A Simple Menue - easy !

[maa]

Hallo all!
- yes another newbie but as I noticed other newbies having the same problem I thought I'd share this discovery:
How to Make a Menue for two or more films on one DVD without re-encoding.

I'm new to this and don't have expensive software to experiment with but came up with this working solution after refusing to re-encode perfectly good VOB files just in order to get some IFOs! So for those that may have got Sonics MyDVD bundled with the burner, try this - its actually a lot quicker to do than it looks.

The trick is this:
A slide show is made very quickly and comes with the right kind of IFOs and menue VOBs.
MyDVD creates a Video_TS.vob and a VTS_01_0.vob which can be added to your film directory. It also creates a VTS_01_1.vob and VTS_02_1.vob which we throw out and replace with our films!
We just need to edit the IFOs a bit to make this work.

The following example shows how to make a menue for two films but you could easilly do more or even just one!
You also need IFOEDIT

Part 1: Make a slide-show with MyDVD!

Use any pictures or screenshots for this.
One for each film and one for the background if you don't want a standard or motion type..
Set the playback of the slides to "no fade" and 1sec long.
Open the "Edit Style" dialog and choose one of the cheesy styles, "corperate motion" with chrome buttons is my favorite and I'm
sure we'll get around to making better ones soon. Make sure that "Play all" is not checked so that the menue returns after each slide.
In the menue, run the option: "Make DVD folder". This makes a "Video_ts" folder with Video_ts.ifo, VTS_01_0.IFO, VTS_02_0.IFO and the odd VOB etc :).
Try this with your favorite DVD player software.
The Menue is now ready for the film.
That took about 30 secs to encode - right!
MyDVD will also make Animated Buttons but you'll need to demux a VOB to get the mv2 part because MyDVD doesn't read VOBs!

Part 2: Tricky bit - Getting the slides replaced with your films.
Now concentrate on this next part;
Make a directory for the new film and copy or move the first film to it without the Video_ts.ifo.
Rename the second film from vts_01_1.vob and IFO to vts_02_1.vob/ifo
The film directory should now look something like this:

vts_01_0.ifo
vts_01_1.vob
vts_01_2.vob
vts_01_3.vob

vts_02_0.ifo
vts_02_1.vob
vts_02_2.vob

Now, the slide show contains the menue vobs so copy the Video_ts.ifo, Video_ts.vob, VTS_01_0,vob and VTS_02_0,vob that MyDVD made to your Film Directory.
Still in the film Directory open the VTS_01_0.ifo of your first film, open menue/tools/ "Merge Menu Tables". Browse to the Video_ts folder that MyDVD created and click on VTS_01_0.ifo.
Open Vts_02_0.ifo and merge tables with Vts_02_0.ifo of the slide-show as before.
Now although the meues are merged, the commands need to be adjusted manually.
Its best to open a second copy of IFOEDIT now and open VTS_01_0.ifo of the slide show.
Hit the plus sign next to VTS_PGCICI to open it up. Now open VTS_PGC_1. Page down a way (5 pages) till you find the PGC command table, this is the one we need so go back to the other IFOEDIT window and find the same spot. It may have no command table but if there are some commands in there, right click on each and choose delete untill they're all gone. ("There is no PGC command table")Now right click on this and choose "add Post Command", following which an empty command appears. Now right click the command and choose "edit".
Set the same command you have in the slide show IFO.
Do the same with Vts_02_0.ifo.
Now its important to save these newly modified IFOs seperatly - when asked to save as BUB say yes.
"Get VTS Sectors" is the next step - (doing this before saving deletes all your work) after which you can test.
I noticed on a fresh install of XP that the "DVD Play" button in IFOEDIT does not always work as expected and use Power DVD for testing instead.

Your done - now burn with Nero or something.

I find this very useful even for films that I've shortened and got rid of the original menues, Just a single slide show for one film is great and made in 2 minutes plus the IFO adaption - say ten minutes in all.
Sonic works very fast if you use non animated menues.
Now for the future I'd like a better program than Sonic MyDVD that will allow creating smaller buttons.

Hope its described adequately and usefull to some poor soul who doesn't want to spend a week discovering this on his own :rolleyes:

maa

[maa]

I just re-wrote this as someone said it didn't work.

Its sometimes harder to explain something than it is to do yourself!

maa

[maa]

Well we are a talkative lot aren't we ?
Oh well ....

I just finished a DVD made the above way with 9 menue buttons containing some favorite scenes that I chopped up with Shrink in re-author mode.

This time I had the background animated and the buttons too!
MyDVD offers this feature so I made a Buttons directory and some 5 second clips of the material with Shrink (re-author).
Then dragged each VOB onto the VOBEDIT Ikon, clicked on demux and chose Video. The resulting m2v files were imported into MyDVD with the "Get Movies" button. The rest is explained above.

It all worked perfectly 'till I got the silly idea of re-aranging the buttons in MyDVD - all the wrong titles were played!
So I had a lot of re-naming of VOBs and IFOs to do ...

4 = 7
5 = 8

that kind of thing - so if you use this method watch out for that one...

I guess this method will work with all software that makes menues - the good part is No Demuxing and rebuilding of VOBs.

maa

[maa]

Chapter Settings

Funny I didn't notice this earlier but the chapters are not displayed properly untill edited in the Video_ts.ifo. I could go to next and previous but not select them with the right mouse click in PowerXP.
Heres the solution.

