MenuEdit - Tool to edit DVD Menus

[Dimad]

I do realize that there are many posts on this subject:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=41726
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=40584
to name a few.

But still I've decided to open a new one as I was not sure in which of the old posts to put this info.

Having all these nice tools, like: dvddecriptor, ifoedit, rempeg and imgtools one can make a one disk backup of DVD very easily. The only step in this process, which is a real hassle, is editing menus to disable buttons linking to pruned parts of the DVD. This procedure (at least for me) takes much more of my personal time (not computational time) then all other steps together.

I've decided that it should not be this way and wrote a MenuEdit. This little program is completely free to use by everyone. It eliminates a root of the problem - removes buttons from dvd menu screens. No button - no problem.

When selected buttons are deleted from selected menu, MenuEdit automatically relinks buttons left in this menu so that you can still access all buttons with navigation keys of your remote control.

At the moment you can only delete buttons, but if I will hear enough in support of editing buttons (like modifying command associated with the button, etc), I will implement these features as well.
Correction: buttons can be edited now.

At the moment MenuEdit does not show underlying menu screen, only buttons layout. So you need to know where on the screen your button is located, as well as vobID and cellID for the menu.
Correction: starting with 1.3.0 actual video is shown.



Program does in place editing of the vob files, so you may want to make a copy of the file before editing, just in case you will remove something you don't real intended to. I've tested it, but still consider it as a beta version.


Anyone who wish to report a problem need to provide at least this info:
1. Title of DVD; PAL/NTSC; Region code
2. Titleset # (i.e. xx and y in VTS_xx_y.VOB)
3. Menu VOB #; Cell #;
4. indexes of deleted buttons (new version of MenuEdit (see attachement) show button index on each button to help with this);
5. Extract vob# with menu where error occur and send it to me (actually send both before editing and after): MenuEdit@mail.com
Use VobRator (http://www.doom9.org/Soft21/Rippers/VOBrator02b.zip):
1) open vob-file;
2) hit collaps;
3) select whole vob and uncheck "include in output";
4) select needed vob# and check "include in output";
5) expand this vob# and uncheck "include in output" for all subitems exept NAV
6) save to some file
7) zip it and send to me

Few recommendations which will help in finding errors:
i) Try to edit menu only once, otherwise list buttons deleted in each attempt separately(like: deleted buttons {0, 2, 5} then buttons {0, 1} !!note: second time it will be already new indexing!!).

ii) When you encounter an error editing vob-file, check if this error is specific to some particular menu or to whole editing session. In other words, do you have same error if you open vob-file, edit your menu (only this menu), close vob-file?



Edited 03/18/03
I've opened a site for the MenuEdit. http://www.dimadsoft.com/menuedit
All further releases will be posted there.


Enjoy it!

Dimad.
--------------------------------
Q Can machine think?
A Machine should not think. Machine must run.

[Administr8or]

sounds very interesting indeed, and with your future plans with it, i'd surely give it a try, and give feedback for it if ya like

[2COOL]

Dimad,

Here's my attempts and results with your MENUedit. I had two DVDs with main menus, with motion, displaying immediately on DVD insert. My main menu resided in titleset 1 (VTS_01_0.IFO - VobID 1).

1st try: Opened up first movie's VTS_01_0.IFO, selected VobID 1 and sucessfully deleted one button.
Results: Produces error when previewing in IFOedit. Cannot tell if button was really disabled without a working movie.

2nd try: Opened up first movie's VTS_01_0.IFO, selected VOBID 1 and deleted all buttons successfuly.
Results: Previewed VTS_01_0.IFO. Menu pops up with all selected buttons disabled.:D

3rd try: Restored original VTS_01_0.IFO and VTS_01_0.VOB. Use MENUedit to delete one button again.
Results: VobID 1 is not available for selection.

4th try: Deleted C:\Windows\MENUEDIT.EXE-3453B866.pf and proceed to select VobID 1 in MENUedit.
Results: No change. VobID 1 is not available again for selection. :confused:

5th try: Deleted C:\Windows\MENUEDIT.EXE-3453B866.pf again and opened up second movie's VTS_01_0.IFO to select VobID 1.
Results: VobID 1 does not appear.

