Opening vob files in VS x8 Ultimate

[skier-hughes]

This is down to the way vobs are made. A VOB can be one mpg, several mpg's or just parts of mpg's. The authoring app takes your mpg file and makes a vob, as has been said the vob will be a max of 1gb. A dvd player needs vobs to work. A lot of editing apps will only see the first title of a multiple mpg vob.
As you say other editing apps will import all of the movies then I would move forward by importing using the app you mention, save each title as a separate movie, or just as one and then import into VS for editing if this is the app you prefer to use.
For such low bitrates, the quality is going to be quite poor, so this extra step is not going to make much difference, if you can see a difference at all.

[Chris N]

Thanks for your thoughts Trevor and for suggesting DVD Shrink. I also searched and found another free one called "Convert VOB to AVI". Using a DVD ripping programme as a work around will surely work but my concern is it will take more steps and reduce the quality of the final output. My feeling is that VideoStudio has a problem recognizing a long play DVD on a RW disc. I think the file size of 1.73 Gbt is consistent with two VOB files. Another video editing programme can read the VOB files correctly and so can Windows media player. So why not VideoStudio? I will see if I can find a solution but I believe only an update to VisdeoStudio will solve this. In the meantime I have the software to work around the problem. Is there somewhere users can post suggestions or report bugs to the developers?

Thank you again for all your help.

Kind Regards
Chris

[lata]

Hi Chris

Well I haven’t burned a DVD for a long time, but will create one ( a TS Folder) as a test, over 2 hours should do, if you are correct with the long footage then I should have a similar problem.

Then I will try to import back to VS.

Reporting issues to Corel, if your free support period has expired then the best option would be Corel on Facebook.

[canuck]

Chris,
can to tell us exactly how the DVD was created? Does the DVD have a menu? Can you play each of the movies by selecting from the menu if the DVD has one?

[lata]

Ok

I had no problems using 35 individual Mpeg’s inserted to three VSP’s.
Total duration 3 hours ish, Data rate 3300kbps
The VSP’s were used in the burner module to create a DVD folder

That Video_TS folder was then imported to VS timeline as three separate Mpegs.
No problems with the program using 3 hours of footage to disc.

[Chris N]

Thanks for your help canuk. Yes the DVD has a menu. Please see the attached screenshot from Windows media player. VLC Player can also see the menu. A video camera was attached to an LG DVD recorder (Pal). A DVD +RW was used in LP (4 hour mode) 720x576, 25 FPS bitrate 2456 Kbps or 2648 Kbps with sound. I am using X8 ultimate 32 bit on Win 7. VideoStudio cannot extract any of the VOB files. If I rename the two VOB files to .mpg only the first movie is visible and the other two are invisible (24 mins on one file and 12 mins on the other file).

Kind Regards
Chris

[lata]

Hi

And if you play the two Mpeg files using Windows Media they play ok?

Why does the lower image show Title 1 as being empty?

[Chris N]

Trevor, here is a better screenshot. The other one may have been misleading as it was cropped too low. The first three titles have footage. The fourth title is empty as nothing has been recorded. This is the way DVD recorders make their DVD menu. There is always one formatted empty title up-front ready for the next recording.

When I rename VOB1 to.mpg it plays the first 25 minutes of title 1 normally in WM player and can be imported in VideoStudio. When I rename VOB2 to.mpg it plays the last 12 minutes of title 1 normally in WM player and can be imported in VideoStudio so I have a seamless complete title/movie 1 by joining them. The problem is that by just renaming to .mpg I have lost titles/movies 2 and 3 which are still hidden in the files. Its a bit of a mystery that lies in the codices of VOB files.

Kind Regards
Chris

[lata]

Hi Chris

I have tried a lot of combinations to try and replicate problems within Video Studio.
Everything seems to work ok.

I also tried the VobtoMpeg software, that worked fine importing the vobs as titles.

I cannot help but thinking it’s the disc at fault?

