Menu won't work after PGCedit use to delete intro

[ux-3]

I used PGCedit 7.0 to remove the intro of a DVD and make it go to the main menu, using the trace and KillPGC functions. I stopped deleting when I reached the first thing with buttons.

Using PowerDVD as player, the altered files played from HDD as they were supposed to, jumping into the main menu with full menu functionality.

Then I burned the files using Nero6 on DVD+R DL. The resulting disk would play fine from PowerDVD, just like the files did. On my stand alone players, the player counts time to 15, but does not play anything at all, stopping the count at 15. When I press the menu button, I do get to the main menu, but the menu buttons do not highlight, and the "ENTER" or "PLAY" buttons on the remote don't start playback. By pressing "Search Mode", I can enter a title number and play the title.

Bufore I burned the DL disc, I thought I'd play it safe by testing my fileset as follows: I used Nero Recode on the altered files to create a DVD+RW to test menu functionality on the stand alone. That disk acted as desired, so I burned the DL...

Now I really need some help! Is there something I forgot to do when doing the DL disk? Something that NeroRecode did for me, when I shrunk it?
I followed this guide: Link to guide (http://jean.laroche.free.fr/SkippingStuff0.4.3.1/)

Thanks for any guidance!

Greetings
ux-3

Edit: On my other standalone, the display doesn't count at all, showing 00:00:00. No reaction. Pushing Menu brings me to the menu, but the buttons don't function either.

Edit: I just grabbed a few of the modified files and wrote them to DVD+RW. Sure enough, I got a warning that files are missing, but I burned the first few, including the menu. And guess what, the menu acts as it should. The same files are on the DL disk, and that doesn't work right.

[laserfan]

Which version of PowerDVD are you using? I use v5.0 to check my VIDEO_TS after using PgcEdit (just as you do, to jump-to-movie or jump-to-menu, and maybe kill a PGC playback or two) and it is sometimes "flaky" i.e. does not give expected results. Then I try Media Player Classic on it, and if IT looks ok then I burn the disc (and cross my fingers).

I don't know that burning some files to DVD-RW has value--I think maybe you are wasting your time doing this. :o But my thought is that if you test the heck out of your VIDEO_TS folder, and it works, and then you burn to DVD+R DL and it does NOT, then I would suspect the burning process (software, burner, or media).

I don't know that Nero6 has a good DL burning engine. You should try perhaps the combo of PgcEdit and ImgBurn instead. Also, I use exclusively Verbatim DL discs as others have resulted in coasters for me.

Maybe your menus are in the 2nd layer and it just isn't bit-accurate. Have you tried ScanDisc in Nero CDSpeed.exe on your discs? Look for bad sectors.

[ux-3]

I am using PowerDVD5. I have just tried a few other software players on the files, and they play fine.

Regarding the DVD+RW burn: If I cannot reproduce the problem using DVD+RW, no matter if I use recode compression or the first 3 uncompressed gigabytes, then perhaps the problem IS related to the fact that I am using a DL disk. I have scanned the disk with Plextools, and PIE is at about 20. All my stand alone players recognize the disk.

As far as my standalone tells me, the menu is on layer 0 (toward the surface according to icon displayed). Further investigation reveals that at the layerbreak, the disk has a problem on all my standalones. It leaves out about 4 minutes of play time in a clean cut. It doesn't stutter or skip, it just reproducibly jumps from one frame to another frame 4 minutes later. Very same frame on all standalones. The disk plays all right on the PC.

The first attempt in deleting the intro was done a while back with vobblanker, which lead me to the same problem. That was burned on another burner, using another brand of DL disk. Basically, that leaves only one common suspect: Nero6.

Any ideas on this or should I take my troubles to some other sub-forum?

I have an idea, but would like some oppinion on it. After all, I will put another DL on the line. I would use PGCEdit to create an iso-image, mount this with daemon tools and use diskcopy in the Plextools to burn. How about that?

I'll see if I find a guide on this... There seems to be a 32k problem, and with my luck its already heading my way...

Thanks for further links, suggestions and inclusion in prayers...

greetings
ux-3

Edit: Yes, I have found the guide regarding problems with Nero6 and 32k problems. I am currently reading it. It would be nice if someone could (honestly) confirm that I am dealing with that nero specific problem of not obeying pointers...:D

Oh, and all my stand alones are SONY!

[laserfan]

...I would use PGCEdit to create an iso-image, mount this with daemon tools and use diskcopy in the Plextools to burn. How about that?Hmmm, no, you should use ImgBurn with PgcEdit--it is tried & proven.

I dunno what Plextools is but...if your burner/media aren't producing perfect DL discs then either you need to update your burner's firmware, get a new burner, or change disc media (or some combo thereof).

[r0lZ]

Strange problem, indeed! I really can't imagine why it doesn't work. Some ideas, though:

- The 32K gaps should not be a problem for Nero6, as it removes them anyway.

- The fact that the layer break is not at the original position is probably not responsible of the problem, though it is better to put it at the start of a PGC like in the original.

- The freeze when the DVD is inserted might be caused by a short logo on layer 1, displayed before the menu is read. Could you try to trace to the main title, and see if something that is after the main movie on the DVD is played first?

- I agree with laserfan. The problem might be caused by a bad media or burner. A standalone player is often more picky on the quality of the DVDs than the PC drives, especially with DL DVDs. It's strange though that only the menu highlights gets corrupted.

