Anyone know how to remove buttons from a DVD menu?

[soneman]

I've recently downloaded the freeware version of menuedit and I'm finding it extremely difficult to remove menus items which I don't need.

All I want to do is to keep the original menu but remove the special features button in the main menu so that I can't access the special features menu.

Anyone know how to do this? Do I need to download any additional programs?

[mikiem]

Check out PgcEdit & some of the guides for it. An alternative might be to re-create the menu, or make a new one to your liking, in your choice of authoring prog. and try VobBlanker. Or just re-author...

[waheed]

MenuEdit.

[soneman]

MenuEdit.

If you read my first post properly, you would've noticed that I said I'm having trouble with MenuEdit as I had recently downloaded it.

Ther's absolutely no reason to reply if you're just going to post a link which is already in my first post.

The whole point of my first post was to get some help with MenuEdit as I can't find any guides or help files for this particular program.

[lordsmurf]

You could always re-author.

[soneman]

This is the description for MenuEdit:

"MenuEdit is a DVD vob file editor for Windows which eliminates a root of the problem - removes buttons from dvd menu screens and replaces unwanted material with what you like. No button - no problem. "

This is completely untrue. The problem is, you can't delete any buttons at all from any menus using MenuEdit (unless I'm doing something wrong).

And what makes it worse is that this description comes from this site. Here's the link:

https://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=MenuEdit

Now can anybody help me out here? I can only replace a VOB Menu file with another but not delete buttons from an existing VOB menu file.

@lordsmurf, I prefer to keep the menus as it makes the DVD look more "professional".

[dipstick]

You can still reuse the original menu when you reauther. Just extract the menu and edit it. If it's a still menu, just edit it in your image editor. If it's a motion menu, then edit it in your video editor.

[soneman]

You can still reuse the original menu when you reauther. Just extract the menu and edit it. If it's a still menu, just edit it in your image editor. If it's a motion menu, then edit it in your video editor.

Image editor? Video editor?

I thought MenuEdit was supposed to do all of that?

[drjtech]

MenuEdit removes menu buttons. Please do not confuse menu buttons with the graphical elements of a menu screen. The picture of the "button" is not the button. The button is the active navigational element. The picture of the button is often just part of the background graphic.

MenuEdit has a big brother, DvdReMake Pro, which makes it easier to not only remove or reprogram buttons, but to alter the graphic image. This is far from automatic. You will still need to spend the time and effort to learn how to use a graphics program and the end results will reflect your own skills and talent.

-drj

[soneman]

MenuEdit removes menu buttons. Please do not confuse menu buttons with the graphical elements of a menu screen. The picture of the "button" is not the button. The button is the active navigational element. The picture of the button is often just part of the background graphic.

MenuEdit has a big brother, DvdReMake Pro, which makes it easier to not only remove or reprogram buttons, but to alter the graphic image. This is far from automatic. You will still need to spend the time and effort to learn how to use a graphics program and the end results will reflect your own skills and talent.

-drj

Right. Let me explain in detail.

The DVD menu I'm trying to edit has 4 navigational "buttons" consisting of:

a) Play
b) Scene Selection
c) Audio options
d) Special features

I want to remove the Special features navigational "button" so that I cannot access the Special features menu.

And note that the main DVD menu is a motion menu not a still image menu.

Got that?

Now can somebody tell me if it's possible at all to edit and remove navigational "buttons" from a motion menu using MenuEdit? Or is MenuEdit a complete waste of time all together?

[NoodleMaps]

We are just trying to get the most information we can to help in the best possible way. What MenuEdit is going to allow you to do, is deny access to a button, not really remove that button. So your menu will still say "Special Features" but once you click on the the button you want to delete and click on edit and then delete. It is not going to actually remove the words "Special Features" from the menu. It's just going to skip "Special Features" when you reauthor your DVD. As others have stated, if you need to remvoe the words, you will need to recreate the menu in graqphic or video app, if you actually want the words gone.

