Replacing video in VOB with another video

[ObeewanVOB]

I have a few DVDs from an anime series that have interviews with the voice actors in the first few discs but nowhere in the DVD does it access these VOBs. Even in IFOEdit if I just select the corresponding title in the DVD player it will just go right back to the previous title.What I tried to do was replace the video from VOB 8 which is just a trailer with the video from the interview from VOB 12. These are the steps I took.
1. Created the project file to encode the video from the interview from VTS_12 using CCE 2.50 and AviSynth 2.55, no fancy filters, just straight encoding. I did demux and create with DVD2AVI DG and also ripper the subs with SubRip.Ran through pulldown to create the progressive and the drop frame versions
2. Put eveything together with DVDMaestro and created the new set of VOBs, renamed these to VTS_08. Used IfoUpdate in single pgc mode to create the chapter list file. Only copied the new VTS_08.VOB to the VIDEO_TS folder
3. Opened IfoUpdate 0.78 and pointed the original file to the VTS_08 IFO and likewise with the authored IFO file from the DVDMaestro. Updated and although there was the warning about the time and chapter mismatch it processed all without a hitch.

Opened up in IfoEdit, ran Get VTS Sectors again just to be safe. It played fine in IfoEdit but when I burned it the audio/video is out of synch for the length of the first chapter but then plays fine. I tried to perform using adjusted cell mode but this only made it worse, only single pgc mode gives the best results. Should I just leave all the chapters out or should I insert a blank clip for the first few moments of the video to try to correct this?
Another thing I was thinking was that maybe somehow I could use PGC Edit to redirect the link to play the interview?

[lark]

i'd try to modify the disk with pgcedit.
e.g. try to change the DVD commands so that instead of playing the trailer in VOB8, i'll play the interview from VOB12.

btw does the DVD already have titles for VOB12?

regards
t :)

[ObeewanVOB]

Yes it does. VOB 8 has the trailers and VOB 12 contains the interviews.

[lark]

i mean that can you see (e.g. in pgcedit) that there are some titles associated to the 'clips' that are contained in the VOB 12?
if they are there, it's quite easy just to associate those titles to the buttons that currently play trailer(s) from VOB 8.

if they aren't there you need to modify VIDEO_TS.IFO first...

regards
t :)

[ObeewanVOB]

In VIDEO_TS the VTS and the title numbers match correspondingly. I've never gone through the process of remapping it to go to another VOB. I'll look into it this weekend. What's strange to me is how in the IFoEdit DVD player if I select any title from the drop down list it will start playing that title but if I select the interview VOBs is skips it and goes right to title 1. It's just strange why they included those VOBs in the DVD if there is no link to them. I'll try to follow up this weekend.

[ObeewanVOB]

OK, I spent a considerable amount of time with PGC Edit trying to find a way to redirect the menu button to play the interview VOB instead of the trailer. Problem is that when I place it in Trace mode the button goes to a dummy PGC with GOTO commands. I've really tried the past couple of days to find a way to get this to work to no avail. Any suggestions?

[lark]

have you tried to change those goto commands to jump to your interview titles?

regards
t :)

[ObeewanVOB]

Yes, I'll have to try to post the commands here because it has a command about what to do if a certain button is highlighted. I'll try to post what the commands are but if I edit them in any way they become highlighted in pink so that means that it's an invalid command. I haven't been able to do it again but when I go to the screen that shows the button highlights at one point it said that menu editting not implemented yet. Sure hope it comes out in the next release soon. Any other suggestions are welcome.

[lark]

you cannot edit the menubutton commands with pgcedit (yet).
you can do that with menuedit or dvdremake.

but quite often a menu jumps to a pgc, which can be edited with pgcedit (see some analogy in the name?).

ragards
t :)

[ObeewanVOB]

Finally managed to get the commands

[71 00 00 03 00 00 00 00] 1 Set gprm(3) =(mov) 0
[61 00 00 00 00 88 00 00] 2 Set gprm(0) =(mov) sprm(8:Highlighted button number)
[76 00 00 00 04 00 00 00] 3 Set gprm(0) /=(div) 1024
[00 B1 00 00 00 01 00 08] 4 if ( gprm(0) != 1 ) then { Goto line 8 }
[20 04 00 00 00 00 00 1B] 5 LinkPGCN PGC 27
[00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00] 6 NOP
[00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00] 7 NOP
[00 B1 00 00 00 02 00 0C] 8 if ( gprm(0) != 2 ) then { Goto line 12 }
[20 04 00 00 00 00 00 1B] 9 LinkPGCN PGC 27
[00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00] 10 NOP
[00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00] 11 NOP
[00 B1 00 00 00 03 00 10] 12 if ( gprm(0) != 3 ) then { Goto line 16 }
[20 04 00 00 00 00 00 1B] 13 LinkPGCN PGC 27
[00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00] 14 NOP
[00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00] 15 NOP
[00 B1 00 00 00 04 00 14] 16 if ( gprm(0) != 4 ) then { Goto line 20 }
[71 00 00 05 00 01 00 00] 17 Set gprm(5) =(mov) 1
[20 04 00 00 00 00 00 09] 18 LinkPGCN PGC 9
[00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00] 19 NOP
[00 B1 00 00 00 05 00 18] 20 if ( gprm(0) != 5 ) then { Goto line 24 }
[20 04 00 00 00 00 00 21] 21 LinkPGCN PGC 33
[00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00] 22 NOP
[00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00] 23 NOP
[00 B1 00 00 00 06 00 1C] 24 if ( gprm(0) != 6 ) then { Goto line 28 }
[71 00 00 05 00 01 00 00] 25 Set gprm(5) =(mov) 1
[20 04 00 00 00 00 00 10] 26 LinkPGCN PGC 16
[00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00] 27 NOP
[00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00] 28 NOP
********** cell commands:

