DVD tools for Linux

Michael Roitzsch wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I have received a report from a xine user (he is CC'ed) who encountered 
> a DVD that fails to play with libdvdnav. I attached a copy of the IFO 
> files he gave me. libdvdnav fails with the assertion in line 1622 of 
> vm.c: pgcit is NULL. This pgcit was supposed to come from a get_PGCIT() 
> within the VMGM domain, but get_MENU_PGCIT(), which is called in that 
> case, returns NULL, because vmgm->pgci_ut is NULL.
> 
> My findings are:
> * The VMGM really has no PGCs, it has no LU's, it does not even have a
>   PGCI_UT.
I don't think we should worry too much about that. ^
> * The first play PGC consits of only a pre-command saying
>   JumpSS_VMGM_PGC 255.
Well, obviously it will not find that, as there are no PGCs in this 
.IFO. So, My guess would be to start looking for a Root menu.
VIDEO_TS.IFO contains no menus, so I suppose we should start looking 
through each .IFO until we find a Root menu. But the strange thing here, 
is that that JumpSS command could have just jumped to the correct menu.
If no root menus can be found, maybe we should just start playing the 
first title.

> * I verfied both these findings with ifo_dump and IfoEdit (a windows
>   DVD IFO editor).
> * libdvdnav switches to the VMGM domain and tries to jump to PGC 255.
>   But since VMGM has no PGCs, this fails.
> 
> My impression would now be that the DVD is simply broken and libdvdnav 
> is correct to fail here (although it could exit gracefully).
> 
> But here comes the hard part: PowerDVD plays the disc just fine!
> I am absolutely clueless how they do that. I think they just guess. 
> Maybe they simply ignore broken commands and then continue playback at 
> the next PGC that looks nice to them. But if that is the case, I don't 
> think we should do stuff like that in libdvdnav. Does anyone have a 
> better idea of what's going on?
> 
> Michael
> 

You say PowerDVD plays the disc just fine. What exactly does it start 
playing? Is it a Menu or the actual movie?

Cheers
James

Hi James,

> > I have received a report from a xine user (he is CC'ed) who
> > encountered a DVD that fails to play with libdvdnav. I attached a
> > copy of the IFO files he gave me. libdvdnav fails with the
> > assertion in line 1622 of vm.c: pgcit is NULL. This pgcit was
> > supposed to come from a get_PGCIT() within the VMGM domain, but
> > get_MENU_PGCIT(), which is called in that case, returns NULL,
> > because vmgm->pgci_ut is NULL.
> >
> > My findings are:
> > * The VMGM really has no PGCs, it has no LU's, it does not even
> > have a PGCI_UT.
>
> I don't think we should worry too much about that. ^

Yes, if the PGCs are not used, not having them would not be a problem.

> > * The first play PGC consits of only a pre-command saying
> >   JumpSS_VMGM_PGC 255.
>
> Well, obviously it will not find that, as there are no PGCs in this
> .IFO. So, My guess would be to start looking for a Root menu.
> VIDEO_TS.IFO contains no menus, so I suppose we should start looking
> through each .IFO until we find a Root menu. But the strange thing
> here, is that that JumpSS command could have just jumped to the
> correct menu. If no root menus can be found, maybe we should just
> start playing the first title.

Something like that is probably happening. I would summarize that under 
"guessing"...

> You say PowerDVD plays the disc just fine. What exactly does it start
> playing? Is it a Menu or the actual movie?

Don't know. Stewart, can you answer that? And while you are at it, could 
you also tell on the list, whether this is a commercial DVD or the 
outcome of some authoring you did? If the latter, which tool?

Michael

-- 
printk("Illegal format on cdrom.  Pester manufacturer.\n"); 
	2.2.16 /usr/src/linux/fs/isofs/inode.c

Michael Roitzsch wrote:

>Hi James,
>
>  
>
>>>I have received a report from a xine user (he is CC'ed) who
>>>encountered a DVD that fails to play with libdvdnav. I attached a
>>>copy of the IFO files he gave me. libdvdnav fails with the
>>>assertion in line 1622 of vm.c: pgcit is NULL. This pgcit was
>>>supposed to come from a get_PGCIT() within the VMGM domain, but
>>>get_MENU_PGCIT(), which is called in that case, returns NULL,
>>>because vmgm->pgci_ut is NULL.
>>>
>>>My findings are:
>>>* The VMGM really has no PGCs, it has no LU's, it does not even
>>>have a PGCI_UT.
>>>      
>>>
>>I don't think we should worry too much about that. ^
>>    
>>
>
>Yes, if the PGCs are not used, not having them would not be a problem.
>
>  
>
>>>* The first play PGC consits of only a pre-command saying
>>>  JumpSS_VMGM_PGC 255.
>>>      
>>>
>>Well, obviously it will not find that, as there are no PGCs in this
>>.IFO. So, My guess would be to start looking for a Root menu.
>>VIDEO_TS.IFO contains no menus, so I suppose we should start looking
>>through each .IFO until we find a Root menu. But the strange thing
>>here, is that that JumpSS command could have just jumped to the
>>correct menu. If no root menus can be found, maybe we should just
>>start playing the first title.
>>    
>>
>
>Something like that is probably happening. I would summarize that under 
>"guessing"...
>
>  
>
>>You say PowerDVD plays the disc just fine. What exactly does it start
>>playing? Is it a Menu or the actual movie?
>>    
>>
>
>Don't know. Stewart, can you answer that? And while you are at it, could 
>you also tell on the list, whether this is a commercial DVD or the 
>outcome of some authoring you did? If the latter, which tool?
>
>Michael
>  
>
PowerDVD starts the movie playing.  The chapter skip forward and 
backward works.  If I right click on the picture and select Menus/Root 
Menu the main menu comes up.  I can then select Chapter Selections and 
select a chapter.  (If I use the original commercial DVD PowerDVD also 
starts playing the movie.)