MY COMMENTS: MENUedit did as advertised in my second try.:) I thought I did something wrong in my first try but it worked in my second attempt. But after that, my VobID 1 does not appear even using a new untouched movie.:( The only file I found that was connected to MENUedit was a file called MENUEDIT.EXE-3453B866.pf in my windows directory. I was actually looking for a .ini file where the settings were saved but no go. Again, I was impressed by it ability to select and disable buttons with ease.:D Just needs more tweaking and testing.

Additional Comment: Even with VobID 1 gone, the button layout that displays in MENUedit with my second movie does not correspond to any exact button layouts with the movie. I checked and confirmed all menus and there was no match.

[Fmazzanti]

@dimad,
yesterday i tried that wonderful program of yours with a movie I was backin' up (The Fly original version). Actually the DVD structure was not that complex, and I tried to remove some extras with IfoEdit, resulting in a project that worked fine unless you press one button corresponding to a feature that was not there anymore: in that case the player simply froze and that was the end of it.
Using MenuEdit I simply deleted any reference to the buttons corresponding to these features. They disappeared at once and now my DVD works more than *perfect*. Great tool!!
Besides, I like the way buttons are displayed: if you know the menus on the DVD, you recognize everything without problems...

@2cool,
looks like I've been much more lucky than you this time :cool:

[2COOL]

Dimad,

Can you reply to my post of test results?

[Dimad]

Hard to tell without having your vob with menu.

But I have few remarks:
1) MenuEdit disables access to the vob-file it is working with (actually reading is allowed). Other applications may not be able to use vob-file while you are editing it with MenuEdit. You need to know what buttons you plan to delete before you open vob-file for editing. I do realize that it is not very convenient, but that is what you have with this version of MenuEdit.

2)There is not much sense in deleting buttons from the menu without buttons, so MenuEdit does not offer menus without buttons for editing. But all vobs and cells are still there.

3) MenuEdit does not touch ifo-files. No need to back them up.

4) It may not be a good idea to delete system files.

5) MenuEdit leaves no trace in your system. No ini-files, no records in regestry.

6) DVD menu may have up to 3 button layouts for different screen sizes. MenuEdit treats them correctly (as far as I tested). Although you select buttons for deleting only once for menu buttons are deleted from all groups. It may be that program your are using to preview menu shows buttons from different group.

Good luck using MenuEdit.

Dimad.
--------------------------------
Q Can machine think?
A Machine should not think. Machine must run.

[DnGermany]

I love this tool. Previously I had to use a hex editor which took a little time, but not to much once you know where everything is. What i like best, is the automatic relinking of the other buttons. Just for info I used it on GoneIn60sec R1 menus from VTS 1 and 2, worked like a charm. Keep up the good work.

[2COOL]

Originally posted by Dimad
5) MenuEdit leaves no trace in your system. No ini-files, no records in regestry.

Dimad,

I have to disagree with you on this. Well not totally, MenuEdit doesn't but WinXP does something with it.

Initially, the only 2 files that I had associated with MenuEdit was menuedit.zip and MenuEdit.Exe. After using MenuEdit today, I did a file search on "menuedit". I found this again in my C:\Windows\Prefetch\MENUEDIT.EXE-3453B866.pf. Hmmm...I'm using WinXP right now and I really don't know all of its features so I did an internet search about "prefetch" and came up with this.


What Is Prefetch? Taken From Microsoft Website:

Windows XP monitors the files that are used when the computer starts and when you start applications. By monitoring these files, Windows XP can prefetch them. Prefetching data is the process whereby data that is expected to be requested is read ahead into the cache. Prefetching boot files and applications decreases the time needed to start Windows XP and start applications.

This information is logged and stored on your hard drive taking up space and requiring a process to be kept running monitoring which applications are being run. This has a performance impact on your PC. Disabling the Prefetch function or at least only enabling it for the Boot Files will allow you to free up some system resources and preserve some disk space.

