Shrink and title writer- how do I add menu templates

[hustler898]

Been watching the forum for a few days and have successfully backed up 5 or 6 movies using Shrink. Great program! I'm begining to move into more advanced areas and am finding it difficult. I have searched for guides to help with my problem but I guess there aren't any.

Currently I am trying to copy 2 movies to one disk and a menu using titlewriter and the 2 movie template. Seems straight forward enough unfortanately I can't get it to work, lol. My problem is how do I use titlewriter to add the menu to the film? I have the first movie ripped to my harddrive and the second one will be ripped off the dvd. I have no clue what I am doing and how to fill in the "form" for "shrinkandtitlewriter". Any steps or guidlines will be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Tried following the direction and I get the error saying something to the effect of paths being invalid

[FallenAngel]

ShrinkAndTitlewrite is for those practiced in backing up a dvd and using Titlewriter.
I suggest you just shrink your movies to harddrive. when done
Boot Titlewriter Select your target folder in Titlewriter click Add menus select folder containing Menu >>Save Changes - then burn. After A couple of dvd's ShrinkandTitlewrite steps will become obvious. You might consider reading Titlewriter.hlp for more info.

As to the Invalid path -- Did you start with the locations for Dvdshrink ,nero, MenuTemplates, or Titlewriter that I provided--Those locations may not match your machine (I left them in to guide people) and would need to be changed to match your machine

[hustler898]

Thanks for the reply. I will follow your instructions and refer to the help file also. I'm a total novice at this but I'm sure I will get the hang of it over time especially with the helpfull experts on this board. Gonna shrink the second movie now and try title writer alone.

I didn't make any changes to the paths just assumed that they were correct. The shink path is correct for sure since that started up through titlewriter as well as the menu location.

Just to make sure I understand heres what I'm doing:

1. Use Shrink author utility and shrink both movies to a harddrive folder (as per instructions in the combining 2 movies guide).

2. boot title writer and follow your instructions as well as the help file. target folder will be the one the 2 movies are shrunk too. This should give me a main menu that links too the 2 movies.

I''ll give it a whirl and post my results. Thanks!

[FallenAngel]

One more thing - Select start with Vmg Root Menu option before Save Changes. Usually you would do this with my menutemplates

[hustler898]

Worked great! Thanks for this fine program!!! Now I just got to figure out how to add the original menus back in. Guess it's time to decipher the help files

[FallenAngel]

Its exactly the same thing except-
All files must be ripped to harddrive

I suggest -Compiliation must be Shrink reauthored Movie only (At this point I haven't tried more complicated structures.)

Boot Titlewriter before shrink -Select directory containing original rip>>Report On Menu
See if menu for movie is in something other then vts1 if so change Import menu/Ifo etc to that number >>Report On Menu
Note down recommended dvd target size Movie Only
Close titlewriter

BTW You can figure out Dvd Target Size size in DvdShrink reauthor mode by Adding up the VMG menu and Vts Menu containing movie eliminating the first titlewriter step

In DvdShrink Edit>>preferences>>Target Size>>Custom to that size from titlewriter report

Shrink>>Reauthor>>Hack and chop to Movie only>>Backup

Titlewriter>>select Target>>(First Time make sure Create Undo is checked)
Add Menu
Select original menu in menutemplate
Enter VTS containing main movie menu
Then chose Either Start play with movie or Bypass VMG and start with Vts Root Menu (Movie menu) I usually select this but sometimes other options work better.
Add Dvd Text
Save changes

TEST RESULT!!!
Adding Original Menus without user editing is Extremely complicated. Menu May not work properly (Most of mine have -- but 2 failures out of 48(( Both Disney Menus))
Note: Sometimes menu will stall --Hitting Play usually restarts.

If you can live with result burn
If Not Use titlewriter to undo changes
if failure I just add a menutemplate to be done with it or you could drop compiliation into Say PgcEdit to fix the menu navigation (Requires Knowledge of PGC structures/commands/tables/menus)

[hustler898]

Again, thanks for the info. I still haven't tried adding in original menus. Still debating if it's worth the touble but plan on trying it at least once. Seems like it would be much easier to add in custom menus once they are created.

Could anyone direct me to a program to create custom menus?