The "merge" function is not working ?

[morpheus]

Hi there !

I had splitted the avatar DVD into 2 4.3 Gb DVD's, and now wnat to merge them back using the merge function ... but it is not working. I only get as output the first DVD (name of the output folder is the second DVD)

I select the first one, then the second one, click "next".
I see on the next screen the 2 "archives" (first one with 19 chapters 1->19, and second one with 18 chapters 1->18)

Then I "start", but only get as output the first DVD ?!?



Any help would be appreciated ...

[signals]

I just tested Merge with v.8.1.1.2 and it seems to work fine--almost. Merge does not work to join disc volumes, it only merges titles from the disc. If you selected all the title checkboxes from both discs, you should have them all in the merged volume. Note that merge mode has a bug in that it chooses the volume name for the Merge output volume as either the second Source volume name or the last Source volume name in the merge, so that your output volume may have a name of "disc 2" when it actually has all of the selected titles from both discs. A fix for this is on the to-do list.

Did you make the two discs from Split or Customize Split mode in DVDFab?
What is the size of the output volume?
If you play Disc 2, does it begin with chapter 1 or chapter 20?

[morpheus]

ok about the volume name; got it, there is a bug.
The name of my output is avatar2. It starts with chapter 1 of the first disk, and end with chapter 19.

My 2 "archives" were created with dvdfab customize split ( as far as I can see the directory name where they were copied) ... they are 3.32 Gb and 2.87 Gbs.
They are only 1 title with 19 chapters and the other 1 title with 18 chapters.

P.S. : what I find also not good is that after you select the first "title", you select the second title, but there is no trace anymore about the first title you selected, except on the following page where you see both titles. I mean there is nothing telling you you already selected something previously or not ...

[Jeep le rippeur]

Thanks to not have answered in the french post.

You could at less let it:

1- to answer to the translation done.
2- to help french users who have this problem too and which could check this post to solve it without a forum request...

[morpheus]

Hi Jeep, I do not get you ...

I had open by "mistake" 2 posts for the same subject : this one in the English part of the forum, and another one in the French part of the forum.

As it was duplicate, a modo of this site removed the English post, letting the french one open. As I consider English is most used than French (and I would have got more support in the English part), I have requested to removed the French post and reopen this one, that's it.

Can we come back to the merge issue to not overload the post ?

Many Thanks.

[signals]

If you select the second Source while on the second page, it will pop back to the first page for you to make the title selections, then you can click next to get to the page with the Merge list and other settings for chapters, etc.

ok about the volume name; got it, there is a bug.
The name of my output is avatar2. It starts with chapter 1 of the first disk, and end with chapter 19.

My 2 "archives" were created with dvdfab customize split ( as far as I can see the directory name where they were copied) ... they are 3.32 Gb and 2.87 Gbs.
They are only 1 title with 19 chapters and the other 1 title with 18 chapters.

P.S. : what I find also not good is that after you select the first "title", you select the second title, but there is no trace anymore about the first title you selected, except on the following page where you see both titles. I mean there is nothing telling you you already selected something previously or not ...

[morpheus]

I do not follow you.
On first page, I select the first archive, the first title :



Then I click next, and on the second page, I select again the second archive; the title in this archive :



Then I click next : here the page is showing me the 2 selected titles. I could change the chapters, etc ... But I do not touch that.



... and as a result, I only have the first archive as output ?!?

[signals]

I think you have the Merge set up correctly, it seems to be a problem either with the way Customize Split makes the two folders or the way DVDFab is reading them in Merge mode. I have sent a link asking the QA Team to check this thread.

[terry5]

Hi morpheus,
It's OK here. What you need to give attention is that the total playing time of the merged movie is separated.
As signals said, output files "disc 2" includes all of the selected titles from both discs. When you play it, the player will give the disc 1 total playing time firstly. After finished playing the disc 1, the disc 2 will start to play automatically and the player will give the disc 2 total playing time.
So the merge feature is Ok.
Please try it again.
Best regards.
terry5

[Potti]

+1

[morpheus]

Hi morpheus,
It's OK here. What you need to give attention is that the total playing time of the merged movie is separated.
As signals said, output files "disc 2" includes all of the selected titles from both discs. When you play it, the player will give the disc 1 total playing time firstly. After finished playing the disc 1, the disc 2 will start to play automatically and the player will give the disc 2 total playing time.
So the merge feature is Ok.
Please try it again.
Best regards.
terry5

yep !!! ... but let's agree this is confusing !!!

The first disk was 1h21m13s with 19 chapters
The second disk was 1h17m54s with 18 chapters.

When I open the "merge" directory structure (VIDEO_TS) with a player, it obviously starts with chapter 1 of "disk1", ans tells me there are in total 19 chapters and total time 1h21m13s.
Once this time is over, it effectively starts with the lecture of the second disk, telling me there are another 18 chapters and remaining 1h17m54s.

Many Thanks !!

[signals]

It is a little confusing when trying to stitch split volumes back together, Merge is more designed for combining non-split titles from different Sources. It is the way the IFOs are written by the Split really, not so much Merge mode itself I think.

[morpheus]

Understand ... but what I mean is that it would be good to have as a result a "unique" movie (In this case 2 hours 40) splitted into 20 chapters.
DVDFab should propose this ...

[signals]

I agree, it would be much better for what you are trying to do, but it would require decoding and re-encoding the content and would be much slower. It would also allow converting Merge volumes to a single MP4/AVI/MKV etc. which would be nice. A feature similar to this is on the to-do list for DVD Copy.

[morpheus]

Hi there !

Still no plan to have a merge really going a "merge", with 1 title at the end ?
For the moment, what I have is effectively 1 directory structure with 2 titles.

... and this is causing problems :

- first, the "information" when you are in title 1 obviously just shows the remaining time and remaining chapters of title 1, without showing any information on title 2

- second, when reading title 1 with my popcorn hour C200, after it goes to title 2, I can not get back to title 1 anymore (This because I can not get back before chapter 1 of title 2 hitting the |<< key.

So, any plan to have this developped on dvdfab ?
Any other tool allowing to do this ?

Many Thanks !