MenuEdit - Tool to edit DVD Menus

[baddbill]

Hi Dimad, is there a way to do this:

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=65621

with menuedit?

Thanks,
Bill

[yamyam]

Hello Dimad, Could you add support for editing vob PU-OPs to menuedit ?

[Dimad]

Should be quite straight forward to implement. I'll put it on todo list.

[riprazor]

Dimad, if the first menu choice is removed from a .VOB, is their any way of moving focus at start up to a different menu item?

I have a menu page with 18 items. If I delete the first 9 items, the page comes up on my standalone with no item being highlited but the page believes the first item is still selected. Once I try and navigate the page, it highlites the correct item (number 9). I would like to have the page come up with item 9 selected as the default choice rather than no item.

Thanks,
Riprazor

[Dimad]

As far as I know the only way to do what you need is to set default(highlight) button in the place from which the menu is called.

[2COOL]

@Dimad

You can try working with the "force selection button number" in the "Button highlighted information" of the nav packs. I tried it on a menu that had this set at button 0 (no highlighting) and I went and changed everything to 3 to test. When I played the menu, button 3 is now highlighted.

Then again, there may be highlight button commands residing in the PGC Command Tables that might counteract this. hmmm...

[Dimad]

Could be the way to go. I'll add ability to change this to Menuedit.

[riprazor]

Awesome! Thanks 2COOL for suggesting the method, thanks Dimad for what I still consider to be on of the best shareware investements I have ever made!

Regards,
Riprazor

[2COOL]

Dimad,

Just a few suggestions for a future version.

1) For ease of use, can you have the delete option menu pop-up when I right-click in preview window or on a selected button? I guess I'm just wishful thinking as I always have to move the mouse up and down to the delete button and then going to the OK button when it can be available as a right click menu. Should be simple to implement.

2) It's great we have Edit menu color table in 2.3.0 now. Anyway of putting like a min/max slider or maybe scroll bar so that we would know what our valid values would be? The reason for this is that we could easily go out of range with values and not all of us know what value to input. It just makes it more user friendly. ;)

3) It would be awesome if you had a visual color palette in which we could tap off from to really see what color we want and maybe see a preview of it? A good example is in DVD Lab's Help on Color Map. Install the trial if you don't have it and you can access it for reviewing. It would definitely make MenuEdit look more high-end if you could implement something like that.

Thanks for your consideration. ;)

[Dimad]

Thanks, for suggestion 2COOL. "Innocent" desire to add features and to make program more user friendly can easily turn into something major. :)

MenuEdit started as a tool to conveniently work with navigation packs in vob files. It was both it is "strength" : quite easy to use and "weakness": dvd is much-much more then vob files. There are a lot of interconnections in dvd and any serious modifications require changes in a whole bunch other places. MenuEdit original design is just not suited for this. Luckily it is possible to use IfoEdit to adjust ifo files when replacing cells, but some people get paralyzed just hearing word IfoEdit :)

My attempt to "teach" MenuEdit that dvd disks also have information in ifo files turned into major "free time eater" for last 4 months: DvdReMake (http://www.dimadsoft.com/dvdremake). And it is still not finalized. I add some code and it becomes obvious that I can easily have another feature if I would just add a little bit more code, so I add this "more code" … and so on. Well, we will see where this end. :)

[VidHack]

Readers of this thread,

Perhaps another thread is needed, Dimad has been coding a very interesting App called DVDremake, he makes reference to it in the above POST. The link is posted above, Though the tool/app is beta, feedback and especially Debug-Info is needed. Please be specific on bugs or problems. Positive comments are always welcomed.

To let you know, DVDremake can be used as a helper app for MenuEdit, it can display all VOBS blocks of video, ON THE SAME SCREEN.

If your a MenuEdit user, you will want to try DVDremake, just for that ability alone. A shout out to DIMAD, for his hard work, and to all that move this project forward. Thanks.

VidHack

[mikegun]

Hi,

I had a look at the demo version. must say that this looks very sweet,
can't wait to test it !!

regards,

mikegun

[Shaneo]

Originally posted by Dimad
"Innocent" desire to add features and to make program more user friendly can easily turn into something major....

.....My attempt....have turned into major "free time eater" for last 4 months......

.....I add some code and it becomes obvious that I can easily have another feature if I would just add a little bit more code, so I add this "more code" … and so on.

