Killing some unwanted clips

[jairovital]

Hi

I have a DVD with too many VTSs. As a commercial DVD it forces to watch too many clips before the main title and doesn't allow to skip or accelerate the speed. It's far annoying.

I like very much the tool PGCEdit, wrote by a fellow from this forum. The problem is that the program is quite complex and I cannot understand everything it does. But I know it is able to do what I'm trying to do:

Kill the "First Play" (black screen with some FBI Warnings like) clips and allow to accelerate some other ones. It's not enough: I'd like to delete some VTS (unwanted trailers). This last todo item I'm not sure if PGCEdit could do, because that VTS could be inside a compiled VOB. But I'd like to know if it's possible.

Below you find some warnings I got when I open the DVD:



I clicked YES for all.

Here, there are some info of the DVD, like PGCs List, PGCs Params and Cells and Calls Cross References:

http://www.4shared.com/file/PCE9OBE0/pgcInfos.html

It's only a 7 Kb zip file.

So, if you guys can explain how to eliminate that clips, I'd appreciate.

[redwudz]

Someone else will have to help you with PGCEdit, but I just use DVDShrink with no compression if I just want the main movie and not all the other stuff.

[r0lZ]

I clicked YES for all.

Good!


Killing a single PGC or a whole VTST (or VTSM or VMGM) domain is really easy.

To kill a single PGC (such as a VMGM or a VTSM PGC), select it and use PGC -> Kill PGC Playback (or Control-k, or the 18th icon in the toolbar). If you kill a menu PGC, PgcEdit will ask if you want to convert it to a dummy, and for a Title PGC, if you want to blank it. I usually answer yes. Later, you can use FixVTS to regain some disc space, if it's necessary.

To kill a whole domain (all PGCs of the VMGM, or of a VTSM or VTST), right-click any PGC of the domain, and select "Blank out all PGCs in domain". In the option window, accepts the defaults. The VOB file will be completely removed if the domain is a Menu domain, and replaced by a tiny VOB if it is a Title domain. You don't need to use FixVTS.
Note that killing a domain doesn't remove it. It will still be "visited" during the playback of the DVD, but no video will be shown, and the navigation will continue (almost) immediately.
Removing completely a PGC is a difficult operation, and I can't easily explain how to do it, as the method depends of the authoring of the DVD.


Enabling the skip and fast-forward operations might be more complex.

To enable the FF button and skipping a PGC with the Next Chapter remote buttons, the easiest method is usually to right-click the PGC and select Enable All Operations.
Note that doing so removes ALL PUOs of the current PGC. In some (rare) cases, that might not be what you want. (Especially, it is not recommended to remove the PUOs of the games, and of most menus. It is also not recommended to remove the Angle Change PUO in multi-angle titles, as you will see the angle icon appearing during the playback of the title on most players.)
Also, the VOB PUOs are not modified. If you need to remove them too, use the Prohibited User Operations plugin.

Enable All Operations sets also the NextPGCN link to point to itself. Unfortunately, nobody knows for sure if it is legal to do it. Anyway, as far as I know, doing so allow the user to use the Next button to skip the PGC with most players. If you are unlucky and your player doesn't take it into account, you will have to create a new dummy chapter: double-click the PGC, and use "Create New Cell". Tick the option "Create a new blank VOB cell". A dummy chapter will be added, allowing you to skip the main chapter with the remote.

Note also that the FF button doesn't work with most players when the title is a "not-one_sequential" title. (Not sequential titles are not usual, except in games, slideshows and special titles made of several PGCs or played in random or shuffle mode.)

Last point: if your player still refuse to fast forward a title, you may have to rebuild the time map of the title. You can do it for the whole DVD anyway (Title -> Rebuild all time maps of DVD).

Unfortunately, it is normally impossible to fast forward during the playback of a menu PGC (although some software players allow you to do it), so if your DVD has annoying screens in the menu domains, you will have to watch them, or to kill them completely. But if it's a still frame, verify if there is a cell still time: double-click the PGC and see if there are non-zero values in the Cell Still Time column of the cell table. If it's the case, resetting them to 0 can help.


I know that it's not what you want, but note that PgcEdit has an handy function to jump directly to any PGC when the DVD is inserted. So, if you want to skip stuff at the beginning of the playback of the DVD, you can use it. (PGC -> Jump to PGC Upon DVD Insert. See the help window that explains how to use it.) Note that this method modifies the navigation commands of the DVD to jump as fast as possible to the target PGC, but doesn't blank the skipped PGCs or remove the menu VOBs, so if you need to regain some disc space, use the methods explained above first, then use Jump2PGC to skip the useless jumps to blanked PGCs, as they can slow down the startup of the DVD.

Good luck!


[EDIT] I forgot to say that another method to skip annoying PGC with the remote (and it's a method that works well also for PGCs in menus domains) is to add an invisible button or BOV. To interrupt the playback of the current PGC, you will simply have to press the OK button. Let me know if you need that method.

[jairovital]

Someone else will have to help you with PGCEdit, but I just use DVDShrink with no compression if I just want the main movie and not all the other stuff.

redwudz, I was writing a reply for you when r0lZ was faster and posted a complete explanation of the use of the tool.

I'd say that using DVDShrink I lost all menus and buttons functionality in Re-Author Mode. My DVD has many menus and buttons. It's not a good way to go.

If you kill a menu PGC, PgcEdit will ask if you want to convert it to a dummy, and for a Title PGC, if you want to blank it. I usually answer yes. Later, you can use FixVTS to regain some disc space, if it's necessary.

Yes, that's the point: I want to regain some disc space. So, is it possible to extract from the VOBs just the part I want? And PGCEdit makes a new VOB? Interesting...

