Problem removing FBI warnings in same VTS as main movie

[Angelus]

Hi, I'm not sure if this is out of the scope of this forum but I have been trying to backup Million Dollar Baby and I have run into the problem that the FBI warnings and other annoyances reside in the same vts as the main movie. There is only one vts, the main movie is pcg 1, and the fbi and other stuff are pcgs 2-6. I have tried to remove them several ways, including blanking them with vobblanker, using pcgedit, deselecting them in DIF4U, removing the avs files from the directory and then using ScenAid (to create dummies). In every case I either got a dvd that didnt work, or one that played a blank clip for about 20 secs and then just stopped playing. It seems there is something wrong with the play order, something with the IFO. Is there an easy way to change the IFO to go directly to the menu and a way to remove the fbi warnings and such?

I have searched and found these 2 threads:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=48566&highlight=remove+fbi+main+movie+vob
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=89209&highlight=start+movie+menu

Yet I dont know if these will work and they're too technical for me. If anyone can help thanks!

[Zeul]

@Angelus.
Butchering a DVD is not advocated by the 'Big 3 or is it 4 now' authors, however, removing warning screens seems a must to me. Assuming that the warnings and 'other annoyances' all precede the main menu, then all you need to do is either change the command in the first play PGC, or 'Kill' the offending PGC's (Gets my vote). Open the DVD folder in PGCEdit, select each PGC in order that you don't want and press the 'Kill PGC' button in the toolbar. This has the effect of moving all the post commands to the end of the pre commands -> result -> the PGC programs never get played :)
When you now run the DVD PGCs2-6 will still get called, but will not play the programs in those PGCs.
You could also alter the first play PGC command to jump straight to the Root Menu. Problem with this, is that you will need to investigate the PGC order, to see if any GPRM / SPRM values are initialized before the Menu plays.
Following the former method, enables all the values to still be set.

Hope that helps a little

[Tobii]

Still another possibility...

The simplest way to go directly to the menu is here (http://www.videohelp.com/~r0lZ/pgcedit/third_party/blutach/How_to_use_PgcEdit_new_macro.htm)
To remove FBI warnings and the other things...going this way (http://www.videohelp.com/~r0lZ/pgcedit/third_party/2cool/blanking_cell/blanking_cell.htm) perhaps.
After all changes...test it in the trace of PgcEdit.
If there is a error, it should be easy to find this error in the trace.

Good luck

[Zeul]

@Tobii
2 good guides - however they are much more complicated, than just killing the PGC.

[Tobii]

Natural is the function "Kill PGC playback" at the simple and effective. You already are right. :D
The question is ... What is into the PGCs 2-6 really?
Is anything there with a reference to the first PGC?
Difficult, I don't know the structure of the DVD. :(

You find the macro "Jump to PGC Upon DVD insert" complicated?
In my opinion, it is easier to use the macro to go directly to the menu.
If one would like to make it manually, it is difficult for a beginner, all changes taking into account in the registers.

And I don't wait eternally, until I come to the menu if I insert the DVD. :D

[Angelus]

@Zeul

Thanks for the tip. I usually do this with the warnings in Pcgedit but this time the dvd came out oversized so I was looking to blank out the warnings and such. As the fbi warnings and the trailer dont take up too much space, I'll try it over again and do what you said. Thanks

@Tobii
Those guides look pretty good and are pretty easy to follow, thanks for the links they may come in handy sometime.

[Master Yoda]

The first guide tobii posted, the one by Blutach, i used that to skip straight to the fox logo after i removed some trailers and a anti piracy crap thing from the beginning.It worked like a charm. DVD in, straight to the fox logo with out skipping back and forth of playing blank video clips. I suggest you give it a try.

[Angelus]

weird...I just redid the whole movie encoding the fbi warnings too and tried using the pcgedit function to kill playback of the warnings and such...yet when i try to play the dvd, it plays the fbi warning then stops. Maybe i'll have to look at those guides now...

[Trahald]

im gonna try the movie tonite.. this is the R1 i presume?

