How to recreate a multi-title DVD into a single title DVD with free tools

[benbryant]

Using DVD Shrink compiling technique, we can easy divide a DVD or DVDs into many different clips or titles and combine them into a single DVD. However, compiling technique with DVD Shrink does have a little drawback too: DVD Shrink still keeps these clips in separate titles and a quick but noticeable delay when DVD player goes from one title to another is completely annoying. To eliminate the delay, we can use DVD Shrink to compile and create multi-title DVD, remake it into a single-title DVD with all the free tools: VobEdit, IfoEdit, and rebuild and create the chapter points you like with Chapter Edit. <o></o>
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In this guide, I used the movie Finding Nemo for this guide. Below is the whole procedure step by step in detail:<o></o>
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Tools Needed:

DVD Shrink 3.2 <o></o>
IfoEdit and VobEdit
ChapterEdit 1.10

Open the DVD in DVD Shrink, went to Re-author mode, and select the Title 1 main movie which has total 33 chapters At random, I save chapters 6 and 7 for Title 1, chapters 14 and 15 for Title 1 (2), chapters 28 and 29 for Title 1 (3), and back them up to my hard drive. See the screenshot:





To recheck my work, I open the backup with DVD Shrink and here is what I have: a DVD with 3 titles. See the screenshot:





Below is the screenshot of backed up VIDEO_TS folder:

[benbryant]

Next, I create the Renamed VOB Files folder and transfer all my .VOB files from the backed up VIDEO_TS folder there and rename them into VTS_01_001.VOB, VTS_01_002.VOB, and VTS_01_003.VOB. Remember each VOB will become a separate chapter. See the screenshot:



Now let’s load VobEdit to join all the .VOB files together. Click Open and select the first .VOB file, VTS_01_001.VOB. Then go to File and select Join Clips. When the Save As dialog appears, create a new folder in HDD and name it as VIDEO_TS, and type VTS_01_1.VOB as the File name. Click Save when ready. See the screenshot:




A dialog will open and ask to specify a starting VOB-ID. Usually you will enter here a '1' to let the TitleSet start with VOB-ID 1. Just press OK. See the screenshot:

[benbryant]

And the joining process begins. See the screenshot:



When the joining process finishes, I close VobEdit and open the newly create VIDEO_TS folder and here is what I have: A single VTS_01_1.VOB. See the screenshot:


As you can see that the VIDEO_TS folder in the above screenshot has only one VTS_01_1.VOB without .IFO files. I now need IfoEdit to create IFO files. Start IfoEdit, press the Create IFOs button near the bottom to open the Create new IFO files window. On the “1<SUP>st</SUP> VOB of Title-Set, press the button, select the VTS_01_1.VOB in the VIDEO_TS folder, and press Open. Make sure to select “Same as source” option. Press OK to start the process. See the screenshot:




Look at the VIDEO_TS folder again, now I can see IFO files, BUP files, and VOB file. See the screenshot:

[benbryant]

It’s time to set the default language for the audio. I have to do both VIDEO_TS.IFO and VTS_01_0.IFO



For the VIDEO_TS.IFO, (1) click VIDEO_TS.IFO in IfoEdit, (2) double-click on the Audio, (3) select the language as English, (4) press OK, (5) and click Save and click Yes when IfoEdit asks about saving BUP and file overwriting. See the screenshot:




Do the Step 6 again for VTS_01_0.IFO. See the screenshot:



Opening the VIDEO_TS with the new set of .IFO files with DVD Shrink will pop up an error. See the screenshot:

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[benbryant]

Well, it is time to use the 2COOL’s excellent Mock Strip to fix this annoying problem


Open IfoEdit again; open the IFO in question (VTS_01_0.IFO). Click VOB Extras, make sure a to check only the options showed on the screenshot below, and browse to the Destination directory other than the original VIDEO_TS folder, the Mock Strip Backup folder. See the screenshot:[/FONT]


Pressing OK will open the first Stream List which lists the existing audio and subpictures or subtitles. Press (1) Check All and then (2) Strip it buttons. See the screenshot:



When the second Stream List which lists the VOB IDs appears, just press (1) Check All and (2) Strip it buttons again, and close IfoEdit after the process finishes. See the screenshot:

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[benbryant]

When IfoEdit finishes the Mock Strip process, I will have the new files in the Mock Strip Backup folder. Drag and drop or copy all the new files into the VIDEO_TS folder and click “Yes to all” for the Confirm File Replacement. See the screenshot:




Open DVD Shrink and open the VIDEO_TS folder. Now I can see that DVD Shrink can open it easily and happily without any error and there is one title only in the whole DVD instead of 3 titles like before. See the screenshot:





