Guide for extracting menus for editing, and reinserting edited menus

[jeanl]

Long story short, you have to define a button over the image saying "danish", not using DVDSubedit, but VobBlanker.

Wait! That won't be enough. You've modified your background, now you need to replace that in the menu, and that's where you use vobblanker. That's explained in this guide toward the top, and it's not hard.
But even after that, you need to add a button in PGCEdit as I described above... Otherwise, only the existing buttons will function as expected.
Once you've done that, and if you re-open the file in DVDSubEdit, you should see a green rectangle around the word "Danish" , which will show that you've successfully added a button.
Jeanl

[tmihai20]

Jeanl is right, I am just saying that it is easier to modify something than adding something new

[jeanl]

Oh yes! Much easier to use another button that add one! It's really too bad there isn't a good integrated tool to let you edit your menu in just one shot:
- Edit the background video.
- Edit the highlights
- Add the button data to the VOB file.

At this point you need vobblanker + dvdsubedit + pgcedit to do all three things...
Jeanl

[manono]

Oh yes! Much easier to use another button that add one! It's really too bad there isn't a good integrated tool to let you edit your menu in just one shot:
- Edit the background video.
- Edit the highlights
- Add the button data to the VOB file.

At this point you need vobblanker + dvdsubedit + pgcedit to do all three things...
Jeanl

Hehe, does that give you any ideas for your next project? The Europeans, especially, are all the time asking about and trying to do these things. We English speakers are lucky as our NTSC DVDs, even of movies from other countries, usually come with English language subs. The Europeans, depending on their country and the source of the PAL DVD, often aren't so fortunate.

[jeanl]

Hehe, does that give you any ideas for your next project?

AH! You crack me up!
I must admit I gave it a thought. But I think vobblanker and PGCEdit are really well integrated and well debugged tools. Really, all that's needed is a kind of a shell that would invoke these programs with the right arguments!
I've got enough on my plate for now though...
Jeanl

[manono]

Really, all that's needed is a kind of a shell that would invoke these programs with the right arguments!

Right, which is kind of what I had in mind since anyone doing this kind of work uses these three programs constantly anyway. No point in reinventing the wheel.

After I wrote this basic guide I found out about others needing to edit the sub pictures in addition to editing and replacing the background videos, and that added feature to DVDSubEdit has made that particular job much easier. I'm not complaining. You've done more than your share for the DVD loving community.

[razor101]

THanks for all guys

I'll give it a shot later today or tomorrow

[razor101]

So now I've opened VobBlanker and configured the paths to MuxMan in the Settings menu.

Opened the VIDEO_TS.IFO file and found the specific cell/menu showing Set-Up Settings menu on the DVD.
Selected opened a Still for the menu and replaced the background with my own edited one.

So far so good!

But now PGCedit crashes as I try to open the newly edited DVD, or in fact, any DVD folder.


Snapshot:

[tmihai20]

This is highly unusual. I don't use PGCEdit, as I described before I replaced a subtitle, there were plenty of them to replace... Maybe someone else can help you, it is strange though that it crashes on opening any DVD, are all of them edited?

[jeanl]

First of, this is only a warning, not a crash. YOu can still use PGCEdit.
Are you sure the original does not give you the same warning? Nothing you did could have triggered that so I'm ready to bet the original would trigger the warning...
I've had this warning plenty of times myself...
so, try to keep on opening the DVD and edit the menu to add a button, that should work.
Jeanl

[razor101]

Yes, I have tried opening any other original disc, and it gives me this error from windows and the program stalls:

"PgcEdit - DVD Editor has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience."

Don't know what I should do about it... Maybe I could just replace Spanish with Danish as no one I know would even think about watching a movie with spanish subtitles. I would personally prefer English subs, because danish is often translated too bad and because I can speak/read english perfectly.

[jeanl]

Ah, if this happens with any disc, I suppose something is corrupt in the ini file of PGCEdit... If you have an account at doom9, you should probably let r0lZ (the author of PGCEdit) know, and he'll fix the bug.
Otherwise, you could remove the directory:
C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR_NAME\Application Data\PgcEdit

and see if that fixes the crash. Be careful, you'll loose all your PGCEdit settings (tools etc) so perhaps you should just rename that folder, then launch PGCEdit again...
Jeanl

[razor101]

That thing about settings I don't suppose I should worry about... I've nearly just got in hold of the program

Note: i'm no pro

[jeanl]

Ah OK, so yes, don't worry about it. Just try it again.
But it's surprising that your settings could have been screwed up so badly that PgcEdit does not start (that's never ever happened to me!)
Jeanl

[cobo]

I have a menu with 26 cells that I want to replace, but there are only 2 .sup files that contain the subpictures for all 26 cells - one for all 26 WS subpictures and the other for all 26 LB subpictures. Do I need to mux the sup files with each of the edited cell BMP's I'm going to replace in VOBblanker, or should I only mux the sup files with the first cell?

[manono]

I don't know.

If these are all static menus, then you don't have to even demux, but just follow The Easy Way found at the bottom of the post/guide. That way you won't even have to worry about whether or not each cell has it's own SUP files or not.

If motion menus, I'd replace with whatever you got when demuxing using PGCDemux. My guess is that each cell has 2 SUP files.