Here's more of information on MENUEDIT.EXE-3453B866.pf from longshome.com

The prefetch information is stored in the Windows directory, in the Prefetch subdirectory, in binary format.

How does the system know which data should be prefetched? The Cache Manager component takes care of monitoring page faults, which tell it which data has to be retrieved from disk in the paging (or swapping) process. Cache Manager monitors the boot process and the first 10 seconds of the startup process for each application. This produces information called a trace, which is passed to a Task Scheduler component that processes the trace data and writes it to a file in the Prefetch directory. You can identify the application to which the trace pertains because the filename will start with the application name. The filename also contains a hash, in hexadecimal notation, of the path to the file, and has a .pf extension. (The trace file for the boot process is called NTOSBOOT-B00FAAD.PF.)

The next time the system boots or the application is started, the Cache Manager looks in the Prefetch directory. If there’s a file there for the boot process or application, the data and code referenced in the trace file will be put into memory, if they’re not already there. This prefetching decreases the amount of time that was lost under previous operating systems in seeking the data and reading it into memory from different, disparate locations on the disk.

So you see, it does leave a "trace" on my WinXP system. ;) I've rebooted twice today and it's still there.

[dvman]

Great tool... works like a charme for me. :D :D :D

[gizmau]

menuedit does only work in some special/simple cases:

1
2
3
4
5

when i delete 5, it isnt selectable any more and 1-4 still work as desired.

when i delete 4, 1-3 still work, 4 isnt selectable as intended, but 5 is connected to the content of 4. this way it is impossible to return to the previous menu if 5 is connected to this function.

[2COOL]

Originally posted by gizmau
menuedit does only work in some special/simple cases:

1
2
3
4
5

when i delete 5, it isnt selectable any more and 1-4 still work as desired.

when i delete 4, 1-3 still work, 4 isnt selectable as intended, but 5 is connected to the content of 4. this way it is impossible to return to the previous menu if 5 is connected to this function.

Are you using WinXP? This is exactly what my problem is. It's great the first time around but the second time is :confused: .

[KYUSS]

wicked proggy
thanks m8

[Fmazzanti]

I'm also using WinXP and MenuEdit. Yesterday I deleted button 3 from a main menu containing 4 buttons:
1: language selection
2: Scene selection
3: goto extras menu
4: play movie
After deleting button 3, I could still use vuttons 1, 2 and 4 without any functionality loss (and that paticulalrly means that button 4 is still displaying the main movie)...
So no issues here whatsoever, even running XP.

[gizmau]

Originally posted by 2COOL
Are you using WinXP? This is exactly what my problem is. It's great the first time around but the second time is :confused: .

yes, exactly...

[YODAS]

The same thing happened to me although it did happen the third time and not the second. On my other machine though that runs win2k everything works fine without problems.Strange...

[2COOL]

Alright!:D

I'm glad I'm not the only one scratching my head.:p Hmmm, I wonder what OS Dimad is using on his computer?

If anyone who posts that has the same problem, please state what OS you are using please.

[Fmazzanti]

Pretty weird... I've used it on my last 3 backups and didn't have a single problem. Now I'm backing up a fourthe one and start to experience the same as you guys. I also use WinXP. Too bad, it's a nice tool. Hope he'll fix that soon...

[Dimad]

I don't know will you believe me or not, but there is no way I can figure out what is the problem by yours comments. Send me actual files (or better fragments with vobID, cellID under the question) before editing and after. Or, if files are big (more then 1MB), tell me what movie you are working with and what menu you are editing (what buttons you are deleting and actions you do to delete them), I'll try to find this movie.

Send it to MenuEdit@mail.com

As I understand there was no problems reported under WinNT/2000.
All experienced problems occur under XP.

Here is the sad truth: I don't have an access to XP computer at the moment. So if this is a specifically XP problem I may not be able to fix it in near future.

