How to make a new menu or modify the background image of a menu

[goonix]

PART1: HOW TO MAKE A NEW 4:3 MENU WITH MUXMAN

Just for fun I have searched for a way to make a DVD menu using the free version of MuxMan. Now it works and I can achieve very nice graphics and fancy looking buttons with it. You can make motion menus (movie as background) with audio just as easy.

Used programms:

MuxMan
PgcEdit
VobBlanker
Graphic Editor
PgcDemux (optional)

This is the workflow:

1. Open your DVD that don't have a menu in PgcEdit.
- You can also start with "New DVD" in PgcEdit and import a VTST title.
2. Now you have to create the menu PGC.
- If you want to make a new VMGM menu, then select the "First-Play PGC", click the right mouse button and choose "New Menu" to get a VMGM dummy PGC.
- If you want to make a new VTSM menu, then select the VTST title and choose "New Menu" to get a VTSM dummy PGC.
- If there is already a PGC in the VMGM or VTSM domain, then choose "New dummy PGC" for creating the PGC of your new menu.
3. Open the created dummy PGC with the PGCEditor (double click this PGC) and "Create new blank cell".
4. Create a background picture BG.BMP in a true 4:3 format (e.g. 768x576, 720x540 or 640x480) in 24 Bit/16 millons colors and resize it to (720x576 PAL)(720x480 NTSC) with a graphic program. (see note #1)
- For a motion menu choose a short movie and demux it to mpv and mpa.
5. Create a highlight picture SUB.BMP (720X576 PAL)(720x480 NTSC) 4 Bit/16 colors.
- Use red (ff0000) for background.
- Use black (000000) for pattern.
- Use blue (0000ff) for emphasis 1.
- Use white (ffffff) for emphasis 2. (see note #2)
- Think of pattern, emphasis 1 and emphasis 2 simply as 3 colors that can be used for your button highlight. This way you can make nice 3-colored button highlights.
- If you use PhotoShop then save the subpicture BMP in OS/2 format and not in windows format.
6. Create a text file SUB.SST. Use following templates:

SST file for PAL:

st_format	2
Display_Start	forced
TV_Type		PAL
Tape_Type	NON_DROP
Pixel_Area	(2 574)
Display_Area	(0 2 719 574)
E2		(255 255 255 = = =)
E1		(0 0 255 = = =)
PA		(0 0 0 = = =)
BG		(255 0 0 = = =)
Directory	.
Color		(1 1 1 1)
Contrast	(0 0 0 0)
1		00:00:00:00	00:00:00:00	SUB.bmp
#

SST file for NTSC:

st_format	2
Display_Start	forced
TV_Type		NTSC
Tape_Type	NON_DROP
Pixel_Area	(2 479)
Display_Area	(0 2 719 479)
E2		(255 255 255 = = =)
E1		(0 0 255 = = =)
PA		(0 0 0 = = =)
BG		(255 0 0 = = =)
Directory	.
Color		(1 1 1 1)
Contrast	(0 0 0 0)
1		00:00:00:00	00:00:00:00	SUB.bmp
#

