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7 PGC Editor
IfoEdit lets you modify almost all the PGC data. PgcEdit’s editor allows you to modify only some of them but the interface is very easy to use. I only kept the most useful, or those for which IfoEdit does not allow simple and user-friendly editing (for example the sub-pictures colors and the assignment of streams).
To access the PGC Editor, just double click on a PGC or press Enter.
Typical editing procedures:
1. Cell removal and chapter editing
2. Stream re-assignment
3. Subtitle color changing, copying, pasting, importing and exporting (in either ASCII or YCbCr format)
4. Editing the cell flags, including setting/removing the layer break
5. Cell command numbering
6. Removing/editing PUOs
7. Changing the Next, Previous and GoUp links
8. Changing cell and PGC still times
9. Previewing a cell
10. Viewing the attributes of the various streams (audio, video and sub-picture) in the domain
11. Finding out cell times and where the various cells start and end in the VOB (in terms of VOBU sectors)
12. Seeing which angle a cell belongs to (in a multi-angled PGC)
Tip: Hover over a button or a heading with the mouse to get a handy tip on what the button does or the properties of a stream etc.
In general, to edit an item, where appropriate:
· Click a button or
· Type in an input field (e.g. Still Time, Cell Command, Previous PGCN link, Layer break)
Some of these are discussed in more detail below.
Domain Stream Attributes
Click on Domain Stream Attributes to view and change the attributes for the various streams in this domain.
You may:
· Click on the various audio and sub-picture extensions to change them (e.g. normal to director comments)
· Change the languages that will be displayed with the various streams (note this will NOT change the actual language in the stream – just what the player displays). Use the ISO 639 language button to find out the official 2 letter language codes
· The video aspect ratio (and for 16:9, how it will be displayed on 4:3 TVs). Be careful! The changes you make here in the IFO take precedence over those in the VOB and you may make changes that make your picture look too narrow or too stretched in the vertical plane. Also note that if you select 16:9, you must select at least one of Automatic P&S or Automatic Letterbox.
· Change all the properties of any or all of the audio streams, including the coding, quantization, sample rate and channels (this does not change what is actually in the VOB and what you will hear).
Audio/Sub-picture stream assignments
Clicking on an audio or sub-picture stream button, located in the “north east” quadrant of the PGC Editor, bring up the stream setup dialogs.
These enable you to add and/or rearrange the stream assignments. Again, be careful! Changing the stream assignments can have unintended effects where you don’t also change the assignments in the PGC commands and the menus (if any) – you may be listening to/viewing a different language than you want!
You may add a stream by clicking on one of the previously unused streams (marked “none”). Of course, adding a stream that is non-existent in the VOB is meaningless.
The hex values of the stream numbers are identified. For sub-picture stream, you may assign stream numbers for the 4 viewing modes (4:3, widescreen, letterbox and pan & scan).
Streams that have been stripped with popular stream stripping programs like IfoEdit, VobBlanker and DVD Shrink can be “disabled” – this sets them to “None” in the PGC Editor’s table of streams.
Adding or Removing Programs
You may:
· Click on an already numbered program to remove the program from the program table. Higher numbered programs will be renumbered down and you will also need to edit the chapter table to remove excess chapters
· Click on an unnumbered program to insert (and add) a program to the program table. There is no need to update the chapter table, but the last chapter will contain more than one program.
Note: Editing programs and chapters will also necessitate editing the scene selection menu.
Remove Cell
Click to remove a cell from the cell table. This does not remove any data from the VOB.
You may use the slider to select the cell you want to remove. The corresponding VOB/Cell ID will be unreferenced (unless re-used elsewhere in the VTS). Removing a cell may also result in you needing to update the chapter table and PgcEdit will warn you accordingly. After removing cells, you may wish to reduce the size of your DVD by removing them from the VOB with VobBlanker.
Chapter Editor
The chapter editor enables you to edit chapter points.
