vts_04_1 to vts_04_7 contain all cells that make up the film including the cell which is not linked within the ifo's, so nothing is lost. i checked this by playing each vob file in vlc media player and comparing with the original dvd :)


so i copied these vts's to another directory and created new ifo's using ifoeditor. then opened it up if pgcedit which gave some error (sorry can't remember it) and an option to fix it. I accepted and then it would play the complete film which showed that all cells/chapters are ok in windvd. Unfortunately shrink still showed it as unreferenced so i can't shrink it :(

experamenting a little more, i removed ifo's and vts_04_0.vob and renamed other vts's to vts_01_0.vob to vts_01_6.vob. But after recreating the ifos using ifoedit, it started play from vts_01_01.vob (both in pgcedit and windvd starting at chapter 7) so i missed seeing all the cells in vts_01_0.vob and oddly in this case shrink encounters an error with vts_01_1.vob ?

i think i am not understanding the structure of vobs :(

as i understand it, a vob file contains multiplexed video, audio data and sub picture data but what else is included within the file ?

is just a change of file name ok or should i also change some data within the file when effectively moving the vts up the hierarchy?

is vts_01_0.vob reserved for menu's in some way and the cause of loosing playback of all these cells in this case ?

going back to the original issue, how do i add a cell within the cell table, that is, how do i identify which cell i want to add ?
how do i ensure the playback chain of cells are as i want them ?

cheers, itchione

[itchione]

seems that in most cases vts_0x_0.vob file is used by menu's and that the video, audio, sub picture and navpack data start from vts_0x_1.vob and onwards...

using the above, i renamed the vob files and again recreated the ifos then fixed the sub title colors and the error that shrink gave on the last vob. All seemed OK and i have all the cells BUT the time info is a little odd around the area i had the problem cell. also playback seems to be odd around this area in that it jumps over the lost cell but if you rewind and then play, the lost cell strangely appears.

Seems i still don't understand enough and how the nacpack structure and its relationship to cells, vobs and ifos inter-relate.

Is there a good explanation on these items and how they relate to each other (something a little more abstracted than a dvd spec) ?

Guess i will just re-rip my dvd and then compare the files in some areas and see if i can work it out :)

Cheers, Itchione

[blutach]

Third time ----- Start Again!

ALL menus are _0.VOB (except VIDEO_TS.VOB). All VOBs are multiplexed video, audio and subpic packs (with navpacks) in groups of pictures.

You will not get this overnight - it is a verrrry steep learning curve. You can start on mpucoder's site - www.mpucoder.com/DVD or DVD Replica (http://www.dvd-replica.com/DVD/index.php) for an overview.

So, save tearing your hair out and start again from your original source material and remember to keep backup folders.

Regards

[r0lZ]

I agree. Given what you did, the damage is probably impossible to fix.

[itchione]

thanks blutach and r0lZ
yes, the learning curve is rather steep and part of it is knowing when to give up and start again. in time i hope to understand it a little more :confused:

i still have the 'stuff up' and the 'clean rip' on hdd.
i will check for differences when time permits and maybe learn something more :) are there any tools for checking differences between two vob/ifo files ? i normally use winmerge when checking differences but obviously this tool can't interpret vob/ifo files without a plugin of sorts.

Cheers, Itchione

[r0lZ]

No, I don't think you can compare VOB files. They are binary fines, and much too large for standard hex editors.
You can examine them with VobEdit, but beware! If you edit something, the modification is recorded immediately on disc!