The SUB.SST file has to be in the same folder as the SUB.BMP file.
7. Open MuxMan and import BG.BMP as video. Add audio to your still menu if you want.
8. If you want to have a motion menu then import your mpv and mpa file instead of the BG.BMP.
9. Import SUB.SST as subpicture.
10. Press "START" and after your menu is muxed (only a few seconds) you can close MuxMan. (see note #3)
11. Open your DVD (the one where you have created the new menu PGC with PgcEdit) in VobBlanker.
12. In settings check only "Use Input Folder" and "Process Menus".
13. Replace the dummy menu cell with VTS_01_1.VOB muxed by MuxMan.
14. Press "PROCESS!!" and after your DVD is processed you can close VobBlanker.
15. Open the DVD (the one where you have replaced the menu cell with VobBlanker) in PgcEdit.
16. Point to the PGC with your replaced cell and press the MENU button.
17. Press the EDIT button to add new buttons.
18. Place the hotspot rectangles around your button highlight graphics.
- Hopefully you remember where they are. I use the background graphic as reference.
19. Use color scheme 1 for your buttons and edit color scheme 1.
- Set the opacity for backgound to 0 and set the opacity for pattern, emphasis 1 and emphasis 2 to 15.
- Use different colors for selected and activated buttons.
20. Choose the colors you prefer. If the colors don't fit your taste you can edit the CLUT (color look up table) with the PGCEditor.
21. Edit the adjacent button order.
22. Edit the button commands.
- Be aware that not all commands are allowed for buttons.
23. Close the menu editor and edit the PGC commands if necessary.
24. Set the Cell still time to 255.
- If you have added audio to your menu or if you use a motion menu:
-- Set audio stream 0 to ID 0 and use the "Fix number of streams in VMGM/VTSI_MAT tables" function.
-- Don't forget to add the cell command "LinkTopCell", set the still time to 0 and the cell command to 1.
25. Save your DVD and close PgcEdit.
26. Test your new menu with a software player (e.g.PowerDVD) and be proud!

If you take courage to do this procedure one time, you will find that it is really easy and the results are amazing. Depending on your graphic skills your self made menus can look much better than the results of DVDAuthorGUI and most of the expensive commercial programs.

You can make a still menu, a still menu with audio or a motion menu with audio in the same way. Try it!

-------------------------------------------

PART2: HOW TO MODIFY A 4:3 MENU WITH MUXMAN

In the same manner you can modify a 4:3 menu of a commercial DVD. You can change the text of a button, add a button, delete a button, change the background picture (or the background movie), change the audio track or make all other changes you can think on.

Additional program used:

SubRip (see note #4)

This is the workflow:

1. Open the DVD in PgcEdit
2. Open the menu you want to modify in the menu editor.
3. Press the "Preview" button and save the menu background as BG.BMP.
4. Export whole menu.
5. Export color schemes.
6. Close PgcEdit and open your DVD in VobBlanker.
7. Extract the menu cell you want to modify as VOB.
8. Don't process rather close VobBlanker.
9. If your menu contains audio or is a motion menu then demux the mpv and mpa file from the extracted VOB.
10. Open your extracted VOB with SubRip.
- Choose "Save SubPictures as BMP"
- Don't check the "option" check box.
11. After pressing the "Start" button you have to give a name for your SubPic. Now you can see the highlight picture.
- Under the "Cropping" tab set the picture size to (720x576 PAL)(720x480 NTSC). Set the xy alignment to center.
- Under the "Colors" tab set the palette to 4 bits. Don't check the "custom" check box.
- Under the "Posit" tab don't check the check box.
- Use Sonic Scenarist as preset.
12. Press OK and close SubRip.
13. Rename the SubPic to SUB.BMP.
14. Use the same SUB.SST as in part 1.
15. Edit the background picture and highlight picture (subpic) in the way you want.
- Edit both pictures that they will fit together.
16. Now you can mux the background picture (or the demuxed mpv file if you have a motion menu), the highlight picture (SST file) and optional the audio track with MuxMan.
17. Replace your orginal menu cell with the new muxed menu cell with VobBlanker in the same way as explained in part 1.
18. Open your DVD in PgcEdit and import your saved menu buttons and color scheme.
19. Edit your button hotspot rectangles if you have removed, added or changed the size of a button.
20. Edit the button commands and PGC commands if necessary.
21. Set the Cell still time to 255.
- If you have added audio to your menu or if you use a motion menu:
-- Set audio stream 0 to ID 0 and use the "Fix number of streams in VMGM/VTSI_MAT tables" function.
-- Don't forget to add the cell command "LinkTopCell", set the still time to 0 and the cell command to 1.
-- If your menu had audio or was a motion menu before, then these corrections are not needed and should be right already.
22. Save your DVD and test it.
23. Done!

------------------------------------------

Note #1
Yes, I know the ITU pixel aspect ratio discussions. But creating the picture in a true 4:3 format and then resizing to 720x576(480) looks good enough for my eyes.

