Problem duplicating wedding DVD

[Fyrsten]

Hi folks

I'm new here. I have got a problem and hope that somebody can help me solve it.

I recorded my brothers wedding with a mini-DV camera on a DVD+RW 4,7 Gb disc.
I have 4 different recording modes, depending on how much I want to fit on the disc:

HQ : 1 hour
SP : 2 hours
LP : 4 hours
XP : 6 hours

I started out in SP to get better quality, but later realized that I had to switch to a lower standard to make it all fit on one DVD.

Because of that, the first title is in SP mode and runs for approx. 1 hour, the 2nd title is in LP mode and runs for approx. 2 hours. Total 3 hours, in two different recording modes.

Now the problem. My family wants copies of the wedding, but
I'm unable to duplicate the disc. Because when I copied the content to my HD it turned out to be 9 Gb. It had two sets of VOB files, VTS_01 and VTS_02, which confuses me a lot. Here is the file listing from the DVD+RW wedding disc:

VIDEO_TS.BUP (12 KB)
VIDEO_TS.IFO (12 KB)
VIDEO_TS.VOB (60 KB)
VTS_01_0.BUP (116 KB)
VTS_01_0.IFO (116 KB)
VTS_01_1.VOB (1,048,512 KB)
VTS_01_2.VOB (1,048,512 KB)
VTS_01_3.VOB (1,048,512 KB)
VTS_01_4.VOB (1,048,512 KB)
VTS_01_5.VOB (359,616 KB)
VTS_02_0.BUP (120 KB)
VTS_02_0.IFO (120 KB)
VTS_02_1.VOB (1,048,512 KB)
VTS_02_2.VOB (1,048,512 KB)
VTS_02_3.VOB (1,048,512 KB)
VTS_02_4.VOB (1,048,512 KB)
VTS_02_5.VOB (359,616 KB)

17 files, total size 8,68 Gb

Any ideas how to solve this problem, and make it fit on a regular 4,7 Gb disc?

Thanks in advance.

[setarip_old]

Hi!

Simply copy the entire contents to a folder on your hard drive - and use DVD Shrink to compress it to fit on a single layered DVD

The two sets of .VOBs (and .IFOs and .BUPs) very likely represent the shooting that you did at the two different quality settings...

[mr soft]

Hi
If the disc is 4.7g you can only have 4.7g on it.
Try playing the file on your hard drive in wmp or vlc to see if you´ve somehow doubled up on something.
You could just do a straight disc copy with whichever burning software you use.
Before you make loads of copies I´d check if the dvd player can handle LP .
Good luck

[Fyrsten]

Hi!

Simply copy the entire contents to a folder on your hard drive - and use DVD Shrink to compress it to fit on a single layered DVD

The two sets of .VOBs (and .IFOs and .BUPs) very likely represent the shooting that you did at the two different quality settings...

Thanks for reply. I do think the two sets of .VOBS represent the two different quality settings, but it seems to be virtual. I recorded it in DVD+VR mode, and the disc can only hold 4,7 Gb, so half of those files must be virtual and not physical.

Okay, I'll try DVD Shrink, but it will probably lower the quality and blend the two titles into one. I hoped that there were some other way to solve it.

[DarkZell666]

The two sets of files are a filesystem trick used by the recorder. If you open both VTS_01_1.VOB and VTS_02_1.VOB in VLC or MPC, you'll be watching exactly the same thing (I think).

Physically, you only have one set of files, but the recorder wrote 2 entries in the file index for each 1gb portion, so when copying the files to the HDD they got copied twice with the 2 different names.

This doesn't explain why though, and it's apparently a common symptom, but it shouldn't bother you. I believe you can safely ignore (delete) the VTS_02_* files and burn the other files directly as-is (get hold of another DVD+RW for your tests just in case it screws up). Both titles are in fact inside the VTS_01_* files.

[Fyrsten]

Thanks for all replies and advices.

I tried DVD shrink and managed to make copies for my family. But the quality was way poor and crappy :(

I still got the original DVD-VR with the 8,68 Gb content, and two sets of almost identical VOB files, and hope that I am able to make high quality copies of it so I can give to my family for X-mas. That would please them.

