PgcEdit 0.6.0 [Archive] - Page 3

r0lZ

16th August 2005, 19:14

Currently (0.6.0, I haven't yet looked at the betas) you have an option to replace a cell with a blank cell appended to the vob. This is very useful. However, it would be even more useful if there were an option to append a single blank cell, and replace ALL the cells in the current PGC with that new blank cell.

This would make it easy to blank a title out completely, and then strip the now dead cells with ifoedit, as can already be done nicely with the "Kill playback" option is used on menus. Having to do this by hand for 20 or 30 cells in a long pgc gets rather tedious.

Thanks!Note that you can already replace all cells of the whole domain, with the Blank All PGCs in Domain function.
Also, most of the time, it is sufficient to delete all cells except the last one, and blank that remaining cell. You have to edit the chapter table, too.
However, blanking a specific PGC is a good idea. I will add this function when I'll have some time.

r0lZ

16th August 2005, 19:21

How about an info dump on what option settings a user has personally set?I don't think it's very useful. But you can open the .cfg files in a text editor. The format is human readable, and relatively easy to understand. The config files are in "C:\Documents and Settings\<your user name>\Application Data\PgcEdit\".

And BTW, your info dumps don't show the "Angle" column.Right. I forgot to add it.

[EDIT] I know blutach defines the color coding when viewing dialogs like "goto calling command" in the PgcEdit doucmentation but can I kindly ask for you to insert a color code legend into these dialogs?Is it realy useful? You can also identify the provenence of the command by the PGC label. Maybe...

doomer2

16th August 2005, 19:36

Note that you can already replace all cells of the whole domain, with the Blank All PGCs in Domain function.
Also, most of the time, it is sufficient to delete all cells except the last one, and blank that remaining cell. You have to edit the chapter table, too.
However, blanking a specific PGC is a good idea. I will add this function when I'll have some time.
Yes, I was aware of the Blank All option, however, I often don't want to blank them all as one VTS often contains more than one title. I had noticed the delete cell option, but doing that and then correcting the chapters also seemed to take longer than just blanking the first cell, and then making all the other cells point to the same blank cell.

It is probably safer (for instance if there are cell commands, or if commands elsewhere jump to a specific program or cell) to not remove all the cells but one, and instead keep them but make them blank. But in addition to the blanking feature, it might also be nice to have an additional option to delete all cells but one. Or, when you pick delete cell, to present a list of all cells and have a checkbox for each cell to delete. That with a button to select all/deselect all would work great!

Thanks!

2COOL

16th August 2005, 19:51

to present a list of all cells and have a checkbox for each cell to delete. That with a button to select all/deselect all would work great!Hah! You mean like this which I proposed in October 2004?

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=560844#post560844

Read r0lZ's reply on the next page. ;)

doomer2

16th August 2005, 20:14

Yeah, very similar to that, except that I would prefer the blanking checkboxes to be in a different window, since that one is already pretty crowded, and in your mockup there is nothing that really shows the user that those checkboxes are related to the blank cells button.

r0lZ's revamp ideas mentioned in his followup may be even nicer, but I guest that revamp never quite happened. :)

r0lZ

17th August 2005, 18:45

I have to implement the "Blanking for the Masses" idea, which will uses PgcEdit to mark the cells or PGCs for blanking, and do the actual blanking with VobBlanker. I may add an option to do the blanking in PgcEdit, leaving the job of stripping the unused cells to VobBlanker or IfoEdit. I'm still not sure what I will do.

Also, I will revamp the PGC Editor GUI, but it's a relatively big work, and I don't want to waste my summer working at PgcEdit. Wait a little bit more...

2COOL

17th August 2005, 19:51

Thanks r0lZ! At least the wheels are now turning.

zacoz

18th August 2005, 15:37

I don't want to waste my summer working at PgcEdit. Wait a little bit more...Shucks....Sounds like the weather's improved. :cool:
Looking forward to Blanking for the masses, but can wait too.

doomer2

18th August 2005, 16:09

Thanks r0lZ! That sounds great! Just in case I can influence you one way or another, I would prefer if Pgcedit did the blanking so that Ifoedit was the only tool necessary to complete the strip.

But I have noticed another issue. PgcEdit fixes many things about the dvd structures that other tools break, but I have noticed that one thing it isn't doing is automatic correction of the VTS sectors. I'm finding that even after using PgcEdit, I still have to go into ifoedit to "Get VTS Sectors" to correct this.

Is there a possibility that that functionality could be added to PgcEdit?

One other minor nit that I think might be a bug in 0.6.0. If a dvd is opened and you go to the cell listing of a title, if you click OK instead of Cancel, it thinks the DVD has changed and asks you to save on exit, even if you didn't change anything. I'm guessing that a changed flag is getting set where it shouldn't.

Thanks!

tlavalle

18th August 2005, 16:54

r0lZ

19th August 2005, 08:59

Thanks r0lZ! That sounds great! Just in case I can influence you one way or another, I would prefer if Pgcedit did the blanking so that Ifoedit was the only tool necessary to complete the strip.That's the way I thing I will do things, it it's not too difficult.

