VOB to a playable DVD

[Paul Smith]

Dear All

I have a VOB file to record as a video DVD. I have tried dvdstyler,
qdvdauthor and varsha, but always with no success. With varsha, I do
get a playable DVD, but it does not stop at the end of the disk, when
played with Kaffeine. Could someone please suggest me a different
program to try?

Thanks in advance,

Paul

[Patrick May]

On Tue, Dec 06, 2005 at 03:31:31PM +0000, Paul Smith wrote:
> Dear All
>
> I have a VOB file to record as a video DVD. I have tried dvdstyler,
> qdvdauthor and varsha, but always with no success. With varsha, I do
> get a playable DVD, but it does not stop at the end of the disk, when
> played with Kaffeine. Could someone please suggest me a different
> program to try?
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Paul

Have you tried dvdauthor directly? I think most, if not all of the above are
just GUI frontends. You'll need to manually create the XML for dvdauthor as
well as the menu(s), if you want them.

Is there a setting in Kaffeine that's looping the video? Though you can make a
DVD set up to just continually loop.

Patrick

[Paul Smith]

On 12/6/05, Patrick May  wrote:
> > I have a VOB file to record as a video DVD. I have tried dvdstyler,
> > qdvdauthor and varsha, but always with no success. With varsha, I do
> > get a playable DVD, but it does not stop at the end of the disk, when
> > played with Kaffeine. Could someone please suggest me a different
> > program to try?
>
> Have you tried dvdauthor directly? I think most, if not all of the above are
> just GUI frontends. You'll need to manually create the XML for dvdauthor as
> well as the menu(s), if you want them.
>
> Is there a setting in Kaffeine that's looping the video? Though you can make a
> DVD set up to just continually loop.

Thanks, Patrick. Actually, I am not wanting to insert menus, but, even
so, I am not able to create the XML file for dvdauthor. (Too
complicated to me!) Kaffeine is not set to continuously loop.

Paul

[Patrick May]

On Tue, Dec 06, 2005 at 04:36:31PM +0000, Paul Smith wrote:
> On 12/6/05, Patrick May  wrote:
> > > I have a VOB file to record as a video DVD. I have tried dvdstyler,
> > > qdvdauthor and varsha, but always with no success. With varsha, I do
> > > get a playable DVD, but it does not stop at the end of the disk, when
> > > played with Kaffeine. Could someone please suggest me a different
> > > program to try?
> >
> > Have you tried dvdauthor directly? I think most, if not all of the above are
> > just GUI frontends. You'll need to manually create the XML for dvdauthor as
> > well as the menu(s), if you want them.
> >
> > Is there a setting in Kaffeine that's looping the video? Though you can make a
> > DVD set up to just continually loop.
>
> Thanks, Patrick. Actually, I am not wanting to insert menus, but, even
> so, I am not able to create the XML file for dvdauthor. (Too
> complicated to me!) Kaffeine is not set to continuously loop.
>
> Paul

<dvdauthor>
    <vmgm />
    <titleset>
        <titles>
            <pgc>
                <vob file="video.mpg" />
            </pgc>
        </titles>
    </titleset>
</dvdauthor>

There's the XML file that you need. Replace "video.mpg" with your VOB. That's
a whopping 10 lines. ;)

Patrick

[Paul Smith]

On 12/6/05, Patrick May  wrote:
> > Thanks, Patrick. Actually, I am not wanting to insert menus, but, even
> > so, I am not able to create the XML file for dvdauthor. (Too
> > complicated to me!) Kaffeine is not set to continuously loop.
>
> <dvdauthor>
>     <vmgm />
>     <titleset>
>         <titles>
>             <pgc>
>                 <vob file="video.mpg" />
>             </pgc>
>         </titles>
>     </titleset>
> </dvdauthor>
>
> There's the XML file that you need. Replace "video.mpg" with your VOB. That's
> a whopping 10 lines. ;)

It works regarding generating a video DVD, Patrick, but still getting
a non-stop video DVD (on Kaffeine). I played the VOB file on Kaffeine
and at the end, it correctly stops. Therefore, the problem seems to be
caused by dvdauthor.

