NEXT does not work

[Metallo]

Hi,

I have created a DVD out of a Sony Video 8 tape.
I captured it in DV-AVI and then authored with DVDLab Pro, created one Root Menu and two submenus.

Everything works fine, except the NEXT button on my DVD remote control when trying to switch from a "playing" scene to the following one.
The PREVIOUS works fine.
I repeat, the problem is only when I play any of the 20 scenes out of the menu (Option 2 on the root menu), no problem at all when playing all the movie (Option 1).

Please, have a look to the structure, you will understand:
http://img215.echo.cx/my.php?image=connections8or.gif

I tried first to force this into the UOPS & Settings "Advanced Navigation Control" in DVDLab, every Branch -> Next=Follow end link to Next Movie and Previous=Go to previous Movie.
As I said, it works fine for the Previous but the Next does not respond.

Then, I tried to apply the same change using PGCEdit, but same result.

My DVD Player is a Denon DVD 2900.

I really don't know how to force this, any suggestion?

Somebody on the DVDLab forum said that it seems to be a problem with the player's logic, but I do not want to give up and I'm looking for more suggestions.

The door is open :thanks:

Alex

[Video Dude]

Try this in PGCEdit.

Third paragraph:
http://forum.doom9.org/showpost.php?p=647097&postcount=37

[Metallo]

You can also modify them with PgcEdit, in the PGC Editor, or use the "Enable All Operations" function.

The trick is to set the Next and PrevPGC values to the number of the current PGC. For example, for PGC 2, the Next and Prev PGC links should be set to 2. This way, the Next and Prev Chapter buttons will be enabled when the playback is respectively in the last or first chapter (or program) of the PGC.


I changed accordingly, but it is worst because the PREVIOUS button go to the beginning of the playing Chapter while setting up the previous PGC as before, at least it goes back to it.
As regards the NEXT button, no change.

It looks like NEXT has a problem to work because it is asked to go from Branch to Branch :confused:

If I go to "Enable Remote Navigation Button" in PGCEdit, I wonder why the default is Apply to current PGC only.
Do you think that switching to all PGCs of the current domain might change something?

Any other options?

Thank you
Alex

[Metallo]

Hi,

Does anybody have a clue on how to solve this? :confused:

Thanks
Alex

[Zeul]

it is almost impossible to get an idea of the PGC/PG/Cell relationship from the gif. Please post the IFO that is created, which will give us a better idea.
The Next / Previous button jumps to the next or previous program in a PGC. Each program can be made up of multiple cells. If each chapter is in a different PGC then Next won't work. To move to the Next PGC then the 'NextPGC' command in the IFO needs to be linked.
The IFO will tell us

[Metallo]

Zeul,

Thanks for the tip.

I'll post the IFO as soon as I'm back from holiday.

Cheers
Alex

[Metallo]

Please post the IFO that is created

Zeul,

How do you want the IFO to be posted?

Can you tell me the simplest way and format?

Thanks
Alex

[Zeul]

@Metallo
You're problem is this i think (I am assuming that the button commands are as described):
When playing the whole movie i think you are linking to PGC1 (Title#1), This plays all chapters w/out problem.
When selecting an individual chapter you are linking to a PGC than plays that chapter only. Judging by the pre commands of the Root menu GPRM11 is evaluated and then a link made to another PGC. What your chapter buttons should be doing is linking to PGC1 but a specific program# (Each program = each chapter in PGC1). So for example chapter button #4 would link to program #4 of PGC1. From your ifo PGCs 2 & 3 play something else - perhaps startup intros or something, but PGCs 4+ is each chapter, which is where the chapter buttons are linking too. You need to alter your button commands to link to PGC#1 = Title#1, and the appropriate program#

[Metallo]

Zeul,

I need your help to do what you describe.

When playing the whole movie i think you are linking to PGC1 (Title#1), This plays all chapters w/out problem.
When selecting an individual chapter you are linking to a PGC than plays that chapter only.

Your assumption above is correct.

But first a definition, you say that (Each program = each chapter in PGC1), but to my knowledge a program is a sequence of one or more cells within a PGC, did you mean (Each program = each cell in PGC1)?

Is PGC1 the whole movie VTST1 ?

You need to alter your button commands to link to PGC#1 = Title#1, and the appropriate program#

Can I do this in PgcEdit and if yes how?

I think i have understood what you mean but I need some help to do this in order to be sure to not mess up.

Thanks a lot.
Alex

[Zeul]

in YOUR ifo, each program = 1 chapter, but you are correct a program can have numerous cells (just not in your ifo :D)
Yes you can alter the button commands in pgcedit
Open up the dvd folder;
click the root menu pgc of vts01 (left pane)
then press the green MENU button on the toolbar
you should now see all the buttons
highlight a button and the current command is shown in the bottom box (it shows the hex command above the actual command)
press this button and the command editor will show
then:
alphabetically -> JumpVTS_PTT
make sure jump to TTN box = 1
then Chapter (PTT) box set you're desired chapter #
press OK
a box may pop up regarding 2 groups - click YES
do this for every button and save.