Note #2
You may wonder why I have used these colors. The answer is: These are the colors I get from SubRip if I choose Scenarist as output format.

Note #3
There is a limit of 1440 bits per line for a subpicture. If you get a buffer underflow warning from MuxMan, you have to reduce the details of your subpicture.

Note #4
You can extract the subpicture also using jeanl's DVDSubEdit.

-------------------------------------------

[EDIT1] Changes according to posts from mpucoder, rolZ, kumi and tigrilito.
[EDIT2] Changes according to new versions of the used programs.
[EDIT3] Deleted some steps by a minimal modification of the SST file thanks to a hint of Sir Didymus.

goonix

[mpucoder]

If you seperate the equal signs in the sst file with a space (= = = just as in the mxp file) you won't get ampersands.
MuxMan 0.14 uses quant 1, which produces very good stills but can also use a lot of bits.

[goonix]

Thanks for your advice to change it to (= = =) mpucoder.

What about the buffer underflow? Can I avoid it?

goonix

[r0lZ]

Thanks for the mini-guide, goonix. Will try it.

Just some remarks:

23. Choose the colors you prefer. If the colors don't fit your taste you can export the CLUT (color look up table) as text file, edit the RGB values to the colors you like and import it back.

It is simpler to just click on the color you want to change, and edit it interactively.

Then save your DVD and re-open it again. PgcEdit fixes the VTSI_MAT table now.

It is not necessary to save and reload the DVD to fix the VTSI_MAT table: just call the "Domain Streams Attributes" (on any PGC belonging to the domain you want to fix) or the "Fix number of streams in VMGM/VTSI_MAT tables" function (which will fix all domains at once).


Also, I wonder why you use a subpic bitmap size of 720 x 574. Why not 720 x 576? Seems more logical, and easier to align the highlights with the background.
Also, it might be necessary to use 704 x XXX when the video stream is in that resolution.


Now, it should be nice to find a way to build the subpic for the 16:9 display modes. But it's not easy, I'm affraid.

[mpucoder]

Subpictures are always 720 wide, regardless of the video resolution, and either 478 or 573 high. These are the maximums for the encoded sub. You can, of course, make them smaller and position them almost anywhere on the 720x480 (720x576) screen. You may also use only part of the bitmap by setting the Pixel Area. You must avoid the top 2 lines of the screen, and for PAL avoid the bottom line.

[r0lZ]

Thanks, mpucoder! Subpic streams is something I haven't studied yet.

Originally Posted by mpucoder

... or 573 high.

So, 720x574 for PAL is too high?

[goonix]

@rolZ
Thanks for your advice. I have edited the suggested changes in my mini-guide.

I have used a 720x574 bitmap because MuxMan ignores the entry in the SST file and uses these values per default. But now I have changed my mind, because it is a lot easier to edit the background and the subpic according to its alignment if they have exactly the same size.


@mpucoder
If I use a 720x576 bitmap for the subpic it seems to work perfectly, but I don't use the top 2 lines and the bottom line for buttons - only for background (red color). Of course now I have to edit the mxp file accordingly.

Can I do it in this way?

I think the second sentence in your first reply was the answer to my buffer underun question. So we can simply ignore this message, right?

goonix

[mpucoder]

The Pixel_Area and Display_Area give you enough adjustment so that you can use a full size (720x576) bitmap and then position it correctly. For a 720x576 that is aligned with the video layer you can use:
Pixel_Area (2 574)
Display_Area (0 2 719 574)

The buffer underrun can cause problems in older players, as it also means the frame is larger than the buffer. I've never had a bmp so complex as to see an underrun, so if you could send me one that does it would be appreciated. Send it to muxman (at) mpucoder (dot) com
I'd like to see if the buffer (232K) size is exceeded. It may be possible to either suppress the message for stills, or get more sophisticated about the encoding.

[goonix]

@mpucoder
The settings Pixel_Area (2 574) and Display_Area (0 2 719 574) in the SST file work even if I use an aligned 720x576 subpic.
Thank you for your information!

