IfoEdit: jumping to main menu on dvd insert?

[J-Wo]

Hey guys. I've been using DVD Stripper to remove unwanted trailers and warning screens, etc from my dvd rips. I then followed a post on the dvdrbase.com forums to use IfoEdit so that the dvd automatically loads the root menu upon insert, instead of trying to play the removed trailers (you end up with blank screens for about 10 seconds, or even hangups on some players). The message said to simply change one of the precommands and worked like a charm. Only thing is, it doesn't play the transition animation that comes BEFORE the root menu, it just goes directly to the menu. Can anyone give me some tips on how to do this easily? I have tried to look at 2COOL's guides but frankly I find them way too confusing!

Here's what the original post instructed me to do:
- Run IfoEdit
- Open VIDEO_TS.IFO
- Look in the top window
- Go to VMGM_MAT > First Play PGC
- Look in the lower window

- Go to the "PGC Command Table" > and last "Pre Command"

- Right Click and click "Edit Command" to change to "(JumpSS_VMGM) Jump to VideoManager Menu" and select "Title-Menu" to go straight to the menu
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[2COOL]

@ J-Wo

I don't see how this post has anything to do with DVD Rebuilder. :confused: You should've posted in the IFO/VOB Editors forum. "All about IfoEdit, VobEdit, MenuEdit, PgcEdit , DVD Remake, VobBlanker and similar applications."

Anyways, same situtation...same response. http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=82390

However, there is a way to jump to your main menu or menu intro but the feature of a tool to use has not been put out for public use yet. I'm referring to PgcEdit's trace function. jeanl talks about it here (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&postid=549107#post549107). The method works most of the time.

I have tried to look at 2COOL's guides but frankly I find them way too confusing!I always try to explain things as simple as I can. If you have any grey areas about any of my guides, you have to let me know about it or forever hold your peace. ;)

[J-Wo]

Whoops! Thanks for the quick reply 2COOL. I *was* planning on writing this in the IfoEdit forum but I must have clicked on the wrong bookmark and posted it here by mistake! Maybe somebody could move the thread for me?

Anyway I'll try your suggestions out and let you know how it goes. Thanks!

[jeanl]

I still don't have a reliable way to jump straight to the main menu and not skip the transition animation. The difficulty here is that you can't simply jump to the root menu, because that usually skips the menu intro (and it's better that way, imagine if every time you push on the root menu on your remote, you had to watch to menu intro? that would be really annoying). So what usually happens is that the first-play PGC usually links to a bunch of stuff you don't want (warnings, previews), then on the menu intro (a small PGC) then from there to the root menu. Some other times, there's a gprm that's used to mark the first time you get to the main menu, and play the menu intro only in that case (for example the first cell is the menu intro, the second one is the actual menu). Because there's many ways to do the same thing, it's not easy to come up with a simple guide to do what you want. You can certainly do it on a case by case basis though with pgcedit, but it requires some amount of sleuth work!
I'll keep on looking into it though!
Jeanl

[J-Wo]

I *finally* figured it out!!! I downloaded sooo many different blanking programs and spent hours today reading various guides. I finally settled on using a combo of VobBlanker and IfoEdit.

First, I used VobBlanker to remove a trailer which is located in its own VTS #. I followed a simply guide here (http://www.users.totalise.co.uk/~yyyyyy/vob_blanker/vob_blanker.html) VobBlanker was great for being able to blank individual cells within a VTS, so I could remove end credits from the TV episodes I'm backing up.

Next, I had to use IfoEdit to delete two warning screens that are located in one of the VMG menus. I had to determine which VOB-IDs were the one in question, which wasn't that easy because I don't think the IfoEdit preview screen tells me that. I eventually figured it out by trying both DVD2AVI and VobRator. I followed 2COOL's guide Getting Main Menu to Display Upon DVD Insert Guide (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=48604) which I honestly found quite advanced for me. It's not hard after you figure it out once, but that first time took a lot of trial & error for me.

This combo was better than using DVDStripper or DVDRemake, as the trailers/warning screens are deleted and completely bypassed, leading straight to the openning menu animation. With those programs, I'd always see 5-10 seconds of blank screen before the menu would appear, and on some players it would even lock up.

I hope this helps someone else!

[jeanl]

Next, I had to use IfoEdit to delete two warning screens that are located in one of the VMG menus. I had to determine which VOB-IDs were the one in question, which wasn't that easy because I don't think the IfoEdit preview screen tells me that.
You could also have done that in vobblanker. The latest version allows blanking menus in the VTSM or VMG domains. As you say, though, the hard part is finding where they are!!!
Usually, I find that a good indication is a xxx_0.VOB file that's larger than it should. For example, a VOB file that's 10MB probably has more than a simple still menu. I've always been able to check it in PowerDVD (simply drag/drop individual VOB files and check what's in them).
Another tool you might not have tried yet is titlesetblanker.
It's extremely simple to use, and can remove whole titlesets or whole titleset menus or manager menus. In other words, it will remove VIDEO_TS.VOB or VTS_xx_0.VOB or VTS_01_n.VOB (with n>0). Compared to vobblanker, it can't remove individual cells or even parts of a titleset, but if all you want to remove is in a single titleset or a titleset menu (or the video manager) then it's a one-click solution! Hard to beat!
In any case, it's great that everything worked out!
Jeanl