Change the "number of chapters" in Video_ts.ifo / VGM_PTT_SRPT to the number found in the corresponding Vts_x_0.ifo first page - overview
second colum, last PG number.

Thats it - now you can display them all with the browser function.

maa

[Mach10]

Well hopefully this thread wont disappear ... I'll save this info to a MS Word document/webpage.

I did try to do this type of editing with very little know how ... and didn't work. YOu've been more luckier than I.

I'm glad someone has posted their way to get this done.

I will save these webpages.

It's too bad ... a program hasn't been put together yet that does this for us. With subtitle and multiple audio stream support.

My home living room stereo system kicks butt ... I recently bought the Pioneer VSXD912 Receiver ... Pro Logic and DTS audio. Best feature is preamp outputs for external amplifiers for all channels.

So having AC3 6-CH in my audio is important for me.

But for my Spanish friend he has his two back channel speakers sitting on a table next to his TV ... and they are on ... oh geez ... what kind of surround sound effect is he hearing.

I told him he needs to move them to around the back next to his couch and he will hear the same sound effects he hears in my living room ... well the bass wont be as strong but at least he may get the feeling of a car driving past him.

But the Spanish audio in "Die Another Day" is AC3 2-CH ... it sounds okay but 6-CH is better.

sincerely ... mach10

[maa]

Hi Mach10,
glad you like it, the thread will stay alive if people like us newbies keep feeding it.

I've looked at various software and - you're right - no one is katering for these needs. It was frustrating for me to find out that no dvd software I came accross can read .IFOs or .VOBs !?!

To me as a newbie its like trying to open a BMP in Photoshop and getting the message "unsupported format".

So its five weeks now I've been on with this since I got my NEC1300A
burner and I've spent most of that time with IFOEDIT and MyDVD (in that order)

Re-encoding may come later for me as I experiment more but for now I'm happy if I can get two or three SVCDs with a motion menue and motion buttons in NTSC mixed with PAL on one CD and all working flawlessly. Thats the goal I've achieved and I'm happy with the progress.

Shrink is a great tool I discovered rather late - (chopper is no comparrison) as it can cut up VOBs reliably without transcoding - to me more often the favoured function, although the transcoding is good too, if not overdone.
Just for the hell of it I put Episode1 and Episode2 on one DVD using the above method. They had to be transcoded twice with shrink - 35% and then 40%, the music at the end plays with a screenshot of the film emblem to save space.
The quality of the movies is not that pleasing at all and thats why I may get into re-encoding - not sure though - DVD-Rs are cheap its not realy worth my time - a challenge it is though :)

A tip to making motion menues for the above method :

The clips used to make the menue (five seconds is enough) should have the same audio and video properties as the real film you want to replace them with.

Thats to save editing later on as the Video_ts.ifo will then have the correct settings.
In the case of a two or more movie menue where one or more of the films differs from the settings in the "slide show menue"
its a piece of cake to change from PAL to NTSC or visa-versa in the first page of Video_ts.ifo - double click on Title set 2 or 3 or whatever it is and change the video and audio attributes.

If its a case of more than one audio track in the second film for instance, you need to open Video_ts.ifo / VMG_VTS_ATRT and scroll down to VTS_2 where it has the "Number of audio streams in TITLE" and change tto the correct amount. Afterwards, go to the first page again and set the type of audio streams AC3 - 4 5 or 6 channel etc.

Don't forget the chapters - (see post above)

maa

[octron2003]

thanks maa,
was looking for something like this a long time, i always use dvd2dvd-2 to reencode my dvd's and all i wanted was to have a startscreen with a play movie button, your method worked perfect for me, i only have to look for a program where you can place the buttons on the position i want, the cover of the movie as a background and the play movie button in the lower right corner or something like that.
greetings
jan

[maa]

Thanks octron2003,

I'll try and persuede the authors of DVD Lab to change the output to accomodate this trick - if they do - thats the best menu program I've tried yet. For now it doesn't work cause everything goes in one title set :( (and I don't know how to use ifoedit to get out of that one - yet :)





Just realized I left out another point in the guide.

The Buttons
In the vts_01_x.ifo(s) you need to add the subpicture entry for the menue attributes to make the buttons show their colors on stand alones.

Open each file in ifoedit, VTSI_MAT / "Number of Sub-picture streams in VTSM" set the number to 1.

[octron2003]

I've tried it in dvdlab and it works perfect overhere, i ripped the mainmovie with dvdshrink, then created a menu in dvdlab with a small videoclip of 2 seconds and compiled it (compiled with a dummy file) and for the rest i followed your method and it works perfect

greetings
octron

[maa]

Ah yes - thats ONE film, that will work of course but not 3 - (yet)

[omseoj]

There is an authoring program that will let you make menu's for VOB files. Check out DVD Junior at www. authoringware.com. $99

I've used it to make a couple of clip discs.

Rip the chapters you want with smart ripper
Clean them with the VOB integrator that comes with DVD junior.
Make a menu in JR.
Add the VOB files
Make chapters
Write to hard drive
do whatever with.

[maa]

That may be ok if you want a menue for one vob - this is about making a menue for several ready made films with their own IFOs - chapters etc. already finished.

The "Advanced DVD Authoring SDK" looks more interesting but there's no price.

That program may be able to import IFOs ...