sizzle .5b1-- my menu background pictures are not showing up

[brett]

basically, the "menu background image" which looks fine in sizzle turns out pure black when the video_ts is viewed in dvd player.

looking for whatever i'm missing here. ive read in sizzle help that "alpha" channels in a background picture will blend with the background color. i don't really understand what that means, but i opened my pictures in graphic converter and it does not appear to indicate my pix have alpha channels. ive tried both .jpg and .pict as source pictures. i've also tried changing the background color from black to white. no matter what, when i open the video_ts the menu backgrounds are pitch black -- but the button outlines can be toggled arund and the movie plays. finally, my "buttons" also show up black -- just the outline appears as you toggle the clicker around. i did this all straightforward -- just dragging the pix into each title menu and naming the buttons with text -- no esoteric techniques like button building or whatever were used. hopefully its something elementary that im missing. thoughts? thanks in advance.

[galactica]

are you dragging the picture to the Sizzle window itself, or are you using the dropbox like you should for the menu backgrounds!!!!!!!!!

[brett]

drop box!

weird. the background pics are properly displayed all in the corresponding .vobs -- but don't show on dvdplayer! -- i have a new theory that my .ac3s are too long (they cut off when playing over my black windows) -- will check back

[galactica]

when you say for corresponding .vobs you mean for each title set right?!

i have never had a problem with the background pics thats why I am all confused

[brett]

right -- i have 3 titles, plus a main menu, each with 1 picture. there is a proper picture of each of these menus (plus text buttons) in a .vob. (you know, the 0 vob for sets 0 thru 3 -- these menu vobs are about 750kb each)

but neither picture nor button shows on dvdplayer -- its black -- but the button outlines "highlight" (but still no text) when you pass over where they are with the mouse.

the .ac3 plays over the black background

[galactica]

thats messed up!
i must have done close to 50 sizzle dvd's so far... never have I experienced this.

have you contacted Henry on this one?!

[bullitB]

There is something undeniably funky with Sizzle DVDs and DVD Player 4.0 (in OS X 10.3). The menu background never ever show up. I don't get it. I'm working on it.

[brett]

thanks for the heads-up! i will burn it and see what comes . . . .

btw, as a longtime capty user (because it doesnt reencode video) i am loving this first try with sizzle (because it also doesnt reencode audio). the only thing i miss is preview mode, but that's where i am -- saving images until it's right. looks right enough so we'll see.

[galactica]

There is something undeniably funky with Sizzle DVDs and DVD Player 4.0 (in OS X 10.3). The menu background never ever show up. I don't get it. I'm working on it.

really?!?!!
they work for me.

likewise VLC plays the VIDEO_TS folder with no problems and I can see the menu there as well.

strange.

[brett]

all the menus do appear properly and work properly in vlc -- cool. thanks, g!

but they do not work for me (10.3) in dvd player (except for the music and live button outline) -- like bullit said.

ot: in capty, there is no restriction on the length of the menu background sound you can use, and i have done dozens of discs with 4 and 5 minute songs as menu background sounds with no problems in commercial dvd players.

in sizzle, i can place a full song (.mp2 @ 192k) in the background song dropbox, but when i create my disc the songs are truncated to about 30 seconds. i note the 0 - level vobs for each title set are about 750k. is that a sizzle limitation? is the limitation based on filesize or song length in seconds? (if it is limited by filesize, i can reencode my songs @128k to squeeze some more length in seconds out of them.)

[EDIT -- i am now sure this is a length in seconds limit and not a filesize limit, as all the menu vobs are 30 seconds long and when i increase the bitrate of my menu sound background .mp2 the filesize goes up.]

also, can i "loop" the song (i.e., automatically restart the menu at the song's conclusion)? that is another nice capty feature.

there are other benefits besides not reencoding the audio to sizzle over capty i forgot to mention -- capty has total .mpg filesize limit of about 3.7g or so, while sizzle doesn't. also, in order to save your work in capty after you have built and burnt a disc, you have to keep the .mpgs it renders on hand, which is redundant and very space-consuming if you, like me, want to keep your original .mpgs on hd. thus, you need a bit more than double the space to keep both your own .mpg and your work in capty. your work in sizzle lives on with just your original .mpgs and a small .sizzle file. very nice.