An automatic way to skip warnings/previews in pgcedit?

jeanl · 7th October 2004, 18:43

Guys,
I'm wondering if we could come up with a somewhat automatic way to skip playback of unwanted warnings/previews using pgcedit, to be used by novice users.
I'm thinking about 2 macros that would automatically do one of the following, based on user input:
- Skip playback of all pgcs that does not have buttons and are shorter than a predefined length
(for example 2mn, user adjustable). A user would select that if he/she wants to keep the main movie, and large extras (featurettes etc), but get rid of FBI warning, trailers, previews, studio logos etc.
- Skip playback of all button-free pgcs except the pgc of the main movie
(the pgc with the largest number of chapters). The user would select that to only keep the movie (with the menus of course). There might be an option to select which aspect ratio(s) to keep (for cases where the DVD has 2 versions of the movie).

I'm thinking this might be an easy way to get rid of unwanted material without having to tediously find out where they are. In addition, pgcedit could be smart, and offer to blank the VOB file if all the pgcs in a VTS or VTSM are to be skipped (great for people who ultimately want to shrink the DVD).

I can see that you could possibly run into problems, for example if there were short pgc associated with the movie. However, the few DVDs I've looked at didn't have that.

Any input you guys? Is this a dumb idea?

Jeanl

voo_doo99 · 8th October 2004, 21:11

Quote:

Originally posted by jeanl
Is this a dumb idea?

Jeanl

Dunno!

But for what you asked, we will either need a super A.I. tool, or convince the studios to put a tag on every clips that we want off. Then PgcEdit or VobBlanker can do it for free.

jeanl · 8th October 2004, 21:33

Well,
I tried the idea on a few DVDs, killing playback on anything that didn't have buttons and was shorter than about a minute. There were a few cases where some of the extra stuff was destroyed, which was not good. In a lot of DVD though, it worked nicely (i.e., the modified DVD would go straight to the menu, and otherwise played normally).
In my original post, I was just wondering if that idea would have been valuable for beginners who want to "cleanup" their DVD. I'm thinking now, that since it wouldn't work well in some cases it's probably not a good idea.
Sad truth is, we still don't have an easy way to identify and locate (and kill playback of) unwanted stuff (i.e. FBI warnings, previews, logos etc). Vobblanker and shrink let you preview, but don't point you directly to these things. Killing playback is the easy part, thanks to titlesetblanker, vobblanker and pgcedit...
Jeanl

7th October 2004, 18:43	#1 \| Link
jeanl Registered User Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: California, USA Posts: 2,079	An automatic way to skip warnings/previews in pgcedit? Guys, I'm wondering if we could come up with a somewhat automatic way to skip playback of unwanted warnings/previews using pgcedit, to be used by novice users. I'm thinking about 2 macros that would automatically do one of the following, based on user input: - Skip playback of all pgcs that does not have buttons and are shorter than a predefined length (for example 2mn, user adjustable). A user would select that if he/she wants to keep the main movie, and large extras (featurettes etc), but get rid of FBI warning, trailers, previews, studio logos etc. - Skip playback of all button-free pgcs except the pgc of the main movie (the pgc with the largest number of chapters). The user would select that to only keep the movie (with the menus of course). There might be an option to select which aspect ratio(s) to keep (for cases where the DVD has 2 versions of the movie). I'm thinking this might be an easy way to get rid of unwanted material without having to tediously find out where they are. In addition, pgcedit could be smart, and offer to blank the VOB file if all the pgcs in a VTS or VTSM are to be skipped (great for people who ultimately want to shrink the DVD). I can see that you could possibly run into problems, for example if there were short pgc associated with the movie. However, the few DVDs I've looked at didn't have that. Any input you guys? Is this a dumb idea? Jeanl

8th October 2004, 21:33	#3 \| Link
jeanl Registered User Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: California, USA Posts: 2,079	Well, I tried the idea on a few DVDs, killing playback on anything that didn't have buttons and was shorter than about a minute. There were a few cases where some of the extra stuff was destroyed, which was not good. In a lot of DVD though, it worked nicely (i.e., the modified DVD would go straight to the menu, and otherwise played normally). In my original post, I was just wondering if that idea would have been valuable for beginners who want to "cleanup" their DVD. I'm thinking now, that since it wouldn't work well in some cases it's probably not a good idea. Sad truth is, we still don't have an easy way to identify and locate (and kill playback of) unwanted stuff (i.e. FBI warnings, previews, logos etc). Vobblanker and shrink let you preview, but don't point you directly to these things. Killing playback is the easy part, thanks to titlesetblanker, vobblanker and pgcedit... Jeanl