Scenarist navigation...Noob needs help!

[Fivethumbs]

I'm trying to re-author a dvd, and I'm having a litle difficulty with it. I think I've managed to get my head round the basics of it, but there are a few things that still escape me. I did try searching but I couldn't seem to find anyone asking about this (Although TBH I didn't really know what to search for!!)

I've got the main menu in the language folder in the VMG, and I can link to each VTS from there (There are 7 VTS folders), but the original DVD has an option on the main menu to play all off the episodes (Each in a VTS) sequentially. I can make it run this way using dummy PGCs in the VMG, but then when I go to play a single episode I want it to return to the main menu. How can I make scenarist do this? I think it might be something to do with putting the same PGC into the title folder of each VTS twice (Or putting the same PGC into a different title folder in the same VTS??) Like I said I'm fairly new to this, and I know it's probably staring me in the face but the basic authoring forum didn't quite seem to be the right place to ask..

Cheers chasps! Hope someone can explain (In simple terms if you can ;) )

[DnGermany]

Make another vts folder with all the pgcs together, and make that the play all set.

[Fivethumbs]

Won't that use up twice as much space on the disc though? I'll have a go as soon as I get the chance. I'll let you know how I get on...

[DnGermany]

Actually it doesn't, just a couple of bytes for the ifo file. Any time you use the same material again it's still seen only one time. The ifo just plays it in a different order. If you look at the ifo file you should see some of the pgcs are using the same vob/cell id numbers. Or one VTS set with 8 titles (title 1 - 7 being one epp each, and title 8 being all epps together) that's a little bit cleaner method.

[Fivethumbs]

Well I tried putting the whole thing into a seperate VTS folder...Scenarist told me that the project would be too big for a disc. I'm assuming that if you put the same thing in the same VTS it isn't required on the disc twice, but in seperate VTSs it's doubled up. If this is the case how can I get it to play sequentially without putting it all into the same VTS? It's obviously possible, as that's how the original was organised. It's more me just wanting to know how it's done than getting this particular project done. There must be a way..Anyone?

[Clown shoes]

You cannot duplicate the assets outside of the VTS without doubling up on the disk space. You can however create another title folder within the VTS that would hold the seperate assets without reusing the disk space (This is the closest Scenarist gets to seamless branching) If as you say each of the assets is within a seperate VTS then I can only imagine they have used GPRM commands to acheive this feature. I'm afraid my knowledge of GPRM programming is quite weak so I cannot help you, but good luck anyway.

Clown Shoes

[DnGermany]

I stand corrected, when in the same vts set it doesn't double. When in a seperate vts is uses twice as much space. I just checked it out. Try this. You have your title menu and additional 7 PGCs(1 per epp) in the VGM space. Title menu has 8 buttons(1per epp and 1 for play all). Set the pre cmd of the menu to change the value of GPRM0 to 1. The first 7 buttons link to the epps normally. The play all button links PCG2. PGC2 first pre cmd sets GPRM1=1, and the second one jumps to epp1. Each epp has 2 post cmds. Epp's first post cmd compares GPRM0 to GPRM1 and when equal jumps to PGC3 which jumps to epp2. And when false continues to the second post cmd which returns to the title menu (or menu of choice). And then just repeat for each epp jumping to the appropriate PGC for the next epp.

[Fivethumbs]

:scared: Eh? I'm going to have to read that 3 or 4 times to get it! Heh heh. I have actually managed to get it to work by putting each episode into a different title folder in each VTS, then using a dummy PGC in the VMG to link between them. It *seems* to work OK, but I have a minor problem with an audio file, so I'm not counting my chickens yet.... Thanks for your help chasps! I'm going to try that GPRM method though, as I haven't tried using anything like that yet and it'll help me learn :D