Replacements for boring blanks needed, ideas welcomed

[MackemX]

Hi all

I'm looking for some high quality pics that I can use as Cell inserts with MenuEdit instead of the boring black blank that I can create VOB's with so people can have a choice of frame inserts instead of having nothing

any creative artists out there who could come up with anything?

if it has text on saying feature remove/not available or something similar would be good

so any suggestions welcome

cheers

[daddy_fizz]

i'm ok with photoshop, what are you looking for? plain? fancy? crazy backgrounds? what size like 400x600, etc...?

~Fizz

[MackemX]

lol, I'm playing in Painstshop now but I'm lacking ideas because all I'm thinking of is a Sexy Babe saying "Sorry Feature No Longer Available", but that won't be ideal for everyone :)

Ideally I need PAL 720x576 or NTSC 720x480 sizes

the other thing to look out for is the aspect ratio because the image may get deformed :(. So I may need different aspect ratios also!

so it's at least 4 different sizes, 2 PAL and 2 NTSC with both video formats having a full or widescreen version

I'm just playing with PAL full screen for now as most extras are full screen and I can easily deform the image so it looks OK on a widescreen so just do some full screen for now

cheers

[2COOL]

What I sometimes do is use PowerDVD to capture any scene. Since I live in NTSC country, my capture is saved as a 720 X 480 BMP. Do what I want with it in Photoshop and process this through TMPGenc to get a MPEG-2 file using Default DVD (NTSC) setting. I then process this through TMPGenc DVD Author to get my MPEG-2 converting to a VOB.

[MackemX]

so how do you get a single frame to playback for say 1 or two seconds but have all this info in a Cell ID within a VOB ID but keep the VOB as small as possible?

I've just created a DVD with 30 frames of the same pic and that creates a VOB with VOB ID1 Cell ID 1 and plays back for 1 second but is a few MB's in size

if it's just a single frame VOB then will it not just playback for the fraction of a second like a blank cell would?

I'm open to suggestions but I'm just using 30 frames and building the VOB that way, then I'll probably shrink it with DVDShrink seeing as it's the same image over and over again

cheers

[2COOL]

Originally posted by MackemX
so how do you get a single frame to playback for say 1 or two seconds but have all this info in a Cell ID within a VOB ID but keep the VOB as small as possible?You mean playback as a still? When I do what I mentioned. I can actually take that VOB and create new IFOs and set this in the IFO / VTS_PGCITI / VTS_PGC_1 / Cell Playback and set this command to 255.

Cell_1: still time (seconds, 0xFF = Infinite)

You can play with the time if you want.

I hope this helps.

[MackemX]

yeah, I thought I about doing that but it's all extra work within Ifoedit. I just want to replace the cell using Menuedit and that's it with no messing in Ifoedit afterwards as this is for everyone to use and not just me

I've done it now but I've made a PAL insert (304kb) which is 2 seconds but I only have the Simpsons NTSC DVD ripped to my HD at the mo (DOH!) so I'm making a NTSC cell now to see how it looks with a NTSC cell instead

cheers

[2COOL]

Originally posted by MackemX
yeah, I thought I about doing that but it's all extra work within Ifoedit. I just want to replace the cell using Menuedit and that's it with no messing in Ifoedit afterwards as this is for everyone to use and not just me.

Sorry but you know that the IFOs dictate on how the cells get played. Well, there are Nav packs with the VOBs. I like using MenuEdit but for working on big VOBs, it sure takes a long time to replace a cell. Maybe it's just me and my setup

[MackemX]

@2COOL, it all depends regarding speed when using Menuedit

the trick is to remove the stuff from the end of the VOB first as I think it processes quicker if I remember rightly. I think the cells previous to the modifies remain untouched and only the ones after are affected as they are being adjusted. So work backwards

using Ifoedit and the VOB extras button after modding the VOB changes all the playback times perfectly, so my playback is now 2 seconds which is the length of the cell I'm inserting

just need some better looking cells I guess. I'm not sure how long to make the cell either. Is 2 seconds too long or too short?

@daddy_fizz, where's those pics? :)

[daddy_fizz]

i can make anything for the background, what do you want?

:D

~Fizz

[MackemX]

anything you want, I've uploaded a test NTSC blank cell HERE (http://www.deano.dsl.pipex.com/backup/menuedit/menueditntsc.htm) which is 829kb but I'm sure I can make it smaller as I forgot to save it as a lower quality jpg

but that was just my test to see how it goes and it works just fine as it pops up for just unedr 2 seconds which is long enough to read it

I ain't got a clue on what I can use so that's why I asked instead and I'll just make one from the pics

cheers

[gnipooldd]

Hi all. :)

Here is an extremely simple image I had made when experimenting with removing features. ;)

http://www.dvdshrink.info/temp/images/feature-removed.jpg

One question though:
If you use MenuEdit to remove features, why not use it to remove menu buttons functionality, thus removing the need for such an image?

