VLC DVD menu navigation problem

[f3z]

The cursor on DVD menus does not show up, and consequentially, I am unable to view DVD's as I am stuck on the menu screen. I am using VLC media player 0.8.6b , (0.8.6a has the same problem), and I am using windows XP with all the latest driver updates, and I have Direct X.

This problem does not occur on Windows Media Player, so I am assuming it is nothing wrong with the computer.


Any help will be greatly appreciated.

[CloudStalker]

I’ve noticed that some filters mess with the DVD menus, especially the “Image property filter”. If you go to “Disc” you could set title to 1 and it will automatically jump into the movie, unless you want to access the menus for some reason.

[DJ]

Try erasing the preferences directory. C:\Documents and Settings\Owner (this is you)\Application Data\VLC Erase VLC, Application Data is a hidden directory so you will need to make it visible.

[f3z]

CloudStalker: Your method works, but for films with different languages, that need subtitles, etc, I cant access the subtitle settings or language settings. If there is no other way, I guess I could still cope

DJ: In the Application Data folder the only VLC related files is the "vlc" folder which contains "cache" folder and a "vlcrc" file. What do you mean by "Erase VLC?"

[DJ]

Erase the whole folder and all sub-directories. You can also erase dvdcss also in the Application Data folder.

The only time I have seen issues with menus and mouse selections is when the output is not DirectX.

[f3z]

how can I check if my output is DirectX?

[CloudStalker]

Right-click on the interface and go to: Preferences > Video > Output modules (check the “Advanced options” box) and in the dropdown box you should see the option for “DirectX video output”.

[f3z]

Yes I have tried all these methods, and looks like my output is DirectX, and I still have the same problem. Could it possibly be a registry problem?

[DJ]

Try updating DirectX runtime. Microsoft updates this every few months. If there is something wrong here it will be corrected. This only leaves your video drivers as a possible issue.

[f3z]

Yes I already have the latest DirectX.

[DJ]

I guess this leaves your video drivers as there is nothing else left.

[f3z]

well it works for windows media player, dont I have to have the right video drivers?

Does anyone else have this problem or is it just me... I really cant tell whats wrong

[DJ]

As I said: The only time this has been an issue is if you are not using DirectX for the output module in VLC or it is a video driver issue. In other words your drivers are not WHQL certified or they are not 100% compatible to DirectX 9c.

This particular issue is unusual, so it is just YOU.

[Bhgvd]

Actually I don’t think that this is necessarily video output problem, more likely it is dvdnav plug-in incompatibility with certain disks (the disks are OK - Media Player Classic has no problems with them). I tested it on two different computers, and the problem can show up in two ways.
First – the menu cursor does not show up, nevertheless I can click with mouse cursor on menu item and it works, or use navigation keys as the cursor is present, but invisible.
Second – the menu cursor does not show up and navigation keys do not work. But when I move mouse cursor over the menu item, the menu cursor appears and everything starts to work fine.
Also it seems that in both cases if I leave that menus without an action and choose to open DVD once more, it has problems with menu recognition – it works if the disk has no menus at all (sometimes it recognizes disk as CD and stops).
Since I am trying to use remote control for DVD navigation this is really a problem for me.

[DJ]

LC is not a Direct Show player. MC uses your codex for your DVD software as does WPM.

These types of players and codex are more forgiving in backward compatibility for Directs where as LC enforces Microsoft's recommendations regarding Directs C.

There are probably as many ways to use Directs as there are people programming for it. But LC has the lowest CPU usage of all other players allowing a wider variety of equipment to play DVDs or MPG files.

There is always oversimple which avoids the menus completely and allows all DVDs to be played even when there are problems with the menus which is something your DVD software won't do.

[Bhgvd]

MPC also doesn’t use DirectShow filters for DVD playback, it has its own decoder

May be I don’t understand something, but it is more likely a decoder problem, than hardware: on two absolutely different computers with different windows installations (Home and Professional), and even different VLC versions the problem was the same on the same menus. If in first case (invisible cursor) one can say that this is cursor drawing problem, in the second (no cursor at all) it is not – cursor could be drawn, but for some case it is not. When I move mouse pointer over menu item, the message appears in debug window, something like “button 1 selected”. It seems, that it just does not select first button on entering the menu, so commands like dvdnav_left_button_select etc do not work. And dvdnav_mouse_select does. After selecting one button everything starts to work. And still the problem with reopening disk after “bad” menus also points that this is not a drawing problem: the item “DVD menu” completely disappears from VLC navigation menu.

[DJ]

I have that shut down in MPC in favor of the standard DS codecs supplied by my DVD software. MPC still used Microsoft's navigation codec which also handles menus no mater which decoders are used.