The background picture that leads to an buffer underun is sent.

goonix

[goonix]

Originally Posted by r0lZ

Now, it should be nice to find a way to build the subpic for the 16:9 display modes. But it's not easy, I'm affraid.

It is easy, but you have to do a little bit more of work. Here is the mini-guide:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PART 1: HOW TO CREATE A NEW 16:9 MENU

First some basics about widescreen (16:9) menus:

You have to make sure that it can be used for widescreen TVs and for 4:3 TVs too. Since a 4:3 TV has 2 modes to display a widescreen menu (pan&scan and letterbox) 3 different subpics for the button highlights are possible. But you can force the usage of one of the display modes so you need at least only widescreen and pan&scan or widescreen and letterbox.

I have seen commercial DVDs with all 3 display modes implemented, but most common is a widescreen menu using only the middle 4:3 area for the buttons and forcing pan&scan for 4:3 TV sets. Then you have to create only 2 different subpictures for the button highlights.

There is a maximum of 36 buttons per menu. If you don't care about 4:3 TVs you need only the widescreeen subpic and you can use all 36 buttons. If you want to use 2 subpic streams you can have only 18 buttons in your menu (2x18=36) and if you want to have all 3 subpic streams you are restricted to 12 buttons (3x12=36).

But to be complete here is the way to create a menu with all 3 subpics:
You have to follow the mini-guide for 4:3 menus. Only the additional or different steps are mentioned.

------
Step A (Create the menu pictures):

- Create a background picture BG.BMP (1024x576 PAL) (854x480 NTSC) 24bit/16 million colors.
- Create an aligned highlight picture SUB.BMP (1024x576 PAL) (854x480 NTSC) 4bit/16 colors.
(see note #1)
- For the highlight picture use only the 4 colors: red for the background and black, blue and white for the button highlights.
- Copy the highlight picture 2 times so we have 3 identical highlight pictures.
- Resize the pictures as follows:

BG (background): Rezize the pic to (720x576 PAL) (720x480 NTSC)
WS (widescreen): Resize the pic to (720x576 PAL) (720x480 NTSC)
LB (letterbox):
1. Resize the pic to (720x432 PAL) (720x360 NTSC)
2. Resize the canvas to (720x576 PAL) (720x480 NTSC) keeping the pic in center
3. Fill the empty canvas on top and bottom with red color
PS (pan&scan):
1. Resize the pic to (960x576 PAL) (960x480 NTSC)
2. Resize the canvas to (720x576 PAL) (720x480 NTSC) keeping the pic in center
(pic will be cropped left and right)

------
Step B (Mux the menu pictures):

You have to create 3 SST files (WS.SST, LB.SST and PS.SST). The only difference is the name of the subpic in its content (WS.bmp or LB.bmp or PS.bmp). The SST files have to be in the same folder as the BMP files.

SST file for PAL:

st_format	2
Display_Start	forced
TV_Type		PAL
Tape_Type	NON_DROP
Pixel_Area	(2 574)
Display_Area	(0 2 719 574)
E2		(255 255 255 = = =)
E1		(0 0 255 = = =)
PA		(0 0 0 = = =)
BG		(255 0 0 = = =)
Directory	.
Color		(1 1 1 1)
Contrast	(0 0 0 0)
1		00:00:00:00	00:00:00:00	WS.bmp
#

SST file for NTSC:

st_format	2
Display_Start	forced
TV_Type		NTSC
Tape_Type	NON_DROP
Pixel_Area	(2 479)
Display_Area	(0 2 719 479)
E2		(255 255 255 = = =)
E1		(0 0 255 = = =)
PA		(0 0 0 = = =)
BG		(255 0 0 = = =)
Directory	.
Color		(1 1 1 1)
Contrast	(0 0 0 0)
1		00:00:00:00	00:00:00:00	WS.bmp
#

The line containing the BMP name in the .sst file MUST be followed by a carriage return (Enter key) for muxman 0.14g to work correctly! (Should be OK if you copy and paste this template.)

