Going out of my mind.. errors with creating DVD-R's..

[JoeB]

Here's the situation..

I consider myself to be a seasoned user when it comes to creating SVCD's (been doing it for years) and recently purchased a Pioneer DVR-104 drive.

I've got no problems with creating DVD-5 -> DVD-5 copies, as well as DVD-9 + IfoEdit ripping of movie only to DVD-5.

The thing that I keep hitting the wall on is DVD-9 with VOB movie files that are too big! Here's what I tried thus far, and my success.. and help would be EXTREMLY appreciated!

1) IfoEdit method

- used DoItFast4U to rip the movie. Settings are:
* Create folder for this VTS
* Vobsub PGC ALL
* +CC checked
* The rest is not checked

All ran fine, problem free.

- Used DVD2AVI to strip out the AC3 audio, and video. Created the
avs file, loaded it into CCE 2.50 (with correct settings of RobShot
method, and guides I read here on Doom9). VBR 3 pass, 6000Mbps avg, 2000 min, 9000 max. 3 hours later I had a video file.

- Executed pulldown on the video via DoItFast4U

- Started up IfoEdit, told it to author new movie. Added Video, added audio (fixed delay that DVD2SVCD found), added chapters after using Chapter X tractor, and added subtitles.. (fixed colors)

(Noticed IfoEdit complained about some buffer underrun - on AC3 audio stream!)

- Ran the fix VTS afterwards.. all went fine.

- Tested the movie in PowerDVD.. looks great.. subtitles great.

Burned to DVD-RW, put into Pioneer DV-444, plays for 5 seconds, and freezes.. I skip to next chapter.. same thing.. fast forward.. same thing..

Give up, look for another method..

2) DVD Maestro method

So I decided to follow the DVD-9 to DVD-5 "Full Copy" Instructions (Single PGC only!) method listed here.. I did make the following correction to it:

Before I started, I used IfoEdit to create a new video that basically had only the AC3 audio, subtitles and movie (same way I've done it before when the movie VOB's only fit on a DVD-R). I fixed the VTS and confirmed it played fine in power-DVD.

Everything looked great.. (heck, I still don't understand the reason for the double pulldown, but still did it) but I ran into a major problem!

No matter what I tried, it did not want to import the sub file created in SubRip 1.05/1.06! I even confirmed the global start time / times are all set to 00:00:00:00. Heck, even CCE 2.50 was set with that time during encoding!

After fighting for it for a long time, I gave up and created the movie without subtitles.. this movie doesn't even want to play in PowerDVD..

So at this point, I can see that my only alternative is to turn to "not-so-good" conversion programs (like DVD2ONE) because I can't see anything else that I can do..

PLEASE HELP. I've looked for HOURS on this forum.. and can't find the solution.

JoeB.

P.S. Thanks for reading this far.

[Eyes`Only]

You seem to heading down the right path, hitting all the potholes on the way!

Your first attempt with ifoedit remuxing.. that's a no-no. Doesn't work well, as you've found out.

Your second attempt with Maestro.. well that's getting there. However, all the newer guides are written for Scenarist, as people are starting to realize it's superior power.

My suggestion- Try one of two guides:

1) Doom9 Guide - here (http://www.doom9.org/mpg/multipgc-guide.htm)

or

2) Trilight's Uberguide - here (http://dvdguides.trilight.net/flowchartguide/uberintro.htm)

both of these up-to-date guides use the latest tried-and-true methods and will get your from DVD9 to DVDr with the best quality available!

[JoeB]

Yeah.. you are right... guess that's the problem with me seeing old guides rather than new.

I got a copy of Scenarist, and will be trying it out..

The good thing is that I still have the AC3, M2V, etc files.. so moving the data to Scenarist hopefully will not take too long!

Thanks,

JoeB