Adding chapters to a movie

[jeanl]

In fact, this means that for that purpose, the simplest solution (if you want to keep the rest of your DVD absolutely intact) is:
- Reauthor in shrink setting the chapter points where you want them.
- Open the original DVD with vobblanker and replace the old PGC with the new PGC.

Pretty easy! (although I don't know how easy it is to set chapter points in DVD Shrink)
jeanl

[blutach]

@jean - Shrink can not set chapter points. You do need to remux.

AFAIK, it is easy with DVDRMP - IIRC, this has been a feature of DVDRMP for ages (although, as you know, I do not use it, notwithstanding dimad's very kind offer). There's, most likely, a guide on the dimadsoft site.

Regards

[jeanl]

Can you add bit after bit of the movie, by doing cuts then adding the same VTS with a different cut (very tedious I imagine). OK, bad solution...
jeanl

[blutach]

What you could do is this: Use AddChapter to make new blank chapters. Add the chapters in (which you can create one at a time in DVD Shrink using its re-author mode, setting start and end points) using VobBlanker's replace function. However, all the chapters will be STC disconts and it will sound bad at the chapter points. These CAN be fixed using VIDChanger so as to make it all one VID with cell IDs changing (and not VOB IDs) and then you can feel easy to change the flags to 8. In fact, use VIDChanger before replacing the blank chapters - will be faster.

The quickest, cheapest and IMHO, easiest solution is undoubtedly what you thought of first - muxing it in seamlessly using a simple chapter.txt file. Since muxman outputs such sensationally good stuff, I'd wonder why you'd want to do it any other way, quite frankly.

Regards

[setarip]

To katana

You can obtain a FULLY functional free 30 day trial version of this "TMPGEnc DVD Author" at:

https://www.pegasys-inc.com/en/product/tda.html

If you have more questions, always feel free to ask them...

"Necessity is the Mother of Invention" - NOT a quote by Frank Zappa

[katana]

Well, I finally got around to tackling this movie again lol.
It was ripped to hard disk with DVDShrink and is already in typical DVD structure with VOB files etc. The movie has no chapters, it's just one title. What this means in practice is that navigating the movie in my DVD Player is slow, I can only use Fast Forward.
I tried using TMPGEnc DVD Author (as suggested) to add a chapter marker every 10 minutes. However, I get the message:
"Cannot insert a chapter - Do you want the program to search for a suitable point and insert a frame there?"
I click OK, it scans through the whole movie, but still fails to insert any chapters.
Any clues as how to proceed?
Thanks in advance.

[jeanl]

TmpGenc DVD Author inserts chapter points at I-frames. The error that it reports seems to indicate that it can't find any I-frame? But that's impossible!
When you double click on the video in TmpGenc DVD Author, and you use the arrow buttons to move from frame to frame, does it ever tell you you can insert a chapter (there's a little caption under the video that indicates whether you can put a chapter point at this frame)?
Jeanl

[katana]

I always get the message:
"cannot insert chapter"
when navigating through the frames using the arrow buttons.
The movie came free in a magazine. I think they have possibly crippled it in some way since it's a free version, not a commercial version of the DVD. For example, the only way to navigate the movie in my dvd player is the Fast Forward button.
I also noticed that even though the movie is 1hr 43 mins long (4.35 GB), TDA only recognises half the movie (50 minutes worth). Not quite sure why...

[jeanl]

mmm, it definitely sounds like this isn't a regular VOB or an mpeg2 stream...
One way to check is to try to open the main VOB with VOBEdit. If it's not a "normal" VOB, VOBEdit will show garbage. Also this would allow you to see where the I-Frames are (if there are any!).
One remote possibility is that all the GOPs are open (why would that be?) and that somehow TMPGenc DVD Author won't put a chapter point at an open GOP boundary? Again, VobEdit would be a way to find out...
I'm curious!
Jeanl

[Taelon]

Couldn't you just load it into PgcEdit and just add in some chapters?

[jeanl]

Taelon,
PgcEdit can't add a chapter in the middle of a cell, because that requires modifying the VOB extensively (a chapter has to start at the beginning of a cell in the VOB with a new VCID). One soft that I know can do that is DVD Remake Pro. At present, Vobblanker can't do it. The TmpGenc DVD Author solution involves reauthoring the DVD entirely, but apparently in this case it does not even work!
jeanl

[katana]

Hi Jeanl,
Thanks for your reply.
I took a screenshot of the movie opened up in Vobblanker. I don't know if it's of any help.
Will have to download/install Vobedit later since I don't have that.

[jeanl]

mm, that does not tell me much...
Jeanl

[Taelon]

Taelon,
PgcEdit can't add a chapter in the middle of a cell,

I know, but... ahh nevermind... I just saw his VB picture, only 2 cells, how unusual. I think i'd just Demux it and remux it as I think somebody mentioned on the first page of the thread.

[dimad]

Here is the link to mentioned above guide on how to insert chapters with DvdReMake Pro: http://www.dimadsoft.com/dvdremakepr...rt_chapter.php