Creating DVD menus

[nessonite1]

Hola! I hope someone out there can help me out with this.

I've downloaded a few things that come pre-formatted for burning to a DVD (with the Video and Audio directory and everything).

One thing I got has a main menu that doesn't really work. I have to sneak around with the remote to get to play the movie. I tried opening it with the software I use to make DVDs (Ulead DVD Workshop) but apparently it can only make the files, not read them afterwards.

So is there a program I can get that will let me deconstruct DVD files into their basic video files and then compile and create my own menus for them?

Thanks!

 

[Faramir]

Hola! I hope someone out there can help me out with this.

I've downloaded a few things that come pre-formatted for burning to a DVD (with the Video and Audio directory and everything).

One thing I got has a main menu that doesn't really work. I have to sneak around with the remote to get to play the movie. I tried opening it with the software I use to make DVDs (Ulead DVD Workshop) but apparently it can only make the files, not read them afterwards.

So is there a program I can get that will let me deconstruct DVD files into their basic video files and then compile and create my own menus for them?

Thanks!

Look HERE to see if any of these will help you out:

http://www.dvd-burning-software-reviews.com/

http://www.321closeout.com/

http://www.slysoft.com/en/

http://www.copydvd.com/dvd-x-copy-platinum.aspx?aff=google2

🙂

 

[nessonite1]

Thanks, Stormy! Will check them out!

 

[nessonite1]

Ack! None of those mention being able to edit menus specifically! I guess I'll have to download one to find out. The techtv folks used to pimp DVD X a lot. Anyone out there have any experience with this proggy? Thanks again!
What would I do without all these techy folks around??

 

[Faramir]

there is a 'Flash' movie on the home page that demonstrates DXD X Copy's abilitys/features on that last link I posted....if that is the programme you are asking about.

 

[joham1]

Ness, the DVD menu itself is created from a background image (or movie) and a series of drop zones and button areas. When the DVD is built, this is all compiled into the menu and once it happens, you can't go backwards as far as I know.

Compare it to flattening a Photoshop file with several layers. If you just have the flat file you can't make it into the multi-layered one again - it's a destructive process.

Your best bet would be to extract the mpeg2 files from the folders you have (I assume they're VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS folders) and then create a new DVD from scratch, with a new menu made by you.

Alas, all the software I work with that could do this in about 5 minutes is Mac only (DVD Studio Pro for the menu creation and disk build, Mac the Ripper/OSex to get the raw mp2 video files from the old disc). I 'm not current on the latest and greatest DVD creation software on the PC, especially the open source stuff.

A google search turned up <a href="http://www.dvd-software.biz/">this</a> page that seems to summarise the available options. You need an mpeg2 extractor and some DVD authouring software - although you might already have that with the program you first mentioned. If it will allow you to create menus using image files then it's what you need.
Your problem is that you can't work backwards from the built DVD folders you already have.

Email or PM me if you need any more help - I'm more than willing to help out. I do this for a living 🙂

edit: included link - forgot to add it first time!

 

[nessonite1]

Thanks, joham, that was very informative!
Using Nero Vision I THINK I can delete the menu (it's looking like just a seperate title) and then create a new one. The program is a mite unstable though so I may have to do as you suggested and find a program to extract the video.
For some off reason I can open and edit the titles in Nero Vision but not in Ulead which is a $500 program retail! It's nuts!
If you happen to come across a Windows program that will extract the video that would be kickass! Im sure you know better what to look for! I'll hunt around Ulead's site some more...they always have good programs.

 

[joham1]

Your best bet will be to find some open source software - extracting video from DVDs and DVD folders is one og those things that commercial companies try to discourage (and that the movie industry is trying to get classified as a felony).

As a result, while it's legal to extract mpeg2 files, there are few commercial tools that will do it.

 

[nessonite1]

I was able to find a tool that will convert the dvd video to an avi. It's called ImTOO. I then created the menu I needed and converted back to dvd format. This takes like 9 hours though plus 4 or 5 hours to convert it to avi so if I can get Nero Vision to do it I will continue to try that route when I need to do this in the future.
🙂

 

[joham1]

The time thing is the encoding/re-encoding of the video, which you shouldn't need to do.

If you can just pull out the mpeg stream you shouldn't need to convert it (and you will lose quality and time if you do).

You need to put it back onto your new DVD as mpeg2, so converting it is a waste.

If all else fails, you can mail me the disk and your new menu files and I'll build it here in DVD Studio Pro and send it back to you if you can't find the right tools on your PC.

 

[nessonite1]

hmmm...I tried looking for a program that will rip as mpegs but either they're hard to find or I'm not very good at searching.
Anyway...I thought dvds were mpeg 4?
*sigh*
Im clueless 🙁

 

[joham1]

Hey, you're not clueless, just not experienced. Nothing wrong with that 🙂

Mpeg4 is a codec designed for use on the web in low to medium resolutions for speedy download - pretty much the opposite of mpeg2 which was designed for high bandwidth use in DVDs and digital TV.

You're right - I've been searching for a DVD > mp2 ripper for Windows since you posted this topic and I've yet to find anything concrete. The closest I've come is this piece of shareware <a href="http://www.downlinx.com/proghtml/585/58557.htm">here</a>, but it's $29.95.

