merging VOBs

[stl]

I find myself in a ridiculous and annoying situation that is beyond my control.

This total piece of **** capture program that I'm forced to use called Moviestar 5 has a max cap size of 4gb EVEN if you use NTFS which I do. So I have 2 MPEG2 files that are part of the same film.

I want to make a DVD out of this but as 1 movie not 2. I have Videopack 5 which reads VOBs. So I made 2 DVD images hoping that I could then take the individual VOBs and make 1 complete movie but Videopack 5 won't accept the last VOB.

My capture device can only use this software and I can only use an external capture device as consumer PCI cap cards won't work on 2cpu systems.

I would really, really appreciate it if someone could tell me or point me in the right direction as to how I can take these VOBS or MPEGS and make 1 DVD movie.

Oh, and I tried the latest IFOedit and it told me the VOBs were invalid which is b******t because I tested them.

[TRILIGHT]

First, the language isn't necessary, man. (See Rule 4) Anyway, you're trying to go about it the wrong way and that's why you're having trouble. The VOB structure was never designed for editing or merging, etc. You need to import your files into NLE (non-linear editing such as Adobe Premiere) software and combine your files into one there. Either that or bring your assets into some DVD authoring software and combine them there. Though I suggest the former since you will have more control and will be able to make any transitions seamlessly.

[stl]

Sorry if I offended anyone although here in NY the word in question really isn't considered profane.

Anyway, thanks for the advice, unfortunately I tried NLE's. mediastdio 6 crashes when I try to import (these are DVD compliant MPEGs) premiere takes the 1st file but crashes on the second. I just got a hold of avid but I find it so un-user friendly that I'm still trying to figure out how to import files.

The reason I'm so angry is that the only software which combines these files is garbage moviestar. Fine, but after rendering IN DVD TEMPLATE the result is terribly blocky. It looks like a bad VCD which is unacceptable. I even put it through TMPG which porduced a 5.7gb file and it was still blocky.

It's not my system because it's a dualie AMD 1800's with 1GB ram. TMPG took 2:27 for a 1:55 movie!

As for authoring, that's what I was tring to do with videopack but when I test rendered, the result while not blocky was jerky, it's always something.

You won't believe this but the best and fastest results were from another dazzle product DVDcomplete, however, like all their products, you have little control over the details and I don't know how to combine these movies into 1 continuous DVD film.

This whole mess could have been avoided if moviestar would not have a 4GB limit. Oh, I just remebered that I have an older version of DVDit and powerdirector2. I will try them but am still open to suggestions.

thanks again.

[TRILIGHT]

Have you tried VirtualDub? I usually just use Premiere but I've been told by a lot of people that they've had really good results when using this software. You might want to give it a try. There's a VirtualDub forum here on the site too.

[stl]

Yes, I've tried Vdub and I can't use it with this cap device. I now wish that I would have spent twice the money to get the "deluxe" version which has 1394 in/out instead of USB. because I hear it can cap to anything including premiere.

Last night I did 2 things: got ifoedit to correct the project except there was no sound. I basically did a strip but kept everything. Played back perfectly other than the sound.
The second thing I did was explore DVDcomplete (which seems to be their best product except that they package the "basic"- can't do animated menus & animated chapter boxes) I got it to work except that at the point when 1 movie merges into the other there is a slight freeze, which I can live with. However, the sacrifice was that I have no menus or chapter points.

In this case it's OK as this project was finished and output to VHS and all that was needed was a DVD transfer. I think that if I learn this prog well it might do what I need.

One question remains: Why premiere was crashing while taking the mpegs into the timeline. How does it work for you?

It would really be a crime and a waste of time if I cap in DVD-mpeg and then have to convert to AVI then back. Do you think DVD2AVI can be of help.

Thanks again for the advice

[TRILIGHT]

I'm not really sure why Premiere was crashing on you like that. The only time I've seen it crash was when there were underlying problems with the installation or the mpeg file itself had a problem that Premiere didn't know what to do with.

In my case it is fairly simple when using my Pinnacle DVD1000 card. It has drivers that come with specific Premiere "plug-ins". It was designed to use Premiere as it's primary capture/editing software. It captures/edits/exports in full DVD compliant MPEG2 streams. I've never had any problems.

VirtualDub does not recognize my Pinnacle card though. My suggestion for using VirtualDub was in the hopes that maybe you could use it to splice your captured files together. It sounds like you found a workaround to solve that for you though. Good luck!

[kheops]

hi,

may it will sound stupid but english isn't my native language so i'm not sure i really understood what you want to do

why don't you try vobedit ?
http://mpucoder.kewlhair.com/derrow/joinclip.html

2 warnings, i made mistakes at the beginning
1) your existing vobs do have to be VTS_01_001.VOB VTS_01_002.VOB and so on
2) when you want to save the big vob file, don't change its name or it vobedit won't work (of course you can change the name afterwards)

please tell me if it was the solution ?

+++

[Antonio S.]

Just merge the 2 MPEG files using TMPGenc (I think that since version 2.5 it can handle MPEG files bigger than 4 GB) or DVtools. After that demux files with TMPGenc, and use your m2v and audio file (wave or mp2) in an authoring program to make your VIDEO_TS needed for DVD.

"ANOTHER APROACH"

If you want to re-encode it with TMPGEnc.
1- Load both MPEG files in DVD2AVI (I am assuming they are MPEG-2), then create project. Preview it and check fps. Remember to use demux option in audio section.
2- Now you can load project in TMPGEnc. Use template for DVDnstc.

To avoid blockiness use guide in these site in the TMPGenc section...

Antonio S.

[stl]

Thanks everyone for all of the input.

Some interesting things: but 1st, what does the pinnacle card cost and do you know if it'll work on a dualie system (most consumer PCI cards don't, however I know someone who has a DPS velocity setup that does but it cost him $5300 US!)

2nd, I toyed with derrows guides using VOBedit to reencode part of a movie and had mixed results but this was my fault. The point is I'm not sure how to do this with VOBedit. The same goes for TMPG I'm not sure how to do it.
What I'm leading up to is this:

My temp workaround caused a minor freeze when the transition between movies was played. No big deal, but since my system can process an IFOedit strip in about 10-15min, I ran it through the process same as the guide but kept everything hoping to correct the navigation.

The result was much much better and PLAYED BACK IN BOTH THE IFOEDIT PLAYER & POWERDVD XP4. when I burned it though, it wouln't work in powerDVD or any of my standalones. A second disk, tested and burned at 1X (I use recordnowmax 4) same thing. A 3rd disk using the original files worked. I narrowed this error down to the VTS_01_0.ifo
which wouldn't load alone in powerDVD. Never had something played on powerDVD and not on disk. I will post also in the IFOedit forum.

WEIRD