How to create an Audio-Only DVD in DVDLab Pro (IMPROVED VERSION)

AUTHORING AN AUDIO-ONLY DVD IN DVD-LAB PRO
(DVD-Lab Pro is herein referred to as DLP)

This guide will take you step-by-step through authoring a DVD which contains 3 complete compact discs. I wrote a guide earlier in 2 parts but have since found what I believe is a better way to do it. With this method there are no movies used for the music although you must have a movie for each VTS as this is part of the DVD Specifications. Each movie can be very small and doesn’t need to have audio on it so they won’t take up much space. The audio files will each be put on a separate menu. This will allow you to also put far more selections on a DVD. Each VTS can have up to 250 menus and a DVD can have up to 99 VTSs. Allowing for a few menus to be used for control issues you can still have an incredible number of titles on a DVD.

CAVEAT: The legality of this is debatable. I have only done this with CDs that I own and am making the DVDs strictly for my own use.


You will see how create a DVD that will give you 4 choices of how to play the music:
1. Play a complete CD from start to finish and then return to the Main Menu.
2. Play an individual song and then return to the Main Menu.
3. Play all the CDs one after the other.
4. Play the songs in Random Order.

As a song plays there will be a photo of the CD cover from which the song was ripped and the title of the song will be shown. You could, of course, choose to use a different image if you like.

This guide assumes the following:
1. That you have some working knowledge of DLP.
2. That you know how to rip songs from your CDs.
3. That you know how to scan images of the CD covers. Images can also be downloaded from many sources on the internet.

Information on any of these subjects can be obtained in other areas. As you know there are plenty of guides on www.videohelp.com and also great forums for any pertinent questions regarding audio/video etc.

SOFTWARE USED

This is the software I used. In many cases you may be able to substitute software of your choice.

DVDLab Pro http://www.mediachance.com/dvdlab/dvdlabpro.html (This one is obvious. It’s the heart of the project.)

Photoshop http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/main.html (Or another imaging program to crop the CD Cover images.)

Cdex http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=CDex (freeware!! for ripping titles from CDs)

CopyToDVD http://www.mediachance.com/dvdlab/vso/index.html (If you are a registered DLP user this link will give you a reduced price for the software)

TMPEGenc Sound Player http://www.pegasys-inc.com/en/index.html (You need this only if you wish to convert your .wav files to .ac3)

While it is not software you may wish to access www.dvd-replica.com and look at their Unofficial DVD Specifications to help you better understand some of the VM Commands you'll be using if you decide to create an Audio-Only DVD.

Okay, let’s make an Audio-Only DVD!

1. AUDIO FILE PREPARATION
The first thing you'll need to do is prepare the audio files to use in authoring the DVD. I used CDex to rip the songs from the CD to .wav files and then used TMPEGEnc Sound Player to convert them to .ac3. You don't need to convert them to .ac3 unless they are going to be so large that the total number of files will exceed the 4.3GB that your DVD (single layer) can accomodate. That's very unlikely! But you may need to use smaller files to free up space on your Hard Drive. Also, DLP will not accept 44.1 KHz audio files, so you'll need to change the frequency to 48KHz if you're using .wav files.

2. PREPARE CD COVER IMAGES
I scanned the front cover from each of the CDs into Photoshop and then cropped them and saved them as .jpg files.

3. IMPORT SOUND FILES INTO DLP

I resized Windows Explorer to sit on top of DLP and then was able to drag the files into the Assets bin in DLP as shown. I put the songs for one CD at a time in the Assets Bin and once they were attached to the menus I could delete them from the bin and add the next ones. That just made it easier to keep track of a few at a time. You can also right-click in the Assets Bin and choose import if you prefer.




4. VMG MENU
Click on the VMG MENU Button as shown below to create a VMG Menu. We will use this as the Main Menu where we will choose which CD to play, select Play All or select Random Play.





5. PREPARE VTSs

You have a movie already in place in your 1st VTS as you have to use one in each VTS as I already explained. I used a very short (4 second) video clip just to have something in it but it won’t ever be seen. Once you’ve put your video clip into it just drag it out of the way in the Connecions Window and don’t worry about it anymore. You’ll do the same with each VTS you create after this 1st one.