- Now load your background picture BG.BMP as video into MuxMan or load a 16:9 mpv video file if you want to have a motion menu.
- Save the MuxMan project as mxp file and change the Display Mode from "4:3" to "P/S and LB", "Only Panscan", or "Only Letterbox" with a text editor, save it and reload the mxp file. We chose "P/S and LB" for our example.
- Load your audio track (optional).
- Load your first subpicture WS.SST and press (mark) the "wide" button.
- Choose subpicture number 2 on the MuxMan GUI, load LB.SST and press (mark) the "LB" button.
- Choose subpicture number 3, add PS.SST as third subpicture and press (mark) the "PS" button.
- The subpicture track 1 should have the stream IDs "W 20 LB 21 PS 22" now.
- By pressing the START button your new menu will be muxed.

------
Step C (Replace the menu cell):

- Open your DVD in VobBlanker and replace the "dummy" menu cell (see also mini-guide for 4:3 menus) with the VOB that MuxMan has created.
- In settings check only "Use Input Folder" and "Process Menus".
- Skip all VTS but the one that contains your modified menu.
- Process your DVD.

------
Step D (Edit the button hotspot rectangles):

- Open your DVD in PgcEdit, point to your menu PGC and click on the "Domain streams attributes" button (the film reel). Choose 16:9 as video format, check the automatic pan&scan and the automatic letterbox or even only the one you have created and press OK.

- Open the menu editor, choose group all, add the number of buttons you need, define the adjacent buttons, choose color scheme 1 and edit the button commands.

- Choose group 1 (widescreen) and place the hotspot rectangles for your widescreen buttons.
- Choose group 2 (letterbox) and place the hotspot rectangles for your letterbox buttons.
- Choose group 3 (pan&scan) and place the hotspot rectangles for your pan&scan buttons.
(see note #3)

- Edit color scheme 1 and close the menu editor.

- Open the menu PGC in the PGC Editor by double clicking and press the subpicture stream setup button 0.
- Set the subpicture IDs 4:3 to 0x20, wide to 0x20, letterbox to 0x21 and pan&scan to 0x22. The streams for 4:3 and wide should be the same.

- Set the cell still time to 255 for a still menu and to 0 if you have a motion menu or audio.
To loop a motion menu or a still menu with audio set the cell command to 1 and add the cell command "LinkTopCell".

- Use "Fix number of streams in VMGM/VTSI_MAT tables" under the DVD tab.

After editing the PGC commands (e.g. add a jump to root menu in the First-Play PGC) you can save your DVD.

-----
Note #1: If your graphic editor is capable of using layers, then edit the highlight picture as second layer and export it to a different picture if finished. This way it is easier to align background and highlights.
If you use PhotoShop then save the subpicture BMP in OS/2 format and not in windows format.

Note #2: Resizing the background picture is not a problem since it has 16 million colors and is very good antialiased after shrinking to 720. But SUBs have only 4 colors and therefore automatic antialiasing is not possible. That's the reason you sometimes have to do some fine tuning with your graphic editor after resizing to 720 (but only if you are meticulous).

Note #3: If you have checked per accident the wrong check boxes or none at all in the domain stream attributes window, then some group buttons may be greyed out. To enable the groups you need to delete all buttons, set the stream attributes correctly and open the menu editor again.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PART 2: HOW TO EDIT A 16:9 MENU

Sometimes you want to edit or delete the text of a menu button, because even if you hide or delete a button in PgcEdit, the text on the background is still visible. This can easily be done with VobBlanker. HOW TO REPLACE A MENU BACKGROUND WITH VOBBLANKER

But if you need to modify the subpicture itself, then here is the way how you can edit the background text, edit the highlights or even add a new button to the menu of a commercial DVD.

To change a button text of the background video of a motion menu, have a look here.
Then mux the modified background video as described in Step E below.
Using your own video file for the background of a motion menu is also not a problem.
Another option is to change a motion menu to a still menu using jeanl's MenuShrink or the Motion2Still function in jsoto's VobBlanker.

