How Can I Recover Overlay Images from DVD VIDEO_TS

[gary@tmi]

I created a DVD for a client about a month ago (using DVD Studio Pro). All assets were with the client.

Unfortunately, the client's drive that had all the DVDSP project assets crashed and he does not have a backup. I do have a copy of the final DVD, and have been able to extract all the assets (Movie, menus, etc.) with MPEG Streamclip, but I can't seem to figure out a way to recover the overlay images,

Does anyone know of a way to recover the overlay images from a DVD? I would prefer a Mac solution, but I would gracious accept a Windows or Linux solution as well.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

TIA

[SLK001]

What do you mean by "overlay images"? Are these images used to create bitmaps or videos for menus (or even main videos)? If so, then they are merged, then encoded as merged in the final DVD. Without the originals, then you are out of luck.

Or, are you talking about substream images? If this, then any substream ripper should be able to recover them (SUBRIP for Windows).

[gary@tmi]

What do you mean by "overlay images"?

The Overlay images are the selection highlights - i.e. a "Star", or some other highlight, shows up when the PLAY button is navigated to, so you know what will happen when you press/select a menu option. I can extract the actual dvd menus from the menu VOB, but I have not been able to extract the overly/highlight image.

They are similar to subtitles (as subtitles are actually images in the video stream, but the overlay is specific to the DVD menus.

SubRip has been mention, but it is PC and I would prefer Mac, and I have read mixed results on its results. Any experience with SubRip?

thanks for the reply.

[terryj]

That sounds like it is in the Menu, and the menu is merged and encoded
in the final DVD, as SLK001 mentioned. Without those original
objects, you may be SOL.

I have a question though: When you created this project, did you
not when importing these objects into DVDSP to place them into
the overlay menu, did you not take the extra step and save
the Overlay Menu as a Custom Menu selection to your
DVDSP templates? If so, then you could simply re-apply
the menu to the recreate, as all the assets would be stored
within the Contents of the Custom Menu pkg.

Whenever I create a custom menu for a client, I always
after finalization of the menu and its overlays,
then Save that Menu as a Custom Project to my Templates,
give it the name of the project or customer, and that way
if things go bad, or I need to recreate, all the assets
are stored in the pkg file of the Custom Menu.
No need to keep assets from the customer, as they all get compiled
in the Custom pkg, and can be re-extracted as necessary.
(PSD files, mp3 files, etc.)

[videopoo]

That sounds like it is in the Menu, and the menu is merged and encoded
in the final DVD, as SLK001 mentioned. Without those original
objects, you may be SOL.

No...he's talking about the 8-bit overlay subtitle used as a button highlight. SubRip will work. Never used anything on the Mac.

[gary@tmi]

Thanks for the reply..

I have a question though: When you created this project, did you
not when importing these objects into DVDSP to place them into the overlay menu, did you not take the extra step and save
the Overlay Menu as a Custom Menu selection to your
DVDSP templates?

Unfortunately, I did not create the project on my system. It was all done on the client's, so everything was lost when the drive died. IF I would have created the project on my system, everything would have been backed up automatically to a Drobo.

At this point, I think I will have to recreate the overlay image.

Thanks for the the imput. It is greatly appreciated.

[SLK001]

Videopoo is correct. The "highlights" are just substreams, and can be easily ripped by Subrip... (on a Windows machine). Just use the MAC equivalent program - whatever that is.

[gary@tmi]

Thanks for the reply..

That sounds like it is in the Menu, and the menu is merged and encoded
in the final DVD, as SLK001 mentioned. Without those original
objects, you may be SOL.

No...he's talking about the 8-bit overlay subtitle used as a button highlight. SubRip will work. Never used anything on the Mac.

I tried D-Subtitle on the Mac and it could not find the overlay. I will install SubRp on the Win partition and see if that will be more successful.

[SLK001]

The menus are found either in VIDEO_TS.VOB or VTS_01_0.VOB (usually).

Load these into VirtualDub_MPEG2 (or Mac Equivalent) to see which one contains the menu files.

Then just rip the subtitles. Amazingly simple on a real computer.

[videopoo]

The menus are found either in VIDEO_TS.VOB or VTS_01_0.VOB (usually).

Yep...DVDSP puts its menus in the VTSM for each VTS. Look in each "_0" VOB.