How to set pointers to jump between eps using 'menu key' on remote?

[Chetwood]

After having manually reauthored some Buffy episodes to my liking with DVD Maestro I'm currently thinking about a more automated approach. I'd like to use DVD Shrink's reauthoring function to put 4 eps on a DVD-R while stripping all the menus and extra stuff.

This works fine except that I cannot jump between PGCs. Instead I have to skip to the last chapter of an ep and watch the end credits so that the DVD itself jumps to the beginning of the next episode. Of course this could be done in Ifoedit if one only knew where to change settings manually.

Maybe someone can give me a detailed approach on how to use the menu key on the remote to jump to the next episode while using the title key to jump to the first ep on the DVD, I'd provide ifos if necessary. Thanks.

[Lord of the Discs]

Do I get you right:
you use the "menu"-key on you remote control to jump from one episode
to another ?

Normaly the "menu"-key only jumps to the root-PGC of a VTS, which you
can define yourself, but there´s only ONE of them. It would be usefull
to see your menu-ifo.

LotD

[oddyseus]

I don't know how to do this with the setup u describe, but I can direct u in finding the commands on your own.

Set up a small dummy project in Maestro that has 2 movies and setup the next/previous options in the advanced connections to jump to the other movie. Build the title set, keep the ifos.

Now remove the next/previous thing, build again and compare the differences to the ifos. U will find the missing commands and their postition so u can easily incorporate them in the shrink's ifos as well. I really hope that I make my self clear on the subject :)

[Chetwood]

Originally posted by Lord of the Discs
Do I get you right:
you use the "menu"-key on you remote control to jump from one episode
to another ?

Normaly the "menu"-key only jumps to the root-PGC of a VTS, which you
can define yourself, but there´s only ONE of them.

That's what I thought too. But when I authored the DVD with Maestro and set the connections it turned out that the TITLE key would jump to the root-PGC of the DVD and the menu key could be used for other purposes. I've played these DVDs on standalones with both ESS and Mediatek chipset and the jump functions always worked the same. Gonna put some ifos up as soon as I get this to work with Ifoedit instead of Maestro.

@oddyseus

Well, I thought about this method too but - being lazy as I am - I hoped someone in this forum already had figured this out or read about it somewhere so I could use their tips ;)

[Chetwood]

Well, I did as suggested and authored 2 small DVDs with 3 eps (each consisting of only 2 chapters) with english and german audio stream in Maestro. One DVD has the menu key as a jump function, so if you press the menu key the player will go to the first chapter of the next episode (1 to 2, 2 to 3 and 3 to 1) and the title key will always jump to the first episode.

As I'd already guessed, I haven't been able to find any differences between the two versions in Ifoedit simply because I have no clue as to where to look for it. Curiously enough both ifo sets are of the exact same byte size. In case you wanna take a look at them check em out (http://chetwood.netfirms.com/menukey.zip) but please bear in mind that Maestro has this 'bug' where it writes a total number of 8 audio and 32 subtitle streams into the video_ts file even though they are not there. The real amount of used streams is however referenced in the vts_xx ifos.

[2COOL]

Originally posted by Chetwood
Well, I did as suggested and authored 2 small DVDs with 3 eps (each consisting of only 2 chapters) with english and german audio stream in Maestro. One DVD has the menu key as a jump function, so if you press the menu key the player will go to the first chapter of the next episode (1 to 2, 2 to 3 and 3 to 1) and the title key will always jump to the first episode.

As I'd already guessed, I haven't been able to find any differences between the two versions in Ifoedit simply because I have no clue as to where to look for it. Curiously enough both ifo sets are of the exact same byte size.
I examined both sets and there are differences between Root Menus in your VTS_0#_0.IFOs / VTSM_PGCI_UT / PGC-Menu_1. The ones with menukey configured has extra pre commands, which I will show you below. When you press your Menu Key, you are navigated to your pre commands of your Root Menu in your Titleset being played. Here's some logic to how your Menu Key works in your VTS Root Menus.

