I just want a simple solution to edit my menu

[mariow]

Hello all, I'm new here, and registered in the hope to find an easy solution to a simple question, but as yet I'm completely swamped by the wealth of information here and elsewhere on the Internet.

I'm converting my old VHS tapes to DVD and this works well. I also record new programs from TV and this also works well. I burn them both to DVD-RW's on my PHILIPS DVD recorder connected to my TV set, and then copy them onto DVD-R+ on the external DVD-recorder connected to my PC. I use RW's for the first stage so I can edit the menu (labels, menu image etc.) and this is where the present sytem has one limitation for me. My PHILIPS DVDR 3360H allows for labels of titles to be 256 characters long, but enables you only to ENTER 12 characters yourself. Whoever invented that feature should be sacked, as 12 characters really is not enough to clearly label either the DVD itself nor the individual titles.

So all I'm after is software that will allow me to edit the labels on the existing DVD menu, without re-encoding or any other fancy stuff.

I tried Cyberlink PowerProducer, but it has the same daft limit on the number of characters for a label. It more or less worked on Roxio's Easy CD & DVD Creator 6 'DVD Builder', with nice long DVD name and complete names for the titles, but it had some snags. First it had no sound (but that just might be a mistake I made) and the VOB's did not correspond with the titles, so had to be split manually. The biggest snag however was that it re-encoded the whole content, which took the best part of an evening.... This simply is not a viable option.

Is what I want possible without re-encoding the whole content? I have a working DVD when I start and want only to edit the label of the DVD and of the individual titles. That's all. No animations, crazy fade outs, sounds or other effects. Just add a few characters. And preferably in less time than it takes to watch the entire DVD... Can anyone help here?

Mario
The Netherlands

[manono]

Hi-

Do you have a decent photo editor? If so, then, if I understand you correctly, you just want to extract the menu(s), edit it (them) by replacing the current text with text of your choosing, and then replace the edited menu(s) in the DVD. Is that about right? If so, maybe The Easy Way section at the bottom of my menu editing guide might be of some help:

https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?p=1606732#1606732

You'll need VobBlanker, Muxman, and a picture editor to do the actual menu editing. The editing will take almost all the time. The menu extracting and replacing is simple. The rest of the DVD remains untouched. Nothing is reencoded or reauthored.

[mariow]

Manono,

Many thanks, that sounds just like what I need! I have both Photoshop and PaintShopPro available, so that should be no problem. I'll post my results when I've tried it.

Mario

[mariow]

VobBlanker has a really nice, really easy, and really fast feature for replacing BMPs. Save the BMP (using PGCEdit, as described earlier, or VobBlanker, or MenuShrink, or DGIndex, or VDubMod, or other ways).

Having never ever used any kind of video editing software before It took me some trouble finding that 'really easy' option to extract BMP's using VobBlanker itself.

I now have two BMPs, but put together they do not make the menu I want to edit. Are we sure we are looking for BMPs here?

I opened the screen 'Menu of VIDEO_TS' and selected Menu PGC # 01, the one with Action 'Still w/o audio' and clicked on the button marked 'Cells'. A new screen appears, called 'CELLS IN MENU: VTS=00 PGC=01'. and it shows two cells. The first cell is the standard PHILIPS Background, the second cell is the same but with the indexpictures of the two titles superimposed



Neither cell contains any text, so the text that appears behind the indexpictures when I insert the DVD in my playes comes from elsewhere. My question now is: do I really need a method to edit BMP's, or am I actually on a wild goose chase here?

Mario

[mariow]

The text behind the indexpictures is what I want to edit. It is not on the BMPs I extracted. Also, when I click on the arrow above the top picture I go to another index page (the one with Cell #1 as background) which contains plain text for the Disc title. This again is not on the extracted BMP.

Though usefull in replacing the backgroundpictures of my menus, this proposed solution does not solve my actual problem, it would seem. I'm open for suggestions

Mario

[manono]

OK, you have problems. Your text isn't in the Menu backgrounds, but in the Menu sub_pictures, the subs. That's a degree of difficulty greater to change. I'm sorry, but with DVDs it's completely different than what you're describing.

There's a back and forth lower down after the guide, between PBear and me. He had a similar problem which eventually he solved, but not without some difficulty. You'll have to completely demux the menus using PGDemux, and then modify the SUP files that you'll get. The posts detail the process, and later I stick in some pics.

Then even farther down gja has exactly the same problem as you do, and even has the same brand name DVD recorder. You can read about how he solved his problem. Good luck. You'll need it. Again, here's the guide:

https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?p=1606732#1606732