How to burn a DVD-Video under Linux with mkisofs and dvdrecord Prerequisites: -------------- Prerequisite is that you have a valid VIDEO_TS/AUDIO_TS structure with valid VOB,BUP and IFO files. If any of those files are not up to the spec of the DVD-Video specification the burned video will not play in a stand alone player. This document is not how to rip a DVD or author a DVD it's about the image and burning part of the DVD-Video making. To see how you can create a DVD-Video backup that you can burn flowing this document see dvdbackup. The VIDEO_TS/AUDIO_TS can look something like this if you do a ls -lR in the top directory. .: total 16 drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Jan 22 18:45 . dr-xr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Jan 22 19:08 .. dr-x------ 2 root root 4096 Jan 22 16:34 AUDIO_TS dr-x------ 2 root root 4096 Jan 22 18:58 VIDEO_TS ./AUDIO_TS: total 8 dr-x------ 2 root root 4096 Jan 22 16:34 . dr-x------ 4 root root 4096 Jan 22 18:45 .. ./VIDEO_TS: total 4051408 dr-x------ 2 root root 4096 Jan 22 18:58 . dr-x------ 4 root root 4096 Jan 22 18:45 .. -r-------- 1 root root 12288 Jan 22 16:47 VIDEO_TS.BUP -r-------- 1 root root 159744 Jan 22 16:34 VIDEO_TS.VOB -r-------- 1 root root 71680 Jan 22 16:47 VTS_01_0.BUP -r-------- 1 root root 71680 Jan 22 16:47 VTS_01_0.IFO -r-------- 1 root root 159744 Jan 22 16:34 VTS_01_0.VOB -r-------- 1 root root 1073565696 Jan 22 16:47 VTS_01_1.VOB -r-------- 1 root root 1073565696 Jan 22 16:47 VTS_01_2.VOB -r-------- 1 root root 1073565696 Jan 22 16:47 VTS_01_3.VOB -r-------- 1 root root 1073565696 Jan 22 16:47 VTS_01_4.VOB -r-------- 1 root root 923359232 Jan 22 16:47 VTS_01_5.VOB It's important that you have both the AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS directory even if shouldn't make a difference if the AUDIO_TS one is missing. Some player simply refuse to play the disk if there is no AUDIO_TS directory. You must have all file names in UPPER CASE, all files should have the 400 permission and directories should have 500 permission. I don't know how important the latter once are but it's always nice to be on the safe side. DVD-Video physical layout: -------------------------- In order to make a valid DVD-Video image the files in the image has to ordered in a specific physical order. It's important the the first file on the disk is the VIDEO_TS.IFO file. The DVD player will seek the VIDEO_TS.IFO and from it get the information on which sectors the other files start and end The physical layout must follow the roules in the VIDEO_TS.IFO, and the VTS_XX_0.IFO files. E.g if the VIDEO_TS.IFO specifies that VTS_01_0.IFO starts at sector 345 (offset from VIDEO_TS.IFO) it must do so. There are similar "rules" in all the IFO files. It's also imperative that VTS_XX_1.VOB comes before VTS_XX_2.VOB sector wise. A stand alone DVD player doesn't have a clue about individual VOB files and plays them in one chunk starting at sector X and end at sector Y. (A good not over technical guide is available at www.pioneer.co.jp/crdl/tech/dvd/. The file order is as follows in our case: VIDEO_TS.IFO VIDEO_TS.BUP VTS_01_0.IFO VTS_01_0.VOB VTS_01_1.VOB VTS_01_2.VOB VTS_01_3.VOB VTS_01_4.VOB VTS_01_5.VOB VTS_01_0.BUP If your DVD-Video would contain more than one "vob" set it could looks like this (In this case we had a VIDEO_TS.VOB menu VOBS are optional hence you may not have a VTS_XX_0.VOB) VIDEO_TS.IFO VIDEO_TS.VOB VIDEO_TS.BUP VTS_01_0.IFO VTS_01_0.VOB VTS_01_1.VOB VTS_01_2.VOB VTS_01_3.VOB VTS_01_4.VOB VTS_01_0.BUP VTS_02_0.IFO VTS_02_0.VOB VTS_02_1.VOB VTS_02_2.VOB VTS_02_3.VOB VTS_02_4.VOB VTS_02_0.BUP Controlling the physical layout of the iso/udf image: ----------------------------------------------------- To be able to control the physical layout of the iso/udf DVD-Video image you will need the 1.11a27 alpha/beta of mkisofs it includes the latest patches that enables mkisofs to parse the IFO files and extract the information how to layout the DVD-Video file structure. Mkisofs - allready has capability to sort the files so you don't need to do anything besides using the right switch :). Making the image with mkisofs: ------------------------------ Now when we have made the sort file we are ready to burn the image. Let say that we have the top of our AUDIO_TS/VIDEO_TS structure under /DVD_PROJECTS/HOMEDVD/ an example session of mkisofs would be like this. $ cd /DVD_PROJECTS/HOMEDVD/ $ ls -R .: . .. AUDIO_TS VIDEO_TS ./AUDIO_TS: . .. ./VIDEO_TS: . VIDEO_TS.BUP VIDEO_TS.VOB VTS_01_0.IFO VTS_01_1.VOB VTS_01_3.VOB .. VIDEO_TS.IFO VTS_01_0.BUP VTS_01_0.VOB VTS_01_2.VOB VTS_01_4.VOB ####################################################################### # Now we know that every thing is correct and we can make the image! ####################################################################### $ cd / $ mkisofs -dvd-video -o /DVD_PROJECTS/homedvd.img /DVD_PROJECTS/HOMEDVD/ 0.25% done, estimate finish Tue Jan 22 19:14:54 2002 0.49% done, estimate finish Tue Jan 22 19:11:33 2002 [SNIP] 99.80% done, estimate finish Tue Jan 22 19:12:21 2002 Total translation table size: 0 Total rockridge attributes bytes: 0 Total directory bytes: 4096 Path table size(bytes): 42 Max brk space used 4000 2024016 extents written (3953 Mb) $ Verifying the image with isoinfo: --------------------------------- It's always a good idea to verify the image before we burn it. $ isoinfo -i homedvd.img -l Directory listing of / d--------- 0 0 0 2048 Feb 9 2002 [ 277] . d--------- 0 0 0 2048 Feb 9 2002 [ 277] .. d--------- 0 0 0 2048 Feb 9 2002 [ 278] VIDEO_TS Directory listing of /VIDEO_TS/ d--------- 0 0 0 2048 Feb 9 2002 [ 278] . d--------- 0 0 0 2048 Feb 9 2002 [ 277] .. ---------- 0 0 0 8192 Feb 9 2002 [ 311] VIDEO_TS.BUP;1 ---------- 0 0 0 8192 Feb 9 2002 [ 279] VIDEO_TS.IFO;1 ---------- 0 0 0 86016 Feb 9 2002 [2136055] VTS_01_0.BUP;1 ---------- 0 0 0 86016 Feb 9 2002 [ 343] VTS_01_0.IFO;1 ---------- 0 0 0 4345856 Feb 9 2002 [ 407] VTS_01_0.VOB;1 ---------- 0 0 0 1073739776 Feb 9 2002 [ 2551] VTS_01_1.VOB;1 ---------- 0 0 0 1073739776 Feb 9 2002 [ 526838] VTS_01_2.VOB;1 ---------- 0 0 0 1073739776 Feb 9 2002 [1051125] VTS_01_3.VOB;1 ---------- 0 0 0 1073739776 Feb 9 2002 [1575412] VTS_01_4.VOB;1 ---------- 0 0 0 74405888 Feb 9 2002 [2099699] VTS_01_5.VOB;1 It's the numbers between the brackets that we are interested in. It tells us the start sector of each file. VIDEO_TS.IFO must have the lowest sector number of all files! [ 279] VIDEO_TS.IFO [ 311] VIDEO_TS.BUP [ 343] VTS_01_0.IFO [ 407] VTS_01_0.VOB [ 2551] VTS_01_1.VOB [ 526838] VTS_01_2.VOB [1051125] VTS_01_3.VOB [1575412] VTS_01_4.VOB [2099699] VTS_01_5.VOB [2136055] VTS_01_0.BUP Now do the same on your original DVD-Video (I'm asuming that you are doing a backup). The important thing here is to do a "original-VIDEO_TS.IFO-startsector - copy-VIDEO_TS.IFO-startsector" and note down the diff between the files. Now repete the same calculation for each of the files. The diff should be the same for all file pairs. Burning the image with dvdrecord: --------------------------------- We are now ready to burn the image with dvdrecord. As usuall it will be an example session. $ cd /DVD_PROJECTS/ $ dvdrecord speed=1 -dao dev=0,0,0 homedvd.img dvdrtools - based on: Cdrecord 1.11a13 (i686-pc-linux-gnu) Copyright (C) 1995-2001 Jorg Schilling dvdrecord: Fifo not supported. scsidev: '0,0,0' scsibus: 0 target: 0 lun: 0 Linux sg driver version: 3.1.22 Using libscg version 'schily-0.5' Device type : Removable CD-ROM Version : 0 Response Format: 2 Capabilities : Vendor_info : 'PIONEER ' Identifikation : 'DVD-RW DVR-104 ' Revision : '1.20' Device seems to be: Generic mmc2 DVD. Using generic SCSI-3/mmc DVD-R(W) driver (mmc_mdvd). Driver flags : SWABAUDIO BURNFREE Supported modes: TAO PACKET SAO Starting to write CD/DVD at speed 7 in write mode for single session. Last chance to quit, starting real write in 0 seconds. Operation starts. trackno=0 dvdrecord: WARNING: Drive returns wrong startsec (0) using -150 Track 01: Total bytes read/written: 4145184768/4145184768 (2024016 sectors). $ That's it the disk is now ready to use in any decent stand alone DVD-Video player. (Note: Some old DVD players doesn't play DVD-R(W) disk. Playing your DVD-R disk under Linux: ------------------------------------ I'm running Suse 8.0 (Linux 2.4.18) but it looks a lot of other systems has the same type of bug preventing them from playing DVD-Video recorded on a DVD-R(W) disk (this bug is not consistent). The error message looks like this: libdvdread: Can't open file VIDEO_TS.IFO. vm: faild to read VIDEO_TS.IFO A work around is to enable scsi emulation for your IDE DVD drive. Just add hdX=ide-scsi to your append line in lilo.conf (don't forget to run lilo afterwards) and reboot. By the way, you have to enable scsi-emulation anyway to be able to burn DVD-R(W) with your IDE DVD-R(W) drive. Happy burning! PS: Yes the output above is from two different project - but the vital info is the same