But I have noticed another issue. PgcEdit fixes many things about the dvd structures that other tools break, but I have noticed that one thing it isn't doing is automatic correction of the VTS sectors. I'm finding that even after using PgcEdit, I still have to go into ifoedit to "Get VTS Sectors" to correct this.

Is there a possibility that that functionality could be added to PgcEdit?PgcEdit fixes the VTS sectors when the DVD is saved. However, things are a little bit different than with IfoEdit.
1) IfoEdit has a bug in his Get VTS Sectors function when there are empty menu VOB files. PgcEdit do a better job in this case: it removes the empty VOB and the references to it if the user wants so, or, if the empty VOB is still present when the DVD is saved, it fixes the VTS sectors accordingly.
2) If you use the "When saving, leave at least 32K of space between IFO and BUP" option, and there are titlesets where the total size of the VOBs is less than 32K, the VTS sectors are modified so that a gap is created when needed. However, since most burning software are unable to use correctly this information (notably Nero), the 32K gap option is off by default.
3) Wgen burning a double layer DVD, the VTS sectors are also modified to add another gap between VIDEO_TS.IFO (or VIDEO_TS.VOB if it is present) and VIDEO_TS.BUP, so that the layer break is placed at the right position.

In other words, IfoEdit and PgcEdit should do the same job if you save the DVD via the normal Save function, and there are no empty VOBs, and the 32k gap option is off.

One other minor nit that I think might be a bug in 0.6.0. If a dvd is opened and you go to the cell listing of a title, if you click OK instead of Cancel, it thinks the DVD has changed and asks you to save on exit, even if you didn't change anything. I'm guessing that a changed flag is getting set where it shouldn't.That's right. Indeed, when you hit OK on any editing dialog, the DVD is flagged as modified, even if nothing has been edited in this dialog. It's a little bit tedious to verify everything the user can do. Sorry, you have to live with that.

r0lZ

19th August 2005, 09:01

Am I doing this right I put the dvd in my dvd drive then start pgcedit. it loads and asks where the video_ts files are i point to my dvd drive then it runs, but after a few seconds I get Error loading NAV pack from "E:\video_TS\vts_01_0.vob" at sector(in file):
error reading "file14d4c88": invalid argument. This hapens a few more times but for different locations.Hum, I will check this "invalid argument" problem.
But note that, since you cannot edit a DVD directly, you should rip the DVD to hard disc before using PgcEdit. Also, if your DVD is CSS encrypted, PgcEdit will be unable to parse the VOB files to find the menu buttons. This is probably the problem you got.

blutach

19th August 2005, 11:47

Documentation

Hi all,

Just wanted to let everyone know that I have been pretty busy lately with little real time to devote to the PgcEdit doco. I will get to updating it as soon as I can, but in any event, you can always use the search function to look for an item.

Due to the major menu revamp, the doco will take a bit of updating but we will get there.

Regards

r0lZ

19th August 2005, 11:58

Thanks, blu!

@tlavalle:
I have made several tests. Loading a CSS encrypted DVD from the DVD drive produces the error you reported. As I said, you must rip the DVD to hard drive first, for example with DVD Decrypter in file mode.

If you really want to inspect a DVD without ripping it, you should use DVD43 (free) or AnyDVD (not free) in conjunction with PgcEdit. But note that you must remove these tools before using a ripper such as DVD Decrypter. Take care: it is not sufficient to exit them. You must turn the autostart option off, and reboot.

I have modified the error message in PgcEdit, so that it is now clear that it's a CSS encryption problem. Thanks for your report.

blutach

19th August 2005, 12:11

My turn for a feature request - dunno if you saw it before, but please see here (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=687276#post687276).

Or does the auto checking do this?

Regards

blutach

19th August 2005, 12:22

Currently (0.6.0, I haven't yet looked at the betas) you have an option to replace a cell with a blank cell appended to the vob. This is very useful. However, it would be even more useful if there were an option to append a single blank cell, and replace ALL the cells in the current PGC with that new blank cell.

This would make it easy to blank a title out completely, and then strip the now dead cells with ifoedit, as can already be done nicely with the "Kill playback" option is used on menus. Having to do this by hand for 20 or 30 cells in a long pgc gets rather tedious.

Thanks!This is kinda like my thinking too. I would like a quick "remove all cells" (except the first one, or perhaps the last one if it is a blank already). I had one the other day that was 240 cells. Still, a kill playback kills them stone dead anyway. Maybe something that asks, "what cells do you want to remove?" and you can nominate a range.

Becasue, like doomer says, it is tedious getting rid of them one by one.

What do you think?

Regards

r0lZ

19th August 2005, 15:03

My turn for a feature request - dunno if you saw it before, but please see here (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=687276#post687276).

Or does the auto checking do this?Yes and no. In the automatic check when a new DVD is loaded, a summary of the number of discrepencies is displayed, and you have the option to cancel, or to launch the fix on all domains.
When a requester pops up for a specific domain, you can cancel the whole operation, but if is not possible to say "yes to all", simply because this option is not present in the standard Windows requesters. Thanks Bill Gates! :angry:
I don't want to program a specific requester for a so simple task...

r0lZ

19th August 2005, 15:13

This is kinda like my thinking too. I would like a quick "remove all cells" (except the first one, or perhaps the last one if it is a blank already). I had one the other day that was 240 cells. Still, a kill playback kills them stone dead anyway. Maybe something that asks, "what cells do you want to remove?" and you can nominate a range.

