New menu background video on existing DVD

[dbmix]

Members, let me pick your brains on what is probably an easy todo. I think I figured out a way or two how to do it. But I would be so grateful to take advantage of your expertise and save me what I'm sure would be hours of dead-ends.

I have a DVD that I made on commercial software that I no longer have access to.
There are about a dozen segments with 2 audio streams per segment (ac3 - 3/2 and 2/0)

I simply want to modify the background picture in the main menu to correct a factual visual error, without disturbing the menu settings.

What steps would you take? Feel free to be brief...I'm in you debt as it is.

db

[Dimmer]

Actually, it's not the easiest task, but here's one approach using VobEdit.

1. Build a simplest DVD with your new menu image in any authoring program. The idea is to convert the new still image into 1-GOP long m2v (usually 15 frames long in case of NTSC).

2. Demux that m2v out of VOB file with VobEdit or any other program.

3. Open the VOB with the menu to be updated in VobEdit. Click Demux - Cell ID, save the output in a separate folder. It will be something like VTS_01_001.VOB, VTS_01_002.VOB, etc.

4. Among that output, locate the VOB with your old menu and open it in VobEdit. Go to menu Edit - Remux m2v, select the m2v with the new image. When prompted Save As, save the updated VOB file into a different folder. Close VobEdit.

5. Move the updated VOB into the folder with all the other cell VOB files overwriting the old file.

6. Open VTS_01_001.VOB in VobEdit, go to menu Edit - Join CellVob files. It'll join all the cells into one VOB. Rename it back to the original menu's VOB file name, like VTS_01_0.VOB. Copy it over the original file.

7. At this point you should be able to play the DVD in a software player such as PowerDVD. If it works, open VIDEO_TS.IFO in IfoEdit, click Get VTS Sectors - Yes. Now you can burn the DVD.

Hope this helps and welcome to the forum.

[Mirx]

You can also do this through MenuEdit or DVDRemake.

There already are a couple of topics on how to do this.

[Dimmer]

Originally posted by Mirx
You can also do this through MenuEdit or DVDRemake. ...but you have to pay for them first before you can find out whether they're gonna work for you.

[dbmix]

Thanks, Dimmer

I'm definitley missing something. I used a software player to find the VOB with the menu graphic, and it is VIDEO_TS.VOB.
The next VOB is VTS_01_1.VOB and that is the first video selected from the menu.

So I opened VIDEO_TS.VOB with vobedit and clicked Demux - Cell ID and saved the contents to a separate folder. This created files named VIDEO_000.VOB, VIDEO_001.VOB,....VIDEO_051.VOB.

Each of these files appears to contain the menu graphic..

So I look bad by the time I get to your step "3"...

"3. Open the VOB with the menu to be updated in VobEdit. Click Demux - Cell ID, save the output in a separate folder. It will be something like VTS_01_001.VOB, VTS_01_002.VOB, etc."

Since my resulting files are not named that.

And step 4 is now confusing because each of the resulting VOB's has the menu in it.

"4. Among that output, locate the VOB with your old menu and open it in VobEdit. Go to menu Edit - Remux m2v, select the m2v with the new image. When prompted Save As, save the updated VOB file into a different folder. Close VobEdit."

Any idea where I'm going wrong?

Thanks,
db

[Dimmer]

Names of the files after splitting with VodEdit depend on the original VOB file name. I simply used VTS_01_0.VOB instead of VIDEO_TS.VOB as an example of a file where the menus are stored. Don't worry, you did the "demux" part right (it's not really a demuxing, but never mind).

You have to repeat step 4 (remux m2v) for each VIDEO_xxx.VOB file that contains a menu with the background you want to replace. You don't have to close VobEdit after each remux operation. After that, merge all the files VIDEO_000.VOB - VIDEO_051.VOB back into a new VIDEO_TS.VOB.

Probably you created a number of menu screens (up to 52) using the same background, and in this case authoring software creates a new copy of the background image for each menu. That's why you won't be able to replace the background for all the menus in one operation. You have to do it for each menu separately.

[dbmix]

OK thanks, I'll try that.

Must be a quirk in the authoring program as there is just one menu, but it has 24 button selections. (nothing animated or anything.)

Too bad VOBedit doesn't have a command line interface so this could be batched...there are indeed 52 menu screens. I'm wondering if they are all used? Maybe I'll experiment with only doing some of them.

db

[dbmix]

OK..did all 51 VOB files and here is what I got. The video I was using to replace the original, had some animation in it. That is not working. That is really ok, but I have another problem.

