Vobblanker Eating Menus? Or is it the dvd? [Archive]

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TheBoyBlunder

4th July 2006, 10:50

This is going to sound a little strange, and probably poorly explained, but here goes something. Every time I run a dvd image through vobblanker, it seems to eat the menu pointer. By menu pointer, I mean the little colored icon indicating which option you've selected on your dvd player or through the dvd player software. I attached two screenshots that try to explain things a little better than I can.

Here's the method I follow:
1) Rip with dvd decrypter set to default options. Rip to an iso file.
2) Mount image with daemon tools 3.47 set to default options.
3) Open image with vobblanker 2.1.1.0, blank extra items I don't want by clicking on the item in question in the "PGCs in Selected Title Set" window, and clicking blank.
4) Click process.

Here's the problem. When it finishes, no matter which software dvd player I use, the menu pointer is gone. The screenshots might be able to better illustrate this. "Before" shows the menu from Superman before I ran it through vobblanker. "After" shows the menu after it is processed. The shield icon is gone, and I'm stuck at the main menu screen.

When I skip to the next chapter it plays the movie just fine. I've also noticed if I run the edited dvd through dvd shrink (3.5.4.0) and compress it to dvd5 size, the menu pointer is now visible on both a software dvd player and a stand alone dvd player.

At this point, I don't know what's going on, and I hope someone can at least try to explain it. If I need to clarify something, please, let me know what it is and I'll do what I can. Thanks in advance.

Edit: It's vobblanker, I think. I just ran superman though it without blanking anything, and the menu pointer got eaten again. I'm going to try it with a couple more dvds, but I think I found the culprit. I suppose that narrows down what I'm asking:
Why is vobblanker (assuming that's the only culprit) eating the menu pointer on my blanked dvds? How can I fix it? Is there a program I can run after I blank out extra material that will restore the pointer, or is there an old version of vobblanker I can try, or what?

setarip_old

4th July 2006, 16:03

TheBoyBlunder

4th July 2006, 18:21

The only time I ever heard of the menu pointer disappearing, it was the result of someone DEselecting all of the subpics/subtitles - which can be done using any nuber of different programs, not just VOBBlanker...

Hmm...you might be on to something there...for a little while dvd shrink was deleting the menu pointer as well, but I reinstalled it and it's fine now.

The only problem is, in this process, I'm not deleting subtitles at this point. All I'm doing is blanking out things like FBI warnings and "making of" specials.

I ran a little experiement yesterday: What happens if I run a dvd image through vobblanker, but not change anything? Quite dissapointingly it deleted the menu pointer. I also tried it with Pitch Black and The World's Fastest Indian, and the pointers got erased then too.

At this point I'm not sure what to do. The only two constants that I know have changed between when this worked and now, when it doesn't, are that I had to reinstall windows xp pro, and that I upgraded from vobblanker 2.1.0.0 to 2.1.1.0. Is it possible that's affecting it somehow?

I'll see if I can find a movie I can blank to dvd5 size, burn to an rw, and try on a stand alone dvd player. It's possible it's just my computer screwing up.

Edit: I just ran "Nightmare Before Christmas" through vobblanker, and according to powerdvd, the menu pointer is gone. However, it played fine on a stand alone dvd player. Apparently I might not actually be having any trouble at all...I'm going to check a couple other dvds to see what happens when I do the same thing, but it seems like my problem really isn't a problem.

blutach

4th July 2006, 22:32

jsoto

5th July 2006, 00:06

Blanking a PGC with "Clear audio/subs status when blanking/still'ing" checked (default) could produce these effects, but only if the Menu is made as a sequence of PGCs, and you're blanking the first ones.... Not usual, but I cannot imagine other reason....

jsoto

TheBoyBlunder

5th July 2006, 20:07

These "pointers" are called highlights and "removing" them is a function of having a stop code inserted in the subtitle stream. You are running Menu2Still I guess?

PowerDVD is not the best software player. Try others like Ner0 Showtime and Media Player Classic. Your standalone is your best test.

Regards

I can't say I've ever heard of Menu2Still, much less known what it does. Thanks for the suggestions on Nero Showtime and MPC.

Here's what I've found so far:

I've experimented with a copy "Nightmare Before Christmas" mostly because it's the smallest movie I have to experiement with.

When I play the freshly blanked files from my hard drive, the menu highlight is gone. I've used WMP9, Nero Showtime, MPC, and PowerDVD 5 and 6. It's missing in every single one.

However, when I burn it to a dvd+rw, the menu highlight is present on a stand alone dvd player, and behaves normally. When I play it through my dvd-rom, the menu highlight is present and behaves normally. This is through those same programs as before. I'm confused as to what's going on, but apparently my "problem" isn't a problem. I'm going to experiment with a couple more movies and see what happens.

setarip_old

5th July 2006, 20:58

When I play the freshly blanked files from my hard drive, the menu highlight is gone. I've used WMP9, Nero Showtime, MPC, and PowerDVD 5 and 6. It's missing in every single one.It sounds like you're playing them as INDIVIDUAL .VOBs, rather than "as DVD"...

TheBoyBlunder

5th July 2006, 21:35

It seems I'm an idiot, and over-estimated the capabilities of Power DVD. I assumed it was smart enough to load dvd files properly when they were dragged and dropped into the main window. Unfortunately, PowerDVD just loaded them as mere media files, and consequently did not play them properly.

As soon as I started loading files through the "load dvd files from hard drive" option, it was fine. Thank you for your help everyone, it seems the only problem was my over-estimation of PowerDVD.

Glad to hear that my speculation was correct and that your problem is now resolved ;>}

You nailed it. Thanks very much for your help.

setarip_old

5th July 2006, 21:44

As soon as I started loading files through the "load dvd files from hard drive" option, it was fine.Glad to hear that my speculation was correct and that your problem is now resolved ;>}