How to link DVD files together

[B.J.]

Just curious whether there is a way to get the Azbox to play the multiple .vob type files from a DVD strung together, so as not to have to start each file manually? Ie say I have a DVD on a network computer, then go into the Azbox file manager. If I start playing a movie by playing say VTS_01_1.VOB, it plays fine, but it stops with that file, and doesn't continue to VTS_01_2.VOB . I guess I could use VLC to stream the files to the Azbox, as I seem to remember that it will play the .vob files one after another, but it seems like there must be a way with the Azbox. Perhaps via one of the other menu items besides file manager?
I don't often play DVDs. I have a Blue-ray/DVD player, but don't even have it connected to the TV, and decided to play a DVD from my computer over the weekend, but had to start 6 files individually. I figured there must be a way to do it, but was in a hurry, and it was too late to experiment by the time I found that they didn't link together.

 

[B.J.]

Never mind. I guess this just isn't possible.
I just tried with another DVD, and it won't play at all. I was trying before with a home-made DVD someone gave me. I guess commercial DVDs can't be played at all from a computer. Must be the copy protection I guess. I guess it can play files saved on a DVD in vob format? Looks like VLC can play commercial DVDs, but it doesn't seem to want to stream it.
Not important. I'll just hook up the DVD player I guess.

 

[AcWxRadar]

I was hoping that someone had an idea on this subject, too.

The only thing that I could think of regarding the copy protection would be SlySOFT ANYDVD and CLONEDVD. But, that seems to be too much additional work when you could just put the dish in a player.

RADAR

 

[Mikhel]

It's pretty easy, IF the AZBox can handle files bigger than 2 GB:

Assuming you have the VOBs together with the original DVB structure (IFOs and BUP files), then all you need to do is to tet all the VOB files together and make a new DVD in your hard drive, the way to do it is using DVD-Shrink.

Select OPEN FILES and go to where the VOBs are stored in your hard drive (if you have the DVD of your home movie then you'll use the OPEN DISC option instead):

Once DVD Shrink imported the DVD, in my case a collage of photos and music done in MemoriesOnTV about Brian Jone's funeral and concert, and click Re-Author:

After it you'll see this:

Since you won't need compressing the DVD them go to the "Compression Settings" tab and select "No Compression" (here you can select wether you want ALL audio tracks or just one/two/etcetera and if applies, the subtitles):

Select the biggest file (the one with the longest duration) and drag it to the left, to the NEW DVD structure (here you can preview to see if it's the one you want):

Click on Edit--->Preferences and go to the "Output Files" tab and make sure it's not selected "Split VOB files into 1GB chunks":

Click OK, then click on "BACKUP!":

Check you have it this way (your output folder of course will be different):

Click OK, then wait while it's proccesing everything, go to the folder where it saved everything and make sure it's a big VOB file so you can use it on your AZBox:

& there it is the biggest file (i compressed mine =P):

P.S.
It took me a while to upload all the screencaptures because my internet connection it's really slow (+1hr), i hope everyone of it displays correctly, but it shouldn't take you more than... let's say 20-30 minutes.

P.S. 2
In any case you only stripped the VOBs directly from a DVD let me know, because that's another proceeding altogether different (uuh? it sounds weird LOL), and you'll need to create a new IFO and BUP file, in that case i can tell you how to proceed.

P.S. 3
There's a different methodology where you can JOIN all VOB files using a "video joining tool" and it is pretty quick also but i don't thrust it too much, even if it's the way i did a lot of video/file joining in the early 1990's (via the copy file1+file2).

Cheers

Mike

 

[B.J.]

Thanks. Quite an effort to show the procedure.

Actually, after posting yesterday, I remembered that I had a copy of that DVD shrink program on an old hard drive. Pulled that out thinking that maybe all I needed to do was use it to move files from DVD onto a computer on my LAN, then I could have the Azbox play them. So I had the DVD shrink transfer the files, then went to the Azbox file manager and pulled up the directory where I saved the files, and the Azbox started to play the files fine, however it stopped playing after about 3 minutes for some reason. I then thought that perhaps if I processed the transferred files with VideoReDo, and turn them into .mpg files, that maybe then the Azbox would play them. At that point, I found that VideoReDo would process the files directly from the DVD, so I didn't need the DVD-Shrink program. Looks like both programs can do the job.
I'm not sure why the Azbox stopped playing the file I transferred to the computer. I tried playing a 2nd file, and it worked fine, so perhaps there was just an error during the transfer to the computer. So I'm back to thinking that I don't need to convert to .mpg either.
Back to the original issue of connecting the files, I'll have to look into that feature mentioned above which joins them into one big file. VRD will join them, but it's kind of a laborious process I think. I still think that VLC will join and stream all in one process, and I may have had the parameters messed up when I tried that.

I guess whatever process is used, it's probably more effort than just playing the DVD, however I really prefer playing video from my computer, since I can keep a variety of things there, and decide at the last minute what to play on my Azbox or Roku.
Thanks.

 

[Mikhel]

Yup, if the first time copied everything in 1GB VOB files there could have been an error in the proccess, try telling Shrink not to cut the files in 1 GB chunks, maybe that'll do it.

By the way VOB files are already MPEG files, but a diff extension and modified header so DVD's can recognize it, there are ways of joining a series of VOBs then stripping them off their header with a tiny piece of soft and voilà... but if the AZBox recognizes VOBs i don't see why you'd need to have it as MPEG.

Good luck!

PS
Let me know if it worked or not, i think i still have quite a few tricks up my sleeve.

Cheers!

Mike

 

[sanjap]

Just open the Video folder and open the .ts file. It will bring up the DVD menu as if there was a physical DVD in the drive. From there you can play the whole DVD, even change setup etc on the menu. PM me if you encounter any problems