will i be able to use vobblanker?

[greygrandma]

Hello Taelon, Please don't ever leave these forums or we newcomers will be lost. Ok let me start on the input folders you mention - i used these input folers in VobBlanker and put them on my Crive, but also browsed the output file and clicked on my ghostcopy D: to put the output files in because my C: Drive was running very low on disc space. I found a section in Nero that would take my files from the C: (input files in VobBlaker) and it's now (I hope) burning them to a disc. The thing that seemed odd to me was in the preview window while it was analising ALL the movie still appeared to be there with no cuts made. Does it sound as if I did the right thing or have I already done what you were trying to warn me not to do? Thank you.

[greygrandma]

Sorry I didn't put that smilie in there. The darndest thing - I was trying to get those things to work ealier and couldn't and now one just pops up from no-where and plants itself.

[Taelon]

Those silly things do pop up from time to time in the oddest places. But I'm afraid you just burned a unmodified copy of the DVD.

That is why I suggest always previewing before burning. Here's an analogy, think of the input folder as a basket full of fresh fruit, and VobBlanker is you in the kitchen, the output folder is a pie pan, Nero is the oven, and the final DVD is the freshly baked pie.

It sounds like you took the fruit (folder on c:\), sorted and cleaned it and put the other ingredients in the pie pan (vobblanker to folder on d:\). But after you turned on the oven (nero) you put the bowl of fresh fruit into the oven. You won't have pie, just a bowl of cooked fruit.

As long as you processed ALL the titles AND menus in vobblanker, you can burn the folder on d: drive with Nero, but please check it first like I mentioned in the last post.

[greygrandma]

Thank you Taelon. I'm afraid you are so right. I just cooked all the fruit. I just put the dvd in to try it and its an exact copy of the original. Oh well no harm done I can give that one away. And thank you yes I will be sure to have a look at this one first. I'll let you know how it turns out. Thank you.

[jm1647]

i've been reading these forums about vobblanker and went in to have a look at the voblanker site and the directions on how to use it but don't understand any of the terms they use. is this program difficult to use as i am new to the world of computers and don't want to download something that is beyond my experience. is there a simpler version of the user guide or maybe a simpler program to take out the unwanted bits of movies like the swearing and some scenes?

@greygrandma - I'm a greypoppop and since coming to DD 3-31-05 I have learned to use a lot of the great programs like VobBlanker, PgcEdit, MenuShrink. The great think about them is they give you a backup to restore if the end result is not what you want. And then of course all the helpful users and mods are here to help!

[greygrandma]

Hello greypoppop, I don't think i want to be greygrandma anymore, after all my achievements in the last few days i think i'd like to be a "supergranny" now. Can i change my name? I know Taelon will be reading this because he's been here checking on how i'm going and looking after me all the way so Taelon i'd like to let you know that it's all going beautifuly, thanks to all your help i'm now making perfect cuts just where i want them. The first dvd i did had a little pause/jump in it at the cut point but i worked out why it did that and the next one i did just goes from scene to scene so smoothly you would never know there was a cut. By taking your advise and putting it through the shrink analiser first i also realised i could do everything that was left from there, i didn't have to open nero directly to burn it, shrink would put me through to nero to burn like it always does. Now that i know what i'm doing VobBlanker is so quick and easy to use i wish i'd tried it months ago. But i wouldn't have got there without all your help so thank you so very much for all your patients and for all the time you put into helping me. And thank you to all on these boards who give of there time to help us all. You get so many questions each day i don't know how you keep up with them all. I'll keep checking in to see how you are all going and i'm sure i'll have more questions too as i try to learn new things. Thank you ever so much everyone. 'Supergranny'

[Taelon]

greygrandma,

I'm truely thrilled to read that you've sucessfully accomplished your goal, and think you absolutely deserve to be known henceforth as "Supergranny". You did it all yourself, I was only here as a safety net to guide you forward if you strayed off the path. I'll bug a moderator to change your status

I appreciate your kind words, I'm glad I registered here when I did (3 weeks ago), it almost seems like fate that I was participating actively at a time when you came along looking for guidance, reading about your success is icing on the cake. I have a ton of respect for all the 'old timers' here, who have been helping strangers on these forums for years, the combined knowledge here is simply staggering.

But lets not forget the authors of these wonderful tools, jsoto wrote VobBlanker, the fact that you were able to re-author your DVD's and edit out the content as you desired is a true test and testament to the power of the tool that he has made FREELY available. The same applies to DVD Shrink, DVD Decrypter, PgcEdit and the others. They are all remarkable software, and combined can surpass commercially available programs that would cost hundreds of dollars.