[canuck]

Thanks for your help canuk. Yes the DVD has a menu. Please see the attached screenshot from Windows media player. VLC Player can also see the menu. A video camera was attached to an LG DVD recorder (Pal). A DVD +RW was used in LP (4 hour mode) 720x576, 25 FPS bitrate 2456 Kbps or 2648 Kbps with sound. I am using X8 ultimate 32 bit on Win 7. VideoStudio cannot extract any of the VOB files. If I rename the two VOB files to .mpg only the first movie is visible and the other two are invisible (24 mins on one file and 12 mins on the other file).

Kind Regards
Chris

Your DVD file structure does not show a menu. If you had a proper, specification compliant DVD you would have a VTS_01_0.VOB file. According to these specifications every DVD has a VTS_01_0.VOB which would be the menu file. Even if you don't have a menu then the DVD should still have that file even if it is empty. Since you are missing the menu file, which is referenced in the ifo file, VS probably does not recognize the Video_TS system as being correct and refuses to load. Some DVD players (hardware and software) ignore the proper DVD specs.

[Chris N]

Canuk, thank you for sharing this information. The missing VTS_01_0.VOB file may well be the reason that VideoStudio does not recognise the DVD and cannot import the VOB files. I believe the fact that this is a RW +DVD may have something to do with this as the menu is changing as you add new movies and so the file structure may be different.

I know very little about DVD file structure so cannot say how important the VTS_01_0.VOB file is and what role it plays with a RW DVD. However my experiments show that it is not essential to read a RW DVD properly. I just put the RW DVD into another DVD recorder (a Panasonic and not the LG one it was recorded on) and it can read all three movies fine. I tried a free VOB file ripper and it found all the three movies as one continuous file. WM player and VLC player can find them. I also tested two other movie editing programmes. One advanced editing programme could find and import any of the three movies. Another more basic video editing programme I have could only import all three movies as one continuous file. Only VideoStudio cannot import them. This can probably be corrected by the developers. It could even be something very simple to fix.

VideoStudio is a great programme and I still have much to learn. and I really appreciate all the help from this forum.

Kind Regards
Chris

[canuck]

"I believe the fact that this is a RW +DVD may have something to do with this as the menu is changing as you add new movies and so the file structure may be different. "

I don't believe RW DVDs have anything to do with your problem. The "VTS_01_0.VOB" has absolutely nothing to do with whether you are using RW or not. Also I don't know what you mean by "the menu is changing as you add new movies". How are you doing this? Once a DVD has been burned you cannot add anything to the DVD video structure. You would have to erase everything on the DVD and start over.

Of course all 3 movies are "contained" in the 2 vob files. From what I can tell you did not create a menu so that you can select each movie separately. The 3 movies were combined into one continuous movie

Exactly how did you create the DVD? What program did you use? In one of you posts you show a Video_VR folder. This is not part of the standard DVD structure and has caused all sorts of problems when importing the DVD into video editors.

[Chris N]

The two folders on the RW DVD are Video RM and Video TS. I put a blank RW DVD into the LG DVD recorder and it is automatically formatted. I press record and stop three times to create the three movies from a video camera. Each time stop is pressed then the machine writes to the RW DVD and a new title is added to the root menu. Here the RW DVD is acting just like a hard drive. I don't know if there is a finalizing function that writes the VTS_01_0.VOB file so I will have to check that later.

Kind Regards
Chris

[canuck]

So you are not using a proper DVD authoring program to create the DVD and that is where the problem lies. The Video_RM folder (which I guess sloop john b mentioned first) is an obsolete, not needed folder but still confuses many DVD players and video programs.
In general DVDs are never formatted although RW DVDs are "erased" which is what you mean by "formatted". Also DVDs are always finalized automatically by proper DVD authoring programs.

Are you recording directly from your camcorder to your DVD Recorder without first capturing/copying to your hard drive?
The normal/recommended method of creating a DVD is
1-capture or copy the video to your hard drive
2-use a video program such as VS X7/8 to authour the DVD.

[skier-hughes]

It sounds like you are recording in VR mode, which does lead to problems such as this. If you can insert the disc and still write new data to it in the recorder, it has not been finalised ready for use in other hardware. It is more the fact other apps aren't adhering to the standards than VS not working.