PGCs 27 are dummys. How these link to the VOBs they do is still right now beyond my knowledge. Currently reading up on commands and such bu had a long way to go. PGC 9 would be the one I want to edit since if I understand the button commands right it goes to the trailer but like I said in my previous post if I change anything the command is immediately highlighted in red. This is the point of my confusion as to whether I am editing the right part of the file. I got this by pulling up the menu page from Trace mode with the link I want to edit and pressing the Select button, this is what it pulled up.

[lark]

looking at the source it looks like buttons 1-3 jump to PGC 27, button 4 -> PGC 9, btn 5 -> PGC 33 & btn 6 -> PGC 16.

so those PGCs are the ones you have to edit,
but please bear in mind that you cannot jump from one VTS to another directly, but you have to go via the video manager. so you have to create (dummy) PGCs in the video manager and jump to those ones first...

regards
t :)

[ObeewanVOB]

Well lark, I certainly do have to admit that your knowledge does exceed your posts.
If I follow you right I have to create the dummy PGC and then link the dummy to the video I want right? When you talk about the video manager we're talking about the main VIDEO_TS or the main menu that I want to edit. Since you appear to know so much what it the purpose of dummy PGCs anyways?

[ObeewanVOB]

I believe I almost have it except for one small problem somewhere. I got the button to point to the VOB with the interview but then it goes back to the main menu. At this point it if press the Root Menu button in the IfoEdit DVD player it will play the VOB. No matter what command I assign to point to the VOB it will just go back to the main menu and then I have to press Root Menu to access it.
It's a pretty giddy sensation to know I'm that close to accomplishing what I want, thank in no small part to lark, but I'm completely stumped right now. If I use JumpTT or point it to the Root Menu portion of the VOB it still requires a press from Root Menu. I've been comparing the commands from the VTS I want to substitute but after 3 hours of nonstop scrutiny it looks the same to me. I'll have a look in the morning.

[lark]

i mean you need to have those dummy PGCs in the VMG (in VIDEO_TS). and the reason why you must have the dummies is, because you cannot jump from one VTS to another VTS (you have to go via the VMG).

are you sure that you are jumping to the correct title from your dummy PGC? or have you checked that there's no precommand in those interview titles? at least i cannot see any other reason, why you end up into the main menu...

regards
t :)

[ObeewanVOB]

I'll go ahead and give it a go later today ( at work now :rolleyes: ) I really do appreciate your guidance at helping me figure out what to do rather than telling me step-by-step how it's done.

[lark]

no problem.
just let us know, how you proceed and we'll try to help you further...

& have fun @ work ;-)

regards
t :)

[ObeewanVOB]

Finally! When I arrived home I removed from pre commands from the Title and it finaly worked! After looking over the original file it made sense because there was a pre command that would point it back to the main menu before playing. This is great, thanks a million lark!
Now my only other question is that it works in the IfoEdit player, I only removed the pre commands for the title itself in PGC Edit, not in the Root Menu of the title, will this be a problem in a ergular player? And finally is there any recommeded site I could go learn more about the commands and structure of a DVD? I know how to author one from scratch, menu's and all, but I would like to learn about all this in depth to better understand what I'm doing. Thanks a million again!

[lark]

i'm so glad you made it!

it should play in regular DVD player, but you never know before you try :-( burn it into a RW disk and give it a try.

i can recommend following sites
DVD Info (http://dvd.sourceforge.net/dvdinfo/index.html)
DVD-Replica (http://www.dvd-replica.com/)
later is advertizing their SW & book about DVDs, but there's a lot of free info in their web site as well.

regards
t :)

[panache52]

I don't get it - since you're already re-authoring it in Maestro, why do you need to replace anything?

I came across this anime series (couple of female assasins) that had disabled special features on every single volume. I simply created new buttons like easter eggs (one place I picked was the hub of a spinning fan on the special features page), and just linked the new button to the now-enabled feature.

Rgds