:)

[Metallo]

Zeul,

The solution you provided me gives something different.
It allows me to go NEXT and PREV but if you let the chapter play, it automatically switches to the next one, while in my previous file I placed a Return To Menu function, therefore once the chapter arrives to the end, it goes back to the command button in the menu from which I originally opened it.

That is probably the reason why the navigation button NEXT does not work for me, because it is in contrast with the Return To Menu, while the PREV works fine.
If you look at the GIF you can clearly see that every Branch has a link to Return To Menu.

Any additional thinking?

Thanks
Alex

[Zeul]

I am not sure i understand what you are trying to accomplish.
If you want to play a chapter then retrun to the menu then you're original approach seems correct.
If you want to jump to a chapter from the chapter menu (like normal chapter menus) then the approach i suggested is correct.

Are you trying to keep the first thought - play one chapter only then return to the chapter menu - but still make the NEXT button forward to the next chapter? What is supposed to happen when the 'Next' chapter has finished playing - jump back to the chapter menu? If this is what you want - why??
To accomplish this i would think making the NextPGC command link to the subsequent PGC should work.

[Metallo]

Are you trying to keep the first thought - play one chapter only then return to the chapter menu - but still make the NEXT button forward to the next chapter? What is supposed to happen when the 'Next' chapter has finished playing - jump back to the chapter menu? If this is what you want - why??.

Because, if a Chapter plays I want to have the two options:

1) I let it play till the end and automatically go back to the menu.
2) If during the playing I decide to switch to the NEXT one, it is more practical and fast to press NEXT than press Menu, choose the following Chapter and press Play.

To accomplish this I would think making the NextPGC command link to the subsequent PGC should work

That 's why I started this thread, I did apply the right values in the navigation buttons, (it is already so in the IFO I sent you).
For instance, the navigation buttons of PGC 5, have a value of 4 for PREV. and 6 for NEXT.
Unfortunately, only the PREV. works, but not the NEXT :mad:

Is the NextPGC command link something different from the navigation buttons I've just mentioned??

Thanks
Alex

[Zeul]

After looking at the IFO in more detail, the Prev/Next are set correctly. I don't understand why the NextPGC is not working - it should. All i can think of is that the NextPGC command is invoking the post commands first before jumping to the NextPGC, which in you're IFO would cause the RootMenu to display. To get around this is not going to be easy. You could set an unused GPRM value in the Precommands of the PGC. Then add a cell command which resets the GPRM when the cell has finished playing. In the PostCommands instead of jumping straight to the RootMenu, make it conditional dependant on the GPRM setting, like

PreCommand:
GPRM15 = 1

CellCommand:
GPRM15 = 0

PostCommand:
If GPRM15 = 0 then jump RootMenu.

This is dependant on if only by the cell playing fully is the cell command invoked. This I don't know.

[Metallo]

Zeul,

I can try your approach, but as it is now, the NEXT does not go to the Root Menu, my DVD just shows the sign that the command is not recognized.

Cheers
Alex

[Metallo]

PreCommand:
GPRM15 = 1

CellCommand:
GPRM15 = 0

PostCommand:
If GPRM15 = 0 then jump RootMenu.


Well, apparently I cannot add a Post Command to a branch, in fact, it is written that "This type of object never runs POST command".

I see that you use Scenarist, I've never used it and have no clou if easier or not than DVD Lab.
I'd like to see if Scenarist behave the same.

I'm really sorry that I cannot have it to work, also because I'm limited by my low level of knowledge in VM Commands, otherwise I could probably use them to do the same job I've done using the branches.

I tried to work with Chapters in the Movie itself using a Playlist but the problem was that if I selected Play the Movie, the image skipped when switching from one Chapter to the other, therefore I used the Branches and made the Chapters independent from the "Play Movie".

Gosh, there must be a reason and I have to discover it.
I will study the VM Commands and try to understand how the DVD works.

Thanks for the support you gave me, very much appreciated, indeed.

Alex

[DaRat]

Metallo, I don't know anything about dvdlab but it seems to be a pretty easy solution for your problem to make titles like:

title1 = play all
title2 = dummyPTT + chapter1 + dummyPTT
title3 = dummyPTT + chapter2 + dummyPTT
etc etc etc

DummyPTT being a 12 (15 ntsc land) frame long blackness, with titles 2+ having precommands (jump to cell/ptt 2), ptt1 cell command (jump to previous title), ptt2 cell command (jump to menu) and ptt3 cell command (jump to next title). From what u wrote so far it seems dvd lab can use the same track more than once but I don't know if you can make ptt (or cell) level authoring.

