Correcting a commercial DVD screwup

[grace-wong]

Hi,

I've been using PGCEdit for quite a while now, and I think I've figured out just about everything that I can about mucking around with DVD structure. This problem, however, is a new one for me, and I'm not sure how to get around it ...

I'm attempting to edit a children's DVD for my son, and the menu shows what is essentially two versions of the same main item. I'd prefer to leave them both in, even though, more often than not, he'd only *watch* one of them. In any event, what *should* happen is that once the main "movie" is done, the DVD should jump back to the main menu. Instead, what's happening is that after the main "movie" is finished, it's jumping immediately to the next "movie", which is, as I said already, pretty much a repeat of the first one.

I've read through the help file that comes with PGCEdit, and I can't find anything that relates, per se, to my exact problem. I'm fairly certain that what is required is editing the command structure for the main movie, but I'm nervous about mucking around with something I really don't know an awful lot about.

In any event, I'd appreciate it if someone could point me in the right direction.


Thanks,

Grace

[laserfan]

Grace why bother with a menu at all? Why not just use e.g. DVDShrink to re-author as your main movie only?

[setarip_old]

@grace-wong

Hi!

Perhaps too obvious a question but, are you sure the first menu selection isn't simply a "Play All" option?

[blutach]

Hi Grace, here's an idea.

First, author the DVD to jump to the main menu on insert (function is on the PGC menu; guide on PgcEdit site). Then, after the title is finished playing, change the existing post commands to CallSS to First Play PGC (this will start the DVD again and therefore go back to the menu! :))

Regards

[grace-wong]

Hi blutach,

I took your suggestion on the first part (based on your *excellent* instructions from last year ... man, I'd be lost without that puppy ... :)). However, I'm afraid your second suggestion went *right* over my head. Could you please clarify ??


Thanks,

Grace


Addendum: I was mistaken about the first movie ending and the second one starting ... when I looked more closely at WMPC while checking things out, what the DVD actually appears to be doing is jumping back to the beginning of the first movie - if that makes any sense. Is that going to make a difference ??

[grace-wong]

@grace-wong

Hi!

Perhaps too obvious a question but, are you sure the first menu selection isn't simply a "Play All" option?


Hi back !! :)

I must admit, your reply did bring me up short, so I did double check, and yes, I'm sure that it isn't a "Play All" option ... this explanation probably won't make any sense, but the DVD is all about teaching little guys "sight words" ... words like "the", "my", etc. ... ones that we all know that don't really follow any phonetic rules that make sense to new readers. And as I'm also sure you know, there are two ways of writing the letter "a" - what you see here, and the version that just sorta looks like the letter "o" with a tail on it. So the menu item allows you to choose between the versions of the letter "a" so a child can learn to recognize both.

And that's probably waaaaaaaaaay more information than you needed ... :)


Thanks,

Grace

[setarip_old]

@grace-wong

Thanks to having a slew of grandkids, among my DVD collection I have a fairly substantial number of children's educational DVDs.

On the possibility that I have the DVD you're dealing with, may I ask you the DVD's Title and Region number?

[blutach]

Hi again Grace. Re suggestion 2. In PgcEdit, locate the main title that is playing - you can do this through trace, or you may know the title number from your software player on screen display. Now, on the right are some pre and post commands. Change the post commands by deleting commands 2 and above. Double click on the first one and select Jump to .... First Play PGC ... CallSS. In the end, it should look like this:

[30 08 00 00 01 00 00 00] 1 (CallSS) Call the First Play PGC, resume cell 1

Save and you're good to go.

Regards

[r0lZ]

Blu's suggestion is good. However, I suggest to insert the first post command before the original ones. It will have the same effect, but if the trick doesn't work, it will be easy to remove the new command to restore the DVD in its original state.

Also, most of the time, jumping to the Root Menu of the current VTS is sufficient to go back to the main menu. So, instead of the command suggested by blu in the post above, I suggest using this one:

[30 08 00 00 01 83 00 00] 1 (CallSS) Call the VTSM Root menu of the current VTS, resume cell 1

In this case, you don't need to apply the Jump To PGC Upon DVD Insert function suggested by Blu in post #4.

[grace-wong]

Hooray !!

As luck would have it, I had two DVDs with this exact problem that I was talking about, so I tried the first one with blutach's suggestion and the other with r0lZ's suggestion - and they both worked like a charm !! Many thanks to both of you !! :D

And setarip_old, the DVDs in question are by the Preschool Prep Company ... they're called "Meet The Sight Words 2" and "Meet The Sight Words 3" ... I believe they are both fairly recent releases ...

Thanks again to everyone who replied !! :)


Grace