[Fmazzanti]

I still don't see how can this problem be related to an operating system issue. It looks more like functionality is shifted from buttons to otehr buttons in some strange way I do not understand. But of course, I know nothing about these things...

[VidHack]

First of all -- THANK YOU -- For this tool, the end of HEX editing - WOWSER! I also run a Win2k box, and NO problems yet. Lets talk about your app for a second. First, would you consider open sourceing it? What language is it written in? If you wont release the code, could you use a transparent background, or a XOR type of background bitmap instead of that green one, you see, we could overlay your app on top of the DVD2AVI preview window to supperimpose the bitmaps to actually line up the buttons to the actual frame of video in the menu. DVD2AVI will give us the VOB ID/ Cell ID in the Statistcs window. Are you familiar with Directshow filters? Your app is in its beginnings and I commend you on the approach, with just a bit of tweaking this App is a godsend! I am sure 2Cool will agree. Please continue developing it with some type of see thru overlay in mind, you could even incorperate a simple AVS script that will get the VOB ID frame and convert it to a bitmap for the actual background image. Please consider this. Thank you again.

PS.- After compiling your app, please run a DEPENDENCY checking app to ensure support on all plateforms. (What compilier did you use?)

VidHack

[firstelvys]

Guys,

This prog is great! I already use VOBEdit to delete menu buttons AFTER I've exhausted all options with IFOEdit. This saves me a ton of time. You guys should read the tutorial on removing buttons, use it and then come back to this program. Although, I have not experienced the problem where button functionality is moved "up" in the button sequence, dimad should really take a look at this.

Again, GREAT prog, dude!

[Fmazzanti]

Hi again,
no wonder MenuEdit is a *great* prog! I think everybody here agrees on that... and that's precisely why we keep this thread running, because we'd like to use it without the functionality loss trouble.
Since it looks like the problem comes from running it under WinXP, maybe this could work (and I emphasize the MAYBE). By right-clicking on the program and going to properties, if I'm not wrong, one could run it in 'Win98/Me mode'. I can't try it here 'cause I don't have access to any WinXP box at work, but maybe somebody else can. Otherwise I'll try it tonight...

[Dimad]

Thanks for your post VidHack. I was about to ask simmilar questions :)

Originally posted by VidHack
First, would you consider open sourceing it? What language is it written in?
I've not thought about this yet, but it is possible. Everything is in C++. GUI stuff MS VC++ 6.0.


If you wont release the code, could you use a transparent background, or a XOR type of background bitmap instead of that green one, you see, we could overlay your app on top of the DVD2AVI preview window to supperimpose the bitmaps to actually line up the buttons to the actual frame of video in the menu. DVD2AVI will give us the VOB ID/ Cell ID in the Statistcs window.
I would prefer to keep it stand alone if it does not mean writing whole new previewer from scratch.


Are you familiar with Directshow filters? Your app is in its beginnings and I commend you on the approach, with just a bit of tweaking this App is a godsend! I am sure 2Cool will agree.

Yes, but only familiar. I've never wrote anything "visual" before. This should not be a problem as I've never worked with DVD streams before either. Thanks to MpuCoder's site and Eric Smith's vobdump program it took me couple of days to get through it. So I'm sure that with yours and other people help we can manage this.


Please continue developing it with some type of see through overlay in mind, you could even incorperate a simple AVS script that will get the VOB ID frame and convert it to a bitmap for the actual background image. Please consider this. Thank you again.

That is how this program is designed. Actually, everything started as code to select and remap buttons which I wrote and sent to Derrow couple of months ago. Thought it would not take him long to add it to the vob parser and previewer he has. Well, I was wrong. So I added my own vob-parser. If someone can tell me how to extract frame from the video packets and to convert it to bitmap I'll immediately modify MenuEdit so that it shows actual background under the buttons.
What is AVS?


PS.- After compiling your app, please run a DEPENDENCY checking app to ensure support on all plateforms. (What compilier did you use?)

MS VC++ 6.0.
What is "DEPENDENCY checking app"?

[nlphillips]

Yet another great program to help with backups! Thankyou.

