Understand 1 gig menu limit, but have to exceed no choice?

[Trav]

I have been given a very well paid freelance job, I have to figure away around this problem. help!!

-The DVD is made in Encore
-Its a list of businesses (Yellow pages if you like)
-Menu pages listing businesses, business pages consist of text on right side describing business,
left side with video add of business, buttons below for "Menu" if Restaurant, and navigation.
-They want more then 200 businesses, should fit on 4.7gig (motion menu's for each business is 6mb each)

I had to use motion menus as there has to be text/ video and navigation on the same page (not my choice, they asked).
But i will reach 1 gig limit for menus, is this a problem?
I learned i might be able to make a large button showing preview of video and fake this as a video on left without making whole menu a motion menu, but i will have to make chapter markers to load in each business as i need more then 200, and 99 tracks is limit, though this does not seem to be working, how they wanted it.

Is there away around 1 gig limit for menu?
other software?
why is there a limit?
what will happen if i succeed it?

What will be the best approach to solve this problem, as this is not a movie disk but the whole disk will be menu's (sorta like a website with video on each business page)
Disk is meant to be played on DVD players for TV, not computers!

If you have an answer that solves my problem you will literally set my life up!! please help. I am so desperate, there is a time limit O_o

[DB83]

Just a quick thought.

If the 1 gig limit refers to the menu of one title and each dvd can have several titles, you should be able to author the disk in such a way that navigating to a new screen (and you will not get many motion images on one screen) actually loads a new title and its menu rather than the menu of the first title.

So, the first page you see is title1/menu1 which navigates to title1/menu2.... then once you appraoch the 1 gig limit you force navigation to title2/menu1 etc.....

[filmboss80]

Yes -- multiple titlesets, as DB83 alluded to. Organize menus into separate sets and subsets, taking each set to the maximum number of submenus allowed, then starting a new titleset. You can categorize each set alphabetically or by the type of service offered.

[aedipuss]

no you can't make the menu bigger than 1gb. it has to fit in video_ts.vob, and the size limit of a single vob is 1gb. what you probably need to use is an authoring tool that allows vmg menus and multiple vts menus each with 99 chapters. look into dvdlab pro.

[Trav]

Wow thats one Idea thats very interesting. I will look into that, at moment that gives me 3 possible solutions.
I have to work out which is better before my project gets so big it cant be done.

- Solution one been whats mentioned above ...... though have to see if it can be done.
- Two is having the video preview inside a large button..... bad cause I do not want it to be a button, and do not know if it adds to menu size or just links to video?
- three is putting buttons on top of video and faking it to be a menu..... would have to make each one a chapter since there is only 99 tracks allowed.

I wish i could stop time and try all these out though I have to decide whats best as do not have time.
Any idea's?

Thank you for your comments they are helping a lot, especially with my confidence i can get this done.

[Bjs]

Well yes, 99 VTST titles restriction applies but each can include a menu ... which is the solution... your video clips for each business will be used in separate cells within the menu structure itself rather than within the VTST title.

Each VTST title can contain I think from memory 255 chapters or cells ... 99 x 255 = 25245 cells.

Thumbnail video will affect overall size of each cell within the menu ... and dose not need to be used as a button if you do not want it to be... nor dose it affect functionality.

Some commercial products take thumbnail generation by default to be a "button" function but not all do.

Question here is the application being used and can, should this be an automated feature be disabled should it be required.

Note:

There may be a limit for VMG menu as to the video_ts.vob, however, vob's themselves by default are limited to 1 gig max ...you may have noticed some commercial dvd's such as avatar do not use VIDEO_TS.VOB to store menu related video objects... and of course we must include the fact that within VOB's is the "continuity" function between cells.

----

Your main issue will be how to "group" these business clips ... by "subject" or "type of" as you have 99 available choices.

Each VTST can simply be a "dummy" clip which is used to reroute vm commands back to the vgm menu which then routes to chosen VTST title menu required.

It'll be more interesting as to the use of vm commands to make it work according to requirements for the project.

-----

Example:

Clips from business types : IT, Banking, Wholesalers, Garages, ect (99 max)

All clips related to IT could be used within VTST 1 menu cells ... Banking for VTST 2 menu cells .. and so on

Dummy clip video is used for generation of all required VTST titles.

Work flow:

1: Author the first group (dummy video clip title + menu) to folder 1 on drive
2: Repeat process but next menu and output to folder 2
3: Repeat process

4: Use pgcedit to create a "new dvd" and place in a new folder
5: Import VTST title's one at a time (always chose copy)

If you need 72 titles, repeat this function, then save dvd.

6: Now right click on VTST 1 and chose the "import menu" funtion ... locate folder 1 for the first menu set ... and always use "copy function.

7: Perform same as for VTST 2 (remember its menu would be in folder 2).

8: Repeat this process till all VTST's include their individual menu's.

9: Save dvd.

10: You now have to make changes to vm commands used within menu's

This becomes complicated because of multiple menu's being used ... you may find one of my guides explain vm commands and how they work here .

When it comes down to using multiple menu's for each title it might be a good choice to pass returning navigational vm commands back to a dummy VMGM as individual menu's can only be link indirectly... for this I would use an individual VMGM dummy for each title.

[Noahtuck]

Understand 1 gig menu limit,

Evidently not, otherwise you would not say,

but have to exceed no choice?

In the same sentence!!

If it is not possible, it is not possible!!

That would be like me saying,
I understand there is no possible way to break the speed of light, but i have to, so how do i do it ?
LOL!!
Classic dictionary definition of an Oxymoron!!!