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  1. Hey all, I am trying to make what I think should be a very simple menu for a DVD I am making myself from an LD capture, a VHS audio track, and some subtitles I made myself. Basically, what I have in mind is these three options in lieu of a typical series of nested menus:
    1) Play in Japanese with English subtitles
    2) Play in Japanese
    3) Play in English with a few captions for onscreen text

    So basically, I want three buttons, each of which selects an audio track, a subtitle track (or no subtitle track), and plays the video.

    I am having big trouble making this happen in DVD-lab Pro though. I first tried a VMG menu, but couldn't get it to work. Then I used VTS menu commands in the VMG menu (two SetSTN commands and PlayTT), which I know is a no-no, but it actually worked on my DVD player, though it didn't work on my PS3 or in VLC. Then I tried to make a VTS menu, which again worked on the DVD player, but not on the PS3, and it crashed VLC.

    The best case scenario, I think, would be to make this work in a VMG menu so that I could relatively easily add it to the VOB files I have already made. But I am not sure what commands I would use. Could anybody possibly clue me in?

    Apologies in advance for noobishness.
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  2. I'd do it the way commercial DVD's are made, otherwise there is always a brief moment for user trying to figure out what is going on = annoying. Not mentioning someone might try watch Japanese audio with Japanese subs to keep volume down etc...
    So I'd set audio track and subtitle track independently.
    Main menu with jumps into > -subtitle menu -audio menu -movie

    If you insist on your version, you could direct each menu button into dummy PGC, that could be located in VMG (each button would jump into different pgc) , where in pre-command section you just set audio and subtitles and jump back into menu or directly to movie. So while in connection window, right click empty space/add/add command object/In VMG domain and then right click/Edit VM commands. Personally, I'd just create that dummy menu in DVD Lab Pro and that's it. Navigation I'd do in PgcEdit. It is much easier to write those commands in there.
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  3. Originally Posted by _Al_ View Post
    It is much easier to write those commands in there.
    I agree. And since one setting could easily be made the default (for me it would be Japanese audio with English subtitles), you could get away with fewer buttons.
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  4. Originally Posted by _Al_ View Post
    I'd do it the way commercial DVD's are made, otherwise there is always a brief moment for user trying to figure out what is going on = annoying. Not mentioning someone might try watch Japanese audio with Japanese subs to keep volume down etc...
    I thought about making Japanese subs, but I haven't, so that's a moot point. The way I want to set it up gives three options, leaving out only three possibilities:
    1) Japanese with English subtitles only for stuff that's written on screen. I guess this would be for people who can understand spoken, but not written, Japanese.
    2) English, with fullblown English captions that don't match the words in the dub (the creators of the dub put matching lip movements over the more literal approach the subtitles take).
    3) English with no captions, for those who can read Japanese but can't understand spoken Japanese, or alternatively for those who just don't want any text on screen, even five or six times. :P

    I still hold that the three-button approach is more economical than a "play" button to play, a button to go to the options menu, and a separate menu with four buttons plus an additional "back" button, just to include options that hardly anyone would care about.

    Originally Posted by _Al_ View Post
    If you insist on your version, you could direct each menu button into dummy PGC, that could be located in VMG (each button would jump into different pgc) , where in pre-command section you just set audio and subtitles and jump back into menu or directly to movie. So while in connection window, right click empty space/add/add command object/In VMG domain and then right click/Edit VM commands. Personally, I'd just create that dummy menu in DVD Lab Pro and that's it. Navigation I'd do in PgcEdit. It is much easier to write those commands in there.
    Awesome, thanks. This sounds like a great idea. I will try it and report back.


    Originally Posted by manono View Post
    And since one setting could easily be made the default (for me it would be Japanese audio with English subtitles), you could get away with fewer buttons.
    Well, yeah, but I would still need to a button to play the default setting, no? So you're still ultimately talking three buttons.
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  5. Originally Posted by Eyedunno View Post
    Well, yeah, but I would still need to a button to play the default setting, no? So you're still ultimately talking three buttons.
    You need a 'Play' button back in the main menu, yes. But if you do it the way _Al_ suggested (unless I misunderstood what he was saying), "Main menu with jumps into > -subtitle menu -audio menu -movie", then no.

    Maybe you're thinking of having just a single menu for the video/audio/subtitle choices (with maybe a separate scenes/chapters menu), then yes, the number of buttons doesn't change.
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  6. Okay, thanks very much for the suggestion. Now the menu works as I want it to on a DVD player, a PS3, and a PC.

    Oddly though, chapters are not even detected in VLC, while in ArcSoft Total Media Theatre, I can navigate chapters fine with the previous and next buttons, but the Chapters heading in the right-click context menu only shows Chapter 1. Chapters did work perfectly in VLC before I added the menu. Any ideas as to what might have caused this and how to fix it?

    Edit: I think I fixed my chapters issue in a roundabout way by using the full movie (with chapters) instead of a dummy file when compiling it in DVD-lab Pro, followed by transferring over all the VTS_01 files. Presumably there is a far better way to do it though; I imagine there is something in VIDEO_TS that I needed to modify.

    Incidentally, here is my final menu:

    Nice and simple.
    Last edited by Eyedunno; 8th Jun 2014 at 02:08.
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