[2COOL]

Originally posted by jeanl
Another tool you might not have tried yet is titlesetblanker. IMO, PgcEdit's TitleSet blanking is better than TitleSetBlanker as it can also convert Post to Pre commands.

http://home.tiscali.be/debie.roland/pgcedit/third_party/2cool/blank_titles/blank_vts_titles.htm

I reported some bugs with TitleSet Blanker in it's own thread back then since I was getting standalone playback problems.
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=71819&highlight=titleset+blanker
I wonder what happened to shh?

[J-Wo]

Originally posted by jeanl
You could also have done that in vobblanker. The latest version allows blanking menus in the VTSM or VMG domains. As you say, though, the hard part is finding where they are!!!
You are right! I just tried that before reading your reply and was surprised when everything worked out! So I guess VobBlanker is a good solution for me. :-)

I downloaded TitleSetBlanker as well but couldn't find a good guide on using it, so was a bit wary to fool around with it myself. Does it have to "process" all your ripped files like VobBlanker does, i.e. takes a couple minutes after pressing the "Process" button? Or is it like IfoEdit where it just edits the ifo/bup files so changes take only a second?

[2COOL]

Originally posted by J-Wo
Or is it like IfoEdit where it just edits the ifo/bup files so changes take only a second? IfoEdit works great in the Delete Playback department if you are working on menus with no buttons.

[jeanl]

@2COOL
Thanks for the link on potential problems with titlesetblanker. I've never had a problem with it so far, but I can see that some people have, so that's not entirely encouraging.
@J-Wo
The single great thing about titlesetblanker is that it's completely instantaneous (only processes IFO files, renames old VOB files and replaces them with very small ones). The second great thing is the backup/restore. This is absolutely essential, since in my experience blanking out titles is somewhat a trial-and-error process (since you're never absolutely sure you're not blanking something you want to keep). THe backup/restore buttons are absolute life saviors.

Pgcedit also gives you the possibility to blank out a whole titleset, and replace the corresponding vob file with a small one. It's also completely instantaneous, and also has a pair of backup/restore buttons. I think it does not suffer from the problem that 2COOL pointed out, in that it will also change postcommands to precommands to skip playback on the blanked stuff, so I think it's pretty much 100% foolproof. But because it's much much more versatile than titlesetblanker, the UI is more complex and the learning is a bit slower. Check out 2COOL's neat guide for this.
http://home.tiscali.be/debie.roland/pgcedit/third_party/2cool/blank_titles/blank_vts_titles.htm
Then when you get used to pgcedit, you won't be able to stop! The stuff this program allows you to do is amazing!
:)
jeanl

[J-Wo]

okay, so I used VobBlanker to remove one company logo from the VTS menu, 2 warning screens from the VMG menu, and an entire VTS of trailers. The result plays perfectly thru PowerDVD and on my Sony DVP-NS315, so that on DVD insert it goes straight to the transition animation to the main menu. BUT on my newer Panasonic DVP-S25 it's a different story. When I put in my disc, it reads it for a second and then just stops -- it doesn't autoplay into anything. When I press play, it starts playing Movie 1. If I press menu, it goes to the main menu but doesn't play the transition.

I'm going to give PgcEdit a try to remove those trailers. But does anyone know why my Panasonic is giving me so much trouble? (it also doesn't seem to like DVD+RWs as much as DVD+Rs, but I do most of my playback on RWs until I know the encoding went okay.)

[jeanl]

Does your Panasonic DVP-S25 play the DVD normally if you don't blank anything? (I'm wondering if it is a media issue). I've never had a problem with DVD blanked with vobblanker, pgcedit or titlesetmenu (but I have a sampo DVD player with an ARTEC drive and it isn't too fussy). Vobblanker normally is pretty safe at blanking stuff (it changes the postcommands to precommands) but we might be missing something here. You didn't blank anything with buttons, right?
jeanl

[J-Wo]

Originally posted by jeanl
[B]Pgcedit also gives you the possibility to blank out a whole titleset, and replace the corresponding vob file with a small one. It's also completely instantaneous, and also has a pair of backup/restore buttons. I think it does not suffer from the problem that 2COOL pointed out, in that it will also change postcommands to precommands to skip playback on the blanked stuff, so I think it's pretty much 100% foolproof. But because it's much much more versatile than titlesetblanker, the UI is more complex and the learning is a bit slower.

Okay, following that guide I understand how to blank out my VTST 2, which contains the company logo, and VTST 3, which has all the trailers. But I'm not sure how to edit two VMGM's which contain the warning screens. I also don't know if I have to edit any of the Jump To commands so it will load the main menu at start. And finally I'm not certain which Kill Playback I should select! Should it be unconditional, or the default?

