Ah, VLC. My first impulse is to rip the heck out of this buggy and unpredictable piece of software. But I have to give it some props for getting me out of a jam recently.
VLC plays back more video file formats than just about any other utility. However, it has all kinds of known playback issues. But honestly, anyone trusting any part of their show to a PC is just asking for trouble.
Hi Sparge,
Yeah, I been getting the gist of that lately with VLC. Overall it is a good program and it does have the great advantage that it does play many different formats. I originally DIDN'T want to rely on the PC for everything. I only wanted to run my pre-show and shorts from the PC, but the features I wanted to run from DVD directly this way I don't have to unnecessarily consume space on my hard drive. VLC DOES have this feature in that you can set up a playlist and run files both from the computer and the DVD player.
Direct from DVD on a dedicated player is THE way to go. No scaling issues, no stutters, no artifacts, no aspect ratio issues, no flickers between clips, no audio sync issues, etc. And that's all provided the PC itself doesn't have any hardware or OS issues during the show. In my opinion, it's extremely unprofessional if one's audience ever sees a mouse cursor or a computer desktop. But hey, maybe that's just me. I always burn my pre-show and intermission discs to DVD.
Agreed, however, VLC doesn't seem to want to play some of the newer DVD's VOB files directly. I CAN get into the main menu though and then select (via mouse) the movie and then it WILL play fine. But as you pointed out above, it is very un-theater like and non-professional and does put a damper on the show.
Idealistically if I had my way, I would have a video mixer to go between a computer and stand along DVD player. The problem is that video mixers are not cheap. Even second hand, they cost a fortune. Needless to say, that is out of the question.
In my case, the good thing about the PC in question is that it is a dedicated machine. It doesn't connect to the internet at all...it is just used for video purposes only. The computer is dedicated just for this purpose.
Having said all that, I must say that VLC recently saved my butt. My home computer (with DVD burner) blew up two days before our big Halloween all-night marathon. My family told me a day later. I already had all five movies on individual DVDs (which is where I intended to play them from). But I still had a pre-show disc and four intermission discs that needed to be burned. I don't have a burner in my laptop but I was able to use VLC to create playlists for the pre-show/intermission content. Luckily, a lot of the clips were already on my laptop. In fact, I was scripting playlists for each intermission while the movies were playing! Talk about just in time content! It wasn't perfect. I had to manually toggle the aspect ratio for certain clips (known VLC bug) during the show. There was also the infamous "flash" when stringing together clips of different native sizes.
Yes, I have seen this flash too. While still annoying it is still better than the prior versions of VLC where you could actually see the desktop. Granted, I never tried a previous version on Windows before, but I used VLC with Linux and could see the desktop (this was prior to my Ubuntu failing to boot up, a problem I still have to fix).
The little flash I can live with for now, but when I discovered that VLC didn't select the right audio track (really not VLC's fault as the disc for Monsters VS Aliens DID have the 2nd audio track in the wrong place), I went bonkers. GOOD THING I do a dry run (dress rehearsal in theater speak) BEFORE I do an event.
Needless to say, after encountering this problem on Friday, I once again have to bump my show.
But, it was better than nothing which was my unfortunate alternative. So begins my hate/love relationship with VLC.
Yeah, I am beginning to feel the same way. For Halloween I needed Halloween background music for my event and I used VLC for an audio only playlist. VLC handled that flawlessly. Since it handled both video AND audio, I didn't feel the need to install another program just for audio. So VLC really came in handy for that event too.
As for your issue with the the five VOB files...
You're most likely running into a case where the ripper is breaking the file down into 2GB chunks to retain compatibility with older operating systems. You might be able to turn that off. However, even with Windows XP I believe one is limited to 4GB files unless running an NTFS partition. Even at 4GB you're talking about three VOB files for a typical 9.7GB DVD (with little or no compression on the rip).
I am using DVD Shrink right now, how do I turn it off? Is there a way just to get one big file?
As for the flash effect between clips...
It isn't a flash as more or less a hiccup. It is akin to a bad reel change in a theater. There is a noticeable 'jump' in the video and sometimes a pop in the audio too.
I didn't have too big an issue with that (it was there occasionally). In your case it might be due to the sheer size (2GB) of the VOB files. It takes a lot longer to load one of those then say a 25 MB concession stand snipe.
These smaller clips usually load up in one clip. Even my Little Rascals shorts load up in one clip. But the advantage is that most of these are 20 mins long or less, so I guess they fall within the clip's limitations.
I did craft my own playlists by hand and employed a couple of VLC option commands to keep it full screen, defeat auto-scaling, turn off the video title, and select a particular audio track. You'll have to decide on the auto-scaling feature. I find it works better for some clips. Don't bother to try to set the aspect ratio on a per clip basis. VLC gets stuck in the aspect ratio of the first clip in the playlist. I guess that's a known bug based on some forum threads.
Actually for my pre-show I have composed everything together via Windows Movie Maker. I have converted VOB rips to .avi for my video shorts and other clips I have taken from discs. The aspect ratio is fixed at 4:3 (but I am thinking of changing this to 16:9). The pre-show runs seamless with no jumps or audio problems because it is finalized as one large .WMV clip. This is what I put at the beginning of VLC. When the pre-show comes to an end it introduces the main feature, from there VLC plays the movie.
I COULD convert the VOB files to .avi and put them into Windows Movie Maker, but that is now becoming a lot of work to set up for every time I want to create a movie program. As it is I really didn't want to run the movies from the computer.
What I wanted to do is this in VLC:
1) Run Preshow .wmv file
2) Run Monsters V.S. Aliens (preferably from DVD)
3) Intermission file (on computer)
4) Run E.T. The Extra Terrestrial (again from DVD)
So I think I just have to find out what it is that is causing VLC not to read the movie directly. Hopefully there is a work-around.
Here's a sample of my playlist entries with options:
(edited out for redundancy).
Are you editing a playlist file manually via HTML? I do see that you can select the audio track there, so that would circumvent my audio problem.
By the way, in VLC audio track 0 (zero) is the first audio track. So, in the above examples I'm actually selecting the second audio track of the VOB. As to why you're getting the commentary track on that one section, I suspect the copy protection scheme on the original DVD had something to do with that.
Yeah, why am I NOT surprised!
I like taking my movie content right from DVD. I have a Sony player that has a "resume" feature for the last 40 discs. I cue up each movie right at the opening credits and then eject it from the player. As soon as I insert that disc in the player again it picks up right from there bypassing all the menus and such. It works great. One just has to remember to cue up all the movies beforehand. It takes a couple of minutes up front but it makes for a more seamless show and it can be done before anyone arrives.
-Sparge-
My Sony DVD player DOES have that feature too and I do have a second input on the video projector, but the problem is that you have to bring up the menu screen and select it, which is just as bad as clicking on a mouse. I am not sure if it can be done on the fly. I don't have the remote control for the projector.
So in one aspect I can see the need for an extra video display and some switch of some sort to 'cue up' the video.
However, all of this by right is counter productive as the intention was to have VLC run everything while I do other tasks...namely run the concessions. The only thing I wanted to do was to change out the DVD from Monsters V.S. Aliens to E.T. once the intermission clip started. Then it would cue it up automatically while I would tend to concessions. I did specifically buy a DVD drive for that computer for that intention.
I don't know if there is a 'better' program than VLC for the task? Or perhaps I should try and gang everything up in Windows Movie Maker and just make one big .wmv file and have VLC play that. Hopefully the in movie transitions will be smooth. The trouble with this though is that I might do it a couple of times then then just deem it 'too much work' to set up and I may not do BYT events that often.
The whole point of going with VLC was to create pre-show templates. This way I could change just the items I wanted to change (such as some of the ads, trailers and shorts). After a while I would have a bunch of pre-shows already set up in a 'library'. So that way it would make editing and planning for an event much easier. Changing the feature film would be as easy as changing the VLC playlist. That to me is the easiest to do things and I would maintain my interest in this hobby for a very long time.
So I really need something that is going to work like VLC but better, and doesn't have the problem cuing up from a DVD player. I think that is what I need right now.
For now though if I could rip to a larger VOB file...perhaps at least having only two files then the hiccup would happen only once in the film. While still not desirable, it is still better than FIVE hiccups.
Anyway, I am open to some more suggestions. I really would like to have this ready by this weekend. I have nothing planned for this weekend, but I soon have to get started on a Christmas project. So it is kind of do or die for this belated Halloween set.
Thanx for the input,
Geo
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