Finally! My guide on how to remove ANY Aspect Ratio or Language Start Menu!

2COOL · 27th December 2003, 17:32

How to remove Aspect Ratio Menus! and Language Selection Start Menus too!
Courtesy of 2CL

[1/4/2005]: New v3.0 HTML guide using only PgcEdit. Use this instead.

[Dec. 29, 2003]: Guide has been updated if a dummy menu is not available and also a registered MenuEdit guide on replacing menu VOB with a blank one.

[Jan. 22, 2004]: Steps 25 and 30 updated.

Tools I used
DVD Decrypter in File Mode
IFOedit 0.95/0.96
MenuEdit (Registered) or DVD Remake (Demo)
VobEdit 0.60
BlankVOB 0.0.3

Introduction

You know, I’ve done a lot of Aspect Ratio Menu bypassing and most my cheat sheets show different methods. I’m talking about the widescreen and fullscreen selection menu. Hopefully, this generic guide will fix all that. Also, some DVDS have a Language Selection Menu as a startup instead and it's the same concept as a Aspect Ratio Menu. This guide may seem long but I had to write extra detailed explanations here and there for newbies on the scene to understand what needs to be done. This guide can be used for NTSC and PAL DVDs.
_____________________________________________________
1. Where's your menus?

The first thing we need to know is where your menus reside at.

All menus will reside in two probable VOBs. They will be found in either your VIDEO_TS.VOB or a VTS_*_0.VOB. Normally, they should be in the same Titleset as your movie. So, if your movie is in VTS_01, then your menu VOB would be VTS_01_0.VOB. Then again, there are some cases in which the menus may not reside in the same movie Titleset. Most likely, it will be in another Titleset in which you can initially tell that it is by the size of its menu VOB. When you know which VOB contains your menus, then let’s go to next step.
_____________________________________________________
2. How does your Aspect Ratio Menu look like?

The easy way is to use the registered version of MenuEdit as it gives you the feature to preview the actual menu background. The unregistered version doesn’t so all you’ll see is a single-colored background. But, if you do have the registered version, then you can skip to the next step. Since you are still at this step, we need to document which button on your Aspect Ratio Menu (ARM) is your widescreen and fullscreen. Play your movie and when you get to the ARM, write down its description. For example, the fullscreen option is to the left and the widescreen is to the right. Or you can just draw squares to represent the buttons and placement and write WS (widescreen) or FS (fullscreen) inside of them if you want. This is what I usually do. Do whatever it takes to make it simpler for you.

Code:

+-------------------------------+
|                               |
|                               |
|      +------+  +------+       |
|      |      |  |      |       |
|      |  FS  |  |  WS  |       |
|      |      |  |      |       |
|      +------+  +------+       |
|                               |
|                               |
+-------------------------------+

We just need to remember the layout as the unregistered version will only show the button placements but not the menu background. Got it? Good!

_____________________________________________________
3. Finding your Aspect Ratio Menu

Open up your menu VOB with MenuEdit. You should have found this out in step 1. MenuEdit will have a treeview with all of your VobIDs found. Click on “Expand” button to see CellIDs. To find out which one is your ARM, the most obvious way is that most ARMs contain only 2 buttons, one for widescreen and one for fullscreen. You should look for something like this.

CellID: # (2 buttons)

It’s rare if there’s a third button as it would’ve been a “Return to menu” button. But for now, think "2 buttons".

With that in mind and your treeview is expanded, look for any instances of 2 buttons associated with a CellID. When you found one, click on “Edit button”. Just in case, there may be more than one Aspect Ratio Menu, so check all.
_____________________________________________________
4. If you have the registered version, you should see exactly what your menu looks like since you have background preview. If you have the unregistered version, compare the layout to what you got in step 2. If this is not the menu you are looking for then move on to the next CellID that has 2 buttons. When you find it, go to the next step.
_____________________________________________________
5. Vob-Id and Cell-Id

Congratulations! You found it! Now, write down the associated VobID that this CellID fell under. We’ll need this important info later on.

VobID # : _____ , CellID #: _____

_____________________________________________________
6. Finding a Dummy (blank) Menu

While you're still in the treeview, let's look for a dummy menu.

Note 1: This step is optional if you have a registered version of MenuEdit since it can replace cells with blank ones.

Below is an example menu that has no buttons.

CellID: # (0 buttons)

Hopefully, there’s one in the same VobID. If not, look in another VobID. The reason for this is that we need to replace your Cell that has the Aspect Ratio Menu clip with a dummy menu, which is exactly a blank clip. Write down the VobID # and CellID # of this dummy menu too. This is very important.