- I'm really not sure that burning with PgcEdit+mkisofs+ImgBurn will solve your problem. The quality of the burn will probably be identical than with Nero. But you will have the guarantee that the layer break is at the position you have chosen, and that the 32K gaps are respected.

- I have already had problems with menu button highlights not displayed on some players (but never on my Sony.) This was caused by a wrong domain streams attributes. The subpic of the menu domain must be defined in domain streams attributes. If it is missing, the subpics are correctly displayed by all software players and by my Sony, but not by my KISS. However, since the recoded single DVD works fine, I don't think it's the problem.

If you want, send me your IFOs, if possible with the original menu VOBs. (If the menus are animated, you can shrink them with MenuShrink.) Send the files to pgcedit <at> tiscali <dot> be. I'll try to verify them.

[ux-3]

Thanks for your speedy response.

I dared to do another run (using imgburn), and as far as I can tell, it is working now. Looks as if the layer break is moved as well.

I was searching the web, and I found a few reports of nero DL burns causing the menu buttons to fail.

You are right about something on layer one being played first.

I did the burn on another drive and the scans say the burn is worse this time, yet the menu plays. To me it looks as if Nero's Problems with layer 1 may have caused the menu problem as well. I hope that the problem is solved for now. Should my next burn with the previous burner result in similar trouble, it is a quality issue. If not, it is a Nero issue.

Thanks for your time!

greetings
ux-3

[r0lZ]

You're welcome.

[ux-3]

From what I read, this guy (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=111519) probably has the very same problem.

[setarip_old]

@ux-3

Your "this guy" link appears to be a link back to this thread...

[ux-3]

:stupid:

Its fixed now... I hope...

Thanks for pointing it out!

[r0lZ]

Thanks for the link, ux-3.
It doesn't explain why the problem occurred, but I'm glad to see that it works with ImgBurn!

[ux-3]

I tried to make some sense out of the stuff listed when tracing. At first, the trace directs to title 5 on second layer. From there, it is directed back to the last entry of VMGM (after playing an intro). From there, it goes to the root menu in VTSM2.
Assume it doesn't find the "entry point" to title 5 on the second layer due to Nero's faulty disk division. It then could not follow the path above, which leads to the root menu. Hence it wouldn't go to the root menu.



Makes sense?

[r0lZ]

Yes! But that doesn't explain why your player is unable to display the menu highlights. Perhaps it is in a somewhat bad state after it has failed to read the files on L1?

BTW, you can move the VTS with title 5 at the beginning of the DVD (with DVD -> Remap Titlesets.) This way, your player will not need to go to L1 before the main menu. But if you do so, the cell normally used for the layer break will be shifted, and it is possible that you will not be able to use it for the layer break any more.

You can also use the "Jump to PGC upon DVD insert" to jump directly to the main menu, or the main movie. (But note that in the first case, the last visited title will still be accessed (though not played) to ensure the menu has a valid resume point for the RSM commands. Therefore, you should trace again to verify if title 5 is still called.)

[ux-3]

BTW, you can move the VTS with title 5 at the beginning of the DVD (with DVD -> Remap Titlesets.) This way, your player will not need to go to L1 before the main menu. But if you do so, the cell normally used for the layer break will be shifted, and it is possible that you will not be able to use it for the layer break any more.

Thanks for the suggestion, but I will simply stay away from Nero for DL. The buttons work fine when Nero is not used.

You can also use the "Jump to PGC upon DVD insert" to jump directly to the main menu, or the main movie. (But note that in the first case, the last visited title will still be accessed (though not played) to ensure the menu has a valid resume point for the RSM commands. Therefore, you should trace again to verify if title 5 is still called.)

In this case, I would lose the ability to arrive at the proper language menu, wouldn't I?

Greetings
ux-3

[r0lZ]

In this case, I would lose the ability to arrive at the proper language menu, wouldn't I?
It depends of the way the DVD has been authored.

If the various languages of the menus are in several different LUs (language units), you will still have the right menu language, according to the setups of your player.

But if all languages are in the same, unique LU, and there is either a short language selection menu displayed when you insert the DVD (like in most Disney DVDs), or the DVD has been authored to select automatically the language of the menus by looking at the SPRM values (method rarely used), it will probably not work any more, since the logic to select the language will be bypassed. Anyway, in this case, the menu you have selected when applying the Jump to PGC function will be used.

[laserfan]

I probably should keep my nose out of this, but I must confess that I have tried in the past to "Kill PGC Playback" during the process of tracing to the Main Menu, and then had problems when testing the result (using usually PowerDVD v5). As a result of this, I now always just do the "Jump to PGC" first, and then after that is working I go back and "Kill PGC Playback" for the couple of irritants I'd seen along the way. If I do it this way, then there is no problem.

But I've never tried to document the problem (or report it to r0lZ). :o

[r0lZ]

The fact that Kill Playback is called during the trace of independently shouldn't change anything. It's the same function that is called.

IMHO, Kill Playback works pretty well most of the time, but it is true that it is not perfect. It is almost impossible to write a function that works in all circumstances. For example, in v7.1, I have fixed a problem occurring in very rare circumstances, when there are very specific cell commands. In fact, I have never experienced a problem myself. In some rare cases, there are Link commands that are not converted to gotos in the pre-commands, but in this case, a warning is issued, and the user can easily fix the problem manually.

If you can reproduce the problem you have encountered, try to describe it more precisely. Maybe I will be able to fix it.