Deleting Previews and Bonus Features with PgcEdit

[D-Daddy]

After fumbling around with PgcEdit for a few months, I have pretty well mastered the macro for jumping to the main menu on DVD insert and deleting logos and warning screens between the menu and the movie. I astound my kids' friends when they pop in one of our DVD's and find that they don't have to sit through 20 minutes of ads and logos and warnings and junk. Thank you r0lz and others in this forum!

I am now trying to figure out the best way to delete previews that I don't want. I know I can use Kill PGC on them, but is that all I need to do?

I jump past the previews when I go to the main menu. And I usually make the "Bonus Features" buttons inactive (another easy trick I learned from this forum!). So, there is really no reasonable way to navigate to the previews. But if I simply use Kill PGC on a preview VTS, won't there still be some "links" or "calls" to it in other pgc's?

I guess I am asking how to (or if I need to) remove all references to a VTS that I don't want. Is that good practice, or not necessary?

Thanks and I hope this made sense. If not, I'll try again.

-Jeff

[r0lZ]

Well, the question is complex.

Sometimes, after using Jump2PGC, it is sufficient to call Delete Uncalled PGCs to remove all skipped PGCs. You can try anyway, as it doesn't hurt (unless there is a bug!)

Most of the time, however, the skipped PGCs are accessed via a VMGM PGC with a lot of jumps to the titles (or menus) of the DVD. A GPRM is initialized before calling this PGC, and is then compared to identify the target title (or menu.) When this method is used, PgcEdit considers the PGC as called, even if it is never called in practice.

You can delete the references to the skipped PGCs if you are sure that they cannot be called any more. Unfortunately, it is usually very difficult to be sure, as you have to identify exactly which PGC calls the VMGM PGC, and where the GPRM is initialized with the value that triggers the title (or menu.) Doing it manually is usually very risky.

Another method I use sometimes is to replace the Jump command by the commands normally executed when the title is played. For example, if Title 1 is skipped and you have killed its playback, you can replace the Jump to Title 1 by the pre-commands of title 1. Of course, there are usually several pre-commands. Therefore, if the Jump has a condition, you must first paste the commands after the Jump, and change the conditional jump command to a Goto to the first line following the inserted commands, and invert the condition. You have also to modify the original pre-commands if some of them are illegal in the VMGM (for example, change a Call to a Jump or a Link.)

Anyway, it is never really necessary to remove the jumps to the skipped PGCs. The only advantage of doing so is that you can then use Delete Uncalled PGCs to remove the useless stuff. I like to do it, as the DVD is more clean and easier to understand, but you will NOT regain much space.


BTW, I've just released PgcEdit v8.2. It fixes two bugs in Kill PGC Playback. Use v8.2, as the navigation can be broken with v8.1 after using Kill Playback in some (rare) cases.

Also, I've added a new function to avoid a relatively frequent problem when a menu button is hidden. If an hidden button is selected by default before entering the PGC, you cannot see the highlight, as the current button is, well, hidden! To select another button, you have to use the cursors (or press Enter if you have used the Jump to non-deleted button method.) The new function (in the Menu menu) tries to replace the default hidden selected button by another one. (It might fail in some cases, but usually it works pretty well. Anyway, when it fails, the original hidden button is still selected, but it's not really a problem.)

[D-Daddy]

If an hidden button is selected by default before entering the PGC, you cannot see the highlight, as the current button is, well, hidden!

That brings up another question... I've recently come across two videos that have buttons that show up during the PgcEdit Trace. In one case, the button is almost the full size of the screen.

But when I play the video, it goes right through those buttons without stopping. I don't even see them during normal play. Do you know what the purpose is for buttons that are never displayed?

-Jeff

[r0lZ]

Usually, they lead to easter eggs, or are ways to skip an intro.

BTW, you can easily add a button to skip an intro with PgcEdit. Open the menu editor, and PgcEdit will create the first button automatically, with a LinkTailPGC command. By default, it is transparent. When you want to skip the intro, just press Enter during the playback of the cell.

[mikenadia]

Hi, r0lZ. I would like to kill the unwanted preview (Title1 for ex) if it is only accessable before main menu (never played ): therefore, I do not want to kill playback ( in case my assumption that it will never be played is false). Can I still copy and paste the pre-commands (post 2 in this thread) and use the "Delete uncalled PGCs" to delete Title 1 if my assumption that it is only accessable before main menu is right.
Better trust PGCEdit than my judgement.

Thx a lot.

[blutach]

Delete Uncalled PGCs will tell you if the PGC is referenced at all by another PGC that is referenced.

Copying post to pre will kill playback for good.

