Play WAV file on button execution in DVD-LAB?

[cirving]

Hello... I was just wondering if I can play a quick WAV file (48000KHz and all) when someone clicks the "play all" button I created on my DVD menu.
Or when someone clicks on any button for that matter.

I'm using DVD-Lab 1.3.1 -- is it possible?

Thx.

[petar]

Put a small clip between the menu and the movie with the same background as the menu and your WAV as audio. Link the "play all" button to this clip and the clip to the movie.

You can also change the colours or add some other effects to the "play all" button in the clip to look nicer. Or maybe make it a transition between the menu and the movie.

[cirving]

Sorry, I don't really understand what you mean.
Insert a duplicate menu (exact same pictures & layout?) only this time put the wav file as the background audio on the menu? Then have it automatically start the film? That's what I understood. I could be way off though.

Sorry, but thank you for the reply!

[petar]

You understood OK.
As for the "exact same pictures & layout", that's up to you. You can modify the look of the "play all" button so that the user knows he has activated it. Otherwise he'll just hear your wav with the same image on the screen and not know what happened.

[offline]

a quick WAV file

Convert it to ac3 and mux it with a video file with a snapshot of your screen. This way it should work in all players.

A simple way of doing this is (using tmpgenc) is to load the picture as the
video file and the ac3 as the audio file - then encode away. Add the
resulting video to DVDLab like normal and link a button to it.

[petar]

Convert it to ac3

If you're going to do what offline suggested, check if you have any more audio tracks in the menus first. If you do, you need to convert them all to ac3 or leave them all as wav. You can't mix ac3 and wav in the same VTSM.

[offline]

petar is correct. If your main movie(s) are encoded with LCPM audio
you may as well stick with that for your menu button audio as well.
You can still use the tmpgenc method outlined above. One thing
though, I'd add a short (500-1000 millisecond) silence or fade In/Out
to the start and the ending of the audio; to help prevent certain issues.

[cirving]

Sorry to revive a dead thread, but I just wanted to say thanks!
The trick works perfectly, and I have the WAV file playing now as I lead into my first movie.

Regarding what Offline said... thanks for the tip that I shouldn't mix AC3 with WAV on my main menu, because my other background audio track (which now has a fade in/out, thank you) was WAV and I didn't I'd need to change it. Is it important they both be AC3 though? Aren't WAV files just regular PCM tracks and playable in all DVD players?

My main movie is AC3, does that mean my menus have to be AC3 also?
Thanks.


Oh, there was a reason I searched for this thread again in the first place though, and that is this... When I hit the menu button now, it goes to my duplicate main menu (the one with the modification that plays the WAV file and plays the movie)... so it's an endless loop really, there's no way to get back to the main menu unless you watch the entire movie to the end of the track when it brings you back to the front/top/main-main/menu.
Know what I mean? It's the menu & title button on my remote that seem to bring me back to the clone menu with the 'audio clip on play' command.

Anyone know how to get around that?

I just checked the connections window, and my First Play and Title Button DO point to my "front/top/main-main/menu" but it doesn't seem to work. What gives?


Thanks,
Cirving.

[petar]

My main movie is AC3, does that mean my menus have to be AC3 also?

No, menus residing in a VTSM can have different properties than movies residing in a VTS. What you cannot mix is AC3 and WAV inside a single VTSM, nor you can mix them in a single VTS (i.e. have one movie with AC3 and another with WAV) but you can have multiple audio streams and each can be different format (if you're using the Pro version of DVD-Lab).

As to your problem, it's the way DVD-Lab works. When you press menu on your remote it takes you to the last menu that started the video. I don't know if there's a way to change this from inside DVD-Lab. If you know how to use IfoEdit you can modify this. It's probably a conditional link command in the pre command section of the root PGC. You just need to NOP it.

The other option would be to make the transition a movie instead of a menu. The downside is, depending on your player, if you reverse the movie to the beginning you may get to the transition.