The VOB file will be completely removed if the domain is a Menu domain, and replaced by a tiny VOB if it is a Title domain. You don't need to use FixVTS.

The same. Good to know.

Note that killing a domain doesn't remove it. It will still be "visited" during the playback of the DVD, but no video will be shown, and the navigation will continue (almost) immediately.

The clip remains in it? But what you mean with killing? I think it woud vanished 4ever...

Note that doing so removes ALL PUOs of the current PGC. In some (rare) cases, that might not be what you want.

PUO? Acronym for what?

... is to add an invisible button or BOV. To interrupt the playback of the current PGC, you will simply have to press the OK button. Let me know if you need that method.

Yes, I'd like to know much more about your excellent program. Did you see TXT files I attached before? Reading them is it possible to you to know what is we're talking about, how to behave my DVD and to send to me some clues?

[manono]

PUO=Prohibited User Operation.

[r0lZ]

So, is it possible to extract from the VOBs just the part I want? And PGCEdit makes a new VOB? Interesting...

Not exactly. When PgcEdit blanks a cell (or a PGC), it simply adds a tiny black cell (20KB) to the VOB, and assigns it instead of the original cell(s) in the IFOs. So, if the blanked cell is not reused by another PGC elsewhere, it becomes unreferenced, and you can use FixVTS to remove it. (FixVTS drops the unreferenced material anyway when it processes a VOB file.)

In the other hand, when you blank a whole domain, PgcEdit knows that, by definition, everything will become unreferenced, so instead of adding the tiny cell to the VOB, PgcEdit can replace the whole VOB by the tiny cell, and of course, you don't need to process it with FixVTS.

So, when you want to remove all cells from a specific domain, I recommend to blank the whole domain, as it's faster and everything is made directly by PgcEdit. But if you want to blank some PGCs and keep other meterial in the same domain, you have to use Kill PGC Playback and FixVTS. After the FixVTS pass, your VOB will contain the original cells minus the blanked cells (unless they are used elsewhere) plus the tiny black cell.

Kill PGC Playback does two things: it modifies the pre-commands of the PGC so that when they are executed, the video content of the PGC is not played, and the navigation continues directly. That part does NOT modify the video content of the PGC. But PgcEdit asks you also if you want to blank or clear the content of the PGC. If you accept, it adds a blank cell to the VOB and assigns it instead of the original video content of the PGC, and again, you can use FixVTS to remove the original material. (In the case of a menu, no blank cell is added, because a menu PGC does not need to have video content, but the principle is identical: in both cases, the original content is left in place.)

Note also that processing the VOB files with VobBlanker does exactly the same thing than FixVTS: the unreferenced material is removed. (Usually, I prefer to use FixVTS, faster and easier, but if you need to use VobBlanker for another reason, you don't need to process the same domains with FixVTS.)

[r0lZ]

You can create an invisible button over cells you want to be able to skip easily. If the PGC is in a Title domain, the button is called "BOV" (Button Over Video), but the principle is identical.

1. Select the PGC and open the menu viewer. (If the PGC is a Title and that title has not yet been scanned for BOVs, PgcEdit will offer to scan it now. Accept and scan the VOBs.)

2. In the menu viewer, select the cell you want to be able to skip in the drop-down menu in the top side of the menu viewer. You will have to repeat the operations below for all cells of the PGC. Usually, it is not necessary to process the last cell if it is a tiny cells (less than 1 second) and if it has no cell still time.

3. Click the Edit button to open the Menu Editor. At this point, PgcEdit should ask if you want to create a new button. Answer Yes. If the video is in 16:9 format, PgcEdit asks also if you want to create 2 groups. For what we will do, it doesn't matter (as the button is hidden anyway), and I usually answer No.

4. Now, you should see the menu with a new button. Take care, as by default the button will be visible! To be sure that it will be invisible, be sure to assign it colour scheme 1 (this is the default), and edit that colour scheme. In the colour scheme editor, push the 8 Contract (Opacity) sliders to the right (value 15), so that the button highlight will be completely transparent. Close the Colour Scheme editor.

5. In the Menu Editor, it might be a good idea to push the Width and Height sliders to the right, so that the button occupies the whole surface. (This is useful only when the DVD is played on a PG, so that clicking anywhere on the image with the mouse will activate the button. You don't need to do that if you want to play the DVD only in a standalone player.)

6. The button command is by default LinkTailPGC. This is usually what you want. But in some case, it might be necessary to change it.
- If the current cell has a cell command, you must usually replace the LinkTailPGC by the cell command.
- If you want to just skip the current cell and jump to the next cell in the PGC, change the command to LinkNextCell

7. Be sure to tick the "Advanced" option in the lower left corner of the editor window. Changes the "When the buttons are displayed, force the selection of button in sprm(8)" to "button 1".

8. Accept the changes, and, if the PGC has several cells, repeat steps 2 to 7 to process the other cells.

Save all and verify with a good software player that everything works as expected, and if the button is not visible.

The method works well, but it has a drawback: in step 7, we have forced the player to use button 1. That's necessary since there is only one button. But doing so forces the sprm(8) to contain button 1 instead of whatever it contains normally when the PGC is played. Usually, when a DVD starts, sprm(8) contains button 1, but if for some reason a command executed previously has changed if to another button, then it will be reset to button 1. In some cases, that might not be what you want. So, I do not recommend to use this method on PGCs that are played after the main menu has been reached, unless you don't care of which button is selected when the next menu will be played.

[jairovital]

Thank you manono, for the meaning of PUO.

And r0lZ, I'll have a long sunday studying and learning your detailed steps. I can see, everything I need to do, was fully explained.

Thank you, man!

[classfour]

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