Becasue, like doomer says, it is tedious getting rid of them one by one.

What do you think?I still don't know what I will do.

I don't want to modify the PGC Editor functions for now, because, one day, I will revamp it totally. Then, you will have the ability to select several cells at once, and apply the Delete Cell or Remap VOB/Cell ID on them all, in one operation. But it's for later.

For now, I may modify the Kill PGC Playback function, with a new option to automatically add a blank cell at the end of the VOB, and assign it to all cells of the killed PGC. This way, you will be able to strip the unreferenced cells easily.

If you want to delete or remap some specific cells, you will still have to do it manually.

r0lZ

20th August 2005, 01:25

Bad news.
Due to legal issues in Germany, Tobi asked me to remove the german PDF guides he wrote, from the PgcEdit homepages. Pitty. :(
PgcEdit is not illegal in Germany, but the documentation mentionned DVD Decrypter, DVD Shrink and Daemon Tools, which are illegal. Hence the problem.
So, I have removed the links to the PDF files. Sorry.
Thanks again, Tobi, for your wonderful job!

mp3boy

21st August 2005, 05:52

Hi dude,
I'm a big fan of your charming PGCEdit, I was wondering if it's possible to import/export chapters/cell/Vts secter for each title/pgc ?

I mean if you can add this feature it is much easier to work without ifoupdate and I can update my vts after authoring inside pgcedit, because I add new features to dvd that I need to change the chapters points and number of chapters...

because I am adding very odd option to dvds to give user abitlity to choose watch Censored version (skip strong sexual violence scenes) and uncensor version...

and only with help of PGCEdit it was possible to do so in a very easy process...

another thing is the Import Title clip (first-play), often it happens that all GPRM are full but many of are unused specially when user haven't select the speacial features and stuff like that
so what I manually do is delete those command, import the title clip and put them back again, and make sure that gprm will have its default value preventing intrupt with those options..

but is it possible to give user option to choose which gprm to choose (only if they're full or even when they're not) and probably make a macro to make sure that that gprm will have its value before the command is called.
this option I believe will work mostly on FIRSTPLAY title because only when it will called once and not more than that

thanks

r0lZ

21st August 2005, 09:36

I was wondering if it's possible to import/export chapters/cell/Vts secter for each title/pgc ?

I mean if you can add this feature it is much easier to work without ifoupdate...I don't use IfoUpdate, so I don't know exactly what you need. Do you want to import/export the whole cells list, with the flags, the timings, the VOBU sectors and VOB/Cell IDs?
It is relatively easy for me to write something to import the whole cells list at once, in binary format, but you will not be able to edit the exported data before importing it.
Do you need the program and chapter assignments? These values are stored in different tables, so it's not so easy to import/export them as well.
Also, do you want an import/export via a file, or via the clipboard? As it is already possible to copy/paste the streams assignments and the color lookup table, I prefer the clipboard method.

another thing is the Import Title clip (first-play), often it happens that all GPRM are full but many of are unused specially when user haven't select the speacial features and stuff like that
so what I manually do is delete those command, import the title clip and put them back again, and make sure that gprm will have its default value preventing intrupt with those options..

but is it possible to give user option to choose which gprm to choose (only if they're full or even when they're not) and probably make a macro to make sure that that gprm will have its value before the command is called.
this option I believe will work mostly on FIRSTPLAY title because only when it will called once and not more than thatYes. It's a good idea. But, of course, if the macro doesn't work as expected, you should not accuse PgcEdit.

mp3boy

21st August 2005, 10:03

I don't use IfoUpdate, so I don't know exactly what you need. Do you want to import/export the whole cells list, with the flags, the timings, the VOBU sectors and VOB/Cell IDs?
It is relatively easy for me to write something to import the whole cells list at once, in binary format, but you will not be able to edit the exported data before importing it.
Do you need the program and chapter assignments? These values are stored in different tables, so it's not so easy to import/export them as well.
Also, do you want an import/export via a file, or via the clipboard? As it is already possible to copy/paste the streams assignments and the color lookup table, I prefer the clipboard method.

I think thats what I need (and probably many ppl will like it too) but I explain why I need it and you may understand me better (since I'm still a newbie).
Basically what I do is translation and I add new subtitle to dvds, so I demux dvd, reauthor with dvdmaestro again with same number of chapters and replace the vob files and update the ifo vts table with ifoupdate using original and authored IFOs, so it works just nice.
However sometime I increase number of cells manually and thats where I get stuck cause IfoUpdate will reject greater number of chapters...
so I manually add more cells into target pgc with IfoEdit and then ifoupdate, it still works but sometimes it happen that I mistake editing something and might be proper to do it with somehow automatically...
after this it happens that I want to update the VOB files again and going through the whole thing is mess the DVD because I have to remove the chapters and then add it again...
however editing editing text formated (tab delimited) text for those values is something more reliable