Dimad, how true this is. Have you ever read "The Tao of Programming"? You might get a kick out of it.

Also would like to say great program! awesome idea! it does everything it should. any features added after this point are "bells and whistles" which will make this tool even more awesome than it already is.

I know this is not related to the production of menuedit, but I had to say it anyway.

-Shaneo

[billstuck]

Hi Dimad, I need help registering Menuedit on my new machine. I forgot my reg name so I can't do it through your site. I emailed you last week but haven't heard back. Can you help me?

Thanks,
Bill

[geffroman]

Originally posted by billstuck
Hi Dimad, I need help registering Menuedit on my new machine. I forgot my reg name so I can't do it through your site. I emailed you last week but haven't heard back. Can you help me?

Thanks,
Bill

I had the same issue... I hear Dimad is out for a few days so here is what I got back from him...

Registration name was my real first and last name formatted like so; (all lower case)

first_last

[billstuck]

Originally posted by geffroman
I had the same issue... I hear Dimad is out for a few days so here is what I got back from him...

Registration name was my real first and last name formatted like so; (all lower case)

first_last

Excellent Thanks! I was forgetting the '_' in my name. I'm all set now. I didn't realize how much I use this tool until I was without it for a week.

Thanks again :)

[VidHack]

Dimad, is away on a trip until mid Feb. So, email support may be a bit slow.. Hopefully, he can access a computer and help everyone out..

VidHack

[Dimad]

Originally posted by Shaneo
Dimad, how true this is. Have you ever read "The Tao of Programming"? You might get a kick out of it.


Title sounds familliar, I'll take a look.


Also would like to say great program! awesome idea! it does everything it should.

Thanks, but what it does is far from what it may (IMO). What (and how) it does at the moment is what I and few beta testers would like to do to dvds. Anybody else interested to suit the program to their needs can forward requests to me. I don't promise that it will be implemented soon, but at least I'll keep it in mind so that no major changes will be needed to add these features.


any features added after this point are "bells and whistles" ...

Well, I hope not, and they will become a part of many peoples normal dvd editing workflow. :)

[jorel]

Dave82 is helping me in this thread:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?threadid=70675&perpage=20&pagenumber=1
menuedit is an vital program in the Dave82's tutorial!

menuedit is crashing if i try to open all vobs
from all dvds that i have...and reauthored vobs too,
if the vob have more than ~870mb size!

after read MenuEdit Q&A searching answers:
"5# Q: Is there a way to open 1 Gig Vobs in MenuEdit?"
..."Starting with MenuEdit 2.2.0 there should be no problems..."

i'm using the last free version and still have the problem!
any help is welcoming.
i using athlon xp2000+, 512mb ram,
maxtor 60gb with 27 gb of free space in win ME...

thanks in advance!
:)

[geffroman]

Originally posted by jorel


after read MenuEdit Q&A searching answers:
"5# Q: Is there a way to open 1 Gig Vobs in MenuEdit?"
..."Starting with MenuEdit 2.2.0 there should be no problems..."

i'm using the last free version and still have the problem!
any help is welcoming.

My suggestion is to spend $15 for the registered product.

[jorel]

means that isn't problem of my system or menuedit?

if you're right will be a pleasure got the registered version!
can you confirm?
:)

[geffroman]

Originally posted by jorel
means that isn't problem of my system or menuedit?

if you're right will be a pleasure got the registered version!
can you confirm?
:)

I am sorry I cannot confirm it to be a solution for your exact problem... I just know I tried for some time to make FREE menuedit work for me and found that the registered version seems to be more than just extra features... It seems to work better in general... I also think you will tend to get better support as a paying customer... but's just my opinion... not speaking for anyone else...

[Dimad]

Registered version of MenuEdit does require less memory to operate. So it might solve your problem. But! I know two boxes (one is 98SE with 265Mb memory) on which registered version has troubles opening large vobs.
You can do a simple test to check if it will work on your computer. Rip dvd with some large extras title set to your disk. Open this title set ifo file in IfoEdit, go to VTS_C_ADT table and change 1st cell end sector to something invalid (like 99999999).

Then download DvdReMake demo and try to import this disk. DvdReMake will determine that tables in ifo are not correct and will try to recover them. For this it will scan vob files in pretty much the same way as menuedit opens them.

