Data Start Time parameter in Scenarist

[iomagic]

Could someone please tell me why some m2v files imported into Scenarist have "Data Start Time" not equal to zero, and how to fix it? Does not seem to be an editable parameter, and it's really annoying. Starting with problems calculating duration of a stream, to IfoUpdate failing to update the script file. One value I see quite often is 00:59:58:00, but there are some above 1 hour, and other unhappy numbers.

[auenf]

it is the internal timecode of the file.

Enf...

[aquabubble]

You can work around this by firstly importing your m2v into Scenarist and exporting your project to a script (SCP). Open the SCP in a text editor and find the Data Folder and within that, the Item=Video that relates to your m2v. In here you should ensure that you change the appropriate lines to read Data Start Time=00:00:00:00
Data End Time=(your original end time minus the old Data Start Time)
Once you have saved this file then you can re-import it into Scenarist, which will set the start time to 00:00:00:00.

Alternatively, you can correct the timecodes within the m2v file by running it through pulldown.exe -nopulldown

[iomagic]

Thanks! The first approach is not too cool, cuz I'll have to run through all these timings - precisely what I'm trying to avoid! :)
But the pulldown approach is excellent, I'll definitely try that! Thank you very much!!

[rkorkie]

Hey guys, I thought this thread was gonna solve my problems, but I guess it didn't. I am doing Mallrats, and I ran the whole thing through DoItFast4u, processing subs by angle. Basically this thing doesn't need to be re-encoded, it will fit onto one dvd-r after I strip out everything I don't want (yeah, call me a bit of a butcher I guess).

So, I import the m2v and ac3 into scenarist, all goes well. I change them both to drop-frame. I import my chapters. Then I import sub-titles. This is where I can't seem to figure out my problem. Here are my errors:

Error The start time should be smaller than end_time. [00:59:59:29 - 00:59:59:29]
Error The start time should be smaller than end_time. [00:59:59:29 - 00:59:59:29]
Error Timecode is overlapping at this sub-picture. [00:59:00:29 - 00:59:59:29]

...and the list of errors goes on. So, basically, most of what I read seems to indicate the timecode wasn't set to all zeros in CCE. Well, I didn't re-encode. Other posts say you need to adjust the start-time to all zeros in the Scenarist .scp file. Well, it was already set to zeros. So that wasn't my problem. I tried to run a pulldown on it with the -nopulldown flag to perhaps reset some internal timecode, but that didn't help. So I look into the .sst file for the subs, and I see some negative numbers in there:

st_format 2
Display_Start non_forced
TV_Type NTSC
Tape_Type NON_DROP
Pixel_Area (0 477)
Directory C:\MALLRATS\VTS04\subs\VTS_04_VSUB_P1A1-00
Subtitle VTS_04_VSUB_P1A1-00-English
Display_Area (0 2 719 479)
Contrast (15 15 15 0)

PA (0 0 255 - - - )
E1 (255 0 0 - - - )
E2 (0 0 0 - - - )
BG (255 255 255 - - - )

SP_NUMBER START END FILE_NAME
Color (10 3 1 15)
Contrast (15 15 0 15)
0001 00:-2:-30:-24 00:-2:-28:-22 VTS_04_VSUB_P1A1-00-English_0001.bmp
0002 00:-2:-28:-20 00:-2:-24:-3 VTS_04_VSUB_P1A1-00-English_0002.bmp
0003 00:-2:-24:-1 00:-2:-21:-21 VTS_04_VSUB_P1A1-00-English_0003.bmp
0004 00:-2:-21:-20 00:-2:-19:-22 VTS_04_VSUB_P1A1-00-English_0004.bmp
0005 00:-2:-19:-14 00:-2:-18:-6 VTS_04_VSUB_P1A1-00-English_0005.bmp
0006 00:-2:-18:-5 00:-2:-14:-24 VTS_04_VSUB_P1A1-00-English_0006.bmp
0007 00:-2:-14:-23 00:-2:-12:-22 VTS_04_VSUB_P1A1-00-English_0007.bmp
0008 00:-2:-12:-21 00:-2:-10:-2 VTS_04_VSUB_P1A1-00-English_0008.bmp
0009 00:-2:-10:-1 00:-2:-7:-15 VTS_04_VSUB_P1A1-00-English_0009.bmp
0010 00:-2:-7:-14 00:-2:-4:-22 VTS_04_VSUB_P1A1-00-English_0010.bmp
0011 00:-2:-4:-21 00:-2:-2:-8 VTS_04_VSUB_P1A1-00-English_0011.bmp
0012 00:-2:-2:-7 00:-2:00:-16 VTS_04_VSUB_P1A1-00-English_0012.bmp
0013 00:-2:00:-15 00:-1:-58:-28 VTS_04_VSUB_P1A1-00-English_0013.bmp
0014 00:-1:-58:-27 00:-1:-56:-4 VTS_04_VSUB_P1A1-00-English_0014.bmp
0015 00:-1:-56:-3 00:-1:-53:-25 VTS_04_VSUB_P1A1-00-English_0015.bmp
0016 00:-1:-53:-24 00:-1:-49:-28 VTS_04_VSUB_P1A1-00-English_0016.bmp

************************************

I am sure this is the problem. I don't exactly know what the fix should be given that DoItFast4u created this .sst file and I thought it always made it correctly (with positive numbers). Any advice on how to change it???? Should I make the start time of the movie a negative number??

[iomagic]

Well... Let's consider two problems. One is with the start time to video - I didn't try pulldown, but I ran restream - it fixed the GOP timing code, and scenarist was happy. Now, be careful here - this has NOTHING to do with the subtitle times, so this was not your problem in the first place.
Yes, you do have corrupt subtitle file, and I don't know what DoItFast4U is doing there - I've tried it few times, but could never get things just the way I want them. Vobsub process is painfully slow, I always use subrip.
So, if you go ahead and do subrip, your file will be correct - but be careful about VobIDs. If your movie does not start at the beginning of a VOB, you will have a time shift in your sst file - so either pre-split your title set by VobID and run subrip on the proper VOB, or you will have to figure out the time difference and adjust it in the post-processing thingie in the subrip.
I'm not calling myself a guru, but I've seen various problems and the guides, unfortunately, do not always have a provision for an unusual situation. So, all I'm offering is the things I did and they worked. Whether they will get you your precise final result - your call :)
Hope this helps!
P.S. If you see the constant time shift in your sst file, try subtitle workshop, import this file there and adjust the time. Might work ;)
P.P.S. Gurus - any comments about VobID thingie? It would be impossible to use IFO file for running subrip on a split vob, is it of any importance?

[rkorkie]

I tried subtitle workshop, but it couldn't even load my .sst file that DoItFast4u created, saying it was corrupted or an unsupported format. Go figure. I tried to load a .sst file from another movie where it was valid and it still said it couldn't load. Oh well.

As far as the rest of what you said, I didn't understand much cause I haven't much experience with Subrip, I guess I will give it a shot. Thanx.

[iomagic]

Well... try this: load the ifo file into the IFO editor and look which VOB IDs it is using. If there is more than one, you already have some kind of problem. If the ID of the movie is not 1, then you should use Vob Editor and split the whole title set by VobIDs - it will create several VOBs, and only one of them will be the actual movie. The others - irrelevant for you. Run SubRip on the movie VOB, and you should get your subtitles with proper timing.
Note: When you open VOB directly instead of IFO in SubRip, it won't be able to show you the streams, but you can see them in IFO editor anyway.