Getting DVD menus

[vikasa]

I am having trouble finding the DVD menu images (so that I can make VCD mpeg stills for my VCD menu)

When I play the DVD in WinDVD, it shows up in the Title 1, Chapter 2 and some other sub-menus appear in Title 2, Chapter 8.

My main movie is in Title 3 and 4 (6 chapters each)

How do I go about getting the DVD menu images?

Thanks

[Vejita-sama]

Take a look to the left under 'what is DVDR', the menus are stored in the VTS_XX_0.VOB file.

[vikasa]

Take a look to the left under 'what is DVDR', the menus are stored in the VTS_XX_0.VOB file.

Yes, I know they are in the VOB file on the DVD, but how do I go about getting the various menu images from there?

Also, after I get the images and say my first menu has 4 images containing scene selections, how can I know which chapter/frame each of these correspond to? (so that I can set up my PBC interactivity that way).

In other words, if I have 10 scene selection menu images, would I necessarily have 10 chapters in my main movie, with a one-to-one mapping between them? (in which case I can just use ChapterXTractor to get the chapter entrypoints)

Thanks

[adam]

Your gonna have a heck of a time trying to sort out what menu functions do what by looking at what link goes to what vob-id and trying to match that up with each menu. You need to just take apart the DVD and then reauthor it logically. You should be able to recognize the chapter selection menu just by looking at it shouldn't you?

http://users3.ev1.net/~CavemanLawyer/

Follow my guide, it explains how to reauthor pretty much every menu and feature on the original DVD, onto a VCD or SVCD.

BTW: the guide needs updating. Instead of frameserving to VirtualDub you can just use VirtualDubMod now. It will load the vobs directly.

[vikasa]

Your excellent guide is what started me down this path in the first place.

But I didnt quite understand how to get the DVD menus in the first place. Can you please explain?

Moreover, my question was: If I have 12 scene/chapter-selection images (on say 3 menu pages), am I guaranteed to have 12 chapters in ChapterXTractor such that each scene selection jumps to that scene/chapter precisely?

Your guide doesnt really explain how to get the menus and how to link the menu stills to the chapter entrypoints.

Thanks!

[adam]

I don't understand what the problem is. I don't think the part about extracting the menu's could be any more clearer. My guide shows you which vob you need, and shows you step by step how to extract each menu as a still pictures. Each menu is stored as one frame in the vob, you can open the vob in VirtualDubMod or frameserve from dvd2avi to TMPGenc. Both of these programs allow you to export the source as frames, making each frame of the source into a separate bmp, effectively giving you each menu for the entire movie stored as a separate bmp. As for moving menu's, getting those is no different than getting the movie itself. All of this is well covered, IMO, in the guide.

Exactly at what point in the guide are you getting lost? Have you loaded your vob into Virtual Dub or TMPGenc? If so just extract the frames.

As for linking the chapter selection menu's and the chapter points, there's not much to it. By loading chapterxtractors information into VCDEasy, you will create an entry point for each chapter, so in your example you will have 12 entry points which you can link to separately. On your first chapter selection menu you will input 4 links. The #1 key will take you to chap 1, the # 2 will take you to chap 2 and so on. The links are all there and matched up. The menu is really just a road map. On your second chapter selection menu, you'd make a link so that #5 took you to entrypoint 5, and so on. I even showed a trick which lets you make ALL of the chapter selection links in just a few short steps. Refer to step 9 under the VCDEasy section- its the section titled, "Setting up the chapter selection menu: the easy way."

Yes, it is possible to get the chapters functioning exactly like on the DVD.