Auto-start movie (bypass menus) on disc insertion?

[enchanted]

My parents are quite elderly, and while DVD technology is common knowledge to us, it's quite overwhelming to them. DVD makers are always trying to make their menus more interesting, with animated intros and often difficult-to-find highlighted menu items.

Is there a way for me to re-author a DVD so that when the disc is inserted, it simply bypasses all menus and goes directly to playing the movie with no remote control action?

If this has been asked and answered before, I apologize, but my searches didn't return anything useful.

[ROF]

You bet there is. Just reauthor the disc with only the movie. No menus, no previews, no nothing.

The only problem with that is rentals are out for them as will any movies they borrow from a library or others.

My mother-in-law has problems with the new fangled tech too. I told her that once she sees anything besides the DvD player splash screen she needs to hit the stop button twice and then play. She can do this with any movie and the movie will start playing without any menu or previews before it.

[enchanted]

Oh, c'mon. That was WAY too easy! I'm really a bit embarrassed that I didn't just think of that, but sometimes you can't see the obvious.

Thanks!

[ROF]

You'd be surprised the amount of people who complain (even here) about having to sit through the previews. I found this out by accident and anytime I hear someone discuss the previews on DVDs I always try to mention this shortcut.

[redwudz]

That's a great tip, ROF. It will save me from the 20 minutes of previews during Disney movies.

Thanks.

[RottenFoxBreath]

aww.cmon,your telling me thats never crossed your mind..jesus..wtf is with people these days,and as for the parents...start ripping the movie only..with something free like dvd fab decrypter.

[enchanted]

Ok - here's what I'd REALLY like, but I suspect this would require I take my education beyond Re-authoring 101.

I'd like to put just the movie on the disc and one simple standard menu that is nothing but a black screen with light letters that say "Play Movie". That way, you could put the movie in the player, go take a leak, get a beer, get comfortable and then start it.

[borax]

That's also an easy task...
Create such a simple standard menu with any authoring program. Be sure to create a menu for a single VTS project!. Keep only the VIDEO_TS.IFO, VIDEO_TS.BUP and VIDEO_TS.VOB files. (If you don't know how to create these files, I can create them for you...)
Reauthor the movie only (with dvdshrink or similar), replace the VIDEO_TS.IFO, VIDEO_TS.BUP, and VIDEO_TS.VOB (if any) with the ones from the standard menu version. Open the VIDEO_TS.IFO in ifoedit, click on 'Get VTS sectors'. Ready to burn.

[Bjs]

Simplest method :

Rip entire dvd to hard drive . (best method)

May use dvdshrink if required to shrink content , but with newer title's and trick's employed , it may not work as expected .

Launch pcgedit .
Open ripped dvd , cancel scan , not required .
In Vgm, first-play pgc , pre command is 30 02 00 00 00 01 00 00

This will upon insert , go straight to playing main title , just make sure title 1 is the actual movie ... just something to watch out for .

If main title is other , say pcgedit reports title 2 is main , then

Vgm, first-play pgc , pre command is 30 02 00 00 00 02 00 00

Notice the change in the command , that 2 near the end .

If main title is 3 , then use 30 02 00 00 00 03 00 00

To easy .

Go to title , and in post command : 30 01 00 00 00 00 00 00
That just tell's it to exit .

Save dvd .
Burn ... enjoy .

My father was just as frustrated with this rubbish , having suffered several stroke's , it made it hard for him to enjoy even the simplest older title's he enjoyed .

What made it worse was this pan scan rubbish , he was disapointed with the fact half when played only filled 2/3 of the actual screen .

Now you know why I do it ... rip dvd's that is .

As for that trick with the remote , it works with the xms-888 units ... but

It dosent always play the correct audio language ... alot play dirrectors comments , or one of the other's .

My remote has a button "tracks" hit that till correct audio is heard .

Using pcgedit , you can set it up so the correct audio channel is played automatically ... will include that in another guide after xmas .

Busy with several more guides ...

[Subhash]

I think my question is also somewhat related.

How do I author a simple dvd without menu or chapters. I have a bunch of mpeg files that I just want to burn to a DVD or write to HD folder. I am currently using Power Director 4.0 and when I click on Produce, the Producer always comes up with default Top Menu with the picture of Eifle Tower in the background and one button for the main title. I have been trying to get rid of that but no luck yet.

Can someone out there explain to me how to accomplish what I want to do.

Thanks a lot in advance......

Subhash.

