No Steve, I guess I wasn't clear. I want the button to disappear when it isn't selected. I can do that easily by having transparent highlights for when the button is selected, and an opaque highlight the same color as the background when the utton is inactive. The catch for me is the background I'm working with (and this is something I can't change, the menu background has to stay the same as it is) is not a solid color. I would need to specify five different "coverup" highlight colors, and that appears not to be possible. Still it must be doable, as that is exactly how the menu on the DVD I'm fixing works.

I'm getting around this by painting in the backgroun so it has the same color at the location of every button, but it sure would be nice if I wouldn't have to do that. I suspect this is something real easy to do once you know how to do it. :)

Jim

I can tell you most definitely that the effect is not possible in DVD Architect. Possibly in Encore. I'm not sure.

So you want a blank menu page in which buttons suddenly appear out of nowhere as you press the arrow button your DVD player remote? Interesting.

The other method of doing this is called "switched menus." Essentially, it uses several almost-identical copies of the same menu. Difference is that there are only two or three actual buttons on each copy. The first button has a graphic and leads to the media item it's supposed to. The second button has no graphic, leads to the second copy of the menu, and is set to auto-activate as soon as the user navigates to it. The other items have no buttons.

When the viewer navigates to the second button (again, which has no graphic), they're taken to the second copy of the menu. This copy is similar to the first -- this time, the first item has an invisible button leading back to the first copy, the second item has a real button leading to its media, and the third (if it exists) has an invisible button set to auto-activate and lead to the third copy of the menu. Etc.

The problem with using this method (at least with DVD Architect) is that since navigating between buttons takes the viewer to a completely different menu, they have to wait for the player to make this change before it will "move" from one button to the next. If I were the viewer, I'd find this a bit annoying. Is this illusion worth annoying the viewer? This is probably why I very, very rarely see DVD menus with full-color graphics.

Supposedly, this delay can be avoided by manipulating the DVD at the cell level, but DVD Architect doesn't go that deep, and I've never dabbled in that area. Do a search of this forum and the net in general for "PGCEdit" -- I think that program may be of some use for this. Also look up "switched menu" if you want more info on those.

Rob

Yeah, sort of . . . the menu page has a list of chapter titles on it, and the selected one has an icon next to it. The text is not part of the button. Interesting DVDA can't do it. It was my understanding DVDA is a Pro piece of software, and can do anything that can be done with DVD authoring. Apparently that isn't the case. I know what I want to do can be done, as I have a DVD that does it, and I'm trying to recreate it. I shouldn't have to go to another piece of software to get it done.

I suppose I shouldn't get into a rant, but this is not the first time this kind of thing has happened. I love the folks at Sonic Foundry, I live just down the I-way from them. They have been immensely supportive and helpful trying to get Sony products working properly.

I can't use AP7 because I didn't like Windows Media Player 11. When it came out, it looked good, and I tried it out. But, WMP11 doesn't total the playlist for a total playing time like WMP10 did. I use that function too much to live without it. I went to MS and followed the MS directions to remove WMP11 and reinstall WMP10. In the process though, it changed something in my OS that prevents AP7 from being installed on my computer. I'm told that Vegas 9 will most likely not load either unless I completely rebuild my OS from scratch. It doesn't end there either. Many of my clients have Flash presentations they want to incorporate into a new video presentation. Flash presentations I didn't create, so I haven't got the source files. Sony can't get creative enough to figure a way to run .swf files on the timeline, so I have to use different software for that too.

Used to be I could get everything done with Sound Forge, Vegas, and Acid. Now, it appears I have to have other software from other companies to supplement them if I want to get my work done. Rats!

Thanks for the comfirmation. I have an alternative strategy in place to get around the menu issue. Still would have been nicer if I could have done it like it was done originally. Shouldn't be that tough.

Jim

"The menu is a varied colored background on which there are chapter headings (scenes) and a logo. A little icon appears to the left of the selected chapter or scene. The icon disappears when the button is inactive, and when it is activated."

