Jeanl's guide, "Jumping straight to the main menu or the movie with PgcEdit"

[lamster]

What if I don't have a free GPRM?

I can't think of a solution that's easy to describe in a guide at this point.

The way I would do it is look at the target PGC (i.e., the VTST PGC if you're going straight to the movie, or the VTSM PGC if you're going straight to a menu), and see if there's a register that gets set before it's used. If so, then I'd use that register, set it to an unlikely value in the first play PGC, and check for that value in the target PGC.

E.g., the Title 1 in Shrek starts out:

********** pre commands:
[00 A1 00 03 00 0A 00 06]   1  if ( gprm(3) == 10 ) then { Goto line 6 } 
[79 00 00 01 00 03 00 00]   2  Set gprm(1) &=(and) 3 
[41 00 00 81 00 00 00 00]   3  (SetSTN) Set Audio stream = gprm(1) 
[79 00 00 02 00 43 00 00]   4  Set gprm(2) &=(and) 67 
[41 00 00 00 82 00 00 00]   5  (SetSTN) Set Sub-picture stream = gprm(2) 
[71 00 00 07 00 00 00 00]   6  Set gprm(7) =(mov) 0 
[71 00 00 03 00 0A 00 00]   7  Set gprm(3) =(mov) 10 
[51 00 00 00 00 81 00 00]   8  (SetSTN) Set Angle = 1 
[71 00 00 00 00 02 00 00]   9  Set gprm(0) =(mov) 2 
[...]

Note that in line 6, register 7 gets set; that it is not referenced by this PGC before this point; and that there is nothing like a goto or break that would prevent line 6 from being reached. So I'd initialize gprm 7 to, say, hex DEED in the first play PGC:

[71 00 00 07 DE ED 00 00]   7  Set gprm(7) =(mov) 57069

Then, for your step four, use this register and "magic value" as the test.

[00 B1 00 07 DE ED 00 04]   1  if ( gprm(7) != 57069 ) then { Goto line 4 }

[2COOL]

@jeanl

Just because you have all GPRMs used doesn't mean they ALL have been set when you get to the main menu. If you look at a GPRM and it's still greyed out, then it hasn't been set. With that said, I'll used GPRM 6 as an example. PgcEdit says it's used but not when you normally go to the main menu.

Note: I haven't tested this yet but it looks logical.

In First Play, I would set gprm(6) to 12345. I just used a random number.

[71 00 00 06 30 39 00 00]   2  Set gprm(6) =(mov) 12345

In your Pre commands for your movie Title, I would use this

[00 B1 00 06 30 39 00 03]   1  if ( gprm(6) != 12345 ) then { Goto line 3 } 
[00 02 00 00 00 00 00 00]   2  Break 
[71 00 00 0E 00 01 00 00]   3  Set gprm(6) =(mov) 0
[00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00]   4  NOP

[EDIT]Pre Command 3 is there to make sure that gprm(6) is back to the value it was.

My way is different from what lamster mentions.

Originally posted by lamster
see if there's a register that gets set before it's used.

I'm looking for a register that hasn't been set.

[jeanl]

I agree with both of you! Those are two good solutions (in fact I suspect they're identical, but lamster's is more generic because it's OK if his register has been used before, as long as it's not used in this PGC before it's set), normally they shouldn't mess things up, provided that the value you set in the first play is really "random", i.e. unlikely to be used again.

But here's the catch (pointed out by r0lZ a while back) when I suggested that to him:
What if navigation goes back to First-Play PGC?! Then the register gets set again, and we'll go straight to the movie again even though that may not be what we should be doing at this point. r0lZ once told me that he had seen DVDs which did that (I haven't!), but then that's easy to check with the nifty cross-call info in PgcEdit.

So, you're right, we could do that if we can make sure that we never go back to first-play again.