Do keep us posted as you tackle new projects, and I hope you'll visit regularly. One word of warning, this place can become addictive

[greygrandma]

Hi again Taelon, I'm sorry to say i'm stuck again. 2 things i'm having trouble with. As yet i've only taken a single scene out of a movie but today i wanted to take 2 scenes out and found i couldn't do it. After i take the first scene out and press "ok" it takes me back to the previous page. But if i go back into prev/cut again all i seem to be doing is wiping out the previous cut i've made. The second thing is i have no sound on the preview screen. I assume there should be sound as i have sound in the preview box in shrink and i found the need today to have sound while cutting this particular scene. I've had a good look through the instructions and could find no reference to these 2 things but that may be because i'm not understanding what i'm reading. And you are so right about thanking the people who made these programs and gave them to us free. So i would like to add my sincere thanks to all - they are wonderful programs - what very talented people you are - and a special thank you to jsoto who's program i am using at the moment. Thank you.

[Taelon]

Hi ggm,

The Previewer in VobBlanker doesn't include audio, I'm sorry to say. As for making multiple cuts per session, I'm not sure since I haven't tried it. I'll do some experimenting and report back.

Edit: The following was just an observation, I didn't test the output. I trust blutach knows what he is talking about, so it seems you'll have to save between cuts. Please disregard my comments below.

Ok, it looks like you can't make multiple edits in the same cell, but as long as the edits are in different cells you should be able to make multiple edits.

The way to verify it is working is after you press ok, look at the Upper (TitleSet) Table, the Ini Size is the starting size of the movie (ie. 5173 MB) the Final Size is the size that VobBlanker will ouput, so after your first edit it might be 5124, then after you edit another cell it could be 5097, etc.

hope this helps

[blutach]

No, multiple cuts need multiple "processes". You gotta do it a seocnd and third time, if you got more cuts. I always tick "use input folder" - that way, you know where your files are AND they are always a complete set.

Regards

[greygrandma]

Hello again, I was just wondering if there was any program similar to VobBlanker that had sound in the preview screen. I've been finding it very difficult to make cuts in the right places without sound. Also i've been finding it a bit "hit and miss" with the cuts going smoothly. Sometimes there's no visible sign of the cut - sometimes there's a pause where the cut is and once the movie actually stopped at the cut point, only continuing after you press fast forward, even though I do the cuts the same way every time. I do realise this could still be something i'm doing of course, and would continue working on the problem if it weren't for the lack of sound causing me so many problems as well. So if anyone knows of a program that does the same things as VobBlanker but with sound i would be very gratefull. Thank you.

[blutach]

You could play them in your software player. If you don't have one, get Media Player Classic for free - see my signature. At the place where you want the cuts, you could play it very slowly and note the time.

But there might be an easier way for you GGM.

Why don't you try DVD Shrink in re-author mode. Read DVD Shrink for Dummies in my signature for a complete introduction to this program. The FAQ Index has threads on how to use the cut feature in re-author mode.

And you can play the feature through with sound!

Regards

[Taelon]

I was thinking about this the other day, you could make multiple cuts using DVD Shrink much more easily than using VobBlanker. The only drawback being that the end result would be multiple titles, so there would be a momentary pause where the cuts occur, and you wouldn't be able to chapter skip backwards through the cuts (although some post-processing should be able to resolve both issues).

However, as your editing evolves you may want to consider other editing tools. Using Virtual Dub/VirtualDubMod/VirtualDub-MPEG would allow you to make frame accurate edits, but these tools complicate the process by requiring you to re-encode and multiplex the data into dvd-video format, and retaining the subtitles would further complicate the issues.

All the freeware solutions are going to require multiple programs to get a playable DVD-Video. Easier, faster results can surely be achieved through the use of one of the commercial NLE's (non-linear editors), but I don't have any experience using them and can't offer any specific advice.

[greygrandma]

Thanks Blutach, I tried using DVDShrink last night to make a cut, but as Taelon has pointed out it does leave a slight pause and I can't rewind past this point. It appears to be the same pause as i'm getting in VobBlanker. Does VobBlanker always get this pause as well or is it something i'm doing wrong? I'll look into all the things you suggested Taleon and see how complicated it all looks as even though it's no great drama I would prefer not to get a pause if possible. And the audio being available would be such a blessing. Thank you again for all the help.

[blutach]

No VobBlanker doesn't get that pause, that's a feature - it keeps it all as 1 title.

What you could do is exactly identify the cut in DVD Shrink, after playing the audio. The timestamp is in hours:minutes:seconds:frames. So you can then go into VobBlanker and set the start and end points of the cut and process. Do this a few times over and your editing will be done.

Good luck.

Regards