ways to get rid of some things, not others

[ztrmils]

The Motorcycle Diaries is an example of a movie that begins with warnings, logos, previews, etc., then goes to the main menu.

I'm interested in being able to play the dvd backup and have it navigate directly to the main menu, bypassing the other stuff. I'd like to delete some, but not all, of the extras. Often, I'm just dumping the menus altogether and just backing up the titles that I want. That's often fine, because the menus can be wasted space that could be devoted to the main movie. I then reencode with DVD-Rebuilder.

But if I want to keep the menu, the main movie, some extras and get rid of the other extras, warning screens, logos, etc., what's the best road to take to get there? So far, using IfoEdit, VOBblanker, PGCedit and the like are not getting me results that are fully successful. Sometimes I come close, but need to reprogram some of the commands. But I don't know exactly what to do.

BTW, another thing that would be great would be to dump the animation that leads to a menu. Again, referring to the movie above, there's first a menu where the user picks a language. After that, the main menu is accessed. But it takes at least 20 seconds before any choices can be made there because of audio and animation that comes first. How can I get to the final menu state and bypass (and delete) all the excess that precedes it?

I'm new to this stuff, but I write software and learn quickly. Any thoughts on tools, guides, etc.? I'd like to get some sort of overview that will help me understand better how the DVDs are authored and how to make edits. It strikes me that it's all fairly easy once I get the big picture better.

[Dimmer]

Check out the guides (http://www.doom9.org/mpg/dvdbackup-guides.htm), specifically the section Partial Backups. Read up on the tools you use - IfoEdit, VOBblanker, PGCedit - they can do everything you need. It's hard to fit it all in one post, so use the search - it's been covered in multiple threads.

This is a great site explaining DVD commands:
http://www.dvd-replica.com/DVD/vmcmdset.php

[Dimad]

There is a Flash presentation for "newbees" by Mirx on How to trace DVD navigation: http://www.dimadsoft.com/other/mirx/first_play.zip

[r0lZ]

In short, here is my method (mainly with PgcEdit, of course :))


In PgcEdit, locate the stuff to blank with the preview and the trace mode.
When a whole domain is not needed, blank it using the "Blank out all PGCs in domain" function. Guide (http://www.videohelp.com/~r0lZ/pgcedit/third_party/2cool/blank_titles/blank_vts_titles.htm) (start at point 6)
When a single PGC needs to be blanked in a title domain that includes PGCs you need to keep, note his reference to blank it later with VobBlanker.
Do also a "Kill PGC Playback" on that PGC. Guide (http://www.videohelp.com/~r0lZ/pgcedit/third_party/2cool/kill_playback/kill_playback_titles.htm)
When a single PGC needs to be blanked in a menu domain that includes PGCs you want to keep, "Kill PGC Playback" on that PGC, and accept the dialog asking if you want to remove the references. (The method is very similar to point 3.) Note in which domain you have blanked the PGC. You will have to process this menu domain with VobBlanker, later.
If there are menu domain with multiple LUs, remove all LUs except one, with the "Remove LU" function. Note in which VTS you have removed the LUs. You will also have to process this menu domain with VobBlanker.
If you want to go straight to the main menu or to the movie, use the "Jump to PGC upon DVD insert" function. This function doesn't blank anything. It modifies the nav commands so that your target PGC is played first. Guide (http://www.videohelp.com/~r0lZ/pgcedit/third_party/blutach/How_to_use_PgcEdit_new_macro.htm)
Save and quit PgcEdit. (Usually, I do some more processing with PgcEdit: Remove layer break, "Set DVD-Text General Name", "Enable All Operations" on some PGCs, etc... but that's another story.)
Load the DVD in VobBlanker, and change the process flag to "skip" for all titlesets, except for the titleset modified in points 3, 4 and 5.
Mark the PGCs you have modified in points 3 for blanking. Guide (http://www.videohelp.com/~jsoto/guides/VobBlanker/blanking/index.php) (Program chain (PGC) Blanking section.)
Note: You don't need to blank the PGCs removed in points 4 and 5. Since they are now unreferenced, VobBlanker will blank these VOB cells anyway. Just be sure to select these domains for processing.
Since you have killed the PGC playback in PgcEdit, you should disable the option to kill playback in VobBlanker. Usually, I leave only the "Use Input Folder", "Process Titles" and "Process Menus" options checked in the main window, and the "Use blank cells in unreferenced middle ones" in the More Options dialog.
Click PROCESS!!, and wait. Done with VobBlanker.
If there are animated menus, or still menus with audio, use MenuShrink to replace them with still frame menus. Guide (http://www.videohelp.com/%7Emenushrink/UserManual2.2/index.html)
Test. (I test usually with PgcEdit in trace mode, and with IfoEdit's "Play DVD" function. A good compatibility test is also to load the DVD in DVDShrink.)
If the DVD still doesn't fit on a DVD+R, use DVDShrink to compress the movie and/or to remove some unwanted streams. Guide (http://www.mrbass.org/dvdshrink/)
If you don't know if you may use safely the DVDShrink option "Preferences -> Output files -> Logical remapping of enabled streams", you should use the PgcEdit's macro "DVDShrink -> Check Streams Remapping Safety" before launching DVDShrink. (Since v0.6.1 beta, this function is now available in the DVDShrink plugin.)
If you have removed some streams with DVDShrink, you may want to disable the audio and/or subpic buttons that are using the removed streams. Do it with PgcEdit's menu editor. Use only the "Hide Button" method. Deleting a button completely can be dangerous.
Burn with PgcEdit. (This is important if you have blanked the VMGM VOB.) Guide (http://www.videohelp.com/~r0lZ/pgcedit/third_party/blutach/Burning%20With%20PgcEdit.htm)