Paul

[Paul Smith]

On 12/6/05, Paul Smith  wrote:
> > <dvdauthor>
> >     <vmgm />
> >     <titleset>
> >         <titles>
> >             <pgc>
> >                 <vob file="video.mpg" />
> >             </pgc>
> >         </titles>
> >     </titleset>
> > </dvdauthor>
> >
> > There's the XML file that you need. Replace "video.mpg" with your VOB. That's
> > a whopping 10 lines. ;)
>
> It works regarding generating a video DVD, Patrick, but still getting
> a non-stop video DVD (on Kaffeine). I played the VOB file on Kaffeine
> and at the end, it correctly stops. Therefore, the problem seems to be
> caused by dvdauthor.

I am going to try the dvdauthor mailing list, to see whether its
developers have some workaround.

Paul

[Dotan Cohen]

On 12/6/05, Paul Smith  wrote:
> On 12/6/05, Paul Smith  wrote:
> > > <dvdauthor>
> > >     <vmgm />
> > >     <titleset>
> > >         <titles>
> > >             <pgc>
> > >                 <vob file="video.mpg" />
> > >             </pgc>
> > >         </titles>
> > >     </titleset>
> > > </dvdauthor>
> > >
> > > There's the XML file that you need. Replace "video.mpg" with your VOB. That's
> > > a whopping 10 lines. ;)
> >
> > It works regarding generating a video DVD, Patrick, but still getting
> > a non-stop video DVD (on Kaffeine). I played the VOB file on Kaffeine
> > and at the end, it correctly stops. Therefore, the problem seems to be
> > caused by dvdauthor.
>
> I am going to try the dvdauthor mailing list, to see whether its
> developers have some workaround.
>
> Paul

Keep us posted. I feel that this is on-topic enough. If you disagree,
then could you email me personally with what you find? I intend to do
some DVD authoring in the near future. Also, please make mention of
which burner you use. I am in the market for one now.

Dotan Cohen
http://technology-sleuth.com/technical_answer/what_is_hdtv.html

[Paul Smith]

On 12/6/05, Dotan Cohen  wrote:
> > > > <dvdauthor>
> > > >     <vmgm />
> > > >     <titleset>
> > > >         <titles>
> > > >             <pgc>
> > > >                 <vob file="video.mpg" />
> > > >             </pgc>
> > > >         </titles>
> > > >     </titleset>
> > > > </dvdauthor>
> > > >
> > > > There's the XML file that you need. Replace "video.mpg" with your VOB. That's
> > > > a whopping 10 lines. ;)
> > >
> > > It works regarding generating a video DVD, Patrick, but still getting
> > > a non-stop video DVD (on Kaffeine). I played the VOB file on Kaffeine
> > > and at the end, it correctly stops. Therefore, the problem seems to be
> > > caused by dvdauthor.
> >
> > I am going to try the dvdauthor mailing list, to see whether its
> > developers have some workaround.
>
> Keep us posted. I feel that this is on-topic enough. If you disagree,
> then could you email me personally with what you find? I intend to do
> some DVD authoring in the near future. Also, please make mention of
> which burner you use. I am in the market for one now.

Sure, Dotan, I will keep the list informed. The burner thta I use is a

NEC DVD_RW ND-3520A

Paul

[Patrick May]

On Tue, Dec 06, 2005 at 11:30:23PM +0200, Dotan Cohen wrote:
> On 12/6/05, Paul Smith  wrote:
>
> Keep us posted. I feel that this is on-topic enough. If you disagree,
> then could you email me personally with what you find? I intend to do
> some DVD authoring in the near future. Also, please make mention of
> which burner you use. I am in the market for one now.
>
> Dotan Cohen
> http://technology-sleuth.com/technical_answer/what_is_hdtv.html

It's definately a learning curve. I've only done a few DVDs. The first ones I
played with doing, but never finished were some slideshow stuff. Then I was
backing up shows from my Replay to DVD. Got bored of that, well, the seasons
ended and no new material, plug a HD crash and the loss of my notes. (BACK-UP,
print off, any notes you make. Notes are really important! I make judiciuos
use of bookmarks in Firefox. If anyone would like, I can post up some of my
resources.)

Currently I'm doing my initial project. Scanning family photos to make a DVD
for family members for Xmas. I've got about 400 pics scanned in so far,
covering the 80s and 90s. Still probably have 3-4x that much to go (50s -
70s). And a search and rescue mission for two albums that are MIA. And I'm
scanning at a lowly 2.5 pics per minute via a bash script I wrote.

Talk about small use of video. I've got a DVD that's about 24 minutes long
containing 245 images, @ 5 sec per image w/ 1 sec crossfade transition. It's
taking up a whopping 356MB. I think every picture myself, and my family have
taken will fit on a regular DVD!

I'm using a LITE-ON DVDRW SOHW-812S.