Yet another solution is to use one of the registers that has been set when you get to the top of the precommands. Only if this register is 0 do you execute the register settings commands, and you don't set it in the first-play.
In my view, this is slightly better because if you ever go back to the first-play (and if that register hasn't been reset to 0) you won't go to the movie again. But then, there's no guarantee that it won't have been reset to 0 somehow by the time you go back to first-play.
Definitely not easy to explain all this to newbies, but good thinking you guys!
Jeanl

[2COOL]

Well, in that case, then I would use this in First Play PGC

[71 B0 06 06 00 00 00 00]   if ( gprm(6) != 0 ) then { Set gprm(6) =(mov) 0 }

[jeanl]

Originally posted by 2COOL
Well, in that case, then I would use this in First Play PGC

[71 B0 06 06 00 00 00 00]   if ( gprm(6) != 0 ) then { Set gprm(6) =(mov) 0 }

but wait, what if setting the register to 0 screwed up something? (I agree it's unlikely, but still) what if gprm(6) was non zero on purpose the second time you go to first-play. You reset it to zero, you don't execute the direct jump, but things will not be exactly the way they would be in the original DVD right?

I know we're splitting hair here. First of all, I haven't seen a DVD that goes back to first-play, but I trust that there are some out there (hey, we've all seen the way they master! it can be pretty incredible). Second, it's unlikely that you'd mess things up, but it's not guaranteed that you wouldn't, so that's why I didn't like to put that in the guide. However, I could add your suggestions, mentioning that it's very very likely to work, but may not in some weird scenarios (which we can test, because if we never go back to first-play, we're scott-free!).

Jeanl

[2COOL]

Just do a PgcEdit search for "First" for First Play PGC jumping and if you find any, just say "this edit/guide is not for you".

[lamster]

Originally posted by 2COOL
In First Play, I would set gprm(6) to 12345. I just used a random number.

[71 00 00 06 30 39 00 00]   2  Set gprm(6) =(mov) 12345

Note that your "random number" spells '09' in ASCII. I'd pick something above 32767; you're less likely to conflict with something present on the DVD.

My way is different from what lamster mentions.
I'm looking for a register that hasn't been set.

You're looking for a register that hasn't been set via the navigation you used. I'm looking for one where we definitely don't care what value it has coming in, because the PGC modifies it without examining the current value. I think my way is better if such a register exists (which of course might not be the case).

Another approach would be to analyze the register usage, and see what register's are only used in other areas of the DVD. But this probably goes beyond the scope of an introductory guide.

[lamster]

Originally posted by 2COOL
Well, in that case, then I would use this in First Play PGC

[71 B0 06 06 00 00 00 00]   if ( gprm(6) != 0 ) then { Set gprm(6) =(mov) 0 }

You probably meant ... then { Set gprm(6) =(mov) 12345 }, right? That sets the register to the "magic value" if and only if it hasn't already been set to something else. A nice addition.

(BTW - I have run into one DVD where it jumped to the First Play PGC; I hadn't even known you could do that previously.)

[jeanl]

@2COOL and lamster

I will add your suggestions to the guide tonight, mentioning the caveat that you must check you don't go to first-play PGC later on. This is better than leaving the user to ponder what to do next if he/she can't find a free gprm...
Jeanl

[Chetwood]

Jeanl, I've been trying to follow your guide on Jumping straight to the main menu or the movie with and I've immediately run into problems so I'm asking in this thread as you suggested.

I'm ripping the first season of 'Six Fet Under' which has four complete menu sets in english, german, spanish, italian. I want to skip the HBO intro and jump straight to the german menu cause this is the only one I'm going to keep. So I set a playback breakpoint at this menu which is designated as RootM in 'VTSM 2, Lu2 (de)'. However, when I use the trace method, PgcEdit displays the english menu without offering me any chance to intervene. If I playback this DVD in my standalone it plays the german menu, I guess this is because my standalone's language settings are all set to german. How can I inform PgcEdit's trace mode that it is running on a German system? I assume I would have to set the SPRMs somehow?

I'd like to use your method B, 2) on this DVD so if you can spend any time helping me out it'd be great. I've mailed you an URL where you can download the zipped ifos, in case you want me to paste some stuff here so everyone else can learn from your assistance please let me know. Thanks.