Hope someone can help me! Thanks

[jeanl]

But I'm not sure how to edit two VMGM's which contain the warning screens. I also don't know if I have to edit any of the Jump To commands so it will load the main menu at start. And finally I'm not certain which Kill Playback I should select! Should it be unconditional, or the default?
Well, all you have to do is to go to the VMGM, select the PGCs that have a non-zero playtime, check that they don't have buttons (it would say right next to them), right click and select kill playback. Use the default kill command. If there are no menus or cell commands, I think they all do the same thing (but I might not remember correctly).
You certainly don't need to add jump commands, in fact that would probably be a bad idea (because of all the gprm/sprm initializations you might inadvertently skip).
Let us know if you get different results with pgcedit.
Jeanl

[J-Wo]

Thank you thank you THANK YOU! I actually just figured it out before reading your reply Jeanl, about using Kill PGC Playback. The result played back PERFECTLY on my Panasonic player. I swear it really does have problems playing anything that has been slightly modified, either with VobBlanker or DVD Stripper... but PgcEdit seems to do the trick! I also think I became smart because I blanked the main movie just so I could burn the result quicker on my RW and see how the menus look on my panasonic ;).

Just wondering tho, can I delete a single cell within a VTS? I used that with VobBlanker to remove the end credits from tv episode DVDs, and wanted to see if I could do somethign similar with pgcedit.

[jeanl]

Just wondering tho, can I delete a single cell within a VTS? I used that with VobBlanker to remove the end credits from tv episode DVDs, and wanted to see if I could do somethign similar with pgcedit.
no you can't! This is exactly what Vobblanker is good at. But the price to pay is the processing time :(
On the other hand, if you feel enclined to do that, you can go ahead and modify the sectors of the right cell in IFOEdit so playback of that cell stops earlier than normal. Unfortunately, it's a bit of a trial and error process. I don't have IfoEdit handy so I can't tell you how to do it, but I know 2COOL described something like that in one of his guides (in his case, it was to skip the annoying studio logo at the beginning of the movie, simply by changing the start sector of the first cell of the movie pgc). i found it, the guide is here
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=42415&highlight=start+sector+cell
and look at the very bottom:

OPTIONAL: If you want to go to straight to your main menu and bypass the menu intro, you can do the following. In VTS_01_0.IFO / VTSM_PGCI_UT / PGC-Menu_7 / Cell Playback section,

OLD > [0000016e] Cell_1: entry point sector 0
NEW > [0000016e] Cell_1: entry point sector 4405


The great thing is that this is instantaneous (only the IFO files are modified). But of course you don't save any space doing that.

@jsoto: What J-Wo describes is weird. I thought vobblanker and pgcedit essentially used the same trick to kill playback (a trick invented by 2COOL if I'm not mistaken ;) ). It's surprising to me that playback would be different in the two cases.
On the other hand, J-Wo didn't do exactly the same thing with pgcedit that he did with vobblanker, so maybe the problem is with the blanked cells?

Jeanl

[J-Wo]

well I think I'm going to skip removing the end credits. I'm only saving 30 seconds of material x 4 episodes per disc. Changing the sectors in IfoEdit will be too cumbersome for me, especially since it is not a simple "go to main menu" change (sometimes it's "go to next episode". VobBlanker is great and easy to use, but I'm concerned that it is giving me problems with post-processing using DVD-Rebuilder. So for now I think I'll stick with PgcEdit...

Any other good guides out there for this program? Other than the readme file of course...

[jeanl]

Any other good guides out there for this program? Other than the readme file of course...
You will find guides on the pgcedit home page.
http://home.tiscali.be/debie.roland/pgcedit/
but there isn't anything really comprehensive yet. WHen the new version of pgcedit comes out, you can probably expect new guides for new cool stuff that the new version will enable...
Jeanl

[J-Wo]

Jeanl:

I've used PgcEdit to remove trailers that exist in a VTST by selecting "Blank out all VTST titles". But what if I only want to blank out some of them? Can this be done in PgcEdit or do I have to use VobBlanker? On one of my disk I have 6 trailers that exist in an Extras VTST, but there are other Extra titles that I want to keep. I know I can do Kill PGC Playback but that won't save any diskspace, will it?

[jeanl]

I know I can do Kill PGC Playback but that won't save any diskspace, will it?
no it won't. If you really want to save disk space, then that's a job for vobblanker. Both pgcedit and titlesetblanker can only blank (i.e. remove playback and save disk space) whole titlesets or whole titleset menus. To do what you want on a title or pgc basis, I don't know of any other tool than vobblanker (not to mention all the commercial ones, some of which are actually not very expensive).
For my part, I put a high premium on processing speed (I don't like having to wait for my backups). So I tend to use titlesetblanker or pgcedit to remove whole titlesets or titlesetmenus, and pgcedit to skip playback on the stuff I can't remove. I then use shrink to fit that on a DVD-R...
Jeanl

[jsoto]

Don't forget VobBlanker also removes unreferenced material. Some times it is very large...

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&postid=555624&#post555624

jsoto