"ghost" language code for subtitles in PgcEdit

[aslaksen]

Hi,

I use CloneDVD to rip DVDs, and I usually only keep some of the subtitle streams. Sometimes I also use ConvertXtoDVD to then add external subtitle streams. Unfortunately, many players get confused by deleted subtitle streams. VLC, for instance, gets all confused. My "solution" is to add extra empty subtitle streams in place of the once I have deleted. Then the labels will match the real streams. But the question is what language code should I give those empty streams? I usually try to leave them blank, which some players, like VLC, respects.

But some players, like Media Player Classic, doesn't like this. If say stream 2 originally was "en", but I have now added streams 3 and 4, and mapped 4 to the "en" stream and left 2 and 3 blank, then MPC insists that 2 is still "en"!

My solution is to label 2 and 3 as some (in the eyes of me and my friends) "strange" language that we will not want to choose.

But I was just curious about this behavior. I'm a newbie, so I'm sorry if I haven't explained it properly, and I realize that to some extent this is a question about players, but in short my question is: Is there some trace of the "en" label that PgcEdit does not clean up? Or is this a feature, in that I"m not supposed to leave empty labels?

Thanks!

Helmer

[r0lZ]

IMO, your solution to use "strange" language codes is good, although personally I prefer to remove the unused streams completely and fix the SetSTN commands manually.

In PgcEdit, you can assign an "empty" language codes to any stream, but this is not recommended in Title domains, when there are more than 1 audio streams or 0 subpic streams. (This is perfectly legit in Menu domains, as the maximum is one audio and one subpic stream anyway.) One reason to give a language code in the Title domains is that, if a specific stream has not been assigned with a SetSTN command, the player must normally use the "preferred languages" (chosen by the user via its setup menu) to determine which stream to use. If a stream has not a legit language code, the player can be confused. Of course, if a specific stream has been forced by a SetSTN command, the empty language codes should not be a problem. However, maybe some players do not know what string to display in their language menu when the user changes the stream manually, so I recommend to use a legit code any way.
There are many commercial DVDs with empty language codes, often used when a specific stream is not a spoked language, for example for a music-only audio stream, but IIRC in those DVDs, a specific stream is always forced and there are PUOs to prohibit changing the streams manually during the playback.

Is there some trace of the "en" label that PgcEdit does not clean up? Or is this a feature, in that I"m not supposed to leave empty labels?
When you change a language code in the Title domain of any VTS, 2 tables have to be modified. One is in the IFO of the VTS, and the other one is the global table in VIDEO_TS.IFO. PgcEdit modifies automatically both tables, so no trace of the original language code remains. (Of course, you have to do it in all VTSs if you want to be sure to remove all codes, and the LUs of the menus have also language codes, but that's another story.) The language codes in the Menu domains should be ignored by the player, so you should never need to modify them.