DVD Shrink menus don't loop

[bigcookie_88]

Hi,

I recently bought a Pioneer DVR-106d burner and a new dvd player (Sony DVPNS530S).

I just have a question or two to ask about DVD Shrink, AnyDVD and Nero.

You all know that the menus on a dvd are just regular .vob and .ifo files, and on commercial dvds, if you stay on any menu for long enough, it will just replay over and over, giving you the chance to select an item from the menu, to either play the movie/feature, or take you to another menu, such as setup options, or special features menu. You normally can't fast forward, rewind, or skip these menus, just like you can't skip the copyright notices.

Well I've copied about 4 dvds so far using a combination of DVD Decrypter, DVD Shrink, AnyDVD and Nero, and with some of these dvds you can skip through the parts mentioned above, and when the menu has finished playing, it just plays the next part (eg. when on the main menu screen, when the menu has finished playing it will just play the movie) and on my dvd player it shows the time (eg. 00:01:10, 00:01:11, etc, as the menu plays).

How can I prevent this from happening next time I copy dvds? As I say this I hope none of you will suggest using an Ifo editor, those things are complicated lol

Thanks, If I think of any other questions I'll let you know.

[ddlooping]

Hi bigcookie_88.

My guess would be you used DVD Shrink in "Re-author" mode and dragged the menus to the "New DVD" pane.
The menus are then converted to video streams and lose their functionality; they play like very short video clips (hence your counter showing "00:01:10, 00:01:11").

In a nutshell, Re-author doesn't allow for functionning memuns.

[K(c)offee]

I would be thrilled if more DVDs did not play the menu none stop. With my DVD player if I lose the remote I cant do anything... so it turns my DVD player into a magical menu player. That taunts you with how close you are to playing the real movie...

[ddlooping]

K(c)offee, why don't use simply make "movie-only" backups, or "movie+extras" backups?

[K(c)offee]

I do. I meant rented our bought DVDs become pretty useless.

[ddlooping]

I'm affraid I'm not following you, K(c)offee.

[DoubleShadowIce]

Menus are normaly set to still time of 255 which is infinite time. Your menu's cell is most likely not set to that but to end of motion menu play.

As I say this I hope none of you will suggest using an Ifo editor, those things are complicated lol

It's really easy to use IfoEdit to look into it and fix it but as you wish, I will not suggest it.

[ddlooping]

DoubleShadowIce, if bigcookie_88 used DVD Shrink re-author as I suspect, changing the menu's cell time is a bad idea.

[DoubleShadowIce]

DoubleShadowIce, if bigcookie_88 used DVD Shrink re-author as I suspect, changing the menu's cell time is a bad idea.

ddlooping,

bigcookie_88 couldn't have re-authored or else there wouldn't be any menus. If re-authoring is the case, then why is bigcookie_88 concerned about menu play time?

[ddlooping]

bigcookie_88 couldn't have re-authored or else there wouldn't be any menus. If re-authoring is the case, then why is bigcookie_88 concerned about menu play time?

You can have menus when you re-author, simply by dragging them to the re-author window.
The problem is they become video streams, and play like a short video clip with no pause or functioning buttons.

[DoubleShadowIce]

You can have menus when you re-author, simply by dragging them to the re-author window.

You're right. I stand corrected.

The problem is they become video streams, and play like a short video clip with no pause or functioning buttons.

I was thinking about the functionality of the menus when I made my prior statement. What's the use of having a menu with buttons that can't function anyway? So close but so far away. :P

[ddlooping]

Maybe that's what bigcookie_88 did, not knowing the menus would not work.
That's why I asked.

[bigcookie_88]

Hi guys! Thanks for replying, sorry I took so long to reply also. Omg I just have this feeling this is gonna be a long post....

From the day I got my dvd burner, I have copied 4 dvd movies, all on Akai DVD-R media:

The Faculty - this one's a bit messed up, I don't think it burnt right or something. I havn't watched this yet, but I just know it's really messed up.
Resident Evil
Final Destination 2
Rat Race

I said in the beginning that the menu's didn't loop on some of my dvds, but it turns out they do (I just tried all of them) and so I must have pressed a button or something...