[jeanl]

Hi Chetwood!
Glad to read you on this forum, I checked out multishrink a while back, and I was duly impressed! OK. You can set your "player" preferences in PgcEdit, in the trace window in the "setup" menu, "setup/virtual player setp". In particular, you can select your preferred audio and menu languages, and you'd set that to "de" (if you forget the codes for specific languages, they're in PgcEdit's Help menu - r0lZ has thought of everything).
Setup your player and give it a try... It should work then. If it doesn't then maybe that's a question for brother r0lZ!
Post back if you enconter other problems...

Jeanl

[jeanl]

Hi Chetwood!
I downloaded your IFOs, set PgcEdit to "de" and ran the trace, and that landed me in the middle of the german menus. So everything should be fine for you.
I will make a note in the guide about that. I hadn't thought of it!

As for jumping straight to the menu using the technique B2, it's not as straightforward if your menu isn't one that you can jump straight to (i.e. it's not a root, subtitle etc). In your case, I can see in your IFOs that you could jump to VTSM2 LU2, 1. Hopefully that's what you have in mind... Post back if you can't get it to work (or if you can!!!)

Jeanl

[Chetwood]

Originally posted by jeanl
I checked out multishrink a while back, and I was duly impressed!
OK. You can set your "player" preferences in PgcEdit, in the trace window in the "setup" menu, "setup/virtual player setp".

Well, it's not that I know anything about DVD commands like you guys do but thanks anyway. And AARGH! because of your tip, my question was a RTFM! Still, after I set everything to german I still have to problems which you might be able to follow since you downloaded my ifos:

1) I do not have a free GPRM so I deleted the only one that occured only once which was GPRM 6 and I'm not sure if this deletion caused any trouble later

2) as said before I wanna use your B 2) method, which means that I have to paste

[00 B1 00 0E 00 00 00 03]   1  if ( gprm(14) != 0 ) then { Goto line 3 } 
[30 06 00 01 04 83 00 00]   2  (JumpSS) Jump to VTSM 4, Root menu (TTN 1)

into the First-play PGC. But where exactly? After these two lines that already were in the First-play PGC?

[71 00 00 01 04 00 00 00]   1  Set gprm(1) =(mov) 1024 
[30 02 00 00 00 07 00 00]   2  (JumpTT) Jump to Title 7

Cause then I wouldn't get to jump to line 3 as line 2 already jumps to Title 7. I've tried to paste it as line 2 and 3 and changed the values to represent my use of GPRM 6 which looked like this:

[71 00 00 01 04 00 00 00]   1  Set gprm(1) =(mov) 1024 
[00 B1 00 06 00 00 00 04]   2  if ( gprm(6) != 0 ) then { Goto line 4 } 
[30 06 00 01 02 83 00 00]   3  (JumpSS) Jump to VTSM 2, Root menu (TTN 1)

but line 2 is colored in red when I click on it. Any ideas what's wrong? Thanks again.

BTW, this link from your guide isn't working:

http://jean.laroche.free.fr/Jumping0...ping.html#GPRM

However, I got the GPRM info from this link

http://jean.laroche.free.fr/Jumping/Jumping.html#GPRM

[jeanl]

Originally posted by Chetwood
Well, it's not that I know anything about DVD commands like you guys do but thanks anyway. And AARGH! because of your tip, my question was a RTFM! Still, after I set everything to german I still have to problems which you might be able to follow since you downloaded my ifos:

1) I do not have a free GPRM so I deleted the only one that occured only once which was GPRM 6 and I'm not sure if this deletion caused any trouble later

well if it's only set and never read, you're good to go. If it's set and read somewhere then you might have problems.

2) as said before I wanna use your B 2) method, which means that I have to paste

[00 B1 00 0E 00 00 00 03]   1  if ( gprm(14) != 0 ) then { Goto line 3 } 
[30 06 00 01 04 83 00 00]   2  (JumpSS) Jump to VTSM 4, Root menu (TTN 1)

into the First-play PGC. But where exactly? After these two lines that already were in the First-play PGC?

[71 00 00 01 04 00 00 00]   1  Set gprm(1) =(mov) 1024 
[30 02 00 00 00 07 00 00]   2  (JumpTT) Jump to Title 7

Paste them at the very top, so they're the first two lines.

