MenuShrink Beta 0.800 is out!

[jeanl]

People,
I'm glad to announce MenuShrink, a new tool to shrink DVD menus by turning them into still menus with or without audio.
MenuShrink's home page is here (http://jean.laroche.free.fr/MenuShrink/). You'll find a user manual written by blutach, and a download link.

MenuShrink was written with great help from jsoto and r0lZ, with decisive technical expertise from mpucoder, and lots of testing/suggestions from blutach and 2COOL. Thanks to all of you.

For the time being, MenuShrink is only available for windows, but a command line version for linux and mac should be available soon.

Enjoy! And don't hesitate to send feedback / bug reports / suggestions here on this thread or by email at jeanldvd(at)free(dot)fr.


http://img185.exs.cx/img185/8844/image0036wm.png (http://www.imageshack.us)

Jeanl

[2COOL]

:goodpost:
:thanks:
:stupid:

[Surf]

This is a GREAT DAY !!

(scrambled and found the Sandisk Cruzer, kiss kiss kiss!)

WOOHOO!

[Surf]

161 VISITORS IN 10 MINUTES !! :p

Imitating Mike Meyers: "We are not worthy!"

[robot1]

Great little app!
I've just shrinked two menus...
clean & fast!

Anyway, could I ask a feature?
;)

Is it possible to implement a sort of preview, to allow to choose the I frame to use as single frame?

[2COOL]

Originally posted by Surf
161 VISITORS IN 10 MINUTES !! :p That's just jeanl reopening his thread to up the count. :p

[jeanl]

Originally posted by robot1
Great little app!
I've just shrinked two menus...
clean & fast!

Anyway, could I ask a feature?
;)

Is it possible to implement a sort of preview, to allow to choose the I frame to use as single frame?
I was ready for that one ;) !!
That's something for vobblanker. Jsoto and I worked in parallel on this idea of shrinking menus to still (he provided great help), and the next version of vobblanker will offer the same functionality with much more flexibility: you'll be able to shrink at the cell level, or at the PGC level, and you'll be able to pick which I-frame to use (if I'm not mistaken). MenuShrink was intended to be the low-end side of that. 1-click solution for the layperson, keep your fingers crossed, hope you like the reults! ;)

Jeanl

[robot1]

Originally posted by 2COOL
That's just jeanl reopening his thread to up the count. :p What about the number of replies?

[blutach]

Nah - he paid me to visit the site 100 times before he opened it.

Regards

[Surf]

LOL @blu.

Initial reaction: I was hoping for a more rudeless menu-shrinking, like down to 1mb....

You know, 1 menu page, 1 language page, 3-6 scene selection pages, all stills. Whadaiknow.

[jeanl]

Originally posted by Surf
LOL @blu.

Initial reaction: I was hoping for a more rudeless menu-shrinking, like down to 1mb....

You know, 1 menu page, 1 language page, 3-6 scene selection pages, all stills. Whadaiknow.
Your solution: Shrink in reauthor mode! That's ruthless!!!
:D

Jeanl

[blutach]

@jeanl and surfie

It may be ruthless but it is polite? That is what surf says he wants to know LMAO (rudeless).

Regards

[Surf]

You two hurt my pride for being rudelss....I hereby withdraw the proof reading service.

But all sins forgiven, the proggy works like a charm! :D

I still have the Recode-ed Episode 4 and 5. Tried it this morning, #5 went from 104+mb to 1.5mb.......:eek: :D

FYI, I tried the defaulted "large frame" setting, no good in both cases. The main menu won't display the 4 letters of the buttons. Chapter pics are interlaced. "1st frame" is no good either. The pics are not visible in chapters or options menus, only the main menu pic is displayed in all pages. With the "last frame" it's perfectionado!! Thanks Blu for the 1st glimpse into what GOP, VOBU, I-frame mean. Especially mighty impressed with a pdf helpfile in a 148k exe file!!

Now Jean, in you next update do add:

"Lastly, heaps of thanks to Surf for his polite coaxing, for making all my efforts worthwhile...for his rudelss demeanor...."lmaooooooo.

[jeanl]

Originally posted by Surf
You two hurt my pride for being rudelss....I hereby withdraw the proof reading service.

But all sins forgiven, the proggy works like a charm! :D

I still have the Recode-ed Episode 4 and 5. Tried it this morning, #5 went from 104+mb to 1.5mb.......:eek: :D

These were particulary difficult! If you read about the "stop" commands in the subpics, I discovered them while trying these DVDs. Was stumped for quite a while until mpucoder cracked it!