By the way, about the menu editor... is it possible to add the feature too swap two button without swapping their commands? like for example I import my clone of menu made by encore or dvd-lab but it happens the dvd will highlight certain button number which will be not in right place after adding / removing buttons... so if can swap will fix the issue....

another important thing in menu editor is if we can have a overlay of button in that specified 16:9 letterbox/panscan and the highlight button, because everytime I change something I have to save and burn the dvd and test in standalone dvd player in both letterbox and pan scan so to make sure that the buttons are not out of line... Mark's dvd tray can also test it but its very unstable and it crashes on my PC even before openning...

thanks you very much again

r0lZ

21st August 2005, 14:15

Well, I've read the IfoUpdate doc. I understand his usage, but what you request is not as simple as I was thinking. To be coherent, I will have to update the VTS_C_ADT, VTS_TMAPTI and VTS_VOBU_ADMAP tables as well. And, in the PGC, I have to update the cells list, but also the color table, the program map, the cell playback table, and the cell position table. And the PGC playback time needs to be fixed too. And there are things to fix in the VMG_TT_SRPT table as well.
It's a very big work. So, I'm not sure I will do that, at least for now.
Maybe it will be simpler to replace the whole IFO with the reauthored one, and import the menu afterward, if needed. I may write a macro to do that easily. Is it OK for you?
Note that you may already test the method yourself, manually. See this recent post (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=701511#post701511) for reference.

r0lZ

21st August 2005, 14:31

By the way, about the menu editor... is it possible to add the feature too swap two button without swapping their commands? like for example I import my clone of menu made by encore or dvd-lab but it happens the dvd will highlight certain button number which will be not in right place after adding / removing buttons... so if can swap will fix the issue....I may add this feature later, but for now, you may already do it easily manually. Just export the buttons, and edit the exported file. Import it, and it's done.

Here is an example of a two buttons menu:# PgcEdit's exported buttons file.
# Edit at your own risk!

# Number of buttons and groups:
set ::menued::numbuts 2
set ::menued::numgroups 1

# Group types (0=undefined, 1=normal, 2=letterbox, 4=pan&scan):
set ::menued::grouptype(1) 0

# Button 1:
set ::menued::but(posx,1,1) 17
set ::menued::but(posw,1,1) 688
set ::menued::but(posy,1,1) 361
set ::menued::but(posh,1,1) 74
set ::menued::but(adj_but_up,1,1) 2
set ::menued::but(adj_but_left,1,1) 1
set ::menued::but(adj_but_right,1,1) 1
set ::menued::but(adj_but_down,1,1) 2
set ::menued::but(color_scheme,1,1) 1
set ::menued::but(auto_activate,1,1) 0
set ::menued::but(command,1,1) {[30 06 00 01 01 83 00 00]}
# (JumpSS) Jump to VTSM 1, Root menu (TTN 1)

# Button 2:
set ::menued::but(posx,1,2) 15
set ::menued::but(posw,1,2) 692
set ::menued::but(posy,1,2) 434
set ::menued::but(posh,1,2) 42
set ::menued::but(adj_but_up,1,2) 1
set ::menued::but(adj_but_left,1,2) 2
set ::menued::but(adj_but_right,1,2) 2
set ::menued::but(adj_but_down,1,2) 1
set ::menued::but(color_scheme,1,2) 1
set ::menued::but(auto_activate,1,2) 0
set ::menued::but(command,1,2) {[30 02 00 00 00 01 00 00]}
# (JumpTT) Jump to Title 1

# Global parameters:
set ::menued::force_select_but 0
set ::menued::force_action_but 0
set ::menued::selendtime 54
set ::menued::numselectablebuts 2
All you have to do is to change the last number before the closing parenthesis. It's the button number. For example, if you want to swap button 1 and 2, you should modify button 1 like this:# Button 2 (was button 1):
set ::menued::but(posx,1,2) 17
set ::menued::but(posw,1,2) 688
set ::menued::but(posy,1,2) 361
set ::menued::but(posh,1,2) 74
set ::menued::but(adj_but_up,1,2) 2
set ::menued::but(adj_but_left,1,2) 1
set ::menued::but(adj_but_right,1,2) 1
set ::menued::but(adj_but_down,1,2) 2
set ::menued::but(color_scheme,1,2) 1
set ::menued::but(auto_activate,1,2) 0
set ::menued::but(command,1,2) {[30 06 00 01 01 83 00 00]}
# (JumpSS) Jump to VTSM 1, Root menu (TTN 1)Do the same for button 2, changing the 2 to 1.
You may have to modify as well the global parameters at the end of the file, but it's easier to do interactively, in the editor.
Also, don't forget to do the edit for all groups in the file. The example above has only one button group.

another important thing in menu editor is if we can have a overlay of button in that specified 16:9 letterbox/panscan and the highlight button, because everytime I change something I have to save and burn the dvd and test in standalone dvd player in both letterbox and pan scan so to make sure that the buttons are not out of line... Mark's dvd tray can also test it but its very unstable and it crashes on my PC even before openning...Sorry, that's outside the possibilities of PgcEdit.
Maybe one day jeanl will be able to display the button highlights in his preview, but don't expect that soon.