You may:
· Add or delete chapters
· Re-assign which programs correspond to which chapters (by selecting one or more chapters and clicking Increment Program or Decrement program)
· Set the program number to equal the chapter number (by selecting one or more chapters and clicking Set selected Programs = PTTs) – this is the usual case.
· Set a particular program to a certain chapter (by selecting one (or more) chapters and typing in the program number and clicking Apply)
Note:
· You need to add chapters that actually correspond to existing programs. Otherwise, after exiting the chapter editor, a message will appear telling you to remove or re-assign the chapters pointing to out of range programs and the Edit Chapter (PTT) table button in the PGC Editor will turn red to let you know an action needs to occur. You can then click on a button in the program list to create a program.
Cell still time
Enter a number from 0 to 254 in the Still Time field of a cell to insert a pause after the cell’s playback (up to 254 seconds). To have an infinite pause, enter 255.
Re-assign VOB and Cell ID
Click on the VOB/Cell ID identifier in the PGC Editor to bring up the dialog, where you can use the slider to assign a different existing VOB/Cell ID to the cell or create a new blank cell to replace the cell in question (leaving the current cell unreferenced if it is not re-used).
Note the warnings!
Cell type flags
Clicking on the cell type button for a cell displays the Cell Type Flags Editor, where you can change the STC (System Time Clock aka the SCR or System Clock Reference) discontinuity flag, seamless joint flag and the angle flags.
8 Command Editor
The Command Editor lets you edit the DVD’s commands. It is composed of several parts (2 examples are shown below).
At the top are the command selection menus. The first three menus present the complete list of all the commands, sorted differently in each of these menus. The fourth menu shows only Jumps and Calls, sorted according to the type of source and destination PGCs. It enables you to easily select the legal Jump or Call in all situations.
Below the menus is a field containing the hexadecimal representation of the command, the validation menu button (see below) and the name of the current command. If you wish, you may click on the name of the command to find out more about it, its usage, legal syntax etc (Windows users only). This involves a call to the Internet.
Below this is a field showing the “disassembled” current command, with the syntax that is used for the commands displayed in the list of the main window.
Command modification
You may modify the command in the interface below the disassembled command. This interface is different for each command and, if you use this, you will only be allowed to input a legal value for each command. This is the easiest way to edit a command.
The numerical fields of this part of the interface accept values in decimal, hexadecimal (by prefixing them by “0x”), octal (prefixed by “0”) or ASCII (prefixed by ’, the single quote character, aka apostrophe). Between parentheses, on the right side of these numerical fields, is the legal range of the parameter. If you wish, click the “B” when you want to set/compare button numbers.
In theory, you will not be able to enter an illegal value. (However, to be able to type a value in hexadecimal or octal, you must be able to type a zero alone, even if this value is illegal. In that case, the program beeps, and the disassembled command is highlighted in color). Note that only theoretical errors are detected: it is thus possible to type legal, but meaningless values. For example, a Jump to VTS 99 is legal, and will be accepted, but it makes sense only if VTS 99 exists.
Advanced users – Test your changes with validation
In normal use, the hexadecimal field is updated automatically when you change the command, and when you modify the values of the current command.
It is also possible (although less easy) to type the command directly into the hexadecimal field. When this field is manually edited, the modifications are not automatically updated in the other parts of the interface. To force the update of the command, you must validate the contents of the hexadecimal field. To do that, just type Enter/Return in this field. At the time of validation, the contents of the hexadecimal field are analyzed and transcribed in the other parts of the interface. If an error is detected, two things can happen:
a. If the resulting command does not exist, an error message pops up, and the cursor is positioned on the digit which caused the error.
b. If a value is illegal or out of range, it is corrected in the hexadecimal field, and this value is highlighted in color, so you can easily locate the errors. In this case, you can revert to the contents of the field before validation by selecting the Undo Validation option on the Validation menu, or you can erase the highlights with Clear Validation Highlights.
Of course, if things go really bad, simply click Cancel and start again.
