Adding Back Original Menus to a
Re-authored DVD with PgcEdit and VobBlanker

By: Blutach

Applies to:

Main movie re-authored from DVD Shrink or Nero Recode (without extras)

Tools used:

Step 1: Prepare Your Folders

Prepare 2 new folders on your hard drive.

This is where your ripped files will be placed - let's call it RIPPED
This is where the files output by DVD Shrink's re-authoring will be placed - let's call it DVD_SHRINK

Step 2: Rip Your Original DVD

Rip DVD to hard drive (RIPPED) with DVD Decrypter using File mode (selecting all files).

Step 3: Open Original DVD in PgcEdit v5.6 or later

Open PgcEdit and click on File >> Open DVD (or Ctrl-O). Navigate to RIPPED and click on OK. Now, find your main movie; it won't be hard because it will be the Title that is longest in length. You can tell it's in VTS_01 from the DVD Decrypter diagram above. But the easiest way is to look in the PgcEdit screen.

Now click on DVD >> Blank out all Title PGCs in DVD. PgcEdit will go through all VTSs in turn and ask you if you want to blank out the TitleSets. Click on Cancel for the TitleSet that contains your main movie (VTST 1 in this case) and OK for all the others (selecting Kill playback when it's safe in the next screen - this is the default).

Save your work (Ctrl-S).

Step 4: Check out your original movie's attributes

Double click on the main movie (Title 1 in the above example) to bring up the PGC Editor. Now, click on Current Domain Stream Attributes. This will bring up your audio and subtitle definitions.

Take a note of where the various streams are and what each stream represents. In particular, cross check this against your re-authored DVD. For example, say you re-authored and kept the English AC3 6 channel stream and both English subtitle streams. You would note that your audio stream belongs as Audio 0 and your subtitles belong as Subpic 4 and Subpic 14 respectively.

Now note how the streams are placed in the main PGC Editor window.

You can see that English AC3 6 channel is represented by a 0 in position 0. The subpics for English are represented by 0 4 4 0 and 0 14 14 0 respectively in slots 4 and 14. These are the actual stream IDs in the VOBs.

Take a note of these and close PgcEdit for the time being.

Step 5: Re-author the Movie (if you haven't already done so)

If you have the re-authored files on a DVD already, just copy them to the DVD_SHRINK folder using Windows Explorer.

Otherwise, open your original DVD in DVD Shrink and click on Open Files. Navigate to RIPPED and click OK. DVD Shrink imports the files. You can now re-author in the usual way.

(Notice that the stream numbers have shifted by 1 - English subtitles are 5 and 15 - this is because like all things computer, they really start at 0 but DVD Shrink is more "user friendly").

Once this is done, close DVD Shrink.

Step 6: Open the Original DVD in VobBlanker

The easiest way to do this, is to open VobBlanker and drag the RIPPED folder onto the main VobBlanker window. Or you can use VobBlanker's Browse feature on its Input Folder box.

Now:

(i) Click on Skip All

(ii) Tick Use Input Folder

(iii) Untick Process Menus

Step 7: VobBlanker set up

Locate the TitleSet that contains the movie that you have re-authored. In the above example, you can see it is VTS_01 (which is highlighted) because in the bottom pane is PGC 01 which is 01:42:13:01 (1 hour, 42 minutes, 13 seconds plus 1 frame) in length and is obviously the main movie.

You can also check by the title number. As you can see, T in VMG is 01. This means it is Title 1 (as DVD Shrink reported it - see step 5).

So click on Process for VTS_01_*.VOB

Now click on the main movie in the lower half of the VobBlanker screen.

Step 8: Replace the movie with the re-authored one

Click on Replace on the right.

A dialogue box will appear asking you to Select IFO file. In the "Look in:" box, navigate to the DVD_SHRINK folder and select VTS_01_0.IFO

You will notice that VobBlanker now has the action Replace and shows you new information at top right about the size (in this example, I have re-authored out many chapters, so the size is much smaller).

Now, simply click the PROCESS!! button down the bottom and go make coffee. In about 5 minutes or so, VobBlanker will have done its work and replaced the original title with your re-authored one. The menus will be intact.

Note if there are any errors. If so, save the log, close it, exit VobBlanker and restore your backup. To do this, simply copy all the files from the VobBlanker_backup folder (which is created for you) back to RIPPED.

Now would also be a good time to test in a software player.

Step 9: Finishing touches - fix your audio and subtitle menus and stream positions (if necessary)

You can skip this step, if you have kept all audio and subtitle streams in your re-authored DVD.

Because DVD Shrink in re-author mode always does a "logical remapping of enabled streams" (which shifts the positions of the various audio and subtitles streams), it is quite possible that the buttons on the audio and subpicture menus now no longer function entirely correctly.

1. To correct this:

Re-open RIPPED in PgcEdit. It now will have the re-authored title as the main movie.
Again, double click on the movie's title and take a note of the audio and subtitle stream numbers and positions.
If they are in any way different from those you noted in step 4, then change them to look exactly like they did. To do this, simply click on the button for each stream and use the sliders to position them correctly and click set. When you're finished, click OK to exit the editor.

Now, locate and open (Ctrl-M) the audio selection menu (it will be in VTSM # and will show some buttons - just open each menu PGC that has buttons with Ctrl-M and have a look).

Hide the buttons corresponding to the languages you did not keep. To do this:

(a) Click on the language that has been stripped (English DTS in this case) - the highlight will turn green.

(b) Click Edit to bring up the menu editor.

(c) Check you have the right button (button 2 in the "Edit button" box) and click Hide Button >> Jump to non-deleted button.

(d) Do this for all the languages that you have stripped in the re-authoring of your DVD (you can stay in the Menu Editor and just increment the button number in the "Edit button" box).

(e) When you have finished hiding buttons, click OK to get out.

(f) Repeat the above for the subtitle selection menu (in this case, the audio and subtitle menus were the same, and in this example, we would have hidden all subtitle buttons except for "English for the Hearing Impaired" and "Off". We would have also hidden the "More" button (next to the main menu button), because that's where all the other (stripped) subtitles are).

When you have finished, close the menu viewer and save your DVD (Ctrl-S). PgcEdit will offer to save the new menu file and backup your old one (in case of errors, like hiding a button that you should have kept, you can just copy the old menu back from the backup folder and start this step again!) Note: menus are named VTS_0#_0.VOB
Finally, click on DVD >> Fix number of streams in VMGM/VTSI_MAT tables and answer Yes to everything. Save again (Ctrl-S).

Step 10: Reduce menu size with either MenuShrink or VobBlanker (if needed)

Instructions for using MenuShrink are covered in that program. In general, MenuShrink and/or VobBlanker will enable you to shrink the menus to a size, where you do not need to re-shrink with DVD Shrink, particularly if you do not keep the menu's audio.

As well, DVD Shrink's default size is 4464Mb. A good quality blank (e.g. Verbatim or Taiyo Yuden) will be able to hold 4482Mb (+R) and 4488Mb (-R), so any menu that is just 18Mb can fit without shrinking on a high quality DVD+R.

Step 11: Test in a software player and Burn

Always fully test in your software player and burn to a DVD+/-RW first!!

Questions and comments can be directed in the official DVD Shrink forum or in this thread at doom9.

Version 4 - Updated: 10 June 2007