The original DVD this was ripped from is a commercial DVD "The Fifth 
Element".  It is the letter box side of the DVD.  Please note that I 
have the commercial DVD and only wanted to rip it so I could play it on 
my Laptop while traveling without having to take the external DVD player 
with me.

Stu

Michael Roitzsch wrote:

> Hi James,
>
>  
>
>>> I have received a report from a xine user (he is CC'ed) who
>>> encountered a DVD that fails to play with libdvdnav. I attached a
>>> copy of the IFO files he gave me. libdvdnav fails with the
>>> assertion in line 1622 of vm.c: pgcit is NULL. This pgcit was
>>> supposed to come from a get_PGCIT() within the VMGM domain, but
>>> get_MENU_PGCIT(), which is called in that case, returns NULL,
>>> because vmgm->pgci_ut is NULL.
>>>
>>> My findings are:
>>> * The VMGM really has no PGCs, it has no LU's, it does not even
>>> have a PGCI_UT.
>>>     
>>
>> I don't think we should worry too much about that. ^
>>   
>
>
> Yes, if the PGCs are not used, not having them would not be a problem.
>
>  
>
>>> * The first play PGC consits of only a pre-command saying
>>>  JumpSS_VMGM_PGC 255.
>>>     
>>
>> Well, obviously it will not find that, as there are no PGCs in this
>> .IFO. So, My guess would be to start looking for a Root menu.
>> VIDEO_TS.IFO contains no menus, so I suppose we should start looking
>> through each .IFO until we find a Root menu. But the strange thing
>> here, is that that JumpSS command could have just jumped to the
>> correct menu. If no root menus can be found, maybe we should just
>> start playing the first title.
>>   
>
>
> Something like that is probably happening. I would summarize that 
> under "guessing"...
>
>  
>
>> You say PowerDVD plays the disc just fine. What exactly does it start
>> playing? Is it a Menu or the actual movie?
>>   
>
>
> Don't know. Stewart, can you answer that? And while you are at it, 
> could you also tell on the list, whether this is a commercial DVD or 
> the outcome of some authoring you did? If the latter, which tool?
>
> Michael
>  
>
PowerDVD starts the movie playing.  The chapter skip forward and 
backward works.  If I right click on the picture and select Menus/Root 
Menu the main menu comes up.  I can then select Chapter Selections and 
select a chapter.  (If I use the original commercial DVD PowerDVD also 
starts playing the movie.)

The original DVD this was ripped from is a commercial DVD "The Fifth 
Element".  It is the letter box side of the DVD.  Please note that I 
have the commercial DVD and only wanted to rip it so I could play it on 
my Laptop while traveling without having to take the external DVD player 
with me.

I have been going over the various rounds of this process and the way I 
used the ripping software is the problem.

I am using 321Studio's DVDXCopy and DVDXCopy Express.  My recollection 
is that the first time I used the process I simply copied the DVD to a 
DVD-RW and that when I played that the first thing that played was a 
message that this was an archival DVD.  Then the movie played.  I wrote 
over that DVD-RW and so I ripped the files again but did not use the 
321Studio software to create a DVD.  I used Nero to create a DVD image.  
What I didn't notice was that the movie starts playing without the 
archive notice showing up.  The archive vob is there -- it just isn't 
played.

This leads me to believe the control files are not valid.  PowerDVD 
probably just starts playing the first large VOB.  I don't know how it 
finds the menu but it does because chapter indexing works and I can 
select the menu.

I am going to start the process over and let the 123Studio software go 
through the entire process of creating a DVD.   Assuming that DVD starts 
with the archival message I will then copy those files to my Laptop and 
try again.

Stu


>  
>

Hi Stewart,

> I am using 321Studio's DVDXCopy and DVDXCopy Express.  My
> recollection is that the first time I used the process I simply
> copied the DVD to a DVD-RW and that when I played that the first
> thing that played was a message that this was an archival DVD.  Then
> the movie played.  I wrote over that DVD-RW and so I ripped the files
> again but did not use the 321Studio software to create a DVD.  I used
> Nero to create a DVD image. What I didn't notice was that the movie
> starts playing without the archive notice showing up.  The archive
> vob is there -- it just isn't played.

I would guess this archive message (a really annoying idea of 
321Studio...) was originally in that mysterious PGC 255.

Michael

-- 
#define BB_STAT2_TMP_INTR    0x10    /* My Penguins are burning. 
Are you able to smell it? */
        2.2.16 /usr/src/linux/include/asm-sparc/obio.h