How change where cursor returns on menu?

[Z]

Hi,

How do you change where the cursor returns on the menu after that menu item has played through and completes?

For example:

Special Features Menu:

_ 1. Alpha item to play
_ 2. Beta item to play
_ 3. Gamma item to play
_ 4. Delta item to play
_ 5. Epsilon item to play

_ More

Here's what's happening. The highlight cursor moves down to the next menu item on the menu after it completes.

So, for example if you play "Alpha", it ends and the highlight cursor returns and is on "Beta". This happens all the way down to "Epsilon".

When "Epsilon" plays and then ends, it returns back with the highlight cursor back at the top of the list on "Alpha".

I'd like to change it so that after "Epsilon" plays through and completes, the highlight cursor moves down and rests on top of "More" instead of "Alpha".

How and where do I go in the commands of DvdRemake Pro to alter this?
I'm using version 3.6.3.

[toaddub]

Start tracing after selecting Epsilon and trace till it back to this menu. Take note of the register changes and the high button command. Probably the determining factor to set which highlight button is in the pre-commands of this menu. One of the registers could contain the next highlight value in a different PGC before getting to this menu. If this is the case, just change it to contain the "More" button value.

[Z]

Thanks, toaddub. I'll look in there, the pre-commands, and see if I can make any heads or tails out of it. So, far though (and I've been looking for a few days now, to see if I can decipher the algorithm), nothing stands out to me that is guiding me as to which command is actually it to change.

[toaddub]

Try to use the debugger in step mode, and show the Register and System Registers pane so you'll know what's changing. S( is the highlighted_button.

[Z]

I've never used the debugger in any mode, toaddub. How do I activate it and how do I put it into step mode? I little help and some pointers, please. This aspect of DRMP is terra incognito for me. Is there a Guide that walks one through using the debugger?

[toaddub]

In the toolbar are the 2 debug buttons, Run Debug and Step. If you hover over the menu buttons it'll pop up the tooltip describing what the button does. Selecting either Run Debug or Step button will pop up the Player Settings dialog. Here you can set your preference in the profile or you can just click OK.

The Run Debug will run through the commands as shown in the Playback history pane. It will stop at the first menu awaiting user input. The Step button will run through one command at a time. You have to click on the button for it to continue tracing.

By default, Registers and System Registers panes are hidden. You can show it by clicking on the pin at the top right corner of the pane. You can rearrange the panes so you can see the values changing as the commands are executed.

The Break Playback button will pause the trace if you're in Run mode. The Locate button will switch you to the project window highlighting the current location where it currently stops. The Stop button will stop and exit the trace.

Note that while you're in debug mode, you cannot make any changes in the project window. You have to get out of debug mode in order to do so.

Play around with it, you'll get used to it in no time.

If you're still not sure how to get your problem resolved, shrink the menus, export modified files, zip up the menu vob and all the IFOs, and upload to some file hosting site for download. I'll walk you through it.

[Z]

Hey! That looks neat, toaddub! I've never been in this part of the program! How cool that it has that remote control keypad there. Thanks for the help in the above. I'll give it a go and tell you of my progress. Thanks also for the offer of taking a look at a test export for me, if I can't solve it.

[Z]

Hi toaddub.

Below is a test export of the bonus disc of 2001: A Space Odyssey which is the DVD that has the cursor behavior I described above.

As you'll see, after it finishes playing the 3rd featurette, "2001: A Space Odyssey: A Look Behind The Future", the cursor returns to the top of the list, the 1st featurette, "2001: The Making Of A Myth". I'd like it to return and be on the "More" menu choice to go to the next page.

I left this project and wanted to come back to it at a later time to try to solve it. I have already burned this DVD movie to a DVD+R though, because I needed to make more room on the hard disk. So, it's too late to alter this particular DVD and it really isn't worth wasting another DVD+R just to fix the way the cursor moves around. But...