Simple... The *icon* -- I normally use characters from a symbol font -- is the shape used for the highlight mask. In P/Shop (anything with layers/objects should work) the base layer is a copy of the background. That can include any text that's already been added, or the text can occupy a higher layer. Using Windows' Character Map (or utilities like Easy Unicode Paster) I select & copy the desired symbol, then paste & place it in P/Shop using 100% black... this puts that character on a new, otherwise transparent layer.

OPTIONAL: merge all layers for these highlights, then select/mask the shapes/objects -> make these masks bigger than the objects in 2 steps, so you have in effect 2 separate outlines -> fill with black using more transparency OR fill each of (1) base shape, & (2) outline shapes with different colors -- any shape outlines if used should match the fill.

Export/save as the layer(s) so you have all your highlight shapes for a single menu in 1, single layer file, preferably as PNG with background transparent. In photoshop it's easy to save visible with other layers muted. You want one file or image showing just the shapes. The shapes may be simply black, or have 2 outlines in black with different transparency levels. The shapes may be solid colored, with two outlines of different colors.

In DVDA, set your menu background, & add empty graphics buttons (no text). Under the menu's Background Media properties set the image file you just made as the Highlight Mask. Set the Highlight Mask Mapping -- see the docs for details, but in a nutshell this determines how DVDA interprets the shapes in your imported image, i.e. this color or this level of transparency = the fill shape, & that color or transparency = the outline shapes etc... For your buttons set their Highlight properties, with style = Image mask overlay. Now place your button rectangles over where the *icons* are, then preview to make sure you didn't cut something off by making the rectangle too small. Set your Menu Page Color Sets properties, & specify which color set to use under General Properties -- you have 4 sets available plus none, & 3 selections for Selected, Activated, & Inactive. TO get the quoted set-up Activated & Inactive would be *none*. Now just go thru the rest of it setting button navigation etc.


[Note: words used & choices given may vary slightly with version of DVDA].

[Note: Just pasting symbol characters is super fast & easy, & is adequate in probably 90%+ projects... Optional steps creating outline & anti-alias shapes are for going the extra mile, & for a lot of work you may not see a lot of difference, if any.]

[Note: While it should be possible to create a 1 character button in DVDA with 0 fill & 0 shadow, using that for the highlight mask, I haven't been able to ever get that to work. However, using DVDA's built-in button tools you might be able to put something together using an image fill matching backgrounds & a character based button mask, but AFAIK nobody's ever tried.]

The method I described is pretty much std the way DVDs work. If you ever want to see how the DVD you're re-engineering works, check out PGCEdit. You can also see & save the actual highlights used with DVDSubEdit... might come in handy when trying to reconstruct your own highlight shapes (I use FreshView to convert the saved file format).

Why PGCEdit? In some, usually advanced menus there are actually multiple menu pages, where selecting (not activating) one button triggers a new menu.

[Note: there are actually a few sets of highlight masks created for every W/S menu page, one for each handled aspect ratio, i.e. P & S, Wide, LB. There might also be duplicate menus for the same purpose, or just to get away from the lag when looping background media & Not Using separate intro video... This only matters to keep you from looking too hard for changes you can't see if/when you find duplicate menus, i.e. there are other reasons than changing backgrounds.]

@JimMSG
"The menu is a varied colored background on which there are chapter headings (scenes) and a logo. A little icon appears to the left of the selected chapter or scene. The icon disappears when the button is inactive, and when it is activated."
"I want the button to disappear when it isn't selected."
"Interesting DVDA can't do it. "

OK, OK, & dead Wrong.
Your button, ANY button, is just a rectangular area -- it's not some button you added in DVDA, it doesn't look like a button, & in fact it's invisible. Any highlight shapes within that rectangle can be made visible, or not. You could have 15 lines of text, if that's what you wanted, all using the highlight shapes -- that's how subs & Anime sprites work. You can even have limited animation. You can black the whole screen if you want. Your limitations are the colors you have to work with -- there's not enough to do some really cool stuff... that's it1
---
"It was my understanding DVDA is a Pro piece of software, and can do anything that can be done with DVD authoring."

