PgcEdit: How to make it immediately play next episode instead of returning to menu?

[sickvideo]

I know there's a way to do this, but I haven't figured it out.
On playback of certain dvd's, including "The Simpsons", "Futurama" and "Pee-Wee's Playhouse", when an episode finishes playback, the dvd returns to a menu (either the main menu, or the individual menu for that episode.)
My goal is to cause the player to immediately jump to the beginning of the next episode after each episode ends, instead of going to the menu.
I'm hoping it can be easily done using PgcEdit, but I'm open to all suggestions.
And thanks to all, especially rIOZ, 2COOL, and jeanl for all the great information!
-SICK SCOTT

[2COOL]

Hmmm...doesn't those DVDs have a "Play All" option. On some DVDs, if you select episodes through the scene selections, it would go back to the menu.

[EDIT]And Welcome to the forum! :D

[sickvideo]

I'm familiar with that type of authoring, [where the dvd has a "play all" option, but only plays one episode when selected from the "scene selection" menu,] but these discs do not have the "play all" option. I find it annoying to have to fumble for the remote after every episode.

In fact, in the case of "the simpsons" and "futurama," they don't even set you up to watch the next episode. Instead, each episode has its own menu, with links to options and features specific to that episode. When an episode ends, it returns to this menu, with the "play episode" button highlighted. So you actually have to cycle to the "main menu" button and select it, and then select the next episode there, and then you get another "episode specific" menu where you have to press "play episode" again!

And it's not just those examples. I'm finding that alot of "cartoon" dvd's are authored this way.

So it's really been bugging me, trying to figure out how to re-author them satisfactorily. My goal is too keep all the menus and features, in case I ever wanted them, [since the quality still looks fine after using dvdshrink,] and get the next episode to start immediately when the previous one finishes. It seems like there should be a relatively easy way to do it, right? I've tried editing the post commands using pgcEdit, bit I'm just not familiar enough with that stuff to figure it out.
So any help would be greatly appreciated.

THANKS!

[2COOL]

If your episodes reside within a VTS, not in separate ones, there is a New 'Play All' Title macro that PgcEdit has that would combine all titles within VTS into one.

I'll check my Futurama DVD to get a better picture of things. Currently, I have Volumes 1, 2, and 3. Which one are you working on?

[sickvideo]

right, it says "VTST 4,1 TTN1 (time) Title 1" -with all the "1"'s replaced by sequential numbers up to 6 for all the 6 episodes, so they are all in VTS 4, correct?
This is The Simpsons season 1 disc 1.

[sickvideo]

I'm putting futurama vol. 1, disc 1 on the HDD right now.

[2COOL]

I'll be ripping my Futurama Vol 1 Disc 1 when I'm done burning a current backup right now.

[sickvideo]

OK, Futurama Vol. 1 disc 1: There are 4 episodes, all appear to be separate titles within VTS4.


One other weird thing I also noticed is that at the end of episode 1, there is more than 45 seconds of black space for no apparent reason. That brings me to another question, what is the best way to trim unwanted content from the end of a title, such as end credits or blank space, without messing up the authoring [i.e. with dvdshrink re-author mode.] ?? (A whole separate question, I know...)

[sickvideo]

still looking at futurama v.1 d.1:

I have killed playback to the unwanted intros so that the main menu is the first thing that appears.

Looking at the first episode in the PgcEdit preview window, I can see that cells 7, 8, 9 & 10 are the ones that I'd like to trim off.

There's got to be a way to get rid of those (or kill the playback) without having to use dvdshrink re-uthor mode. I'm hoping one of you wizards can help me out on this one, too.

[sickvideo]

...and what ultimately I'm shooting for is just to go directly from the end of cell 6 (of VTS 4 title 1) to the beginning of VTS 4 title 2. Am I dreaming? Or can this happen easily?

THANKS, You gosh darn GURUS!!!

[blutach]

To remove the cells in a PGC, just use the remove cell feature in PgcEdit. This is accessed in the PGC Editor GUI (double click on the PGC to bring it up) and is a one click solution. No DVD Shrink. You will need to edit the chapter table to decrement the number of chapter, but this is easy too.

Good luck.

Regards

[2COOL]

@sickvideo

Originally posted by sickvideo
...and what ultimately I'm shooting for is just to go directly from the end of cell 6 (of VTS 4 title 1) to the beginning of VTS 4 title 2. Am I dreaming? Or can this happen easily?We must have different DVDs as the episodes (titles 1 to 4) I have are in VTS 3 for Futurama Vol 1 disc 1. My episodes are pretty much in a same pattern.

Cell 1: Intro
Cell 2: Chapter 1
Cell 3: Chapter 2
Cell 4: Chapter 3
Cell 5: Credits
Cell 6: The Curiousity company logo
Cell 7: 30th Century Fox Television clip
Cell 8: 15 frames of blank

If this is what you have, do you want to keep Cell 6? I have successfully done what I assume you want. Here is my brief description on what happens.

There is a main menu for all four episodes. You can start at any one but if you want a play all, you'll have to go to the first episode's menu and select Play. From that point, if you decide to press you menu button on your remote in current episode, you'll go to your associated menu. This is my uninterrupted flow from episode 1 play.

Main menu
Select Episode 1's "Play episode" button
Episode 1 (Chapters 1 to 5)
Episode 2 (Chapters 1 to 5)
Episode 3 (Chapters 1 to 5)
Episode 4 (Chapters 1 to 5)
end up in Main menu instead of originally ending up in episode 4's menu.

I know you mentioned other DVDs like the Simpsons but I couldn't find a generic way of working with other episodic DVDs as each one maybe authored differently. It took my experience and PgcEdit's tracing and editing to alter the flow. What I did needed to have was a unused GPRM though. This project was pretty much for advanced users.

I'm beginning to understand how the navigations originally work now for Futurama's disc 1 and that I could actually alter it to end up in the next episode's menu after the previous episode ended.

Anyways, when I get the time, I'll try to come up with a cheat sheet.

[2COOL]

Originally posted by sickvideo
Looking at the first episode in the PgcEdit preview window, I can see that cells 7, 8, 9 & 10 are the ones that I'd like to trim off. I'm assuming cell 6 is your credits? BTW, are all your four Titles' cells holding unique IDs?

[sickvideo]

My disc is definitely different from yours. My episodes are all in VTS4, and the chapter breaks are not consistent like on yours.

Ep.1: Cell 6 = credits
Ep.2: Cell 7 = credits
Ep.3: Cell 5 = credits
Ep.4: Cell 5 = credits

I want to keep the credits, but lose the cells after them.

I have followed guides involving finding an unused GPRM and editing commands, so I do have some experience clicking around in PgcEdit, but without a guide or cheat sheet, I'm basically guessing. (SO thanks for all the great guides, btw!) But maybe if you could give me a quick overview of what you did, I may be able to figure it out. If not, I'll just be patient and wait for a cheat sheet. (...and until then I'll just have to keep the remote handy!)

"are all your four Titles' cells holding unique IDs?" -what does this mean and how do I check?

THANKS!!

[2COOL]

check your PM