Use DVD Menus in SVCD

[jbarr2000]

I would like to know if it is possible to use the exact menu's found in DVD's on SVCD. I do not mean make your own, but copy the menu vob file and use that, I am experienced with TMPGEnc and the DVD Copying Process. Is there a program which can do this, I dont mind chopping up the menu file or something like that, and don't mind if it's going to be a very complicated process. Any help greatly appreciated

Thank in advance,

Jeremy Barr

[red_octoberz]

I would really like to know if this is possible also.
Thanks.

[wingnut]

Hi all,

is this possible, well, yessssssishhhh..

I've assumed you know how to rip a vob onto your hard disk and encode to (s)vcd as a movie only. You can use these techniques to do what you want.

You cant just copy the vob over and use it nor can you just demux the vob and use the contents but you can do the following. This is an extremely quick and dirty guide if you need more help please post and I'll try to put something together with better explanations and diagrams.

1. Rip the DVD (NOT just the movie, use the backup option in smartripper or similar to make a copy of the disk)

2. Establish which VOB the menu you want is stored in. You can do this using IFOEDIT, VOBRATOR and DVD2AVI (check the tools page on the left and the excellent www.doom9.org which also contains guides on ifoedit etc)

3. When you know which VOB you need use DVD2AVI to produce a .d2v project and use TMPGENC to encode it to 480x480 (NTSC SVCD), 352x288 (NTSC VCD), 480x576 (PAL SVCD) or 352x288 (PAL VCD).

4. You should now have a mpg file with the menu but this is a simple movie file with no subpictures, (the selectable menu).

Now get a copy of TSCV (www.ttool.org) and read the guides on that site on how to create a motion menu (they are much better than this quick guide)

SVCD does not support menu controls such as cursors and enter but it does support numerical chapter jumps and a return command. If you want to just match up a number to the pictures on the menu you can just load the menu into TSCV and set up options so that button 1 goes to your main move, button 2 plays the trailer etc.

This is just a quick idea on how to achieve your goal, I did manage to make full motion video menus for SVCD for my Star Wars: A New Hope VHS -> SVCD conversion but it was a lot of work and the version of TSCV that was available at the time was a little unstable resulting in the last chapter on disc 1 looping. It is possible though.

Good luck, if you would like a more detailed guide please post and I will try to put something together when I get a moment, (in the middle of 2 software contracts at the moment making sleep, food and everything else optional )

Cheers

Ed

[kitty]

Great post Ed - yes, a guide on this would be great.

It can be as simple as capturing a still picture from the DVD while watching it on your PC DVD software player, editing the still to put selection numbers on the choices, then using this still image in VCDeasy/vcdimager.

Again there is no perfect solution as SVCD/VCD2.0 menus are different than DVD menus.

[adam]

I'm working on a lengthy guide on this at the moment. Hopefully it will answer alot of these questions if you all can just hold out a few more days

[Poplar]

All roads lead to Rome. Here is a way to use exact DVD menus and graphics without having to rip VOBs and searching for them all over places. God knows where they are hidden in those VOBs. Sometimes, they are not ripped at all, if your rip in IFO mode.

Play DVD on your software player, such as PowerDVD, go to menus and still graphics you want to use, capture them into image files with player's built-in capture function.

You can use these DVD menus and graphics in VCDEasy when you author your S/VCD, although motion menus becomes still menu, but it's no big deal.

It's simple, flexible and fast. Just a couple of minutes and you get all the menu images you need.

[adam]

Taking a screen capture of every menu would take forever on most DVDs. It is much faster and easier to rip the vobs. The menu's are always stored in the same place, the vob directly preceeding the movie vobs. Simply rip in file mode and get this one vob, process it in dvd2avi, then either open it in TMPGenc or frameserve to virtual dub. With both of these programs you can set start and end frames do all your resizing then export all frames as a separate still picture. You can create several hundred still menu's in a matter of seconds. If you name them intelligently so that their alphabetical order corresponds to the order of playback, you can practically just load them all into vcdeasy and hit start.

When I rip a dvd I preserve all menu's, both motion and still and keep all the extra's, within reason. Rather than edit each still picture separately I use the logo and logoaway filters in virtualdub to edit all my pics at once. I can create recreate a complex dvd with 100 menu's on a SVCD in only about a half hour.

[vitualis]

Good method adam.

I tend to take a more labour intensive way, but it is similar. When you rip your DVD, rip it in FILE MODE and in its entirety. It is then relatively easy to sort through all the added features.

Menus tend to be in the VTS_??_0.VOB files and often ALL the menus are in VTS_01_0.VOB.

On occasion, there will be an opening animation in VIDEO_TS.VOB.

Remember, you can take frame captures of stills with DVD2AVI as well, and the quality will be superior to that from PowerDVD (or some other software DVD program). Furthermore, you can be frame accurate with your captures.

I usually do edit each still menu by hand simply because there are often options or features on a DVD menu that isn't relevant for a S/VCD. Similarly, you will often have to add numerical selections like "1", "2", etc., in the menu picture.

Motion menus tend to be a little bit more difficult to edit and for the ones I want to do properly, I generally make a mask over the features I want to remove.

For animated features (e.g., trailers, interviews with actors, deleted scenes, etc.) I think it is a good idea to use FlaskMPEG to work out what's what. If you rip the DVD entirely in File Mode, you can use Flask's IFO parsing abilities to work out where everything is and preview it before extracting.

Regards.