Video DVD burner failure -- ERR: No VOBUs found

mailer · 11-23-2017, 04:15 PM

These are my specs:
several Puppy distros from last few years, live CD
Pburn and several other DVD burners
MP4, MPEG

This is what I am trying to do:
Make a video DVD that is playable on a stand-alone player connected to TV.

This is my error:
ERR: No VOBUs found

Internet searches gave few hits and no useful help on how to fix this error.

I used a non-default temp file because the default space is too small.

One problem is that the messages don't give the absolute paths where the programs were looking.

Please help.

Thanks.

teckk · 11-23-2017, 04:42 PM

Haven't done that for years.

Out of my notes, which may be dated

http://dvdauthor.sourceforge.net/

Make a mpeg2(video), ac3(audio) video.

Code:

ffmpeg -i file.avi -y -target ntsc-dvd <..other options..> movie.mpg

Create the movie

Code:

dvdauthor --title -o dvd -f movie.mpg

Create the title

Code:

dvdauthor -o dvd -T

Make DVD structure

Code:

mkisofs -dvd-video -o dvd.iso dvd

Burn the movie

Code:

growisofs -dvd-compat -speed=8 -use-the-force-luke=tty -Z /dev/sr0=/path/dvd.iso

Look at the docs and man page for dvdauthor first.
Also do a search for dvdauthor examples.

mailer · 11-23-2017, 06:07 PM

Thanks for the reply. I don't understand yet how the example applies to the problem.

I've seen examples like that but they look like I have to use a new DVD for every file. I want to put a few MP4 files on 1 DVD.

I thought the GUI apps were supposed to do those things. Why would several apps all give the same kind of error?

Which command actually creates the correct VOBUs?

We still don't know from the "not found" message whether the VOBUs are actually missing or whether the apps are looking in the wrong place.

teckk · 11-24-2017, 08:46 AM

Quote:

Make a video DVD that is playable on a stand-alone player connected to TV.

Then the video will need to be mpeg2 video, ac3 or pcm/wav audio. That is the DVD standard. It will need to have a DVD structure/filesystem on it, an index, and playable mpeg2 files. .vob's are mpeg2

Quote:

I want to put a few MP4 files on 1 DVD.

Then they need to be mpeg2, then read about making a DVD structure, titles, chapters, add files to it, etc.

Your first step should be to search how video DVD's work. Then use whatever tool you want to make one. You may want to start by making an .iso file, then see if mplayer(or other player) will play it like a normal video dvd. You won't have to waste a bunch of DVD's practicing.

I haven't done that for a while, let me check...

I made an .iso from a commercial dvd
This one lied about disk size so I could not do the standard

Code:

dd if=/dev/sr0 of=dvdimg.iso bs=2048

That gave me a 700kB .iso
So.....

Code:

dd if=/dev/sr0 bs=2048 count=`isosize -d 2048 /dev/sr0` conv=notrunc,noerror > dvdimg.iso

Code:

ls -l dvdimg.iso
-rw-r--r-- 1 ... 8060229632 Nov 24 08:40 dvdimg.iso

Obviously a dual layer disk.
And that played fine with

Code:

mplayer -dvd-device dvdimg.iso dvd://1

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...+dvd+structure
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Inside...tory_Structure
https://superuser.com/questions/5598...to-be-playable
Also do a search here on LQ.

Quote:

I have to use a new DVD for every file.

You can put as much on the DVD as it will hold. A single layer DVD holds about 4.3 GB.

Put a commercial DVD in the drive and look at it with lsdvd. A video DVD structure, an index, and .vob files.

As far as what available on Puppy, I don't know.

mailer · 11-24-2017, 02:49 PM

Thanks again but I don't yet see how the information applies to the VOBUs error.

Quote:

Then the video will need to be mpeg2...Then they need to be mpeg2...Then use whatever tool you want to make one.

Pburn and the others apps are supposed to do all that and put several files in 1 DVD but they didn't because of the VOBUs error.

Quote:

then read about making a DVD structure, titles, chapters, add files to it, etc....Your first step should be to search how video DVD's work.

I did that before the OP but found no solutions for the VOBUs error.

Quote:

https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Inside...tory_Structure
https://superuser.com/questions/5598...to-be-playable

These pages never mention VOBUs.