VobID # : _____ , CellID #: _____

Just because a menu has zero buttons doesn't really mean it's a total blank. It could be a FBI warning, movie rating, or even a commmentary. Anyways, if you need to really see which menu is really a blank, open menu's IFO with DVD Shrink and view the menus. When you do find one, write down the Menu # so that you can also use this data in step 11.

PGC-Menu_#: _______

If per chance you don’t have a dummy menu, that’s okay. I’ll explain later with workarounds. Basically, we want to eventually replace your Aspect Ratio Menu with a blank.

_____________________________________________________
7. If you look below, you’ll see a Buttons section with a mini vertical scrollbar. Click on the scrollbar to have the associated button in preview window highlighted. Now, are you doing widescreen or fullscreen? Have that button highlighted and click on “Edit button”.
_____________________________________________________
8. Getting the Hex Value

[ Jan 26, 2004]: The unregistered version of MenuEdit does not have the option to preview your button's command. I do have an unposted html guide to assist you with this if you need it to continue unto next step. This step is for registered version only.

[Feb 2, 2004]: The DvdReMake free Demo can now help you with finding what your hex values are for your menu button commands. Here's a link. DvdReMake was also created by Dimad, author of MenuEdit. Just right click on Menu button in question and choose "Edit..." and then "..." button to see hex value.

You’ll have a Buttons info window pop up. What we need to get is the button’s hex command. This is what is executed when you press this button during movie play. Click on the […] button. Write down this hex value. It should be a 16 alphanumeric value. Don’t do any typos!

By the way, those are all 0’s (zeros). Cancel out and exit out of MenuEdit.

Fullscreen Hex: ________________________

Widescreen Hex: ________________________

_____________________________________________________
9. Now, we need to go to the Titleset IFO that contained your menu VOB. Should be easy as you know about it in step 1. Open IFO in IFOedit.
_____________________________________________________
10. What's your Menu #?

If you're dealing with a VTS_*_0.IFO then go to VTS Overview and scroll all the way down to the bottom and you’ll see your Language Menu Units (LMU) section.
If it’s the VIDEO_TS.IFO, then go to VMG Overview and scroll down to bottom to LMU.

Remember your VobID that you got in step 5? Well, for my example, my VobID is 15 and what I need to know is what menu that VobId is associated with. So, in my example below, that would be Menu 6. Write your Menu # down. You’ll be jumping to this PGC-Menu_# in the next step.

PGC-Menu_#: _______

Code:


Language Menu Unit 1: [English]
  Menu 1: [Root-Menu]  (entry PGC)(Programs: 4) (Cells: 4) (uses VOB-IDs: 1,2,3,4)
  Menu 2: [Audio Menu] (entry PGC)(Programs: 2) (Cells: 2) (uses VOB-IDs: 5,6)
  Menu 3: [entry only]            (Programs: 6) (Cells: 5) (uses VOB-IDs: 11,12,13,14,4)
  Menu 4: [entry only]            (Programs: 0) (Cells: 0)
  Menu 5: [entry only]            (Programs: 22)(Cells: 5) (uses VOB-IDs:7,8,9,10,4)
  Menu 6: [entry only]            (Programs: 1) (Cells: 1) (uses VOB-IDs: 15)
  Menu 7: [entry only]            (Programs: 2) (Cells: 2) (uses VOB-IDs: 6,16)

_____________________________________________________
11. Inserting a new Cell Command

If you are in a VTS, then go to / VTSM_PGCI_UT / PGC-Menu_# / PGC Command Table.
If VIDEO_TS, then go to / VMGM_PGCI_UT / PGC-Menu_# / PGC Command Table.

NOTE: Prior to doing any edits, it is highly recommended that you backup/save your IFOs and BUPs to another folder in case you mess up in editing. If you do run into errors, you can just copy the original IFOs and BUPs back over your badly edited ones and get VTS Sectors.

We need to add a new Cell Command in the PGC Command Table so right click on Pre Command #1 and select “Add CellCommand”. If you want to read up on what are Cell Commands and their uses, read here.

You might experience some problems as IfoEdit has some issues with inserting new bytes into your IFO. Here’s the scenarios that I have experienced with other DVDs and the actions taken.

