Enable remote to select mpeg stills inside a menu choice

[Metallo]

Hi,

I have burned a VCD with 600 mpeg still images, using a menu with 8 different selection.
Every selection, of course, does not contain more than 99 pictures.

Say that for instance the interactive keys in the menu are:

Choice 1 = 93 pictures
Choice 2 = 90
Choice 3 = 88
Choice 4 = 99

etc.

The point is that I have the need to select the pitcure in each choice
For instance, if I look at choice three, picture no. 2, my standalone DVD player will display on its text screen 185, suppose that I want to watch a picture that I know is more or less at the end of choice 3, it would be nice to be able to select with the remore, say, picture no. 250.
This is in order to avoid waiting the whole choice no 3 to scroll before getting to the picture I want to see.
How can I achive this?

Hope this is clear and you can give me a solution.

Alex

[Metallo]

Again...

Anybody who can give me an explanation on how to manage this?

Thanks
Alex

[Cornucopia]

I might be able to help you more, except I don't know enough about your problem, how you're encoding (Mpeg Slideshow video vs. Mpeg user-advanceable stills) and what softwares you're using. Also, I don't know if your DVD player is displaying the (S)VCD/DVD slideshow, or JPEG slideshow. This difference determines what will be available with user-selectability.

Waiting your reply...
Scott

[Metallo]

Hi Scott,

Thanks for offering your help.

Well, I use VCDEasy (latest version) as software, so I imagine you know how it works.
I convert the JPEGs to MPEGs and then burn them to VCD using the same program.
My standalone DVD player reads the VCDs in MPEG format.

If you need more info, just let me know.

Thanks
Alex

[Cornucopia]

OK, that gives me something to go on.

For starters, since you're using VCDEasy, I'm assuming you've made each of the JPEGs a separate Hi-Rez MPEG Still (instead of combining the JPEGs from within a Video Editing app and creating a timed slideshow movie). This is good. Mind you, it won't easily have audio underneath.

You want A master Menu, and 8 submenus, and a series of advanceable stills within each menu.

What I'd do would be to reserve the 1st 10 # keys for your 9 menus (plus 1 blank), then make sure to keep only 89 photos or less in each submenu. This way, you can "customize" the numbering of each submenu. Here are some examples:

[Main Menu]
Submenu1 = Key #2
Submenu2 = Key #3
Submenu3 = Key #4
Submenu4 = Key #5
Submenu5 = Key #6
Submenu6 = Key #7
Submenu7 = Key #8
Submenu8 = Key #9

[Submenu5]
Main Menu = Key #1
Submenu1 = Key #2
Submenu2 = Key #3
Submenu3 = Key #4
Submenu4 = Key #5
Submenu6 = Key #7
Submenu7 = Key #8
Submenu8 = Key #9
Foto_5_01 = Key #11
Foto_5_02 = Key #12
Foto_5_03 = Key #13
Foto_5_04 = Key #14
...
Foto_5_89 = Key #99

[Submenu8]
Main Menu = Key #1
Submenu1 = Key #2
Submenu2 = Key #3
Submenu3 = Key #4
Submenu4 = Key #5
Submenu5 = Key #6
Submenu6 = Key #7
Submenu7 = Key #8
Foto_8_01 = Key #11
Foto_8_02 = Key #12
Foto_8_03 = Key #13
Foto_8_04 = Key #14
...
Foto_8_89 = Key #99

Using this method, you'll be able to go from Foto_8_04 to Foto_5_03 with only a couple of keystrokes:

[#Key6]+[Enter] takes you back to the Submenu5
[#Key13]+[Enter] takes you directly to Foto_5_03

This may not be exactly what you want, but it might give you ideas...plus you could change to linkage of the player action with the number keypress by changing the BSN #assignments.

HTH,
Scott

[Metallo]

Thanks Scott,

As soon as I find some time, I will try your suggestion.
Maybe, I will skip the submenu because in every choice of the main menu I have already indicated with a text what kind of pictures I am going to watch.
I just want the possibility to push one or two buttons on the remote control which take me to select pictures 1 - 99 in the choice where I am.