Nope.... But then price Scenarist. ;?P
DVDA can do ~90% of what most commercial DVDs feature... It can't do branching, multiple menu aspects, pan & scan menus. Nor can it set cells without chapters for D/L breaks, but stuff like that can be done afterwards in PGCEdit, so no biggie.
---
"Many of my clients have Flash presentations they want to incorporate into a new video presentation. Flash presentations I didn't create, so I haven't got the source files. Sony can't get creative enough to figure a way to run .swf files on the timeline, so I have to use different software for that too."

IMHO much of the time they could have paid for the source material too. ;-)
That said, I'm not sure you can disassemble flash without some legal gray areas, so AFAIK most tools are not commercial. At any rate, if you're not already use AviSynth to get flv in V/Dub, or with VFAPI into Vegas. Get FLV audio with FLV Extract. Otherwise there are several tools, some in the past featured on GOTD (Moyea & Sothink etc), allowing you to get specific sprites & such, or record playback as images or video.

@bStro
"The problem with using this method (at least with DVD Architect) is that since navigating between buttons takes the viewer to a completely different menu, they have to wait for the player to make this change before it will "move" from one button to the next. If I were the viewer, I'd find this a bit annoying."

Hi Rob...
FWIW I've found duplicate menus fairly common & useful, not for buttons, which to me seem to be trending towards simpler, but for background looping. If you have a multi-cell menu, your intro is seamless, but the loop takes a lot longer -- I imagine from seeking the in point. To me jumping to a 2nd menu is faster than re-starting the loop, & further looping is quicker still.

Form what I got out of your post, I'm guessing what I need to do is very possible, but try as I might, I am not really understanding the process you are explaining.

I do realize the "button" is nothing but an invisible little portion of the menu. But I'm not understanding what you're suggesting I do with shapes, etc. Let me try this another way.

I have five invisible squares on the menu I am creating. The color where each of these squares is on the menu background is different. I think I may have misled you a little with the varied colored background remark. The color of the background is not solid, however the color under each of the invisible squares is solid. The catch is I need five different solid colors to cover each of the invisible squares when it isn't selected. The icon is square as well, and it is three colors.

I did try creating a layered .psd file in PhotoShop using the naming conventions listed in the DVDA help files. I was able to get the icon in the space of the invisible square, but no matter what I did, I was only able to get one color to show as a cover up, so only one button would disappear when it wasn't selected. The other four would be covered up by the color of the first button icon coverup. I didn't make "black" squares though,

From reading your reply, I feel as though I can do what I want to in DVDA, but I just don't know the proper procedure. Can you fill me in on how to do this? Or, point me to step by step instructions? Or, am I still misunderstanding how this works?

Jim

Maybe this will help?

If I understand correctly, you have something, be it an arrow or scroll-work or star or whatever, that shows up when someone selects that menu item, but is not visible at any other time. You've got P/Shop -- version should be irrelevant. You've also got a snapshot, or recreated the video background, which you can take a snapshot of. If that's correct, the only harder part will be if the icon so-to-speak is multicolored, but I'll handle that later.

Start out with a menu still at DVD displayed size in P/Shop. If you're adding any text you can do it now & for simplicity flatten the image, probably saving it under a new name so you can move the text around later if you had to. Now you need your icon itself... Because I'm lazy I usually just select a character from a fancy symbol font in Character Map, & copy it to the clipboard, but you can create your icon in a new image just as well, select it based on color or using one of P/Shop's selection tools, fill the selection with black & copy that selection to the clipboard. Now with your background image active & visible in P/Shop, paste your icon from the clipboard, then drag it & size it as needed... If you use a symbol character you go like your going to type regular black text, then instead of typing, select the desired symbol font and paste, adjusting font size & dragging into place. Repeat for each menu item, so you see your background, any text, and all 5 icons (in back), placed exactly where you want them. Each paste addition should be on a new layer by default -- merge the 5 layers with your icons if you want.

Optional: Feather the selection for each icon & fill with black, or use a shadow filter with feathering.

Now click the eye(s) for your background layer(s) so they're grayed out -- you should see only your 5 black icons. Save-as or export visible as a png file with or preserving transparency. That's your Highlight Mask.

