Difficult Chapter Point Extraction

[EpheMeroN]

I am making a backup of just the main movie of a dvd I own. However there's 3 different versions of the film on 1 dvd. You can choose any of the 3 versions from the dvd menu, and all 3 versions have different chapters. 1 version removes some chapters, and the other version adds in new material, whilst the 3rd ver (the one I want to make a backup of) is just the original version of the film.

When I demux the main movie in PgcDemux, or even re-author in DVD Shrink w/ no compression, it saves the chapter points from ALL 3 of the versions put together.

Is there a way to properly extract the chapter points from just 1 of the versions? Or will I have to manually create new chapters?

[blutach]

Why not re-author in DVD Shrink, picking only the title you want?

Regards

[Alex_ander]

In PGCDemux try to find out, which selectable PGC represents the movie version you plan to backup (by your description, it shouldn't be the longest PGC), probably then the proper 'celltimes' will be extracted for it.

[EpheMeroN]

Why not re-author in DVD Shrink, picking only the title you want?

Regards
I've tried that. Re-authoring w/ DVD Shrink outputs a dvd main movie w/ 66 chapters. The actual original main movie only has 51 chapters.

[EpheMeroN]

In PGCDemux try to find out, which selectable PGC represents the movie version you plan to backup (by your description, it shouldn't be the longest PGC), probably then the proper 'celltimes' will be extracted for it.
PgcDemux outputs a celltimes w/ 77 total chapters. There are not 3 different selectable PGCs to correspond to the 3 different main movies. Some type of different dvd authoring?

[blutach]

You got angles/interleaving in the titles?

Regards

[EpheMeroN]

You got angles/interleaving in the titles?

Regards
No angles. I'm going to guess this is interleaving?

Here's what the original dvd main movie looks like in VobBlanker:

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/821/45650278ux4.th.jpg (http://img217.imageshack.us/my.php?image=45650278ux4.jpg) http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/7019/71019376yq7.th.jpg (http://img329.imageshack.us/my.php?image=71019376yq7.jpg) http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/2706/13799726wa7.th.jpg (http://img217.imageshack.us/my.php?image=13799726wa7.jpg)

[blutach]

No, it isn't - it's multi-story.

Is title 1 the main movie? Play the DVD on a software player and check the on screen display. It would seeem so. If so, there are 77 cells, whic could translate into anywhere between 1 and 77 chapters. I'd look at the DVD Shrink output and check your chapter marks in PgcEdit - DVD Shrink does not change the PTT table at all - it should have your 77 cells but the chapter table will be the same.

Regards

[EpheMeroN]

Yes TITLE 1 is the main movie.

Chapter tables can't be the same. With Shrink output it has 66 chapter points. When I view the main movie off the original dvd it only has 51 chapters.

[Alex_ander]

If title 1 is that movie version, then its PGC1 really includes 77 cells, but the # of cells can be >= # of programs >= # of chapters. PGCDemux writes cell start times (in frame # format), so along with chapter data there are also timings for next cells in some chapters, which can be removed from list using information on chapter cell structure. E.g. it can be found in PGCEdit or DVDRemake's 'Programs' tab.
Alternatively, you can use TDA (for re-authoring or just extracting chaper data), it imports DVD material using VTS ifo's and takes chapter (not cell-) information to timeline (TDA3 can also export chapter frame ## to file).

[r0lZ]

PgcEdit has also an option to create a Celltimes.txt file with only the real chapter points. But, IMO, that's not really needed, as additional cells not associated with a program or chapter are totally transparent to the user. You can leave them in place.

Anyway, you don't need to take that chapters/programs/cells stuff into account when you make your backup. Just copy the right Title with DVDShrink in re-author more, and you will have the right chapter points. Blutach's suggestion in post #2 is the right thing to do, as Shrink does NOT add extra chapter points when re-authoring. You might have to untick the "Combine Shared Titles" option in the View menu to be able to pick the right title only, and it may be in the "Extras" section if it is shorter than the longest title.