FYI, I tried the defaulted "large frame" setting, no good in both cases. The main menu won't display the 4 letters of the buttons. Chapter pics are interlaced. "1st frame" is no good either. The pics are not visible in chapters or options menus, only the main menu pic is displayed in all pages. With the "last frame" it's perfectionado!!

mmm, when I tried it, largest frame did work fine. But of course, there's no guarantee. Jsoto has a "middle" frame option, which might also be very good. And of course, vobblanker lets you pick whichever you want.

Thanks Blu for the 1st glimpse into what GOP, VOBU, I-frame mean. Especially mighty impressed with a pdf helpfile in a 148k exe file!!

I was pretty happy with that too! ;)

Now Jean, in you next update do add:

"Lastly, heaps of thanks to Surf for his polite coaxing, for making all my efforts worthwhile...for his rudelss demeanor...."lmaooooooo.
you've got it :D
jeanl

[jsoto]

Just to confirm: Yes, I've added the "middle" option due these DVDs...

jsoto

[jeanl]

Originally posted by jsoto
Just to confirm: Yes, I've added the "middle" option due these DVDs...
jsoto
Now I'm puzzled! Why didn't I see these problems? You guys are talking about the star wars DVDs right? episodes 4 through 6... I'm in NTSC land, so maybe the authoring is a bit different...
Jeanl

[jsoto]

Well, my "largest" (auto) option is not fully accurated, and I was thinking the problem was due this... I'm calculating the I Frame size just reading the nav and using the first reference end as "the size", but it can include more or less audio packs in between... Finally I added the "middle" option without more investigation.

jsoto

[Surf]

Boyz, I don't want to be the cause for any mis-feedback so let me explain ON what I tested.

Star Wars NTSC episode 4 & 5, both already NERO's Recode-ed. How I reached to 1.5mb is this:

The menus were authored(directed) in PGCedit first, making sure it jumps to the right set of menus. Then the chosen menu set went inside VOBblanker and all the motion(without button) cells were blanked out and the other 2 menu sets were deleted. That's how I got it down to 142+mb from the original 648+mb. After Recode-ed, the 142+mb went down to 104+mb. Ran your Menushrink, it went down to the holy JSOTO 1.5mb!!! :p

P.S. BOTH used LAST FRAME with ohlala success!

[jeanl]

Impressive!!! Quite a procedure here! Note that with the latest vobblanker version, the two last steps can be combined, but I'm sure you already knew that.
I certainly didn't shrink my star wars menus to 1.5MB! That's probably a record right here!
Jeanl

[Surf]

lol, I'm sure you know it's without audio :p . chapter selections have 10 pages! 50 chapters!

Now Jean, lets see here if you have good taste or not:

Episode #4, I chose the hangar set.

Episode #5, Lando's landing pad set.

Yours?

[jeanl]

Originally posted by Surf

Now Jean, lets see here if you have good taste or not:

Episode #4, I chose the hangar set.

Episode #5, Lando's landing pad set.

Yours?
Surf! I kept them all!!! I figured 40-50MB was a fair price for all of them, with audio! But you're a serious shrinker!
Jeanl
P.S. Sorry to admit, I'm not a big star wars fan :( my kids love it though!
P.P.S. I'm trying episodes 1-2-3 tonight, I'll keep you posted!
EDIT: mmm, I guess I won't be shrinking episode 3 just yet!

[jsoto]

I like the random selection and the hidden buttons. And also the hidden features ... so I'm not going to delete all of such things.

jsoto

[Surf]

Jean's kids have better taste! :D
Episode 1-2-3 ??? #3 is be released in the theaters in May!

@Jsoto:
NTSC #4 and #5 have NO hidden features/buttons if I'm not mistaken. They were released in box-set of 4-5-6 plus a bonus disk probably about the Making of.

It's all 2COOL's fault for encouraging me to become a shrink monster.
:D :D . Life so easy and simple then when I would do the chopchop version in DVDshrink. Then I got thinking(a dangerous sport) and the rest's history.

(edited typos)

[blutach]

Originally posted by Surf
FYI, I tried the defaulted "large frame" setting, no good in both cases. The main menu won't display the 4 letters of the buttons. Chapter pics are interlaced. "1st frame" is no good either. The pics are not visible in chapters or options menus, only the main menu pic is displayed in all pages. With the "last frame" it's perfectionado!! As stated in the guide, the largest I-frame is not necessarily the best - I usually go with the first or last.

Originally posted by Surf
Thanks Blu for the 1st glimpse into what GOP, VOBU, I-frame mean. Especially mighty impressed with a pdf helpfile in a 148k exe file!! All credit to jeanl on this.

