multiPGC and IFOs

Hi, the other day I found this issue and still don't know the proper way to handle it... maybe somebody can help. I'm trying to backup The Rock Pal R2. I just want the movie, not the extras. main movie is in VTS_01 VOBs, while initial logo goes to VTS_02 and extras and other stuff to VTS_03 to VTS_05. So what I did was rip the DVD to a folder and reencode the maim movie with DVD2DVDr. Then I nmoved the VIDEO_TS IFOs and BUPs and VOBs created by DVD2DVDr to another folder, and put the original ones (those ripped from the DVD) in its place. I also copied in the VTS_02 complete stuff and the VTS_0X_0.VOBs and IFOs and BUPs from the last sets. After that, I made the IFOUpdate trick and got a total of 4.28Gb that I can fit to a DVD-R. HOWEVER (and here's where my question comes), when I play the result on PowerDVD, it starts by displaying a logo, then comes the end movie credits for half a second, and finally goes to the main menu. Now why are the end credits showing up at the very beginning? Well I'm not sure, but I guess this DVD is a multiPGC one (if I understand the concept correctly), since already in the VTS_01 set there are two PGCs, the main movie in PGC1 and a second PGC that lasts 1 sec and that is essentially a black screen. I guess that the original DVD, when inserted into the player, initially displays the logo, then goes to the black 1sec screen of PGC2m abd afterwards goes to the main menu. But DVD2DVDr only processed PGC1 of VTS_01 corresponding to the main movie, and that's why I get what I get in my backup. Now considering I would like to keep the original structure of the DVD without reauthoring (if possible), what could I do to bypass this black screen corresponding to PGC2? or can I create a separate VOB set with the black screen and fool IFOEdit or IFOUpdate to reconstruct properly the navigation structure of my backup copy? Thanks...

Look at the top of your IFOupdate, you should see... Files___Options___Mode___Settings___Help jdobbs implemented "Adjust Cell Mode" as a new feature to support Multi-PGCs. Since your PGC 2 is just a blank clip, it doesn't hurt to keep it since you are doing movie only. What I think you should've done is the same way as DVD2One's method. 1. Move only your movie VOBs in to another folder and create new IFOs. 2. Use DVD2DVDr to shrink your movie 3. Then use IFOudpate in Adjusted Cell Mode.

I forgot to put in step 1a. 1. When creating new IFOs, check options "Create 1 PGC Only" and "Create Chapter for each cell". This solves your DVD2DVDr problem with using 1 PGC as both PGCs are combined.

more news. Yesterday I did a very fast test and had partial success. Now everything plays fine... almost! When I put the resulting DVD in my standalone, it first goes to tile/vhap 2/1 (logo) and then searches for title 10 which is definitely not there, and freezes.. This title 10 is the same it was looking for everytime before you told me what to do. The nice thing is that if I press the next chapter button on the remote, then it goes to title/chap 3/1 which is the main menu and from them on everything seems to play smoothly (although I believe chapter points are somewhat screwed up). So now maybe the best thing to do would be to tell VIDEO_TS to start right at title/chap 3/1 instead of 2/1 as it wants to go. Could I achoeve this goal by using something like what you posted in but replacing VTS_01 by VIDEO_TS? Or is there a simpler way to do it (although that one looks pretty simple)? Or is it impossible? Too many questions for too little knowledge (mine).

2COOL, I guess we missunderstood each other :p I wanted to keep menus rom the very beginning. Trouble is that, as I said, navigation structure seems to be broken on the final product. SO I changed as you say First Play PGC to jump to the root menu. I did that by changing the precommand in PGC command table... the result was that upon insertion on the standalone it goes to title/chap 2/1 for half a sec. ad afterwards get's lost at tile 10, which does not exist on the DVD! The player then stops... if a press the 'skip to next chapter' button then it goes to title/chap 3/1 (a logo), and then back to title/chap 2/1 which now shows the root menu... from then on everything seems to work ok. So what can be happening there? How could I solve this initial stop problem? BTW, everything works fine in powerDVD as expected...

Fmazzanti, I'm beginning to envision your navigations. To bypass your logo, go to your Title's VTS_PGCITI / VTS_PGC_1 / PGC Command Table. Add the number of post commands to your number of pre commands. This will bump up all your post commands and change them to pre commands. Do this for your other Title 10.

Danke, I'll try this. I guess I can also try your newest guide to bypass stuff and go stright to the root menu, right?

Well yes... I tried that long ago and it worked. However, that is a 'main movie only' guide, which means that upon insertion on the player it goes stright to the movie. Now my goal was to keep menus, reencode the movie and still have a working structure... and this taking into account that the original title containing the movie was multiPGC while the encoded one had only 1 PGC. In that sense, the methods described in that guide are useful when you face 'simpler' situations. However i must say that some of the ideas written there can still be applied.

Just a short question. The trick of adding #post commands to pre commands makes it work flowlesly... but I wonder if that's a safe procedure that produces perfectly compliant DVD's. I mean, now I'm backing up another movie that has in VTS_01 PGC1 containing the main movie and PGC2 to PGC6 with crap logos and warnings. Now I want to repeat the procedure I did before, that is, encoding the main movie with DVD2DVDr (which produces the porper IFOs for the main movie but contains just on PGC) and do this trick to have a working DVD. Will this work on *every* standalone?