Rivergate Software Inc. - makers of DVDAfterEdit

Hi Mark,

My head is hurting!!

Don't panic, I've done this and it works fine. You'll just need to keep a cool head. I have to admit you've picked quite an involved task as your first project, though ! There's nothing like learning on the job :-) Here are some pointers:

As you said, first you'll have to rip out the video, audio & subtitle streams from the existing VOB. I recommend you use MPEGStreamClip, and convert the video to Animation codec, to avoid degrading the image. Or Motion JPEG at maximum quality if you're short on disc space. The audio can be demuxed as ac-3 or whatever, and the subtitles can be pulled out using SubRip, as per the Manipulating Menus article.

Once you have all the pieces, you will need to mask out the logo in some way using your video editor. Don't worry about this, it's amazing what you can get away with with a little care ! Either put a new logo over the top, or export a frame of "clean" footage where the logo isn't there, if possible. Stretch the still out along the timeline over the top, cropped so it only covers the logo area, and feather the edges to hide what you're up to. Finally you'll need to encode this section with your favourite encoder. Try to match the average data rate with the original encode - you can use BitRate Viewer to find this out.

Next you need to incorporate this back into the project:

You'll need to rebuild the entire VOB in your authoring package, including chapter points, audio streams and subtitles. ( There are other ways to go but this is the best. ) The good news is you can find all the information you need to set them up right from examining the original project in DVDAfterEdit. Basically they just need to be laid out in the same order, and labelled with the same languages. Then you can use Replace VTS to swap it over the original, and copy and paste the navigation commands, as per the Replace VTS link I mentioned in my first post. Provided your audio and subtitle streams are labelled correctly, everything will work exactly as before.

Ideally you should use the original MPEG-2 file right up to the point where the logo appears, and then your new encode of the fixed logo section. This saves any loss of quality from re-encoding the whole VTS. Hopefully you'll be able to join the files in the timeline of your authoring package ( what are you using ? ) provided you can find a suitable point - it will have to be on an I-Frame. Put the main chunk in first and find the end-point's timecode, then set the start of your patched credits section to the frame after and you should be fine. This will retain audio & subtitle sync, if necessary. Obviously if there's a fade to black this will make things easier ! If you authoring app won't do this, there are other ways - ask me if necessary.

Hope that helps ? Nothing like a baptism of fire...

Cheers,

Ian

Hi Mark,

Its late here so I'll have to keep this brief for now - more details tomorrow if you need them. First, have you checked out the Guided Tour ? It's not complete yet but will give you a quick idea of how the program is set up.

To answer your questions:

The first thing I need to do is replace an ident at the beginning of the DVD and remove a series of adverts that lead up to the menu.

The first thing to do is figure out where the things you want to replace and remove are located. Use Tracer in Run mode and the Show button to figure this out. If they are on their own in a single VTS, your job is easy - you can just build a new one in your favourite authoring application and Replace it - see here. ( The link is to the final part of a larger tutorial, and uses an earlier version of DVDAE, but it should tell you what you need to know. )

If there is other stuff in the VTS, the task will be a little more involved. If you tell us how you're getting on and where the idents/adverts are, we can give more specific help, but there are some ideas to get you started in this thread:

http://www.dvdafteredit.com/?q=node/98

And the second thing I need to do is replace a logo in the top right had corner of the menu screens; the actual menu structure and navigation aren't to change - simply the logo

Again this is more involved. You will need to extract the exisiting menus as detailed in the Manipulating Menus article, and encode new assets with the logo changed, either in Photoshop if they are static, or Final Cut or something similar if they are motion menus. You then build the new menus in your authoring application, and either Replace them into the project, or import them somewhere and redirect navigation accordingly as suggested in the thread I linked to above. The Manipulating Menus article is quite long and detailed, but will give you a lot of information about using the program. Again it is based around Version 2 - there have been some changes since then but the majority of it applies equally to Version 3. The main thing to watch out for is that the VTSM menus are no longer grouped together in the left pane - unfold the VTS node and you'll see them next to each VTS.

Sorry this is all a bit brief, please check out the links and come back with any questions !

Cheers,

Ian