Adding Original Menus Back to a DVD Shrink Re-authored DVD
Applies to:
Main movie re-authored from DVD Shrink (without extras)
Tools used:
Step 1 – Prepare Your Folders
Prepare 3 new folders on your hard drive.
Step 2 – Rip Your DVD
Rip DVD to hard drive (Folder 1) with DVD Decrypter using File mode (selecting all files).
Step 3 – Re-author the Movie
Open DVD in DVD Shrink. Re-author the main movie as you like, (stripping audio and subtitle streams if you want) and eliminating the starting and end credits (if you like). Ensure the backup is to Hard Disk Folder and use a different folder (Folder 2). Do not use any compression and ignore DVD Shrink’s warnings that the DVD is too large – you’re not going to burn yet, so there’s no need to worry.
Step 4 – Create a New DVD Structure
Open PgcEdit. When prompted for a DVD to load, press cancel.
Go to File – New DVD and create in Folder 3.
Step 5 – Import the VMG Menu
Right click on VMG, First Play PGC in the left hand pane and select Import Menu. Navigate to Folder 1 and import VIDEO_TS.IFO.
If asked if you want to copy the associated VOB, say yes (we will most likely blank this later – it is usually a lot of rubbish, but blanking it produces a nice little 10k stub, which ensures Nero won’t complain). PgcEdit will now tell you that the menu button information will be updated when you reload the DVD. Click on “yes” to save the DVD and reload it.
Step 6 – Import the Re-authored Title
Now import the title you created in Step 3. Click on File – Import VTST Titles. Navigate to Folder 2 (this is where the reauthored movie is) and select VTS_01_0.IFO. When asked if you want to move or copy the VOBs choose move (this will save a lot of time – and space!)
Step 7 – Save
At this point, it is useful to save your project. Press Ctrl-S.
As you can see, the resulting DVD is starting to take shape – we have a complete VMG section and the re-authored title for the main movie.
However, the commands in the First Play PGC and the movie title need altering as the registers don’t match what the original DVD is expecting and, more to the point, when the DVD ends, it will “Exit” (i.e. stop) instead of returning to the menu – see highlighted commands above. We will fix these up in Step 13.
Step 8 – Import the Title’s Menu
Now, right click on the newly imported title (as you see, it will be VTST 1, 1) and select Import Menu. Navigate to Folder 1 again. Import the IFO that corresponds to the main movie (you will need to know this in advance and it is presumed that you know how to find this out – just look for the VTS in the original folder which has the large VOBs (4Gb+ associated with it). In the case of this particular example, the main movie was actually in VTS_08. Take a note of this and remember it – we will need it for Step 13.
Similarly, copy (or move) the Menu VOB and reload the DVD as in Step 5.
It’s a good idea here to look
through your menus with PgcEdit’s menu viewer. Go to a menu PGC and press Ctrl-M
or Utilities – Show Menu Buttons on the PgcEdit menu, or even
easier still, hit the 
button on
the PgcEdit toolbar.
Don’t worry if you’ve messed up and inserted the wrong menu (you’ll immediately know it’s incorrect if you don’t see any buttons next door to the PGCs). Just do it again with the correct menu – PgcEdit will automatically replace the old one.
Step 9 – Open the Original DVD
At this point save your project and open a different project. This time File – Open DVD and select Folder 1.
Step 10 – Make Original DVD Go Directly to Main Menu
Now, you need to alter the DVD navigation in the First Play PGC and the Root Menu so the DVD starts directly at the main menu and doesn’t get messed up along the way by jumping to stuff that isn’t there. The best way to do this is to follow JeanL's guide for getting to the main menu.
Ensure the first play PGC directs you to the main menu with registers properly being set (Note: Sometimes you may have to define the main menu as something else – it isn’t always the Root Menu – in these cases, I prefer to define the menu as the Angle Menu, if it is available. Do this by right clicking on the PGC and selecting Set Menu Type). In the First Play PGC, the second command will then be (JumpSS) Jump to VTSM 1, Angle Menu (TTN1).
Don’t worry if there isn’t a spare GPRM as there will usually be plenty of spares in the “created DVD” – if you don’t have one, pick a number and remember to change it to a spare one after Step 13 below. Save the project (Ctrl-S).
As you can see from the above, the main menu is, in this case, actually the Title Menu in VMGM J
Step 11 – Export Commands of Original DVD
Export the commands of this project. Click on File – Export All PGC Commands and save the file into Folder 1.
Once this is done, a number of “.PGC” files have been created in Folder 1, each corresponding to a PGC in your original DVD as follows:
Step 12 – Renaming the .PGC Files in Folder 1
Now, the only files that are relevant here are:
· vmg_fp.pgc
· vmg_menu1_**.pgc (all of them)
· vtsNN_menu1_**.pgc (where “NN” corresponds to the menus of the main movie – in this example NN = “08” – see step 8)
· vtsNN_ttn**.pgc (where “NN” is the same as above)
Go to Folder 1 in windows explorer (just press Ctrl-F from PgcEdit) and delete all the other “.pgs”.
