HELP - previews before main movie (maestro)

[Legolas]

the DVD i need to author is like this. when it loads there's a copyright warning, then the animated logo of the company i do this for, them mai menu. (so far so good) now here's what i'm having trouble with... when choosing "play movie" button from the menu i want the player to play previews and then start the main movie AND when the main movie ends there are 2 more commercials before going back to the main menu.

as far as I know this can be done with maestro using the playlist commands only i can't figure out how to use them...

any help would be appriciated.
Guy

[BJ_M]

you dont even need a playlist .. just link end action of each element to the thing you want it to go to next ..

or just layout on the timeline the whole thing in the correct order ..

see your manual .. it completly covers this subject ..

[Legolas]

oh but i forgot to mention one thing... i only want those previews to play once.... meaning if the disc hasn't been taken out of the player and the "play movie" button on the main menu is selcted again i wanted to go to the movie directly.

[bartman]

I'm sure there is a way you can have the previews play once since DVD players need to have some basic form of conditional programming (part of the DVD spec).

However, a cheats way to do it is to create your previews commercials etc as seperate movies in Maestro, then create two copies of your menu. One plays after your logo and it's menu link points to the first of your previews. You then set up your "next play" items to be any other previews, movies etc. After the last commercial is played it takes you to the copy menu which has the movie as the play item.

This simple way should work if you have a simple one page menu and shouldn't waste much space if it is static.

You have however sparked my curiosity and I'm going to check out how to do conditionsl programming in Maestro anyway (if at all)

[Legolas]

I'm kinda sure that there is a way to program that in maestro using the playlists and the commant sequances.

actualy, bartman, your advice is realy good and probably works for what i need in this case. i sort of feel stupid for not thinking about it myself... i was so fixed on the programing that i didn't even consider the possibility of a second (so simple option. lol

so thanks a lot dude!

please update this post anyway when you learn more about conditional programing in maestro. it would really help me and i'm sure more here with more complicated stuff.

thanks again though,
Guy

[BJ_M]

the two menu idea is good (you didnt mention about the play once thing before) .. make sure you set the remote control buttons for menu and top menu to the second menu then ...

you do that easy by going to the first chapter , right click and select which menu is the main menu -- maestro will apply this to all chapters unless you change it per chapter .... which you could do also in your case ..

[Legolas]

yeah i got it right

thanks' BJ_M

[bartman]

Legolas,

In short, conditional programming can be done. Here is a snippit from some documentation:

One of DVDMaestro’s more sophisticated features is the ability to define under which conditions an end-user will see the current DVD Menu. This is useful, for example, if you want a particular DVD Menu to appear — or not appear at all — if the end-user has selected a particular audio stream, or if he or she is using a DVD Player that was sold in a particular geographical region.

Note: This Display Condition feature is for advanced DVD authoring users only. The setting of these parameters requires intimate knowledge of the system parameters of the DVD-Video Specification.

DVDMaestro gives you four definable Display Condition parameters:

• a Conditional Element selection — where you define what element of a DVD Menu, DVD Movie, or Project is being evaluated;
• a Conditional Relationship selection — where you define the nature of the relationship between the conditional element and a conditional state;
• a Conditional State selection — where you define the state of the conditional element, such as its name, number, etc.; and
• an “Otherwise” selection — where you define which DVD Menu should be displayed instead of the current DVD Menu, should the Display Conditions not be satisfied.

For instance, let’s say you want the current DVD Menu to be displayed only if the currently active audio stream is number 3 or higher — and that if this isn’t true, you would like the DVD Menu to jump automatically to another DVD Menu named, say, “North American Intro Menu.”

To create this particular display condition:

1. First, you would select the Conditional Element to be AUDIO STREAM NO.
2. Next, you would use the “>=” symbol, which indicates that the “[Conditional Element] is greater than or equal to [Conditional State].”
3. Then, you would type the number “3” to be the Conditional State.
4. At this point, the entire display condition would read:
(Conditional Element) (Conditional Relationship) (Conditional State)
AUDIO STREAM NO. “ >= ” “ 3 ”

5. In the “Otherwise Go to Menu” box, select the DVD Menu named NORTH AMERICAN INTRO MENU. (This DVD Menu needs to be initially created before you establish the current Display Condition.)
6. The Display Condition is now ready: If the end-user is listening to an audio stream numbered 3 or higher, then this DVD Menu will display; if the end-user is listening to audio stream 1 or 2, then this DVD Menu will not appear, and in its place, the end-user will see the “North American Intro Menu.”

I've had a look in Maestro and you could do it this way,

Have the one menu with two "play movie" buttons on it...maybe call them different like "Start Feature" and "play movie"....one plays just the movie, the other plays all the other stuff as well. You have the "just play the damn movie" button hidden unless the "last played movie" is the last commercial. Do the opposite for the "movie with commercials" button. You will probably have to put the buttons on different parts of the screen since buttons can't overlap (more DVD spec).

All the contitional stuff is on the advanced tab when creating a menu.

<EDIT>
I just realised, I think that the conditional stuff applies on a menu only basis...I don't think it can apply to buttons. Although, having not fully tested this I can't be certain.

[Legolas]

thanks Bartman! i'm gonna play with it later myself and share what i learned