Speaking strictly as a layman, I think all cells will have to have their own SUP files, even if they're all duplicated from cell to cell. jeanl would know for sure.

[cobo]

What I want to do is replace the .sup files as well as they've been altered as well. I'm trying to convert the menu from PAL to NTSC.

I used DVDsubedit to easily alter the subtitle sup's for the main feature conversion by moving the subpic vertical position up 89 pixels. Muxman accepted these and the NTSC title plays with the subtitles in the same position as in the PAL version only the letters are 20% taller. I wanted to see if this would work for the menus as well.

I tried replacing the NTSC muxed cells in the menu both ways - with the sup's muxed with each replacement cell and just with the first cell. But either way when I try to import the menus and color schemes to the cells in PGCedit I can only edit the first cell buttons successfully. When I click on menu buttons for a second cell I get this error message:

can't read "::buttons::butsinfo(menu,1,1,1,hlendtime)": no such element in array
can't read "::buttons::butsinfo(menu,1,1,1,hlendtime)": no such element in array
while executing
"set ::buttons::curbutsinfo($vobid,$cellid,hlendtime) $::buttons::butsinfo(menu,$vts,$vobid,$cellid,hlen dtime)"
(procedure "get_menu_buttons_infos" line 38)
invoked from within
"get_menu_buttons_infos $vts menu"
(procedure "display_menu_buttons" line 2)
invoked from within
"display_menu_buttons [lindex $indexlist 0] [lindex $indexlist 1] [lindex $indexlist 2] 1024 $mode 0"
(procedure "::menubuttons::display_current_menu_buttons" line 15)
invoked from within
"::menubuttons::display_current_menu_buttons info"
(menu invoke)

[manono]

You might have mentioned that you were doing a PAL2NTSC conversion.

I wanted to see if this would work for the menus as well.

If you ask me, that's a pretty dumb idea. It'll work for the dialog subs although, as you noted, the subtitles will wind up 20% larger, but as far as I know you have to have 720x480 BMPs for the menu subpics. At least I've always converted them properly myself. If you converted the video or pics on top to 720x480, you kind of have to also convert the underlying sub pics or else they'll never line up properly.

But that doesn't really help with your problem. I've never done a conversion with a bunch of menus in different cells, as they're usually in different PGCs. So, I don't know if the problem is with the larger sub pics you're trying to use, or something peculiar to the DVD with all those cells. You might ask at Doom9 in the IFO/VOB Editors Forum, where the PGCEdit developer R0lZ hangs out.

I really would try and convert the sub pics, if I were you. Other than that, I'm afraid I can't be much help. Sorry.

[skaleton]

Manono, You are brilliant as usual.
Thanks a lot.
I wish I had seen your guide a few days ago as I just changed the menu of a DVD.
I used a very simple and easy method. I authored the dvd with DvdShrink to movie only then used TitleWriter to make a new menu. But this is not the object of this guide. Next time I will certainly try your method.

[plantag]

hi to all,

i have a big problem.. the program muxman does not work properly by me. by last cell the color becomes purple instead of green, and the muxing does not work. here's a pic:

[plantag]

andan other pic at the end of muxing: what can i do? please, help.. i tried muxing with ifoedit, too, but at the beginning i get a message, that the file could not to open for writing..

[manono]

Hi-

what can i do?

First, open the Celltimes.txt using Notepad. Then either completely remove the last (bottom) frame number, or lower the number by 25 or so. If you go with keeping it but lowering the number, if, for example, it originally said 150000, change it to 149975. Then author again using the edited Celltimes.txt file.

[plantag]

thanx, i'll try it. i did it by 2 different dvd's yesterday and today in the dawn, but neither of both was succeed.

[plantag]

i've checked the celltime.txt file. there are 26 lines, but the last line is empty.. that's why the programs can't do it..

[plantag]

hmm...

i inserted a frame number in celltim.txt, and the status bar in notepad indicates, it has 26 lines. after saving and importing, then opening this saved file, muxman says me, it has 27 scenes now... by clicking the button "27 scenes" at the bottom of the window of muxman, i deleted 1 note. i thoght, i solved the problem. i sterted muxman, but at 26th scene the coloured line has become purple again..

am out of ideas.. (

[manono]

Why don't you do what I suggested instead of wasting time doing things you don't understand. Either remove the last line or lower the number, as I suggested.

i've checked the celltime.txt file. there are 26 lines, but the last line is empty.. that's why the programs can't do it..

No, that's not why it can't do it.

i inserted a frame number in celltim.txt

Did I say anything about adding a number? No, I said either remove the last one, or lower the last one. There are 26 scenes but only 25 lines in the Celltimes.txt because the first scene starts with 0 (zero) and doesn't have to have a line.

[plantag]

sorry for not following you. that was just an idea. here is the original celltime.txt with status bar, and first and last line.

[manono]

Your last line is 128933. Either remove it completely or change it to something like 128910.

[plantag]

i tried both. i changed it to 127933, but muxman did not work either.. i used ifoedit to remux, and it succeeded. i replaced ifo with vobblanker, but i could not to change the menu.. i must have changed the english audio to hungarian, and disabled the english button.

[plantag]

where can i find a guide for dvdremake pro?