I have a small suggestion for a possible future release.... how about the ability to save the button layout image as a 4 colour BMP for direct importng as a sub-pic into Scenarist?... for anyone that is totally re-authoring a disc. (with the appropriate palette changes... black, white, red & blue).

Ths would be an absolute God-send and could save hours for people who choose one of the total re-author methods.

Cheers :)

[Dimad]

Originally posted by nlphillips
Yet another great program to help with backups! Thankyou.

I have a small suggestion for a possible future release.... how about the ability to save the button layout image as a 4 colour BMP for direct importng as a sub-pic into Scenarist?... for anyone that is totally re-authoring a disc. (with the appropriate palette changes... black, white, red & blue).

Ths would be an absolute God-send and could save hours for people who choose one of the total re-author methods.

Cheers :)

That is how monsters are created out of small and simple program :)

I'll consider this for the next release, just point me to the more detailed info on what images are needed.

[VidHack]

The dependency checker app I refer to is 'Dependency Walker"', www.dependencywalker.com (Free). You should run a dependency check within your compilier also.

The AVS script would be a Avisynth Script, that would grab the frame of the VOB and convert it to a bitmap, if you have ever used DVD2SVCD, it uses that feature to "Preview" the VOB before encoding. Also, there are DVD2AVI (Source Free) compilies that include a .bmp save routine built in. Check the DVD2AVI Forum, on this site.
Thanks again, and am looking forward to a killer app.

VidHack

[Spirit UK]

Excellent little tool there m8, well done.

For future editions will it be possible to pick an actual vob instead of just 0.VOB coz Independence Day Special edition uses two menus, the first one is located VTS_03_1.VOB and the second is VTS_01_0.VOB (which is ok), apart from this nice work.

You can on the other hand rename all _1, _2, _3 e.t.c to _0 edit it and then rename it back, this works.

Cheers

Spirit UK

:) :) :)

[nemesi]

Hi Dimad,

thx a lot, great tool!!! More simple to disable a button rather than making it point elsewhere....

[Dimad]

Originally posted by Spirit UK
Excellent little tool there m8, well done.

For future editions will it be possible to pick an actual vob instead of just 0.VOB coz Independence Day Special edition uses two menus, the first one is located VTS_03_1.VOB and the second is VTS_01_0.VOB (which is ok), apart from this nice work.

You can on the other hand rename all _1, _2, _3 e.t.c to _0 edit it and then rename it back, this works.

Cheers

Spirit UK

:) :) :)

Here is the trick: Pass the name of any vob file as a first argument to MenuEdit. It will open it as menu vob. :)

To do this, you may simply select MenuEdit as a program which should be used to open files with extension vob, when you double click on it.

Enjoy!

[Fmazzanti]

Dimad,
rather than asking for this or that new feature (I fnd MenuEdit nice as it is), I'd like to ask about the functionality problem some of us have experienced. I by no means wnat or pretend to push you in any way, just would like to get some info. Taking into account that I run WinXP (which other people say may be the source of the problem), what would be your advice for me? Move to other OS? That would be a drastic change I don't want to do right now...
In any case thanks for the prog and I do believe it is one of the *fundamental* tools needed for good DVD bakup-ing...

[VidHack]

I am running Win2k and dont have any problems with this app. I am simply trying to help the developer remotely troubleshoot his code, so a quick question to the WinXP folke with the problems.

1. What exact patch level of WinXP are you running? (SP1?)
2. Are you running the .NET Framework?
3. Processor - Athlon or Intel?
4. Direct X Version ? (8/9 other)
5. Browser info
6. Any other machine specific data?

Also Diman please check out http://workspacewhiz.com/index.html , here is another Dependency checker for the .NET folks.

Also Diman, if you have ever watched the developement of DVD2SVCD, he included a very interesting hunk of code in the 'bugged' releases, and its still in there today. It makes a 'snapshot' of the system, and then creates a autoDebug Log, ready to send to the author. Perhaps you should roll this into your app untill the platform stability is fixed.

