Possible to move PGC to new VTS?

[ricnews]

I'm trying to make a copy of a DVD with a poor letterbox encoding. I want to crop away the letterbox bars and a few pixels from each edge so it looks okay without resorting to zooming and overscanning on a widescreen display. However, there are some additional material on the DVD that I'd like to preserve (along with the menu links) that are true 4:3 aspect ratio. These are separate PGCs on the same VTS.

From what I understand, aspect ratio can only be set at the level of the VTS, so in order to have different aspect ratios for different PGCs they have to reside on different VTSes.

Assuming this is correct, is there any (easyish) way to move a PGC from one VTS to a new VTS and preserve the menu/playback behaviour of the original?

To further complicate things, the main movie does use multiangle for controlling the language during the opening/closing credits so I need to do this in a way that won't mess up the multiangle. Or if necessary, I'd be willing to remove the non-english elements entirely. However, I'd prefer to retain the disc as close to the original as possible. I just want to clean up the video a little.

Thanks!

[Ghitulescu]

You can reauthor the DVD, it depends on its complexity,

but for simple things you can use dvd shrink 3.2, then open the authored dvd in pgcedit, reimport the original menus and modify the commands to point at the correct items.

I don't know any method to COPY/CUT/PASTE the PGCs from one VTS to another, but I don't exclude this possibility.

There are DVD players that would play a DVD with variable AR, at least the recorders do.

[ricnews]

There are DVD players that would play a DVD with variable AR, at least the recorders do.

Hi,

What do you mean by this? Is it possible to have variable AR within a single VTS?

Thanks.

[Ghitulescu]

It's possible, some DVD authoring programs let you do this, some need to be tricked, but ...

it's out of specs

that means it won't give you the certitude of being supported by the DVD players. As I said before, some do, some not.

-=-=-

If the menus and the whole navigation is not complicated you can reauthor the whole thing in dvd shrink (which would place the titles each in a new VTS), author the menus yourself or reimport the original menus and change the commands to point at the right items.

[Alex_ander]

Assuming this is correct, is there any (easyish) way to move a PGC from one VTS to a new VTS and preserve the menu/playback behaviour of the original?

While it can be easily moved to a new VTS (e.g. with DVDRemake's 'Copy PGC' and 'Add Copied PGC' commands), this needs manual post-editing of navigation, especially if internal commands were used for accessing that PGC('s) within original VTS. That's because there can't be direct navigational links between different VTS's. For example, you can leave a dummy PGC in place of the moved one (by blanking it) and replace its pre-command list with a single command bringing to a new PGC created in videomanager. That last PGC can have a pre-command for addressing new VMG title, registered for the moved PGC. You'd also need to explore and most likely, edit its post-commands. Then it would be useful to edit root menu of the new VTS for going to the same older menu when called from remote, etc. All that is possible but needs some experience for success.

[r0lZ]

It is possible with PgcEdit, FixVTS and some manual editing.

Use Import VTST Titles, and in the File Open dialogue, select the VTS containing the main movie and the 4:3 extras. (It might seem strange to import a VTS in the same DVD, but do it any way!) When asked, copy the VOBs. (Don't move them.) You will end up with a new VTS, containing exactly the same material than the original one (including the multiangle info).

Now, the difficult part. You will need to manually redirect the jumps to the extras so that they jump to the extras on the new VTS. Similarly, you will probably need to edit the post-commands (and perhaps some cell commands) of the extras from the new VTS to return to the menu. You should also create a new menu in the new VTS, to return to the original menu when the user press the Menu button of the remote.
You might have to create several PGCs in the VMGM to go from the original VTS to the new one or vice-versa. Alex_ander gave good advices on this method in the post just above.

After having edited the DVD, the extras should be unreferenced in the original VTS, and referenced in the new VTS, and exactly the opposite for the main movie. Verify with Info -> Find Uncalled PGCs. Verify also in trace mode if you can access the extras, and return to the main menu.

Finally, you can remove the extras from the original VTS and the main movie from the new VTS. Use DVD -> Delete Uncalled PGCs, or do it manually if you prefer. Save and apply FixVTS on the two VTSs to remove the useless content from the VOBs.