A. Now create a VTS Menu for each song plus one for the Menu that you will use to select the title to play. Be sure to name the 1st VTS Menu as ROOT 1 to keep things in the proper order then name each successive menu with the title of the song that will be put into the menu. To name the menu just click twice on the menus (pause between clicks) one at a time and type the name of the song for that menu.



B. Add a background, Audio Title and CD image to each of the menus by dragging them from Assets Bins.











C. Now I’ve added three pieces of text to the Menu Image. One is “NEXT” which will be a button to take us to the next song on the CD if we don’t want to listen to the present selection. Another is “MENU” which will be a button to take us back to the ROOT Menu of the CD. The third is the title of the song. It looks like this:





D. I’ve added the title of each song to the ROOT 1 Menu as well as text that says “MAIN MENU” and text that says “PLAY ALL”. Now create a link from each of the buttons to the menu that contains that particular song. Also create a link from “MAIN MENU” to the VMG Menu 1. We’ll create a link from “PLAY ALL” later.






Now just create the links. In the ROOT 1 Menu link each of the title buttons to the appropriate Menu/Song Title. Link the “NEXT” button to the Menu/Song Title that follows the one on the screen. Link the “MENU” button to the ROOT Menu. In the case of the last song of the VTS do not include a “NEXT” button. When the song ends it will go back to the VMG Menu to select the next CD. If you are in “PLAY ALL” mode it will go to the 1st song of the next VTS. We’ll get to that later.

Now add another VTS for each CD you wish to put on the DVD using the steps we used above. I suggest doing just one or two more CDs to finish this guide and once you have the steps figured out you can add more to the project as you like. Then go on to the next steps.

6. VMG Menu 1

Once you have all the VTSs ready to go it’s time to enter the links for them into the VMG Menu. This is my VMG Menu with the buttons prepared for the CDs I’m using. I’ve only done 3 CDs just to give you the idea how to go about the rest.



As you can see in the image above I’m using 3 CD cover images as buttons to link to their respective VTSs. I also have a button for PLAY ALL and another button for RANDOM. You can create the links to the 3 VTSs now. We’ll get to the PLAY ALL and RANDOM buttons soon.


7. LINKING THE TITLES OF EACH CD

To get each CD to play completely just draw links from one song menu to the next in the Connections Window using the Draw Links button. As below:





For the last song on each VTS set the End-link to go to VMG Menu 1 as shown below:





Now when a CD is chosen it will play from the song you choose through to the last song and then return to the VMG Menu 1 to let you select another CD.

Try compiling it now and if it works go on to the PLAY ALL section.


8. PLAY ALL

A. Add another VMG Menu by clicking on the VMG Menu Button.




Name this menu Play All VMG. Now add a Bridge to the right side of this VMG Menu and drag it into position.




In the Play All VMG Properties Window PBC tab change the Duration to a/v by typing a 0 (zero) in it. Change this in each of the PLAY ALL 1 - 2, 2 - 2 & 3 - 2 menus as well.






Draw a link from the right side of the Play All VMG to the left side of the Bridge. Then draw a link from the right side of the Bridge to the first song of the first VTS.





In the Pre Commands of the Play All VMG menu enter this line:

GPRM7 = 7

In your VMG Menu 1 window link the PLAY ALL button to Play All VMG. Link the PLAY All button in each of your ROOT menus to Play All VMG as well. In the VMG Menu 1 Pre Commands enter:

GPRM7 = 8

Your Customize VM commands dialog box will show this:



Add that same line to the Pre Commands of each of your ROOT menus.



To get the PLAY ALL to work properly we need to add two more VTS Menus to each VTS. Be sure to click on the VTS in the project window before adding the new VTS menus or they may be added to the wrong VTS. Add the two menus to the first VTS and name them PLAY ALL 1 and PLAY ALL 1 - 2. Do the same with each of the other two VTSs naming them PLAY ALL 2 and PLAY ALL 2 - 2 in VTS 2 and PLAY ALL 3 and PLAY ALL 3 - 2 in VTS 3.

Now add a bridge to each VTS. Just click on the Bridge button once for each VTS.



I’ve placed the menus and bridges at the end of the VTSs in the Connection Window to easily keep track of them, as seen below:





B. We need to enter some VM Commands into the PLAY ALL Menus now. In PLAY ALL 1 enter into the Pre Commands:

GPRM7 = 7
LinkPGCN 3

Here we are setting a value for GPRM7 that will be checked any time a CD starts to play. PGCN3 is the PGC number of the first song on the CD. Change this number is for some reason it is a different PGC number.