Just an idea...

VidHack

[Fmazzanti]

Hi again,
more (helpful?) info. I've been fighting for a couple of days with menus and MenuEdit and the movie 'Star Trek VI', a nice exemple of buttons disfunction under WinXP. Well, today I brought VTS_01_0.VOB (where the monus reside) to my work, where I have a Win98 box.
I removed buttons there and brought it back home, copied it in place of my VTS_01_0.VOB and... bang! Exactly the same problems as if I did the button removal on my WinXP computer. So it seems that simply changing the OS doens't help, at least in this case. Such a pity :(

[VidHack]

Actually you are more helpfull than you think. Though you didnt supply any machine specific hardware/software info, you may be on to something.
Perhaps its DVD Title specific, or perhaps its your DVD player, or your software DVD Application?
Could the users that have problems PLEASE give more info on this bug?
Perhaps:

1. Title of DVD / Menu VOB #
2. Buttons Deleted.
3. Software DVD player used.
4. Region Code of DVD.
5. PAL / NTSC ?
6. Burning Application.

There are hundreds of variables when deploying an application, if we all work together perhaps we can narrow down this problem. Just complaining about this, wont fix it. Please supply DATA....Thanks

VidHack

[2COOL]

Originally posted by VidHack
There are hundreds of variables when deploying an application, if we all work together perhaps we can narrow down this problem. Just complaining about this, wont fix it. Please supply DATA....Thanks

VidHack

VidHack,

Don't be too hard on Fmazzanti. Everybody doesn't know everything. He's just giving information to the best of his knowledge. That's why we have these nice forums for people to seek and learn about the problems they are experiencing. Though his description of the problem may not meet your expectations of data inputs but any valid inputs given is a positive step toward a solution.

I for one have given my inputs on the first page and the movie I was working on at the time was Brother, where art thou? and Men in Black II. I don't think it's DVD specific. Why would the same DVD work on WIN2K but not on WinXP:confused:

[Fmazzanti]

Gentleman,
let me say that I didn't provide any information about my system specs because I'm right now convinced that this is not related in any way to the OS you use, but rather to the DVD itself or the way MenuEdit treats it. Actually I start to think that due to the many different complex ways in which a DVD can be authored, a general pourpose tool as this one is doomed to fail in many cases. However I hope I'm wrong and want to fight to have it working :D
Menu deleted buttons give me problems both on my computer and my DVD standalone players: with PowerDVD messed buttons lead to wrong menus, and on my DVD players (a Marantz and a CyberHome) they simple freeze the player.
But since I'm opened to help in ANY way, here's the info you requested:
* movie: Star Trek VI PAL Region 2
* Menu VOB: VTS_01_0.VOB
* Buttons deleted: menu extras button in main menu.all languages but english and spanish in audio menu (notice this title comes with menus in 4 languages, so I deleted the buttons four times, one for each language).
* Software DVD player: PowerDVD for XP.
* Burning application: Nero 5.5.8.0, DVDecrypter, RecordNowMax... all of them with the same result.
* Running WinXP sp 1.
* no .NET framework
* Athlon XP 1800+ processor, 512Mb RAM Kingstone PC2100, 80+40+30Gb HDD, Epox 8KHA+ mobo...
* Direct X 8 (that actually came on the WinXP box).
* IIyama Vision master Pro 451 monitor
* wooden table with monitor on top of it
* mechanical, non-organic mouse
* keyboard full of keys...
Hope that's enough ;) However it is, I'm willing to provide any info I can.

[Dimad]

VidHack, I appreciate your help.

Also thanks a lot to everyone who found time to reply in this thread.

Originally posted by Fmazzanti
I'm right now convinced that this is not related in any way to the OS you use, but rather to the DVD itself or the way MenuEdit treats it.
Fmazzanti, thanks for your experiments. Before I had no data to suggest MenuEdit error (althogh I kept the possibility in mind).