What I'd like for you to do is if you could take a look at it and fix the way the cursor moves down to the next menu item as I described above and if you could please put together a step-by-step instruction sequence as to how to alter this. I'd like to save the procedure in my notes for future reference.

Thanks.

http://rapidshare.com/files/148664976/2001_D2.rar

[toaddub]

Could you just convert the menus to still from a fresh project and export modified files to some folder. Zip up this folder, I expect the files to be very small, a few MBs maybe. I don't feel like downloading over 100MB just to check the menus. It's not necessary in this case.

[Z]

Okay, toaddub. I cut the scenes down to 3 seconds and the motion menus down to 10 seconds. The resulting test export is now only 6 MB. At first, I made the scenes and motion menus around 30 seconds, thinking you needed to see how the DVD menus behaved. Since RapidShare's filesize limit is 100 MB, I figured I'd go up to that max.

6 MB version:
http://rapidshare.com/files/148853414/2001_D2.rar

[toaddub]

To make it go to More button, change in VTS2/PGC1/post command/line 1 to R[8]= 15. It's that simple.

Each DVD is authored differently, there's no clear cut way that it has to be this way. You have to trace through and notice what registers are playing what role. In this case, R[8] is used to contain the button to be highlighted.

So let's start in the beginning. In the Root menu, if you press button 4, it sets R[8]=14 and LinkTailPGC which goes to the post command. In the if statement, the condition matches (line 4) and it goes to VMG PGC 2, which jumps to VMG Title 7 (VTS2). If in doubt, use Ctrl-Space (Open Destination) on any if/Link/Jump/Call command to jump to the destination. Then in VTS2, the post command resets R[8]=11, which eventually set to button 1 in the Root menu. So to make it holds button 5, make R[8]=15. How do I know that number? For one, look at the button commands to see how they are used. Secondly, in the pre-commands of the Root menu, do you see the logic of the if statement and the arithmetic operations? The key are lines 2 and 4. If you know BASIC, this is not hard to understand. If you don't know programming language, just read it like a statement from left to right in your own language. e.g., line 2 reads "if R[8] is greater than 10, then goto line 4" and R[8] contains the value 15. Line 4 reads "R[8] minus 10, which is 15 - 10 = 5". Pretty simple really.

This is manual tracing. You can also use the debugger and it evaluates the command, displays both the registers and system registers, and jumps to appropriate destination for you.

[Z]

Okay, great! Thanks for the analysis, toaddub. As always, much appreciated.

I'm going to practice this on the V For Vendetta bonus disc which has a similar menu. It has three featurettes and a "More" option as the last menu choice, to go to the next page. I'm going to see if I can follow your instructions there and trace the program as it executes and see if I can change the way the cursor behaves. It too is returning to the top of the list of featurettes rather than returning down on "More".

Some questions...

I take it that the "R" in R[n]=nn, must stand for register, correct? What is that? A variable of some kind? What are the "registers and system registers" you refer to in the last paragraph?

Also, about tracing the program as it executes, how do you do a step trace rather than just watching it play through normally?

[Z]

Hi toaddub,

Here's a test export of my merged DVD project of V For Vendetta. It has the remaining chapters (21-33) that didn't fit uncompressed on Disc 1, so I moved them to Disc 2 that contains the bonus material.

Could you please take a look at this "final cut" and do that same analysis regarding the way the cursor moves down the menu choices you did on the 2001: A Space Odyssey disc?

The reason I ask is, that I can follow along in the analysis better with this project, rather than the "2001: ASO" disc because "VforV" is fresh in my mind since I'm currently working on it now, at the present time. I think I can follow along better if you point things out with it as you did above with the "2001: ASO" disc.

It's 42 MB, maybe you may think it a bit large, but I wanted to show you the way things play and sound, etc. The scenes and motion menus are cut to 3 seconds.

http://rapidshare.com/files/149219873/V_FOR_VENDETTA_MERGED_D1_D2_TEST.rar

[toaddub]

[toaddub]

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