[jorel]

@ geffroman and Dimad
thanks for attention and hints!
:)

i'm doing the test and post later.
thanks again!

[jorel]

i load the .vob (0,99Gb) in vobedit and did
demux--> cell id--> demux complete title set .
this give me little vobs!

then i load each cell in Menu Edit and adjust what's needed.
works perfect for my target!

:)

thank you very much...the program works very fine!
;)

ps:
if you want to see details:
i posted in 29th February 2004 here

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?threadid=70675&perpage=20&pagenumber=3

!

[2COOL]

@Dimad

Originally posted by 2COOL
@Dimad

You can try working with the "force selection button number" in the "Button highlighted information" of the nav packs. I tried it on a menu that had this set at button 0 (no highlighting) and I went and changed everything to 3 to test. When I played the menu, button 3 is now highlighted.

Then again, there may be highlight button commands residing in the PGC Command Tables that might counteract this. hmmm...

Do you still have this feature on your implementation list for MenuEdit?

[Dimad]

Yes. I'm just somewhat busy working on dvdremake. As soon as I get some time.

[rudeboymcc]

i have the full registered version of this great program but i haven't successfully remove buttons yet.

the dvd in question is bowling for columbine, and on the first menu there are four options, play, scenes, setup and trailer.

i removed the trailer so i wanted to delete htat button. when i did this in menu edit everything went ok and WInDVD could use all the other buttons. but when i wrote the DVD using Nero 6 and tried playing it in my standalone, there were no buttons and i was stuck on the menu.

this has happenned before but the buttons worked, there just wasn't a selection thing so you didn't know what button you were pressing.

any ideas?

[geffroman]

Originally posted by rudeboymcc
i have the full registered version of this great program but i haven't successfully remove buttons yet.

the dvd in question is bowling for columbine, and on the first menu there are four options, play, scenes, setup and trailer.

i removed the trailer so i wanted to delete htat button. when i did this in menu edit everything went ok and WInDVD could use all the other buttons. but when i wrote the DVD using Nero 6 and tried playing it in my standalone, there were no buttons and i was stuck on the menu.

this has happenned before but the buttons worked, there just wasn't a selection thing so you didn't know what button you were pressing.

any ideas? It's the DVD... It's corrupt... cause it was produced by a mean fat ugly white guy that lies all through the movie... It is sooo bad that MenuEdit probably just got sick and LEFT... :devil:

[Dimad]

Originally posted by rudeboymcc
i removed the trailer so i wanted to delete htat button. when i did this in menu edit everything went ok and WInDVD could use all the other buttons. but when i wrote the DVD using Nero 6 and tried playing it in my standalone, there were no buttons and i was stuck on the menu.

this has happenned before but the buttons worked, there just wasn't a selection thing so you didn't know what button you were pressing.


There was a simmilar problm in one of the earlier versions of DvdReMake. The reason was - highlight time was written incorrectly. Then it was fixed.

But MenuEdit does not even touch any other infromation in vob-files (only buttons). The only way not to have any selection when menu appears is to hide default button. But then selection should appear as soon as you push arrows (or #s) on remote.

[Dimad]

Originally posted by geffroman
It's the DVD... It's corrupt... cause it was produced by a mean fat ugly white guy that lies all through the movie... It is sooo bad that MenuEdit probably just got sick and LEFT... :devil:

? Am I missing something? :(

[geffroman]

Originally posted by Dimad
? Am I missing something? :( It was a joke... Michael Moore... creater of "Bowling For Columbine"... Considered to be one of the most mean spirited nasty conspiracy theorist of our time... distorter of truth... trying to take away our rights to own guns... his movie is so vile that even MenuEdit didn't want to work on it...

Sorry... I thought it was obvious and funny... I'll shut up now...:D

[cdburrner]

feature request...

just wondering how difficult it would be for you to add a feature that allows you to drag the buttons and resize them on screen... or perhaps a ruler that would at least let you know x/y position info(like in photoshop) sorry if this has already been asked.:eek:

[Dimmer]

@Dimad

I tried the free version of MenuEdit and noticed that it doesn't recognize animated menus when the actual menu starts in a middle of the cell. It appears that if the first NAV pack doesn't contain highlight information, the program thinks that there is no menu in this cell. Good example is Independence Day (R1 two-disc release). Or is it just a limitation of the free version?