Optional: turn all layers back on and save/export a png file of the complete menu with all highlight icons in black.

Back in DVDA, select the menu background, go to properties, & select the Background Media rectangle on the upper right. Below that (in the white field) it says Highlight mask -- click next to none, & from the drop down menu select Replace, opening the png mask file you just created. Leave mask mapping at Transparency. [Note: Stretch type has in the past been iffy, so leave it alone.] Now drag & size your button bounding boxes to where you *think* the icons are going to be. [Note: it's extra work, but if you saved the 2nd image in P/Shop, use it for your background *temporarily* so you can see where to place your button bounding boxes.] Cntrl + Click select all 5 buttons, go to properties, & click Highlight -- middle rectangle on the right. Click next to or on Rectangle for Style, selecting Image mask overlay. If you used the optional background image with icons, change it back now. Preview your menu to make sure icons show up where, not when you want. Close the preview, click on the background, and in Menu Page Properties click the General rectangle, top left. Next to Activated button colors, click next to Color set 2 & from the drop down menu, select none. Note that Selected button colors defaults to Color set 1. Click the Color Sets rectangle, bottom left, & set your icon fill colors for Color Set 1...

Click the 1st color bar (fill color) & then click the down arrow on the right of the bar -- select your color here (it's easier) by dragging the pointer thing. Double check preview, close, & readjust as necessary (outlines will be off, having not been set yet). When the color's OK, double click the *middle* of the 1st color bar, bringing up the std color dialog. Click add to custom colors, & then OK. Double Click the 2nd color bar in the middle, select your new custom color swatch, & click OK. Repeat for bars 3 & 4. Preview your menu and make sure the icons work like you want -- you may have or want to set navigation, i.e. what happens when you press up/down/right/left on the remote.

-----------------

Now for 3 color icons, back in P/Shop, after you've got all 5 black icons in place, before you feather or anything, create a mask selection of whatever you want the main (fill) color to be. You can add a very slight feather if you want, then fill the masks with red, & save the masks before you unselect everything. The next step is creating (optionally feathered) masks for your anti-alias color, which is filled with green. Again save the masks & de-select. Repeat one more time, this time using a blue fill for anything you want colored as outline, saving these masks too. Now export your png highlight mask as before. Everything's the same except now after you open the mask in DVDA, set the Highlight Mask Mapping to Color Channel. And instead of setting Color Set 1 all to the same color, set them individually as you want. As on page 127 of the manual (PDF page 131), any red, green, or blue pixels will be considered parts of their respective color sets. It is possible to make it look like more than 3 colors by dithering (like an old B & W printout), but I haven't had much luck at this in DVDA in the past.

--------------

If in a rare situation you need 5 different menu graphics, depending on button selected, 1 way to do it is to set your base background for Menu 1, & create 4 sub-menus... The same graphics will be used for all 5, & the sub-menu designation is only for DVDA -- it means nothing on a DVD -- but may save you work by duplicating your base background. Your 2nd button should link to menu 2, your 3rd to menu 3 etc. Buttons 2 - 5 should be set Autoactivate = Yes under Action in Button Properties. On Menu 2, all buttons but 2 should auto activate & so on. I like to specify a menu page to return to for each video, so keeping track of which menu is which can pay off IMHO.

Since the highlight colors are so limited, & because they're generated by the player, not set in stone as mixed on your PC, I think it's best to avoid covering anything up with the highlights themselves, but instead use multiple menus as the best of a bad situation. That said...

-------

By using the 3 color mapping for your highlights, you can have each highlight display a different color. For example, a rectangle highlight for button 1 might be solid red on the mask png, & display whatever color you set for fill. Button 2 could be green, 3 blue, & buttons 4 & 5 a dithered combination of 2 or 3 of the colors you set for fill, anti-alias, & outline. Setting your fill to yellow, & anti-alias to blue, if your highlight shape for button 4 was a rectangle filled with alternating red & green pixels, it would now have alternating yellow & blue = green. At least that's how it's supposed to work, but hundreds of commercial DVDs I've seen simply use method #1.

