I'm hoping somebody has an easy solution for a problem I am having. I have a couple hundred very small VOBs, each not more than a few seconds of video. I created them with DVD Shrink 3.2 reauthoring. When I try to put them back together on a DVD with Shrink, it says it's successful, but the disc won't play in any DVD player, including the one in which I burned it. I'm guessing the problem is that there are just too many files for a single DVD. Everything works fine when I burn just a couple of files, so I am assuming there is nothing wrong with my writer. Moreover, when Shrink does create a readable disc, the DVD player pauses a couple of seconds between each file, which is very annoying when you are switching files every few seconds. Given these two problems, I figured my solution was to merge the VOB files into a couple of larger ones. I used vobmerge251 to do that and IfoEdit to create new IFO files. The new VOB file plays fine on PowerDVD, which is kind of cool. When I try to open it though with Shrink, it throws up some error about the files being invalid. I assume that is because, according the to IFO editor, the entire merged VOB has the stats of the last file merged. I have tried keeping the original IFO files and just replacing the VOB in the same VIDEO_TS, but that doesn't work either. Shrink opens it just fine, but it thinks the first VOB is still only a couple of seconds long, not the 20 minutes it really is. I tried using Nero Express (the "free" version that came with my computer), it opens the merged VOB, even without the IFO files, but somehow when it creates the MP4 files, it breaks them up into the same lengths as the VOBs before they were merged.
I have no idea now how to fix this, or if it is even fixable. I really don't do this enough to justify spending a couple hundred dollars on software. I tried using Nero 8 or 9, I don't remember which one, but it wouldn't run on my machine. It's too old and too slow. I just want to merge the VOBs together and write them to a disc. I don't need titles or chapter markers. I thought going into this, it would be pretty much a no-brainer. It appears I am wrong. Anybody have any suggestions?
Originally posted by swm: Moreover, when Shrink does create a readable disc, the DVD player pauses a couple of seconds between each file, which is very annoying when you are switching files every few seconds.
Which is only natural since Shrink creates a new title for each clip 99 of which are allowed on a DVD. DVD2ONE has an append mode that can merge those into 1 title provided the clips have the same specs.
Thanks much for the instructions. Sorry I have been so slow to respond. I just found the time try them. I have a different problem now. The mock stripping is kind of working. It always creates a single VOB that can be opened with DVD Shrink, but half the time the whole thing shows up under "Unreferenced Material" and cannot be reauthored. I can't find any pattern to it, nor do I have any clue how to fix it. For example, I just used DVD Shrink to pull 10 clips of no more than 20 seconds each out of a DVD. I saved it to a directory called Remix. I can use Shrink to open those files and they show in the reauthoring section as one would expect. In this case, I can merge VOBs 1-3 into a directory called Staging using VOBMerge, use VOB Extras in IfoEdit to create the IFO files, and I can open that file in Shrink and it shows up in the DVD Browser tab when in Re-author mode. If, however, I try the exact same thing after merging VOBs 1-4, the file will not show up DVD Browser tab when in Re-author mode. I can switch Full Disc mode and open it Open Files, but it says it is unreferenced material. Any guesses as to what might be going on or how to fix it. I ran it through FixVTS but that didn't fix it.
I can't duplicate the problem.
I re-authored a movie into ten clips.
Merged VOB 1-3 into VTS_01_1.VOB and saved to a folder.
Merged VOB 1-4 into another VTS_01_1.VOB and saved to a folder.
In IFOEdit, created IFO for the first VOB Selected VIDEO_TS.IFO and Get VTS sectors
Selected the new VTS_01_0.IFO for VOB Extras and saved.
Quit and repeat for the second VOB.
Opened the new movies in DVD Shrink and re-author does not show unreferenced material.
