Re-Authoring A DVD... Sort Of.....

[(PeteCresswell)]

When I rip DVDs, I've been ripping the whole thing, checking out
if any of the "Extras" are worth saving, and then re-authoring
via DvdShrink accordingly - creating as many "DVDs" as needed.

I've got VideoReDo Suite, but that doesn't do DVD menus.

Understood that I can use something like Tsunami MPEG DVD Author
to create a menu system from scratch and fold everything back
into my own "DVD"...

But what I'd really like to do is just tweak the existing
structure so that the stern warnings, the trailers, and the
advertisements either just don't get played at all or are
replaced by placeholder files of the same name that just throw up
a black screen for a half second or so - but other than that, the
menus are exactly the same.

Can anybody suggest a tool that will facilitate that?

["" <CLicker>]

Post by (PeteCresswell)
When I rip DVDs, I've been ripping the whole thing, checking out
if any of the "Extras" are worth saving, and then re-authoring
via DvdShrink accordingly - creating as many "DVDs" as needed.
I've got VideoReDo Suite, but that doesn't do DVD menus.
Understood that I can use something like Tsunami MPEG DVD Author
to create a menu system from scratch and fold everything back
into my own "DVD"...
But what I'd really like to do is just tweak the existing
structure so that the stern warnings, the trailers, and the
advertisements either just don't get played at all or are
replaced by placeholder files of the same name that just throw up
a black screen for a half second or so - but other than that, the
menus are exactly the same.
Can anybody suggest a tool that will facilitate that?

IMNSHO, DVD Shrink does everything you've asked.
You can replace any element of a DVD with a still or video. I don't
recall the specifics but it seemed rather obvious when poking about in
the options and menus. Shrink has its own set of replacement stills,
but it's no sweat to create your own. I seem to recall that stills
would sadly stay on screen for whatever the actual playtime of the
replaced component though, but . . . You will still have menus.
Splitting the video across two or more DVDs and preserving menus with
Shrink works this way: 1) extract just the movie without menus using
one or two DVD5s or a single DVD9. 2) extract the entire DVD using
Shrink but replace the movie with "still image" or "still pictures."
This disc will have menus and extras but no movie.

I've no idea why you would need menus though. First, you can extract
the movie portion of the DVD with Shrink whilst splitting it to two
DVD images, so that there need be no compression. Second, you can
extract individually any video set and append it to the end of your
movie, thus including it in that DVD image, or save it as a separate
.MPG file, which you can name appropriately. If your DVD player can
not play .MPG files, consider spending $40 and getting a new one.

I just have to say though, that DVD is so last century. Extracting
video sets to HDD as DVD or MKV or MPGISO without compression and
while saving everything you desire including menus is incredibly
simple. Any player which will play video ISO files from a HDD will
present you with a menu of what's on the disk. What could be better?

N.B. if you must use DVD5 media, consider making yourself a few info
videos in appropriate aspect ratios and of appropriate length to
insert into your DVDShrink rips. Examples: please insert the next
disc; stay tuned for bonus materials following the credits; about 6
seconds of black screen for the beginning of disc 2 so that when it
autostarts after insertion you've time to get back to the couch and
pick up the chips without missing anything;-)

I used IrfanView to add text to still images and used DVDShrink to
replace video sets of appropriate length with those images to create a
small library of info spots. I also used DVDShrink to insert the info
spots where appropriate in the newly made DVD. DVDShrink is way more
powerful than most of its users ever came to know.

[(PeteCresswell)]

Post by "" <CLicker>
I've no idea why you would need menus though. First, you can extract
the movie portion of the DVD with Shrink whilst splitting it to two
DVD images, so that there need be no compression. Second, you can
extract individually any video set and append it to the end of your
movie, thus including it in that DVD image, or save it as a separate
.MPG file, which you can name appropriately. If your DVD player can
not play .MPG files, consider spending $40 and getting a new one.

What I've been doing is a variation on that: Saving each
component (main movie, commentary....) as a separate "DVD".

Then I put those filed into a parent folder.

e.g. for "Out Of Africa":

Parent: "Out Of Africa
Child: "Out Of Africa -"
Child: "Out Of Africa - Commentary

I don't burn anything. All my stuff is on a NAS box and I go at
it with a Tivo-On-Steroids PC application - whose latest release
has a "Folders" view that conveniently displays only one line for
"Out Of Africa", indicates that there is more than one entity
there, and lets me drill down to various sub-files.

Only reason I was thinking about going with the original disk's
menu system and just substituting/deleting the unwanted stuff was
simplicity. But now that I'm thinking about it more, just
re-authoring to multiple appropriately-named DVDs (or MPEGS, or
whatever) seems like the same amount of work.

"DVD" mainly bc I'm pretty much clueless - and figured I'd lose
the least amount of information later on if I decided to burn
something to a DVD. Does MPEG make more sense if there is no
menu structure? I dabbled in MKV, but found it wanting for my
use - can't recall why.

Post by "" <CLicker>
I just have to say though, that DVD is so last century. Extracting
video sets to HDD as DVD or MKV or MPGISO without compression and
while saving everything you desire including menus is incredibly
simple. Any player which will play video ISO files from a HDD will
present you with a menu of what's on the disk. What could be better?