I am sure there is someone here who knows how to deal with the VOB files, so I can copy them directly, instead of having to shrink the content and quality.

I have tried all the advices I was given, and have found out some additional information:

Title1: SP quality is located in the VTS_01 VOB-files.
Title2: LP quality is located in the VTS_02 VOB-files.

The VTS_01 files only hold the title with the better quality: Title1 (Because I started out in a better quality mode), nothing else. Allthough I still get the full menu, clicking on Title2 with different quality makes the PowerDVD player crash.

The VTS_02 files hold the title with the lesser quality: Title2, and nothing else. Clicking on Title1 only make the PowerDVD player crash.

So in order to make a exact copy of the wedding DVD, with the same quality, I must find a way to combine the Title1 from the VTS_01_X.VOB-files and the Title2 from the VTS_02_X.VOB-files.

It would have been easier if the DVD recorder didnt make full sets of VOBs for both qualities, as the total content is basically less than 4.7 Gb, but appear as 8.68 Gb with the virtual files.

I hope someone can help me solve this problem within a week, so I can make high quality copies as X-mas presents.

Thanks in advance.

[ankurs]

well regarding the .vob title mixture you desire to do , you always could make a .d2v using dgindex off the vob files you want in there in order and the cce/hc/quenc them (enhance the quality in almost every way you want too ) and eventually author a dvd and burn it ..

i know it is very hard for a starter ( myself being one :/ ) to get in grasp with all this but if you really want something of digestable quality i'd say cce would be your best shot for such a small size ( 4.37 gb ) and hence less bitrate for a bigger resolution and hence the less bitrate distribution for the amount of motion present in say a wedding ..

or better why not make it a dvd9 size ? , that would be the best option imo ..

[setarip_old]

@FrystenIt would have been easier if the DVD recorder didnt make full sets of VOBs for both qualities, as the total content is basically less than 4.7 Gb, but appear as 8.68 Gb with the virtual files.Please clarify - You previously said that partway through shooting, you switched modes. Do you now have one Title (VTS_01) that contains ONLY the earlier, higher quality shooting and a second Title (VTS_02) that contains only the later, lower quality shooting - or do you, somehow have VTS_01 containing the ENTIRE shoot and VTS_02 a duplicate of the ENTIRE shoot?

[Fyrsten]

well regarding the .vob title mixture you desire to do , you always could make a .d2v using dgindex off the vob files you want in there in order and the cce/hc/quenc them (enhance the quality in almost every way you want too ) and eventually author a dvd and burn it ..

i know it is very hard for a starter ( myself being one :/ ) to get in grasp with all this but if you really want something of digestable quality i'd say cce would be your best shot for such a small size ( 4.37 gb ) and hence less bitrate for a bigger resolution and hence the less bitrate distribution for the amount of motion present in say a wedding ..

or better why not make it a dvd9 size ? , that would be the best option imo ..

Thanks for reply, but this is all greek to me. dgindex??

I dont have dual layer DVD's or a Dual layer writer for that sake. My DVD writers are from 2005.

@FrystenPlease clarify - You previously said that partway through shooting, you switched modes. Do you now have one Title (VTS_01) that contains ONLY the earlier, higher quality shooting and a second Title (VTS_02) that contains only the later, lower quality shooting - or do you, somehow have VTS_01 containing the ENTIRE shoot and VTS_02 a duplicate of the ENTIRE shoot?

Thanks for reply. I'll try to explain in a better way.

This is the content of the disc:

VIDEO_TS.BUP (12 KB)
VIDEO_TS.IFO (12 KB)
VIDEO_TS.VOB (60 KB)
VTS_01_0.BUP (116 KB)
VTS_01_0.IFO (116 KB)
VTS_01_1.VOB (1,048,512 KB)
VTS_01_2.VOB (1,048,512 KB)
VTS_01_3.VOB (1,048,512 KB)
VTS_01_4.VOB (1,048,512 KB)
VTS_01_5.VOB (359,616 KB)
VTS_02_0.BUP (120 KB)
VTS_02_0.IFO (120 KB)
VTS_02_1.VOB (1,048,512 KB)
VTS_02_2.VOB (1,048,512 KB)
VTS_02_3.VOB (1,048,512 KB)
VTS_02_4.VOB (1,048,512 KB)
VTS_02_5.VOB (359,616 KB)

17 files, total size 8,68 Gb


But I did examine the VOB files closer. Moved the VTS_02 files into another folder, and played the VTS_01.VOB files with PowerDVD. It has the full menu, but only the content of the higher quality recording. Clicking on the 2nd title in the menu, makes PowerDVD crash.