If you are unsure if the title is ever played, just use Jump to PGC Upon DVD Insert, where the PGC is the menu.

Regards

[mikenadia]

Hi,blutach. I am already using Jump to Main Menu upon DVD insert, bypassing the preview. When I play the DVD, it seems that I cannot access that preview after main menu. But that preview is called and therefore, I cannot regain the space with FixVTS ( I do not want to delete the VOB manually).
Thx

[blutach]

So, if it can no longer be played (check it out in trace), blank the title (while previewing it) and clean up afterwards with FixVTS.

Regards

[mikenadia]

Thx a lot.

[D-Daddy]

I've learned quite a bit over the last year, but I think this question still fits under the same thread....

When I back up my DVD's, my goal is usually to eliminate everything except the movie, the main menu, the audio/subtitle setup (if any) and the chapter menus. I use PgcEdit's "Jump to PGC upon DVD Insert", then I remove the buttons from the main menu that lead to previews, games, and anything unwanted.

But what is the "best" way to get rid of the other content -- such as ALL the previews, or ALL the outtakes?

If, for example, VTS 3 contains the menu for the Sneak Previews plus all of the preview PGC's themselves, what is the best way to regain the space of VTS 3?

1. Remove Menu? Then Kill the pgc's?

2. Kill the PGC's without removing the menu?

3. Is there a preferred way to Kill multiple PGC's? Do I need to kill them individually?

4. Finally, after Killing PGC's, should I process the DVD through VOB Blanker if I want to regain the space?

Is there a better way for an amateur like me to do any of this? Thanks!!

-Jeff

[blutach]

1 & 2. You won't regain space unless and until you turn the PGC into a dummy or a blank (Kill Playback and answer yes). Even then, if cells are reused space will not be reclaimed.

3. I kill multiple PGCs one at a time after bulk removal by DVD --> Delete Uncalled PGCs.

4. Yes, or FixVTS or DVDRMP.

Regards

[r0lZ]

If, for example, VTS 3 contains the menu for the Sneak Previews plus all of the preview PGC's themselves, what is the best way to regain the space of VTS 3?In this precise case, I use Blank Out All PGCs In the Menu and in the Title Domain. When using Blank-Out, PgcEdit replaces immediately the whole Title VOB(s) by a tiny black cell (10KB) and it can remove completely the menu VOB. It's extremely fast, and there is no need to process the domains with Fix or VB. The navigation is not broken, but it is a good idea to hide the menu buttons leading to that VTS. Of course, you have to be sure that all PGCs can be blanked!

When you want to remove some PGCs in a domain but keep some other ones, you cannot use that method. In this case, I Kill Playback of the useless PGCs (with the option to replace the video by the black frame.) Many users prefer to do that from the trace, but note that some PGCs are usually not played, and you will not notice them. This is the case, for example, if the DVD has several languages or LUs. Therefore, I prefer to locate the useless PGCs manually, with the preview, to be sure to blank all of them.

In both cases, when a menu with buttons is killed, I select always the menu button that returns to the previous menu. It's the safest way to kill playback, and with some luck, some PGCs will become uncalled after that operation.

If a menu domain has several LUs, I use also Remove LU, and keep only one of them. (There are other techniques to get rid of the menu cells in other languages when they are not authored in different LUs, but it's too complex to be explained here.)

If it's necessary (for example because a lot of PGCs are visited before the navigation reaches the main menu) I use also Jump To PGC Upon DVD Insert, just to speed up things at the beginning.

Then I remove the uncalled PGCs with Delete Uncalled PGCs.

Usually, I do some cleanup manually. For example, if the main movie is not Title 1, I use Remap Title Numbers. I define also the DVD-Text General Name, and I verify if the layer break cell has been marked as seamless.

If some PGCs have been blanked or removed by Delete Uncalled PGCs or Remove LU, it is necessary to clean the VOBs with Fix or VB.

If, at this point, there is still not enough space on a single layer to burn the DVD, I use MenuShrink to convert all or some of the menu cells to stills, and DVDShrink or DVD Rebuilder to strip some useless audio and subpic streams, and compress the video. (If I remove some streams, I go back to PgcEdit to hide the menu buttons using that streams.)

Finally, I burn the DVD with the great ImgBurn.

In some rare cases, when the original DVD is very complex, I prefer to redo the authoring completely, by importing the main movie and the menus in a new DVD. But it's relatively difficult, and that requires much time, as all commands must be recreated from scratch.

[D-Daddy]

Thank you r0lZ! Thank you blutach!

Just when I was starting to impress myself with my PGC editing capabilities, I find that there are many useful commands and functions that I have never tried. I'll study your very helpful advice and try some new ways of editing my DVDs. Thanks again!

-Jeff