The Disassemble Without Validate option lets you visualize the disassembled command without correcting the possible value errors, and without transferring the values in the interactive part of the interface. This lets you check that the command is complete and coherent before validating it.
The menu button next to the hex field also contains options to copy and paste the contents of the field. Copy as Hex String and Copy as Binary are options allowing you to exchange the command with another program. The simple Copy option is used internally by PgcEdit.
9 Menu Editor
9.1 Introduction
You may access the menu editor in one of 4 ways. Select a PGC with menu buttons in the PGC Selector and either:
· Press Ctrl + m or
· Click on the menu editor toolbar icon or
· Middle click (or Ctrl – Left Click) on the PGC or
· In the Utilities menu, select Show/Edit menu buttons or BOVs
This will bring up the first cell in the PGC that has buttons (skipping over any motion intro).
This is not the place to explain everything about menus but rather I will point out the various editing options in PgcEdit.
9.2 Menu Viewer
This shows all the key ingredients of the Menu Viewer.
· Click on the button’s command to edit it with the Command Editor.
· Either click on Jump to Target or middle click on the menu button to jump to where the command is pointing (highlighted in light blue when you select a button) – in this case PGCN 19.
· If the PGC has more than one program, you can click on the program selector/info bar at the top of the display to go to other programs
· The clipboard menu allows you to copy and paste the command associated with the elected button
· The image buttons enable you to go through motion menus (the l< button will return you to the first I-frame which has buttons)
· Use the cursor “arrow” keys (ß à á â) on your keyboard to emulate the navigation buttons on your remote
9.3 Menu Editor
Bring up the main menu editor for a button either by:
· Right clicking on a menu button or
· Selecting the button and clicking Edit
This shows the full editor screen.
· Check Show adjacent buttons down the bottom of the GUI to get a visual idea of which buttons are next to the selected button in the menu viewer (you may edit these with the Adjacent buttons sliders in the top half of the screen)
· You may edit the command with the Command Editor
· Check Auto Activate to make the button execute the command simply by selecting it with the remote (no “enter” required)
· Ticking advanced opens the lower panel, where you can:
Force select a particular button for the cell (this ignores the value in SPRM 8 and always highlights what you have selected)
Force which button to execute (if you like) after playback ends (selecting a delay in the process)
· You may edit the horizontal (X) and vertical (Y) positions and sizes of the selected button. However, in order to edit the horizontal values, you must do each group separately (because where there is more than one group, the aspect ratios are different). As you move the sliders to edit the button’s positions and sizes, you will get an immediate view of your edits in the menu viewer. Note, there are situations where both X and Y must be edited independently (e.g. 3 groups of buttons)
You can check to see the buttons are the right size, not only visually, but by using the Edit button slider to move between buttons and see the other buttons’ heights, widths and positions
· PgcEdit has a full color scheme editor. Access this by clicking on Edit Color Schemes. You may select 1 of 4 schemes for the cell – the default scheme (using the values stored in the subpic packs of the PGC) or 3 user defined schemes. The colors for these user defined schemes are defined in the sub-picture color lookup table, which is also editable in the PGC Editor.
9.4 Color Scheme Editor
This is not the place to explain all there is about how color schemes work in menus. For an excellent reference, see www.mpucoder.com/dvd. Suffice to say that you may define 3 color schemes in each PGC and apply any one of these schemes to any particular button in the PGC.
The button shapes are usually defined in the sub-picture streams of the menu. Each pixel in the sub-pic data may be assigned one of 4 values – these are called Background, Pattern, Emphasis 1 and Emphasis 2, and are easily editable in PgcEdit
Background is usually used to define the background color of the button, while Pattern usually defines the color of the pattern of the button’s shape though this is not hard and fast.
Bring up the color editor by clicking on Edit Color Schemes in the Menu Editor.
