First time poster. Comments on DS and a question about blank cells

[audi2honda]

Hi guys,

First off I'd like to say DVDStripper is a great tool. I read about it on DVDRhelp.com and saw lots of people ripping on it because it isn't free and is just a frontend for ifoedit. Well it is well worth the money IMO..Even though I could do the same things in Ifoedit it took a long time and there was some trial and error because of cell linking etc.. I just finished my first movie and with DS and Menuedit I got things done in no time!

My process is DVDStripper/Menuedit then feed it into DVDShrink..however I'm playing with IC8. I don't think I like Instant Copy to much though.

Anyway now for my question.

I notice some vob menu cells or chapter cells in DVDStripper are blank. They are just a black screen for a few seconds. What are these and is it safe to remove them?

I removed some and kept others and it didn't seem to effect anything, but on my last backup I had a lot of them and I'm curious what they are.

Also, I often see cells in menu edit that are a black background but have buttons on them. However the buttons are in the exact same location a menu item just a few cells earlier. I assume it is part of the menu somehow so I delete them, but why do they show up like that?

Thanks guys a ton...Sorry for all the questions, but I'm most interested in why some of those cells from the original disk are blank and if I should keep or strip them.

 

[audi2honda]

crap sorry I think I posted this in the wrong place.

Please move to the DVDStripper forum if you think this is out of place.

Thanks

 

[MackemX]

Hi and welcome to the forums

your question is a very good question. It's best you double(triple) check these blanks as sometimes they can contain butons like you say, so it's best you leave them in if you definitely know it doesn't contain video. Even if you cannot see it using a normal preview player, it can sometimes still contain an image

it may contain a blank screen but then it can also contain subtitles which will not be played back by most preview players in any tool. The only time you will really see it is when you watch the DVD properly. It's best to check what you want removing by playing the DVD first and making a checklist which you can then use to find and check what you wish to strip

that's why the UNDO feature is around so that if you miss or remove something by mistake and the DVD is not the way you want, you can always do it again but it's always best to check playback after processing has finished

the new version of DS has project saving capabilities as one of it's update features

even in the best of hands, DS will still produce non working DVD's but does any tool? In most occasions so far when a concern has been raised we have found the solution. Some have already been fixed and all current concerns can be fixed manually and the guys who know me will know how I can troubleshoot issues . The problem is incorporating these workarounds (sometimes simple, sometimes hard) into DS so the user does not have to do anything but click a few buttons

p.s. I guess a few people still think DS is a front end GUI for Ifoedit and it would be nice to again hear from all the guys who gave DS such a hard time at DVDRHelp and Doom9 before DS was released . I'm sure if it was a ripoff it wouldn't exist today as you guys would soon let it be known and I'd love to see people do the same things as DS with just Ifoedit cos I sure as hell couldn't and I'm an Ifoedit Guru

 

[Arianos]

As a rule, mentioned in MackemX's guides of old, blank cells should stay intact. They are a few KBs big anyway.
ESPECIALLY if they contain only ONE button.
Exception:
Some DVD's have announcements in subtitle format, meaning they are NOT shown in previews (Menuedit, WMP2 etc)
Way to detect them:
A blank cell about 1 mb big, with no buttons, usually in a VTS by itself, but it could also be in the beginning of the movie.
Way to make sure:
Use SubRip on the cell. Funny enough it does NOT rip ALL the screens that may exist in the cell, just the first one. But that's enough
Apart from the above, I'm equally in the dark as you are

 

[MackemX]

Way to make sure:
Use SubRip on the cell. Funny enough it does NOT rip ALL the screens that may exist in the cell, just the first one. But that's enough
Apart from the above, I'm equally in the dark as you are

lol, in the dark!, anyway good suggestion about using SubRip

can you use it as an alternative player do you reckon? I don't think you could but who knows?

 

[Arianos]

can you use it as an alternative player do you reckon? I don't think you could but who knows?

I tried it, doesn't work.
Subrip has a preview window, but it's after setting a lot of parameters, so you have to do it manually.