[EDIT:] I think Zoom Player has a setup option to force the display mode in 16:9 or 4:3. You may probably see the result of your edits with it, without having to burn a RW.

blutach

21st August 2005, 14:32

mp3boy

21st August 2005, 17:39

If you want 2 versions, can't you simply clone the title (already available in PgcEdit) and use something like DVD Remake Pro to make new chapter points (very easy to do) then delete the cells with the offensive material? (in VobBlanker, say).

I know it's not a free solution, but if you are a DVDRMP owner, then you may be able to quickly do what you want.

Or, am I off beam?

Regards

basically I love the concept of PGCEdit and hate the fact in DVDRemake I have to re-export my whole dvd and make whole alot of duplicates and not forget the fact that I had bad experience of dvdremake output to be incompatible with some standalone dvd players. while pgcedit can do that and keep as many as backup... for entering chapter point even muxman can do that but I prefer to use my existing dvd maestro which while I have it can that... but entering the chapter point is not the issue, making that clone pgc had few issues for time forward-rewiding with powerdvd which I'm glad with new method of calculating pgc time in PGCedit 6.0.1 it's fixed.

and thank you r0lZ for your great idea, actually I thought about that and I gave it a try but I thing I missed some text inside my export button so thats why it didn't worked well...

do you think its possible to make that Menu Highlight button test? I know its alot of work to simulate the menu button, but if you can add these to menuedit I believe you'll go into history...

Thanks alot

PS: I know its my duty to give alot of donation since I'm so bound to you pgcedit and I'm requesting all these things, I hope I'll get something later when I get paypal account

r0lZ

21st August 2005, 18:12

do you think its possible to make that Menu Highlight button test? I know its alot of work to simulate the menu button, but if you can add these to menuedit I believe you'll go into history...He! MenuEdit is not my work! And if somebody is able to do what you want, it's jeanl. Ask him!

Anyway, thanks for your appreciation on PgcEdit.

mp3boy

21st August 2005, 18:14

He! MenuEdit is not my work! And if somebody is able to do what you want, it's jeanl. Ask him!

Anyway, thanks for your appreciation on PgcEdit.
I know menuedit is your yours but I meant PGCEdit menu editing features... ;)

CoNS

22nd August 2005, 13:26

@r0lZ: I found a small bug (?) in PgcEdit. Here's the case:

I have some backups of a few of my favourite DVDs that I made a long time ago. When I first backed them up, I added extra (custom) subtitles to the main movie. As I wanted to keep the menus, extras etc., I simply replaced (manually copied and overwrote) the main movie VTS files with the newly muxed files, without updating the IFOs... At that time I didn't know better!! My backups also worked in my standalone, despite this "butchering" of the discs! (These days I use the Replace PGC function in VobBlanker, or IfoUpdate or BatchIfoUpdate to do the job!)

Now I want to work some more on the old backups, i.e. kill playback of unwanted material on the discs (skip trailers, warnings etc. before main menu)...

When I load the discs in PgcEdit, I get a warning about the disc being CSS encrypted. However, this is NOT the case. The discs were originally copied from DVD to my harddisk using DVDShrink, which decrypted the discs for me... When I do a mock strip in IfoEdit and then load the disc again in PgcEdit, the warning doesn't appear anymore.

So the check in PgcEdit must be wrong somehow?

r0lZ

22nd August 2005, 14:24

No, the check is not worng. Only the message is not accurate.
You must understand that, when PgcEdit searches for the VOB cells, it uses the infos of the IFOs to locate the first nav pack of a cell. These infos are wrong in your old backups, because of your butcher job.
It's true that the best way to fix that problem is to do a mock strip with IfoEdit.

Cela

25th August 2005, 12:03

(Q1) Just upgraded from WinDVD 5 to WinDVD 6 and observe a strange effect:
PgcEdit > Utilities > Enable Navigation Buttons > Apply to all titles of the DVD > Apply > OK
inhibits seeking by time and usage of time-seek slider in WinDVD 6. Still works in WinDVD 5.
Same with the default:
PgcEdit > Utilities > Enable Navigation Buttons > Apply > OK

Is this a known issue? Is there a workaround other than downgrading back to WinDVD 5?

------

(Q2) Since I always use 'Apply to all titles of the DVD' I would like this option to be the (my) default. Is that possible?

------

(Q3) Most of the time I start my PgcEdit session with the following 8-step 'standard' manual startup procedure:

(3.1) PgcEdit > File > Open DVD > \...myvideo\VIDEO_TS > OK
---> PgcEdit: Opend DVD, DVD Opened OK. n VTS koaded. (n=2,...,98)

(3.2) Then follows n times (for 2 VTS loaded, 2 times) the command 'New Dummy PGC' at the VMG level.

(3.3) Now I input a prefabricated commands depending on how many "External VTS" there are in the VIDEO_TS. (VTST1 does not take part in that game.):
File > Import all PGC commands > Yes from "...\CMD_0m_Clips\" folder (m=n-1)

(3.4) Now i modify the second pre command for each VTST so that its 'LinkPGN Program j' command will link to the last Program of that VTST. The number is displayed by Pgcedit in the VTST info line above the command window. Example:
" VTST 2,2 TTN 1 (1:24:40) Title 2 Chapters:30, Programs:30 Cells:30"
will produce the pre command
"2 Set gprm(1) = (mov) 2 ; LinkPGN Program 30"

(3.5) After that, the next command will be:
"Utilities > Enable Navigation Buttons > Apply to all titles of the DVD > Apply > OK"

(3.6) Then, in each VTST, I change all 'Current domain stream attributes > Audio language = de' for each audio stream.

