DVDFab and seeking to time

[Mascot]

I got a DVD burner a short time ago and am fiddling around with different software to copy a DVD. For smaller movies DVDShrink does the job just fine. But for like 7GB movies I'd prefer to split instead of compressing 50% and destroying the quality, so I checked out DVDFab. It works just peachy apart from the final product being unseekable. That is, I can't input a time and jump straight to it. Nor can I click the timeline in powerdvd and get anywhere, so it's not just my set-top player. If I DVDShrink the same movie seek works fine (although the quality is crap due to having to use level 9 compression).

Is this a known issue/how it's supposed to be?

(The test DVD I'm using is region 2 Apocalypse Now REDUX)

Thanks in advance for any replies.

[Mascot]

Considering there's been no answer as of yet, I suspect there never will be. But for anybody reading I should add that I've tested it with DVD X Copy since my last post and the result was perfectly seekable. I'd still very much like to know if this is something everybody has a problem with with DVDFab or if it's just me though. Cause DVDFab has functionality that makes it much preferable to use compared to XCopy and if it's isolated to a few systems (mine obviously being one of them) it would seem to indicate I can figure out why and correct it.

[lighty]

I for one never encountered any problems like that and I did copy Apocalypse Now Redux R2. I know I am not being of any help but I just wanted to say that it is obviously not a common problem.

[Mascot]

Actually you were of help. Since you confirmed that it's not a common problem I decided to do some more testing. First I tested on another movie. Same thing there. I then checked it with ripping just the movie, instead of the entire DVD contents (menus and all). If I stick to just the movie, the result is seekable. If I do a complete copy, it's not.

In your case, have you done both and can confirm that both varieties work for you?

[lighty]

Sorry but I cannot confirm both cases since most of my rips are movie only (because most of the time I hate menues).

[mrbass]

Does the original DVD have a VIDEO_TS.BUP?

[Mascot]

Yep, both my test discs were ripped via dvd decrypter in file mode with all files selected. Including video_ts.bup.

I find it real weird that the problem manifests itself only if doing a complete copy. If selecting "copy main movie" from the exact same rip it works fine.

[mrbass]

and does DVDFAB 0.70.0 fix the problem? Have you tried it yet? If not, why not? It was released 5 days ago. Please keep up :-)

[Mascot]

You know, I checked dvdfab.com earlier today and it said 0.16.1 as current release on the download page. My ISP's proxy must've been feeding me bad data :(

I checked via Opera now (it seems to be better at forcing proxies to update) and got 0.17.0 just fine. Giving it a testrun. Will update status once done.

[mrbass]

I said VIDEO_TS.BUP but I meant VIDEO_TS.VOB

[Mascot]

I checked the version history.txt and see why you're asking. But, yes, video_ts.vob is there so I guess there's little hope of it working still. But gonna give it a try. It might've been inadvertently fixed.

[Mascot]

Good news and bad news. Good news is the second disc is now seekable. Bad news is the first still is not.

[mrbass]

Originally posted by Mascot
Good news and bad news. Good news is the second disc is now seekable. Bad news is the first still is not.

you say seekable...but that is punching in time and/or fast forwarding. But PLAY works correct?

[Mascot]

Everything works apart from seeking to a specific time, yes. Fast forward, chapters, play, all work just fine. Just not going to, for example, 10 minutes into the movie or clicking the timeline in powerdvd.

With 0.16.1 neither disc was seekable so at least there's some improvement. I've tested two different movies now too to be on the safe side, it's the same with both so it's not an isolated issue. I haven't tested "copy main movie" with the new version but since that worked before I assume it still does, while "copy complete DVD" ends up with this problem.

[mrbass]

hmmm I wonder if that has to do with PUOs (prohibited user operations) or just when it's updating the vob sectors. Regardless I think you can live with that minor inconvenience though. I know I could.

[Mascot]

DVD Decrypter removes all those annoying limitations, which is why I love it. I just noticed dvd decrypter can rip to ISO and still remove the limitations though. So I might be able to get away with doing that, then mounting the iso via fantomcd and do an xcopy of that.

And, no, it's not exactly the biggest issue in the whole wide world :). I do hop back and forth a lot sometimes though, checking out scenes. Sometimes popping a disc in to check something I sorta remember where is in the sequence of events but no chapter stops are anywhere nearby. Having a perfect copy in that sense would be a nice bonus and worth the extra effort of doing as above if that does fix it.

Thanks for the help btw.

[Mascot]

DVD Decrypter -> ISO -> XCopy worked like a charm :)