------
Step A (Export the original menu structure):

- Open your DVD in PgcEdit and export the menu background as BG.BMP, the whole menu (button positions) and the color schemes of the menu PGC you want to modify.
- Open the PGC editor by double clicking and press the "Current Domain Stream Attributes" button. Note which display modes are set (pan&scan, letterbox or both).
- Press the "Sub-picture Streams" button 0 and note which streams are set for 4:3, wide, letterbox and pan&scan (0x20 ... 0x22).

------
Step B (Extract the menu cell):

Extracting the menu cell you want to edit isn't really necessary for a still menu. But it will simplify the process of finding the concerning subpictures.
- Load your DVD in VobBlanker and extract the menu cell you want to modify as small VOB.
- Exit VobBlanker without processing.
- Demux the extracted VOB if you have a motion menu or a still menu with audio.

------
Step C (Extract the subpictures):

- Open your extracted small menu VOB with SubRip and choose "Save Subpictures as BMP", no options.
- After pressing the "Verify" button you can see the number of streams in the display above. Stream 00 has the ID 0x20, stream 01 has the ID 0x21 and stream 02 has the ID 0x22.
(see note #4)
- Mark the stream you want to extract and press the "Start" button. You have to specify path and name of the subpic BMP. To make it easy choose a name corresponding to your notes in Step A (e.g. for stream 0x20 use WS.BMP, for stream 0x21 and 0x22 use PS.BMP or LB.BMP depending on the original menu).
- Now you can see the subpic. Set the picture size to (720x576 PAL) (720x480 NTSC), set the color palette to 4 bits, choose Sonic Scenarist, don't use custom colors and press OK.
- Do the same for all subpicture streams.
(see note #5)

------
Step D (Edit the menu):

- Edit the background picture in the way you want.
- Edit the highlight pictures if needed.
(see note #6)

------
Step E (Mux the menu pictures):

- You need as many SST files as you have subpictures for your menu (WS.SST, LB.SST and/or PS.SST).
- Choose the PAL or NTSC SST file template from above, but don't forget to set the correct subpicture name.
- Now load your background picture BG.BMP as video into MuxMan, use the modified background video or use your own 16:9 video file for the background of a motion menu.
- Save the MuxMan project as mxp file and change the Display Mode from "4:3" to "P/S and LB", "Only Panscan", or "Only Letterbox" with a text editor to the same as your original DVD (as you have noted in Step A), save it and reload the mxp file.
(see note #7)
- Load your demuxed audio track (optional).
- Load your first subpicture WS.SST and press (mark) the "wide" button. It gets stream ID 0x20 (w 20).
- Now choose subpicture number 2 on the MuxMan GUI and load the SST file for stream 0x21 (you have noted in Step A if it is letterbox or pan&scan) and press (mark) the related button.
- Do the same for stream 0x22 if you have a third subpic.
- The subpicture track 1 should have the correct stream IDs now (e.g. W 20 PS 21).
- By pressing the START button your modified menu will be muxed.

------
Step F (Replace the menu cell):

- Open your DVD in VobBlanker and replace the original menu cell with the VOB that MuxMan has created.
- In settings check only "Use Input Folder" and "Process Menus".
- Skip all VTS but the one that contains your modified menu.
- Process your DVD.

------
Step G (Restore the original menu structure):

- Open your modified DVD in PgcEdit and import the whole menu (button positions) and the color schemes.
- Edit the hotspot rectangles and button commands if needed (depends on the changes you have made).
- Save your DVD including your modified buttons.

------
Note #4: Even if the menu has only pan&scan or only letterbox, you can find sometimes all 3 subpicture streams encoded in the menu VOB. Then extract all streams even the one you don't really need.

Note #5: SubRip adds a ".1" to the name. You can delete this name extension or use it "as is" within the SST file later. You don't need the srm file.