Now, you can process the original VTS to change its aspect ratio. I don't know how you plan to do it, but remember that you can reimport the reauthored title in the original VTS while still retaining the original navigation commands and chapter structure with File -> Replace VTST Titles.

[ricnews]

Thanks for the replies!

It looks like menu editing is somewhat complicated and at this point in time I don't want to take the time to learn how to go about it as it's not worth the effort for what I'm trying to do. I was able to do the cropping of individual titles, removing the unnecessary angle, using DVD Shrink, DVD Rebuilder and Vobblanker (just to fix the aspect ratio). The original menus are just still so I'm going to just capture them and reauthor them.

Again, I don't want to spend any money on an authoring package since it's something I need frequently. I know of 2 free, simple tools: DVD Flick and DVDStyler. However, neither of them seem capable of importing a DVD title to retain chapter, audio stream and subtitle. Are there any other entry level (preferably free) menu authoring programs that can import everything from an existing DVD or do I have to break them up and reconstruct them?

Thanks!

[r0lZ]

Womble MPEG Video Wizard DVD can process VOB files without reencoding them, but it is not free, it can only generate a menu with its own template (so you cannot reuse the original still), and it is somewhat difficult to import the original chapter points. (See the Womble plugin for PgcEdit to generate the needed files to import easily the VOBs and chapters in Womble.)

You might want also to have a look at DVD-Lab Pro. It is expensive and relatively hard to learn, but very powerful. It can import VOBs directly, and it can create really good menus, including animated menus.

[ricnews]

Okay, thanks for the info.

[BUFU]

While it can be easily moved to a new VTS (e.g. with DVDRemake's 'Copy PGC' and 'Add Copied PGC' commands), this needs manual post-editing of navigation, especially if internal commands were used for accessing that PGC('s) within original VTS. That's because there can't be direct navigational links between different VTS's. For example, you can leave a dummy PGC in place of the moved one (by blanking it) and replace its pre-command list with a single command bringing to a new PGC created in videomanager. That last PGC can have a pre-command for addressing new VMG title, registered for the moved PGC. You'd also need to explore and most likely, edit its post-commands. Then it would be useful to edit root menu of the new VTS for going to the same older menu when called from remote, etc. All that is possible but needs some experience for success.

Sinds this thread goes about what i want to do. I dont have to start a new post.
So here it is.
I have a dvd : The DVD is a multi episode DVD with multiple VTS each VTS is 1 episode.

What I have done is the following :
Copied VTS('s)--PGC episode 2-6 and appended copied it to episode 1.
The other VTS I blanked out.
Now all episodes are in 1 VTS under 1 PGC.
The opening and ending of each episode I substituted it with of episode 1. So far so good.

Now comes the difficult part :
The menu has button 1-6 each button points to 1 episode.
what i want do is edit that button(s) 2-6 cmd to point to that 1 VTS with all the episodes startinf from episode 2

Is there any "how to" to do this .....

Im using DVDremakePro. As u can see when it comes to more complex stuff Im a Newbie. I want to learn how to do this but I couldn't find any tuto or how to on the inet.

In advance thnx for your cooperation.

[BUFU]

Sinds this thread goes about what i want to do. I dont have to start a new post.
So here it is.
I have a dvd : The DVD is a multi episode DVD with multiple VTS each VTS is 1 episode.

What I have done is the following :
Copied VTS('s)--PGC episode 2-6 and appended copied it to episode 1.
The other VTS I blanked out.
Now all episodes are in 1 VTS under 1 PGC.
The opening and ending of each episode I substituted it with of episode 1. So far so good.

Now comes the difficult part :
The menu has button 1-6 each button points to 1 episode.
what i want do is edit that button(s) 2-6 cmd to point to that 1 VTS with all the episodes startinf from episode 2

Is there any "how to" to do this .....

Im using DVDremakePro. As u can see when it comes to more complex stuff Im a Newbie. I want to learn how to do this but I couldn't find any tuto or how to on the inet.

In advance thnx for your cooperation.

NVM !!
Found a work around to do what I wanted to do with minimal work :):D;)