[Wylug-help] transcode, mpeg2enc and dvdauthor woes

[Dave Fisher]

Hi All,

Every now and then I try to hand-build DVD menus with dvdauthor.

Almost invariably I've been stumped by the same error message:

   'WARN: Skipping sector, waiting for first VOBU...'

Up until now, googling has never been much use, i.e. all the search results are
simply other people pleading (unsuccessfully) for help with the same error.

Today I finally found a promising lead ...

$ man mpeg2enc reveals an option:

  -f 8 DVD MPEG-2 for 'dvdauthor'

This 'special' variation of DVD MPEG-2 apparently  "adds special dummy
navigation packets into the output stream that the dvdauthor tool fills in to
make a proper .VOB for authoring."

So now all I have to do is convert my standard DVD MPEG-2 files to dvdauthor
format using mpeg2enc, extract the audio tracks, and remux the audio with the
video, right?

It's not as straight forward as I'd hoped.

mpeg2enc seems to assume YUV input ... so I thought of using transcode to
stream YUV to its own mpeg2enc export module 

... no such luck!:

  [import_vob.so] v0.6.0 (2003-10-02) (video) MPEG-2 | (audio) MPEG/AC3/PCM | (subtitle)
  [export_mpeg2enc.so] v1.1.10 (2003-10-30) (video) MPEG 1/2
  [transcode] warning : (encoder.c) audio codec not supported by export module
  [transcode] warning : failed to init export modules
  [transcode] critical: plug-in initialization failed

Can anyone tell me whether this suggests that I'm using the wrong import module
or that there is something wrong with my export module?

Alternatively, can anyone suggest a different tool/method for giving mpeg2enc
the kind of input stream that it wants? 

Or simply a tool to convert existing VOBs to dvdauthor compatible VOBs?

Is it too fanciful to imagine a tool that simply 'blanks' the existing
navigation packets in the vob so that dvdauthor can write over them, without
any re-encoding or re-muxing?

Dave