The menu shows for about 1 second and then it plays the first item on the menu. Any guesses about what I did wrong?

[Dimmer]

Okay then, you have to describe your situation a little bit more:
1. What authoring program you used;
2. How many menu screens you created;
3. Were they static menus, static with audio, or animated;
4. How many VobIDs your VIDEO_TS.VOB has, how many cells per VobID? This info can be found in the log file after splitting the cells by VobEdit. Is there any obvious connection to the number of the menu screens?
5. Are you able to determine the number of PGCs in VMG that contain video, how many cells and actual menus per PGC? This info comes from VIDEO_TS.IFO in IfoEdit.
6. Are you familiar with DVD scripting?

But so far it sounds like re-authoring might be your best option.

[dbmix]

OK, let's see if I can do!. Re-authoring would be a terrible PITA...even more so than going through all this! There are AC3 streams and PCM streams...I just need to make one version of this one DVD and I don't relish the thought of buying a professional level authoring program.

The DVD works just the same as before, except my new menu just plays ans the goes directly to the first program. The new menu was created from an m2v that had an animated title, which is not working, but that is not important to me.

See answers below...

Originally posted by Dimmer
Okay then, you have to describe your situation a little bit more:
1. What authoring program you used;

I don't remember...it ran on a Mac and is owned by Apple I believe..DVD Author?

"2. How many menu screens you created;"

There is one menu screen. The original was static, no audio. I tried replacing it with a menu that had an animated title.The new menu appears, but without the animation and then runs the first program without stopping on the menu.

"3. Were they static menus, static with audio, or animated;"
see above.

"4. How many VobIDs your VIDEO_TS.VOB has, how many cells per VobID?
This info can be found in the log file after splitting the cells by VobEdit. Is there any obvious connection to the number of the menu screens?"

There are 52 VOB's and 1 cell per VOB according to the log. There is only one menu screen, so I can't figure out why it has this structure.
The other program material consists of 12 videos that each have a stereo PCM track and a 5.1 (or 3/2.1) ac3 track. You can compare the audio tracks by selecting the audio track during playback of the video.

"5. Are you able to determine the number of PGCs in VMG that contain video, how many cells and actual menus per PGC? This info comes from VIDEO_TS.IFO in IfoEdit."

Not completely sure which category you are referring to here but this is what I see. The VMGM_PGCI_UT has 5 PGC menus. Only number 3 has any programs. It has 26 programs, and 52 cells. The other 4 menus are empty.

The VMG_PTT_SRPT shows 24 title play maps. And the VMGM_MAT shows 24 title sets.

In the VMGM_MAT it shows no audio streams in the VMGM_VOBS and 1 sub-picture stream

"6. Are you familiar with DVD scripting?"

Yes, somewhat. Have written some simple scripts when I was trying to do this by hand...

"But so far it sounds like re-authoring might be your best option. "

AAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHH. Please NO!!! lol

Thanks for any help you can give me. I seem to be very close. And all would be well it the playback stopped on the menu like it should. Perhaps the animated title is throwing things off.

[Dimmer]

That makes it clearer. I bet after each track it goes back to the menu with the next track highlighted. Now, don't even think about adding any animation. Go to VMG PGC 3 and look at the length each cell, it must be all the same 00:00:00:15 or so. Make an m2v with the same number of frames out of your new still background. Then go ahead and remux the new m2v into each menu cell.

If it weren’t a one-time thing, it would've made more sense to replace the entire VMG along with the menu. You could have probably updated and simplified the whole thing yet adding animation and whatever else. But in this case it's easier to repeat the remuxing procedure 52 times.

[dbmix]

please point me to where I should start my search for remaking the menu, even if for just my own edification.

Because I'm further baffled. VOBEdit shows each cell to beo a length of 2028 under value. IfoEdit shows the menu 3 to be 00:00:20.27 in length, and I demuxed the m2v file from the menu using VOBedit, and I got a video that is 2 frames long!

It's weird I know.

[Dimmer]

Originally posted by dbmix
VOBEdit shows each cell to beo a length of 2028 under value. IfoEdit shows the menu 3 to be 00:00:20.27 in length, and I demuxed the m2v file from the menu using VOBedit, and I got a video that is 2 frames long![/B] You're probably looking at the wrong places. IfoEdit shows the total length of the entire menu PGC (52 cells), and VobEdit may be showing size of the current packet in bytes. You have to look at the length of each cell in IfoEdit.

Almost any authoring program can create menus, it's mostly a matter of how customized you want them to be. Keep in mind though that replacing a menu an authored DVD without re-authoring is a patch rather than solution, and it always requires some tricks.