A color scheme is defined for two button states:
· The color and contrast for when the button is selected (i.e. button highlighted but not pressed)
· The color and contrast for when the button is activated (i.e. button pressed)
Color schemes pick a color from the PGC’s sub-picture color lookup table (CLUT) – editable in the PGC Editor. The numbers range from 0 to 15, corresponding to the 16 colors defined in the PGC’s CLUT. If your desired color for a particular scheme is not there, you may change it from the PGC Editor, but beware that by changing a color in the CLUT, you will also change other color schemes that use this color for that PGC.
To pick one of the 16 colors from the lookup table, simply move the slider from 0 through 15 until you get your desired color for the parameter.
The way a button is actually displayed depends not only on the color but on its contrast. You may set the contrast for any of B, P, E1 and E2 – from 0 (fully transparent) to 15 (fully opaque – i.e. a solid color). By moving the sliders, you can get an idea of how the opacity will vary with each step from 0 to 15.
After this is complete, it is simply a matter of assigning which color scheme pertains to which button on the menu. Do this in the Menu Editor
9.5 Menu Editor Menus
The Menu Editor also has 5 menus of its own:
File Menu
This menu gives you the tools to export and import for:
· the current button – exported data is for the selected group in the current button only and includes position and size data, button command and adjacent button information
· the buttons for the whole menu – exported data is all information for all buttons in all groups, plus the advanced global controls set at the bottom of the Menu Editor GUI, but not including the color information
· the color schemes.
The exported files are able to be viewed and edited in Notepad.
These functions are very useful if you wish to copy menu button information easily from one DVD to another.
Edit Menu
The functions on this menu are similar to the file menu, except they are more for copying to the current DVD, as opposed to exporting to, and importing from, another DVD.
Additionally, there are options only to copy and paste the button’s command (these functions are also accessible from the clipboard button in the Menu Viewer).
Button Menu
The functions on this menu allow you to create new buttons, align them with other buttons, undo any changes that have been made and delete buttons you don’t need anymore. New buttons are created with the LinkTailPGC command. You may need to alter this to suit your needs.
Note: The Undo last changes no longer functions once you have pressed OK and exited the Menu Editor, or if you change the current button or group. As well, it can not be used to undo the advanced options.
Caution: Deleting a button may make the DVD unplayable if other parts of the DVD refer to that button in some way. Hiding a button is much more preferable.
Hide Button Menu
This menu allows you to hide buttons without deleting them. This is always the safest practice.
You have 3 options. Hide the button (in an unviewable area of the screen) and change its command to:
· Jump to a non-deleted button (auto-activate is also set to ensure that if you land on this button, the relevant non-deleted button is highlighted)
· Replace its command with a NOP
· Leave its original command
Jumping to a non-deleted button is usually best. Replacing with a NOP may be confusing to a user who somehow lands on the button and keeps pressing enter and nothing happens, while leaving the original command may be useful if you wish to convert a visible button to an auto-activated hidden one.
After hiding buttons, you should always examine the adjacent buttons to ensure that the remote will work as you intend it to.
Of course, you may unhide a button by moving and/or resizing it. However, be aware that if you move or resize a hidden button, it will not be regarded as hidden anymore and there could be unintended consequences.
View Menu
Color Schemes Editor brings up the color editor (same as clicking Edit Color Schemes)
The other menu items do not affect how the DVD works or plays but simply affects the PgcEdit GUI.
· Show Advanced Controls display the advanced global controls at the bottom of the Menu Editor (same as checking Advanced)
· If Show all buttons is unchecked, only the selected button will be visible in the Menu Viewer. Of course, you may select the other buttons by moving to them in the menu viewer with a cursor key or clicking in the Edit button field of the Menu Editor GUI.
· Show adjacent button links will show the left/right/up/down links to the current button. Same as ticking Show Adjacent Buttons in the Menu Editor GUI.
· You may also select:
– Current button edit color: The color of the border for the button being edited
– Current button phantom color: The color of the button number of the button being edited
– Other buttons color: The colors of the border and button number for the buttons not currently being edited