[soneman]

We are just trying to get the most information we can to help in the best possible way. What MenuEdit is going to allow you to do, is deny access to a button, not really remove that button. So your menu will still say "Special Features" but once you click on the the button you want to delete and click on edit and then delete. It is not going to actually remove the words "Special Features" from the menu. It's just going to skip "Special Features" when you reauthor your DVD. As others have stated, if you need to remvoe the words, you will need to recreate the menu in graqphic or video app, if you actually want the words gone.

Ok, so which graphics or video editing programs would you recommend?

[NoodleMaps]

Depends on knowledge, but I personally would use, Photoshop or After Effects.

[r3n4ud]

Maybe this discussion will help you out

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=98280

Worth a shot!

[mikiem]

@ soneman FWIW...

Just about everything you'll see on a DVD is mpg2 video. If you use a still picture, it's turned into a video loop, usually by the authoring app. On top of this background think of it as several layers, one to denote the hot spot areas like an image map on a web page, one or more layers for button highlights, that sort of thing. Then you have the commands etc. in the ifo files that spell out what happens when and in what order, so it really gets quite complicated, even though it might seem it should be easy.

MenuEdit, both the free and pay versions, tries to make editing easier, but DVDs were never intended to be edited, and nothing's perfect. A program like MenuEdit or Pgcedit hopefully lets you disable the button, bypassing the selection, highlights, and actions so the button is just another object in the backgound of the menu. And as I said, sometimes this is easier then others.

In order to remove the button visually from the menu, you have to alter the menu itself. One way is to crop the picture and resize, another might be to paint out the button, the same way guy wires are painted out in films. Obviously it's much easier to paint out one button on a still, then however many in a video, so most folks paint out a still and let that loop, without the motion background. That's why you get references to programs like Photoshop.

That all said, it is possible to create a new menu entirely, just like you would if you were re-authoring the video, and insert that in place of the original. It's an involved process, & unless there's stuff you can't duplicate re-authoring the DVD, probably not worth it. If you're interested, forget MenuEdit & go through the forum posts here and at doom9.org, where you can read of folks going through this, problems encountered, and possible solutions.

Very briefly: You'll need to extract the menu elements, alter the menu background, possibly recreate highlight masks etc., merge the complete elements back in, correct the ifo files.

On the other hand you could extract the menu video, crop out or cover the buttons, create a new video. Or create a still. Use DVD author & one of the GUIs, make a new button or buttons (remote controls have sub, audio, chapter buttons after all), plug in audio and video, and there you go...

[manono]

Is that what he wants to do, mikiem? He says earlier, I want to remove the Special features navigational "button" so that I cannot access the Special features menu.

So I don't think he wants to edit the menu screen itself, but just make the button unuseable.

And yes, soneman, that's what MenuEdit is for and it's very good at it. Maybe you're doing it wrong, as I've used it hundreds of times and never once had a problem. You have the free version, so you don't get a picture of the menu, but only the buttons, but that doesn't seem to bother you, as you know which you want to remove.

You open the menu with the button you want to disable. Click on that button and you'll see it gets all the crosshatches over it. Hit "Delete" over on the left side. In the Settings screen that then shows up, I have "Hide and update commands as follows:" and "Replace with NOP" ticked. Hit the ">>", and then "OK". At the next screen hit "OK" and no more menu button to hit. You'll no longer be able to access the Special Features. Note that some menus have 2 or more screens that do the same thing. Make sure you get them all, if there's more than one.

You can do the same thing in PGCEdit. It's a bit more complicated, but still easy.

[soneman]

I'm gonna give DVD Remake Pro a go.

I'll post again when I've completed my first attempt at removing a button (in its entirety) from a DVD menu.

@manono, I was going to just remove the option to access the special features menu at first but from what other people have been telling me, it's posible to completely remove the graphic of the special features button all together.

That's why I'm going to have a go at rebuilding the menu without the special features button graphic.

[manono]

Hi-

Yeah, that DVDRemake Pro guide to which r3n4ud linked looks pretty easy to follow. I've done the same thing myself a few times using a different method. You should still disable the button one way or another.

My apologies to mikiem, although at that point he hadn't said he was going to go ahead and edit the menu iscreen.