I renamed the VTS_02 files in the other folder, to VTS_01 and included the VIDEO_TS files to make it run in PowerDVD. That one had the lower quality title, and full menu. Clicking on the first title made PowerDVD crash.

It could be that the VIDEO_TS files holds an index of some sort, which uses both sets of VOB Files.

[setarip_old]

Then you now have one Title (VTS_01) that contains ONLY the earlier, higher quality shooting and a second Title (VTS_02) that contains ONLY the later, lower quality shooting totalling a REAL 8.68GB (NOT "REAL" 4.34Gb and "Virtual" 4.34Gb).

As such, you can't put them on one DVD5 (4.37Gb) without compressing them. You did this successfully with DVD Shrink, but stated that But the quality was way poor and crappy Was it very much worse than the low quality portion of your recording?

Here are several alternatives:

1) Use "DVD Rebuilder" (instead of DVD Shrink) to compress

2) No compression - Burn to a double layer DVD9 media (Use only Verbatim D/L DVD+R)

3) No compression - Split the entire DVD "package" over two DVD5 single layer media. this can be accomplished by using the VERY OLD, ORIGINAL "DVD Fab" (Not to be confused with any of the current multiple "DVDFab" ["Platinum", "Gold", "HD Decrypter", etc] programs). You can obtain the correct program at:

www.mrbass.org

[Wombler]

the total content is basically less than 4.7 Gb, but appear as 8.68 Gb with the virtual files.


If that's the case then try doing an ISO read and ISO write with ImgBurn (http://www.imgburn.com/).


Wombler

[CWR03]

Have you considered purchasing a newer drive and DL disks? A good drive can be had for $30 US.

[Gavino]

Then you now have one Title (VTS_01) that contains ONLY the earlier, higher quality shooting and a second Title (VTS_02) that contains ONLY the later, lower quality shooting totalling a REAL 8.68GB (NOT "REAL" 4.34Gb and "Virtual" 4.34Gb).
There may well be 8.68Gb now on the hard drive, but the two VOB sets are more than likely identical. It's just the menus that are screwed up.

You could probably use just one of the VOB sets, renamed as .mpg files, in a DVD authoring program to build a new (4.7Gb, 3hr) DVD without any recoding at all.

[Fyrsten]

@Setarip_old: Thanks for help, your suggestion might have worked too, but I went for Womblers solution.


If that's the case then try doing an ISO read and ISO write with ImgBurn (http://www.imgburn.com/).


Wombler

You are a GENIOUS Wombler. :thanks:

Making a Disk image was the solution to my problem. ImgBurn is a fine program, but I used Nero to make a disk image and burn copies.

Now I have 4 identical and perfect copies which my family is gonna get for christmas. They are gonna be so happy now.

Thanks again, you saved my day Wombler.

@CWR03: I live in Norway, and stuff is very expensive here. So I'll stick with my current drives, which costed me like $250 dollars each.

@Gavino: According to mpucoder (in a old thread here: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=112320) the two VOB sets represent different qualities and video attributes.

DVD-VR can have up to three copies of exactly the same data in three VTS's. The reason for this is that while there is only one large space for all recordings, recordings having different video attributes (notably resolution and mpeg-2/mpeg-1) must be in different VTS's. To accomplish this files are created in VTS_02 and VTS_03 that point to the files of VTS_01.

Too bad mpucoder didnt write in that thread how to solve such problem, but I am sure he also have a solution for it if he had read my thread.

But now my problem is solved. Thank you all :)

[DarkZell666]

That makes my point (post #5) invalid then :) I wonder why I didn't think about the ISO trick myself :cool:

Anyway, it's great you finally managed to share your wedding DVD with your relatives ! Have a nice journey both of you ;)

[Wombler]

Thanks again, you saved my day Wombler.


No problem.

Just glad you got sorted. :)


Wombler