Update DVD Cover Art for VIDEO_TS Backups

[Robert E Singer]

Hi -

I've been using AnyDVD for many years. I'm trying to clean-up the backup collection's cover art. Some DVDs have good resolution cover art, some have poor resolution cover art and others have none. I doubt this is an AnyDVD bug or deficiency.

I'm currently using a Netgear EVA9150 for playback, which displays the cover art.

I'm looking for a relatively simple way to add or update the cover art.

Many years ago, I had a tool for doing this, but can't find it now. In a PC GUI, you opened a file or folder containing the backup, found a good cover art file and dragged/dropped it into a pane in the app. From then forward, the EVA displayed the updated cover art.

So, I'm looking for an app for my PC or Mac that can edit the cover art in the VIDEO_TS folder.

Along the way, can anybody tell me which file in the VIDEO_TS folder contains the cover art. BTW, it has nothing to do with a .JPG file in the folder. None of the movies for which cover art is correctly displayed have a .JPG file in the folder, therefore, it's embedded in one of the .BUP, .IFO, .VOB files. So please, no suggestions to create a .JPG file.

Thx - Bob

 

[RedFox 1]

Hi -

I've been using AnyDVD for many years. I'm trying to clean-up the backup collection's cover art. Some DVDs have good resolution cover art, some have poor resolution cover art and others have none. I doubt this is an AnyDVD bug or deficiency.

I'm currently using a Netgear EVA9150 for playback, which displays the cover art.

I'm looking for a relatively simple way to add or update the cover art.

Many years ago, I had a tool for doing this, but can't find it now. In a PC GUI, you opened a file or folder containing the backup, found a good cover art file and dragged/dropped it into a pane in the app. From then forward, the EVA displayed the updated cover art.

So, I'm looking for an app for my PC or Mac that can edit the cover art in the VIDEO_TS folder.

Along the way, can anybody tell me which file in the VIDEO_TS folder contains the cover art. BTW, it has nothing to do with a .JPG file in the folder. None of the movies for which cover art is correctly displayed have a .JPG file in the folder, therefore, it's embedded in one of the .BUP, .IFO, .VOB files. So please, no suggestions to create a .JPG file.

Thx - Bob

Hello this is not an AnyDVD issue, So I am going to move it to the General Chat section. Thanks.

 

[dbminter]

It wouldn't be in a BUP or IFO file because those are probably too small to contain images. Plus, those contain the navigation commands for DVD playback, so you wouldn't want to add extemporaneous information to them which might confuse an older player. They would then have to be in a VOB somewhere, but those generally only contain audio and video. Still images would only be present in DVD menus that have no motion in them.


Most DVD's I've seen that have cover art on them are contained in a folder in the root directory called JACKET_P.

 

[Robert E Singer]

I have backed-up many DVDs with AnyDVD. There are no folders containing cover art files. There are almost no DVD backups that contain .JPG or any other picture files.

Yet, cover art is displayed on some of my media players for many backed-up DVDs. The only conclusion is that the cover art is embedded somewhere in the DVD files.

Can anybody refer me to documentation that shows where DVD cover art is embedded?

 

[dbminter]

Did you look for the aforementioned JACKET_P folder in the root directory of the discs that have cover art displayed?


http://forum.doom9.org/archive/index.php/t-103522.html

 

[Robert E Singer]

No JACKET_P folder anywhere.

Upon further investigation, I found the file VIDEO_TS/VIDEO_TS.TAG for backed-up DVDs which enabled display of the cover art, for the few DVDs that displayed cover art on the media player. The file isn't human-readable, but there is some ASCII text in the file. It appears that the file is an ID3-format file, which, among other data, contains the text "image/jpeg" mime directive followed by a bunch of binary data, which I assume is the embedded cover art. A file with the embedded cover art, hidden in plain view.

Based on a bunch of inferences that I won't bore anybody with here, I'm pretty sure these files were created when I used the cover art tag tool from Netgear many years ago (referenced above). I actually found the Netgear tag tool on an old installation CD. It used to access movie metadata from IMDB, Amazon and Google to create the VIDEO_TS.TAG file. Now, the program is decrepit and barely functions at all.

The Netgear media player was EOL'd a long time ago, so I won't bother trying to get support for their tag tool.

The VIDEO_TS.TAG file doesn't appear to be part of any widely used standard. Further, if I create the file FOLDER.JPG file in the root of the backed-up DVD, the media player will use it to display cover art. It's easier to save a simple JPG file than to try to coerce the Netgear tag tool to try to generate the non-standard VIDEO_TS.TAG file.

That's the direction I will head from here.

 

[dbminter]

.TAG is definitely not part of the DVD Video standard. In fact, long time ago, if you put anything other than .VOB, .IFO, or .BUP in the VIDEO_TS folder, you ran the risk of breaking the DVD. An early form of copy protection that was easily defeated when the predecessor of ImgBurn knew about it was putting non-standardized files in the VIDEO_TS folder. So, if anything, this Netgear tool was what added the video cover art in the form of a .TAG file.


What media players are displaying this cover art? I'm guessing software based ones on the PC? I can't see any standalone DVD player displaying cover art from a .TAG file with a FOLDER.JPG file in the root directory of the DVD. Then again, I never heard of .TAG until today.

 

[Robert E Singer]

My DVDs are all backed-up with AnyDVD because I wanted to preserve the entire contents unchanged. The media player that I use for the heavy lifting is a Netgear EVA-9150. As a set-top box, it's connected into my home A/V system and controlled with IR from my automation system. It's one of the few STBs that can play DVDs backed-up onto my file server in the VIDEO_TS format.

I won't watch movies on a tablet or a PC.