(3.7) Again for each VTST, I set the Still time to 5 seconds for the last cell.

(3.8) Finally, the last command of the my manual startup procedure is to save these actions by
"Save DVD > Save DVD IFOs to disk" > OK"

Is it possible to create a Macro or a Utility which could automize these manual steps? Is there a tutorial of how it is done? Would this be a practical example for a tutorial?

------

(Q4) The input for the PgcEdit step of Q3 generally is a VIDEO_TS produced with DVDlab Pro (DLP) using Attached External VTS in DLP. DLP offers a great ergonomic graphical user interface to create menus but unfortunately offers very limited command possibilites for Attached External VTS. My attempts in the DLP forum to ask for better support is strongly opposed by the 'professionals' in that forum and so far I cannot observe any development in that direction.
On the other hand, the fulminant development progress of PgcEdit, especially the phantastic Trace-, Preview- and Menu buttons features raise appetite for more: a DVDlab-like Menu-Design feature !

That would allow me to authorize nice menus and menu cascades around my (IfoEdit produced) External VTSTs without DVDlab.

That would be a real charm! :)

Please, forgive me the long post. But I believe, the issues raised may be of interest for more amateur users.

Thank you for your outstanding Pgcedit and for your kind assistance.

blutach

25th August 2005, 12:16

On Q1, check in VMG_PTT_SRPT in IfoEdit and see the atrributes at 0x0008. To free this up, enter 60.

Q2 - I agree

Regards

r0lZ

25th August 2005, 13:28

(Q1) Just upgraded from WinDVD 5 to WinDVD 6 and observe a strange effect:
PgcEdit > Utilities > Enable Navigation Buttons > Apply to all titles of the DVD > Apply > OK
inhibits seeking by time and usage of time-seek slider in WinDVD 6. Still works in WinDVD 5.
Same with the default:
PgcEdit > Utilities > Enable Navigation Buttons > Apply > OK

Is this a known issue? Is there a workaround other than downgrading back to WinDVD 5?
Yes, it's an issue with WinDVD 6. The Enable Navigation Buttons macro adds, the PrevPGCN and NextPGCN values in the affected PGCs (and it removes the PUOs, but that's not related to the problem.) These link values used by PgcEdit are the number of the current PGC. This way, you can use the Prev and Next key to skip to the beginning of the first program, and to the end of the last program (when playing these programs).
The DVD-Video standard stipulates that a Title can be made of several PGCs (as a non-one-sequential PGC), but, when it's the case, the user cannot seek to a specific point in the title. It stipulates also that a Prev/Next/GoUpPGC link must jump to a PGC belonging to the same title.
In PgcEdit, since the Prev and Next links are pointing to the only PGC of the same title, the second requirement is respected.
But WinDVD 6 thinks the PGC is not sequential, because the Prev and NextPGC links are non-zero. This is obviously a bug.

(Q2) Since I always use 'Apply to all titles of the DVD' I would like this option to be the (my) default. Is that possible?Hum, no. I don't want to change the defaults for a specific user. Sorry.

[EDIT:] Changed my mind. The "Apply to all Titles" option is now the default. Also, the GoUp option in the title domain is now unchecked by default, and the Resume to the last visited Title is now the default for the menu domain.

(Q3) Most of the time I start my PgcEdit session with the following 8-step 'standard' manual startup procedure:

...

Is it possible to create a Macro or a Utility which could automize these manual steps? Is there a tutorial of how it is done? Would this be a practical example for a tutorial?That is also very difficult. I cannot write a macro for a so specific usage.
Also, the macros are not real macros. They are written exactly in the same way than all other functions. And the new 'plugin' concept requires also some understanding of the internal structure of the program, and a good knowledge of Tcl/Tk.
Since PgcEdit is open source, you may theorically try to create a plugin yourself. But it's a big work, and I don't recommend it, especially if you are not a programmer. Sorry again.

(Q4) The input for the PgcEdit step of Q3 generally is a VIDEO_TS produced with DVDlab Pro (DLP) using Attached External VTS in DLP. DLP offers a great ergonomic graphical user interface to create menus but unfortunately offers very limited command possibilites for Attached External VTS. My attempts in the DLP forum to ask for better support is strongly opposed by the 'professionals' in that forum and so far I cannot observe any development in that direction.
On the other hand, the fulminant development progress of PgcEdit, especially the phantastic Trace-, Preview- and Menu buttons features raise appetite for more: a DVDlab-like Menu-Design feature !

That would allow me to authorize nice menus and menu cascades around my (IfoEdit produced) External VTSTs without DVDlab.

That would be a real charm! :)Again, PgcEdit is not an authoring tool, it's only a reauthoring tool. Doing what you want is a very big job!
Also, this kind of thing cannot be written in Tcl/Tk. I want to program (almost) everything in Tcl/Tk so that the program can stay multi-platform.
IMHO, continue to use DVD-Lab. It's an excellent program!