[cirving]

Thanks! I think the IFOEDIT route is definetely the way I want to go because it's pretty seamless now, there's no lagging and it was easy to do in DVD-Lab. So I'd love to be able to stick with the template I've been using now, compiling, and then just using IFOEdit to touch up that conditional menu-return line that you're talking about.

Problem is, I can't seem to find it. Which .IFO file would it be in? Any idea what section? Or is there anywhere I could go to do some reading that would tell me? Thanks!

C.I.

[petar]

Open with Ifoedit the VTS_01_0.IFO file, click on VTSM_PGCI_UT, then on the +, then on the root menu. Scroll down to the PGC Command Table. What's in there?

[cirving]

Hey... Thanks, I totally appreciate the 1-on-1 help.

I'm in the place where you wanted me to go...and there's still a ton of information, maybe I should take screen caps for you?

There are 30 Pre commands listed that all seem to be If == Go to Line statements that LinkPGCN to PGC1, PGC2, PGC3, etc. etc.

At the very bottom there is...
"1. Post Command - (JumpVTS_TT) Jump to Title: 1"

That post command jump to title 1, has got to be after the movie has ended right? Cause I believe it is going to the right menu when the movie ends. Actually I have it skipping to the next title, but at the very end of that title it goes back to the main menu.... actually I have no idea about this stuff, so I'll shut up about where I *THINK* I am. hehe.


Thanks!
C.i.

[petar]

OK, it seems that it uses the root PGC to route to all other menu PGCs so it makes it more complicated to help you remotely but I'll try. Right when you open the IFO file scroll down until the end where the menu language units are. Double-click on each menu that has a video (the ones that say "uses VOB ID something") and when you find the one that's your main menu note down the menu number. Also find the one that is your transition.

Then go to the root PGC (where all those 30 pre commands were) and find which register and which value for that register is used to link to the PGC with the number you noted before for the main menu. For example, if it was Menu PGC4, find which line has LinkPGCN 4. If it's line 15 find which command above has If...Go to line 15. Then note down the "If" condition; for example GPRM3 = 5.

Next click on the menu PGC of the transition (in the VTSM_PGCI_UT table; the PGC number is the second one you noted at the begining) and check if there is any command that sets that GPRM to some value. If there is then modify it to the value of the condition above. For example if the command is set GPRM3 mov 7, in hex that's 71 00 00 03 00 07 00 00. If you need to set GPRM3 to 5 (as the example above), double-click and modify the 07 to 05.

If you don't find any command in that PGC that sets a value for that GPRM, then you'll need to track what happens after that PGC is played. Complicated to explain you remotely so best workaround I can think of would be to add a pre command that sets a value for that GPRM to equal the condition in the root PGC. Depending how the whole DVD was authored this may mess up something else so try first what I mentioned before.

[cirving]

Is this something that DVD-Lab Pro would fix easily? Maybe I'll just upgrade to that. I haven't tried the beta yet, so I'm not sure if it's an easy solution to my problem of returning to a specific main menu (as opposed to the last menu I came from).

[petar]

It's not a bug, it's just the way DVD-Lab authors. Any authoring tool apart from Scenarist will limit you in one way or another in order to provide a more friendly interface. Try the Pro version. Since it's for more advanced users maybe it doesn't do this and leaves it to the user to route the menus.
Anyway, did you find which PGC is your main menu? If so, try putting as a first precommand in the root PGC - LinkPGCN X, where X is the PGC number. In hex that's 20 04 00 00 00 00 XX XX, so if it's PGC 2, XX XX is 00 02. That will permanently take you to the main menu no matter what when you press Menu on your remote, but may mess up something else so test the DVD before burning.

[cirving]

Thanks again. I haven't tried the advanced editing like you just suggested and that's cause I JUST noticed your private message 2 seconds before I posted this reply in the forum today. I'm going to try both of your suggestions the second I get off work and am able to try it out.

Thanks!