Problems Creating Menu and Having Space Left...

[WooWoo]

Hi, I've got a DVD that when ripped onto my HD is 4.35 GB. What I'm wanting to do is change the menu on it to my own, customized one... because the one on it is in a different language and I want to make a simple english menu (a still image background and perhaps some music would be just fine). I've tried loading the files in the AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS folder into various programs (DVDLab, Ulead Movie Factory, and TMPGEnc DVD Author) and even with just a basic menu it says it's going to come out to be over 5 GBs in every program.

So basically I'm wanting a way to just create a basic menu (in VOB format preferably) that'll connect to the VOB files of the actual movie and just output the menu and not have it try to spit out the whole movie with the new menu and the movie VOB files together--if that makes sense (because everything I try keeps coming out too big because the progs say the VOBS are split into 1.11 GB chunks rather than the 0.99 GB chunks that they are really split up in and therefore it won't fit on a DVD5 anymore) -- or if there is a program out there that won't report that the Movie is over 5 GB, that'll work too... just something to get rid of this menu. :P

[reboot]

Just create what you want, and then use DVD Shrink.

[jtoolman2000]

In TDA tell to create project from DVD. FInd the DVD you want to reauthor and rip it back to a continuous MPG2 stream. Once that is done, if the file already has chapter flags at the original positions it will automatically create them. Nest go the meu creaton step and either accept one of their crappy menus or click on Edit Menu. You will get so sort of warning, ignore it. This will take youn to the custom menu window. Choose all you parameters for your menu. Make the changes you want and once all is set Output to DVD and burn either directly in DVD or with any other SW.

The bottom line is that you will need to reauthor unless theres a tool that allows you to alter it wihtout having to do a complter re-author. I've done exactly t5hat will movies that have craappy menus or a bunch of other crap I don't but need to have a menu.

[WooWoo]

I don't want to use DVD Shrink because that'll lessen the quality and that's not the way I'm trying to go since this DVD is originally a DVD5 anyways.

As for what you said, jtoolman2000, Once I load the files in TDA, and even if I choose no menu, it says:

"Capacity of the created DVD: -------> 4469/4438MB"

The strange thing is whenever I get to the screen asking which titles to load, it has the files listed and all added together they come out to be 4392MB... which would be small enough... but for some reason when I add them, it says that each one is like 20MB bigger.

So it's saying it's smaller now... but not as small as I need it to be. Any other ideas anybody?

[WooWoo]

Well if nobody has any ideas about what to do, can you all list some DVD Authoring progs that you use for creating a simple menu?

[gadgetguy]

I would say go ahead and author it with TDA. I have often encountered that "Capacity of the created..." warning, but never had a problem burning the results to the DVD. Even when the warning indicated above 4500MB.

[WooWoo]

Really? Well okay then, I'll give it a shot and report back what happens.

[TBoneit]

I've found that using TMPGEnc DVD Author 1.5 with simple menus, I can Go to 4483 and stil have it fit. The TMPGEnc products are fine products, I use their TMPGEnc Plus, TMPGEnc 3.0 Xpress and TMPGEnc DVD Author programs. However they tend to be conservative about what will fit on a DVD. In Xpress for example choosing a DVD5 it encodes to approx 4.2Gb.

I say it sounds like it will fit at a size of 4469. BTW unless you go fancy with motion menus they take uup almost no space.

Good Luck

[WooWoo]

Thanks guys for the tips... After creating a menu, it was around 4511 MB and when I saved it to AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS folders, the total size was 4.31 GB so now everything fits. One thing I have noticed with TDA is the DVDs don't play right on a PC or a PS2... at least the 2-3 I have made with it have had problems. What happens is when I try to play tracks/chapters from any menu, on my PS2 it just plays the audio and still shows the menu, and on the computer, sometimes it'll work and sometimes it'll only play the video. I've also noticed that on the PC and PS2, it won't play any background music (when I add a still-imaged mpg file with audio as the bg). Everything works just fine on my normal Sungale (crappy brand... never buy one) DVD player hooked up to my TV. Anybody else have those kind of problems? If it's going to do that, I'd probably just rather stick with the ugly menu.

[TBoneit]

Sorry I wouldn't have noticed that problem or even though of it as a problem. I only make DVDs to watch on a TV set. Watching them on a Computer...

Come to think I do watch DVDs at work when we are slow. But when I made them I used static menus with lots of chapters and they play fine. The ones I play at work are all Music Videos from VH1 Classic where each chapter is a single song and the song title is the chapter name. Never had a problem with sound playing them in Power DVD 4 & 5. I tend to avoid motion menu's due to the space they use and it sounds like you are making a type of motion menu with a still image and sound.

Are you mixing AC3 audio with MP2 audio? When I tried that only the AC3 audio played.

The DVDs play fine for me on 2 different Apex Players and two different Sony Changers.

Good Luck