I have no idea why I can find a couple of free apps that can do this on the Mac and yet nothing decent for Windows, which has 90% market share. I guess it pays to be the little guy. heh.

 

[nessonite1]

That's odd. Hopefully armed with this knowledge I'll be able to search a little better for what I need. This encoding time is irritating as hell and I definately don't want the loss of quality that comes with it. thanks again for all your help!

 

[nessonite1]

I see that the program I used to convert to AVI also converts to Mpeg2. it wanted to go through the same 9 or 10 hour encoding though (straight from the files on the dvd) so...I guess I'm not sure how to proceed. It's Mpeg2 that I wanted, right? So if it's already mpeg2 then why the long conversion time from VOB to mpeg2? I wish I understood why Ulead won't open the VOB!

 

[joham1]

Hmm, perhaps it really does take 9 hours to demux on a Windows machine. It's a relatively speedy process for me in both directions (vob <-> mp2 + audio), usually slightly faster than realtime on a 1.5Ghz G4, so unless you have a 9 hour long DVD you're taking a serious perfomance hit.

I would suggest you leave it running overnight and see how the file comes out. If you choose to export the video and audio to separate files you will end up with videofile.m2v and audiofile.ac3 or .wav/.aif and if you choose to keep the video and audio in one file you will get an .mpeg2 or .mp2 extension. Both ways of doing it are fine, as long as you remember to include the audio again when you build the DVD at the end!

Is this DVD a commercial one or was it produced by a hobbyist/non-commercial entity? That might give me a better idea of the disc structure so I can best advise about how to put it back together! If Ulead will let you know the format of the video and audio streams in the VOB file before you start demuxing it that would be /very/ helpful - because then you can set the outputs the same and reduce the time it takes to extract the files.

 

[nessonite1]

*head spins*

This particular dvd was one I downloaded....it was in the Video_TS format when I downloaded it. I have no idea where it originally came from cause it's a movie that's...well...still in theaters I think.
Naughty me.

My processor is slightly less than a ghz in speed and I have 704 megs of ram so I'm not running a very beefy machine. It seems to convert between 4 and 6 fps.

Since Nero Viseion seems to be able to work with the VOB files here's what I'm trying...
I take the first dvd I burned (the original one with the faulty menu) and copy the VIDEO_TS directory to the hard drive. It takes about 25 minutes.
Then in Nero Vision I add the video files...it's 5 VOB thingys.
I go through the steps for creating a new monue. The Nero menus are really crappy but I guess it'll have to do...
Tell it to just write the dvd to the hard drive cause I don't want to burn the disc just yet, I want to see how long it will take...
heh...the preview screen is playing the movie infast motion. It says it will take about 20 minutes to "create menus and transcode streams". So I guess there's not a lot of re-encoding or compression going on here?
When it finishes it wants 10 or 15 minutes to write the files to the disc (or in this case, the hard drive).
I only wish Ulead would let me do it this way since I can make much better menus using that program.
So...is this what I wanted to do in the first place? It's been loads faster and there haven't been any several-hour-long processes.

 

[joham1]

That is exactly what you want to be doing. Nero is doing the mpeg extraction and re-muxing in one step without having to re-encode the video.

You won't lose any quality this way.

If Nero allows you to use your own image files for the menu background you could just drop those in and add the buttons on top afterwards.

 

[nessonite1]

Yes I can make custom menus in Nero, to a degree. it isn't nearly as intuative as Ulead but I can get it to do most of what I want it to do. It doesn't seem to like allowing me to do a link as plain text (it needs a thumbnail image) and other aspects are lacking in customization but it's a helluva lot better than taking a whole DAY to convert videos back and forth!
I don't suppose it's possible to create a menu in Ulead and then burn it with the rest of the dvd in Nero. I use Nero Vision to put everything together but I just save as an image and burn using Nero Burning Rom. Pardon me if that made no sense!

You have been extremely helpful, joham! I wish there was a way to repay you for all your help!

 

[joham1]

DVD buttons are actually just defined areas, so you can't make text into a button, you have to make the area that the text is in into the button.

The reason I think your original DVD menu has invisible buttons is because whoever made it forgot to set the shape attributes (that define the colour of the button when it is inactive, selected, clicked etc), and thus it remained transparent.

You won't be able to make your menus in one program and transfer them - it all has to be done in one app then built in one step.

No thanks are necessary - the sooner you sort this out, the sooner you can start drawing again. heh.

I remember Nero Burning Rom, back in the days of 1x speed CD burners, when CD-Rs cost £2 each! That really is going back a bit.

 

[Faramir]

Ness....clean out your PM Inbox for Crisakes...!! 😛

...haven't been able to send you a PM for 2 weeks now...!!!! LOL...!!

 

[nessonite1]

Then email me you dorkface!! 😛

 

[Faramir]

Then email me you dorkface!! 😛

I DID...... punkass 😛

 

[nessonite1]

punkass? hehehehe 😀

 

[footamateur]

Dvd authoring software are the fast and easiest way to do it, then y can modify the grraphic if you like 😀 you only need to make a file wit the same name of the one used by the program...that's all 😛

 

[Faramir]

punkass? hehehehe 😀

LOL...!! well, I had to come back with something ..!! don't take it seriously...!! 😛