AwesomeMachine · 11-26-2017, 03:07 AM

Play the DVD with vlc. Dump the video to a file. Use a DVD creation program to make the video file into a DVD that can be played on a stand-alone player. Also, see VOBU here: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Inside...Program.2C_PGC

mailer · 11-26-2017, 02:22 PM

Quote:

Also, see VOBU here: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Inside...Program.2C_PGC

Thanks, that's the best definition of a VOBU that I've seen and it implies that VOBUs is the plural of VOBU rather than a separate thing but it doesn't explain the OP error or how to solve it.

Quote:

Play the DVD with vlc...

I'm not starting with a DVD, I'm starting with MP4 files. I also converted MP4 to MPG and tried other conversions but kept getting the VOBUs error.

AwesomeMachine · 11-27-2017, 11:42 PM

OK, practicing search_engine fu, and it seems the problem is with the video file itself. But I'm not digging anymore on this one. You might need to reencode the video files before a DVD creator can make them into a DVD.

mailer · 11-28-2017, 11:10 AM

Quote:

OK, practicing search_engine fu, and it seems the problem is with the video file itself. But I'm not digging anymore on this one. You might need to reencode the video files before a DVD creator can make them into a DVD.

I wonder how he ruled out the chance that the app was looking in the wrong place.

mailer · 11-29-2017, 10:04 AM

I ignored the warning about not enough space and used the default temp file. The result was no VOBUs error but eventually I had to cancel the burn because it ran out of space.

This means the OP error was a path error rather than an encoding error.

The GUI app uses other apps so whatever app gave the OP error was using a different path, looking in the wrong place.

The Pburn GUI doesn't list VOB as a supported filetype for DVD video but a webpage on Pburn does list VOB.

So I converted MP4 to VOB from a terminal on a drive with more space. This conversion took over an hour and added hundreds of MB to the file. That VOB plays on my computer.

Quote:

ffmpeg -i yourfile.mp4 -target ntsc-dvd yourfile.vob

Now I have to see if Pburn will burn with a non-default temp file when it starts with a VOB.

mailer · 11-30-2017, 09:47 AM

Pburn failed to burn the VOB, with the same OP VOBUs error.

After the error:
The non-default temp path is mnt/sdc1/tmp.
There is no mnt/sdc1/tmp/pburn_tmp directory.
There is a mnt/sdc1/tmp/pburn-DVD directory.
There is a mnt/sdc1/tmp/pburn-DVD/VIDEO_TS directory.
The mnt/sdc1/tmp/pburn-DVD/VIDEO_TS directory is empty.
The log puts slash marks at the beginning but only sometimes at the end of a path.
The VOBUs error doesn't tell us the path it used.

This is the whole log:

Quote:

Pburn version 3.7.14

###################################################
COMMAND:
###################################################
#!/bin/sh
cd "/mnt/sdc1/tmp/pburn_tmp/"
export VIDEO_FORMAT=ntsc
dvdauthor -o /mnt/sdc1/tmp/pburn-DVD -x /root/.pburn/tmp/dvdauthor
growisofs -use-the-force-luke=notray -dvd-compat -Z /dev/sr0 -dvd-video /mnt/sdc1/tmp/pburn-DVD

###################################################
OUTPUT:
###################################################
DVDAuthor::dvdauthor, version 0.7.0.
Build options: gnugetopt iconv freetype fribidi fontconfig
Send bug reports to <dvdauthor-users@lists.sourceforge.net>

INFO: default video format is NTSC
INFO: dvdauthor creating VTS
STAT: Picking VTS 01
STAT: VOBU 0 at 0MB, 1 PGCs
ERR: no VOBUs found.
Executing 'mkisofs -dvd-video /mnt/sdc1/tmp/pburn-DVD | builtin_dd of=/dev/sr0 obs=32k seek=0'
I: -input-charset not specified, using utf-8 (detected in locale settings)
genisoimage: No such file or directory. Failed to open VIDEO_TS.IFO
genisoimage: Can't open VMG info for '/mnt/sdc1/tmp/pburn-DVD/'.
genisoimage: Unable to parse DVD-Video structures.
genisoimage: Could not find correct 'VIDEO_TS' directory.
genisoimage: Unable to make a DVD-Video image.
Possible reasons:
- VIDEO_TS subdirectory was not found on specified location
- VIDEO_TS has invalid contents
:-( write failed: Input/output error

teckk · 12-02-2017, 08:59 AM

Quote:

dvdauthor -o /mnt/sdc1/tmp/pburn-DVD -x /root/.pburn/tmp/dvdauthor

Are you running pburn as root? Or does the config file have that path and you are running it as user? /root is only going to be writable or readable by root.

