Dave82
4th February 2004, 18:08
Saving space on episodic DVDs authored with DVD-lab (standard)
The goal of this guide is to explain how to put the opening credits on the disc just once, but display them at each episode.
If you have the opening credits at the very beginning of the episodes, you may want to simply delete them and maybe create a separate PGC with the credits to watch them only when you want to.
But what if you have those episodes with a short intro, the opening credits and then the rest of the episode?
Here comes my guide. I don't own any original episodic DVD, so forgive me if this trick has been already used: I wasn't aware of that. Let's start!
1. I won't spend any time on the encoding/cutting part: follow your favourite methods. Anyway, at the end of the process you must obtain the streams or the VOBs (if you want to import in DVD-lab mutiplexed VOBs) for the opening credits, the intros and the episodes. So for example you'll have:
- credits.VOB (or .m2v + .mp2/.ac3)
- intro1.VOB ( " )
- episode1.VOB ( " )
- intro2.VOB ( " )
- episode2.VOB ( " )
...and so on.
2. Open DVD-lab and import all your "assets". Create a multi-PGC VTS (each of the parts listed above must correspond to a "movie" in DVD-lab; I suggest you to respect the order in which I wrote them). You can create as many menues as you want (episode selection, info on each episode and so on), just remember a couple of things: each intro must be linked to a button in a menu, and (recommended) each episode must be linked back to a menu (usually the one from which it is "called").
Don't link the intros to their episodes, nor to the opening credits. Compile your project.
3. Now comes the core of the guide, the IFOEdit part.
Open your VTS_01_0.IFO and have a look at the VTS overview, you should have something like:
PGC 1 ---> opening credits
PGC (even) ---> intros
PGC (odd) ---> their episodes
4. Go to VTS_PGCITI and for each even PGC go to the command table. You should find a post command, HEX-edit it (double click) like that:
71 04 00 00 00 XX 00 01
XX is the number of the episode (HEX-value!), so for PGC_2 it should be 01, for PGC_4 02 and so on...
The last number is the PGC in which you have the opening credits, and so, if you followed my suggestions, it's 01 (you could put the credits in any PGC, but there's no need to change from PGC_1, things would just become more complicated...)
5. For each odd PGC (of course starting from PGC_3) go to the command table. You should find something like:
1.Pre Command Set GPreg<11> mov (set-val)<4> [71 00 00 0b 00 04 00 00 ]
1.Post Command (CallSS VTSM) Call TitleSet root-menu [Resume Cell: 1] [30 08 00 00 01 83 00 00 ]
Double click on the Pre Command, copy its HEX-value, go to the command table of the previous even PGC, add a Pre command, double click on it and past there the HEX-value. This is done to jump to the right menu also when you push the Menu button during the intro or the credits.
6. Go to the command table in PGC_1. You should find a post command, HEX-edit it to:
20 A4 00 00 00 XX 00 YY
XX is the number of the episode and YY is the number of the PGC that contains that episode (and so XX = 01 and YY = 03 for the first one). Add similar Post Commands for the other episodes after this one. If you have done it correctly you should have YY = 2XX + 1 for every command.
7. Save VTS_01_0.IFO and test your DVD files with PowerDVD or any other player you want. ;)
Additional tips and tricks
a. If you want a way to easily skip the credits when you watch an episode, create a chapter point on the last I-frame of the credits in your DVD-lab project: skip to the second chapter while playing and you'll reach the post commands. To get better results, when you encode, you can force an I-frame at the very end of the credits, when they're already fading to black (at least this is possible with TMPGEnc).
b. If you want a way to watch only the opening credits, create a button in a menu and link it to the credit "movie" in DVD-lab, and link back the credits to that menu. Then follow the guide. When you get to instruction 6., you'll find a Pre Command too. Just delete it and insert the new Post Commands before the Post Command you find instead of overwriting it.
c. If you want to use this guide to display the credits at the beginning of those episodes that have no intro, you won't have any even-odd PGC difference, so for each PGC you'll find the situation described at instruction 5.
Here are the differences:
4b. Add the command in each PGC's command table (starting from PGC_2, of course...), but as a Pre Command and after the Pre Command you already find there (right click, Add Pre Command).
Skip 5.
6b. You should have YY = XX + 1
Now, if you have a look at VTS_01_0.IFO and in particular at commands, you'll see that I used GPreg commands to make the opening credits "remember" where they are called from, so that, when they finish, the player jumps to the right point.
