Problems with deleted audio and subtitle tracks

[aslaksen]

Hi everybody,

I used CloneDVD to copy a DVD. I has several audio and subtitle tracks. I kept three audio tracks (English, Norwegian and English Director's Commentary) and four subtitle tracks (EN, NO, EN (DC), NO (DC)). However, when I tried playing the IFO/VOB files on my computer before burning using VLC, the language names were not correct in VLC. They came out as English, English and blank for audio, while for the subtitles they were listed correctly, but there was also an extra blank track. However, nothing happened when I selected the Norwegian subtitles. They only came on when I selected the EN (DC), and to see those I would have to select NO (DC), and to see those I would have to select the blank track.

I wanted to use PgcEdit to change the default audio track to Norwegian and to automatically turn on the English subtitles, but that was very hard to do when testing under VLC. However, once I opened the files in KMPlayer or Media Player Classic, everything was listed correctly and worked correctly.

To me this seems like a bug in VLC. I'm not an expert, but I believe the problem is that it gets confused because instead of the tracks being listed as 0, 1, 2, they are 0, 2, 4 because of the deleted audio tracks.

Some time ago I was using ConvertXtoDVD to add some subtitles. I wasted a whole evening because I was testing my result in KMPlayer. Fortunately somebody on a forum explained to me that KMPlayer had a bug in this respect. When I used VLC, I saw that everything was all right. Since then I have come to like VLC a lot. But last night it was VLC that caused me to waste a whole evening.

Thanks!

Helmer Aslaksen

[aslaksen]

I did some more experimenting with this yesterday. The original DVD had four subtitles plus one commentary subtitle. I ripped it and deleted that last of the four language tracks. Using PgcEdit, I see that the ripped DVD then has four streams in the IFO file, with numbers 0,1,2,3, which are mapped to 0,1,2,4 in the VOB file. This is fine, Media Player Classic and Windows Media Player have no problem with this. VLC gets confused about the labels though. It lists
Lang 0
Lang 1
Lang 2
Lang 3
<BLANK>

Selecting Lang 3 gives me blank subtitles (since stream 3 is deleted in the VOB), while selecting the blank stream, gives me Lang 4. Very logical if you have inspected the IFO and the VOB, but not very informative otherwise!

I then used PgcEdit to add another stream to the IFO. I then got five labels in VLC, and the only problem was the selecting the fourth label would of course not give me any subtitles.

But then I used PgcEdit to delete the ISO label for the fourth stream, and then it did not appear in VLC and I got four labels with four working streams.

I think this is a bug, but I wanted to see if anybody had any suggestions.

[mrs_flo]

I have been battling with a very similar problem for several weeks. I want to create a library of ISO files on my netbook so my daughter can use it as a portable DVD player. I am using DVDNextCopy to rip the DVDs. However, when I try to play the ISOs using VLC, the default audio stream 1 is always blank and the real audio is on track 2 or 3. The really annoying part is that sometimes there is 1 and sometimes 2 blank audio track so I can't just change the default audio track.

I have been assuming it was a problem with DVDNext Copy but I would be interested to know if it is a bud in VLC>

If no-one can suggest a solution, I wil try PgcEdit to delete the spare audio tracks.

[aslaksen]

Yes, I think this is a bug, but you could use PgcEdit as I suggested. And don't forget to leave the language label empty for any empty streams you add.

The best way to sum up the problem is that VLC first looks at the streams in the VOB and then looks at the labels in the IFO, while other players first looks at the IFO and then maps to the streams in the VOB.

[mrs_flo]

I have just downloaded DVDShrink (freeware http://www.dvdshrink.org/what_en.php) and made an ISO image of a DVD. Played it in VLC. No silent or spare tracks, everything labelled correctly. Looks like my problem is with DVDNextCopy not VLC.

[aslaksen]

I have just downloaded DVDShrink (freeware http://www.dvdshrink.org/what_en.php) and made an ISO image of a DVD. Played it in VLC. No silent or spare tracks, everything labelled correctly. Looks like my problem is with DVDNextCopy not VLC.

DVDNextCopy leaves "gaps" in the VOBs. This is not a problem for most players, so I don't think it is necessary for programs like DVDNextCopy of CloneDVD to worry about it.

But it is a problem with VLC. Call it a bug or a feature or what you want.

The solution is to use a program that closes the gaps. You can do it manually with PgcEdit, but it also seems that DVDShrink does it while processing the copy.

That's good to know. And it is probably easier than to use PgcEdit.