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View Full Version : Using VOBs from Ulead DMF in TDA-authored folders...


Brent212
26th June 2004, 04:32
I have TMPGEnc DVD Author 1.5.20.62 and Ulead DVD Movie Factory 2.10.2152.0000 SE (which came with my hauppauge pvr-250).

I'm using the pvr-250 to capture my vhs tapes so I can convert them to dvd's. Because the pvr-250 captures have GOP errors detected by Womble mpeg2vcr, I use mpeg2vcr to trim the edges of the captured files, and then fix the errors. So the final mpg that I give to my authoring program passes thru womble GOP scanner successfully.

I usually author my dvds with TMPGEnc DVD Author because I like the chapter editing interface and the menu creation seems much more flexible for what I want. However, I find that every so often I will get a dvd that starts with the audio and video in synch, but at a certain point in the movie goes out of synch. Sometimes there are more than one of these spots that cause it to go out of synch and each one makes the audio further out of synch with the video. Luckily I usually test out the authored VIDEO_TS folder with the PowerDVD player and sometime I'll burn it onto a RW before going for the -R. In all cases the mpg file going into TMPGEnc plays fine in media player without synch problems, and passes womble's GOP error scan. In all cases the VOB's, when renamed to .mpg, don't play fine in media player... they go out of synch just like when they are played in PowerDVD or on a dvd player.

I have found that these problem mpgs that TMPGEnc DVD Author cannot successfully use can be used in Ulead without any problems. The only downside to this is that I have to use Ulead menus, which I hate. I thought I had found a solution, though, by authoring with TMPGEnc, with all the chapters and menus I want, and also authoring with Ulead, without any chapters. I then take the appropriate main-movie VOBS from the Ulead-created VIDEO_TS folder and overwrite the same VOBS in the TMPGEnc-created VIDEO_TS folder. I can play this folder with PowerDVD successfully! So I burned it and tried the DVD in my roommate's dvd player (a panasonic). It wouldn't play past the first chapter! If I tried to skip ahead to another chapter it'd just go back to the main menu. If I let it play through, at the point where the 2nd chapter begins it'd go back to the main menu. Argh! But then I tried playing it on my dvd player (a pioneer), and it plays fine! Sweet!

So I guess my question is - how likely is it that this disc will play normally on a random dvd player? Is what I did not up to the standard? I didn't know whether or not the chapter info was actually stored in the movie VOBs... I thought maybe it was just stored in the other files (.IFO). Has anyone got any experience doing this or something similar? Also... I'm not sure if I'm smoking crack or what, but I swear the video from the Ulead-authored VOBs is lower quality than the video in the TMPGEnc-authored VOBs... I'll have to make a more thorough comparison...

Thanks for any help,
Brent

mudda_t
30th June 2004, 04:51
So I guess my question is - how likely is it that this disc will play normally on a random dvd player? Is what I did not up to the standard? I didn't know whether or not the chapter info was actually stored in the movie VOBs... I thought maybe it was just stored in the other files (.IFO). Has anyone got any experience doing this or something similar?
The chapter info IS stored in the ifos. But your problem is tda and ulead are creating different sized dvds. Your chapters are set at sector points. Tda chapter 1 sector 12345, ulead chapter 1 sector 54321. That's probably why it won't play in your standalone. (I could be completly wrong)
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Try running Ifoedit's "get vts sectors" option and see if that fixes it.
Also... I'm not sure if I'm smoking crack or what, but I swear the video from the Ulead-authored VOBs is lower quality than the video in the TMPGEnc-authored VOBs... I'll have to make a more thorough comparison...
Thats because ulead is re-authoring and tda uses your files as-is (transcoder), it creates a dvd structure.

Have you ever tried DVDLab?, you should really give it a try. link (http://www.mediachance.com) Free trial!

Brent212
30th June 2004, 17:50
Okay, well I tried the dvd on another dvd player (an RCA) and it worked fine, so that's 2/3. I probably won't burn any other dvd's this way, but I don't think I'll miss around with this one anymore, since it plays on the main players that I use.

Even if the chapters point to a different sector, shouldn't that just change the position in movie that comes up when I go to say, chapter 3? I'm only using one set of ifos (TDA), and two sets of VOB's (switching out the TDA set with the Ulead set).

Doesn't re-authoring just involve demultiplexing and multiplexing? That shouldn't cause any degradation in video or audio quality. And doesn't "transcoding" mean "re-encoding"? That should cause the quality to get worse. Either way, Ulead actually does the authoring process a few minutes faster than TDA (about 15 minutes on my Athlon 1 GHz), so I don't think it should be doing any encoding if TDA isn't. Also, I have the box checked in Ulead saying "Do not encode non-compliant audio" or something like that.

I'd love to try DVDLab, but I don't want to purchase another authoring program. It's getting frustrating as hell having to keep buying software that doesn't completely solve my problems.