[borax]

burn to a DVD or write to HD folder

This makes a difference... To view the final 'movie' on a computer without a menu, you can simply keep the vtsxxx.vob files and play them in any mpeg2 player (VLC, MPC, WinDVD, PowerDVD...). To have a working DVD, you really need to get rid of the start menu. To do this, delete the VIDEO_TS.XXX files and all VTS_XX_0.VOB files (if any). Use DVDFab (freeware version is ok), select 'Other Functions' - Create Videomanager (VIDEO_TS.IFO).
=> Working DVD without any menus.

[Subhash]

To have a working DVD, you really need to get rid of the start menu.

Does this mean, I must first write to HD folder with the Top Menu intact and then reauthor it to get rid of the menu.

There is no Authoring tool that will let me do it without the extra step ?

Thanks......

[borax]

Of cause, there are quite a lot of them. But as it seems not Power Director 4.0...
And I don't know your mpegs. Are they already dvd compliant, where do they 'come from'...
You may try TDA, it's one of the most easy to use authoring tools. There is also an option to author without menus.

BTW: My suggestion doesn't mean to reauthor, you only need to create a new video manager (takes only some seconds!)

[jman98]

There is another method to make the movie play without having to re-author it. Rip it to your hard drive. Go to http://www.doom9.net (sorry, but Doom9 doesn't allow direct links, so you'll have to do it the long way) and go to the Guides section. Under DVD, they have a guide on splitting DVD-9 to 2 DVD-5 discs. Doom9's website is seriously messed up as I write this, so I can't check on the exact name of the guide. It uses IFOEdit though. It is possible in IFO edit to edit the PGC and change what it plays to the movie. It's not a simple procedure, but if you have decent technical skills and follow their guide, you should be able to do it. It's at the end of the guide where it tells how to make the 2nd DVD play the movie directly and bypass the menu.

[Subhash]

Thanks borax and jman98.

So, if I want to save the extra step of first writing to HD folder, then Power Director is not the answer. May be I should be looking at Tmpgenc DVD Author. I do have Ulead Video Studio 8 though. It has the option whether or not you want to create menus. I tried that but the it screwed up some of the transitions in my original mpeg file. So that was not very good. Power Director on the other hand retained the transitions in tact.

Well, if I have to go the extra step, then I might as well just write to the HD first and then use Pgcedit (free tool) to get rid of the menu. As a matter of fact, I just modified my authored DVD by pgcedit and removed the top menu and it worked just the way I wanted it.

Thanks again guys for your help.....

Subhash.

[Subhash]

UPDATE....

I can't burn the dvd I modified with pgcedit to remove the menu. It plays fine with Power DVD but when I try to burn it, I get the message "The DVD-video files rellocation failed. The resulting dvd video might be unplayable. Do you want to continue."

I am using DVD Shrink 3.2 to burn it which I think uses Nero in the background.

Any ideas.......

Subhash.

[borax]

Normally you can ignore this message. It only states that there are no menus (VIDEO_TS.VOB and VTS_XX_0.VOB files). I think no DVD player really need these files (if the ifos are correctly pointing to the titles). Within GfD I use an empty VOB (only one black frame, no audio, no buttons) as dummy to avoid this message.

[Subhash]

It doesn't give me a choice to ignore. The message window only has one button that says "close". After that I get the message that the burn failed and that is the end of it.

How do I get around that ?

[ipdave]

If you burn with Nero, don't use Video DVD, but UDF/ISO and make your own VIDEO_TS folder with the files in it (VOB, IFO, BUP)...

[Subhash]

If you burn with Nero, don't use Video DVD, but UDF/ISO and make your own VIDEO_TS folder with the files in it (VOB, IFO, BUP)...

I am not very familiar with using UDF/ISO. However, I did try it though. If I use DVD UDF/ISO option in Nero Burning Rom, it wouldn't let me add vob,ifo,bup etc. to the compilation. It gives me the message that the resultant dvd wouldn't be playable in the DVD players.

May be if you guide me exactly how I can accomplish this.

Thanks.

Subhash.

[dvd3500]

Why not use the reauthor option in DVDshrink?

[bmiller]

Get them a dvd player with the autoplay option.My old lg has that option in the setup.It automatically plays the longest title.

[Bjs]

It doesn't give me a choice to ignore. The message window only has one button that says "close". After that I get the message that the burn failed and that is the end of it.

How do I get around that ?

Use imagetools to burn the authored dvd .

[Subhash]

Why not use the reauthor option in DVDshrink?

Perfect. That did it. Took me seconds and I was on my way.

Thanks a lot.

Also thanks to bjs for his pm and an alternative method. However, DVD Shrink did the job in no time and I didn't have download/install/learn new tools which I haven't used so far.

Thanks again everyone for the help......

Subhash.

[dvd3500]

No problem. I use it a lot when I find the menu options confusing or slow.
I used it to get the "always on" subtitles off of some DVDs for example.