Cause then I wouldn't get to jump to line 3 as line 2 already jumps to Title 7. I've tried to paste it as line 2 and 3 and changed the values to represent my use of GPRM 6 which looked like this:

[71 00 00 01 04 00 00 00]   1  Set gprm(1) =(mov) 1024 
[00 B1 00 06 00 00 00 04]   2  if ( gprm(6) != 0 ) then { Goto line 4 } 
[30 06 00 01 02 83 00 00]   3  (JumpSS) Jump to VTSM 2, Root menu (TTN 1)

but line 2 is colored in red when I click on it. Any ideas what's wrong? Thanks again.

A line that's colored in red indicates a command that's problematic. In your case, you have a "goto line 4" but you don't have a line 4! So PgcEdit is smart enough to let you know. If you paste at the very top, the goto line 3 will point to the original first line and everything will be OK.

BTW, this link from your guide isn't working:

http://jean.laroche.free.fr/Jumping0...ping.html#GPRM

However, I got the GPRM info from this link

http://jean.laroche.free.fr/Jumping/Jumping.html#GPRM

Thanks, I'll look into it!

Jeanl

[Chetwood]

Originally posted by jeanl
well if it's only set and never read, you're good to go. If it's set and read somewhere then you might have problems.

Let me rephrase that: is there a way to determine whether it is read somewhere with PgcEdit? I mean, I didn't even know where to look for the GPRM 6 (the one GPRM that was set only once) but I accidentally stumbled over it in the first Title menu.

Paste them at the very top, so they're the first two lines.

Great, this worked, but even using method 2 the root menu's intro got skipped. I rechecked it and I realized (*slowly* getting a hang of what I am supposed to be doing) that the intro to the root menu was a titleset which usually can't be jumped to from First-Play PGC so I changed it to an Angle menu cause there's none of this type on the DVD. But what if ppl would accidentally hit the angle menu key on their remote? Would they jump straight to this menu abd how could I stop them from doing so when their standalone ignores UPOs?

While doing so I got a message from PgcEdit:

There are several LUs in this VTSM.

Do you want to modify the PGC type in each LU? (recommended)

which I answered with YES and which seemed to work fine upon playback in PowerDVD. However, when I opened this manipulated DVD again to get rid of those FBI warnings that were displayed AFTER playback of the last episode just before jumping back to the root menu I got another warning message:

There are different commands in the various PGCs of the menu LUs of the VTST 2 domain.

This is somewhat unusual, and may cause problems with the 'Set Menu Type' and 'Copy LU Commands' utilities.

which seems logical since I have this root menu in 4 different languages and only changed the german one. However, I'm not sure which is the best way to go here:

• simply blank out those menus with still images in DVD Shrink? what would happen if the DVD would be played back in a standalone set to english?
• completely erase those menus in PgcEdit telling the standalone to use the german menu no matter what language it's set to. How?

I've checked the post commands of the last episode, which looks a bit odd to me being the newbie that I am:

[30 08 00 08 08 C0 00 00]   7  (CallSS) Call the VMGM PGC 8, resume cell 8

which is this

[30 02 00 00 00 0A 00 00]   1  (JumpTT) Jump to Title 10

which jumps to

[71 00 00 01 04 00 00 00]   1  Set gprm(1) =(mov) 1024 
[71 00 00 00 00 50 00 00]   2  Set gprm(0) =(mov) 80 
********** post commands:
[71 00 00 00 00 28 00 00]   1  Set gprm(0) =(mov) 40 
[71 00 00 01 04 00 00 00]   2  Set gprm(1) =(mov) 1024 
[30 08 00 07 0C C0 00 00]   3  (CallSS) Call the VMGM PGC 7, resume cell 12

So why not jump straight to title 10?

Since I don't know what these gprm commands in title 10 do, could I just add a new line 3 in the pre-commands that jumps to the first line of the post commands thereby setting registers that I might need but effectively skipping the FBI warning playback?

Thanks again.

[r0lZ]

Originally posted by 2COOL
Just do a PgcEdit search for "First" for First Play PGC jumping and if you find any, just say "this edit/guide is not for you".

You may also use the Info -> Calls Cross References menu. You will see if the FP-PGC is called, and by which PGC and command.

