Problem creating new VOB with Title and Chapter menus

[Denaan]

I have three DVD9’s containing a total of ten one-hour episodes, each episode in its own title set. I want to back them up on five DVD5’s, each with two episodes. The first was easy, since the original has three title sets, and by blanking out the third, I was able to fit the first two episodes on one DVD5.

The problem I’m having is figuring out how to create the second DVD with VTS_03 from Disc one and VTS_01 from Disc two, while creating a new title menu and keeping the original chapter menus. The menus were all contained in the original VIDEO_TS.VOB files of Discs one and two.

I re-authored a new DVD using DVDShrink, and opened it in PgcEdit, hoping to either create or import the title and chapter menus. The problem is,

1. using PgcEdit’s “create menu” function, I’m just creating a dummy pgc with no vob associated;
2. the “import menu” function only allows me to import using an ifo, which in this case means the original VIDEO_TS.IFO with its 60+ pgcs, making things even more complicated; and
3. I’m not sure how to create a new VIDEO_TS.VOB file: i.e. how do I extract the two chapter menus from the two original vobs and combine them with a newly authored title menu?

Is there a simpler solution? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[r0lZ]

1. using PgcEdit’s “create menu” function, I’m just creating a dummy pgc with no vob associated;You may create new PGCs with the "New Dummy PGC" function, and create a VOB cell in any PGC with the Create Cell button (available in the PGC Editor of PgcEdit 0.6.1 beta12 (http://www.videohelp.com/~r0lZ/pgcedit/beta/PgcEdit_winexe_0.6.1beta12.zip).)

2. the “import menu” function only allows me to import using an ifo, which in this case means the original VIDEO_TS.IFO with its 60+ pgcs, making things even more complicated;Right. But you should be able to simplify the menu. Try to bypass the menus you don't want, then blank them. Use the Calls Cross References to clear the commands in the unused PGCs. But this job requires a good understanding of the VM commands and DVD structure...

3. I’m not sure how to create a new VIDEO_TS.VOB file: i.e. how do I extract the two chapter menus from the two original vobs and combine them with a newly authored title menu?You should try to do that with VobBlanker's replace cell function.
Another method is to import the menus in different titlesets, and use the VMGM menu to establish the links between them. Again, that's not easy.

[Denaan]

Thanks for your suggestions, r0lZ. I'll download the PgcEdit beta, with its new "create cell" function, and then experiment a bit. I'll try using VobBlanker's replace cell function, too, and report back here with the results. Cheers.