DvdStyler: multiple sets of menu buttons

[skaleton]

Hi,
I tried DvdStyler 1.7.2 to compile 3 episodes in one DVD.
So far I've been using DvdShrink and TitleWriter but I wanted to make more personalised menus.
It is a nice tool, easy to use. The menus and playback work fine on my PC using WinDvd5.
I opened it in PgcEdit to have a look at the structure and the following warning popped up:

WARNING: PgcEdit has detected multiple sets of menu buttons or BOVs.
Currently, PgcEdit cannot correctly handle multiple sets of buttons/BOVs.
You should NOT edit any button or BOV of a cell containing multiple sets,
or use any function that may modify the button/BOV commands, such as Delete
Uncalled PGCs, nor remap the PGCs of the same domain, or the TTNs of the
VTST domain of the same VTS, unless you know exactly what you are doing.

The log gives the following information (for the first menu but it is the same for the other 3 menus):

For the expert users, here is the list of the cells containing multiple sets:
---------------
9 sets of buttons detected in VTSM 1, in cell 1/1 (with 7 buttons)
VOB cell used in cell 1 of VTSM 1 , LU 1 (en) , 1 (0:04) 7b. RootM
Set 1 begins at LBA 0.
Set 2 begins at LBA 31. (HL_status = 1 : all new highlight info)
Set 3 begins at LBA 60. (HL_status = 1 : all new highlight info)
Set 4 begins at LBA 91. (HL_status = 1 : all new highlight info)
Set 5 begins at LBA 122. (HL_status = 1 : all new highlight info)
Set 6 begins at LBA 153. (HL_status = 1 : all new highlight info)
Set 7 begins at LBA 184. (HL_status = 1 : all new highlight info)
Set 8 begins at LBA 215. (HL_status = 1 : all new highlight info)
Set 9 begins at LBA 246. (HL_status = 1 : all new highlight info)

NOTE: The buttons data are identical in all sets of this cell.
The highlights of the buttons are probably animated, or it's an authoring error.
You can probably ignore the warning above for this cell.
---------------
Summary: PGCs containing multiple sets of buttons/BOVs
VTSM 1 , LU 1 (en) , 1 (0:04) 7b. RootM
VTSM 1 , LU 1 (en) , 2 (0:04) 14b. ChapterM
VTSM 1 , LU 1 (en) , 3 (0:04) 14b.
VTSM 1 , LU 1 (en) , 4 (0:04) 15b.

I read that one can probably ignore the warning but would someone please explain what this means?
Did I do something wrong in building the dvd?
Or is it a perfectly valid structure that as they say PgcEdit cannot correctly handle?

[skaleton]

Any idea anyone?

[MOVIEGEEK]

As long as it plays fine don't worry about it.

[skaleton]

Thanks moviegeek but will it play in a stand alone?
I would like to know what it's all about before burning it.

[usually_quiet]

The warning seems to be mostly about the limitations of PgcEdit's editing functions for multiple button groups. The last post in this thread https://forum.videohelp.com/topic351865.html discusses a situation where multiple groups of buttons may be found.

Did you edit any buttons or do any of the other things mentioned in the warning? If not, don't worry about it. What's the worst that could happen? Most of us have thrown away a disc now and then due to authoring mistakes.

[skaleton]

Thanks usually_quiet.
I read the thread but I am not sure it applies to my problem.
My dvd is 4:3.
The menus have only one group.

I didn't edit anything in PgcEdit.
Still I would like to understand what these multiple sets of buttons mean.

Do you know where I could find an explanation?I googled and searched other forums without success.

It is the first time that PgcEdit shows that warning. So I guess it cannot be that common.
Is there a way in DvdStyler to avoid creating these multiple sets of buttons?

[usually_quiet]

Still I would like to understand what these multiple sets of buttons mean.

Do you know where I could find an explanation?I googled and searched other forums without success.