Speaking of which, with all due respect, although everybody around here highly regards the program, I find it hard to come to this conclusion on my own based solely on the demo version. Wherever I click, I get a message "Registered version only", so the practical use mostly limited to viewing basic menu and cell info unless you give it up before that. Maybe you should re-think the marketing strategy.

That constant registered version pop-up reminded me of the first WinNT5 beta back in 1997 that later became Win2k. Wherever you click, it would crash and bring up Dr. Watson error screen - that was the only program that actually worked.

[cdburrner]

don't bash.... it's a great program. i find myself using it more than ifoedit. it's very easy to use, but if you know what you're doing, you can save quite a bit of time.

[rudeboymcc]

i find it very useful for hidden extras.

ie, in Memento, there's a hidden feature which plays the movie chronologically (the normaly one is played backwards).

turns out this is a whole other title set, so i ripped it and used menuedit to change the "play movie" button to point to it so it isn't necessary to go through the special scenes and press entre at the right time (takes time to get it right, you have to do it during a moving menu).

[geffroman]

Originally posted by Dimmer
[B Maybe you should re-think the marketing strategy. [/B] IMHO - You are correct, the demo does not give the full impact of what MenuEdit can do. But you have to draw a line to protect the program somewhere. A long time ago I actually complained about this just as you did. I've since wised up and spent my $14.

In the DEMO product's defense, there are so many guides on just this forum alone helping people to get what they need done with the demo that it is clear that if MenuEditDEMO was even a little bit more friendly that NO ONE would pay. I am guessing when I say I don't think the DEMO was introduced to be a FREE product for cheap skates. But now that it has largly become that why would any software author want to add more functionality to his/her demo. Please understand, I have the highest respect for Dimad's products especually since the release of DVDReMake. However, I have no knowledge of his reasons nor have I ever discussed this with him. I am speculating totally.

That said you admit yourself that the product has a great reputation. References sell products more than any demo ever did...

If you want to modify menus in seconds and easily I say spend the $14 and you'll be happy. Again, IMHO as a paying user of the product.

[Dimad]

Originally posted by Dimmer
@Dimad

I tried the free version of MenuEdit and noticed that it doesn't recognize animated menus when the actual menu starts in a middle of the cell. It appears that if the first NAV pack doesn't contain highlight information, the program thinks that there is no menu in this cell. Good example is Independence Day (R1 two-disc release). Or is it just a limitation of the free version?
It is.


Speaking of which, with all due respect, although everybody around here highly regards the program, I find it hard to come to this conclusion on my own based solely on the demo version. Wherever I click, I get a message "Registered version only", so the practical use mostly limited to viewing basic menu and cell info unless you give it up before that. Maybe you should re-think the marketing strategy.
Yep. I admit that I know how to bang on keyborad and design software products (large or small but in any case fast :) ) way better then how to sell things. But I learn fast and I think DvdReMake demo shows off better :)

Don't forget it is more then a year old. And original purpose was to delete/hide buttons - even demo does it. Cell/vob renumbering - also usefull or at least was used in some guides.


That constant registered version pop-up reminded me of the first WinNT5 beta back in 1997 that later became Win2k.
I don't mind lets forget about MenuEdit and start using "better" one - DvdReMake. :)

Originally posted by geffroman
In the DEMO product's defense, there are so many guides on just this forum alone helping people to get what they need done with the demo that it is clear that if MenuEditDEMO was even a little bit more friendly that NO ONE would pay. I am guessing when I say I don't think the DEMO was introduced to be a FREE product for cheap skates. But now that it has largly become that why would any software author want to add more functionality to his/her demo. Please understand, I have the highest respect for Dimad's products especually since the release of DVDReMake. However, I have no knowledge of his reasons nor have I ever discussed this with him. I am speculating totally.
That is quite close to how I look at it. MenuEdit was introduced as a free program and anybody could donate to support further development. But just like with CouJo (who sold off his ImgTools) not that many people wanted to do so. So things have changed to be the way they are now. It is all already dicussed somewhere in the beginning of this huge thread :)

[Dimad]

Originally posted by cdburrner
feature request...

just wondering how difficult it would be for you to add a feature that allows you to drag the buttons and resize them on screen... or perhaps a ruler that would at least let you know x/y position info(like in photoshop) sorry if this has already been asked.:eek:

Don't forget that MenuEdit does not change haghlights, so even if/when this feature implemented you will need to have highlights in the area you are stretching your button to.