A. If IfoEdit successfully creates a new Cell Command and your Program_1: Entry Cell Number is still “1” then go to Step 12
B. If IfoEdit or Windows gives an error message and IfoEdit abruptly closes, reopen IFO and try inserting new cell command again. If successful, you'll see a new Cell Command at the end with a “NOP” and your Program_1: Entry Cell Number still remains at “1”. If this is what you have, then go to Step 12 . If not and IfoEdit is still persistent on abruptly closing on you then start performing Scenario C.
C. If IfoEdit refuses to add a new Cell Command, then increment the “Number of Cell Commands” by 1. Perform the following steps.

What we are going to do next is to mock strip our Menu VobIDs, which means strip but keep everything. This is to correct the byte sectors. You will also need to create a new empty subfolder which will be your destination directory for your new IFO & BUP. Name it anything you want. For me, I just simply name the folder as “A”.

a. Click on Menu Extras button and browse to that new destination folder.
b. Click OK.
c. In Stream List window, click on “Check All” button. We need to keep everything! Click on “Strip it” button and process will start. If you want to process to speed up, drag the process window below your task bar. This is an IfoEdit trick.
d. When done, close IfoEdit.
e. Drag/cut the new files over and replace the original ones in your source folder.
f. Open any IFO in Ifoedit and click “Get VTS Sectors” button. Press Ok/Yes for any following messages.
g. Go back to your PGC Command Table to check and you should now have Scenario A. Go to next step.
_____________________________________________________
12. This would be a good time to save your IFO and BUP.

_____________________________________________________
13. Hex-Editing

Your new Cell Command is showing a “NOP” so we need to hexedit that to the same hex value you got in step 8. To do so, double-left click on line and your HexEdit Module will pop up.
_____________________________________________________
14. Uncheck Address and Ascii on right so that you see only the hex bytes you need to edit.
_____________________________________________________
15. Click on the first left byte in the module and type in EXACTLY as you wrote down in step 8.
_____________________________________________________
16. Press OK when done.
_____________________________________________________
17. IfoEdit does not refresh the screen for your new values so as a personal trick, click on “Show Reserved Values” down left. Do so now.
_____________________________________________________
18. Scroll back down to your edited Cell Command and confirm.
_____________________________________________________
19. Now scroll down to Cell Playback section.
_____________________________________________________
20. Remember the CellID # you got in step 5? This ID # refers to the cell in this section. For example, if you wrote down a “4” then go to Cell_4.
_____________________________________________________

Continued on next post...