Originally posted by Fmazzanti
Actually I start to think that due to the many different complex ways in which a DVD can be authored, a general pourpose tool as this one is doomed to fail in many cases.
That is where you are wrong, I think. All the mess is in ifo-files, all these pre and post commands. Format of the navigation pack (this is the place where buttons are defined) is quite strict. Unfortunatelly I'm not a guru in this format, and don't know if changing only obvious fields (like amount of buttons, etc.) is enough to produce a valid navigation pack in all cases. So, now you should understand how important is your info! wink

I've added some more info to the first post in this thread. Take a look.

[Fmazzanti]

Dimad,
I hope you are right. I keep saying that I'm ready to do as many experiments as you want. The only idea of this tools is so nice that I'm willing to contribute to it the way I can. Just tell me if you want any more help.
BTW, I can try to give you VTS_01_0.VOB of the movie I've been playin with, but it takes 9Mb or so...

[Dimad]

Originally posted by Fmazzanti
BTW, I can try to give you VTS_01_0.VOB of the movie I've been playin with, but it takes 9Mb or so... [/B]
Whole file is too big, but you can extract navigations packs using VobRator and send this really small file (especially if it is zipped) to me. See first post in this thread on how to do it.
Send extractions from both files before editing and after. Of course I'll not be abble to watch menu in action, but at least I'll see if problem is in my understanding of navigation pack formatting or in the procedures that remove and relink buttons.

[VidHack]

I guess we are waiting for the moderator to approve the new attachment to download?

BTW: I think I will do some trolling thru the open source community for a MPEG frame viewer, I know there already written, a quick question, Do you want the source in c+ or Visual C++ ? Also, one final compilier question, Did you have Service Pack 5 for Visual C++ ?

Just to let you know, there is someone in the DVDAVI / Video Capture forum (TrBarry) I believe is his name. He eats video encoding/decoding code for lunch, he may be a incredible wealth of information reguarding the Mpeg frame viewer idea.

Oh well, glad to see that we are all moving forward with this AWSUM app. Thanks again for all your work and time, thanks also to the debuggers out there...

VidHack

[Fmazzanti]

no attachment no fun.... I'll wait for it, although I don't know if I'll be able to do what you want today.
I guess that the new MenuEdit is the same as the old one with the extra info you say in the first post, isn't it?

[Dimad]

Yup, you are right.

Does someone know how to speed up an approval procedure?

[VidHack]

Here are some links to various MPEG2 viewers, all open source, I hope in the future you can merge in this code to give you a 'previewer'.

http://libmpeg2.sourceforge.net/
http://outflux.net/unix/software/GOPchop/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.gstreamer.net/apps/gst-player/
http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/gstreamer/gst-player/

A DVD player is a relatively easy thing to construct given the right components,
some of which already exist. A simple DVD player would look something like this (as much as ASCII graphs look like anything):

|=thread===========|
-------(audio)-------|ac3dec--audiosink |
|=thread============|/ |==================|
| dvdsrc--mpeg2parse| |=thread============================|
|===================|-(video)-|mpeg2dec-- |=bin================| |
\ |========| \-|subtitle--videosink | |
\---(subtitle)----|---|====================| |
|==========================|
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http://www.cs.unc.edu/~awilson/class/290-072/final-report.html

http://www.mpeg.org/index.html/MSSG/ (http://www.mpeg.org/MPEG/MSSG/#source)
http://drogo.cselt.stet.it/mpeg/
http://www.mpeg.org/index.html/video.html

http://rpm.pbone.net/index.php3/stat/4/idpl/160882/idpa/160882 (Mpeg2dec-021)

Thanks again for your ongoing improvements to an excellent program.

PS. I found some other good code on a VC++ API library for directX at www.planet-source-code.com

Thanks again.

VidHack

[reelthing03]

this seems like a really cool program. I would love it if a "make button" feature was build into it at some point. So far as i know there is no other way to make buttons without completly authoring. Such a feature, i think.. (maybe i am wrong) would allow one to author a dvd from scratch with changing subpictures, and then add buttons over the video, which would then give animated buttons.