[MackemX]

evening!

thanks for the pic ddlooping

I guess it's for people who can't be bothered disabling buttons or don't want to risk messing it up by playing with the buttons

it takes a few extra steps to disable the buttons in Menuedit as it can't be done when replacing the cells

even replacing the cells is too much for some people never mind editing buttons ;)

cheers

[gnipooldd]

You're welcome. :)

P.S: my username doesn't need to be written in bold, even if you do it the right way round. :D

Thanks for the thought though. ;)

It would be nice if I could change it to what it's supposed to be. :rolleyes:

[MackemX]

@ddlooping, made a 2 second cell using your pic, thanks again

Wahay I have 2 cells now (link (http://www.deano.dsl.pipex.com/backup/menuedit/menueditntsc.htm)), doubled my collection and using WINRAR reduces the file download size quite a bit :)

anyone else got any nice pics?

still need to get unzipped filesizes down though so I guess I need to look into it more :(

[jupiter0713]

Originally posted by MackemX
@ddlooping, made a 2 second cell using your pic, thanks again

Wahay I have 2 cells now (link (http://www.deano.dsl.pipex.com/backup/menuedit/menueditntsc.htm)), doubled my collection and using WINRAR reduces the file download size quite a bit :)

anyone else got any nice pics?

still need to get unzipped filesizes down though so I guess I need to look into it more :(
How about these?

I just created these .JPGs to use when I start trying to strip menu items - another question - can .JPGs be used for this or must they be converted to MPEG-2s or VOBs?
http://members.fortunecity.com/jupiterprime/images/DVD_NoItem_NTSC.jpg
http://members.fortunecity.com/jupiterprime/images/DVD_NoItem_PAL.jpg

[MackemX]

Originally posted by jupiter0713
How about these?

I just created these .JPGs to use when I start trying to strip menu items - another question - can .JPGs be used for this or must they be converted to MPEG-2s or VOBs?
http://members.fortunecity.com/jupiterprime/images/DVD_NoItem_NTSC.jpg
http://members.fortunecity.com/jupiterprime/images/DVD_NoItem_PAL.jpg

thanks for the pics

jpeg's are just fine as I just create 2 second VOB's out of them but it doesn't stay on the page for that long so you really have a lot of text to read. If it did play longer the VOB would be much bigger until I know how to keep them small without having to modify the IFO's manually :( (anyone know how to do this this and save me the trouble of finding out?)

it's a shame it didn't have the bottom bit or just said 'returning to Menu' at the bottom but I'll make them if you want and how long do you want it to play for?

cheers

[jupiter0713]

Originally posted by MackemX
thanks for the pics

jpeg's are just fine as I just create 2 second VOB's out of them but it doesn't stay on the page for that long so you really have a lot of text to read. If it did play longer the VOB would be much bigger until I know how to keep them small without having to modify the IFO's manually :( (anyone know how to do this this and save me the trouble of finding out?)

it's a shame it didn't have the bottom bit or just said 'returning to Menu' at the bottom but I'll make them if you want and how long do you want it to play for?

cheers
Thats interesting, as I thought it was just something that would stay on the screen until you actually did something like push the the Menu button on your remote - that is what I figured would occur naturally, but I guess I was wrong

Do they have to be VOBs? can they be MPEG-1s?

I have modified them to be a shorter read and also say "Returning to Menu...", but I really need to know the answers to my above questions because I can easily create MPEG-1s - Im not up on my MPEG-2 creation with CCEBasic - I dont have anything (or at least dont think I have anything) that can create MPEG-2s.

[MackemX]

any format will do fine as I just author them to create VOB's containing 50/60 frames for PAL/NTSC giving 2 secs of video

you can make the video if you want and I'll use that

cheers

[jupiter0713]

Originally posted by MackemX
any format will do fine as I just author them to create VOB's containing 50/60 frames for PAL/NTSC giving 2 secs of video

you can make the video if you want and I'll use that

cheers
Well I cant make them until I get home later...6:00 pm EST US Time : )
But its good to know that I dont have to worry about whther I create the correct thing or not

How do you author them to turn them into VOBs? what are the step/programs needed?

Thanks

[jupiter0713]

I was trying to make the video clips for the "stream removed" items and I had made the NTSC one into a 3 second .AVI file, and brought that into TMPGEnc creating an MPEG-2 stream, using the wizard for DVD-NTSC settings, but the aspect ratio was not right - kept playing with the settings and all I could get was it was either streched too wide or too narrow - could not get it to appear as it should - what is the aspect ratio 720x480?

I ran the gamut of combinations between all the options settings for the source and output video, but none of them was right...and it looked a bit blurry in some of them...what am I doing wrong?

I didnt change anything else but the aspect ratio for source and output along with selecting "Fullscreen [Keep Aspect Ratio]"

another thing - this is outputting an .m2v file not an .mpg - is that ok?

[MackemX]

720x480 is for NTSC

.m2v files will do just fine

the image would have to look stretched top to bottom (people are taller and thinner)

if you wanted to make a widescreen, you could probably create a widescreen template and work with that, something like 720x380 with 50 pixels of black bars top and bottom making it into 720x480 template with borders

when you are finished working within the 380 window stretch the 720x380 image top and bottom to fit 720x480 deforming it. Just use auto resize and centre the image, leaving some very small black bars top and bottom though (5 pixels or so)

I'm not so sure until I try but that should work, but I'm not so sure :)