[influenza]

Why do you R1 guys get all the fun stuff? :) I can't remember a r2 title that gave any problems :(.

/me is open to suggestions ;)

From what I've read it seems that killing one or more PGCs messes up the navigational structure. If I had this problem I would try to:
1) replace the troublesome pgcs by some blank clips if the objective is gaining space or
2) Just leave them as is and jump around them (for example with one of the above mentioned guides) if the objective is to avoid annoyance by having to watch nonsense :)

[zacoz]

Why do you R1 guys get all the fun stuff? :) I can't remember a r2 title that gave any problems :(.They get all that *parental control* stuff too. Personally, I've never seen it on any R4 discs.

I've never had any problems using kill PGC playback in PgcEdit, then blanking the relevant cells using VobBlanker (unselecting changing post to pre comm option - as PgcEdit has already done this). DVDShrink should finish the job off if it's still not small enough.

I've seen one or two others report similar problems to Angelus, but never seen a satisfactory explanation of why, or more to the point how a DVD is authored to cause this problem. Anyone ?

[Angelus]

Yeah the dvd is region 1. I never usually have a problem with killing the playback in pcgedit either but perhaps having the menu, the movie and the fbi warnings in the same vts could possibly mess stuff up. Anyways I will try today to follow those to guides mentioned by Tobii.

[Trahald]

Ok.. i did the movie.. didnt really have any issues..

I processed with dif4u.. i didnt deselect any pgcs there. i processed.. then ran scenaid and deselected the warning pgcs. (i left the trailer.) so i was left with the movie pgc and the trailer pgc. processed , batchifoupdated... playback was fine.. it did play blank stills the same length of the warnings.. and then went to the menu. pressed play movie and worked... i then opened pgc edit and inserted LinkTailPGC commands as the last pre-command for the dummy pgcs so it wouldnt play the dummies.. and then i saved. When played back there was now no pause.. you start the dvd and it pretty much goes right to the main menu.. movie plays fine.

i tried it again with numenu 4u doing the menu and results were the same. (it chopped the menu from 120mb to 25 mb btw) ;)

[2COOL]

i then opened pgc edit and inserted LinkTailPGC commands as the last pre-command for the dummy pgcs so it wouldnt play the dummies.. and then i saved. When played back there was now no pause.. If you are going to use PgcEdit to bypass a PGC's playback, just use the "Kill Playback" function. It takes a copy of the its post commands and appends it to the end of the pre commands. I did a guide of killing playback for titles here (http://www.videohelp.com/~r0lZ/pgcedit/third_party/2cool/kill_playback/kill_playback_titles.htm) but it can also be used with menus.

This way is safer as you could have LinkPGN, LinkPTT, or LinkCN commands before your LinkTailPGC and they will bypass it.

[Trahald]

@2cool.. thanks, i'll try that next time. i think thats what zeul was suggesting.. since i didnt see any jump commands in the pre commands i figured it was ok for my purposes.

[D3s7]

"Kill Playback" also adjusts cell play time doesn't it? (somewhat like the old 2cool guide on how to bypass items)

[2COOL]

"Kill Playback" also adjusts cell play time doesn't it? (somewhat like the old 2cool guide on how to bypass items)No. I believe you got PgcEdit's Kill Playback confused with IfoEdit's Delete Playback macro.They are not the same even though they seem to imply doing the same thing.

How IfoEdit's Delete Playback works is that it resets the PGC's Playback Time (BCD) to 00:00:00.00 and also sets the PGC's Number of Programs and Cells to 0. There are no changes in the PGC Command Table in this process.

Avoiding to repeat myself, the Kill Playback's algorithm is explained in my guide (http://www.videohelp.com/~r0lZ/pgcedit/third_party/2cool/kill_playback/kill_playback_titles.htm#About Kill Playback). But I can mention here that PgcEdit only does changes in the PGC Command Table.

What's common with both PgcEdit and IfoEdit's macro is that they only do changes to the IFO so there are no changes in the VOBs.