vobs showing incorrect length

[JUC]

Hi all, I just noticed that my vobs are showing the wrong length of movie in both the info screen and also on the timebar. The whole movie is there--at least I think so--it starts with the opening credits and ends with the closing credits but the lenght is showing about half of what it should be (for a 2 hour movie its showing around an hour). I've been ripping my DVD's and only ripping the 'main movie' section without splitting the files--so I only get one large .vob. Anyone else seeing this issue. I'm not 100% sure that it is limited to the MVP either.
Thanks,
JUC


edit: after a little more research -could this be because I am copying the files to a sage directory while sage is running--so it is only getting part of the info as it scans the directory? Usually this results in a 0 time being displayed...

[stanger89]

If you import them as "DVD"s, then they show up fine, Sage displays the correct length for the title.

If you're loading individual VOBs. Sage will probably only show you the length of each VOB (probably around 30-45 min).

[JUC]

hmmm, so how would i import them as 'DVD'? Currently--I have one folder for DVD's. Each movie then has its own folder. In each folder is a folder.jpg and one .vob which is the whole movie (about 4 gigs per movie). This way--when I am scrolling through the imported videos I get the cover showing up and I can select that to play the .vob. But the time is messed up. It doen'st show 0 and it doesn't show the full amount of time--usually only around half of the time (for a 2 hour movie it shows up as around 1 hour). But--the whole movie is there.

Is there a better way to store DVD's so the MVP can play them? I know there is some threads on that so I will do a search.
thanks,
JUC

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by JUC

hmmm, so how would i import them as 'DVD'? Currently--I have one folder for DVD's. Each movie then has its own folder.

You don't have to do anything special, you just need the proper DVD structure, VIDEO_TS folder with IFO and VOB files.

In each folder is a folder.jpg and one .vob which is the whole movie (about 4 gigs per movie).

Sounds like you don't have IFO files, and that you added VOB to the properties file...

This way--when I am scrolling through the imported videos I get the cover showing up and I can select that to play the .vob. But the time is messed up. It doen'st show 0 and it doesn't show the full amount of time--usually only around half of the time (for a 2 hour movie it shows up as around 1 hour). But--the whole movie is there.

Could be some parsing issue, some (lots?) of programs don't like VOBs bigger than 1GB (which is the limit specified in the DVD spec AFAIK).

Is there a better way to store DVD's so the MVP can play them? I know there is some threads on that so I will do a search.

Probably not, the MVP can't handle DVDs so you have to break the DVD to make it work on the MVP.

[JUC]

thanks for the help. since they are so large (4.5 gb each) the problem might be there. At least they play fine. I just would rather see my dvd's (.vobs) integrate nicely with album art with my offline dvd's. I also would rather not have to scroll through the individual .vobs. This is why I have been ripping them as a single vob and removing the IFO files. If I rip as a regular DVD structure then everything works fine except I see a folder with the embedded art in the videos section and I have to select individual vobs. I guess there is no easy way as of yet.
Thanks,
JUC

[stanger89]

Note that this applies to non-MVP setups

You should never have to select individual VOBs. By default, if you rip your DVDs and retain the correct structure (VIDEO_TS folder and IFO files) SageTV will list each rip as a "DVD". Only once in the directory list. VOB should not be in your properties file. The "correct" way to rip DVDs is:

• Rip all files, or alternatively movie only with your favorite software (note that DVD Shrink and IFOedit are the only progs I'm aware of capable of doing a correct movie-only extraction).
• Do not combine VOBs, retain the default 1GB split.
• Retain the correct structure (files in a VIDEO_TS folder)
• Place the structure (VIDEO_TS folder and all) in a folder named like you want the movie named
• Don't place ".VOB" in your properties file

Do that and you should be good to go, I've got a "few" done like that

Only problem with that setup is that it probably won't work at all for the MVP

[JUC]

WOW--i have been missing the boat on this one for quite sometime. I had no idea .vob shouldn't be placed in the properties file!! I'll try that and I'm guessing it will work.
thanks,
JUC

edit: ahh--i see the fine print!!

[Lucas]

If none of the above work.....

Do not copy the DVD files directly into the directory that's listed in SageTV as an import directory. Because the copy takes time, sometimes SageTV, when polling the disk for new files, sees the incomplete file, which has a smaller size than the final and registers the smaller size ie duration.

Copy them to another directory on the same drive then do a move to the target dir which is instantaneous.

To get SageTV to rescan the files and get the correct durations just remove all import dirs from SageTV, make sure that your imported video library becomes empty and then redefine them.

[Mahoney]

It'd be nice if someone could come up with a way to have the best of both worlds - full DVD behaviour via the client, but via the MVP just VOB playback, from the same directory structure. Perhaps something in Studio could check whether you are in the MVP or not, and a text file in the main directory could say which VOB(s) are considered to be the main feature, then they could be played as a play list by the MVP.

[JUC]

Back to the original topic--after fooling around with it a little more I am thinking that Stanger might be right about the file size being too large (parsing issue). Its really weird but if I let the movie play through--it plays the entire movie. If i try to jump around in the timebar (which is always wrong in time) and go to the end of the movie--sometimes it plays from somewhere in the middle of the movie, while other times it skips to the end---even though the locations of the timebar point to the same 'time'...weird. I guess i don't have to combine the vobs but if i don't--then in the imported videos section i see a folder then have to scroll to the individual vobs....can't win them all i guess.
thanks,
juc