Joining Pearl Harbor 2-Disc to 1-Disc

[old-hack]

I successfully used DVDRemake Pro 2.3.0 to join D1 and D2 of Pearl Harbor so it would continue play to the newly added D2 VTS. I also modified an unused button to be able to select the chapters from the new VTS. Along with these modifications, I made sure that at the end of the movie it would find it's way back to the root menu of the D1 VTS. I also removed the additional angle hiding in the D2 VTS. Having said all of that and the fact that the new DVD was over 10 gigs in size, I could not get DVDShrink or DVDRebuild to shrink the movie without errors. I get the notorious error #0004 from DVDRebuild and an "out of memory error detected must abort" message from DVDShrink. Any thoughts on what to look for to correct the output of DVDRemake Pro so these programs can shrink my newly created DVD? It plays as I expected it to in PowerDVD and Mark's Tray DVD Player, but must have an unexpected structure or one that can't be dealt with by DVDRebuild and DVDShrink.

[MackemX]

I know it ain't the answer you are looking for but the quick workaround is shrink both DVD's first before joining them. You would also use the same compression setting on the movie titles as you would when doing it all as one when exactly does DVDShrink show the message?

[DimadSoft]

What version of Shrink are you using?

[old-hack]

@MackemX, Actually what I tried to do was a reauthor with both titles from my DVDRemake stripping. Just couldn't get DVDShrink to squeeze it enough to include my motion menu system and keep it under 4.37 gig. I selected custom compression and reduced it as far as it would go for both titles. Still too big to combine with remaining dvd structure. I've reauthored including main titles from disc 1 and disc 2 so I know I can shrink it enough for that. Just thought I could do some magic with DVDRemake and then shrink it or dvd-rb it. @Dimad, The current version I've found and use is 3.1.7.

[DimadSoft]

Could it be that it is out of memory? Just a thought: can you first compress and then merge? Can you try to do the process step by step to see what generates "out of memory shrink error". Start with export of unedited disk 1, and export/check as you go along editing it.

[old-hack]

I've got a gig of memory in all of my machines so I don't think it's a memory problem. DVDShrink may use a lot of resources when it's trying to deal with a 10+ gig movie, but I didn't think it would consume all the memory resources and generate this error. I was only running DVDShrink when it occurred. What do you mean by export in DVDShrink? I'll probably try the shrink and combine process later tonight. I wanted to make sure I could get the movie to transition to disc 2 and be able to select chapters from disc 2 before doing any shrinking. The error pops up right at the beginning of analyzing so I don't get a chance to see if it happens at a certain point or what causes it. I'm doing relatively standard things with the dvd structure after copying the additional VTS to the main dvd structure. Just hiding unwanted blocks and using an unused register to route the movie to the additional VTS to continue the movie after disc one is finished and using the THX menu button to get to root menu of the additional VTS.

[SirQUK]

I would certainly try shrinking em both first and then trying the merge.... It is a very high compression you are trying to achieve...maybe shrink doesnt like it that low?

[old-hack]

Well, I went ahead and shrunk each disc separately as low as I could make it using "custom" compression. Put them together in DVDRemake Pro and it came out to 4.35 gig. I made all of my adjustments for continuing play at the end of disc 1 and used the "THX" menu button to redirect to the root menu on disc 2. Did the same thing from the disc 2 VTS to return to the disc 1 root menu. I'm burning to a DVD+RW right now to see what the quality is during playback. Without the menu system, when I did a reauthor adding both discs together using DVDShrink, the quality wasn't bad. I'll post a follow-up later.

[old-hack]

Movie played as I expected but there are some minor navigational problems I'm working out. For instance, when I return to the root menu of disc 1 VTS and select play, the movie resumes at the point I was playing in the disc 2 VTS. I think I've fixed that one, but will be troubleshooting all navigation over the next few days.

[MackemX]

I thought it would work when you shrank it first as I was just curious as to whether it would I also thought you were just adding the movie part of Disc 2 to Disc 1 and not a merge keeping Disc 2 menu's as for the RESUME when you press play, this is a side effect when joining DVD's . I'm not sure if I did the following to get rid of it as I don't know how to clear the SPRM's that store the last play point any other way but I did get rid of it IIRC, I added a VMG Menu for each DVD menu and then pointed to whichever one if I switch DVD's using a button. It then redirects you to the Root Menu on either DVD and I'm sure it cleared the RESUME for the last DVD selected. I would probably have to read my guide again to refresh my memory as I haven't played with DRM in a while

[old-hack]

There's a specific pre-command in the PGC you get redirected to when you click on "Play" in each of the menu's. That pre-command is "If R[15]==1 Resume". I'm trying to use an unused register to make a decision to jump around that command when it returns from the disc 2 menu. I just haven't found the right command. I thought I had it briefly last night but messed around until I couldn't repeat it. Once I test the unused register's value I want to jump to the line where my command would send navigation to the first chapter of the disc 1 VTS. I'm still at work, so haven't figured it out yet.

[MackemX]

I changed the Resume commands to play 1st chapter but then I lost the Resume in whichever DVD I was in if I did call the Root Menu while playing . I had a brief look at using the registers to jump commands but I never had enough time and decided I'd be happy with calling the VMG Menu for now do you know which program tells you unused regosters? I've seen it mentioned since so it may make things easier for me

[DimadSoft]

[DimadSoft]

@old-hack Have you considered merging them in such a way that disks are "independent"? Something like "select disk" menu on dvd startup? Once disk is selected it plays as if it was the only one on the dvd. Here is why the question: after some thoughts it looks like we can make such procedure completely automated: one just select dwo dvds and a new one is created which will play them as described above? Would it be a usefull feature?

[joojoo]

@Dimadsoft Sorry to but in, but the 2 disc feature as you describe would be great, and much appreciated. Bye.

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