Create new / modify existing DVD menu

[backstar]

Editing DVD Menus, or creating new ones from scratch, has been a common question both on the forums, and when dealing with clients.

I have attempted to put the basics down in a tutorial using:

VobBlanker
GIMP (or any image editor)
MuxMan
PgcEdit
ImgBurn

Check it out here:
http://backstar.com/blog/2009/09/22/create-new-menu-for-existing-dvd/

Hope this helps!!

--EDIT--
if you are looking to edit audio/video content on an existing DVD, I have also written a tutorial for that:
http://backstar.com/blog/2009/09/01/edit-video-on-an-existing-dvd/

[Alex_ander]

Create/modify buttons:

Button > New button, etc.

X position / Y position, Width / Height, Adjacent Buttons, Edit Color Schemes - not enough to create a new visible button. You also need to edit subpicture layer for it. You could make the guide more complete by including DVDSubEdit for this procedure.

[backstar]

Yes, you are correct. The "New Button" command simply maps a button, similar to using image maps in HTML. The buttons in this example would need to be a part of the BMP menu image.

Thanks for the comments, I will slip some information in there regarding drawing buttons in the BMP and perhaps DVDSubEdit as well.

[Ghitulescu]

It's a very well written guide, I wish there were all like this. An excellent work!

[r0lZ]

As suggested here (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1328485#post1328485), I have modified PgcEdit so that the tiny cell it creates has now a default blank subpic, covering the entire image.

I did other changes as well. Now, PgcEdit creates the default muxman color map in its new cells (instead of the null color map with all colors being green that was created previously).

When a new button is created, the color scheme number associated with the button is now 1 (instead of 0, corresponding to the VOB color scheme, full transparent). Also, when the first button of a cell is created, and if the current color scheme is null, a default color scheme is automatically created with reasonable values.

So, now, by default, when you create a cell and one or several buttons, the highlights are visible in any player as translucent white rectangles over the black background. To create a still menu, all you have to do is to replace the background with VobBlanker, and if you want more sophisticated highlights, edit them with DVDSubEdit and change the IFO CLUT and the button's color scheme to suit your needs.

Note that the new subpic stream included with the black cells is empty, but it occupies several sectors in the VOB file so that there is enough room to create complex highlights. (This is necessary, as DVDSubEdit cannot replace the subpic stream if its compressed length is greater than the original one, and complex highlights are less compacted than an empty subpic.)

[backstar]

Thanks r0lZ, those are some very useful additions (and will make the menu creation / modification process both easier and quicker).

Is the updated version of PgcEdit available for download yet?

[blutach]

No, it isn't and there is a small bug in the new blanks anyway.

Regards

[backstar]

Ok, I have updated the tutorial so it now includes editing the subpicture with DVDSubEdit.

For the sake of clarity, I have removed the sections regarding modifying an existing menu, and will compile them in a separate post. As a result, this guide now focuses specifically on creating a new menu from scratch.

http://backstar.com/blog/2009/09/22/create-new-menu-for-existing-dvd/

Thanks for all the feedback!