With MENU KEY
VTS_01_0.IFO

17.Pre Command If GPreg<0> >= (cmp-val)<258><' '> then Goto line# 21
18.Pre Command Set GPreg<4> mov (set-val)<258>
19.Pre Command (JumpSS VMGM) Jump to VMG PGC: 2
20.Pre Command NOP
21.Pre Command If GPreg<0> >= (cmp-val)<25957><'ee'> then Goto line# 25
22.Pre Command Set GPreg<4> mov (set-val)<258>
23.Pre Command (JumpSS VMGM) Jump to VMG PGC: 2
24.Pre Command NOP

VTS_02_0.IFO

17.Pre Command If GPreg<0> >= (cmp-val)<258><' '> then Goto line# 21
18.Pre Command Set GPreg<4> mov (set-val)<259>
19.Pre Command (JumpSS VMGM) Jump to VMG PGC: 2
20.Pre Command NOP
21.Pre Command If GPreg<0> >= (cmp-val)<25957><'ee'> then Goto line# 25
22.Pre Command Set GPreg<4> mov (set-val)<259>
23.Pre Command (JumpSS VMGM) Jump to VMG PGC: 2
24.Pre Command NOP

VTS_03_0.IFO

17.Pre Command If GPreg<0> >= (cmp-val)<258><' '> then Goto line# 21
18.Pre Command Set GPreg<4> mov (set-val)<257>
19.Pre Command (JumpSS VMGM) Jump to VMG PGC: 2
20.Pre Command NOP
21.Pre Command If GPreg<0> >= (cmp-val)<25957><'ee'> then Goto line# 25
22.Pre Command Set GPreg<4> mov (set-val)<257>
23.Pre Command (JumpSS VMGM) Jump to VMG PGC: 2
24.Pre Command NOP

So depending on what Title you are viewing, if you press your Menu Key, it will execute Precommands 19 or 23 to jump to VMG PGC 2 in your VIDEO_TS.IFO. Notice the different values in BLUE in each Root Menu Precommands? It's setting the GPreg<4> that value before it jumps to your Video Manager. So let's see what your VMG PGC 2's PGC Command Table looks like. This is in your VIDEO_TS.IFO / VMGM_PGCI_UT / PGC-Menu_2 / PGC Command Table.

The Precommands in RED below are the ones I'm concerned about since Pre Command 7 is changing GPreg<4>'s value to be used in the following compare commands.

1.Pre Command Set GPreg<1> mov (set-val)<0>
2.Pre Command Set GPreg<2> mov (set-val)<0>
3.Pre Command If GPreg<4> & (cmp-val)<65280><'ÿ then Goto line# 5
4.Pre Command Goto line# 8
5.Pre Command Set GPreg<6> mov GPreg<4>
6.Pre Command Set GPreg<6> div (set-val)<256>
7.Pre Command Set GPreg<4> and (set-val)<255>
8.Pre Command If GPreg<4> >= (cmp-val)<4> then (LinkPGCN) Link PGC 3
9.Pre Command Set GPreg<0> mov (set-val)<1>
10.Pre Command If GPreg<0> == GPreg<4> then (JumpTT) Jump to Title: 1
11.Pre Command Set GPreg<0> mov (set-val)<2>
12.Pre Command If GPreg<0> == GPreg<4> then (JumpTT) Jump to Title: 2
13.Pre Command Set GPreg<0> mov (set-val)<3>
14.Pre Command If GPreg<0> == GPreg<4> then (JumpTT) Jump to Title: 3
15.Pre Command (JumpSS FP) Jump to First-Play domain PGC

Looking at Pre Command 7, we do a "and" with your current GPreg<4>'s value with 255. If you use your calculator in scientific mode, you can manually calculate what the previous values in BLUE above and get GPreg<4>'s new value. Here's what you'll get.

258 And 255 = 2
259 And 255 = 3
257 And 255 = 1

After Pre Command 7 is executed, Pre Command 8 is next. It will be false since GPreg<4>'s value will not be greater or equal to 4 so the next command is executed. Pre Command 9 just sets GPreg <0> so that Pre Command 10, a compare command, will check to see if GPreg<0> equals GPreg<4> is true. If yes, then Title 2 will play. If not, then the process repeats itself with next command. Do you understand the logic on how your Menu Key can jump from one Title or episode to the next?