Cela

25th August 2005, 17:29

Hum, no. I don't want to change the defaults for a specific user. Sorry.I was not hoping that you would change any general default for me individually. I was hoping that it is possible for a user to modify the default of his personal copy, as it is possible in Mpeg2schnitt, for example. And that somebody could tell me how this is could be done.

[EDIT:] Changed my mind. The "Apply to all Titles" option is now the default. Also, the GoUp option in the title domain is now unchecked by default, and the Resume to the last visited Title is now the default for the menu domain.Thank you very much. :)

IMHO, continue to use DVD-Lab. It's an excellent program!I agree, it's an excellent program. In a row with ProjectX, Mpeg2Schnitt, IfoEdit and your PgcEdit it is one of my top favourites. But it offers only a very limited subset of its capabilities for Attached External VTS and it remuxes my VOBs if I try to get a larger subset of its capabilities by importing the VOBs, and on some occasions the VOBs then loose their perfect IfoEdit-sync.

I cannot write a macro for a so specific usage... create a plugin yourself... if you are not a programmer. Sorry again.Sorry, I'm no programmer. A simple macro feature for amateur users would be cool, though.

Would it be possible to get sort of a 'New Dummy PGCs n-times' command, please? That would save a lot of clicks when I have to enter, for example, 64 New Dummy PGCs in my step (3.2)?

Again, thank you very much for your great program and your kind help.

r0lZ

25th August 2005, 22:05

I was not hoping that you would change any general default for me individually. I was hoping that it is possible for a user to modify the default of his personal copy, as it is possible in Mpeg2schnitt, for example. And that somebody could tell me how this is could be done.It's not difficult to change the source code. You may copy the file you want to modify in the plugins directory. (You can extract the tcl file from the standalone exe with an unzipper such as WinZip.) The plugins are loaded after the main program has finished his initialization, and the modified functions overwrite the original ones. For example, to change the "Enable Navigation Buttons" defaults, you should copy the file macro.tcl, and modify this part of the code: if {![info exists ::macros::navbuttons_prev]} {
set ::macros::navbuttons_prev 1
set ::macros::navbuttons_next 1
set ::macros::navbuttons_return 0
set ::macros::navbuttons_menu 1
set ::macros::navbuttons_menu_opt 0
set ::macros::navbuttons_domain 3
}This is how the defaults are set now. In the original code, all values defined here were at 1.

Sorry, I'm no programmer. A simple macro feature for amateur users would be cool, though.That's right, but it requires a major rewrite of almost everything. Too long and complicated, at least for now.

Would it be possible to get sort of a 'New Dummy PGCs n-times' command, please? That would save a lot of clicks when I have to enter, for example, 64 New Dummy PGCs in my step (3.2)?Again, there are more important things to do before I add this kind of improvment. But remember you can detach the menu (with the tearoff menus option) and position on screen where you want it. Some repeated clicks on the menu entry will then do the job easily.

:thanks: Thanks for your kind appreciation.

Cela

26th August 2005, 10:55

But remember you can detach the menu (with the tearoff menus option) and position on screen where you want it. Some repeated clicks on the menu entry will then do the job easily.Tearoff is cool. I was not aware of this useful feature. Now I will use it every day. Thanks to bring it to my attention :thanks: .

But, for a last time, let me plea for my request: even with tearoff, 64 times 'New dummy PGC' need a lot of not so inspiring clicking: there are 2 clicks per command. A question window pops up everytime and needs the answer YES to proceed.

Amongst other information, it asks:
"Should I create the following PGC?"

Here it could ask:
"Should I create 1 New PGC?"

In my example I would overwrite 1 to 64 and answer the modified question
"Should I create 64 New PGC?"
with a click on 'Yes' and would be done.

Another ergonomic possibility could be:
Have a "Control+x" for the Command, with key 'x' selected so that it and 'Control' can be reached with the left hand. Then it would be possible to fire a sequence of commands by
{Left hand: "Control+x"} + {right hand: Click on 'Yes'}

Probably even less work to implement would be, to simply take the question pop-up out. And take the answer YES for granted.

Let me end my plead by asking you to kindly add this request to your todo list and the closing statement: I appreciate your work and I respect that you have more important work to do for now. Thank you for your attention.

OhMickey

26th August 2005, 10:56

Hello r0lZ,

to put it short, I'd like to ask you if you could update pskill.exe in PgcEdit package to a newer version, because the newer version does not seem to be "infected". In the rest of my post I just elaborate on the subject.