I would not run dvdauthor, growisofs, or any burner app as root.

You could of had this done by now manually.
http://dvdauthor.sourceforge.net/doc/index.html

I did a test, I hadn't done this for a while, use your own parameters

As user:
First I made a simple little mpeg2/ac3 audio.mpg

Code:

ffmpeg -t 00:01:00 -i file.avi -c:a ac3 -c:v mpeg2video -target ntsc-dvd -b:v 1200k test.mpg

Then make the DVD structure (everyting goes into ~/mydvd)

Code:

export VIDEO_FORMAT=NTSC

dvdauthor -t -o mydvd -f test.mpg
DVDAuthor::dvdauthor, version 0.7.2.
Build options: gnugetopt imagemagick iconv freetype fribidi fontconfig
Send bug reports to <dvdauthor-users@lists.sourceforge.net>

INFO: default video format is NTSC
INFO: dvdauthor creating VTS
STAT: Picking VTS 01

STAT: Processing test.mpg...
STAT: VOBU 96 at 12MB, 1 PGCs
INFO: Video pts = 0.533 .. 60.560
INFO: Audio[0] pts = 0.528 .. 60.528
STAT: VOBU 97 at 12MB, 1 PGCs
CHAPTERS: VTS[1/1] 0.000
INFO: Generating VTS with the following video attributes:
INFO: MPEG version: mpeg2
INFO: TV standard: ntsc
INFO: Aspect ratio: 16:9
INFO: Resolution: 720x480
INFO: Audio ch 0 format: ac3/2ch,  48khz drc

STAT: fixed 97 VOBUs

Then to make the VMG info

Code:

dvdauthor -T -o mydvd/
DVDAuthor::dvdauthor, version 0.7.2.
Build options: gnugetopt imagemagick iconv freetype fribidi fontconfig
Send bug reports to <dvdauthor-users@lists.sourceforge.net>

INFO: default video format is NTSC
INFO: dvdauthor creating table of contents
INFO: Scanning mydvd/VIDEO_TS/VTS_01_0.IFO

That gave me

Code:

ls -l ~/mydvd
total 8
drwxr-xr-x 2 ... 4096 Dec  2 08:49 AUDIO_TS
drwxr-xr-x 2 ... 4096 Dec  2 08:50 VIDEO_TS

ls -l ~/mydvd/VIDEO_TS
total 12640
-rw-r--r-- ...     6144 Dec  2 08:50 VIDEO_TS.BUP
-rw-r--r-- ...     6144 Dec  2 08:50 VIDEO_TS.IFO
-rw-r--r-- ...    12288 Dec  2 08:49 VTS_01_0.BUP
-rw-r--r-- ...    12288 Dec  2 08:49 VTS_01_0.IFO
-rw-r--r-- ... 12900352 Dec  2 08:49 VTS_01_1.VOB

To make sure that would work

Code:

mplayer -dvd-device ~/mydvd dvd://

And that played fine

Then I made an .iso out of it

Code:

genisoimage -o mydvd.iso -dvd-video ~/mydvd

Mounted it to look at it

Code:

sudo mount -o loop ~mydvd.iso ~/usb<somewhere>

Yes, looks ok, unmount it

Then to make sure if that would be ok to burn to DVD

Code:

mplayer -dvd-device ~/mydvd.iso dvd://

Yes, plays file

Burn it

Code:

growisofs -dvd-compat -speed=8 -use-the-force-luke=tty -Z /dev/sr0=/path/mydvd.iso

All of that I tested, except I didn't burn one, no need to.

That's how you make a video DVD. Do it or keep complaining about pburn, or keep on researching pburn.

mailer · 12-28-2017, 07:55 PM

teckk said:

Quote:

Are you running pburn as root?...I would not run dvdauthor, growisofs, or any burner app as root.

Yes, Puppy's only user is root.

Quote:

All of that I tested, except I didn't burn one, no need to.

Thanks but the point of the OP is to burn one.

The other information didn't replicate the OP with its non-default path and lacking space on the default path.