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CoNS · 21st November 2005, 17:26

Well... As laserfan wrote, unfortunately there's no freeware tool that allows you to remove unwanted material easily. The creation of such a tool has previously been discussed in this thread, but none of the DVD programming wizards in the forum got hooked!

However, do not dispair! Removing unwanted material using freeware tools can certainly be done, and like most other things in life it's actually quite easy to do, as soon as you know how to do it!

Here's a very basic overview:

First of all you need to find out where in the DVD structure the unwanted material is located. To do this you need to understand how a video DVD is structured: The files in the VIDEO_TS folder don't give you much useful info about this, other than you can see that all DVDs consist of two parts: VMG (Video ManaGer, located in the VIDEO_TS.xxx files) and one or more VTS (Video TitleSets, located in the VTS_xx_x.xx files).

The VMG is the "entry point" of the DVD. It may contain menus (i.e. it has a "menu domain", called VMGM). A VTS can contain both menus (in the menu domain, called VTSM) and titles (in the title domain, called VTST).

In the VIDEO_TS folder, the VTS_xx_0.VOB file contains the menu domain of the current VTS, and the title domain is located in VTS_xx_1.VOB, VTS_xx_2.VOB and so on. The VTS_xx_0.IFO file holds the information for all of those VOB files in the current VTS.

The VOB (Video OBject) files contain the video, audio and subtitle streams. The IFO files contain the formatting information of the VOB files, which tells the DVD player exactly how the DVD should be played (about chapters, subtitles, audio tracks, aspect ratio, languages etc.). BUP files are backups for IFO files, which are needed if the IFO files get corrupted.

Both menus and titles can be split into PGCs (ProGram Chains), and even into cells. To put it very simple the commands (pre commands, post commands and cell commands) tie together the various parts of the DVD. Try and load a DVD in PgcEdit and see the DVD structure in the panel to the left. Among other things it shows you the number of buttons (in both menus and titles) and the playback time of the video in each PGC. To the right it shows you the commands of the selected PGC. Here's an example of a DVD may look in PgcEdit

You can also use PgcEdit to find out where the unwanted material is located inside your disc. The easy (but a bit random) way is this: Load the DVD, right click on the PGC you want to check out (judging from the playback time etc.) and choose Preview. Notice the VTS and PGC number, when you encounter the unwanted material. If the unwanted material is located inside a cell among more cells in a PGC, you can doubleclick on a PGC to bring up the Pgc editor window. Hit the ">" icon next to the cell you want to preview.

The advanced method to find the unwanted material is to use PgcEdit's Trace function (see below).

If the unwanted material is located in separate titlesets, titles, PGCs or cells, you can quite easily remove it by using VobBlanker. VobBlanker blanks the material, i.e. totally removes it (you save space on the disc). Here's a guide.

PgcEdit can also blank out whole title or menu domains inside titlesets. But it can only kill playback of other titles, PGCs and cells, so that the material is "disabled" but not removed from the disc (i.e. there's no space reduction). Here's a guide on how to kill playback with PgcEdit (also shows you how to use the trace function in PgcEdit to find the unwanted material).

If you don't need to save space, an alternative method would be to jump straight to the main movie by using PgcEdit's macro "Jump to PGC Upon DVD Insert". Here's a guide.

If the unwanted material is a part of the main movie PGC and is partly located in one or more cells (like some studio logos at the beginning of the movie, and also often the end credits), you can remove it by using VobBlanker's cut function. Here's a guide. You may also use DVDShrink for cutting a part of the movie (in reauthor mode use the start and end pointer settings to leave out the unwanted parts).

For further reading on the subject,

(Blanking/removing/"disabling"/cutting unwanted material has been discussed numerous times in other threads in this section.)

21st November 2005, 17:26	#20 \| Link
CoNS reMember Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Under your bed Posts: 728	Well... As laserfan wrote, unfortunately there's no freeware tool that allows you to remove unwanted material easily. The creation of such a tool has previously been discussed in this thread, but none of the DVD programming wizards in the forum got hooked! However, do not dispair! Removing unwanted material using freeware tools can certainly be done, and like most other things in life it's actually quite easy to do, as soon as you know how to do it! Here's a very basic overview: First of all you need to find out where in the DVD structure the unwanted material is located. To do this you need to understand how a video DVD is structured: The files in the VIDEO_TS folder don't give you much useful info about this, other than you can see that all DVDs consist of two parts: VMG (Video ManaGer, located in the VIDEO_TS.xxx files) and one or more VTS (Video TitleSets, located in the VTS_xx_x.xx files). The VMG is the "entry point" of the DVD. It may contain menus (i.e. it has a "menu domain", called VMGM). A VTS can contain both menus (in the menu domain, called VTSM) and titles (in the title domain, called VTST). In the VIDEO_TS folder, the VTS_xx_0.VOB file contains the menu domain of the current VTS, and the title domain is located in VTS_xx_1.VOB, VTS_xx_2.VOB and so on. The VTS_xx_0.IFO file holds the information for all of those VOB files in the current VTS. The VOB (Video OBject) files contain the video, audio and subtitle streams. The IFO files contain the formatting information of the VOB files, which tells the DVD player exactly how the DVD should be played (about chapters, subtitles, audio tracks, aspect ratio, languages etc.). BUP files are backups for IFO files, which are needed if the IFO files get corrupted. Both menus and titles can be split into PGCs (ProGram Chains), and even into cells. To put it very simple the commands (pre commands, post commands and cell commands) tie together the various parts of the DVD. Try and load a DVD in PgcEdit and see the DVD structure in the panel to the left. Among other things it shows you the number of buttons (in both menus and titles) and the playback time of the video in each PGC. To the right it shows you the commands of the selected PGC. Here's an example of a DVD may look in PgcEdit You can also use PgcEdit to find out where the unwanted material is located inside your disc. The easy (but a bit random) way is this: Load the DVD, right click on the PGC you want to check out (judging from the playback time etc.) and choose Preview. Notice the VTS and PGC number, when you encounter the unwanted material. If the unwanted material is located inside a cell among more cells in a PGC, you can doubleclick on a PGC to bring up the Pgc editor window. Hit the ">" icon next to the cell you want to preview. The advanced method to find the unwanted material is to use PgcEdit's Trace function (see below). If the unwanted material is located in separate titlesets, titles, PGCs or cells, you can quite easily remove it by using VobBlanker. VobBlanker blanks the material, i.e. totally removes it (you save space on the disc). Here's a guide. PgcEdit can also blank out whole title or menu domains inside titlesets. But it can only kill playback of other titles, PGCs and cells, so that the material is "disabled" but not removed from the disc (i.e. there's no space reduction). Here's a guide on how to kill playback with PgcEdit (also shows you how to use the trace function in PgcEdit to find the unwanted material). If you don't need to save space, an alternative method would be to jump straight to the main movie by using PgcEdit's macro "Jump to PGC Upon DVD Insert". Here's a guide. If the unwanted material is a part of the main movie PGC and is partly located in one or more cells (like some studio logos at the beginning of the movie, and also often the end credits), you can remove it by using VobBlanker's cut function. Here's a guide. You may also use DVDShrink for cutting a part of the movie (in reauthor mode use the start and end pointer settings to leave out the unwanted parts). For further reading on the subject, (Blanking/removing/"disabling"/cutting unwanted material has been discussed numerous times in other threads in this section.) Last edited by CoNS; 21st November 2005 at 21:31.