corrupt vobs from panasonic burner / womble

[bkorn]

I've been converting my 8mm home movies to dvd using this process:

Step 1

I attach my camera to my Panasonic DVD recorder and hit play and record respectively. I don't shut off the recorder until the DVD fills up, at which point it stops by itself. Only 1 title is created for (what I call) the "raw" DVD, though numerous RANDOM chapters are created. I don't care about the title or the
chapters, because my goal is to make my own, which I do in step 2.

Step 2:

I copy all the files from the raw DVD to my harddrive, load the vobs into Womble MPEG Video Wizard,
make my own chapters at LOGICAL points in the footage, make a menu which automatically uses the chapters as menu thumbnails, and then burn the DVD to a directory. I then use ImgBurn to burn the new DVD

This process was working very well until now. The problem is this: I have had footage to record in Step 1
that has required turning the recorder off and on at various times. The machine creates a new menu title
every time I do this, as it should. So if I turn the machine off 4 times, then 4 titles are created on the
raw DVD (and numerous random chapters). But again, I don't care about the titles or the chapters
because I make my own using Womble.

The problem is: the vobs created now are corrupt. Not CRC corrupt, but internally screwed up. They still
load in Womble and I can see the footage, but if I try to edit or export the vobs, I either miss footage
completely or I get parts of the footage up to a transition point where I then see complete visual distortion, gobbley gook,
or nothing. If I try to export a vob to AVI or MPG (which Womble will do), it creates non valid AVIs
or MPGs (sometimes with sound but no video)

To address this problem, I have tried ripping the raw DVD to my hard drive (rather then just copying the
files from it) using DVD Decrypter, but I have had very limited success with that. Sometimes I get a valid
VOB, but sometimes footage is just discarded in the process.

So what I'm looking for are suggestions on what I might do to fix this problem. Something perhaps that will
"see the footage" that is there, and put it into non-corrupt form (and without transcoding the footage if possible). Quality is paramount.

Sorry for the length of his thread, and as always, thanks for your help!

Bruce

[buzzqw]

just an hint... i suppose you shut down the recoder for not recording specific section of your camera

try recording all and then make the cut in womble

BHH

[bkorn]

In case anyone is interested, I tried to load the bad vob in VirtualDub-MPEG2. It loaded it but with these type errors:

[!] MPEG: Anachronistic or discontinuous timestamp found in video stream 0 at
byte position 105909274, from 16997 to 177424255. This may indicate an
improper join.

[!] MPEG: Anachronistic or discontinuous timestamp found in audio stream 29 at
byte position 105913402, from 20000 to 177346387. This may indicate an
improper join.

(there were several more of this type)

So, I tried the video fix stream function in the trial version of VideoRedo and it actually fixed it and made it a "good" vob again. Well actually it made it a good MPEG , which for my purposes is just as good.

Thank you all just the same!

Burce

[Capsbackup]

Maybe try recording from the camera to the computer either in avi or mpeg 2 and then edit. AVI is easier for me to edit with frame accurate cuts, and less cpu usage during capturing than mpeg 2, however file sizes are quite large. Rendering to high quality DVD can take some time also, but the end result is very good.

[jeanl]

I'm not sure what the problem you're having is, but many people have reported (on videohelp.com if I remember well) that running FixVTS on the entire ripped DVD brings it into compliance. That was specifically for DVDs created by DVD recorders.
You could give that a shot, it's quite quick and it might solve your problem.
Otherwise, you also have the option of demuxing and remuxing your video, using for example, pgcdemux and muxman (both free tools). That should also solve the problem...
Jeanl