Posted by afn03488 on 11/15/31 11:50

>> I can make or trick TDA into making just about any menu I
>> might need. -- Ken Maltby


> Can you get it to make what WinDVD and ILO DVDR call "Root Menu"?
> -- Bob


Yes, but it behaves more like a "Chapters Menu" than a "Root Menu",
nevertheless it will respond to your menu button. All you have to do
is select both "Top Menu" and "Track Menus". It's behavior is also
obnoxious in that it requires multiple presses to start play and
multiple presses to return to what you call your "Main Menu".

> Maybe I need to reprogram my remote to the "Title" button and leave
> the "Menu" button off. -- Bob


NO!!!!! You will mess up your remote's behavior with commercial DVDs.

BTW, what is the make and model of this remote?

> It's obviously a matter of definitions. TDA uses the term
> "Main Menu" to mean what WinDVD and ILO DVDR use for "Title".
> There is no provision for creating a menu that WinDVD and ILO call
> the "Root Menu" or simply "Menu". -- Bob

I just downloaded the current trial version OF TDA and experimented
with it. The term they are currently using is "Top Menu" which conforms
to the buttons on two of my set top remotes.

Once more with feeling, a DVD player is a virtual 16 bit computer
with a peculiar instruction set. Your remote keys are a means of
causing an interrupt. If you press the "Menu Key", the current process
is stopped and control passed to the "Root Menu" of the currently
active VTS. If there is no defined "Root Menu" in the active VTS,
nothing happens. Every remote I have for a set top player provides
either a "Title" key or a "Top Menu" key. It is a distinct interrupt
from the "Menu Key" and jumps from the current VTS to the VIDEO_TS.VOB.
If there was no "Title Menu", this interrupt would also not function.

Do not assume the screen with selectable buttons for the top hierarchy
of your DVD is the "title" or "main" menu. It may not even be in the
same VTS for which it establishes navigation. How they are used on a
particular DVD depends on the author/programmer. From the player's
point of view, "Top Menu/Title Key" jumps to instructions in the
VIDEO_TS.VOB; "Menu" jumps to instructions in the current VTS_nn_0.VOB.
If you will look at the directory of your problem DVD, there are no
VTS_nn_0.VOBs. It doesn't mean shit which key is pressed, it is what
the instructions do at the location vectored. You would think "Angle"
would refer to camera angle, but it is most often used to initialize
foreign language handling or to provide newspaper print or letters
which correspond to the selected audio language. It could just as
well be the chapters or special features menu. All the player knows is
that the remote has requested an interrupt, and the DVD says transfer
control to the specified location.

> BTW, TDA does have a separate "Track Menu" which according to you
> would be applicable to "VTS/Titles (which are described as tracks
> in TDA)". That reinforces the belief that "Main Menu" refers to the
> conventional Root Menu and that "Track Menu" refers to the
> conventional Title Menu. -- Bob

No, a TDA "track" refers to a VTS/video title set. These menus are
actually defined as "Root Menus" even though they behave more like
traditional chapter menus from the way TDA constructs them.

> I have never used the TDA "Track Menu" so I have no idea what happens
> when you do use it. -- Bob

It responds when you press the "Menu key".

As I said above, I have just tried the new trial version available.
If I take your course and specify "Top Menu" only, the VIDEO_TS.VOB
actually includes references to "Root Menus" which it fails to create.
Fortunately these references are in orphaned bits of code which cannot
be reached.

There is not a simple one step solution to your problem, but there is
a solution. If you will download and install PgcEdit and drop me an
e-mail, I will step you thru the procedure to create a "Root Menu" for
each VTS which does nothing but invoke your "Title Menu". That way
you won't have to foul up your remote's behavior with commercial DVDs
and your Menu key will reach the "Main/Top" menu which TDA created.
OTOH it is a PITA.

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