How to disassemble a DVD menu?

[dphirschler]

I have a DVD I made that I need to re-author in order to re-sync the audio. Problem is I have already deleted all my source files. I have no problem getting the m2v and ac3 files out of the vobs. The problem is the menu. Is there a way to disassemble the DVD and get the subpictures I used in the menu? It's a simple menu with a still image abou about ten chapters to choose from. The subpictures, which highlight as you navigate the menu, are custom made.


Darryl

[manono]

Hi-

Needing to resynch the audio doesn't quite explain why you need to disassemble the menu, but although this guide was written for something else, it explains how to take it apart and put it back together again:

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=555936#post555936

If all you need is BMPs of the menu pics, you can open the menu in DGIndex, scroll to the various menu pics and go File->Save BMP.

[dphirschler]

Getting the bmps is the easy part. What I really need (and dread recreating) are the sub pictures. These are the 4 color images that light up when you select the button.

But if I don't need to disassemble the menu, I won't. But I am not sure how to get what I want. Usually when I want to sync audio, I will rip the audio and video out of the vob resulting in a m2v and ac3 file. Than I adjust the delay in my authoring tool (DVDauthorGUI). But in order to author the DVD again, I need to build my menu, right?


Darryl

[manono]

Hi-

But in order to author the DVD again, I need to build my menu, right?

No. When you're done with the resynch job, and a simple reauthor job with something like Muxman (no menus needed, but the original chapters, if any, will be necessary), open the original out-of-synch DVD in VobBlanker. Then highlight the movie to make it open in the lower screen. Highlight it in the lower screen and hit the "Replace" button to the right. Scroll to your newly authored and in synch DVD, give it an Output Folder and "Process". That will give you your in synch movie within the original DVD and the original menus.

Edited for spelling.

[dphirschler]

OK, I think I am on the right track now. Here is what my DVD does currently:

1) plays "Image" video clip
2) goes into the menu (still frame with 10 or so selections)
3) plays video starting at whichever chapter you select (play all starts at chapter 1)

Of course the audio is out of sync.

When I demuxed the video, I discovered that the menu was one vob and the rest of the video was three vobs. The "Image" clip was part of the same vob as the movie. So I used DVD Shrink in reauthor mode (no compression) to get each clip. Now I have the Image clip and the movie in their own vobs. The big question for me is did DVD Shrink re-encode the mpeg?

I have demuxed the movie vob so I now have an m2v and an ac3. I also have a wav (converted from the ac3) for reference.

I used Virtual Dub to change the offset of the audio and get it in sync (it was off by about 200 milliseconds).

I got my chapter indexes from ChapterXtractor.

I plan to take my movie m2v and my ac3 into DVDauthorGUI, set the audio delay, set the chapters, and author a DVD. Then it looks like I need to take my newly created in-sync vobs and copy them into the original DVD rip and Vobblanker to replace the old vobs with the new vobs.

Does that sound right?

[SLK001]

Use VOBRator to extract the video and audio files. Then use SUBRIP to extract the subtitle bitmaps. (Total time, < 1 minute).

[dphirschler]

D'oh! OK, I will try that as well. I'll post back my results.


Darryl

[SLK001]

Next time, create a directory (8 characters or less) like "COVERART", and put the various files unique to that DVD - minus the video and audio files, of course. Even with the disk label and the disk case insert, the size should be less than 5MB. Unless you're really pushing the limit on the disk (which I have, at times) there should be plenty of room left on the disk.

[dphirschler]

Good idea. I actually have an ARTWORK folder with the cover artwork in there. It would have been smart to put the DVD menus and stuff in there as well.


Darryl

[dphirschler]

Well, here is the update. I haven't had much time to work on this these past few weeks, but I worked on it a bit last night. Here is what I have done:

1) I ripped my DVD in file mode

2) Loaded it into DGIndex and split the m2v and ac3 file. I did it a second time just to decode the ac3 into wav so I would have a wav for reference. Plus I may need to re-encode the audio (hopefully not).