[Metallo]

DaRat,

I use what in DVDLab is called a "Branch" which is an object that can play the chapters in any sequence or play only some of the chapters.

My DVD is structured this way:

- 1 Root Menu
- 2 Sub Menus

The RootMenu has got 2 links:
- Play Movie
- Scene Selection

The 2 sub menus:
- SubMenu1 -> 12 Chapters
- SubMenu2 -> 8 Chapters

Play Movie

If I press Play Movie on the RootMenu, it just plays it and I am free to go to next or prev. chapters.
At the end of the movie, it goes back to the root.
So, this is fine and it does what I want.

Scene Selection

I have created a branch per each Chapter, and linked it to its relative button in the two submenus.
So, if I click one of the 20 buttons on the two submenus, it goes to the linked Chapter, plays it and once it gets to the end it goes back to the button in the submenu.
This works fine for all of them.

The only open issue I have is that the NEXT navigation button on the remote control of my DVD Player doesn't do what it should.
So, while playing any of the Chapters, notwithstanding I have set the NEXT and PREV. buttons to go respectively to the next and previous PGC (every branch is a PGC), I can only get the "Prev." to work, while misteriously the NEXT is not recognized as a valid command.

I can try your suggestion if you help me in understanding the point below:

DummyPTT being a 12 (15 ntsc land) frame long blackness

A PTT means "part of the Title", so should I create a Movie of 12 sec. blackness, which should equal to a PTT in this case?
I mean, a movie of 12 sec. blackness has only one cell, or not :confused:

I guess this is in order to have the possibility to set pre and post commands, isn't it?

From what u wrote so far it seems dvd lab can use the same track more than once but I don't know if you can make ptt (or cell) level authoring.

Normally I can, but since I use branches, I'm afraid the post command is not allowed, only the pre.

You may ask yourself why I didn't simply split the movie into chapters (without using the branches).
The reason is because when I was playing the movie as "Play Movie", in correspondence to every chapter there was a short gap and I could not stand with it.
Therefore, I decided to separate the Chapters from the Movie, which is possible using the branch concept.

Hope I did not confuse you more :rolleyes:

Thanks
Alex

[DaRat]

I'm not sure I get the ide what's called "branches" by dvdlab and what you refer as "chapters", but it doesn't really matter. ;) Was doing some thinking on this and came up with a even more simple solution (kinda similar to zeul's):

Make your play all movie with the chapter points and stuff, link "play all" to this movie, also link all "select scene" link to the chapters in that movie. No branches or stuff. Compile your dvd, grab pgcedit (or ifoedit) and change the scene-links from "link blah blah blah" to "set gprmX,1; link blah blah blah", det your play all button to "set gprmX, 0; link to blahblahblah" and finaly set a cell command at the end of each cell (chapter in your case) "if gprmX==1 jump to whatever menu". That way you can watch the whole set if you start it via "play all", watch it the same way prev-next-wise if you watch it via a "select scene" button, only it will go back to the menu IF you let it play one whole scene. (you might want to route the back-to-menu feature via a dummy pgc to make the jump back to last menu.)

The only thing about this method is you dont get the play time start from 00:00:00:00 if you play it by scenes.

[Metallo]

DaRat,

Thanks for you reply.

Make your play all movie with the chapter points and stuff

Doing so, I'm pretty sure to fall into the situation I explained in my previous post.
I understand the concept, it would work, but if I press Play Movie and let the movie run, once it gets to a Chapter point, I see the movie like "jumping" to the following Chapter, it is not a smooth run, if you see what I mean.
That's why I chose the Branch process.
I have been told this is depending on how the DVD Player reads a Chapter point...but who knows.

Therefore, I think I will try your first proposal if you reply my questions on PTT and cells...

Cheers
Alex

[DaRat]

Ah yes, tought you have a "clip show" and not a continuous movie.. The break is caused by the cell commands, makes the connection non-seamless.

For the other thing: 12 or 15 frame long blackness, or you can use dummy stills too, it's just me I like one gop long dummy cells. ;) Should be doable in pgcedit anyway but cant help you there as I don't have any idea how could I add a title or cells to the current structure, might worth ask someone familiar with it (or even read the manual lol).

[Metallo]

DaRat,

I'm now trying Scenarist, can you tell me how do you import scenes/chapters from .txt file?

I cannot import the project I've made in DVDlab, but at least I want to limit the workload and try to import chapters and menus.

Thanks
Alex

[Reptice]

you can try SceneImport (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=68706).
Or you can use Scenchap.

Rep'

[Metallo]

Hi,

SceneImport does not work on Scenarist 3.01, at least not for me and the patch is no longer accessible.

In the meantime I found DVDReauthor which has allowed me to import the whole project in Scenarist.

Thanks
Alex