["" <CLicker>]

Post by (PeteCresswell)

Post by "" <CLicker>
I've no idea why you would need menus though. First, you can extract
the movie portion of the DVD with Shrink whilst splitting it to two
DVD images, so that there need be no compression. Second, you can
extract individually any video set and append it to the end of your
movie, thus including it in that DVD image, or save it as a separate
.MPG file, which you can name appropriately. If your DVD player can
not play .MPG files, consider spending $40 and getting a new one.

What I've been doing is a variation on that: Saving each
component (main movie, commentary....) as a separate "DVD".
Then I put those filed into a parent folder.
Parent: "Out Of Africa
Child: "Out Of Africa -"
Child: "Out Of Africa - Commentary
I don't burn anything. All my stuff is on a NAS box and I go at
it with a Tivo-On-Steroids PC application - whose latest release
has a "Folders" view that conveniently displays only one line for
"Out Of Africa", indicates that there is more than one entity
there, and lets me drill down to various sub-files.
Only reason I was thinking about going with the original disk's
menu system and just substituting/deleting the unwanted stuff was
simplicity. But now that I'm thinking about it more, just
re-authoring to multiple appropriately-named DVDs (or MPEGS, or
whatever) seems like the same amount of work.
"DVD" mainly bc I'm pretty much clueless - and figured I'd lose
the least amount of information later on if I decided to burn
something to a DVD. Does MPEG make more sense if there is no
menu structure? I dabbled in MKV, but found it wanting for my
use - can't recall why.

Post by "" <CLicker>
I just have to say though, that DVD is so last century. Extracting
video sets to HDD as DVD or MKV or MPGISO without compression and
while saving everything you desire including menus is incredibly
simple. Any player which will play video ISO files from a HDD will
present you with a menu of what's on the disk. What could be better?

If you "might" some day want to cut an actual DVD from your HDD files,
you've made the right choices. The DVD format is supported by Blu-Ray
players as well, so it will have a significant life span.

[Uwe Kotyczka]

Post by (PeteCresswell)
But what I'd really like to do is just tweak the existing
structure so that the stern warnings, the trailers, and the
advertisements either just don't get played at all or are
replaced by placeholder files of the same name that just throw up
a black screen for a half second or so - but other than that, the
menus are exactly the same.
Can anybody suggest a tool that will facilitate that?
--
PeteCresswell

You are looking for a VOB/IFO editor. Check out
DVDRemakePro (which is excellent and very intuitive)
or PGCEdit.

If have have questions you cold also read in the
http://forum.doom9.org (English) or http://forum.gleitz.info
(German) forums.

HTH

[(PeteCresswell)]

Post by Uwe Kotyczka
You are looking for a VOB/IFO editor. Check out
DVDRemakePro (which is excellent and very intuitive)
or PGCEdit.

That looks like the ticket.

Thanks.

FWIW, I had no idea how much there was behind those menus.

All I really want to do is get rid of the stern warnings,
commercials, and trailers inflicted when the DVD is opened and/or
when the main movie is played.

I'm guessing that a pattern will emerge and even I will be able
to dope it out...

[Uwe Kotyczka]

Post by (PeteCresswell)
FWIW, I had no idea how much there was behind those menus.
All I really want to do is get rid of the stern warnings,
commercials, and trailers inflicted when the DVD is opened and/or
when the main movie is played.
I'm guessing that a pattern will emerge and even I will be able
to dope it out...

Depends.

There are two major approaches. I'll try to explain
them with DVDremake.

One is to replace the, say, trailer, by some other
video. You navidate to the trailer, add a new block
or program, then remove the block or program containing
the original trailer.
This way you replaced the trailer by a very short black
video (12 or 15 Frames (PAL/NTSC)) with no sound.
advantage: all the mavigation will keep intact
(which is good for complicated authored DVDs (SONY, ...)
and for newcomers, of course)
disadvantage: you still have those videos in the DVD
structure

The better way is to completely remove the PGC
containing the trailer. This however will break
the navigation. DVDremake is smart enough to
show you what is broken (by coloring it read
and explaining the problem in tooltips). So you
can repair it afterwards. For example by removing
the link in the menu. However you should be sure
to know what you do. Even if DVDremake comes back
to black (indicating that there are no more
obvious errors, you have the chance that the
DVD navigation behaves in some unexpected way.
Especially if you have a rather complex
navigation schema.

OTOH DVDremake contains a debugger, which lets
you check, if the DVD works as expected.

Welcome to the wonderful world of DVD authoring!

[(PeteCresswell)]

Post by Uwe Kotyczka
One is to replace the, say, trailer, by some other
video. You navidate to the trailer, add a new block
or program, then remove the block or program containing
the original trailer.
This way you replaced the trailer by a very short black
video (12 or 15 Frames (PAL/NTSC)) with no sound.

That's the one that appealed to me - as not being the brightest
bulb on the tree - at the outset - before even knowing about DVD
Remake.

I think the trick, for "production" purposes, will be learning to
locate/recognize said trailers quickly.

Ditto the FBI and international warnings - assuming they are
separate PGCs.

Post by Uwe Kotyczka
OTOH DVDremake contains a debugger, which lets
you check, if the DVD works as expected.
Welcome to the wonderful world of DVD authoring!

I can see that this is going to provide many *many* hours of
amusement..... -)

[(PeteCresswell)]

Post by Uwe Kotyczka
If have have questions you cold also read in the
http://forum.doom9.org (English)

I think that's going tb the answer for me.

Thanks Again!