Please post any correction or suggestion. :)
The goal of this guide is to explain how to put the opening credits on the disc just once, but display them at each episode.
If you have the opening credits at the very beginning of the episodes, you may want to simply delete them and maybe create a separate PGC with the credits to watch them only when you want to.
But what if you have those episodes with a short intro, the opening credits and then the rest of the episode?
Here comes my guide. I don't own any original episodic DVD, so forgive me if this trick has been already used: I wasn't aware of that. Let's start!
1. I won't spend any time on the encoding/cutting part: follow your favourite methods. Anyway, at the end of the process you must obtain the streams or the VOBs (if you want to import in DVD-lab mutiplexed VOBs) for the opening credits, the intros and the episodes. So for example you'll have:
- credits.VOB (or .m2v + .mp2/.ac3)
- intro1.VOB ( " )
- episode1.VOB ( " )
- intro2.VOB ( " )
- episode2.VOB ( " )
...and so on.
2. Open DVD-lab and import all your "assets". Create a multi-PGC VTS (each of the parts listed above must correspond to a "movie" in DVD-lab; I suggest you to respect the order in which I wrote them). You can create as many menues as you want (episode selection, info on each episode and so on), just remember a couple of things: each intro must be linked to a button in a menu, and (recommended) each episode must be linked back to a menu (usually the one from which it is "called").
Don't link the intros to their episodes, nor to the opening credits. Compile your project.
3. Now comes the core of the guide, the IFOEdit part.
Open your VTS_01_0.IFO and have a look at the VTS overview, you should have something like:
PGC 1 ---> opening credits
PGC (even) ---> intros
PGC (odd) ---> their episodes
4. Go to VTS_PGCITI and for each even PGC go to the command table. You should find a post command, HEX-edit it (double click) like that:
71 04 00 00 00 XX 00 01
XX is the number of the episode (HEX-value!), so for PGC_2 it should be 01, for PGC_4 02 and so on...
The last number is the PGC in which you have the opening credits, and so, if you followed my suggestions, it's 01 (you could put the credits in any PGC, but there's no need to change from PGC_1, things would just become more complicated...)
5. For each odd PGC (of course starting from PGC_3) go to the command table. You should find something like:
1.Pre Command Set GPreg<11> mov (set-val)<4> [71 00 00 0b 00 04 00 00 ]
1.Post Command (CallSS VTSM) Call TitleSet root-menu [Resume Cell: 1] [30 08 00 00 01 83 00 00 ]
Double click on the Pre Command, copy its HEX-value, go to the command table of the previous even PGC, add a Pre command, double click on it and past there the HEX-value. This is done to jump to the right menu also when you push the Menu button during the intro or the credits.
6. Go to the command table in PGC_1. You should find a post command, HEX-edit it to:
20 A4 00 00 00 XX 00 YY
XX is the number of the episode and YY is the number of the PGC that contains that episode (and so XX = 01 and YY = 03 for the first one). Add similar Post Commands for the other episodes after this one. If you have done it correctly you should have YY = 2XX + 1 for every command.
7. Save VTS_01_0.IFO and test your DVD files with PowerDVD or any other player you want. ;)
Additional tips and tricks
a. If you want a way to easily skip the credits when you watch an episode, create a chapter point on the last I-frame of the credits in your DVD-lab project: skip to the second chapter while playing and you'll reach the post commands. To get better results, when you encode, you can force an I-frame at the very end of the credits, when they're already fading to black (at least this is possible with TMPGEnc).
b. If you want a way to watch only the opening credits, create a button in a menu and link it to the credit "movie" in DVD-lab, and link back the credits to that menu. Then follow the guide. When you get to instruction 6., you'll find a Pre Command too. Just delete it and insert the new Post Commands before the Post Command you find instead of overwriting it.
c. If you want to use this guide to display the credits at the beginning of those episodes that have no intro, you won't have any even-odd PGC difference, so for each PGC you'll find the situation described at instruction 5.
Here are the differences:
4b. Add the command in each PGC's command table (starting from PGC_2, of course...), but as a Pre Command and after the Pre Command you already find there (right click, Add Pre Command).
Skip 5.
6b. You should have YY = XX + 1
Now, if you have a look at VTS_01_0.IFO and in particular at commands, you'll see that I used GPreg commands to make the opening credits "remember" where they are called from, so that, when they finish, the player jumps to the right point.
Please post any correction or suggestion. :)