Keep up the good work
B

[quinn]

One of the problems I'm finding (I use WinXP, by the way, and find no problem with MenuEdit) is that some audio menus are done in a very wierd (to my way of thinking) way - Stargate Collector's Edition is the one I'm working on now.

All the buttons do a LinkTailPGC, which just goes to the end of the PGC and runs all the post commands, and then they have some REALLY hairy logic based on the button number you hit, etc. to set up the audio and subtitles.

The problem is that menuedit removes the buttons and relinks the other buttons.

I think if it just relinked the buttons, and left the original buttons "dangling", this kind of problem would go away. Then the only ugliness would be if one of the buttons you "removed" was the default button coming from another menu.

[Fmazzanti]

Gentlemen,
I see most of you take your chances to ask for this and that and the other thing I'd love to have in a program like this one. Unfortunately, I don't see this was the intention of Dimad. I guess he just wrote a very nice and useful tool that is intended to solve all authoring/reathoring problems of the world. If you've ever removed buttons 'the hard way', you'll realize how nice this tool can be...
i would not ask for nre features yet but rather enjoy and test and debug it.

[Dimad]

Originally posted by quinn
The problem is that menuedit removes the buttons and relinks the other buttons.

quinn, you've won the prize!

Thinking about the problem reported by Fmazzanti and others I've realized that it may happen only if selected button is processed further in ifo-file by its index, instead of the command in nav-pack associated with this button. I've modified MenuEdit not to delete buttons and sent it to Fmazzanti for the testing:

From the Fmazzanti's mail
two simple and nice words

perfect success !!

you fixed my Star Trek problems. Now it works like a charm!
I've tested it extensively with this title, and everything works now
as you would expect. i don't know what you did (and actually would like to know where the problem was), but now it works.


Here is the MenuEdit with quick and dirty fix.
To make me happy I'll need to figure out what exactly these fields in PCI-pack mean: startingButton, forceSelButton, forceActionButton. If someone knows it say it loud.


Edited 03/19/03
I've opened a site for the MenuEdit. http://menuedit.dimad.net
All further releases will be posted there.

[Dimad]

Thanks a lot for your research. I'll go through it as soon as I'm back from vacation. Going to have some fun next week skiing.

I'm quite happy that I've found workaround for the "ghost buttons" before going there. :) It's not a final fix though, say if someone delete button with index 0 from some menu, burn a DVD, play it and hit select when this menu appears then this button will be selected anyway.

On futher modifications:
1) Fixing "ghost buttons" problem: I think I have a solution even for the situations pointed out by quinn. Will do it when I'm back.
2) Adding actual background: I'll do it for sure. May be just an fixed image from the menu (not an animated menu) at the begining.
3) Saving buttons layout as a bitmap: no problem, should be easy to do(have all the code needed). But I'll need more inputs on this from those who will use this feature.
4) Modification of menu buttons (auto action, comman associated with the button, color scheme, etc): can be done. Especially if I'll get GUI code to edit commands (like in IfoEdit).

[quinn]

Originally posted by Dimad
quinn, you've won the prize!

Thanks - eagerly awaiting that attachment - it's tedious going in their and doing this by hand - a great little program. Thanks for the work...

[baker]

Anyway as some of you here might now I attempted to make a guide over at vcdhelp using this program, to put it simply the guide was a load of horse bollox and didn't work.

http://www.dvdrhelp.com/forum/userguides/145182.php

Now the idea was using the fantastic menu edit program (which has worked flawlesssly may I(attempt)say) we could simply remove the button for the extras, leave the scene selection and subs selection menu on and bang.... we would have a brilliant looking quailty DVD with the original menu and scene selection. However my method of removing the VTS sets was flawed and fucked up. If anybody know how to do it properly plz tell me as I am only learning about DVDs file structure.

I havent read all this thread yhet but will do it now and see if I missed anything.

Baker

[baker]

Theres supposed to be a way of using dvd2one and keep the menus. Now I would neveer use the shite dvd2one but the idea in thereoy could be used with my guide...

Baker