Starting a video with rootmenu or first chapter?

[psteel]

Hi,

I've created a DVD that works fine, except I want the option to sometimes start with the root menu and then select play, or a certain chapter. Other times to start from chapter 1.

The DVD files are all in a folder on a laptop.

How can I do this please.? At completion of the video it reverts to the root menu. I'd like to be able to start with that on certain occasions.

TIA

[filmboss80]

Hello there. Would you mind telling us what DVD authoring software you are using? If it's not too much to ask...

[guns1inger]

Are you saying you want it to randomly change where it starts, or just that you want a chapter menu ?

[manono]

Yep, nothing like a muddled explanation of what it does and what he wants it to do. My read on it is that it starts directly with the movie and after finishing goes to the main menu, whereas he wants it to begin with the main menu so he can then have the movie play or select a chapter of the movie with which to begin. If correct, the beginning navigation can easily be edited with PGCEdit.

[psteel]

Oops my apologies, I did not realise they did things differently.

I used Pinnacle 8 to put the mpg together, and then used Vista DVD maker on my Acer laptop.
Only reason for using this was I wanted a very plain menu and my other authoring program (Sonic) wanted fancy menus.

This in actual fact created a root menu with pictures floating around in windows from the video, which looks quite good, with buttons for Play and Scenes.

It created the following files
12,288 VIDEO_TS.BUP
12,288 VIDEO_TS.IFO
10,240 VIDEO_TS.VOB
18,432 VTS_01_0.BUP
18,432 VTS_01_0.IFO
36,128,768 VTS_01_0.VOB
170,711,040 VTS_01_1.VOB

Since posting I have found that different players handle the files differently.
WinDVD4 states no valid files found for the folder.
Windows media will show the root menu with file VIDEO_TS.VOB. It flashes up the root menu when you play VIDEO_01_0.VOB and then plays the video. VIDEO_01_1.VOB plays the video directly.


What appears to be happening is if I start the file VIDEO_TS.VOB from scratch I get the root menu. If I then play the video from this menu, and close the program, then doubleclick the file again, I continue from where I closed the program.

If I started VIDEO_01_0.VOB, then shut the program down and started VIDEO_TS.VOB, it would start with the VIDEO_01_0.VOB file.

This was the source of my confusion as it was inconsistent when starting VIDEO_TS.VOB.

My apologies for not investigating further before posting.

[Alex_ander]

Any correct playback starts with VIDEO_TS.IFO file, e.g. MPC will give you something close to standalone (WinDVD uses memory from previous times even with other DVDs and often starts from the middle if you don't use eject button in it). This way you can know if your DVD begins with menu. Your menu with buttons is in VTS_01_0.VOB file but to get it working correctly on PC you still want to start playing with VIDEO_TS.IFO. That is where the so-called video manager commands reside and playback starts (there are first play PGC, other PGCs incl. 'title menu' PGC - empty in your case since VIDEO_TS.VOB is small). The pre-commands in those PGCs provide further going to either playing a title, or going to 'root menu' of a VTS. So if you want to change this order, it is editable. First explore what playback order you actually have.

[psteel]

Thanks for the clarification Alex.
It would appear that Windows media player does much the same thing.
Starting with the IFO file would be my best option.

Thanks again.