Please help !!! I am building a Buck Rogers set of DVD's and need to learn

[RBCC]

Hello all,

I am building a "Buck Rogers Set of DVD-DLs , and would like to have menus that have a way to tell the viewer to put in the DVD that the proper episode is on. Now how do I make a still screen that informs what DVD DL to put in and what software Package can I use ? Photoshop? Paint Shop Pro? Paint? Also what software will author this so I can put it together in the right sequence? Using menus? John

[jagabo]

Make a sub menu or video that tells them which disc to go to. Any image editor that produces images acceptable by the authoring software should be fine.

[filmboss80]

Both the Gil Gerard TV series and the old Buster Crabbe serials are available on DVD through vendors like Amazon for very cheap prices. The amount of time and effort required to do what you're proposing to do makes no sense when the product is already out there for a few measly bucks.

[RBCC]

Besides buying the DVDs. Can you please help me by giving suggestions for easy to software with clickable links for episode selections, jpgs for menu backgrounds and DVD graphics after they put in DVD 2,3,ECT. And displays the menu on that disk and then plays the choosen episode. John

[yoda313]

avstodvd is freeware with menu creation options. Though you'd have to import your pictures or videos into it (but it does have stock templates to an extent, but nothing special)

To be frank I haven't made extravagant menus in avstodvd so I don't know how robust its menu system is.

But the rest of it is pretty feature rich especially considering its freeware.

[manono]

Hello all,

I am building a "Buck Rogers Set of DVD-DLs , and would like to have menus that have a way to tell the viewer to put in the DVD that the proper episode is on. Now how do I make a still screen that informs what DVD DL to put in and what software Package can I use ? Photoshop? Paint Shop Pro? Paint? Also what software will author this so I can put it together in the right sequence? Using menus? John

I'm not entirely sure of the question. Are you asking for a screen to play before going to the menu whenever one of the DVDs is put on that just gives a list of episodes and which DVD they're on?

If so then PGCEdit is one way to accomplish this once you've made the various DVDs.

First make a BMP (not a JPG) with the text you want at 720x480 and open it in Muxman to make a small DVD of it. You may or may not add audio.

Then open the DVD in PGCEdit and go Title->Import First-Play (startup) Clip. In the new screen tell it how long you want the picture to play and then point it to the little DVD you made of it. Then save the DVD.

If you added audio then hit 'Don't pause, it's an animated clip' and its length will be defined by the length of the audio.

Can you please help me by giving suggestions for easy to software with clickable links for episode selections, jpgs for menu backgrounds and DVD graphics after they put in DVD 2,3,ECT. And displays the menu on that disk and then plays the choosen episode.

Most authoring programs do that. I use DVDAuthorGUI. Make the text screens the way you like then with episode names. Make 720x480 BMPs (taking into account whether you want them 4:3 or 16:9). For use in DVDAuthorGUI open the BMPs in Menu->Create M2V Still and it'll make M2Vs of them for use as menu backgrounds. Then use those, with or without audio, when creating the menus and adding buttons and other menu commands.

[videobruger]

Like manono I'm not sure what you want.

But if it's something like have a common set of menus for all your DVDs and in case the selected episode is on another disc then instead of playing that episode when selected through the menus a JPG picture is shown with info on which DVD to use then DVDStyler can be used.

But perhaps more info ..

[yoda313]

Maybe the poster wants the season pass feature found on blurays.

I just discovered this on my LOST season 5 set I have on bluray (my first tv set on bluray).

it shows a list of discs and the episodes on those discs. You select the show you want and then it tells you to insert that disc to start just that show automatically once the disc is inserted, though automatically still includes the fbi warning screens and what-not.

Obviously for a dvd set if you set up something similar it won't auto start that epsiode upon inserting the appropriate disc.

Perhaps that is what the poster is after?

Edit - fyi its just a text list you scroll through, not a fancy menu or anything, at least on the lost set, it might be different for other tv shows on bluray. Like I said this is my first and only tv show on bluray.

Scratch that first and only live action set on bluray, I do have two or three anime sets on bluray but they don't have this feature.

[RBCC]

fyi: I'm looking for a way on DVD disk set to click on the appropriate episode then it asks you to put in DVD 2. When u put in DVD 2 then it goes to that episode and plays it . Can I do this? John

[jman98]

fyi: I'm looking for a way on DVD disk set to click on the appropriate episode then it asks you to put in DVD 2.

This should be possible.

When u put in DVD 2 then it goes to that episode and plays it . Can I do this? John

I don't think this is possible. This is only possible on BluRay.

[jagabo]

When u put in DVD 2 then it goes to that episode and plays it . Can I do this? John

I don't think this is possible. This is only possible on BluRay.

It's possible but probably not in the way the OP wants. You can have a single title on a DVD that auto plays. That means each episode would have to be on a separate disc.

[manono]

It's possible but probably not in the way the OP wants.

Not to mention that the whole idea makes no sense at all to begin with (to me, anyway). Click on an episode (thinking you're going to be shown that episode) only to be told it's on a different DVD?

What's the point of making it clickable and then be told you're not going to watch it? It makes more sense just to be shown a list of the episodes and the disc they're on.

I suppose that idea is teamed with the other one of putting in that DVD and then playing that episode straight off, something that can't be done with DVD (except by using your 1-episode-per-disc idea). I think the problem is usually handled in a boxset by listing the episodes on the outside or in an included booklet, along with the DVDs they're on. You could do that easily enough - print up a sheet of paper to be included with the set of DVDs listing the DVD where each episode is found.

[RBCC]

I think I might have been misinterpreted, I will have 2 disks with multiple episodes. The first one will have up to 10 and the second will have the rest.
I just want a menu item to say "insert second disk " or have a menu item that had the episode on the second disk and will play the menu off of the second disk.

[smrpix]

As long as you're not trying to do an auto play to a specific episode -- which you really can't, you had your answer back at post #2. Just make a menu for each disk that clearly states episodes on this disk, episode on other disk , however you wish to word it. Then make links on each menu to the episodes on that particular disk.

[jagabo]

Why bother having what looks like an episode lead to another menu that tells you the episode is on a different disc? Just put a message at the bottom of the main menu that says "episodes M-N on disc 2". You don't even need that since there are only two discs. If you don't see the episodes on disc 1 it's obvious they're on disc 2.