I have searched the web for some free DVD tools and there were lots of references to PgcEdit you made. Seems there's no better free tool around to dig deep into DVDs. So, I'm willing to use it and improve my DVD knowledge a little bit. Unfortunately, pskill.exe from Sysinternals included in your package:

pskill.exe v1.1.0.0 (117KB)

appears to be "infected". I know there was a post on this subject earlier and I wanted to reply to it, but it seems it has vanished from the thread :) (Do I need to mention that I have registered on this forum just to send this reply). I personally use Kaspersky Antivirus and it reports that pskill.exe included with PgcEdit was infected with:

not-a-virus:RiskTool.Win32.PsKill.110

In order to avoid keeping this "infected" file on my computer, I have downloaded freeWrap from SourceForge, unpacked PgcEdit, replaced the included pskill.exe with a newer version, also downloaded from Sysinternals, which does not seem to be infected and it's even smaller:

pskill.exe v1.11.0.0 (92KB)

and now I'm running PgcEdit using a batch file (.cmd) invoking freeWrap on PgcEdit.tcl. (I have also downloaded sources from the linux download section on your site and tried to pack it back into a single .exe file, but freeWrap constantly reported it cannot find the .exe residing in the same folder where pskill.exe resides. I have obviously missed something. :rolleyes: )

It is a bit cumbersome to do this each time PgcEdit is updated, but it is a solution. Anyway, I'd like to ask you if you could update pskill.exe in your package to this newer version, because it does not seem to be "infected". I guess it would be great for the rest of people who don't like keeping any of those "reported" files on their computer.

Best regards,
Mickey

zacoz

26th August 2005, 12:23

I know there was a post on this subject earlier and I wanted to reply to it, but it seems it has vanished from the thread :) @Mickey
Post can be found here (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=698184#post698184) ;)

mp3boy

26th August 2005, 12:47

is it possible to only import/export menu commands only? rather than the whole alignment and navigations?

r0lZ

26th August 2005, 12:52

there are 2 clicks per command. A question window pops up everytime and needs the answer YES to proceed.

...

Probably even less work to implement would be, to simply take the question pop-up out. And take the answer YES for granted.I forgot to say this can already be done. The confirmation dialog can be turned off with the "Expert Mode" option.
(Just remember to turn it back on before using a new function, or a function you don't know well. These dialogs are sometimes useful to understand exactly what the function will do!)

r0lZ

26th August 2005, 13:13

to put it short, I'd like to ask you if you could update pskill.exe in PgcEdit package to a newer version, because the newer version does not seem to be "infected". In the rest of my post I just elaborate on the subject.Sure! I didn't know a new version was available. I will use it in the next PgcEdit release. Thanks, and welcome to the forum!

and now I'm running PgcEdit using a batch file (.cmd) invoking freeWrap on PgcEdit.tcl. (I have also downloaded sources from the linux download section on your site and tried to pack it back into a single .exe file, but freeWrap constantly reported it cannot find the .exe residing in the same folder where pskill.exe resides. I have obviously missed something.)Note that you can invoke PgcEdit.tcl directly, if you associate the .tcl files with freeWrap.exe. (But you will not be able to open a DVD by clicking or right-clicking on its icon.)

The problem with the packed files is probably due to your files being not stored in the right place. This is a limitation in the way freeWrap (and the zip filesystem it uses internally) stores the pathnames internally. If you put the files to wrap in C:\Tcl\work\PGCEDIT\ (case sensitive!), everything should work fine. You will find a batch file called wrap.cmd in the source archive. To recreate the standalone exe, edit it to suit your needs (in particular, you should remove the Linux and security backup stuff), but don't change the file locations. Good luck!

OhMickey

26th August 2005, 13:23

@Mickey
Post can be found here (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=698184#post698184) ;)

Thank you zacoz. That's the one I mentioned. It's just that I had to wait 5 days after registering before I was allowed to post anything... so the post I read before moved around and I couldn't find it.

Greets,
Mickey

r0lZ

26th August 2005, 13:29

is it possible to only export menu commands only? rather than the whole alignment and navigations?Why do you need that?
You can already copy/paste single menu button commands, and if you really needs to import the commands without modifying the other params, you may edit the exported file. You should remove everything except, of course, the commands, and the two lines:set ::menued::numbuts 4
set ::menued::numgroups 1

OhMickey

26th August 2005, 13:30

Sure! I didn't know a new version was available. I will use it in the next PgcEdit release. Thanks, and welcome to the forum!

Thank you very much! I'm looking forward to it. :)

Also, thank you for the instructions about freeWrap! I have no intention of altering anything in your PgcEdit.exe package. I just needed a way to replace the "infected" file. Now that you're going to update it with the new version of pskill.exe, there won't be any problems. I've scanned it with Kaspreski AV and it doesn't complain.

Best regards,
Mickey

2COOL

26th August 2005, 22:59

@r0lZ

Can you add the option to add end frame of last chapter when creating celltimes.txt?

zacoz

27th August 2005, 04:30

My first foray into "Blank out all Menus PGC's" today and seeking some clarification on the options.

I am processing a number of tv series episode disc's which are all authored the same way. After tracing through the first one I have confirmed that I need to blank all menu PGC's in the VMGM, however i need to kill playback on them also.

Historically I would have used the kill playback macro on each PGC individually and then selected Yes to the dialog to convert each to a dummy.

When using "Blank out all Menus PGC's" I have the options of completely removing the VOB replace menus by a black frame (with kill playback options) replace menus with imported clip

I was expecting to have an option to completely remove VOB with kill playback options.

Does this mean that if the VOB is removed, that "playback" of the PGC will flow through the Pre-commands and then straight onto the Post-commands, thus achieving the same result as having killed playback anyway - hence no need for kill playback? (assuming commands themselves don't direct flow elsewhere)