Creating A Menu For A Multi-Movie DVD-R

[molman2003]

Apologies if this is the wrong area to post.

I have shrunk 2 & 3 films so they will fit on 1 DVD-R. The VOB files have been re-numbered and I have created a new IFO for them following Derrow's guide.
The 2nd film will play after the first with no problems.

My question is:
Is there any way of creating a menu (static or otherwise) to allow selection of the 2nd (or 3rd) movie instead of watching the 1st.

I have checked the forum and all the posts seem to say is that you have to create separate mpeg and audio files (too time consuming) and then remux them and then use an authoring program.

Any help would be most appreciated.

Steve

[sarahjh69]

oops

[sarahjh69]

tmpgenc dvd author from www.pegasys-inc.com
takes about 20 mins......

free for 14 days

[molman2003]

Good suggestion...

I went off to try that and all looked rosy when it asked for dvd video file, I selected the folder containing the vobs, then it asked for an audio source???
I don't have an audio source as all I have is a complete set of vob files etc.

Steve

[molman2003]

As requested

Steve

http://ifoedit.wh.fr0zen.com/guides.html

[molman2003]

I have never knowingly tried films with different aspect ratios as I try to keep all my films either 2.35:1 or 1.85:1.
I really do not like pan and scan or 4:3 ratios.

I will give it a whirl this weekend and let you know.

As for DD and DTS, that worked with no problems.

Steve

[oddyseus]

Guys don't hold your breath about it. :)

There is so much involved in fixing the ifos to include a menu without reauthoring that is much easier to demux the files, throw in a simple menu and re-build the structure.

There is curently no app that can do this and afaik there wont be one, at least in the near future.

Best 4 u, to invest some time in the authoring section.

[DarkMatter]

TMPGEnc is free for 30 days and will do what you want. It will take any DVD compliant MPEG video file, PGC's, MPEG's 1/2, .dat's, most VOB's, etc. It is picky about which VOB's it will accept. Some need to be merged with others or run through IfoEdit. It is also picky about taking info straight from the DVD. It seems to have a narrow view of what the GOP headers should look like. I can't see that it would care about aspect ratio since it doesn't transcode the file. It simply links MPEG's together with a menu. Very simple to use. Overall, a good product. More worth the $100 than DVDit! is. (and DVDit! runs >$250).

[surreal120]

Hmm... this is an interesting problem. Let me make sure I understand you correctly: You have three movies that you want to fit on a single dvd (btw, are these actual DVD movies or original dv content?) and you want to have a menu to select between the three of them? You also want to avoid using an (expensive) authoring program?

Well, I haven't ever tried this, so I'm taking a wild guess, but here's an idea (keep in mind, though, that an authoring prog like scenarist or spruceup can do this easily, but at a $$$):

If at least one of the movies is ripped from a DVD that has it's own menu, you may be able to make some modifications in IfoEdit to get kind of a "bootleg" menu system going. People like 2Cool would probably know A LOT more about whether this will work, so you could also try posting in the IfoEdit forum, but here's what I would try:

Find two menu buttons that you don't really care about. For instance, if you have an audio selection menu but have stripped out the extra language tracks then those buttons would no longer be needed. Or maybe you don't care about selecting the first scene of the movie in the scene selection page (since just playing the movie would start you there anyway) as well as the end credits scene.

Actually, let's take that as an example. Go into your VIDEO_TS.IFO/VTSM_PGCI_UT/ and find the menu with the command that jumps to that scene in the fist movie (this might take some hunting - 2Cool's Guides (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=43142) have some good info on this). Anyway, you want to right-click on the command and edit it so that it jumps to your second or third movie instead. You may also have to insert a command to link to the PGC or title set as well, but I'm not an expert on that - just a guess.

As I said though, this is worth a shot but I have no clue if it would really work. I am DEFINITELY interested to know if it does, so keep me posted. Good Luck!

[molman2003]

Thanks for that surreal, I shall give it a whirl this weekend providing my 2 boys have nothing else planned for me.

Steve

[influenza]

I think oddyseus suggestion is best.

Just demux your audio and video (use doitfast4u, or just dvddecryptor), this should not take you very long.

Import audio and video in authoring program.Make a very simple menu with an authoring program (spruceup, maestro, anything). Just make a background with two buttons on it. Button 1 movie 1. Button 2 movie 2. This can be done really quickly. (less then one hour all together)

[DarkMatter]

I'm telling you guys, download TMPGEnc DVD Author. I have Ulead, PowerDirector, and DVDit. I can't see using them again. If you just want a simple menu (although, I've done some cool ones with it too) to link three or twenty video sets you cannot beat DVD Author. It will handle multiple aspects. Hell, you can even link MPEG1 files with MPEG2's. As long as the files are originally quasi-compliant, it takes 10 minutes to assemble the compilation and 20-30 minutes to output a perfect VIDEO_TS.IFO set. As soon as you start demuxing and remuxing and out-putting between programs you start to escalate the chance of errors creeping in. Unless you're in this for the purity of the process a one step program can't be beat. And, as it has been pointed out elsewhere, if you choose not to pay for a TMPGEnc program you don't have to. (I paid him for this one.) Even if you're honest, it's free for 30 days.

[DnGermany]

I would say try Tmpgenc Dvd author for the simple approach. Choose add dvd video goto the folder were the files are, open the video_ts.ifo and pick the content you want to keep.

[molman2003]

Thank you to all for your excellent suggestions. I will probably end up going the way of DVD Author.

Until then can I do it without demuxing etc etc.

2 sets of vobs, join together, make new ifo, make menu.

BURN!