Tmpg Dvd Author Chapter/Menu questions

[csaag]

I followed a guide here (How to author & burn a DVD with TmpgEnc DVD Author) Everything went smooth. I had a m2v video file and an ac3 audio file. I had one track & I selected several chapter points (by pressing the 'Add current fram to chapter' button) & hit 'OK' when I was done. I then picked one of the predefined menu templates, had all the boxes next to the chapter points checked so they would all display.

Created the output, which put 3 vob files, 2 IFO's, 2 BU's & a video_ts file all in the VIDEO_TS folder. The AUDIO_TS folder was empty.

I brought up PowerDVD, put it in file mode & hit play -which brought up a box where I had to select files. I selected all the files in the Video_TS folder & hit the play button.

Instead of sitting at the main menu page, it briefly displayed the menu page, then the chapters page, then started pplaying the video (which played fine for sound & video)

Why did it blow right thru the menu/chapter pages?

[csaag]

Should have added that I have 'main & track menu' selected and
FirstPlay option is displa main menu and go to next track after rack finishes. (I assume track means a video file that I include).

[BobK]

Trying bringing up PowerDVD and select 'Open DVD File on Hard Disk Drive'. Then select the VIDEO_TS folder (or, depending on which version of PowerDVD you may have to select the Video_TS.IFO file).

The File mode is for video files- mpg, avi, etc. It's not for DVD files.

[csaag]

Thanks, but for the life of me I can't find that option. I've looked thru all the available buttons & help topics, ut all I can find is file mode.
This is PowerDvd V3.0

[thor300]

Im quite sure powerdvd 3 can open DVD file on harddisk. Bring up PowerDVD, press Ctrl O and a small menu will pop up and one option should be open dvd from harddisk. I have to check this later in my brothers PC to be sure, but give Ctrl O a try.

[flaninacupboard]

or try to drag and drop the video_ts.ifo file into powerDVD.

[csaag]

That's a negative Houston.

<CTRL> O didn't do anything, neither did dropping the ifo file onto PowerDvd.

Not that I are it doesn't work on PowerDvd but I'm worried that it won't work when I burn the disc. And of course if that's the case then I want to figure out how to do it the right way.

[thor300]

The method you used, selecting all the files in PowerDVD and play them. Thats a file play, not DVD play, it will not be like that on the final DVD played in a DVD player or in PowerDVD from the burned DVD. Still you should be able to to open DVD files on the harddisk, a good way to check before burning.
What you should do then is to make an ISO image, mount it in Daemontools and then open the daemontools virtual drive in PowerDVD to test your menus.

[csaag]

OK - who sees this question coming?

What's a tool to make an ISO file from?

thanks for the help (to all)

[thor300]

imgtools is free and good. DVD Shrink can also make images, but is not so reliable with home authored DVDs.

[csaag]

Asgards blessings my man!
That worked great. It actually showed a problem - the menu I made in Dvd Author had 8 chapters but there's only room for 6 on the screen so I have to figure out how to reach the other two.

I also have a question into PowerDVD tech support about playing dvd from the video_s folder. If they give mea working answer I'll post it here.

anyone know about getting all my chapters display when it's too many to fit on the screen? There's something that looks like a slider at the bottom, but it says 1/1 (I would think it should say 1/2)

[seb]

In the Create Menu stage, click Edit Menu Theme button. If you're using one of the presets then it'll ask you to create and Edit New Theme. Click Yes.

In the Create New Theme dialog that appears, you get much more choice about how to lay out your main and chapter menus.

With 8 chapters, If you choose Layout 8 (#1, #2 or #3) for Layout of the Track Menu, you'll get all 8 of those chapters selectable from a single screen.

[csaag]

Thanks! That worked fine.