PGCEdit question

[gbabione]

A dvd I'm working on is of a tv series. The play button goes to VTST 1, 1 TTN 1 TITLE 1 which is all the episodes as 1 title just like a movie. If I go to the episode menu, each button takes me to seperate titles. To reduce file size, I would like to delete the seperate titles and have the buttons go to the corresponding episode in TITLE 1. How do I do this? None of the JUMP options gives me a choice of cells.

[DB83]

You would have to set up chapter points in a single title and then decide whether you want to continue to the next chapter/episode or set an exit point at the end of the chapter to return to the selection menu.

The other option is to delete the single title and leave the separate titles. Now you have an jump back to menu at the end of each title. With a little code you could also set up a 'Play ALL' button.

'fraid I can not tell you how to achieve this with PGCEdit. I use DVD-LabPro or Ulead DVD Workshop (Easier) for Playlists etc.

[Noahtuck]

That's not how it works.

They don't make 1 long video of all the episodes then also add all the episodes as single files.

Basically It's done in the commands when the disc is authored.

So there is not a double of all the episodes you can just delete.

[manono]

That's right. The episodes are only on there once. You can confirm in VobBlanker. One or the other (all the episodes together or the individual episodes separately) will have no size at all.

[Bjs]

To reduce use dvdshrink ... in both normal and reauthor mode one can remove content

[gbabione]

There is absolutely both a long video and each seperate episode in different titles. If I delete all the seperate episodes and hit play. it never leaves title 1 and plays all 6 episodes. If I leave all the episodes and select an episode, it never goes to title 1, it goes to a seperate title for each episode. There are no seperate chapters in each episode, so if nothing else, I can delete the seperate titles and skip through while watching to get to the episode I want. The options of blanking title 1 or using another program to set up chapter points could work. I was looking for a way within PGCEdit.

[DB83]

I have been 'fooled' by this myself hence my first reply.

What you are probably deleting is not the title but a pointer to a playlist, or a series of playlists, which react to whichever option is selected.

Now there is another way to reasonably proove that there is only one set of actual videos or two.

Consider the running length of each episode and the bitrate and do the maths with a comparison of total disk space used.

[manono]

There is absolutely both a long video and each seperate episode in different titles.

Both the long video and the separate episodes stored separately on the DVD? Not too likely. I've seen it happen that way exactly once.

To prove what you have, open the DVD in VobBlanker. Highlight (click on) the VTS with the episodes so that they appear in the lower pane. Post a picture here.

[MindController]

You might be better off using a program like DvdRemake

[gbabione]

Here is the image from VOBblanker. It shows the full length video and the seperate videos. I do see it shows 0 for file sizes. My question now is, if I can delete these titles and it still works, what are they, how does this work, and how do I change the process to point to the cells in TTN 1?

[manono]

You don't want to change anything, not and still be able to play them all one after another as well as play the individual episodes. It's titles 2-8 that get played when you choose to play a single episode through the menu. Those titles only reference cells within title 1. As Noahtuck, DB83, and I have thought, they're on there only once, and the commands point to the various episodes. If you want to shrink the size, it's that 6794 MB all-the-episodes-together first title you have to compress. Either do it manually if you know how, or do it using DVD-Rebuilder, or, if you don't care for getting the best quality out of it you can even use DVDShrink.

[gbabione]

Thank-you. If were to run into an issue where I would need to point to a cell, how would I do that?

[r0lZ]

From the FP-PGC or the VMGM, you can only jump to a title. However, from any VTS, you can Jump to a chapter (aka PTT: Part of Title) of any Title in the same VTS. And from within a specific domain (title or menu), you can jump to any cell, program or chapter in the same menu or title using the Link commands.

So, if, say, the chapter menu is authored in the same VTS than the main title, you can jump to the chapters directly by using JumpVTS_PTT commands in the chapter buttons. It's the simplest way to author a chapter menu, and IMO all chapter menus should always be in the VTSM of the main movie. Unfortunately, it's not always the case. When the chapter menu is in another VTS, you have to set a GPRM to the chapter number, then jump to a dummy PGC in the VMGM, and from that PGC, jump to the main movie, and in the pre-commands of the main movie PGC, check the value of the GPRM, and Link to the PTT it points to. That's not easy, but it's life! (Jumping to a cell that is not the beginning of a chapter can be archived the same way, but you must use the LinkCN command instead of LinkPTT.)

Your current DVD uses another technique: several PGCs point to the same video content. A PGC is a Program Chain (wrongly called "playlist" above, but it's a good comparison). A Program chain is made of one or several programs (usually associated with chapter points), and each program is made of one or several cells. For example, Title 1 contains 7 cells, but Title 2 contains only one cell. The first cell of Title 1 and the cell of title 2 point to the same cell in the VOB file. It's why Title 2 doesn't consume any disc space, as it uses a cell that is already necessary for title 1. Such cells are called "reused cells". Similarly, Title 3 reuses the second cell of title 1, etc...
Since all episodes are authored in title 1, and each episode is also reused in another title, it is possible to play all episodes at once by calling Title 1, or to play any episode independently by calling another title. You don't need to use JumpPTT or Link commands, since all parts are authored in different Titles. You can simply use JumpTT (Jump to Title, from the VMGM) or JumpVTS_TT (Jump to TTN from the same VTS) to archive what you want.

And anyway, you don't have to do anything, as your DVD is already perfect.

[_Al_]

Yes, this cell magic to my surprise has DVD Architect authoring developed to one magic trick. You can author DVD there with one movie imported to create more versions of that movie, every time with different start or end and something else, that's why I mention this, different chapters inside.... Chapters of one title are not seen in other title while playing DVD ...They are independent from each other.

[Noahtuck]

There is absolutely both a long video and each seperate episode in different titles

Good thing you were absolutely sure!!!!!