Patrick

[Patrick May]

On Tue, Dec 06, 2005 at 05:34:47PM +0000, Paul Smith wrote:
> On 12/6/05, Paul Smith  wrote:
> > > <dvdauthor>
> > >     <vmgm />
> > >     <titleset>
> > >         <titles>
> > >             <pgc>
> > >                 <vob file="video.mpg" />
> > >             </pgc>
> > >         </titles>
> > >     </titleset>
> > > </dvdauthor>
> > >
> > > There's the XML file that you need. Replace "video.mpg" with your VOB. That's
> > > a whopping 10 lines. ;)
> >
> > It works regarding generating a video DVD, Patrick, but still getting
> > a non-stop video DVD (on Kaffeine). I played the VOB file on Kaffeine
> > and at the end, it correctly stops. Therefore, the problem seems to be
> > caused by dvdauthor.
>
> I am going to try the dvdauthor mailing list, to see whether its
> developers have some workaround.
>
> Paul

I did some work in Kino and it pushed out the XML on the backend for me. Then
ran it in dvdauthor and it came out just fine. On that note let me see if the
XML file is still around...

I'm not completely sure, but I believe if there is no menu, and no other
commands the DVD player will just replay the disk infinitely.

Here's a fragment of an XML file of a project I did (I trimmed out 40 lines
that were all the same, except there were just the next section of video.):

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<dvdauthor dest="/storage/video/dv/4x4-tape/DVD/final/">
        <vmgm>
                <menus>
                        <video />
                        <audio />
                        <subpicture lang="en" />
                </menus>
        </vmgm>
        <titleset>
                <titles>
                        <pgc pause="0">
                                <vob file="StarLakes-20050813000.mpeg"
chapters="" pause="0" />
                        </pgc>
                </titles>
        </titleset>
</dvdauthor>

(The VOB line wrapped.)

That worked just fine for me and it played in a DVD player just fine. (Once I
used DVD+R media, but that's beside the point.) Have you tried burning to
media and tossing in a hardware player to see how it reacted?

Patrick

[Paul Smith]

On 12/6/05, Paul Smith  wrote:
> > > Thanks, Patrick. Actually, I am not wanting to insert menus, but, even
> > > so, I am not able to create the XML file for dvdauthor. (Too
> > > complicated to me!) Kaffeine is not set to continuously loop.
> >
> > <dvdauthor>
> >     <vmgm />
> >     <titleset>
> >         <titles>
> >             <pgc>
> >                 <vob file="video.mpg" />
> >             </pgc>
> >         </titles>
> >     </titleset>
> > </dvdauthor>
> >
> > There's the XML file that you need. Replace "video.mpg" with your VOB. That's
> > a whopping 10 lines. ;)
>
> It works regarding generating a video DVD, Patrick, but still getting
> a non-stop video DVD (on Kaffeine). I played the VOB file on Kaffeine
> and at the end, it correctly stops. Therefore, the problem seems to be
> caused by dvdauthor.

A person on dvdauthor list has solved the problem: the following line
(second one) was missing in the xml file

<vob file="video.VOB" />
    			<post>exit;</post>

Both varsha and dvdstyler seem to miss the above line.

Paul

[J. K. Cliburn]

On 12/6/05, Paul Smith  wrote:
> On 12/6/05, Patrick May  wrote:
> > > I have a VOB file to record as a video DVD. I have tried dvdstyler,
> > > qdvdauthor and varsha, but always with no success. With varsha, I do
> > > get a playable DVD, but it does not stop at the end of the disk, when
> > > played with Kaffeine. Could someone please suggest me a different
> > > program to try?
> >
> > Have you tried dvdauthor directly? I think most, if not all of the above are
> > just GUI frontends. You'll need to manually create the XML for dvdauthor as
> > well as the menu(s), if you want them.
> >
> > Is there a setting in Kaffeine that's looping the video? Though you can make a
> > DVD set up to just continually loop.
>
> Thanks, Patrick. Actually, I am not wanting to insert menus, but, even
> so, I am not able to create the XML file for dvdauthor. (Too
> complicated to me!) Kaffeine is not set to continuously loop.

I'm just starting out on the long quest to author some DVDs using
video I shot with a Sony DVDcam. My problem is, I slog through a howto
or a magazine article (Linux Journal has some recent articles on the
topic), then sit back and scratch my head wondering where the hell to
start. I want to do some very basic stuff, but I can't seem to get out
of the starting blocks. Nothing I'm running across is intuitive; it's
like The Gimp in motion.  I guess it's just gonna take me some time to
become acclimated to the lexicon of DVD creation.  I'll keep
digging...