---------------

It was my understanding DVDA is a Pro piece of software, and can do anything that can be done with DVD authoring. Apparently that isn't the case

Heh. I've met a fair number of "pro" people in my life. Not one of them can "do anything that can be done" in their field. Everybody needs help sometimes, and DVD Architect is no exception. ;)

If you want a program that comes even close to doing every possible DVD authoring related task, you'll have to spend a lot more than $500 -- think thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars. We won't even mention that DVDA is bundled with an NLE that used to sell for $400+ all by itself. Whoops, I just did mention that. ;)

Bottom line, Jim, is that if I understand what you're after, it's just not a very common behavior for DVD menus. And that's why it's not a simple 1-2-3 point and click task. Yes, you have a DVD that does this -- but how many other DVDs have you seen do it? And the person who created it on the DVD you have, just how many hoops did they have to jump through to "get it done"? Do you even know what program(s) they used?

That said, if I understand you correctly and understand MPM correctly, his instructions will give a possibly adequate replacement for but not exactly what you're trying to duplicate. But who knows, maybe your client will be fine with that.

Maybe it would help if you posted a video clip of the DVD menu or at the very least a screencap so we can see what kind of material you're dealing with.

Rob

Totally FWIW, in hopes that it's useful...

For de-constructing, working with, modding, &/or basing a project on an existing DVD, the following can be useful. They might also help to learn about DVDs etc. since info is restricted by high license prices & NDAs. Most info available is a result of reverse engineering -- there is no fully legal *by the book* so-to-speak, since if someone buys the book, they can't show it to you.

PGCDemux will give you m2v, audio, & sub tracks, plus log actual cell times used.
DVD Shrink in re-authoring mode, set at 100% quality, can be useful for trimming, extracting/isolating titles/menus where audio runs together.
PGCEdit gives anyone a good look at what a DVD does, & saves, inserts menus etc.
DVDSubEdit gives a good look at the subpicture tracks, which is what button highlights are, & let's you save them.
VOBBlanker gives info, saves menus, & allows replacing VOB sets. Replacing the VOB set is the only way to use non-text sub tracks with DVDA, other than OCR, & allows you to use other programs that can easily set ac3 delay, which DVDA won't.

Avoiding added encoding is good. Restream, DVDPatcher, DGPulldown, TMPGENC's MPEG Tools, can help importing mpg2 DVDA doesn't like. Those & tools like Project X can also be helpful with all sorts of mpg2, regardless frame size. Tools like Belight, using BeSweet, can be useful fixing ac3, for example removing padding added to keep sync in some stream formats.

While I'm at it, more useful for the home user, Videowave ['least the version in Roxio EMC9] does a great job converting DVR-MS (including DVR-MS from WTV) to mpg2 without re-encoding [just drag to timeline, allow to convert, & then close Videowave]. Vista Media Center, with the leaked update, or 7's Media Center introduce WTV files. The WTV format introduces a DRM layer that is not removed by the DVR-MS converter built into 7. While software that handles that DRM is slowly being introduced, Graphedt/Graphstudio work to dump streams, & while unnecessary for audio/video if you use the Videowave method, it's the only way to access CC data.

It seems like we are doing things backward, but I haven't had a chance to try it out yet. Other projects came first today, and straightening out a defect in this client's DVD. I think I understand the process, though, so let me give it a try and see what happens.

Thanks for the help.

Jim

I'm sorry, I am just a bit frustrated with the whole DVD process. I know I read somewhere here that DVDA can handle the entire DVD spec, so if I can't do it with DVDA, it isn't doable. Lots of things I see that apparently can be done, just not with DVDA. Okay, I suspect it is a matter of interpretation, and how would it look for Sony to advertise that their product can't do everything I see being done with DVD menus.

