Find solution
How to make a source file?

Replace a DVD's VOB file using a Mac

  • I need to replace the unskippable intro (before the menu) of a DVD with something else. How do you successfully modify a DVD's content? I have a DVD made for a presentation of a school. When we presented the DVD, it worked just fine. Now, a few people from the school would like to get a copy of the DVD. This is fine, but we didn't include a legal warning anywhere in the disc, and one is needed (at least, extremely recommended) before we can hand out copies. The DVD was done with iDVD '06 on my Mac mini. However, the project file was stored on an external hard drive. That hard drive failed and I lost everything on it. In this case, I can't just modify the source file and create another DVD, which would be a lot simpler. The content starts with the unskippable intro, then the menu. The menu has three items: first, the movie itself; second, scene selection; third, special features, which gives you two short movies. The file listing in VIDEO_TS is the following: VIDEO_TS.BUP VIDEO_TS.IFO VIDEO_TS.VOB VTS_01_0.BUP VTS_01_0.IFO VTS_01_1.VOB VTS_02_0.BUP VTS_02_0.IFO VTS_02_1.VOB VTS_03_0.BUP VTS_03_0.IFO VTS_03_1.VOB VTS_04_0.BUP VTS_04_0.IFO VTS_04_1.VOB I used VLC to see the content of the VOB files, and it seems the unskippable intro I want to modify is VTS_04_1.VOB. I now have iDVD '08. I tried to make a DVD, with a similar layout, to make sure its DVD image output would have the same file listing. The file listing is similar, but now I have a VTS_xx_0.VOB file for every corresponding VTS_xx_1.VOB file. The intro I want is in VTS_04_1.VOB of that disc image. I tried copying the new VTS_04_1.VOB onto the old one, and burn the DVD. From what I can see, my Mac's DVD Player application will read it just fine, including the new intro. But when I insert it in a normal DVD player, I get the "Unknown Disc" message. Searching around on the Web for this topic is quite difficult, since the search results I get is always about how to convert VOB's to VCD, crack the CSS, etc. That's not what I'm looking for. Has anyone ever done this before? Please let me know. Thanks in advance!

  • Answer:

    The infamous http://www.dvdshrink.info/reauthor_basic.php lets you reauthor a DVD that's already in DVD / VOB format. I think it will do what you are describing. Another option that might work is ripping your own DVD and then rerendering it as source material. It won't be the best possible quality, but it won't be terrible.

remi at Ask.Metafilter.Com Visit the source

Was this solution helpful to you?

Other answers

Ah, sorry, it's DVD Styler not DVD author.

fvox13

This is fine, but we didn't include a legal warning anywhere in the disc, and one is needed (at least, extremely recommended) before we can hand out copies. You don't actually need a legal warning. What would it contain? In fact, I would extremely disrecommend it because unskippable sections infuriate viewers, and may leave them with a bad impression of your school.

grouse

It's a legal issue. I cannot control that. I need that warning in place or else the disc can't be distributed. As for the unskippable intro, it doesn't even last two seconds. It is not a Hollywood-type intro that lasts minutes!

remi

Maybe just rip the DVD to a pure MPEG file and then re-burn it from that? Potential loss of quality if the ripper tries to transcode it somehow but if you can find a decent enough ripper it should be fine...

jon4009

...or how about getting a physical sticker and slapping it on top of the DVDs you hand out :)

jon4009

http://download.videohelp.com/r0lZ/pgcedit/index.html will allow you to do this. Though a bit of manual fiddling is involved, it's not that hard - there's a few guides on that site to give you the idea.

Pinback

Actually, I did try PGCedit. I checked all the guides that I can find, but I didn't saw one about the same kind of problem than mine. I tried DVD Styler right now, at work. (I don't have my DVD here.) There doesn't seem to be an option to open a VOB-format file.

remi

Errr... I just started to write out how to do it using PCGedit, then realised how horribly horribly complicated it is unless you're au fait with the internals of DVD structure. Probably easier to rip the whole thing to disc, and use ProjectX or similar to (losslessly) demux the MPEG-2 from the VOBs. (Each VTS_0X group will be one movie - you say 04 is your existing intro, so you have 3 other movies on your DVD, right?) You can then use them as source in DVD Styler or whatever authoring app you want to use, & add your intro / warning movie appropriately. Provided no re-encoding goes on (and I can't say for sure iMovie won't re-encode, even if fed with DVD-compliant MPEG-2 files), this should be totally lossless. You'll lose your existing menus, though - there's no easy way to extract and re-use them - so you'll have to create new ones in your authoring app. Unless you've got subtitles, multi-angles, odd branching, etc, that might be the easiest way.

Pinback

I use DVD shrink to rip a disk, but before you do that, you can choose to replace a title (usually those forced-to-watch things at the beginning/previews) with an image file you create. Just make it a standard 4:3 size, save it. Then in DVD Shrink select the title and choose to replace it with the image.

ijoyner

Load more

Related Q & A:

Just Added Q & A:

Find solution

For every problem there is a solution! Proved by Solucija.

  • Got an issue and looking for advice?

  • Ask Solucija to search every corner of the Web for help.

  • Get workable solutions and helpful tips in a moment.

Just ask Solucija about an issue you face and immediately get a list of ready solutions, answers and tips from other Internet users. We always provide the most suitable and complete answer to your question at the top, along with a few good alternatives below.