dvdfab - cannot find split point

[BifWarrior]

I've received the error "cannot find split point" in the Copy Complete DVD screen in the Program (PGC) section. I'm running v0.17...

Could anyone provide a solution to this problem? Could this be related to specific DVDs?

[fengtao]

Hi BifWarrior,

My name is fengtao, our company has acquired DVDFab, and we will continue to improve it to make it the best DVD backup soft. Please send your detail problems to dvdfab@dvdidle.com now, and we will fix it in the new version which will be release in September, thanks.

Best Regards,
Fengtao

[cinematic]

Originally posted by BifWarrior
I've received the error "cannot find split point" To understand this error, one must understand the approach the program takes to solving the problem of trying to fit the data contained in multi-layer commercially pressed DVDs onto one or more DVD(s) using current generation consumer burners. The approach advocated by many on this forum is to re-encode the video at a lower bit rate, thus reducing the size (and quality) of the video, but leaving the structure of the DVD in tact by not stripping ("butchering") the features found in the original DVD, so that the data can fit onto one single layer disc. The idea is to preserve the quality of the most important part of the video-- the movie itself, by attempting to allocate the most space on the DVD possible to the vob files containing the movie, and substantially reducing the size (and quality) of the extras. To me, this reduction in quality itself is a greater "butchering" of a DVD then stripping away certain extras. The alternative approach is to split the multi-layer DVD and spread it across more than one disc. Therein lies the beauty of a program like DVDFab. Unfortunately, this approach becomes exceedingly difficult on many DVDs because the structure is so interwoven between the various parts, that removing one section can cause unforeseen navigational problems.

Basically DVDFab works very well on conventional DVD movies that have one video title set containing the movie (the longest one). The program appears to first put all the extras onto disc one, and then as much of the movie that will fit in the remaining space on disc one. It then splits the main movie, placing the remainder (with no extras or menus) onto disc 2. There is no re-encoding, or reduction of video quality. This generally works very well, since the menu is mainly to gain access to extras which are all now accessible on the disc one. Any main movie scenes (chapters) on the disc one are accessible by menu. But if you try to access a scene by menu not on the disc, the navigational command fails, or hopefully the program inserts a graphic instructing the user to put disc 2 in the player. For disc 2, the movie starts playing where it left off. There are no menus, but the skip button on a remote can be used to advance forward chapter by chapter, and audio streams can be selected using the audio button on the remote, thus allowing one to continue listening to whatever audio stream was being played on disc 1. Although somewhat inconvenient, it is well worth it to use 2 discs, and put up with the lack of menus for the ease of use of this program, and the preservation of video quality.

Your error came because you attempted to split a DVD which does not fall into the above classification. I received this same error when attempting to split the extras disc from Moulin Rouge (over 8 gigs). I wondered how DVDFab would handle it, and of course, it simply spit out the same error. The problem lies in that many of the vobs are close to the same size, and there is no single largest vob containing the movie. Opening the VTS files in the ifo mode of DVD Decryptor reveals that no VTS file contains a program chain consisting of more than one chapter. This (between chapters) is where DVDFab would attempt to find a suitable split point for the main movie which will just not happen on a disc like the extras disc from Moulin Rouge. I have not tried DVDFab on DVD compilations of shows like the Sopranos, where one would expect to find several VTS files of similar length, without one "main movie" longer than the rest, but would expect to see this error on that kind of a DVD structure.