It is the first time that PgcEdit shows that warning. So I guess it cannot be that common.
Is there a way in DvdStyler to avoid creating these multiple sets of buttons?

I haven't used DVDStyler in years, but I downloaded the latest version and created a simple project with 2 menus, using 1 frame per menu. The main menu had 5 buttons, the secondary menu had 2 buttons. PGCEdit showed only one button set in each menu.

It does not appear that I can recreate the situation you are describing by taking a shot in the dark. Without a better idea of what you did, there isn't much much chance of me answering your question.

[skaleton]

1) I converted 3 clips to mpg with vob2mpg
2) Both inserting the mpg files in the same titleset or in 3 titlesets fave the same result in regard to my problem
3) in the 3 titlesets configuration, I have 4 menus
- vmMenu with 7 buttons; 3 made with the frame button and a custom frame, that jump to each title, 3 pill buttons that jump to the chapter menus and a pill button for Play All.
- menu in each titleset for the chapters of each title with 11 or 12 frame buttons for each chapter, and 3 pill buttons that jump to the other menus.
I only have one language and no subtitle, so no need for a setup menu.

I hope this is clear enough. I don't know exactly what information can help. I can post snapshots if needed.
I only have one button for each individual action.
What do you mean by using 1 frame per menu?
I am just thinking of something. I inserted one frame button and one pill button, modified their look (size, color, font) and used copy/paste to make the other buttons, having only to change the action and the name.

[usually_quiet]

1) I converted 3 clips to mpg with vob2mpg
2) Both inserting the mpg files in the same titleset or in 3 titlesets fave the same result in regard to my problem
3) in the 3 titlesets configuration, I have 4 menus
- vmMenu with 7 buttons; 3 made with the frame button and a custom frame, that jump to each title, 3 pill buttons that jump to the chapter menus and a pill button for Play All.
- menu in each titleset for the chapters of each title with 11 or 12 frame buttons for each chapter, and 3 pill buttons that jump to the other menus.
I only have one language and no subtitle, so no need for a setup menu.

I hope this is clear enough. I don't know exactly what information can help. I can post snapshots if needed.
I only have one button for each individual action.
What do you mean by using 1 frame per menu?
I am just thinking of something. I inserted one frame button and one pill button, modified their look (size, color, font) and used copy/paste to make the other buttons, having only to change the action and the name.

I will try to make a similar project and see what happens, but it will take some time for me to do that and determine whether I can reproduce the error or need more information.

With still menus, authoring aps often allow users to specify the number of frames to use when creating the video for the menu. If I remember correctly, DVDStyler uses 100 frames by default (Configuration -> Settings -> Core -> Frame count of menus). I normally use 1, because when I first tried authoring my own DVDs, my stand-alone equipment did not display still menus properly when I specified more than 1 frame while using GFD.

Now I think perhaps DVDStyler won't allow a frame count lower than 25. When I opened up my project again to write down instructions for finding the menu frame count, the core settings showed a frame count of 25.

[skaleton]

Thanks for your help.

With still menus, authoring aps often allow users to specify the number of frames to use when creating the video for the menu. If I remember correctly, DVDStyler uses 100 frames by default (Configuration -> Settings -> Core -> Frame count of menus).

I don't really know what this means but yes the Frame Count is 100 by default.

[usually_quiet]

I don't really know what this means but yes the Frame Count is 100 by default.

It's the number of frames present in the menu's video. I don't think it will make any difference as far as your problem goes. Changing the value to 100 hasn't made any difference for me so far. I haven't seen any errors yet in PgcEdit.

I have tried to reproduce the DVD structure you described. The .mpg format videos I used were not made using VOB2MPG, but that should not matter. I assume the buttons you used were from the standard choices that come with DVDStyler, not imported from another source. I did lots of copying and pasting to create the menus, so the menus for the chapters were quite similar in appearance. You didn't mention text, but I needed to add some text labels to the menus so I could tell them apart easily.

