Layer breaks - how does it decide?

[ManChicken]

Firstly, have used ImbBurn a couple of times and it's great (RIP DVD Decrypter - but glad I kept my installer! )

 

I've been fighting a project all weekend, and done a LOT of reading and digging around about layer breaks as a result (I've read though dozens of threads here too first) but I'm needing some 'inside information' in order to get over this stumbling block.

 

In short, I have DVD Architect (was Sonic Foundry, now Sony Media Software ) and have made more than a few coasters today trying to burn a project from it to +DL (which has worked before, I dunno why this one is different.) It gets through the whole burn and goes to do the lead-out, and just dies.

 

So, I've tried making an ISO image out of it and burning in ImgBurn instead, but DVD Architect doesn't seem to tag the IFOs with the layer break information when creating a disc image; only when you burn to an actual disc does it pop up and ask (it happens very late in the build process). When I do try to burn to a disc, it tells me I must add a chapter mark somewhere between a certain timecode of a certain title, which I've done. But besides the extra cell that gets created for the chapter mark in this title, I don't think it does anything special when you generate an ISO like it does when you burn a disc direct.

 

Now, from everything I have read, layer breaks have to happen at a sector address divisible by 16 so as not to be in the middle of an ECC block. Since I want to pick the break point at a visually acceptable place in my video (a silent cut or scene change), I stand a pretty small chance of hitting the I-frame I want and by chance having that particular frame line up with a ECC block on the disc... so authoring apps like DVD Architect and Adobe Encore presumably take your chapter/layer-break mark and then shift the entire volume (changing all the sector addresses within all the IFOs and such) so that it lines up exactly on a sector number divisible by 16.

 

So, finally my actual question here can/does ImgBurn do anything similar when attempting to find a place on it's own to put the layer break, or does it ONLY depend on there being a cell(s) that already line up exactly on a sector thats divisible by 16? Given this limitation of DVD Architect, is my only choice to just create a load of chapter marks and hope that one of them hits?

 

Thanks in advance for any other technical info you might be able to provide. I'm trying to get a solution to my burning problem from within DVD Architect but I don't know how much help they will actually be in the end, their tech support is generally pretty worthless

[LIGHTNING UK!]

As the Image has already been built, ImgBurn can't do anything about the physical location of the files within it.

 

It would indeed need to shift them about in order to make a cell line up nicely.

 

The recommended way of building DL images is via PgcEdit.

You can play each cell that 'could' be a potential layer break position. It'll then build an ISO with the correct padding so your chosen one works.

 

So basically, forget messing around with those other tools for the building part and just get PgcEdit to do it.

[ManChicken]

Thanks!

 

I grabbed a copy of PgcEdit and found a little tutorial on how to use it for this purpose, and FINALLY got my image prepped and burned correctly!