Now, rename the vtsNN’s to vts01’s (if necessary). The quickest, easiest and most accurate way to do this is actually in a command prompt in Folder 1 with the Rename command as follows (using 08 as our example):
Ren vts08* vts01*
(Note: there are no _ (underscore) characters in this command)
In the end you will have:
· 1 vts_fp
· A number of vmg_menu1s (corresponding to the number of PGCs in your VMGM menu in your new DVD)
· A number of vts01_menu1s (corresponding to the number of PGCs in your VTSM 1 menu in your new DVD)
· 1 or more vts01ttns
Don’t worry if you mess this up. You can always go back to step 11 and re-export the commands.
Step 13 – Importing the Commands for Title 1 and First Play PGCs
Reopen the DVD you are creating (File – Open DVD, Folder 3).
Click File – Import All PGC Commands. Click Yes to the warning and navigate to Folder 1 and select OK.
Presto! The DVD’s commands have all been inserted (including the ones you inserted in step 10).
NOTE: If you didn’t have a spare GPRM in step 10, click on Info – Find Unused GPRMs now. If there are any, you can change the GPRM register number you inserted at the top of the First Play PGC and the main menu/movie to an unused one.
When you are done, save your DVD (Ctrl-S). We’re almost home!!!
Step 14 – Fixing Broken Navigation Links
Now, the first thing I do next is do an Info – Call Cross References command. This will highlight in pink, the PGCs that aren’t referenced at all, and that we don’t need to care about. You can, if you like, simply delete the commands in these PGCs (although it will do absolutely no harm in keeping them, and may be useful to do so, particularly if you are adding another title later which may reference them.)
As you can see, this PGC (VMGM, LU 1 (en), 4, which was highlighted pink) actually makes a jump to a title that’s not there. Normally this would be a cause of concern, but since this PGC isn’t ever called, it’s nothing to worry about. The other “pinks” also jump to non-existent PGCs – but no big deal J.
Now what about the other PGCs? These, we need to closely examine to see if there are any “broken links”. You will need to examine the navigation commands for “red lines” – these are illegal jumps or jumps to non-existent titles (make sure Options – Highlight Errors and GOTO Targets is checked). Use your discretion to alter these as necessary – in particular Jumps to titles will probably need to go to Title 1 (your re-authored movie), or cut back to a menu (the First Play menu is a good choice here).
This will also apply to the menu buttons that point to titles and chapters – they will need to be amended (or, better still, deleted) where they point to deleted/non-existent content (i.e. extras) or amended to point to the correct Title. I find the best way to do this is with Menuedit. This will ensure that a menu button cannot direct the DVD into “no man’s land”, which could result in an Exit, killing the playback.
NOTE: Not all groups of buttons are editable with the unregistered version of Menuedit and all groups do need to be edited – if you don’t have the registered version, you will need to edit the 2nd group manually with VobEdit (buttons 19-36 are the 2nd group).
Note how in the above menu, button 1 (in this case, it’s actually the Play Movie button) points to Title 9 (it should be redirected to Title 1 since this is the new title number) and button 2 (in this case, the Chapter Menu) jumps to the Angle menu of VTS 8 (it should be redirected to VTSM 1 since this is where our menus now reside).
Step 15 – Forcing DVD To Go Back To Menu After Movie Has Finished (Optional)
The previous point especially applies to the post commands in Title 1, which have a habit of winding their way through various places (including other titles, which are now non-existent and dopey FBI warnings in 32 languages).
If you aren’t sure what happens after the movie ends, possibly, the best thing to do is to reset all used registers to 0 and start the DVD again. To do this, place your cursor on the line that says ****** Post commands in the Title 1 PGC and add 2 or 3 NOPs (to be used as reference markers). Do this by clicking on Add After (down the bottom) a few times.
Now reposition the cursor on the ****** Post commands again and click on Macro – Reset Used GPRMs to 0. Click yes to the warning. Now you can easily see where the inserted commands end (there will be a few NOPs).
Now, scroll down to the first of the NOPs and double click it. This brings up the PGC command editor. Change the command to (Call SS) Call the First Play PGC, Resume Cell 1 by clicking on Alphabetically, and selecting CallSS-FP and ensuring the Return to cell 1 option is selected. Click OK.
Now when Title 1 has finished you will automatically go back to the menu J.
NOTE: Ensure there are no “cell commands” present, as these will get executed prior to any “post commands” and could have adverse navigation effects.
Step 16 – Blank VMG Menus (Optional)
When all is done, right click on the VMGM section of the DVD and select Blank out all Menu PGCs. Select Kill Playback Unconditionally – this is usually junk, like FBI warnings and author/studio promos anyway.
CAUTION: Many DVDs – including the DVD in this example! – have buttons in the VMGM and essentially divide the menu up between this and the VTS Menus. Check out what’s really there with PgcEdit’s Preview. If it looks like a real menu, don’t blank it.
Step 17 – Save and Test (Not Optional!)
Save the DVD and test first by
using PgcEdit’s trace function (Step 3 of JeanL’s guide
has a good illustration of how to do it – just press 
and
and let it
run through, pressing all the buttons you usually would and noting what happens
in the trace window) and then test again in a software player.
Step 18 – Shrink and Burn
If necessary, you may now use DVD Shrink in “Open Files” mode to shrink the DVD to fit a DVD±R. Always fully test on an RW first!!
Extra information can be found here at the Doom9 forums on IFO/VOB Editors Also, look specifically for threads on PgcEdit.
Last modified: 11 December 2004