Guide for extracting menus for editing, and reinserting edited menus

[manono]

In the last step of importing it seems to create the buttons

It doesn't. I purposely didn't cover creating buttons as it's a much greater level of difficulty. It would be much better for you to use an already existing button, if possible.

Another thing you can do is to save an edited BMP of the menu and use it to create a new menu using a DVD authoring program such as DVDAuthorGUI to create new buttons for your DVD.

Sorry but I have very bad English, do I also have to use AviSynth?

If reencoding a menu (after editing it, for example, to add new text or you want to make it smaller), yes. Either that or some other program that can reencode a menu for you.

[Donnje]

at the beginning it was exported: Whole menu and color schemes (.mnu / .csm) ..

6. Importing: .. now we have to import those two files to menu


[Attachment 59281 - Click to enlarge]

that's what I did

[Donnje]

In the last step of importing it seems to create the buttons

It doesn't. I purposely didn't cover creating buttons as it's a much greater level of difficulty. It would be much better for you to use an already existing button, if possible.

it is not clear to me the difference between button and dynamic menu, do you have any examples, please?

Another thing you can do is to save an edited BMP of the menu and use it to create a new menu using a DVD authoring program such as DVDAuthorGUI to create new buttons for your DVD.

Do you have a tutorial for this?



Inviato dal mio iPhone utilizzando Tapatalk

[manono]

No and no.

[Donnje]

No and no.

Are these considered buttons and not dynamic menu and cannot be changed with your guide?
Can anyone tell me the simplest procedure to play the animation once the text has been edited?
Thanks


[Attachment 59286 - Click to enlarge]


[Attachment 59287 - Click to enlarge]

[Donnje]

error

[r0lZ]

Two things can be animated in a menu: the background and the buttons themselves.

When the background of the menu is still, it is made of a single still image. It is easy to modify it, as explained in the guide. You have to export the layout of the original buttons and the BMP of the background, edit the BMP with a paint program, then import the BMP and the buttons. If necessary, you can then create the definition of a new button with PgcEdit. (That's not really difficult, but be sure to change the "adjacent buttons" links so that the new button can be reached with the remote, and the original buttons can be reached from the new button. Check with the cursor keys in PgcEdit's menu editor.)

If the background is moving, then it's a video instead of a still picture. It is much more difficult to edit it. Using avisynth to add text to the original video is possible, but that requires a good knowledge of avisynth and the re-encoding of the video in MPEG. It's probably too difficult for you. Therefore, I suggest to convert the animated menu to a still menu, then follow the guide for a still image.

If the menu buttons are animated, that means that the highlight of the buttons are moving, or the text is changing during the playback of the menu (without using the remote). (Normally, that means that the background is also animated.) Editing animated buttons is extremely difficult, and you will probably not find a guide explaining how to do it. Luckily, animated buttons are very rare. (I know only one DVD with that feature.) Anyway, forget it.

According to the two images you have posted here, your menu is a still menu, and the buttons are not animated. (The highlight is on another button in the second image, but it's because that button has been selected. It's not an animation.) So, the principle is simple and clearly explained in the guide.

[Donnje]

Two things can be animated in a menu: the background and the buttons themselves.

When the background of the menu is still, it is made of a single still image. It is easy to modify it, as explained in the guide. You have to export the layout of the original buttons and the BMP of the background, edit the BMP with a paint program, then import the BMP and the buttons. If necessary, you can then create the definition of a new button with PgcEdit. (That's not really difficult, but be sure to change the "adjacent buttons" links so that the new button can be reached with the remote, and the original buttons can be reached from the new button. Check with the cursor keys in PgcEdit's menu editor.)

If the background is moving, then it's a video instead of a still picture. It is much more difficult to edit it. Using avisynth to add text to the original video is possible, but that requires a good knowledge of avisynth and the re-encoding of the video in MPEG. It's probably too difficult for you. Therefore, I suggest to convert the animated menu to a still menu, then follow the guide for a still image.

If the menu buttons are animated, that means that the highlight of the buttons are moving, or the text is changing during the playback of the menu (without using the remote). (Normally, that means that the background is also animated.) Editing animated buttons is extremely difficult, and you will probably not find a guide explaining how to do it. Luckily, animated buttons are very rare. (I know only one DVD with that feature.) Anyway, forget it.

