need to swap images in and out via button states in DVD Studio Pro 4

[theMonseignuer]

Hi,

Here's my dilemma.

I'm trying to make a button that plays a looping video clip when it is selected. I know that DVDSP4 is not capable of doing this in a traditional way. I'm trying to work around this limitation like so...

I have 5 buttons on a menu... each button must play a looping animation when selected

1. I created a video that shows a background and all five buttons in their selected states (looping). I set this video as the menu background.

2. Then I placde a button that contains a static image over the selected (looping) areas.

3. What I want is when the button is selected (rolled over) the static image disappears (thus revealing the underlying looping video area in the background.)

SO my question is... how do I get the static image in the button to dissapear when I roll over it and reappear when I roll out?

P.S. I'm using DVD Studio Creator 4, but would be interested in solutions that involve other DVD authoring tools.

[guns1inger]

Short answer is that you cant' The DVD specification doesn't allow for it.

Long answer is that you have to fake it using a trick called switched menus. This entails creating a new menu for each state - in your example you will need one menu for each looping video button - the using auto-activation to move from menu to menu as you move the button around. This also results in a short pause as the menu asset loads each time. You don't get it seamless, but if you look at commercial DVDs, neither do they.

Although this uses DVD Lab Pro, it explains the principals behind switched menus quite well : http://www.mediachance.com/dvdlab/tutorial/switchmenu.html

[theMonseignuer]

I was afraid of that... Thanks for the reply.