27th December 2003, 17:32	#1 \| Link
2COOL PGC Navigator in Training Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: NTSC Land Posts: 3,552	Finally! My guide on how to remove ANY Aspect Ratio or Language Start Menu! How to remove Aspect Ratio Menus! and Language Selection Start Menus too! Courtesy of 2CL [1/4/2005]: New v3.0 HTML guide using only PgcEdit. Use this instead. [Dec. 29, 2003]: Guide has been updated if a dummy menu is not available and also a registered MenuEdit guide on replacing menu VOB with a blank one. [Jan. 22, 2004]: Steps 25 and 30 updated. Tools I used DVD Decrypter in File Mode IFOedit 0.95/0.96 MenuEdit (Registered) or DVD Remake (Demo) VobEdit 0.60 BlankVOB 0.0.3 Introduction You know, I’ve done a lot of Aspect Ratio Menu bypassing and most my cheat sheets show different methods. I’m talking about the widescreen and fullscreen selection menu. Hopefully, this generic guide will fix all that. Also, some DVDS have a Language Selection Menu as a startup instead and it's the same concept as a Aspect Ratio Menu. This guide may seem long but I had to write extra detailed explanations here and there for newbies on the scene to understand what needs to be done. This guide can be used for NTSC and PAL DVDs. _____________________________________________________ 1. Where's your menus? The first thing we need to know is where your menus reside at. All menus will reside in two probable VOBs. They will be found in either your VIDEO_TS.VOB or a VTS__0.VOB. Normally, they should be in the same Titleset as your movie. So, if your movie is in VTS_01, then your menu VOB would be VTS_01_0.VOB. Then again, there are some cases in which the menus may not reside in the same movie Titleset. Most likely, it will be in another Titleset in which you can initially tell that it is by the size of its menu VOB. When you know which VOB contains your menus, then let’s go to next step. _____________________________________________________ 2. How does your Aspect Ratio Menu look like?* The easy way is to use the registered version of MenuEdit as it gives you the feature to preview the actual menu background. The unregistered version doesn’t so all you’ll see is a single-colored background. But, if you do have the registered version, then you can skip to the next step. Since you are still at this step, we need to document which button on your Aspect Ratio Menu (ARM) is your widescreen and fullscreen. Play your movie and when you get to the ARM, write down its description. For example, the fullscreen option is to the left and the widescreen is to the right. Or you can just draw squares to represent the buttons and placement and write WS (widescreen) or FS (fullscreen) inside of them if you want. This is what I usually do. Do whatever it takes to make it simpler for you. Code: +-------------------------------+ \| \| \| \| \| +------+ +------+ \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| FS \| \| WS \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| +------+ +------+ \| \| \| \| \| +-------------------------------+ We just need to remember the layout as the unregistered version will only show the button placements but not the menu background. Got it? Good! _____________________________________________________ 3. Finding your Aspect Ratio Menu Open up your menu VOB with MenuEdit. You should have found this out in step 1. MenuEdit will have a treeview with all of your VobIDs found. Click on “Expand” button to see CellIDs. To find out which one is your ARM, the most obvious way is that most ARMs contain only 2 buttons, one for widescreen and one for fullscreen. You should look for something like this. CellID: # (2 buttons) It’s rare if there’s a third button as it would’ve been a “Return to menu” button. But for now, think "2 buttons". With that in mind and your treeview is expanded, look for any instances of 2 buttons associated with a CellID. When you found one, click on “Edit button”. Just in case, there may be more than one Aspect Ratio Menu, so check all. _____________________________________________________ 4. If you have the registered version, you should see exactly what your menu looks like since you have background preview. If you have the unregistered version, compare the layout to what you got in step 2. If this is not the menu you are looking for then move on to the next CellID that has 2 buttons. When you find it, go to the next step. _____________________________________________________ 5. Vob-Id and Cell-Id Congratulations! You found it! Now, write down the associated VobID that this CellID fell under. We’ll need this important info later on. VobID # : _____ , CellID #: _____ _____________________________________________________ 6. Finding a Dummy (blank) Menu While you're still in the treeview, let's look for a dummy menu. Note 1: This step is optional if you have a registered version of MenuEdit since it can replace cells with blank ones. Below is an example menu that has no buttons. CellID: # (0 buttons) Hopefully, there’s one in the same VobID. If not, look in another VobID. The reason for this is that we need to replace your Cell that has the Aspect Ratio Menu clip with a dummy menu, which is exactly a blank clip. Write down the VobID # and CellID # of this dummy menu too. This is very important. VobID # : _____ , CellID #: _____ Just because a menu has zero buttons doesn't really mean it's a total blank. It could be a FBI warning, movie rating, or even a commmentary. Anyways, if you need to really see which menu is really a blank, open menu's IFO with DVD Shrink and view the menus. When you do find one, write down the Menu # so that you can also use this data in step 11. PGC-Menu_#: _______ If per chance you don’t have a dummy menu, that’s okay. I’ll explain later with workarounds. Basically, we want to eventually replace your Aspect Ratio Menu with a blank. _____________________________________________________ 7. If you look below, you’ll see a Buttons section with a mini vertical scrollbar. Click on the scrollbar to have the associated button in preview window highlighted. Now, are you doing widescreen or fullscreen? Have that button highlighted and click on “Edit button”. _____________________________________________________ 8. Getting the Hex Value [ Jan 26, 2004]: The