In the POST Commands of the last song of the CD enter this:

if (GPRM7 == 7) LinkPGCN 18 NOTE: 18 represents the PGC number of the PLAY ALL 1 - 2 menu. Change it to the number that is appropriate for each VTS in your project.

If the DVD is in PLAY ALL mode this command will cause the program to go to PLAY ALL 1 - 2. If it is not in PLAY ALL mode it will simply go back to the VGM Menu 1.


Now draw a link from PLAY ALL 1 - 2 to the Bridge.





Now draw a link from the output side of the Bridge to the first song on the next VTS. From the Bridge of the last VTS draw the link to the first song of VTS1.

Do these same steps for each of the other VTSs.

I suggest you compile again to make sure it works before going on with the RANDOM PLAY section.


9. RANDOM PLAY

To use Random Play we need to add some more menus. First click on the VMG Menu button at the top of the Project Window to create another VMG Menu.





Name this menu RANDOM. Link the RANDOM button in VMG Menu 1 to this new menu.

In the Pre Commands of this new menu enter these lines:

GPRM1 = 7
GPRM2 = 7
GPRM9 rnd 3
GPRM8 = 1
if (GPRM9 == GPRM8) JumpSS VTSM (vts 1, tt 1, menu AUDIO)
GPRM8 = 2
if (GPRM9 == GPRM8) JumpSS VTSM (vts 2, tt 1, menu AUDIO)
GPRM8 = 3
if (GPRM9 == GPRM8) JumpSS VTSM (vts 3, tt 1, menu AUDIO)
Break
Now create a new VTS menu for each of the VTSs. Be sure to click on the VTS button in the Project window before clicking on the New Menu button to create the menu in the proper VTS. Right-click on each of these menus and choose UOPs & Settings... and change the menu ID to Audio Selection Menu.

In the Pre Commands of these menus enter these lines:

GPRM3 rnd 14
GPRM4 = 1
if (GPRM3 == GPRM4) LinkPGCN 3
GPRM4 = 2
if (GPRM3 == GPRM4) LinkPGCN 4
GPRM4 = 3
if (GPRM3 == GPRM4) LinkPGCN 5
GPRM4 = 4
if (GPRM3 == GPRM4) LinkPGCN 6
GPRM4 = 5
if (GPRM3 == GPRM4) LinkPGCN 7
GPRM4 = 6
if (GPRM3 == GPRM4) LinkPGCN 8
GPRM4 = 7
if (GPRM3 == GPRM4) LinkPGCN 9
GPRM4 = 8
if (GPRM3 == GPRM4) LinkPGCN 10
GPRM4 = 9
if (GPRM3 == GPRM4) LinkPGCN 11
GPRM4 = 10
if (GPRM3 == GPRM4) LinkPGCN 12
GPRM4 = 11
if (GPRM3 == GPRM4) LinkPGCN 13
GPRM4 = 12
if (GPRM3 == GPRM4) LinkPGCN 14
GPRM4 = 13
if (GPRM3 == GPRM4) LinkPGCN 15
GPRM4 = 14
if (GPRM3 == GPRM4) LinkPGCN 16
Break

These lines will choose the song from the VTS and assume that there are 14 songs on the CD. If the number of songs is different change the 14 in the first line to the proper number. Then below that you must add or delete more lines to reflect the number of songs changing the code numbers as necessary.

Now to the Pre Commands in the VMG Menu 1 and each of the ROOT Menus add this:

GPRM1 = 1
GPRM2 = 2

You will see this:





Now in the Post Commands of each and every song enter this line:

if (GPRM1 == GPRM2) JumpSS VMGM (pgc 7)

This line assumes that your RANDOM Menu’s PGC number is 7. If it is different change this number to match. (The PGC number in my project is actually 8 but when I tried to enter 8 with ) after it there was an emoticon displayed instead of the proper coding!)

The Post Command of the last song on each VTS will look like this:



Now, if everything was entered properly and your links are all going where you want them this should work for you. Hope you enjoy it.

.....Gord

From: http://forum.videohelp.com/threads/228982-How-to-create-an-Audio-Only-DVD-in-DVDLab-Pro-%28IMPROVED%29