My movie currently goes like this when you put in the disc: First it shows a short clip which says "Image Entertainment". Second, it loads a one-screen menu. The menu has a play all button and ten chapters to choose from. Then you play the main movie by choosing one of the buttons on the menu. After the movie plays, you go back to the menu.

3) DVD Shrink: I loaded my ripped DVD and noticed that the "Image" clip and the main movie were one VOB. Wierd. So I split them in DVD Shrink by re-authoring. I set compression to none (100%). I am hoping this step did not degrade my video.

So now here is what I have:

- m2v single frame of the menu
- m2v "Image Entertainment" clip
- ac3 audio of "Image Entertainment" clip
- m2v main movie
- ac3 audio of main movie
- wav audio of main movie

I intend to view my m2v in Virtual Dub and adjust the audio sync. After I know what the adjustment is, I can plug that value into DVDauthorGUI and make a new DVD. But I still need the menu sub-pictures so I can reassemble the menu.

Maybe VOBrator could have gotten me to this stage, but I had already done this much before I got that post. But now I know about SubRip...

4) Started SubRip and loaded my original ripped DVD from the folder on my harddrive. Selected the VOB with the menu in it and told it to save bmp files. It found one large subpicture bmp. The colors were all wrong too and I could not fix that in SubRip. But I saved the one large bmp file.

5) I had to play the DVD in a software player and capture the menu screen with a selection made so I could get the rgb values on the subpictures.

6) loaded the bmp file into PaintShop Pro and edited the palette using the screen capture from step #5 as a reference.

7) This part sucks. It was very tedious. I then cut up the large bmp into seperate buttons and made note of their x,y coordinates. I will use this in DVDauthorGUI to reassemble my menu.

So all I have to do now is determine the audio offset to sync it up better and then bring it all together in DVDauthorGUI. Yes it was a hassle. I wish I had saved my source files for the menu the first time. But at least I am done with the hard part now. If anybody sees where I could have saved myself some trouble, please let me know. I did search for the RGB values for the subpictures in IFOedit but I never found them. If that info is there, I would like to know where it could have been found.


Darryl

[Bjs]

When you use subrip to snap those menu button's , it dose save them as one bmp image .

You should use something like mwsnap to take individual snap's of each of those image's , then follow the procedure to reconvert them back into suitable format for button's as used in dvdauthorgui .

Paintshop pro is very quick at these ... but for the freeway :

https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=285839

[manono]

If anybody sees where I could have saved myself some trouble, please let me know.

You had a good DVD before, and all you wanted to do was to resynch the audio? I didn't understand any of that about button colors, but if it was OK in the original DVD, why are you messing with that? Why are you messing with subtitle BMPs? You couldn't have taken a more roundabout way to do something so easy, if you had tried. Unless there's something I'm not understanding. Open the IFO containing the audio/video you want to resynch in PGCDemux. If there is more than one PGC (you mentioned something about an Image Entertainment opening video), then make sure you have the main video chosen in the dropdown box. Check the "Demux Video Stream" box and leave the rest alone. Make sure Mode "By PGC" and PGC Selection Domain "Title" are ticked (should be default). Give it an Output Folder and "Demux". When done, you'll have the M2V, AC3 audio, Celltimes.txt (the chapters), and the subs, in SUP format.

Immediately reauthor. Open Muxman (can also use IFOEdit), choose the celltimes.txt in File->Import Chapter. Add the video and audio. Set the delay for the audio (I'll leave that up to you to figure out). Muxman can set delays of up to +-300 ms. If it's more than that, fix the delay in AC3 Delay Corrector. Add in the SUP subtitles for the movie (if any). Choose a Destination Folder and "Start".

Once you have the new in-synch DVD, follow the instructions above to replace it in the original DVD. You can change button colors, if you ever have to, in PGCEdit, or DVDSubEdit.