According to the two images you have posted here, your menu is a still menu, and the buttons are not animated. (The highlight is on another button in the second image, but it's because that button has been selected. It's not an animation.) So, the principle is simple and clearly explained in the guide.

Thanks to your detailed explanations I solved
Even though the background is moving I have changed the color of the selection, So isn't it dynamic anyway?
Are the colors bound, that is, I cannot choose red because it is not proposed?


[Attachment 59295 - Click to enlarge]

To create the new button,I don't understand how it works "adjacent buttons" links, it is hard to explain?


[Attachment 59296 - Click to enlarge]

Thanks a lot

[r0lZ]

Even though the background is moving I have changed the color of the selection, So isn't it dynamic anyway?
Are the colors bound, that is, I cannot choose red because it is not proposed?

No, the color doesn't change during the playback. It is static.
You have to define the colors you want for the buttons in the PGC (PGC Editor -> CLUT frame). If red is not present, you can select an existing color and change it, but take care. If you change a color that is used by another button, it will change there too! When you have edited the CLUT in the PGC to suit your needs, return to the menu editor and select the color you have just created.

To create the new button,I don't understand how it works "adjacent buttons" links, it is hard to explain?

When you use the cursor of the remote to move from a button to another button, the button you will reach when using, say, the right arrow is the button selected by the slider in the right part of the adjacent buttons frame of the Menu Editor. (In your example, it will be button number 2, reachable also with the down arrow. The left and up arrows select button 3.) When you change the numbers of the adjacent buttons, there is a risk to create a dead end (for example if button 1 is linked to button 3 only, and button 3 to button 1 : it will be impossible to reach button 2.) It's why you have to verify if all buttons are easy to reach with the remote. (In the PGC Editor, you can select any button, then use the arrow keys on the keyboard to check the links. They mimic the arrow keys of the remote.)

[Donnje]

Even though the background is moving I have changed the color of the selection, So isn't it dynamic anyway?
Are the colors bound, that is, I cannot choose red because it is not proposed?

No, the color doesn't change during the playback. It is static.
You have to define the colors you want for the buttons in the PGC (PGC Editor -> CLUT frame). If red is not present, you can select an existing color and change it, but take care. If you change a color that is used by another button, it will change there too! When you have edited the CLUT in the PGC to suit your needs, return to the menu editor and select the color you have just created.

To create the new button,I don't understand how it works "adjacent buttons" links, it is hard to explain?

When you use the cursor of the remote to move from a button to another button, the button you will reach when using, say, the right arrow is the button selected by the slider in the right part of the adjacent buttons frame of the Menu Editor. (In your example, it will be button number 2, reachable also with the down arrow. The left and up arrows select button 3.) When you change the numbers of the adjacent buttons, there is a risk to create a dead end (for example if button 1 is linked to button 3 only, and button 3 to button 1 : it will be impossible to reach button 2.) It's why you have to verify if all buttons are easy to reach with the remote. (In the PGC Editor, you can select any button, then use the arrow keys on the keyboard to check the links. They mimic the arrow keys of the remote.)

Perfect now everything is very clear
Although I have to investigate the difference between static and dynamic menus, I am confused because in this case the background changes

[r0lZ]

Although I have to investigate the difference between static and dynamic menus, I am confused because in this case the background changes

I don't think your menu is animated. But it is easy to verify. Look at the screenshot here. All menus from that DVD are static. Look in the left column : all VTSM, LU 1 (ja), * have very short playback times (0 or 0.02 seconds). That means that the menus are made of single still frames. (The first two menus have a lot of buttons (46b.) probably because they are made of several pages, like many chapter menus. That explain also why the playback time is not exactly equal to 0.)

Also, if you look in the PGC Editor of any of these menus, in the cells list frame, you will certainly see a Cell Still Time of 255. This is a special value meaning that the last frame of the video (or, in this case, the only frame of the still picture) must be displayed forever. This is necessary for a still menu, to wait for the user to activate a button. For an animated menu, usually the Cell Still Time is 0, and the video with the buttons is played again and again in a loop until the user activates a button.

So, verify the playback time and the cell still time of your menu, and you will know for sure if it is static or animated.

(Note also that the very rare case of animated buttons (not background) requires also a real video clip, with a cell still time of 0, because the animation of the button is stored in the video file, along with the background. It's impossible with a single still frame.)

Anyway, when you replace the edited BMP with VobBlanker, the menu is converted to a still, even if it was animated before.