unregistered version of MenuEdit does not have the option to preview your button's command. I do have an unposted html guide to assist you with this if you need it to continue unto next step. This step is for registered version only. [Feb 2, 2004]: The DvdReMake free Demo can now help you with finding what your hex values are for your menu button commands. Here's a link. DvdReMake was also created by Dimad, author of MenuEdit. Just right click on Menu button in question and choose "Edit..." and then "..." button to see hex value. You’ll have a Buttons info window pop up. What we need to get is the button’s hex command. This is what is executed when you press this button during movie play. Click on the […] button. Write down this hex value. It should be a 16 alphanumeric value. Don’t do any typos! By the way, those are all 0’s (zeros). Cancel out and exit out of MenuEdit. Fullscreen Hex: ________________________ Widescreen Hex: ________________________ _____________________________________________________ 9. Now, we need to go to the Titleset IFO that contained your menu VOB. Should be easy as you know about it in step 1. Open IFO in IFOedit. _____________________________________________________ 10. What's your Menu #? If you're dealing with a VTS__0.IFO then go to VTS Overview and scroll all the way down to the bottom and you’ll see your Language Menu Units (LMU) section. If it’s the VIDEO_TS.IFO, then go to VMG Overview and scroll down to bottom to LMU. Remember your VobID that you got in step 5? Well, for my example, my VobID is 15 and what I need to know is what menu that VobId is associated with. So, in my example below, that would be Menu 6. Write your Menu # down. You’ll be jumping to this PGC-Menu_# in the next step. PGC-Menu_#: _______ Code: Language Menu Unit 1: [English] Menu 1: [Root-Menu] (entry PGC)(Programs: 4) (Cells: 4) (uses VOB-IDs: 1,2,3,4) Menu 2: [Audio Menu] (entry PGC)(Programs: 2) (Cells: 2) (uses VOB-IDs: 5,6) Menu 3: [entry only] (Programs: 6) (Cells: 5) (uses VOB-IDs: 11,12,13,14,4) Menu 4: [entry only] (Programs: 0) (Cells: 0) Menu 5: [entry only] (Programs: 22)(Cells: 5) (uses VOB-IDs:7,8,9,10,4) Menu 6: [entry only] (Programs: 1) (Cells: 1) (uses VOB-IDs: 15) Menu 7: [entry only] (Programs: 2) (Cells: 2) (uses VOB-IDs: 6,16) _____________________________________________________ 11. Inserting a new Cell Command* If you are in a VTS, then go to / VTSM_PGCI_UT / PGC-Menu_# / PGC Command Table. If VIDEO_TS, then go to / VMGM_PGCI_UT / PGC-Menu_# / PGC Command Table. NOTE: Prior to doing any edits, it is highly recommended that you backup/save your IFOs and BUPs to another folder in case you mess up in editing. If you do run into errors, you can just copy the original IFOs and BUPs back over your badly edited ones and get VTS Sectors. We need to add a new Cell Command in the PGC Command Table so right click on Pre Command #1 and select “Add CellCommand”. If you want to read up on what are Cell Commands and their uses, read here. You might experience some problems as IfoEdit has some issues with inserting new bytes into your IFO. Here’s the scenarios that I have experienced with other DVDs and the actions taken. A. If IfoEdit successfully creates a new Cell Command and your Program_1: Entry Cell Number is still “1” then go to Step 12 B. If IfoEdit or Windows gives an error message and IfoEdit abruptly closes, reopen IFO and try inserting new cell command again. If successful, you'll see a new Cell Command at the end with a “NOP” and your Program_1: Entry Cell Number still remains at “1”. If this is what you have, then go to Step 12 . If not and IfoEdit is still persistent on abruptly closing on you then start performing Scenario C. C. If IfoEdit refuses to add a new Cell Command, then increment the “Number of Cell Commands” by 1. Perform the following steps. What we are going to do next is to mock strip our Menu VobIDs, which means strip but keep everything. This is to correct the byte sectors. You will also need to create a new empty subfolder which will be your destination directory for your new IFO & BUP. Name it anything you want. For me, I just simply name the folder as “A”. a. Click on Menu Extras button and browse to that new destination folder. b. Click OK. c. In Stream List window, click on “Check All” button. We need to keep everything! Click on “Strip it” button and process will start. If you want to process to speed up, drag the process window below your task bar. This is an IfoEdit trick. d. When done, close IfoEdit. e. Drag/cut the new files over and replace the original ones in your source folder. f. Open any IFO in Ifoedit and click “Get VTS Sectors” button. Press Ok/Yes for any following messages. g. Go back to your PGC Command Table to check and you should now have Scenario A. Go to next step. _____________________________________________________ 12. This would be a good time to save your IFO and BUP. _____________________________________________________ 13. Hex-Editing Your new Cell Command is showing a “NOP” so we need to hexedit that to the same hex value you got in step 8. To do so, double-left click on line and your HexEdit Module will pop up. _____________________________________________________ 14. Uncheck Address and Ascii on right so that you see only the hex bytes you need to edit. _____________________________________________________ 15. Click on the first left byte in the module and type in EXACTLY as you wrote down in step 8. _____________________________________________________ 16. Press OK when done. _____________________________________________________ 17. IfoEdit does not refresh the screen for your new values so as a personal trick, click on “Show Reserved Values” down left. Do so now. _____________________________________________________ 18. Scroll back down to your edited Cell Command and confirm. _____________________________________________________ 19. Now scroll down to Cell Playback section. _____________________________________________________ 20. Remember the CellID # you got in step 5? This ID # refers to the cell in this section. For example, if you wrote down a “4” then go to Cell_4. _____________________________________________________ Continued on next post... __________________ 2COOL Last edited by 2COOL; 28th February 2005 at 20:48.