I'm kind of old-school, I was trained to edit on a half-track machine with a grease pencil and a razor blade for audio, and a couple of video machines and a stopwatch for video. I jumped on to digital editing with the Turtle Beach 56K system. Actually, I think it was called something different, but it was based on a Motorola 56K chip, and that's how we all refered to the edit system. It was pre-Windows, and marked my move to the PC platform. Prior to this I was working with the Atari computer platform as Hybrid Arts made a beautiful sequencing program for it that came with a SMPTE interface. At that point in time, SMPTE interfacing a PC was not always a simple process. Kind of miss the old Atari ST at times. Even supported it on the CompuServe MIDIFO, if you can remember that.

So okay, I'm expecting my Sony software to do too much, considering how reasonably priced it is. Still, it doesn't seem like it should be that hard to do what I'm doing. You know how your Wedding Theme tutorial works. What I want to do is exactly the same thing, except the background isn't a single solid color like it is in the Wedding tutorial. I have five different colors, well, I might be able to get by with four, I think the colors are similar enough for a couple of the buttons, that I could use the same color for them, but that still doesn't help if there is only one color I can use for a coverup.

I took the original artwork, loaded it into PhotoShop and painted and smudged the background so I do have the same color at all five spots where buttons and icons will be, but still it would be nice to have it look the same way it did on the client's original disc.

Be happy to post something, but as silly as it sounds, I haven't a clue how to do that here. Besides, the whole thing is exactly like your tutorial except that I need five cover up colors instead of just the one that is allowed.

I'll have to try MDM's directions later to see if that will give me the results I'm looking for. I did try importing the menu from the original DVD into the new one. It looked great, everything covered up and appeared perfectly. Unfortunately, the chapter points no longer matched up right. Can't have people clicking for the chapter three and having them drop into the end of chapter two, or was it 15 seconds into chapter 3.

Oh well, this is one of those projects I hate to get on the one hand, because they have so many things "not right" with them, aren't going to pay enough for the time spent, and may not be exactly right when finsihed (the menu wasn't the only challenge this DVD presented), but when I get through it, I will have learned a few new things in the process.

Thanks for the pointers.

Jim

Good Luck with your work & in the future, Jim. :-)

It does no good for me to say DVDA is pro software. The only potentially helpful thing I can think of to try and do is clear up some misconceptions.What this has to do with your now finished project and any future DVD work is this: I personally think all the confusion (& any doubts about DVDA), come about from mis-understanding how DVDs & *any* authoring software work. On my part I strongly & sincerely apologize for not being better able to explain it so far in a way that everyone could understand. Maybe putting this down will help you & others, whatever they're trying to do with Video DVDs? I sincerely hope so...

I start out by saying that in most all cases, when it comes to what really matters, the finished DVD, the software you use to author it is irrelevant!!! The DVD you create using the free DVDStyler isn't functionally any different than the same DVD created in Scenarist. I'm writing this right now in Notepad, but I could just as easily type it into the forum site's edit window, or using any one of dozens of word processors -- the words would still be the same. The post would still be the same. A word processor would allow me to do all sorts of things -- easily change fonts for one, mix & match fonts for another. That's why people use word processors -- that's why people use DVDA, Encore, DVDLab, DVDAuthor etc. I can print out an article using drop caps & tables with a few illustrations thrown in, & looking at that piece of paper, you would be very hard pressed to tell me which word processor I used, & more importantly, could care less -- IT DOESN'T MATTER.

The difference between DVD authoring software is what it allows you to do, & more importantly, how easily. The easier it is, the fewer features -- the harder it is, the more you can do. People get wrapped up in what's called the abstraction layer of software -- simply put, rather than expect you to calculate & enter figures into each register or anything like that, authoring software tries to give you an easy to use GUI, then work it's magic behind the scenes. The ONLY reasons you need DVD Authoring software is muxing the files, creating the sub-picture tracks, & inserting the scripting that makes everything work. Everything else -- creating & working with media, can be done elsewhere, better. Use all the button (& other) tools provided, or not, depending on your resources including skill & time, but realize they're mostly just a convenience, added originally to help boost prices when *no one knew any better*. Users understandably get confused, thinking they're doing something MUCH more specialized than they really are.