Regards

[jsoto]

@Surf
In the WARNING screen you have 4 hidden buttons. 1,2 and 3 allow you to select the menu set, turning off the randomizer.
AFAIK, these buttons are in the 5 DVDs. (at least in PAL R2)
Also in episode I, there is a key (I do not remember now, something like 1338) to enter in an easter egg.

jsoto

[jeanl]

Well, this is my test on phantom menace, episode 1:

http://img140.exs.cx/img140/2370/foo5fe.png (http://www.imageshack.us)

I must say that none of the settings (first/last/largest) gave consistently good results on all 40 menus :(. I had to modify the code to do something a bit different. I will post the updated version shortly if it proves better in general.

760MB of space saved, I'll take that! ;)

Jeanl

[blutach]

What's this new feature I see on the GUI?

Regards

[Msc_Alex]

I am missing something
MenuShrink will very quickly analyze the number and size of the menus..
On the header of the program it says 10 VTS found, is this the number of menu's ?
When I open the same VTS_01_0.Vob in menuedit i only see 7 menu's ?
And in ifoedit number of menu's 33.
http://img212.exs.cx/img212/5070/menushrink3lo.th.jpg (http://img212.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img212&image=menushrink3lo.jpg)

Works great on this disk though,
Thx

[trolltuning]

If a menu has motion in the buttons because it is looping say 15 seconds of material from the chapter it refers to is there much space saving benifit from turning it into a still, or is this for motion menus that are using additional video clips?

[Msc_Alex]

Originally posted by trolltuning
If a menu has motion in the buttons because it is looping say 15 seconds of material from the chapter it refers to is there much space saving benifit from turning it into a still, or is this for motion menus that are using additional video clips?

There are motion menus and stills, stills will take up very little space ~100 kB. Motion menus depend on the bitrate used, but 15 sec can easy take up 15 MB. Even if there are only chapter scene's running. The rest you see (not moving) is also part of the video.
So yes if there is motion you will save lots of space.

(maybe there are evil_authors out here that make "not moving" motion menu's, I have seen a lot of junk in there just to increase the size)

[trolltuning]

So if that 15 seconds is contained in the main video it is actually placed on the disk twice? I thought it would just be a pointer?

[jeanl]

Originally posted by trolltuning
So if that 15 seconds is contained in the main video it is actually placed on the disk twice? I thought it would just be a pointer?
trolltuning, you give them too much credit! ;)
Well, I've never seen what you mention (reusing a cell from the movie in a menu) and I think it's just not possible because the menu and the movie are not in the same domain (one is in the menu domain, the other in the title domain) and you can't reuse cells that are not even in the same VOB file! Technically though this would be possible if the menu was in the title domain (as BOV - button over video) which I've seen on occasions (rarely though).
So yes, all the motion you see in menus is in addition to the movie. If you get rid of it, you are really saving space.
On the header of the program it says 10 VTS found, is this the number of menu's ?
no, it's simply the number of Video title sets found. (VIDEO_TS.*, and VTS_xx_0.*). That's not at all related to how many menus are in the DVD (it would take much much longer to figure that out).

jeanl

[jeanl]

Originally posted by blutach
What's this new feature I see on the GUI?

Regards
easter egg man, easter egg! ;)
jeanl

[blutach]

Originally posted by trolltuning
So if that 15 seconds is contained in the main video it is actually placed on the disk twice? I thought it would just be a pointer? Troll

Many times you see stuff like this

Cell 1 - intro no buttons
Cell 2 - menu with buttons
Cell 3 - menu with buttons a little changed from cell 2

All of these can be, and usually are nowadays, hefty motion menus.

First time you play the menu it starts with cell 1 but the next time you return to this menu, it generally goes straight to cell 3. You would have noticed this on many disks in your collection, I'm sure - an example is Harry Potter 3, if you have that.

Now, all of these can be converted to stills, saving heaps of space. VobBlanker even goes so far as to offer you the option to blank cell 1, so you go straight to cell 2 the first time around and then cell 3 every other time.

The looping effect is caused by a cell command in the menu PGC.

And, as jean has said, this is additional stuff, not reused cells from the main title. In fact, you may have noticed it is oftentimes in a different aspect ratio.

Regards

[blutach]

@jean

Since VIDEO_TS.VOB is not really a VTS, maybe you should alter the number of VTSs found?

Or say 9 VTSs (plus VMGM)?

As you are well aware, Msc_Alex is not a newbie by any means and for him to be confused means others could be as well.


OAM: I'm sure surf will be interested in this Easter Egg. :D

Regards

[jeanl]

Originally posted by blutach
@jean
Since VIDEO_TS.VOB is not really a VTS, maybe you should alter the number of VTSs found?