[jeanl]

Originally posted by Chetwood
Let me rephrase that: is there a way to determine whether it is read somewhere with PgcEdit? I mean, I didn't even know where to look for the GPRM 6 (the one GPRM that was set only once) but I accidentally stumbled over it in the first Title menu.

You can search for a gprm in the complete DVD using the search field at the bottom of the main window. Type in gprm(6) and hit the >> button to go to the next place where it appears.

Great, this worked, but even using method 2 the root menu's intro got skipped. I rechecked it and I realized (*slowly* getting a hang of what I am supposed to be doing) that the intro to the root menu was a titleset which usually can't be jumped to from First-Play PGC so I changed it to an Angle menu cause there's none of this type on the DVD. But what if ppl would accidentally hit the angle menu key on their remote? Would they jump straight to this menu abd how could I stop them from doing so when their standalone ignores UPOs?

Yes, but standalone DVDs don't tend to ignore PUOs, so it shouldn't be a problem in practice.

However, I'm not sure which is the best way to go here:

• simply blank out those menus with still images in DVD Shrink? what would happen if the DVD would be played back in a standalone set to english?
• completely erase those menus in PgcEdit telling the standalone to use the german menu no matter what language it's set to. How?

mmm that's a question for you to answer. If I were you, I would try to only modify the "german" version of the DVD, so it would play as the original when put in an english player. But that might be a bit of extra work, because you'd have to check the sprm() that holds the default language. Otherwise, you could repeat your modifications in all the language units, and the DVD would play exactly the same way no matter the language settings... As to how to use the german menu no matter what, I'm not entirely sure you can actually tell the player to do that, I wonder if that behavior isn't "automatic" in the player. (in other words, if you have a command to jump to the root menu, I think the player automatically selects the appropriate LU given your defaults, but I'm not 100% sure about that, you might want to ask in a new topic in the forum.

So why not jump straight to title 10?

Since I don't know what these gprm commands in title 10 do, could I just add a new line 3 in the pre-commands that jumps to the first line of the post commands thereby setting registers that I might need but effectively skipping the FBI warning playback?

Thanks again.

That's a good idea although you can't do it exactly that way: There are no commands in the DVD specs to jump from pre-commands to postcommands (too bad!). So what you can do instead (which is what PgcEdit does for your when you ask "kill playback" ) is copy the precommands at the end of the postcommands so they're executed before video playback. IT gets a bit more complicated when you have gotos in the precommand area but PgcEdit takes care of that for you.
So in short, easiest way is to hit the "kill PGC playback" icon in the toolbar (the crossed-out movie strip) on the PGC of title 10. (you can also do that with a right-click on the pgc).

Jeanl

[r0lZ]

Originally posted by jeanl
But here's the catch (pointed out by r0lZ a while back) when I suggested that to him:
What if navigation goes back to First-Play PGC?! Then the register gets set again, and we'll go straight to the movie again even though that may not be what we should be doing at this point. r0lZ once told me that he had seen DVDs which did that (I haven't!), but then that's easy to check with the nifty cross-call info in PgcEdit.

I have the Calls Crossrefs for Snow White on screen, and I see that FP-PGC is called... by 14 different commands!

Also, a DVDShrink reauthored DVD will jump back to FP-PGC after each title. (But you have many unused GPRMs availables in that case.)

[r0lZ]

Originally posted by Chetwood
Let me rephrase that: is there a way to determine whether it is read somewhere with PgcEdit? I mean, I didn't even know where to look for the GPRM 6 (the one GPRM that was set only once) but I accidentally stumbled over it in the first Title menu.

Find Unused GPRMs will report the number of times each GPRM is used in the DVD. If you find a GPRM which is used only once, you can delete the reference to that GPRM, and use it safely. It will probably not be read anywhere in the DVD (although it may be used in BOV buttons, still not implemented in PgcEdit).

(For old PgcEdit users: Find Unused GPRMs searches now also in the menubuttons commands.)

[jeanl]

r0lZ,
what of the question about "always using the german menus"? I seem to remember that you can't change that behavior, that it's hard-coded in the player that the appropriate LU will be used automatically based on the preferrece menu langage setup.
Is that right?
Jeanl