[Dave82]

Q1 - OK, here you explained why Chetwood could jump to titles with the menu key on the remote control.
But how can it be done with the title button?I mean, I don't know because for the moment I'm still watching my DVDs on my pc, but I'd like to know how standalones work because I want to do correct backups for when I buy one of them.
BTW, I read in a post that the title key doesn't allow you to jump directly to titles, but just open a title menu from which you can choose them (even if I ripped only the movie,just like language and subtitles selection?).If it's true, what commands do I have to create to make also the titles run one after the other when I watch the DVD?
(@ 2COOL: I'd really appreciate if you wrote a guide about commands in general,I think you're really good at writing such stuff ;) )

Q2 - Just to experiment a bit, I ripped a DVD keeping only the movie, and since it has 2 VOB IDs (one for each layer)I created new IFOs selecting "create a PGC for each VOB ID" to see if I could switch between titles (PGCs and titles are the same, or not?).
But when I clicked on DVD play in IFOEdit(after correcting subs colors and getting VTS sectors)...surprise!It detected just one title with all the chapters!So I examined the IFOs and it came out that in VTS overview the 2 PGCs are shown, but there's just 1 Title search pointer, and in VMG overview there's just a title.
So I tried to correct the Title Play map table and I ended up with also the second title selectable in DVD play, but with the same chapters as the first one!:(
There are also a lot of sectors and byte settings, but that's really too much for my poor knowledge.Please help me!!!

Q3 - Another situation. I want to join two short movies on a DVD creating two PGCs of the same titleset.
a - It's enough to rename the VOBs so that they're in order and than create new ifos, or do I have to use VOBEdit and "Join CellVob files" to create a titleset of 1 GB VOBs with eventually just the last one smaller?
b - How can I delete an extra PGC?I mean, if the first movie uses two VOB IDs I'll end up with two movies and three PGCs (the second one in the middle of the first movie).Is there a way to remove it just like one can remove extra chapters due to chapters containing more than 1 cell?Or do I have to change VOB IDs before creating new IFOs?How could I do it?

In your answers consider that I'm not interested in re-encoding to shrink the VOBs, and I would like to find a way without reauthoring tools (just DVDDecrypter, IFOEdit...),if it's possible, of course...

I apologize for the length of this post, but I wanted to be clear (at least I tried :D ) and I had many things to ask.
I felt this was the right thread,so....forgive me ;)

[Lord of the Discs]

2cool, that was really not bad, how you analysed these IFOs.
The trick itself is also quite nice, to put some branching in the
pre-commands of a root-PGC, even when I don´t understand why this
Buffy-author made it so complicated.

I believe it could be done with far less commands then he used, either
by using a single GPRM and changing its value (from 0 to 3) or by
taking one GPRM for each episode and making it a "switch" (0 or 1).

What do you think about it ?


LotD

[Dave82]

I made some attempts and got an answer for Q3a:yes, it's enough to rename the VOBs :)
As for Q2 I noticed another thing about new VTS_01_0.IFO: on PGC 2 chapters don't restart from 1 (I mean, if I have 2 PGCs with 2 chapters each, I'll see:
PGC 1
[Ch 1]
[Ch 2]
PGC 2
[Ch 3] instead of [Ch 1]
[Ch 4] instead of [Ch 2] :confused:
I tried to mount an image and played it with PowerDVD: I have 1 title with 4 chapters instead of 2 titles with 2 chapters each. But it's not really just one title, since at the end of chapter 2 the movie stops, and if I want to continue I have to restart it and skip to chapter 3.
Conclusion: new IFOs aren't correct.
Is this a bug in IFOEdit? Did I miss anything?

Still no clue about the other questions.Anyone?

Mods, do you think I should open a new thread with Q3b, since maybe it's not really OK with the subject of this thread?But on the other side it doesn't make any sense if I don't get an answer to Q2 too.Maybe I should leave it here too...I need your wise advice :)
Thanks in advance

EDIT:I got a partial answer to Q2 from mpucoder in this thread (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=57824): PGCs are different from titles!!! IFOEdit doesn't create a title for each PGC, or a title menu that allows you to jump to titles (also with the title key on the remote control without a graphic menu?). So, do I have to use an authoring tool for that?
Derrow, wouldn't it be an interesting option to implement in IFOEdit?(I mean, when you choose "create a PGC for each vob id" you're allowed to check "create a title for each PGC".What about this?)


I moved my questions to this thread (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=58055)