There are 3 titles, each in its own titleset. 1 VmMenu with 3 rectangular frame buttons containing thumbnails for the titles and 4 pill buttons, one for each chapter menu, plus one "play all" button. The frame buttons are a custom size and the frame used a custom width.

Every titleset has one menu for selecting chapters. I selected "Chapter" as the menu type. Each menu contains 11 rectangular frame buttons with a thumbnail from one of the 11 chapters. Each of these menus also has 3 pill buttons to navigate between the menus. The frame buttons are a custom size and the frame used has a custom width.

No problems were reported when I opened the DVD using PgcEdit and examined the menus.

PgcEdit reports that DVDStyler used the menu I made for the chapters as the root menu for its titleset, and created a dummy chapter menu, even though I specified "Chapter" as the menu type.

Whatever is causing your problem, it isn't easy to stumble across and I'm calling off the hunt. You might try reporting the problem to DVDStyler's author. If you can reproduce your problem every time using the same project file, be sure to save it for him. Unfortunately I am not capable of spotting problems in DVDStyler/dvdauthor scripts.

While it was fun to try another program, and DVDStyler works much better than it usd to, I think I will stick with GFD.

[skaleton]

Sorry for the delay in replying but I had some computer issues.

I assume the buttons you used were from the standard choices that come with DVDStyler

Yes.

You didn't mention text

Yes, I added some text labels

Thank you for going through all that trouble to try to help me. This is much appreciated.
I also posted in the DvdStyler forum but have not had any reply yet.
I think I will stick to TitleWriter for the time being. It is not as sophisticated but it makes pretty decent menus.
When I have the time to reinstall DvdStyler I will start again from scratch and see how it goes.
I tried GFD but found it a bit too complicated for me

[Precomposed]

The problem is with dvdauthor, the underlying program to DVDStyler. It incorrectly sets the Highlight Status (HL_Status) in the PCI Packet of every VOBU in the menu to '01', which tells the player every GOP has a new set of menu buttons and commands. The first VOBU should be set to 01, and all subsequent PCI Packets should be set to '10'. We are working on updating dvdauthor to address this issue. You will notice that if you use a still menu, or a motion background with a single GOP (12 - 18 frames), you will not have this issue.

[manono]

Six years after this thread you're only now beginning to address this problem? I use DVDAuthorGUI with some frequency and have had the problem for years. There don't seem to be any adverse consequences but, just as the OP, one worries when seeing these kinds of warnings.

Is there anything that can be done through PGCEdit to fix the problem and make the warnings go away?

[Precomposed]

Sorry, I've only recently started using dvdauthor and discovered numerous issues with it. I've been working with the main developer to resolve these issues, including this one with the multiple sets of buttons. When researching what the problem could be, I came across this thread. Just thought I would let everyone know what the cause of the issue was

Each VOBU would have to be updated with the correct highlight status. I don't think PGCEdit is capable of doing this.

The information on the Highlight Status of the PCI packet can be seen here (sector 08d):

http://dvd.sourceforge.net/dvdinfo/pci_pkt.html


Here is the line in the dvdauthor source code that sets this to 1 for every VOBU, regardless if it is the first or subsequent:

https://github.com/ldo/dvdauthor/blob/master/src/dvdvob.c#L2342

The dvdauthor source code just needs to be updated and the problem will be fixed.

[manono]

Oh, you're not the developer? Sorry, then. While you're at it, get rid of the crappy spumux engine and replace it with Muxman.

[DB83]

One would think that the developer of this tool would have known about this issue many years ago.

When one writes "We are working...." there is a natural conclusion that the writer is a main developer. While you intentions might be good, if you are merely bombarding the developer with these issues then he could simply say "Oh feck it...."

If something has not been fixed in 6 (or more) years one would think it is not gonna be fixed now.

Resurrecting a 6 year old thread is still considered grave-robbing around here. A new thread and a link to the old one would be more appropriate in my eyes.