I will let you know the outcome, even if in this moment is still unclear how to put this into practice in VCDEasy, but should made up my mind once I am into the program.

Thanks again and take care.

Alex

[Metallo]

Scott,

Although I understand the mechanism, I have difficulty in putting this into practice with VCDEasy.
I have already a Menu with 8 submenus, I cannot understand how to assign keys to the submenus in VCDEasy interactive page.

Maybe you can be a bit more specific?

Thank you
Alex

[Cornucopia]

On the Interactivity page, Lower-Right-Hand, is the numeric button assignments. They don't work at all until you check the box "Use Numeric Keys". They start in a default state and can't be changed until you check the box "Overwrite the default assignment". Then each line has a dropdown box that you can use to get to its intended target.

HTH,
Scott

[Metallo]

Hi Scott,

I know VCDEasy quite well, but maybe my question was badly formulated.

If I want to assign a key to 600 pictures, shall I do this one by one?
The drop down list allows you only one per time, if I have 80 pictures per menu, I hope I can do this automatically in some way...

Thank you
Alex

[Cornucopia]

AFAIK, there is no automatic solution for that that either makes use of, supplements or takes the place of VCDEasy/VCDImager. Sorry.

Scott

[spyhawk]

Metallo,

I think I might understand your intention. Do you mean that in a group of pictures in a submenu, that whatever picture you chose to view, you want to go back to the same submenu for selecting another picture or go back to the main menu? If it is, there's a "..." button next to each scroll down list, in which you can customize a group of items to perform the same event.

Or if I understand you correctly, do you mean you want vcdeasy to automatically assign a different key (1-80) for a group of 80 pictures in a submenu? Yes, the way to do that is use the drop down list for every picture. I don't think VCDEasy would know what pictures you want it to assign automatically, except if it is a sequence. I know that in a sequence with many chapters (entry points), it will automatically assign a key.

There are many possibilities what you can do in Interactivity Page. Other than that, you may have to manually edit the xml file.

[Metallo]

Hi,

OK, I have given up to this functionality but there are still two questions I have, hopefully simpler:

1) I have two main menus, the 1st one has got 8 choices, the 2nd only 1 so far, the outstanding 7 will be populated in the time.
When I had only the 1st main menu with the 8 choices, just giving "wait time infinite" and the game was done.
Now, I want to give the possibility to the user to realize that there's a 2nd main menu, just by clicking NEXT on the DVD remote control and in fact it is there. The only problem it doensn't have the "wait infinite" as the 1st menu, even if I set it up to do so, I know I can force this in the XML but first I wanted to be confirmed this is the right way to do.
In practice, this is nothing else than a second page, the 1st one goes from 1 to 8 choices, the 2nd from 9 to 16, i put the CD in the DVD Player, push play and the first menu appears, I click next and the 2nd menu appears, but it stays only 4sec. and then the photos of the choice no 1 begin to show.

2) Everytime that I add the files, I get in the CD Files folder the corresponding "VCDEasy Analyze File", I have looked for the option to eliminate this but I cannot find it.
Do you know how to avoid it ?

Thank you!
Alex

[vitualis]

In practice, this is nothing else than a second page, the 1st one goes from 1 to 8 choices, the 2nd from 9 to 16, i put the CD in the DVD Player, push play and the first menu appears, I click next and the 2nd menu appears, but it stays only 4sec. and then the photos of the choice no 1 begin to show.

Did you set the second menu to wait = -1 (indefinitely)

It doesn't sound like it.

If you post the XML file, I can tell you for sure and what to fix.

As for your original question, there is still no good tool for automating the creation of "photo" type S/VCDs in terms of automatic creation of the menu-submenus with logical key arrangement.

I personally don't quite understand what you were asking for... which probably means that you are trying to do something in a way different (though probably valid) from how I make my photo VCDs. In any case, my opinion that photo VCDs are still best created by manually authoring the XML file. This is as you can do batch copying of the XML script and then use some creative find/replace methods to quickly make the script you want.

Regards.