Until then, I'm keenly interested in responses to Paul's request,
because I'd like to do the very same thing he wants.

Jay

[john bray]

On Tue, 2005-12-06 at 11:00 -0600, J. K. Cliburn wrote:
> On 12/6/05, Paul Smith  wrote:
> > On 12/6/05, Patrick May  wrote:
> > > > I have a VOB file to record as a video DVD. I have tried dvdstyler,
> > > > qdvdauthor and varsha, but always with no success. With varsha, I do
> > > > get a playable DVD, but it does not stop at the end of the disk, when
> > > > played with Kaffeine. Could someone please suggest me a different
> > > > program to try?
> > >
> > > Have you tried dvdauthor directly? I think most, if not all of the above are
> > > just GUI frontends. You'll need to manually create the XML for dvdauthor as
> > > well as the menu(s), if you want them.
> > >
> > > Is there a setting in Kaffeine that's looping the video? Though you can make a
> > > DVD set up to just continually loop.
> >
> > Thanks, Patrick. Actually, I am not wanting to insert menus, but, even
> > so, I am not able to create the XML file for dvdauthor. (Too
> > complicated to me!) Kaffeine is not set to continuously loop.
>
> I'm just starting out on the long quest to author some DVDs using
> video I shot with a Sony DVDcam. My problem is, I slog through a howto
> or a magazine article (Linux Journal has some recent articles on the
> topic), then sit back and scratch my head wondering where the hell to
> start. I want to do some very basic stuff, but I can't seem to get out
> of the starting blocks. Nothing I'm running across is intuitive; it's
> like The Gimp in motion.  I guess it's just gonna take me some time to
> become acclimated to the lexicon of DVD creation.  I'll keep
> digging...
>
> Until then, I'm keenly interested in responses to Paul's request,
> because I'd like to do the very same thing he wants.
>
> Jay

just catching up on some list reading, so apologies if its already been
covered.

you might wish to try qdvdauthor -- http://qdvdauthor.sf.net

its very close to first beta -- days away just now.  and varol is
working hard to get it ready.

there are a couple of tricks for FC that i would be glad to share if you
need help getting it going in the current CVS version.

john

[Paul Smith]

On 12/10/05, john bray  wrote:
> > > > > I have a VOB file to record as a video DVD. I have tried dvdstyler,
> > > > > qdvdauthor and varsha, but always with no success. With varsha, I do
> > > > > get a playable DVD, but it does not stop at the end of the disk, when
> > > > > played with Kaffeine. Could someone please suggest me a different
> > > > > program to try?
> > > >
> > > > Have you tried dvdauthor directly? I think most, if not all of the above are
> > > > just GUI frontends. You'll need to manually create the XML for dvdauthor as
> > > > well as the menu(s), if you want them.
> > > >
> > > > Is there a setting in Kaffeine that's looping the video? Though you can make a
> > > > DVD set up to just continually loop.
> > >
> > > Thanks, Patrick. Actually, I am not wanting to insert menus, but, even
> > > so, I am not able to create the XML file for dvdauthor. (Too
> > > complicated to me!) Kaffeine is not set to continuously loop.
> >
> > I'm just starting out on the long quest to author some DVDs using
> > video I shot with a Sony DVDcam. My problem is, I slog through a howto
> > or a magazine article (Linux Journal has some recent articles on the
> > topic), then sit back and scratch my head wondering where the hell to
> > start. I want to do some very basic stuff, but I can't seem to get out
> > of the starting blocks. Nothing I'm running across is intuitive; it's
> > like The Gimp in motion.  I guess it's just gonna take me some time to
> > become acclimated to the lexicon of DVD creation.  I'll keep
> > digging...
> >
> > Until then, I'm keenly interested in responses to Paul's request,
> > because I'd like to do the very same thing he wants.
>
> just catching up on some list reading, so apologies if its already been
> covered.
>
> you might wish to try qdvdauthor -- http://qdvdauthor.sf.net
>
> its very close to first beta -- days away just now.  and varol is
> working hard to get it ready.
>
> there are a couple of tricks for FC that i would be glad to share if you
> need help getting it going in the current CVS version.

Thanks, John. Qdvdauthor is problematic, since when I inserted a
movie, it said "Please wait", and I waited, waited, waited... and
after a few days, I gave up.

Paul