how to create a multi-cell menu from thin air?

[CirTap]

Hi,
I have five bitmaps which I want to turn into menus of a DVD I'd like to author from scratch - mainly for academic purposes. To be precice: one menu with 5 cells, each showing a different bitmap (still frame so to speak).
Any of the fantastic and really invaluable tools available here seem to be "limited" to limiting only :-) I can drop, blank, and freeze existing menus of all kind from existing VOBs/IFOs, but I didn't find a way to add one :confused:
Now, presume that I would not own any of the commercial DVD authoring tools to create menus with buttons and stuff, how would one create such?

any hints, anyone?

CirTap

[r0lZ]

This thread (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=99306) explains how to modify or make a new menu with Muxman.
See post #10 of the same thread (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=708394#post708394) if you want to make a 16:9 compatible menu.

[CirTap]

hey, thanks a bunch, has this always been in the stickies? :blush:
I just scanned the thread and will give it a try later this evening... need to find a disc with a menu to serve as the template - still seems like a henn and egg phenomenon: I need menu to make a menu ;)

Have fun,
CirTap

[goonix]

@CirTap

With the new function in PgcEdit to create a PGC with a blank cell, you don't need this "dummy menu" anymore.

Here are the steps in PgcEdit:

1. File -> New DVD
2. File -> Import VTST Titles
3. Right click on VTST -> New Menu
4. Double click on VTSM -> Create new blank cell

Now you can replace this VTSM PGC by VobBlanker with your "selfmade" menu.

PS. This is the "hard" way to make menus, but you can be very creative with it.
If you want to make menus without using commercial tools try DVDAuthorGUI. It is really easy to use.

goonix

[mpucoder]

... has this always been in the stickies?
No, I added it yesterday.

[CirTap]

@mpucoder: thanx! right in time :-) I though I missed this, although I don't think I would have read even if I'd found it 'cos the title sais "replace a menu" and I was looking for making a "new menu".

well, I'm still due to work through this thread; sounds promising

@goonix: it worked!! :-)
I guess I tried this before (tried a lot actually that didn't came out the way I expected) but VobBlanker didn't like the "cell VOBs" I demuxed previously with VobEdit; don't recall if this had happened with 2.0.0.2, however, 2.0.1.0 did the job. Accidently, and in order to confuse me, for some reason "use preview" in PgcEdit was disabled so I got lost for a moment, thought I [again] messed things up -- I'm good in doing this ;)

PS. This is the "hard" way to make menus, but you can be very creative with it.
well, I'm aware that this is some kind of masochistic way to do it, but as you pointed out: I could be "creative with it"
Guess I set up a couple of batches to automate a few steps in preparing the footage. This is going to become a "Tutorial DVD" with loads of menus (Q&A style), and DVD-lab only creates 3-cell "motion menus" only wheras I'll need 4 or more for the majority of menus.

Now, unfortuately -- or I have missed sth. else -- I can only add one menu in PgcEdit using either "New Menu" or "Import Menu", right?
How'd I add several more menus to an existing title if there's already a RootMenu?
The thing is that I do not know in advance how many menus there'll be in the final disc for each title (== "Lesson"), and I want to test the various stages of it while it "grows", so it'd be cool if I could somehow extend what's there -- as painless as possible of course :-)
but since... If you want to make menus without using commercial tools try DVDAuthorGUI. It is really easy to use. I'll give it a try, maybe this one solves (other) probs I created myself :D

Thanks!

Have fun,
CirTap

[r0lZ]

Now, unfortuately -- or I have missed sth. else -- I can only add one menu in PgcEdit using either "New Menu" or "Import Menu", right?
How'd I add several more menus to an existing title if there's already a RootMenu?Right-click on a PGC of the menu, and select "New Dummy PGC". This way, you can add as many PGCs as you want, to any domain.
Of course, you can also add a blank cell in these dummy PGCs, with the "Create new blank cell" button in the PGC Editor, and replace it later by another cell with VobBlanker.

[CirTap]

aaahhh! jezuz christ -- of course, it's almost always anyhing about PGCs, isn't it? <ggg> 'cant belive I didn't figure that one out %-/ *smack*
I know I'd learn a lot doin' it "the hard way" :-) and the more I learn about PgcEdit the more impressed I am!
chapeau, encore un foix! & merci, merci beaucoup!

ok, so I'll be off rendering, enc-tras-recoding, and muxing a looot of footage :)

CirTap