But I tried a retail copy of a dvd (Bruce Almighty) and it too displays the clock (elapsed time) on the front panel of the dvd player, so it turns out that's the way dvds are meant to be I guess, but...

One thing that is wrong with the dvds I've backed up is the fact that you can scan forward and backwards (rewind/fast forward) at any stage, whether it be through the menu(s), or the copyright notice(s), and you can even pause at these stages, and I tested this on a commercial dvd and you can't do that on the commercial one, so before I buy a pack of 25 laser dvd-r discs, I just wanted to know how to correct this so I don't do this on 25 dvds....

Before I go, I'll tell you what I did to each dvd...

The Faculty - this dvd wasn't dual layer, so I just ripped it with DVD Shrink with no compression (it would be stupid to compress)
Resident Evil - ahhh, this one took some time. This was when I had no idea what AnyDVD was, and I just thought that DVDShrink took ANY copy protection off, but it didn't with this movie so I ripped first with DVD Decrypter and had to shrink with DVD Shrink, which took some time and reshuffling of my hdd because I have limited disc space. My hdd ran out of room, so I deleted, start all over, and found AnyDVD... my lifesaver. At first I thought thought this might be what is causing the unlocked search (where you can do what you want when the menus/copyright notices come on), but I dunno, maybe.
Rat Race - Just put the disc in and run dvd shrink on it, this was the first dvd I did.
Final Destination 2 - This one was easy, just used DVD Shrink and AnyDVD, the quality of this is SO awesome, I can't tell the difference.

Thanks! I'll use Ifoedit if I have to, but only if I know what to do. I'm not sure how to stop the unlocked search at menus and copyright screens but I suppose it could be AnyDVD, anyone else having problems too?

Once again, thanks for all your help!

[DoubleShadowIce]

All you want is to retain your original menu configuration, which is to prevent any FF or REW if it's not available in your original. It's all about the P-UOPs (Prohibited User Operations).

In DVD Shrink, it is turned on by default in Preference. Uncheck that before ripping.

In DVD Decrypter, if any PUOPs checkboxes are checked, uncheck them in whatever mode you are using.

In any program you are using, just look for settings for POUPs removal and deselect them.

You can also set POUPs in IfoEdit. If your menus are in VIDEO_TS.IFO, go to / VMGM_PGCI_UT / PGC-Menu_# and double click on Prohibited User Operations. Check to set.

If you are in VTS_*_0.IFO, then go to / VTSM_PGCI_UT / PGC-Menu_# and do the same as mention.

Save your IFO and BUP when done

[DoubleShadowIce]

Taken from the DVD FAQ from www.dvdmystified.com,

[3.7] How do the interactive features work?

DVD-Video players (and software DVD-Video navigators for computers) support a command set that provides rudimentary interactivity. The main feature is menus, which are present on almost all discs to allow content selection and feature control. Each menu has a still or motion background and up to 36 highlightable, rectangular "buttons" (only 12 if widescreen, letterbox, and pan & scan modes are used). Remote control units have up/down/left/right arrow keys for selecting onscreen buttons, along with numeric keys, a select (enter) key, a menu key, a top menu (title) key, and a return key. Additional remote functions may include freeze, step, slow, fast, scan, next, previous, audio select, subtitle select, camera angle select, play mode select, search to program, search to part of title (chapter), search to time, and search to camera angle. Any of these features can be disabled by the producer of the disc, an act which is called user operation control (UOP). It's commonly used to lock you into the copyright warning or movie previews at the beginning of the disc, or to keep you from changing audio or subtitle tracks during the movie.

[bigcookie_88]

Thankyou!!! I didn't realize how simple it was to fix this.

So if I'm just going to be using DVD Shrink (3.0 Beta 5) for the moment, all I need to do to keep the Prohibited User Operations enabled (so you can't ff or rw) is disable "Remove P-UOPs" in Shrink's preferences?

For the moment this is the only program I'll need to use, in conjunction with AnyDVD. I assume I won't need to change anydvd's preferences too?

Oh, and one last question... is it safe to put labels on dvds, just like you can on cds? I'm talking about the adhesive ones which you print on the computer, and attach using a cd stomper?

Thanks

[bigcookie_88]

Ok, nevermind, I just found it in AnyDVD's settings on the first page. It was always unticked anyway, so it's all good.