VHS to DVD

[codajohn]

Thank you r0lZ.
FixVTS did the trick.
Here is how it looks now in Shrink Re-author.

[r0lZ]

That's better, indeed!

That means that the tool or hardware recorder you have used to build your original DVDs is really bad! It's not surprising. My cheap XiRON recorder is also full of bugs, and I wonder if the DVDs it produce can be read on other, more standard-compliant players!

[Experi-Mentor]

codajohn - what media (r or rw) was used with the stand-alone recorder/s ?

[r0lZ]

I doubt the media is the problem, as the files have been copied to hard disc without problem. The authoring is the culprit!

[codajohn]

A huge thank you jeanl. Worked great!

@r0lZ New Sony Recorder-530 from BB. Only two weeks old. Not good!!!
530 burns only checked out on a 7-8 year old Marantz. Worked OK. I'll check my 2-4 years old machines tonight.

I have the receipt!
I'll try the Panasonic.

[jeanl]

I'm afraid a lot of DVD recorders are pushing the specs beyond their limits... When you think about it, recording in real-time to a write-once medium is pretty tricky, especially given the nature of the DVD files (lots of pointers that can only be adjusted once you know what's coming in 1-2 minutes!!!). The Pioneer that I once tried had the same kind of problems. The discs would play fine on it, but when played on another player, it was impossible to fast forward without crashing the player!!!! I have seen that many many times (on discs given to me by other people who had recorded them on real-time DVD recorders). Many of them wouldn't fast-foward, some of them wouldn't play at all.
Now, hard-disc based recorders don't have that excuse, but it seems that a lot of them do a very bad job at creating compliant DVDs...
Finally, remember that DVD SHrink is especially strict (probably overly strict) when it comes to the DVD structure. For example, if you don't number the CellID in the right order (for example if you skip 1 in a PGC - going from 1/1 to 1/4 for example - shrink will put the entire title in "unreferenced material"). FixVTS was written specifically to avoid these problems...
Jeanl

[r0lZ]

Hum, I think a standalone player should handle the null pointers without problem, as it is not required to initialize them. But it is true that my XiRON sets the PUOs to disable the FF and Rew buttons anyway.

Also, unfortunately, most recorders with hard-disc use the hard-disc only as a temp storage. The real editing is still made on the DVD! That's absurd from the user point of view, but comprehensible as the low-cost recorders of the same brand do not have hard disc. The firmware is therefore made for the less common denominator!

BTW, codajohn, if you want to enable all features of your DVD, you must process the whole DVD with VobBlanker, with the options to rebuild the pointers and the time maps. You should also verify that the PUOs are clear in the IFOs and in the VOBs.

[jeanl]

I second that. FixVTS does not rebuild the time maps or the internal search pointers, and that will be crucial for the fast-forward/fast-rewind. Use vobblanker for that. It's fast and very effective.
Jeanl

[codajohn]

A digital camera seems like a better choice for capturing video. The VHS camera is 10 yrs. old.
This would cut out the VHS to DVD conversion process and resolve a host of problems.
I have a couple of weeks to get the videos on disk and HD.
Then say goodbye!

As always,
Thank you

[Experi-Mentor]

i was heading in the direction of media (r or rw) used, as some stand-alone recorders during the "finalizing" stage, can create problems at the so-called "t.o.c." level, & the other media may have a better outcome using different media type.

[codajohn]

My brother used Fuji -R. I recorded on Sony D11 +R

I wanted to get all my tapes onto disk and then HD so I can edit out the "in between" stuff that you get when you use the same tapes over and over.
I probably should have used RWs.

I will put it all on My TY02s after editing.

Thanks Experi-Mentor

[Experi-Mentor]

try using "rw" media ? (many people have the same problems as this)
the writing of the t.o.c. differs somewhat to a w.o.r.m.

[codajohn]

I had some ooold Memorex DVD+RW. Sony 530 wouldn't read them. Couldn't get it out of the "formating disk." Sony D11+R works for now. Need to use them up. TY02 after final edit.

FixVTS > Shrink Re-author > Imgburn

[Vaios]

Hi
I have a similar problem with dvds made with standalone dvd recorder, I would like some help but I don`t know if it`s best to continue in this thread or start another one. Basically the disc play fine but it`s just that it opens as unreferenced in dvdshrink (after RipIt4Me). More psychological issue. If you think it worths the trouble , I could give more information, the logs and the rest behaviour of the dvd I tried.

[r0lZ]

Have you tried FixVTS with the Fix Wrong PGC LBA Pointers option enabled? (Of course, you need the original IFOs!)

If that doesn't work, move the IFO and BUP files out of the DVD folder, then use IfoEdit's Create IFOs function to regenerate valid IFO and BUP files. Then, process with FixVTS if it's still necessary. Note that you will lose the original authoring (menus, etc...) with this method.

You can also use the commercial (and not cheap) program Womble MPEG Video Wizard DVD to load the VOBs and output a valid DVD. Unfortunately, currently, it is not easy to load several VOBs for the same movie, and there are several limitations, such as no support for 16:9, only one audio and one subpic stream, etc...

BTW, which recorder did you use?