DVD Maestro Connections

[bode]

I'm compiling a project in DVD Maestro and I've reached the "connections" stage.

At the top of the page lists First Play and Menu Title. I normally connect Menu 1 to these.

On my standalone player's remote, I have Top Menu and Menu. When I press Top Menu, Menu 1 will appear.

1.What do I connect to make the "Menu" button work on the remote control?

2. When I press stop on the remote, I want the menu to appear.

What do I do?

Thanks

[Revengeonsociety]

You set every movie(+chapters) to menu 1, in the connection window*example*(movie1 chapter 2 end action=menu 1)you got to do this manualy by all movies/chapters there is no option to do this in one step.

[mazinz]

you must keep one thing in mind however, if your film (lets say film1) has 10 chapters, YOU DO NOT want to use the "end action" for chapters 1-9 on the connection screen, You DO want to use the choice above "end action" for those chapters (i am at work so i forgot what "name" it shows). Otherwise what would happen is after chapter 1 is played, your film would go back to the menu (and im sure you do not want that).

Once you get to chapter 10 in assigning the "where to go" for that choice , then you would use the end action option.

so for chapters 1-9 use whatever choice is shown above the end action option for your film to go to the menu you want. When you get to chapter 10, use the end action key and the above choice you already selected for the previous chapters.

[Cornucopia]

Don't forget--there are 3 levels of connection complexities and it opens/defaults to the middle one. If you want more "beginner" or more "advanced" you have to switch it. I think you right-click the top of the connections pane.

I often forget to do this and then cuss myself out for not having separate "menu" and "title menu" options.

Scott

[bode]

@Mazinz It's the Menu key. Thanks.

I've found this which answers everything:

http://www.geocities.com/eaussie01au/maestro.html

DVD Control Keys – Maestro relationships)
The following control keys on a DVD player remote correspond to the following navigation sources in the connection window of Maestro. Keep in mind however, that not every remote control has EVERY key that is mentioned. You must also keep in mind that some connections between remote control keys are made automatically, so you do not HAVE to connect them every time in the connection window.

"First play" is the action that happens when you put the DVD in a desktop player or when you launch the "video_ts.ifo" in your software player. First play can be a menu or a movie. First play is to be assigned if you want something to happen automatically like starting with a menu or a DVD Movie with your animated logo etc. If you do not specify a first play, the end-user will be left staring at a black TV screen and will have to fumble with the remote and press "Play" for the 1st DVD Movie or "Menu" for the 1st Menu.

"Title Menu" controls what happens when the end-user presses the "Title" key on the DVD players remote control. Sometimes called the "Root Menu."

"Menu Key Action" for each chapter is what happens when the end-user presses the "Menu" key on the DVD players remote control, DURING THE CURRENT CHAPTER.

Timesaver note: This action only has to be connected once if you want the same action for every subsequent chapter in a DVD Movie when pressing the "Menu" key on the remote. So if you set the "Chapter End Action" for chapter 1, but not for chapter 2 and chapter 3, all three chapters will respond with the same action upon pressing the "Menu" key on the remote. Setting a different "Menu End Action" for chapter 4 will result in a different result, ONLY from chapter 4 onwards. These "Duplicate chapter-by-chapter Chapter Connections" are INVISABLE in the connection window, they work in the background.

"Chapter End Action" is what you want to happen when a chapter has reached its end. If you make NO connection, the next chapter will automatically play (if there is a next chapter). If you make a "Chapter End Action" connection in a chapter in the middle of a DVD Movie, the DVD player will finish playing the chapter that has the "Chapter End Action" set and navigate "out of the movie" to perform the next action that you have specified. You have to set an end action at the end of every DVD movie otherwise the player stops playing at the end of the last chapter. (Perhaps that is exactly what you want it to do.) These "Automatic chapter-to-chapter connections" are INVISABLE in the connection window, they work in the background.

"Next" and "Previous" correspond to pressing Skip Foward and Skip Backwards on your DVD players remote control. These keys make the DVD Movie jump one chapter point forward or backwards by default. Again this is done automatically, you do not have to make these connections.

The only time you have to specifically connect "Next" and "Previous" to a source is when you want to Skip Forward in the LAST chapter or Skip Backwards in the FIRST chapter in a DVD Movie. In that case however, you will not be able to set the "Menu Key" for each individual chapter, only for the 1st chapter.

"GoUp Link" controls what happens if you press the "Return" key (NOT Resume key) on your DVD players remote control. This gives you a fast way to navigate back up in the menu tree. You have to set this connection manually for each menu. A GoUp link can only connect to a menu.

"Angle Menu", "Audio Menu", "Subtitle Menu"and "Chapter Menu" determine what happens if you press the Angle, Audio, Subtitle or Chapter key on your DVD players remote control. If you do not make any connections for these menu's in Maestro, most DVD players (only if they have these keys on the remote to begin with), default to a connection automatically. Pressing the audio key will let you change audio stream in the standard menu of the DVD player, but not an audio menu on the DVD title as there is no connection to such a menu. The same goes for the angle, subtitle menu keys.

The chapter key will default to the Title Menu or Root menu. Every commercial DVD Title has all these elaborate Audio, Subtitle and Chapter menu's so users with very simple remote controls (only one "Menu" key) can navigate to these Audio, Subtitle and Chapter menu's by pressing the "Menu" key that leads them.

You as DVD authorer can force end-users down this path by disabeling user actions in the DVD Movie and DVD Menu properties windows. In that case pressing the Audio, Angle, Sub picture or Chapter key on the remote will bring you nowhere if they are disabled in the authoring process.

Other specials:
You can make an audio menu that lets the end-user decide what audio to choose from. You set the initial audio stream that you want to present to the end-user in your DVD Movie (or Menu) properties and you hope that the end-users DVD player's audio settings do not override your suggested initial audio stream. Therefore the audio menu will have to be more elaborate than just a choice of audio streams. You have to program an if/then sequence in the command sequences options. Reading the manual is necessary here.

When the end-user gets to the audio menu, the player has to know what language is the current selection by reading its own register. So if audio is set to stream 1 and you want stream 1, you make an action that reports "audio set to stream 1" However if the player is set to stream 2 (by the end user) reading the players register will tell you so. In that case make another action that results in a report "audio set to stream 1" . Command sequences are needed to do if / then logic within DVD titles.