Guide: How to Change Menu Duration Times

[ckhouston]

Several users have asked if the times that background audio or video are played can be changed. They can if the effort is worth it. The procedure is not very complicated but it is tedious and requires precise changes in menu template INI files.

The information presented here is strictly for individual use. Read it carefully and understand it before proceeding with template changes.

If your changes cause a problem, recheck your work. You should not expect someone to debug your work in the forums, that takes longer than doing it right the first time. Nor should you expect someone to make a custom template for you, because no one has time to make the endless combinations that could be requested.


Understanding Menus

You have to understand how version 3 menus are made before proceeding.

Menus are nothing more than short videos. You can see that by playing files in your converted folder. The title menu is in the VIDEO_TS.VOB file and root, settings and chapters menus for each title are combined in the VTS_nn_0.VOB files where nn is a titleset number. If all titles don't fit on one menu page, video segments for each page will be appended in VIDEO_TS.VOB. More than one page may also be required for settings and chapters. A short dummy file is used for VTS_nn_0.VOB if no root menu is required.

Those menu video segments are broken into intro, main and outro sections. Ways to change the duration of those sections will be given below. Default durations are given in the Overview timing background video and/or audio topic.

The intro and outro sections are animated, i.e. menu items are gradually placed during the intro and removed during the outro. Both the intro and the main sections play when the menu is first displayed. If a menu item is not selected before play reaches the end of the main section, play will return to the beginning of the main section and that section will be repeated. The main section will continue to repeat (loop) until a menu item is selected, then the outro section plays. So the intro and outro sections play only once but the main section will loop until a selection is made.

A short fade-in from black is done at the beginning of a video segment, and it fades out to black at the end.


Menu Composition

CX2D provides all the elements needed to build a basic default menu video in the template folders under the folder where CX2D is installed. The Guide: Increase the control over/create your menu(advanced) topic discusses ways to customize your menus by changing some of those image, sound or video elements. This topic deals with changes to another of those elements, the INI file.

Menu behavior is determined by both hard code in the program and by parameters specified in the INI file. Our purpose here is to change the duration of the intro, main and/or outro sections of menu videos in that file. We will restrict changes to only those parameters affecting this timing.

Optional background video and audio are overlaid on top of the default video, so the same timing is applied to them. How much of the underlying default is shown depends on the opacity chosen for the background.

Buttons, etc. are overlaid as the last layer on top of everything.


Changing Duration of intro, main or outro Sections

Edit Note: Template INI files for early builds of version 3 were slightly different than the current ones. If you find that your INI file does not conform to the instructions below, update CX2D to the latest version.

Create new templates by adding folders under the template folder, e.g. minimal mod1. Copy all files in minimal to minimal mod1, etc. Also make folders named backup under each new folder, these can be used to save copies of successful modifications to the INI files.

This will preserve the original template in case you make mistakes and your new template will not be overwritten when you update CX2D. And these new templates, modified as described below, should be available for use the next time you start CX2D in addition to the original.

To modify templates (be careful, one mistake and your new template probably won't work right if at all):

1. Open the INI file in your new folder in Windows Notepad if you have CX2D version 3.2.3.77 or later. For earlier versions, you must use Wordpad (see note below) if you do not need to preserve script language characters in the template description or another editor that can save in UTF-8 format without byte order marks to preserve script characters.

2. Change the template name for your language at the top of the file to reflect changes (see the attached samples for examples). Then add a comma to the end of other language names. New names are required for CX2D to recognize a new template.

3. Scroll to or search for the [CXT\pages] heading and note the Content=number of sections there. Section headings below that will be named [CXT\pages\Item0, Item1, etc.]. The name of the menu element described in the section is given just below the section heading. Refer to the Special Considerations topic below if you find any section that is not for title, root, chapters or settings menus.

4. You can change the duration of intro, main and/or outro sections as you wish, within limits, for any or all of the different menu types. Changes are similar for each menu type.

If the menu you want to change is described in the [CXT\pages\ItemN] section (N is section number 0, 1, ........), go to that section and change duration times there. All times are specified in microseconds, and that number should end with an even digit. Note the ratio of new duration time to the old value for intro and outro, you will need them later.

Make the main_duration as large as you want but remember you are actually adding video time which takes space on the DVD. I found that an outro_duration as low as 0.05 sec (50000 microseconds) can be used (see the attached minimal_6ch_mod2.ini for an example). That time apparently has to be enough so at least one frame of the outro is generated. The same thing does not work for intro_duration though so I don't know how small that can be (This has been resolved in the 3rd post below this one.).

5. Edit Note: I have found since first writing this that this step is not necessary, you can skip it if you want.

Go to the [CXT\pages\ItemN\blocks] section and note the Content=number there. That is the number of subsections the following change needs to be made in. Now go to each [CXT\pages\ItemN\blocks\Item0, Item1, etc] subsection and add the line mirror_stretch=1 after the other lines in that subsection. (This is critical step taken from an example posted by hansK.)

Note: some templates already have this modification included in them.

6. If changing intro duration, go back to the [CXT\pages\ItemN] section heading and search for "intro". You should find lines reading Origin=MNUP_INTRO. Every time you see a line below that like TimeStamp=xx, change the value to xx times the ratio of the new to old intro_duration.

Be careful to stop when your search carries you into the next section (N+1).

7. Now do the same if you changed outro_duration and want to preserve animation. You will be seaching for "outro" in lines reading Origin=MNUP_OUTRO this time.

If you use the 0.05 time mentioned above, there is no need for animation, so don't bother to change TimeStamp values (see the attached minimal_6ch_mod2.ini file for example).

