I have copied a DVD of an old family video to my computer but am having trouble playing or converting all of the video content.

If I open the DVD directory in VLC or MPV to play it I can see that the video is 1h46m but it will only play the first 14m53s, which seems to correspond with a ‘chapter’. If I open the directory in Handbrake it will detect the full video length of 1h46m and a total of 8 chapters but will only convert the first chapter. Ffmpeg will convert the three main .VOB files to .mkv but the output files only add up to 30m or so of video, which is an improvement over opening the DVD directory in a media player or converting it using Handbrake but still doesn’t pick up the full video length.

What, if anything, can I do?

Thanks

  • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
    141·
    4 days ago

    You need software (like MakeMKV) to read the metadata from the DVD and properly chop up or combine the video files. It should be able to export without any re-encoding.

    On a separate note, if you want to shrink the files, I’d recommend av1an if you are comfortable with a little CLI and want the best possible encoding efficiency. In a nutshell it chunks videos and encodes them in parallel, hence its great for really long files like movies/TV on DVDs.

  • A_norny_mousse@feddit.org
    5·
    4 days ago

    How did you copy it?

    Are you sure you have all the data?

    In any case, you can tell mpv to target chapters individually (it doesn’t do dvd menus);

    mpv dvd://[number] --dvd-device=/path/to/my/rip

    Where [number] is the number of the title/chapter.

    • Churbleyimyam@lemm.eeOP
      2·
      4 days ago

      I copied it using a borrowed external optical drive.

      I’m not sure how to tell if I have all the data but the size of the directory contents is around 3.5 gigabytes which seems appropriate for length of video (1h45m).

      Will try your suggestion in mpv 👍

    • Churbleyimyam@lemm.eeOP
      3·
      4 days ago

      I was just borrowing it when I made the rip and was also using a borrowed drive to read it, so I’d rather try and fix the files I currently have. I tried ripping it more than once when I had it, so I just settled for what I got - only getting around to fixing it now!