What about matroska menue system?

[har-vas]

Hello all. I am using matroska files for over two years now and I am very satisfied with the given capabilities. From the beginning, a very interesting point was the Menus (like DVDs have). I was reading from time to time the news in www.matroska.org, waiting for the menu system to be implemented. I don't know why, but I see that here in the forum, very few people have asked for that feature. So I want to ask these:
1. In what exactly point is the matroska menu support now?
2. Is there any program/guide to create the necessary menu file?
3. How can I mux it in an existing .mkv file? I see that MKVtoolnix doesn't report something relevant.
4. Is there any DShow-based player which can playback correctly such a .mkv?

From the matroska homepage I am reading: "Our menue system has been finalized some time ago, but unfortunately there is still no complete playback solution available for it. Best support is currently offered by the great VLC player from the French Videolan team, in its actual version 0.8.4. Besides buttons, most features of the matroska menue system are supported. [...] It seems that it will again be the Corecodec Inc. team with their great TCMP player who will be first to support the matroska menue system fully, we will see what they will come up with.".
I see that the development of TCMP has been stopped actually (I even need Haali splitter for TCMP to detect the chapters). What about MPC? Thanks.

PS: I would be very happy, if someone could send me a .mkv file with menu support. I am curious to see if it will playback in VLC and how the menu appears on screen.

[Kurtnoise]

1. In what exactly point is the matroska menu support now?
alpha stage...

2. Is there any program/guide to create the necessary menu file?
DVDMenuXtractor : http://tirnanog.fate.jp/mirror/DvdMenuXtractor/

3. How can I mux it in an existing .mkv file? I see that MKVtoolnix doesn't report something relevant.
Just click on .bat files after using DMX and mux should be done.

4. Is there any DShow-based player which can playback correctly such a .mkv?
None existing players but the Haali Media Splitter should be able to split each segments from the menu.

PS: I would be very happy, if someone could send me a .mkv file with menu support. I am curious to see if it will playback in VLC and how the menu appears on screen.
http://www.matroska.org/~robux4/dvd/

[har-vas]

Hello Kurtnoise13 and thank you for your answer. What do you mean when you say "alpha stage"? I thought that at least the specifications are already defined ("the menue system has been finalized some time ago"). Do you just mean that someone is working (probably robux4) to supply support for a media player?

Anyway, I have read that Haali doesn't plan to support the menue system (he said that he doesn't need it and this kind of support requires a lot of work). I have installed the latest version (1.7.89) and I cannot even open (with MPC and TCMP) the placebo.mkv sample file. Also in GraphEdit I see that the graph is incomplete (see my screenshot).

As for the DVDMenuXtractor, I have downloaded and used the rev1278 which I think is the latest. I cannot understand how the wizard is working. It doesn't include at least a readme file for that purpose. For example in the first screen, what paths should I give to the "Tools path" and to the "DVD path"? Well I tried to give the MKVtoolnix folder and the VIDEO_TS folder (of a fully ripped dvd) respectively. Then I saw a list of "Titles" in the next screen (see my screenshot). Which of them should I check? Only those which include the word "Menu" maybe? And what is this VMG? I think that a brief guide from an experienced menue user is really necessary.

But let's suppose that I know how to extract a DVD menu and mux it in an existing .mkv file (with the future in mind). The major question is this: Will this final file be playable now, with the well known DShow-based media players, even without the menu system? Or I will come up with a perfect and complete matroska file of no use (like Placebo.mkv)? Thanks.

[Kurtnoise]

What do you mean when you say "alpha stage"?
1st working drafts for the specified tool (currently, you have several steps for an application : alpha->beta->RC->Final Version).

I thought that at least the specifications are already defined ("the menue system has been finalized some time ago"). Do you just mean that someone is working (probably robux4) to supply support for a media player?
iirc, RobuX4 doesn't work anymore in this part in VLC.

Anyway, I have read that Haali doesn't plan to support the menue system (he said that he doesn't need it and this kind of support requires a lot of work). I have installed the latest version (1.7.89) and I cannot even open (with MPC and TCMP) the placebo.mkv sample file. Also in GraphEdit I see that the graph is incomplete (see my screenshot).
As you asked, these samples work only for VLC...

As for the DVDMenuXtractor, I have downloaded and used the rev1278 which I think is the latest. I cannot understand how the wizard is working. It doesn't include at least a readme file for that purpose. For example in the first screen, what paths should I give to the "Tools path" and to the "DVD path"?
Tools path == MKVtoolnix path
DVD path == your path where VIDEO_TS is located.

Then I saw a list of "Titles" in the next screen (see my screenshot). Which of them should I check? Only those which include the word "Menu" maybe?
Depends on your PGC and depends on what you want to keep in the final step. But bear in mind that this tool is quite new and not very tested...

And what is this VMG?
VMG= Video Manager , dedicated to management of each titles.

But let's suppose that I know how to extract a DVD menu and mux it in an existing .mkv file (with the future in mind). The major question is this: Will this final file be playable now, with the well known DShow-based media players, even without the menu system?
no yet...due to lack of support.

[har-vas]

OK, Kurtnoise13. Thank you very much for your answers. I think that I will not deal with menues, since it seems that is too early for that. We need better documentation for the DMX tool and also support for proper playback. Obviously, this is the reason for the general silence around that subject. I hope that Haali will change his mind to support at least the correct playback for video and audio of the menue-included .mkv files. If this happens, then the addition of menues in a matroska file with the future in mind, is not a bad idea. But now is a small disaster, I think.

Don't forget to ask: Is there any way to donate to the matroska project? I really want to contribute to my favourite container, but in their website I didn't noticed any PayPal logo for that.

[alh84001]

Hi all.

I just wanted to say I tried to create a menu with the latest DVDMenuXtractor and after ripping the dvd (I just selected one menu track) and running the bat script in the output folder I got an mkv file, but the video in it was all wrong. You can hardly recognize the scene. Even stranger is that I tried to reproduce it now in order to take screenshots but I can't get a m2v file when extracting (either with 1272, 1278 or 1280 version). I can only get a m2v from a VMG track.
:confused: