Merging Chapters

[broxburn]

I have videos that have chapters at five minute intervals.
Since these chapters don't line up with scene changes I was intending to split them using VobBlanker.
Instead of five cells per episode that have to be split, is there a way to merge the cells so that VobBlanker only sees one cell per title.

[manolito]

Maybe PgcEdit can do this for you. This is from a very old post (I forgot who posted it)...

Open the project in PgcEdit and remove the chapter point(s) by double clicking the movie PGC and clicking on the chapter point to make it show a blank square. You will probably also need to delete the last chapter in the Edit Chapter Table dialogue to ensure the number of chapters in the chapter table is the same as that in the PGC. OK and save.


Cheers
manolito

[broxburn]

Thank you.
That works inasmuch as the cells are now subscribed to one large, single chapter - but VobBlanker still sees the group of cells and each has to be worked separately.
I have 160+ titles with five cells each from a TV series that need to be worked so I'd much rather split one cell per title rather than five times 160.

[Ghitulescu]

Chapters are at PGC level not VOB so why do insist in using VOBblanker instead of PGCedit?

[broxburn]

Just that stubborn bulldog spirit that won us two world wars I guess.

[Ghitulescu]

Go on, then.

[broxburn]

I did.
It's tedious, but life isn't all smiles and sunshine, eh?

[r0lZ]

Chapters are at PGC level not VOB so why do insist in using VOBblanker instead of PGCedit?
If I understand correctly, the chapter points are not at the right position. They have to be moved, and therefore, new cells must be created, by splitting existing cells. VobBlanker is the tool to use for that job.
That works inasmuch as the cells are now subscribed to one large, single chapter - but VobBlanker still sees the group of cells and each has to be worked separately.
It's normal. VobBlanker can split the existing cells (and optionally add a program and chapter at the split point), but afaik it cannot merge the cells.
There are tools to merge the cells in a VOB file, but unfortunately, they do not modify the IFO pointers, and therefore they cannot be safely used on a DVD folder. You will have to process all cells manually.
(It might be possible to demux the VOBs with PgcDemux, then recreate new VOBs without chapter points with Muxman, import them back in the original DVD with PgcEdit, and finally define the new chapter points with VobBlanker, but it's also a long and tedious work.)

[broxburn]

What I did was blank the existing cells then replace the first blanked cell with the original .VOB (each 24 minute episode/title of the DVD is one vob file).
Tested in PgcEdit.
Used DVD Shrink to fit the DVD to a SD RW disk and tested the menu operation on a standalone player.
Reloaded the source in VobBlanker and split the replacement VOB (Cell).
Tested in PgcEdit.
Repeated the DVD Shrink operation to verify it skipped through the chapters and the menu worked.

The disks were originally processed though AVStoDVD without re-encoding using a custom graphic for the menu.
I made the mistake of not assigning the chapters to 999 minute intervals - that was my original mistake.

[r0lZ]

Good and original method!
There are still 4 unnecessary blanked cells in the VOB files, but they consume little disc space, so it's not a problem.
Great job!

[Ghitulescu]

Instead of five cells per episode that have to be split, is there a way to merge the cells so that VobBlanker only sees one cell per title.

If I understand correctly, the chapter points are not at the right position. They have to be moved, and therefore, new cells must be created, by splitting existing cells. VobBlanker is the tool to use for that job.

True, but the question was to obtain first a single cell per episode, which has later to be split into chapters.

The method is original, but requires a lot of file transfers (affects speed + requires space), compared to PGCedit (delete chapters) + vobblanker (add new chapters).

[r0lZ]

Right, but he wants to merge the cells, to facilitate the cut operation with VB. His method can be simplified, but it is good.

I would probably make this: Remove all cells but one with PgcEdit, then replace the remaining cell with VobBlanker, and cut the new cell to create the new chapter points. That doesn't require to use DVDShrink at all (unless the DVD has to be shrunk anyway), and it's probably much more rapid. But he did it right, and it's the main thing.

[broxburn]

I used DVD Shrink because I didn't want to risk a DL disk before knowing that it would actually work as expected on my standalone player.
When I was satisfied that everything worked, I burned it back to a DL.

[broxburn]

I would probably make this: Remove all cells but one with PgcEdit, then replace the remaining cell with VobBlanker, and cut the new cell to create the new chapter points.


If I remove the cells using PgcEdit then replace the remaining cell in VobBlanker then recheck using PgcEdit - the menu doesn't work properly.

Example - I remove the cells in PgcEdit from the first two titles.
Modify the first two titles in VobBlanker, open it in PgcEdit and run the trace , select the first menu item; after playback it returns and highlights the third menu item.
The same behaviour when the second title is selected.
If now the third (unmodified) item is selected, it plays back and returns and highlights the fourth title as expected.