Note #6: It could be easier for editing to expand your background picture from (720x576 PAL) (720x480 NTSC) to its original size (1024x576 PAL) (854x480 NTSC) and resize it back afterward. Editing the subpictures is normally not needed. But if you want to edit them, then I recommend to use the 720 pixel format. You can rezize the widescreen subpic easily to the original size for editing, but for the letterbox and pan&scan highlight pictures resizing is more difficult (going the way backwards as described in "How to create a new 16:9 menu").

Note #7: If your orignal stream attributes are "Only Panscan" or "Only Letterbox" but you have found 3 subpicture streams using SubRip, then set the Display Mode within MuxMan's mxp file to "P/S and LB".

------
[EDIT1] Changed the description of resizing the pan&scan subpic for NTSC according to Mystiqq and mpucoder, thanks!
[EDIT2] Added a comment to the SST file according to a tip from kumi and tigrilito, thanks!
[EDIT3] Added a link to a guide for modifying the background video. Thanks, borry!
[EDIT4] Cosmetic Changes.
[EDIT5] Deleted some steps by a minimal modification of the SST file thanks to a hint of Sir Didymus.

goonix

[r0lZ]

Great job, goonix!

[goonix]

Thanks, rolZ!
I only have collected the informations by searching the doom9 forums.
Good to have doom9 and the authors of the wonderful tools!

PS: I wish I were able to make such nice guides as 2COOL...

goonix

[Taelon]

The guides look great goonix!
I look forward to trying out the 16:9 guide soon.

[kumi]

Thank you for your guides, goonix! Most helpful.

I am using your method to replace the menu background and subpicture on a static 4:3 NTSC menu with audio. The menu background and audio multiplex perfectly, but I cannot get the subpicture to appear correctly.

This is the original menu subpicture on my DVD (as ripped by SubRip.) The blue areas are the 5 button highlights:
http://www.piracy.se/~kumi/doom9/goo...subpicture.bmp

If I multiplex that same BMP with Muxman 0.14g, the resultant BMP (as ripped by SubRip) is all-red, the blue highlights have disappeared:
http://www.piracy.se/~kumi/doom9/goo...ure_output.bmp

My .sst file ( http://www.piracy.se/~kumi/doom9/goonix/SUB.sst ) is:

st_format		2
Display_Start	forced
TV_Type		NTSC
Tape_Type	NON_DROP
Pixel_Area	(2 479)
Display_Area	(0 2 719 479)
E2		(255 255 255 = = =)
E1		(0 0 255 = = =)
PA		(0 0 0 = = =)
BG		(255 0 0 = = =)
Directory		.
# Insert your correct path in the line above!
Color		(1 1 1 1)
Contrast		(0 0 0 0)
1		00:00:00:00	00:01:00:00	original_subpicture.bmp

and my muxman.log is:

MuxMan version 0.14g
Accepted image G:\bt\WILD\SUBPIC MENU BMP\SUBPIC MENU.bmp
Accepted audio G:\bt\WILD\MENUDEMUX\AudioFile_80.ac3
Opened sub 1 file G:\bt\WILD\MENUDEMUX\SUB.sst.
15:09:37 Begin multiplex.
Maximum audio duration 1776 fields.
new graphics buffer size 414720.
graphics buffer size 1244160.
Starting scene Segment_1_scn1 at 00:00:00:00
SeqEnd at 181BC.
Bytes remaining in buffer = 0.
15:09:39 End multiplex.
Bitrate - avg: 255467, min: 196411 (lba 181), max: 1800439 (lba 0).
Shortest GOP has 2 fields, longest GOP has 2 fields.
Fields: 1776, Still fields: 1774, VOBU: 59, Sectors: 462.

