Multi-PGC's and Playlists in Maestro help, please..

[jbenj01]

Help w/b greatly appreciated with backing season discs, as I'm getting pretty frustrated.. My understanding is that each PGC = a playlist in Maestro, yes? My backup consists of 4 PGC's with each having 8-9 chps (1,3 and 4 have 8 chps while the 2nd has 9 chps).

I've created playlist 1 and manually set chapters coinciding with the original DVD. However, when PGC 2 begins, the time resets to 0:00:00, whereas my last chapter in playlist 1 ends at 0:59:50.. Do I set chapter 1 in playlist 2 at 0:00:00 or... ??? I suppose the same situation will occur with the other 2 playlist, yes??

I'm backing up 1:1 (with only 1 lang and 1 sub), keeping original menus and extras.. Please advise.. Thanks!

[oddyseus]

That is pefectly normal. Each playlist resets timecode for itself. U can notice the same thing in ifoedit. Each pgc starts at 0 time.

[jbenj01]

Thanks, oddyseus..

OK.. So my chapter set-points in Maestro for EACH chapter should be identical (correspond exactly) to what IFOedit displays for each PGC from the original IFO file?? In other words, I can have IFOedit open, displaying all chapter points for each PGC, side by side with Maestro, and simply copy/set chapter points for each playlist in Maestro..??

Also, at the end of each original PGC, there is a very small chapter point of 00:00:15 -- do I create a chapter point for this, as well, in Maestro?

Here is my final goal: I want my backup to act/behave (especially respects menus and menu buttons for..i.e., scene chapters) like the original DVD. I've yet to succeed in doing this using the 'manual' methods, i.e., IFOedit, DVD2AVI, CCE, Maestro, IFOupdate(v77).. The only solution for me so far is using 'one-click' solutions, which give me very poor video quality (due to transcoding vs. re-encoding) b/c many season discs can be quite large.

Also, I've tried using the 'New IFOupdate Version' several times but my reauthored IFO ends up with a different number of cells than the original IFO and IFOupdate refuses to update (yes, I saved CCE FILM.CHP file in 'Adjusted Cell Mode' in IFOupdate and copied into CCE's .ECL file..). Is this caused by the small 'blank frames' at the end of each PGC that lasts 00:00:15 ??

[oddyseus]

No u can't copy/paste from ifoedit to Maestro.

The file Adjusted CCE that ifoupdate creates needs to be embedded in the ecl of CCE prior to encoding. u need to export the same chapter points to 'ADJUSTED-MAESTRO.CHP' also from ifoupdate.

Since these files contain the exact same I frames, u shouldn't face any problems when u will import chapters to Maestro.

Now u can create the playlists, of course including the small 0:0:0:15 chapter that u must find somewhere in the timeline. Failing to include it, u wont be able to ifoupdate the ifo.

[jbenj01]

Yes, prior to re-encoding, I did edit ECL file--maybe I did incorrectly, but here's brief summary:

In Adjusted Cell Mode in IFOupdate v.77, saved chapter files from original IFO file, which gave me 4 separate files--my source was FILM so I used CCE-FILM.txt file and edited copy/paste chapters into ECL file (at the end of text) and added "vbr_bias=20" as last line of ECL text (per RoBa method here). Actually, I tried with and without that last line and without it, CCE gave me errors in midst of re-encoding, but did not give me error when I did insert that line.. ??

Ran pulldown on new m2v file, imported all assets into Maestro, put m2v_pd onto timeline and imported the ADJUSTED MAESTRO.CHP file that IFOupdate had created previously..completed reauthoring, swapped original VOB's with new Maestro ones and ran IFOupdate and got error--"..number of cells do not match original IFO.." (or something close to that). As I recall, the original IFO had 33 cells/chps and the new authored one had 29.. I'd attribute the difference of 4 to the small 00:00:00:15 chapters at the end of each PGC..

What am I doing incorrectly?? Since the above did not work, I decided to give the creating playlists in Maestro a try.. AND..am having problems doing that.. speaking of playlists, you said:

<Now u can create the playlists, of course including the small 0:0:0:15 chapter that u must find somewhere in the timeline. Failing to include it, u wont be able to ifoupdate the ifo.>

To find on timeline, don't I simply look at the corresponding time in IFOedit and set it to the same time on the Maestro timeline?