Hope it helps.

NOTE: There are no guide to trace the DVD with PgcEdit, since it's so easy. Just go to trace mode, and click the Step or Run button. Everything is automatic! :) If you want to restart the trace at the beginning, be sure to click the Load DVD button (the up arrow on an horizontal bar).

[ztrmils]

Thanks very much to all of you. All this will help a lot. I'll work with this later when I have more time and post back.

[Skunk]

If you have the cash I would reccomend getting a copy of DVDRemake. It is extremely versatile but fairly easy to use. I am able in many cases to strip out enough stuff where the movie will fit on a DVD5 with no compression.

[ztrmils]

Would DVDRemake do all of what I asked about at the top of the thread, Skunk?

[Wheelie4]

Would DVDRemake do all of what I asked about at the top of the thread, Skunk?

Eveything you asked in the first post can be done in DVDRemakePro. Not sure about basic DVDRemake but I think yes. DVDRemakePro is my main editor although I use PGCEdit and VobBlanker occcasionally. But DVDRemakePro is simpler to me to use because I don't know all that DVD structure stuff. DVDRemakePro can do far far more than I'm capable of doing with it yet.

I'm pretty sure you can do it all in PGCEdit or VobBlanker or a combination of the two as well (there two powerful tools). But for me personally DVDRemakePro is a friendlier GUI wise.

[ztrmils]

I tried doing all this with the demo version of DVDRemakePro. It worked great and it was very quick and easy. I still want to study the other stuff so that I can learn more, but this looks like a nice approach.

Another nice thing. It's annoying to work with demo versions of programs that don't do everything, though it's understandable why their authors set them up that way. BUT, in this case, the limitations are a great feature. I can do what I want to do and create DVD files that, because most of the movie content is truncated, are very small and therefore, quick to create. So I can quickly make an .iso and test. Then if I know it works, I can presumably do the same thing in the full version and it should be fine.

I'd like to know if I can save a project in the demo version, open it in the full version and have it create full sized files for me. This is probably not the right forum for that one, but if someone knows...

I'll find the right place for that question and post it there.

[Wheelie4]

I'd like to know if I can save a project in the demo version, open it in the full version and have it create full sized files for me. This is probably not the right forum for that one, but if someone knows...

I'll find the right place for that question and post it there.

Not positive if that would work but I don't see why not. BTW Dimad that replied above in this thread is the Creator of DVDRemake and rolz that replied above in this thread is the Creator of PGCEdit. ;)

[spyhawk]

I'd like to know if I can save a project in the demo version, open it in the full version and have it create full sized files for me. This is probably not the right forum for that one, but if someone knows...Sure you can. It's just a project file which is not a limitation of the demo.

[gnutellafan]

Try DVD Remake. Its not free but incredibly easy to use and very powerful.