Now I want to see how many chapters the IfoEdit has created for my new file. I go to the Re-author mode, drag and drop the Title 1, and start the Set Start/End Frames. You can see there are totally 15 chapters in all. See the screenshot:




It looks OK like that. What if I like to have my own chapters created at different parts of the movie? Well, I need a different tool for this job – the Chapter Edit 1.10


Open Chapter Edit 1.10, press the Ref… button on the upper right side, click Root and browse to where I saved my file, and then click select. See the screenshot:

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[benbryant]

Press the Read VOB files (R) button and the Chapter Edit will show entire chapters in the Time List. See screenshot:


You can scroll down the entire movie and then select the locations and add more chapters or delete chapters you don’t want to keep by pressing the Chapter on/off button. Or you can press the Clear Chapters button to clear all the original chapters and make all the new chapters after that. This process can be easily and accurately done with the program’s preview window

I clear all the chapters first by pressing the Clear Chapters button and then add 4 new chapters by pressing the Chapter on/offbutton as mentioned above at frame 00001, 00510, 01002, and 01500. See the screenshot:



On the Output folder setting, choose where to save output and press the Create DVD Image (G) button and for the Chapter Edit to complete the process. Click Exit to close Chapter Edit when done. See the screenshot:



Now I used DVD Shrink to check if the DVD file created by Chapter Edit is in compliance with DVD format and how the chapter editing turned out to be. DVD Shrink could open the Chapter Edit created DVD file beautifully without error and there were exactly 4 chapters in all. See the screenshot:



I burned the DVD the file and tested with my DVD player. The movie played smoothly without time delay and all the chapters responded correctly under my command with the remote control <o></o>
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Done<o></o>

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[benbryant]

Aloha blu,

Please help me attach those pictures to the guide. I hate myself so much for not being able to do that. I don't know why I keep getting error uploading the URL for attachments. It just drives me nut. BTW, in the guide, I tried to use the Get VTS sectors only without the Mock Strip, the Get VST sectors couldn't fix the Invalid Data error with VOB file. I had to run the Mock Strip to fix it and no need to use Get VST sectors. I agree with you 100% that using VobEdit way better than using IfoEdit only. Once again, much and much mahalo for your help

PS: Thanks you for reminding about setting the default language too

Best regards

[paglamon]

Do MOCK STRIP and FIXVTS perform the same functions?

[benbryant]

Hi paglamon,

When you do the Mock Strip, you will strip stream and VOBID, correct VOB Unit or Navigation Pack pointer in the VOB file(s), correct original IFO files, adjust VOB Unit pointers, and adjust Audio and Subpicture pointer. FixVTS, as stated, is somewhat similar to an IfoEdit Mock Strip, except that it's faster, does not adjust as many things (just the minimum in fact, to allow Shrink to load) and does not mess the cell flags or the cell commands.

Regards

[blutach]

@paglamon

Almost. IfoEdit is more comprehensive though. You could try FixVTS to see if it works.

Regards

[paglamon]

Thnx Ben & Blu.I am very new to this.Till now FixVTS has served my purpose.
And Ben,excellent guide.BTW,why do I need Shrink in the first place?Can't I go straight to merging with Vobedit?
Another question.After creating my ifos using ifoedit the colour and font of the subtitles have changed.Any way to preserve the original format?

[benbryant]

Hello paglamon

Thanks for the nice compliment. The reason I would like to use DVD Shrink because, with DVD Shrink, you can use the Set Start/End Frames and sliders to select and compile different segments or clips of the DVD without having to use the whole .vob files. It's strange to see that IfoEdit alters the subtitle's font and color. In that case, I hope jeanl's DVDSubEdit can help you fix it. I haven't had time to try this nice tool yet

http://www.videohelp.com/~DVDSubEdit/

Regards

[benbryant]

In order to compare how the Mock Strip and FixVTS do to fix DVD Shrink error "Invalid data in VTS_xx_x file", I redid the process of joining .vob files with VobEdit, created the new .ifo files with IfoEdit, and chose the default language. Testing with DVD Shrink, the "Invalid data in VTS_01_1.VOB" did appear. In stead of using the Mock Strip, I ran the FixVTS and the result was: FixVTS did FIX the problem completely and beautifully. Please look at the screenshot of Step 10 in the guide, the Mock Strip created two zero byte files: VIDEO_TS.VOB and VTS_01_0.VOB. FixVTS fixed the problem without creating any extra files or altering the files sizes. Both of the tools can fix this particular kind of problem well. It's up to you choose which tool to go for

Regards

[blutach]

If you joined with Vobedit and made the VIDs consecutive, I don't think DVD Shrink would have wailed.

See Join a flipper in my signature.

Regards