How to change order of menu buttons

[eric_brok]

I've produced my own DVD (not a rip) with a menu.

After authoring, it turns out that the order of the buttons in the menu are scrambled. E.g. I have to press key '7' to activate the button which visually shows 'movie 4' on the screen.

Inspection with VOB-edit and menu-edit shows that the button numbers are indeed off, so the cause is in the authoring program, not in the player.

Unfortunately, I've run out of options to fix this from within the authoring software, and this is the only last bit I need to adress to be able to finalize the project. So switching to another authoring software is not a practical option.

I had a first look at Pcg-edit, menu-edit, VOB-edit, but did not find any obvious way to simply change the button order. Also in these forums I didn't manage to find anything on the subject.

So I waited (im)patiently for my 5-days before being allowed this first post, so please, can anyone explain me how this can be fixed post-authoring using an VOB/Menu-editor.

[mpucoder]

The association with numbers is set by the order the buttons were defined, and an offset.
What program authored the DVD? Most have scripts, which is the easiest way to rearrange the order.

Are the buttons off in a consistent manner, ie 7 should be 4, 8 should be 5, etc? If so the offset can be adjusted.

[eric_brok]

The association with numbers is set by the order the buttons were defined, and an offset.
What program authored the DVD? Most have scripts, which is the easiest way to rearrange the order.

Are the buttons off in a consistent manner, ie 7 should be 4, 8 should be 5, etc? If so the offset can be adjusted.

Thanks for the quick reply.

I use Magix VideoDelux 2005 Plus. It's a great video editing program with a rather limited DVD-menu module. However, I have gone to great lengths to squeeze everything I wanted out from this limited module, and now everything is to my taste I would hate to do it over in a diferrent program. (Let alone invest the time in getting around, while I needed this project to be finished a while ago).
So hence the need for a 'quick & dirty' post-authoring fix.

Yes, the 'wrong' order is consistent:

I have a disc-project for a DVD, containing 4 movies. The main menu shows four menu items, one for each movie. These menu-items are automatically and correctly numbered 1 to 4 for numeric selection using a remote. The authoring tool also shows the numbers next to the buttons as a visual cue.

Now, when I activate 'chapter menus', three extra menu-items appear (the fourth movie only has 1 chapter), to go to the chapter menu of each movie.
So now I have 4 movies, visually still numbered 1 to 4, and 3 extra buttons pointing to chapter menus.

While testing within the DVD-authoring software, this will happen when I enter a number on the onscreen remote:

1: Chapter menu of movie 1 appears
2: Chapter menu of movie 2 appears
3: Chapter menu of movie 3 appears
4: Movie 4 starts
5: -
6: -
7: -
While this is not what I would expect at first, it makes some sense. At least this would be acceptable behavior to me.

But after burning the disc, the menu numbering has gone haywire.
While testing in a DVD-player or on PC (PowerDVD), this will happen when I enter a number on the remote:

1: Movie 1 starts
2: Chapter menu of movie 2 appears
3: Chapter menu of movie 3 appears
4: Chapter menu of movie 1 appears
5: Movie 2 starts
6: Movie 3 starts
7: Movie 4 starts

So, most annoyingly, one has to push '7' to start the movie which is numbered '4' on he screen. So the VOB should be corrected.

This all is not that important to you, but it adds some background. Now back to the specifics of my question.

When I look in Menu-edit/VOB-edit, I see a number specified in each button, but I can't find a way to simply change it.
Could you please tell me which one of the editors I should use and where the 'button specs edit'- function is located? Or how to switch two buttons around in the file?

[D3s7]

menu edit (or dvdremake) should be able to do it as well as I believe the latest version of PGCEdit will allow you to change button commands...

you should be able to redefine actual action by selecting the button and clicking "edit" in menuedit

PGCEdit has it's own location which I don't know off the top of my head where it is

[r0lZ]

Well, the button number is determined by the order of the buttons in the VOB Nav Pack. You cannot change it.

But you may try this:
- Go to PgcEdit's menu editor, and exprort the menus.
- With a text editor, swap the menus in the exported file so that they match the order you want. You must renumber all lines in the buttons definition. The last number, just before the closing parenthesis, is the button number.
- You will need to fix the adjacent buttons numbers as well, and, maybe also the Force Select and Force Action buttons numbers, if these values are non-zero. (You may do this point with the text editor, or interactively in PgcEdit.)
- Reimport the buttons with PgcEdit. They should be in the right order now. Verify carefully.

Caution: you will have to fix the navigation commands if some of them are highlighting a menu button, or if SPRM 8 is checked somewhere to know which button has been activated.

[Dimad]

Could you please tell me which one of the editors I should use and where the 'button specs edit'- function is located? Or how to switch two buttons around in the file?
You can do it with DvdReMake Pro v3. Import disk into the program. Select PGC with the menu in DvdTree pane (on the left), click on Buttons tab. Here you can change order of buttons (right-click on the button and use move up/down).

[eric_brok]

But you may try this:
(snip)


People, I owe you!

I'm not into DVD-ripping and until last week I never knew these kinds of editing tool existed at all. I also had no idea DVD file formats are so complicated.
But your advice, especially the step-by-step instructions bij r0lZ allowed me to fix the authoring problem, without having to deeply study the full extend of DVD file structures first.
Applying the instructions took *some* understanding though, so I learned some things in the process as well.

Eric