X-files season 3 NTSC problems - please help

[jfcarbel]

I have read thru the forums for the last 2 weeks and now and trying to backup my season 3 X-files NTSC R1 dvds using IFOEdit. The 4 main episodes are on VTS_02_* and are 4 separate PGCs. Used VOBrator and noticed that the episode menus are scattered thru the VTS_02 as VobIds.

Followed dooms guide and tried splitting just before PGC_3 and it seemed that it split the disk1 and disk2 folders correctly. Then copied the VTS_01_* files and tried to test with WinDVD. But it starts playing the FBI warning and then goes blank. The orginal ripped files play okay in WinDVD and go into the main menu.

I also tried another way that I saw in the forums by choosing Strip VOBIds and selecting only the VOBIDS needed for disk1 and same for disk2. Still same problem. Sounds like a navigation problem but I do not know where to look.

I assume I don't have to do a get VTS sectors since this is done automatically now in IFOEdit 0.95 - correct?

Please help. I'm stuck.

[jfcarbel]

Never mind, figured it out.

VTS_03 actually contains a Fox Logo that is needed and I did not have these files in the disk1 or disk2 directories. Everything seems to be working chapter stops, menus.

I am thinking about trying to get rid of the studio menu. Can I just use a blank dummy VOB and IFO for this? The VTS_01 on the X-files NTSC is actually a fake VOB with no video.

[jfcarbel]

yep, the dummy trick worked well. Just copied the VTS_01 and renamed to VTS_03

Hope this helps others.

Not on to trying to get the 2 unused menus to be ignored or to play some VOB message that these episodes our on disk2. Going to search the forums for this but if anyones got some good VOBs for this or tips please let me know.

[jfcarbel]

NOT WORKING

PowerDVD seems to play it fine, however when using the DVD play function of IFOEdit I get an illegal navigation error when selecting episodes not on the disk.

I found some code in the PGC menus in PGC-menu_16 where it checks register9 and jumps to a title set based on this. I changed this jump to root menu, but its as if none of my changes took and I know I saved it. So I must be looking in the wrong place.

If anyone has had success with X-files NTSC seasons, please post here on what you did. Please!

[jfcarbel]

Okay its 2am and I was not ready to give up just yet, but I did succeed. I hope this helps everyone else. I am going to put a guide together soon to take everyone thru the X-files NTSC seasons.

Anyways, here is how I disabled the 2 unused episode buttons on Disk2.

1. Open VTS_02_0.IFO since this is main episodes for NTSC R1

2. Go to VTSM_PGCI_UT section, find the PGC-Menu_1 (Root Menu)

3. Scroll down to PGC Command Table and look for the Post commands that compare GPreg<0> == GPreg<9>

4. You will notice that there are 4 of these for each episode and they do a (LinkPGCN) to the menus for each episode.

5. Now disable the 2 you are not using by doing edit command and changing it to NOP. For example, if you are on disk2 then you would change the first 2 to NOP since these #1 and #2 episodes are not on disk2.

6. Now save your IFO

7. That's it.

Effectively, what this does is that if you click on the episode title on the root menu, it will do nothing.

Thanks to 2COOL for his great sticky, it really helped me learn how the DVD menus work.

P.S. The splitting to 2 DVDs using the doom9 way did not seem to work for X-files. I need to Strip VOBIds and choose the ones to keep.

[jfcarbel]

Okay, one more gotcha when working with the X-files episodes.

If you are using strip it to strip out extra langauges to save space, yet still want the special features then you must be careful.

If your special feature includes an episode audio commentary, then you probably want to leave in that 2nd English audio stream since it is the commentary.

For deleted scenes, the DVD is supposed to display an X in the right hand corner. This is done using a subpicture stream (subtitles). So you need to figure out which one they are using by finding the menu associated with the VOBID for the deleted scenes menu. In here it will tell you want # subpicture they are using. For example, in Revelations in Season 3 the subpicture used was 3 which was french. Without the subpicture it will not show the X logo, but you can still click the select to jump to the deleted scene if you know when to do it. Or just leave in all the subpictures since it will not save you that much space.

[jfcarbel]

Mods, can you change the title of this post to "X-files NTSC Season - Backup Tips" since it seems I am just posting here to help others now.

[jfcarbel]

Yet another tip for those X-files Season backups. Season 1 X-file NTSC R1 has a very tricky first play intro.

How to disable intro and go right to menu

The intro for season 1 is buried in the root menu, so overriding the first play or deleting the intro VOB_ID will not work. Trust me, been there. Here is what works:

Go into VTS_02_00.IFO's VTSM_PGCI_UT
Edit the 11. Pre Command in the PGC-Menu_1 (Root Menu)

- edit as hex by double clicking
- uncheck all but hex
- put cursor at beginning of line (don't worry if display goes blank and grey)
- now keep typing zeros until everything is 00
- now hit the "Insert" key on your keyboard 4 times
- now click on each 00 pair that needs to be edited and set them to the below values
71 00 00 09 00 00 00 00 00 82 00 00

- now click okay
- the command will show as 0, don't worry this is a IFOEdit bug - just click out of this PGC and into another and back
- now it will display as Set GPreg<9> mov (set-val)<0>

If someone knows and easier way to do this for S1 please let me know. Also audio is not working on menu, maybe someone can tell me a Pre Command to turn this on.

Also I am really winging it here since this is a learning process for me, but it seems to work so test it out before you burn.

[Josh]

jfcarbel, please read and try this! I recently had the same thing happen to me burning the Count of Monte Cristo. It did the green warning screens and that was it. What you do is change the precommand for disc one to Jump to Video Manager Menu and that fixed it for me. Try splitting the disc normally and change the precommand and see if that fixes it. The instructions are on my last post on page 3 on this thread:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=44830&perpage=20&pagenumber=3
You may want to check out the menu problem I had with Return to Me on pg. 4 as well, that may fix the lost audio on you menu.