8. Save the file and copy the new INI to the backup folder.


The main_duration time can easily be changed at a later date by simply changing its value as described in step 4. Step 4 and 6 or 7 must be repeated to again change intro or outro time.


Wordpad Note: SteveSatch pointed a bug in Wordpad out that can keep CX2D from recognizing your new changes if you have the default setting in Windows to not display file extensions.

To prevent that, Open Windows Explorer (not Internet Explorer, search Windows help if you don't know how), click on the menu bar Tools > Folder Options then the View tab, uncheck Hide extensions for known file types and click OK.


Special Considerations

There may be an occasional timing problem not covered by the above instructions, especially when the template folder has sound or video files.

For example, the btn_action.ogg sound file in the default template folder plays soon after a menu selection is made. Timing for that action is specified from the start of the menu video, not from the start of the outro section as other outro timestamps are. So, rather than worry with changing its time value each time a duration change is made, I put the file in a sound editor and muted the sound.

Another is the thriller template. It uses 4 short .avi videos as transitions between root, settings and chapter menus. The Count=number found in step 3 above is 8 instead of the 4 or less normally expected. The first 4 of them ( [CXT\pages\Item0 to Item3] ) are for those 4 transitions. Do not change the TimeStamp values for them.

I found no other templates with special considerations but I may have missed something.

If your new template seems to work except for timing problems, doublecheck your changes made in the steps above. If that doesn't solve the problem, look for something different in the template files and in the INI.


Attached Sample Files

Some sample mods are attached that you can use as examples for your own mods. You can also create new template folders as discussed above and copy those mods to them to get new sample templates.

The samples work for typical projects but I have not tested them thoroughly. I do not guarantee them so use them at your own risk.


Choosing Best Duration Times for Optional Backgrounds

If you use a background video longer than or equal to the menu total of intro, main and outro time, only the first part equal to menu time will be used. It will be overlaid and played as already described. The looping of only the middle part and the sudden jump to the outro section after a selection is made can be distracting unless you customize the video to account for it.

This can be avoided. If a background time is only a little less than menu time, its overlay will consist of the entire background video followed by a small segment from the first of the video to fill out to menu time. Now, if the background time is equal to main_duration time, the small part needed at the end is equal to intro + outro time. The result is that the entire background will loop. But the distraction of the sudden jump after a selection is made is still there unless the outro time is small enough not to notice.

So the best solution may be to use a background time equal to main_duration and an outro_duration of 0.05 seconds. That gives a menu similar to what one finds on commercial DVDs.

Note that it may not always be possible to trim a background to exactly the main_duration time. In that case, trim to the next highest choice to prevent a possible audible sound during looping or after selection.


PS: Questions or additional info you discover can be posted in the ver 3 forum. I have little interest in devoting much more time to this subject though, maybe someone else will respond if I don’t. I will include links to any interesting posts in this thread.

Please read the next post below before posting in the ver 3 forum.

EDIT NOTE: Item 5 in the instructions above has been edited because an underscore charcter in a critical command was obscured by underlining the command.

[ckhouston]

If you have a problem with a menu mod and post a question about it in the ver 3 forum, PLEASE be clear that the problem is with your modification for two reasons.

No one can really help you without that info.

And most people that regularly try to help there have no interest in template modifications and will naturally get irritated if they have to spend time they volunteer digging that information from you.

Be aware though that INI files cannot be blamed for very many problems. Basically, if your menu doesn’t crash or freeze CX2D when the template is loaded soon after CX2D starts or during the times that menu pages are being rendered (a progress bar and message showing which menu is being rendered appears), and the menu looks OK after conversion and allows you to properly navigate between menu pages and to select all titles to play, these modifications are not likely the cause of any other problem you may encounter. They cannot cause such things as conversion problems, including synch problems, other than those described in the sentence above, or DVD playback problems other than those described in that sentence.

That doesn’t mean though that problems you report in the forum or directly to VSO will not be blamed on the modifications, even if they could not possibly be caused by them. In fact, VSO has instituted a policy of denying support if a modified template is used. So, unfortunately, you will probably have to demonstrate that you have the same problem when using an official VSO template before receiving serious help.

[ckhouston]

EDIT NOTE: Item 5 in the instructions above has been edited because an underscore charcter in a critical command was obscured by underlining the command.

[ckhouston]

As mentioned above, the outro_duration can be set as low as 0.05 seconds. It is not necessary to change the outro timestamps in that case, the menu buttons and other items will simply disappear.

However, menu items do have to be placed during the intro so they are available for selection. I did some more work and found that an intro_duration as low as 0.05 seconds can also be used. But, in this case, step 6 in the instructions does have to be done, the intro timestamps do have to be ratioed in this case.

I did try setting all intro timestamps to 0.04 seconds but that did not work. Apparently, the menu items have to be placed smoothly rather than all at once to avoid timing problems.

Samples for minimal and a 10 title glossy (only title menu changed) are attached. This should work for all templates since it does for a 10 title glossy.

[Filipe Mariano]

Thanks dude....amazing...nice job...

[itsmattxp]

I got it to increase the audio, but my menu disappers until after the main duration of the menu is done and then it just repeats, roughly about 10 seconds it will disappear again and the audio will do its thing agian. Is there anyway to make the background picture stay while the audio continually plays?

[ckhouston]

This forum is supposed to be restricted to info, not questions or problems as stated in the Forum Index and in the Announcement at the top of this forum. And I said in the guide above that the main forum should be used for such purposes. Additionally, posts in this forum are supposed to be restricted to moderators.

Anyway, your problem is addressed in the ConvertXtoDVD version 3.x forum.