VTS Update on authored projects

[kitchy]

I have made a dvd, complete with motion menus, subtitle tracks, sound, main movie and extra features. When I was about to check it out on my stand alone dvd player, it wouldn't play. It said Disc error. I got a little frustrated over this, and started to check out other players, some worked, some didn't. Now, I checked out the ifo files with ifoedit, and out of habit, before exiting ifoedit, I clicked update VTS sectors.
After reburning it worked perfectly.
Now my question is this:
Why, when I've completely authored the dvd in Scenarist, exporting the project, and didn't made any changes after that, should I have to update VTS sectors. If this is the case, how does the pro's that use Scenarist for official products deal with this little problem?

Kitchy

[influenza]

I've never used get vts sectors on an original project. When you pressed it, what happened? Did it actually change anything?

[kitchy]

Yes, it did update some sectors (4 - 5 lines of updating).

Kitchy

[influenza]

Well that can be the fact ofcourse. Now that I think of it, I ripped a dvd-5 in file mode to my HD once and did a get vts sectors. It changed some things, while I didn't change anything.

But back to your question: I don't think it's necessary to do a get vts sectors on a original project. The compiled files should be ready to burn. (but if this solves your problem I would certainly do it ofcourse)

[kitchy]

Yes, updating sectors does help me with my problem. But I don't understand if this are done with professional dvd's too, authored the same way. Maybe it has something to do with how I author tings, I dunno. I just wanted to ask if anyone knew why I needed to do this.

kitchy

[influenza]

SO is there anything special about the way you author it? How did you do this project?

[maa]

I've seen IfoEdit fix sectors on professional dvd's too.
-guess they don't know about IfoEdit :D

[influenza]

My guess too :D

But even if you do an get vts sectors in ifoupdate and after that in ifoedit things get changed.

[kitchy]

First of all I need to mention that this is the 4th disc I reauthor (had to update vts sectors on all of them for them to work in my player), so I'm quite new at this, but I got the hang of most stuff. My main problem is how to structure the disc best, figuring out how to layout the disc so it boasts best compatibility.
Due to aspect ratio and audio track differences, I need to use 3 vts's, and use dummy pgc's to link from vts1 main menu, back to vmg and then to the correct vts, and back again, to the menu I came from highlighting the button that correspond to the correct vts (using sprm8). I have a high number of dummy tracks (for a great deal of reasons), I could replace some of them by using gprm settings instead, but I didn't had enough gprm's because I'm using a lot of them as highlight checks in front of each menu (which is rather idiotic as I only need 1, but I don't want to highlight buttons from a previous menu).
This last disc is a demo disc that I've made from The Matrix. I have made all the motion menus with sound and music, transitions, subtitles tracks using premiere, photoshop and other softwares. The disc is to be delivered to a dvd production company that is interested in my services as a dvd author, therefore I want the disc to be perfect, and without any faults or frustrating things.

Kitchy

[influenza]

Well to be honest I cannot give you an exact answer. I've made some projects. Just simple things: two movies on a disc with chapter menus etc. Those play flawleslly. And I just burned them right after compiling.

You have a somewhat more complex thing and it will get easier to create a project that doesn't comply to all dvd standards. Which can cause it not to play on certain standalones. But I don't see how a get vts sectors would magically resolve a problem like that.

But fortunately you have a work around for now. So I wouldn;y worry too much if this soluation will deliver you a disc that's playable on all players.

Maybe mpucoder or so can bring a little light into this darkness ;)

[oddyseus]

U r both right.

Original authored disks don't need vts sectors. The files r ready to be burnt. What I can only guess is a fault in hd's structure that needs to be repaired. Perhaps an old and slow model?

[maa]

Originally posted by oddyseus
Perhaps an old and slow model? Certainly not in my case - maybe too new and fast:D

[kitchy]

I got a pritty new HD...Seagate Barracuda V 120 gb....Shouldn't be a problem.

Kitchy

[jdobbs]

I've run across several DVD that needed "Get VTS Sectors" when copied to disc and then rewritten. In fact, when I do a DVD-5 to DVD-5 copy I always run the check just to be safe because I made some coasters early on.

I have absolutely no idea why it happens -- but it definitely does. Either there is a bug in DVDDecrypter (which I seriously doubt because of the high reliability I've experience with it) or (my guess) it is a lame attempt at copy protection. For example, if you burned the disc with blank sectors between VOB files, it would work fine on the original (as long as the pointers in the IFOs/BUPs are correct) but be out of sync when you read it to hard disc.