[Dvd@Best]

I have just purchased this sweet app.Nice job.

But so far i am unlucky with this , the purpose for which i purchased this app was to replace a menu background and keep the buttons and cmds on it intact. but this app failed to do it.This dvd was authored my meastro .

After completing the task i played the dvd in Power DVD and it just played first play and got stuck there after.

Then i picked the dvd which was authored with scenarist , and it was all goood.

Seems like replacing menus on meastro authored dvd is not working fine.
Please take a look at it and help me out.

regards



Please help me out guys.

[Dimad]

It should not make any difference for MenuEdit what app was used for authoring original dvd or new menu.

You did correct ifo files as described in http://menuedit.dimad.net/ht_me_replace_cell.html in both cases, right?

Could it be anything similar to this (probably not, but)?: http://cdr-zone.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=520

[Mirx]

Originally posted by Dvd@Best
I have just purchased this sweet app.Nice job.

But so far i am unlucky with this , the purpose for which i purchased this app was to replace a menu background and keep the buttons and cmds on it intact. but this app failed to do it.This dvd was authored my meastro .

...

Seems like replacing menus on meastro authored dvd is not working fine.
Please take a look at it and help me out.



I'm also having problems with a maestro project trying to replace a menu background.

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=74267

When I use the IfoEdit generated ifo's with the modified vob, my replaced menu cell will work, but other parts of the menu will stall on transitions from the in-menu movies to the still selection screens.
If I also use the IfoEdit generated VOB, the other parts of the menu work fine, but my replaced menu cell is f*cked.
The IFO said the playbacktime went from 30 seconds to 12 frames, but it's a still menu, with still time set to 0.
But it looks like the menu cell keeps rebooting itself. This leaves me with a button which I can select for a second, and then it goes blank for about 2 seconds, and keeps repeating that process.

I tried setting playback time manually to 30 seconds, no idea if that should have worked, but I think the VOB is altered to 12 frames, and therefore changing the ifo will never work. As this new vob is constructed by the information it reads from the Menuedit generated VOB if have no idea what I did to mess this up, seeing as I use the "altered" vob directly, the replaced cell will work correctly.

I only did this once before with Underworld, and I can't remember if I just needed to use the IfoEdit ifo's, or also the IfoEdit vob there. But that time it worked without a problem.

[Dvd@Best]

Hmm ..well seems like i am not alone with this problem.
I have tired several movies today as well authored with meastro but having problems...sometime the dvd got stuck up after replacing the menus...sometimes it just keep playing 'first play'.

I dont know how to solve this,
i am sure i didnt waste my 16-18$ bucks...cuz app is still useable but i would like to see this the solution of this problem as well.


Regards

[Mirx]

Well, my problem had nothing to do with Maestro or menuedit as you can see in the other thread, but just with my in-experiance using this. The original menu had a background music, which I forgot to include in the new menu, which caused the menu to stall.

In the Netherlands we do a lot of home subbing, because releases are sometimes released on R1 retail before they hit the cinema's here. So people actually write Dutch subs themself, and place them under the dvd. So for that purpose, I'm writing a tutorial on how to change the menu to give it a more realistic feel by adding dutch subtitle buttons, etc.
I can send you it, but the main problem will be that it will be in Dutch. Give me a PM with you're hotmail account or something, and I'll see if I can quickly translate it into English over the weekend if you're interested.

Did 2 menu's now, both work without problems (eventually)

[Dvd@Best]

Originally posted by Dimad
It should not make any difference for MenuEdit what app was used for authoring original dvd or new menu.

You did correct ifo files as described in http://menuedit.dimad.net/ht_me_replace_cell.html in both cases, right?

Could it be anything similar to this (probably not, but)?: http://cdr-zone.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=520


Thx dimad , the above link does help me and now its working fine.

Questions:

1.can i replace a still menu ( no sound) with motion menu with sound vice varsa.
2.can i replace a menu in place of ( lets say ) company logo etc.


Suggestion:
It would really helps if u can add a feature to set the button size and postion by mouse.Those figures handliing really make the things hard when u have to set like 10-12 buttons.
usually wat i did is save the layout and replace the menu with me own which has differnt buttons position on the menu ...so after i import the layout i have to set the buttons positions.

Regards