[Donnje]

From the menu screen is there a way to edit the text directly or save the background without keys and then apply new ones written with an image editor?
Thanks


[Attachment 68044 - Click to enlarge]

[usually_quiet]

I have not tried to do this in a long time so I can't be much help to you with specifics.

After a DVD menu is authored, buttons are not separate graphical elements any longer. The button graphics and the background graphics are merged and the buttons are defined as areas on the video. Only the highlights are stored on an overlay of sorts.

You would need to make a screenshot of the menu to extract it from the video, edit it with a graphics program and use VOBBlanker to replace the original menu with your edited menu. Buttons are difficult to replace or remove when the background graphics contain a lot of details and it isn't possible to get a screenshot with the same background and no buttons in that area that you want to edit. Depending on the changes that you have made, you may need to extract the overlay containing the highlights and edit that as well.

[Donnje]

I have not tried to do this in a long time so I can't be much help to you with specifics.

After a DVD menu is authored, keys are not separate graphical elements any longer. The key graphics and the background graphics are merged and the keys are defined as areas on the video. Only the highlights are stored on an overlay of sorts.

You would need to make a screenshot of the menu to extract it from the video, edit it with a graphics program and use VOBBlanker to replace the original menu with your edited menu. Buttons are difficult to replace or remove when the background graphics contain a lot of details and it isn't possible to get a screenshot with the same background and no buttons in that area that you want to edit. Depending on the changes that you have made, you may need to extract the overlay containing the highlights and edit that as well.

I know the procedure I was wondering if it was a faster way to edit the text or extract only the background

[usually_quiet]

I have not tried to do this in a long time so I can't be much help to you with specifics.

After a DVD menu is authored, keys are not separate graphical elements any longer. The key graphics and the background graphics are merged and the keys are defined as areas on the video. Only the highlights are stored on an overlay of sorts.

You would need to make a screenshot of the menu to extract it from the video, edit it with a graphics program and use VOBBlanker to replace the original menu with your edited menu. Buttons are difficult to replace or remove when the background graphics contain a lot of details and it isn't possible to get a screenshot with the same background and no buttons in that area that you want to edit. Depending on the changes that you have made, you may need to extract the overlay containing the highlights and edit that as well.

I know the procedure I was wondering if it was a faster way to edit the text or extract only the background

Then to be clear, no, there is not any way to simply edit the text. ...and unless you can find a frame in the menu video with the same background and no text and make a screenshot of that frame, there is no way to extract only the background graphics because the button graphics/text and the background graphics are merged during authoring.

[Skiller]

There is no faster way.

[Cornucopia]

Yes, (not counting Blurays which can be different) with DVDs, There are only 3 planes of the image, whether still or motion menus:

1. The bottom layer is the "background". It is the image itself, plus any other authored text or graphics, which have been "flattened" and burned/baked into the image as just more pixels. This can be still or motion.
2. The middle layer is the "highlight". In DVD spec, it only can contain 4 total colors (aka 2bit), assigned during authoring to display as 4 different colors/shades (including transparency), which have one state when not-selected or highlighted, another state when highlighted but not yet selected, and a 3rd state when actively selected. This can be "still" or "animated still".
3. The top layer is the "selection". I is created during authoring. It is usually rectangular, but smart authors know how to cheat that to make it more complex shapes. The regions of selection are designed to decide which areas of the screen are considered actionable "Buttons" vs background. This layer is still only.

Notice there is NO text layer.

Scott

[Donnje]

Yes, (not counting Blurays which can be different) with DVDs, There are only 3 planes of the image, whether still or motion menus:

1. The bottom layer is the "background". It is the image itself, plus any other authored text or graphics, which have been "flattened" and burned/baked into the image as just more pixels. This can be still or motion.
2. The middle layer is the "highlight". In DVD spec, it only can contain 4 total colors (aka 2bit), assigned during authoring to display as 4 different colors/shades (including transparency), which have one state when not-selected or highlighted, another state when highlighted but not yet selected, and a 3rd state when actively selected. This can be "still" or "animated still".
3. The top layer is the "selection". I is created during authoring. It is usually rectangular, but smart authors know how to cheat that to make it more complex shapes. The regions of selection are designed to decide which areas of the screen are considered actionable "Buttons" vs background. This layer is still only.

Notice there is NO text layer.

Scott

what I was looking for was to export only the background without the text but it doesn't seem possible to me