Or say 9 VTSs (plus VMGM)?

well, I might as well provide some more relevant info, but I'm not sure what. I can't list how many menus are present (that would take too long), any suggestion is welcome...

As you are well aware, Msc_Alex is not a newbie by any means and for him to be confused means others could be as well.
Regards
I realize now that what confused Msc_Alex was the wording of the guide! It's not really true that MenuShrink analyzes the number and size of menus... All it does is sum up the sizes of all the menu domains, including the video manager, and count the number of video titlesets. Maybe we should rephrase the guide...
jeanl

[Surf]

Egg fight! *fling one @blu*.

Yeah, whazz' that preview button...next release?

[jeanl]

Originally posted by Surf
Egg fight! *fling one @blu*.

Yeah, whazz' that preview button...next release?
I put that button to start PowerDVD (or other DVD players), but as it turns out, you can't open a DVD from a command line argument, and at this point, I don't know how to make these apps open the resulting DVD automatically, so it's of very limited use at the moment :(

jeanl

[Surf]

Oh, well in that case, I'm ahead of you Jean. :D

I keep Nero's Showtime open but dormant. Come to think of it, yours and PGCedit and VOBblanker can all be opened and won't interfere with Showtime which is greeat. MenuEdit and Showtime can't be both active.

P.S. I have come to dis-trust POWERdvd. It's too forgiving! Showtime has never lied to me yet.

[jeanl]

Originally posted by Surf
Oh, well in that case, I'm ahead of you Jean. :D

I keep Nero's Showtime open but dormant. Come to think of it, yours and PGCedit and VOBblanker can all be opened and won't interfere with Showtime which is greeat. MenuEdit and Showtime can't be both active.
probably because they both use overlay mode for the display and there's usually only 1 device available. The preview in PgcEdit normally uses overlay mode, but if it can't find it, it reverts to standard non-overlay display (slower). That's DVD2AVI code, pretty good stuff.
jeanl.

[blutach]

Originally posted by Surf
MenuEdit and Showtime can't be both active.MenuEdit grabs hold of the menu VOBs that are loaded. No DVD player will play while it has menus loaded. While nothing's loaded in MenuEdit, Showtime or PowerDVD should be able to play the DVD OK, though.

As for the guide, I accept full responsibility. No "egg fight" :D In your words ... sowwy sowwy (this roughly translates into "mea culpa").

Regards

[Whitespliff]

I just saved 1700MB on the menu's of Mulholland Drive (400MB just for the chapter menu, crazy people) :D

Great proggie!!

[jeanl]

Originally posted by Whitespliff
I just saved 1700MB on the menu's of Mulholland Drive (400MB just for the chapter menu, crazy people) :D

Great proggie!!
1.7GB!!!! That's GOT to be a record! The most I've seen was 700MB (one of the star wars). Thanks for the feedback!
Jeanl

[blutach]

Wonder how much space is left for the movie if they basically put 45+ minutes of video in the menus.

A record that will be hard to beat.

Regards

[Whitespliff]

I was mistaken, it's 1842MB!!

The movie is 146min & there were 6 language tracks (2 DTS)
After stripping the unwanted tracks & shrinking the menu I had to compress my movie 5% (original size was 8256MB)
Why would somebody make a menu this large :confused:
Great work :D

http://dvd.puppyfoon.com/images/menushrink.jpg

[jeanl]

OMG! And that's even keeping the audio! I have to find that movie to see that with my own eyes!
jeanl

[jsoto]

OT: Be careful: I saw the film (do not have the DVD) and seems it is for clever people. I didn't understand noting. :(
May be I need to see it two or three times more..

jsoto

[Whitespliff]

OT: Take a look here (http://community-2.webtv.net/MulhollandDr/MulhollandDriveFan/index.html)
This will clear things up ;)

[r0lZ]

Yes, Mulholland Drive is somewhat obscure. But it's a great movie, with great actresses.

BTW, from the authoring point of view, the 'chapter' menus are verry interesting. They make intensive use of random jumps.

[wmansir]

OffT: Maybe they saved some space by not including any damn chapter stops. :mad:


OnT: Great program Jeanl. I like every aspect of it. It works on the original files after making a backup. It's quick. The UI is simple and easy as pie to use. I especially like the drag-n-drop to open setup. I almost always have the files I'm working on open in explorer anyway so it saves me from searching for my files in an open file dialog.

back OffT: I did the same thing Surf did with the SW trilogy (except I just used NuMenu on the set I kept), but I couldn't remember what set I kept for each disc. It annoyed me to the point where I went to check the discs but I can't find the backups I made, which is about 10 times as annoying.