The DVD spec is old, somewhat secret (because of cost & NDA), & like mpg2 concerns the final output rather than how you get there. You have a set of std. commands, & an awful lot of rules about where those commands may be used. Designing a DVD there are severe limits on what's possible --there are tricks -- ways of using old functions to achieve new features [playlists fall into that catagory] -- but those tricks have pretty much all been thought of. Putting together [designing] a DVD, is like using a Lego set -- you arrange the pieces into the shape you want... the rest is media wrangling & graphics design. Figuring out how a *trick* works, 99% of the time means reverse engineering how someone else did it, same as web design or a lot of coding -- most of the time you get lucky & someone has already posted any secrets. Because of the NDA, that's where common, on-line DVD-related knowledge came from. [Note: please check & obey any laws where you live -- in many places reverse engineering is illegal in most situations].

When you're stuck working with someone else's DVD, if there's any doubt on how something works, assuming you can do so legally, take a peek inside. I posted the names of several tools earlier, & more can easily be found at videohelp.com, doom9.org, & elsewhere. In your case, Jim, PGCEdit would tell you if duplicate menus were used, either by looking at what menus were there, or using its tracing mode -- it would also confirm if you're in the Menu Domain, or if [very rare but possible] you were seeing a BOV title set. DVDSubEdit would tell you at a glance what button highlights were used. Then it's just a matter of *doing that* -- I won't claim everything's possible in DVDA, but to my knowledge the sole 3 menu-related things it won't do are: more than 2 cells per menu, both pre & post processing (scripting), & Pan & Scan button highlights.

I hope I don't give the impression that I'm critiquing anything -- I don't even want to hint at that. Just trying to present info for a next time you hopefully won't be stuck with.

"Unfortunately, the chapter points no longer matched up right."

In situations like that, when time permits, I recommend checking out the forums & guides at places like videohelp.com to get an idea of the possibilities. Then you're in a much better position to choose your workflow. In case it's of future use: Chapters are pointers to cells, which in turn point to specific times in a video... a new cell can only occur at an I frame.

PGCDemux will give you a cell times log, & Chapter Xtractor will give you less exact times, but only those cells that are also chapters. Matching the 2 text files up you can eliminate cell times you're not concerned with.

Armed with a list of chapter/cell times, you can add them in Vegas as markers before rendering mpg2. This way the buttons on re-used chapter menus would point to the same times/cells/chapters. Note that the chapters would have to occur at those times -- you couldn't alter the length of the original.

In DVDA, pasting in the celltimes [timeline view], pressing enter, will take you to that point -- pressing M & then enter or clicking the tool icon will set a chapter -- as necessary, you'll need to drag the chapter on the timeline to the next I frame.

PGCEdit provides ways to edit many things related to chapters/cells.

Not knowing any of the particulars, video that's already on a DVD can be imported quite easily into DVDA... Personally I prefer PGCDemux followed by muxing the m2v files with TMPGEnc's MPEG Tools, not supplying an audio track. This puts it in a format that over the years has always worked much better in DVDA. If adding a sub track was the main reason for editing the DVD, you could then do that easily enough in DVDA. Or there are specialized tools for writing subs, & tools for turning text subs into graphics. If you can get away with CC instead of subs, DVDLAb & Encore could add text from a text format sub file very quickly to the mpg2, & that mpg2 used to replace the original. Just a few idea -- a tip of the iceberg so-to-speak.

Just had another thought. (I've got a little bit of tme space on this project. The script that was translated does not match up to the script used to make the video. Some of it really doesn't matter as the context is the same, but there are places where whole sentences are missing. I don't speak the language the subs are in, so they are going to have to provide me with that information.)

How interwoven are the files that make a menu work? When looking at Video TS folders I usually see the same assembly of files.

VIDEO.TS_.BUP
VIDEO.TS_.IFO
VIDEO.TS_.VOB
VTS_01_ 0.BUP
VTS_01_ 0.IFO
VTS_01_ 0.VOB

The original DVD has this sequence and so does any DVD I've generated with DVDA. Is it possible the chapter location information is located in one of these, so I could generate the new DVD with my video fixes and subtitles - and then swap a file or two with the original to get the original menu back functioning exactly the same way it did on the original, but going to the proper chapter points?

Jim