[oddyseus]

As I recall, the original IFO had 33 cells/chps and the new authored one had 29.. I'd attribute the difference of 4 to the small 00:00:00:15 chapters at the end of each PGC..

That is correct. Your difference lies exactly on the absence of those four small cells.

If u look at the ifo structure at ifoedit u must be able to locate exactly their position.

Suppose that their id is

PGC_1 (program chain): [Title(TTN): 1] [00:00:01.18 / 25 fps] (Programs: 1) (Cells: 1) (uses VOB-IDs: 1)
[Ch 15] [Pg 01] [Cell 15] [V/C Id: 1/15] : time: 00:00:01.18 / 25 fps

This means that it is in the 1st vob-id, usually the first part of the whole video, the 15th chapter point. This is the chapter that needs to be added at the end of each playlist, in order to get the whole structure right.

Other than that, your rest of the procedure is OK.

Unless u r keen on solving this, u can ifoupdate in adjusted cell mode and everything should fall in their relative position in the ifo, according to their absolute position in the timeline.

[jbenj01]

"u can ifoupdate in adjusted cell mode and everything should fall in their relative position in the ifo, according to their absolute position in the timeline."

That's just it, I did attempt several times with IFOupdate in 'adjusted cell mode' but it kept giving me the 'different number of cells' error. I'm certain I saved chapters in 'adjusted cell' mode and edited ECL file, etc..

OK, I think I understand the IFOedit VOB/Cell ID part of your message, i.e, [Ch 15] [Pg 01] [Cell 15] [V/C Id: 1/15] ... But I suppose the question is, how do I locate that point on Maestro's timeline?

In your example, let's say IFOedit tells you that [Ch 15] [Pg 01] [Cell 15] [V/C Id: 1/15] occurs at 00:59:52 at the end of the 1st PGC (by looking to the column of info to the right of V/C Id info--POS: 'time'), would I then manually set the last chapter of my first playlist at that very spot, i.e., 00:59:52 on Maestro's timeline?? (by dragging my cursor onto Maestro timeline and moving it until I find that time-spot, click OK to set chapter point??).

Thanks for your help..

EDIT: BTW, how did you copy that line of text info from IFOedit into your post??

[jbenj01]

OK.. here is the little bugger at the end of each PGC from IFOedit:

[Ch 08] [Pg 08] [Cell 08] [V/C Id: 5/1] Layer Br.:

time: 00:00:00:15 / 30fps [Pos: 00:56:38:.02] [Frames: 101942]

SP/ILVU/DISC/SA:[no/ no/yes/ no]

For PGC's 2-4, the "Pos" and "Frames" change--everything else remains the same. Again, how do I find these 4 positions on Maestro's timeline?

Also, strange thing is that IFOupdate and IFOedit report same # of chapters for each PGC but DIFFERENT times. IFOupdate starts chapters at 00:00:00.00 and does NOT include the small 'layer break' frame referenced just above.. IFOedit, however, begins chapters at 00:01:39.08 (which = Chp. 2 in IFOupdate) and ends with the small layer break... ??

I'm very confused..

[oddyseus]

As its name shows, this is positioned at vobid 5. Examine the ifo and locate the number of vobids u have. Very likely you have only 5, so this is the last chapter in Maestro's timeline. U can check the timeline also in Maestro and locate this very small chapter. Bare in mind that it really doesn't matter what u will put there. As long as it is something u can put any chapter there. Its purpose is that after playing it, for half a second, some instructions r executed.

[jbenj01]

oddyseus, thanks for your help BUT.. I still cannot get it to work..and am clueless as to how to proceed.

Are you saying that I must place a dummy video file onto Maestro's timeline at the end of each PGC?? Or just one at the very end of the timeline?? I know Trilight's tips on Maestro, he has prepared a dummy video and audio file on his site that can be downloaded.

And yes, there a total of 5 VOB ID's for the entire original DVD; the 5th is the small blank video file (dummy file).

[oddyseus]

I am saying that u must add this little chapter at the end of the timeline in every pgc that has it in the original. I wish I could be of more help, or had the capability of explaining better.

[jbenj01]

Thank you for your help, odysseus. I will try again this evening.