Conditional cell command

[mikenadia]

In the main menu, I have a LinkTopPG cell command so the cell replays indefinitely.
This is fine the first time I am watching the movie but it goes back to that menu at the end of the movie ( in which case I do not want the cell to replay indefinitely).
The only idea I had was to clone the PGC and make appropriate links.
I am looking for more elegant ways (including limiting the number of replays to 3).

Thanks in advance.

[blutach]

Cloning the PGC and making the DVD go to the cloned PGC after the movie is an excellent idea. But what do you want it do after playing once? Stop?

Regards

[r0lZ]

If you have a free GPRM, you can initialize it to different values in the FP-PGC and in the movie, and then check and decrement it to loop the PGC a certain number of times.
For example, you can set it to 0xFFFF in the FP-PGC (for a virtually infinite loop) and to 3 in the pre or post-commands of the movie. In the menu, just decrement it in the post commands, and when it is 0, do whatever you want. You can't do that with a single cell command, but you can replace it by a LinkTailPGC.

[Alex_ander]

If you want it to play just once (without cloning) you can simply delete the cell command and set the cell's 'still time' attribute to infinity (or to a suitable finite value if you further edit navigation for starting the movie after the set period ends).
Or (to save space while cloning it) you can convert that clone to still and disable its audio stream. This involves extra navigation editing (main movie post commands + root/title menu calls from playback).

@r0lZ
Looks like forcing movie playback after that 3rd loop is the only choice (or it all stops)?

[mikenadia]

Thank you, all.
The idea is to go back to main menu and wait still. I do not want to listen to the same music for two hours ( 2 kids DVD in 2 adjacent rooms!). I will try all your ideas and report.

[r0lZ]

Alex_ander, your idea sounds fine, but forcing an infinite still time at the end of an animated menu with buttons doesn't work well, because the buttons are usually programmed to vanish at the end of the playback. Some players are still able to understand the buttons, but most of them will remove the highlight, and wait indefinitely.

The idea of the still clone should work, but it is not easy to keep the original PGC animated, as if you convert the cloned PGC to still with MenuShrink or VobBlanker, the original one will be converted too (because they share the same VOB cell). If you try to rebuild a new still PGC from scratch, you can easily change its background and rebuild the buttons, but the subpic strean will be missing. (V9.3 adds 2 blank subpic streams when it creates the tiny cell, so it will be possible to replace them with the original highlights with DVDSubEdit, but anyway, it's not an easy process.) It's a pity, as combining this idea with my GPRM based method to loop a certain number of times could be a good solution to do exactly what mikenadia wants.

[mikenadia]

Some comments: I do not know how to use DVDsubEdit and do not want to learn how to use only for that purpose.:)
I would not like to be forced to have to reencode, so I have only a limited space for the additional PGC.
So, as of now and after having read all your comments, I am inclined to use the gprm method and have the same counter pre and post movie (limited to a 5 times replay all the time). I will also try to play with two gprm counters (one pre-movie limited to 99) and (one post-movie where I will multiply the counter by 100) to try to have it played only once or twice.
Thanks for all your insights.

Edit: Thanks, rOlZ. Launching the movie again is fine. Going with the counters.
On an unrelated note, I am using DVD-Shrink to "shrink" animated menus.
Backup with no compression for movies and extras before reencoding.

[r0lZ]

That's fine, but with the counter, you will be able to limit the number of times the menu loops, but after that, you will have to do something. If launching the movie again is acceptable, it's easy. But if you really want to go to a still menu, you will have to find a way to author it.

BTW, IMO, the easiest solution is simply to convert the menu to still without audio with MenuShrink. OK, you will lose the animated menu, but for your kids, is it so important? Furthermore, if the original DVD is a double layer and you copy it to a single layer, you will regain some valuable disc space and have a better compression quality for the movie.

[Alex_ander]

the buttons are usually programmed to vanish at the end of the playback.

You are right, most likely, button highlighting 'end' times must be edited to 'never'. It is still possible that subpiture fades had been applied as well, but it happens not too often (as DVDSubEdit's manual says when it mentions the option for fade creation/removal).
As for conversion a (single-cell) menu PGC to still I meant DVDRemake (sorry for this :) ) which has different options for cloning: 'Duplicate' which refers to already existing blocks and behaves as you described, and 'Add Copied'/'Append Copied' (after copying from current or another project) which allow for independent block editing. Suppose we have an already working still clone created using 'Append Copied' and 'Convert to still' options. Then it becomes the second cell/program in the PGC and we can combine 3 loops -> cell 2 with going directly to cell 2 (on some condition) after playback or menu call.

[r0lZ]

Yep, I agree with you. And if you "append copied" then convert to still with MenuShrink, it takes care of the highlighting end time and of the "fade" of the subpic itself, so you are on the right side. I did not know this option of DVDRM, as I don't use it often! ;)