The relevant (?) portion of my .mxp ( http://www.piracy.se/~kumi/doom9/goonix/SUB.mxp ) reads:

		Item=Sub-Picture Stream
		{
			Stream Number=1
			Language Extension=1
			Display Mode=unspecified
			Item=Sub-Picture Play
			{
				File=.\original_subpicture.bmp
				Start=00:00:00:00 (0)
				Forced Start=Yes
				Time Code=NTSC drop
				Duration=00:01:00:01
				Origin=0,2
				Display Area=0,2,719,479
				Color 1(Pa)=0000ff = & &
				Color 2(E1)=000000 = & &
				Color 3(E2)=ff0000 = & &
				Color=1 1 1 1
				Contr=0 0 0 0
			}
		}

Any idea why the new menu subpicture is all red?

[mpucoder]

When I load your .sst file I get the following in the .mxp file:

		Item=Sub-Picture Stream
		{
			Stream Number=1
			Language Extension=1
			Display Mode=unspecified
			Item=Sub-Picture Play
			{
				File=.\original_subpicture.bmp
				Start=00:00:00:00 (0)
				Forced Start=Yes
				Time Code=NTSC non-drop
				Duration=00:01:00:00
				Origin=0,2
				Display Area=0,2,719,479
				Color 1(Pa)=000000 = = =
				Color 2(E1)=0000ff = = =
				Color 3(E2)=ffffff = = =
				Color=1 1 1 1
				Contr=0 0 0 0
			}
		}

Are you using WinXP?

[kumi]

Indeed, WinXP Service Pack 1.

EDIT:

mpucoder, I replaced your Sub-Picture Stream Item section into my .mxp, and now the subpic seems to be correct:
http://www.piracy.se/~kumi/doom9/goo...ile_output.bmp

Is there an error in the .sst parsing perhaps?

[mpucoder]

There are all manner of problems with a small number of WinXP systems. I believe they are all fixed in version 0.15, as they all traced back to one api call.

[kumi]

Thanks very much for your help, mpucoder.

Curiously enough, after determining that the original sub-picture BMP was muxing correctly, I tried with a modified .BMP and got the all-red problem again.

It turns out that Photoshop (7.0) does _something_ when saving a BMP that is incompatible with Muxman. Editing and saving the BMP in the open-source editor GIMP produces no problems.

Problematic .BMP edited in Photoshop 7.0:
http://www.piracy.se/~kumi/doom9/goo...d_in_PS7.0.bmp

Problem-free .BMP edited in GIMP 2.2.8 (windows):
http://www.piracy.se/~kumi/doom9/goo...ed_in_GIMP.bmp

The only difference between the two that I can determine is the color table: the Photoshop file has all FFFFFF colors after the first 4 colors, while the GIMP file has all 000000 colors (just like the original subpicture BMP demuxed from my DVD-Video.)

EDIT:

In fact, Photoshop saves the bitmap as an indexed 4-color BMP, while The GIMP save it as a indexed 16-color BMP.

[goonix]

@kumi
I have tried your SST file and it works for me. Seems to be correct.
Using the dot as Directory path is a good idea!

@mpucoder
Testing kumi's sst file and original_subpicture.bmp on a computer of my friend (WinXP SP2) MuxMan's log is:

MuxMan version 0.14g
Accepted image C:\TEST\pic1.bmp
Opened sub 1 file C:\TEST\SUB.sst.
unable to open .\original_subpicture.bm, file skipped.

-> Muxman tries to open a bm and not a bmp pic!

If I change the name to original_subpicture.bm, MuxMan's log is:

MuxMan version 0.14g
Accepted image C:\TEST\pic1.bmp
Opened sub 1 file C:\TEST\SUB.sst.
unable to open .\original_subpicture.b, file skipped.

-> The last letter is always cut.

The PAL tests on his computer have been OK however!

So you are right, the parsing in MuxMan version 0.14g causes errors with some WinXP systems.

If anyone get the same problem using MuxMan, then you have to copy the template of mpucoder's post above into your mxp file and reload it. Don't forget to edit the file name of your subpicture. Then it will work!

Waiting for MuxMan version 0.15...

goonix

[kumi]

Originally Posted by goonix

unable to open .\original_subpicture.bm, file skipped.

That's because you are missing a carriage return (Enter key) after the sub-picture line in your .SST file. That had me stumped for a while too