[Metallo]

Hi Michael,

Thanks for your comments.

Well, what I am trying to do is to give a full functionality to the VCD.
In the time, the number of still pictures in my VCD is growing and I got to 700, therefore I can no longer manage them in one single main menu page (otherwise the icons -8- are too small to be watched on a TV screen), I now need a copy of the second page to continue giving the possibility to make choices (from 9 to 16).
Because there are 2 menu pages, I entered the 1st (interactivity page)and pressed wait infinite, then I clicked the button on the right and selected the 2nd menu page to give the same functionality, or this is not the way?
Even if I am going to correct this in XML, I would appreciate if you let me know whether this is the right way or not.

If you know a better alternative to give the user a way to select 700 stills spread over 9 choices, please let me know.

As far as the original question is concerned, is difficult to explain it in a different way, but when you have 700 pictures and you press, say, choice 6 which may include 90 of them, I would like to have the possibility to say: well, I remember there's a nice picture towards the end of this selection but in order to discover which one is it, I have to wait that the pictures scroll one by one, and this takes quite a long time with a 4 sec. waiting time, while pushing next on the remote is not that handy.
What I'd like is: well, there are 90 pictures in this choice, the photo I want to see is towards the end of this selection, therefore, if I press 72 on the DVD remote control, I may be lucky I get straight to that picture, if not, at least very close to it and maybe pressing previous or next I get it.

I hope it is now clearer, otherwise I really don't know how to explain differently.

Thanks for your "always good and very welcome" suggestions.

Alex

[spyhawk]

ok, I think I understand your intention.

First, for the picture to be still (waiting infinitely), you must set wait=-1. Same as the first main menu.

Second, what version of VCDEasy do you use to create mpeg still picture? I find that v1.1.5 still does not create the correct picture, even 4% TV cropping. It displays fine on WinDVD, but on TV, it stretches the picture horizontally tremendously. So I still use the old version 1.1.2 to create the still. Anyway, this is a different topic to be discussed in a different thread.

Finally, onto your topic:
Since you have 700 stills, 9 menu choices look very crowded ~ 77-78 stills. Would you be able to fit 77 choices on one menu? The text must be very small. Well, it depends on how big your TV or your monitor is - can you see it? I wouldn't put picture icon as part of selection because this require extensive editing - probably take you days unless you have nothing else to do.

For simplistic illustration, let's say you have 10 menu choices, each includes 70 picture choices. Here's comes the strategy, I can think of 2 ways:

Plan One (3-tier model):
--------
Main Menu (contains 10 submenus)
Submenu(1-70) Submenu(1-70) ---> Submenu(1-70)
Pictures(1-700)

Plan Two (2-tier model) skip the Main Menu:
--------
Submenu(1-70) Submenu(1-70) .... Submenu(1-70)
Pictures(1-700)

I would group the pictures into different categories, ending in 2 digits. eg, Vacation_1_01 .. Vacation_1_70, Birthday_2_01 .. Birthday_2_70, Birthday_3_01... etc (Name_<submenu#>_<Picture#>. Each category belongs to a particular submenu. More than one category can be in a submenu if you don't have enough pictures, or can span across another submenu, so long you remember your choices. Note that the maximum number of keys you can press on the remote is 99, but I would name the file sequence up to 70, for this example, so I remember what submenu this category belongs to.

Using VCDEasy would be too much to do here, but you can use it as a start, then you can edit the xml file for the rest. I personally prefer Plan One is that I can almost jump right to the middle of the pictures, say Picture #500. At Main Menu, press 8 to go to submenu #8, then press 10 to see Picture #500. Now how do I know? Simple formula (but there are several methods in calculating):
Submenu # = 500/70 = 7.14 If fractional, use 7 + 1 = 8
Picture # = 500 - 7x70 = 10

In VCDEasy as a start, I would choose a group of 2 pictures (or even 1) for each submenu. After you finish defining the navigation for the Main Menu, all submenus, and each pictures, edit the xml by copy/paste/replace, changing the name and sequence #, etc, whatever you need to do. If you have colorful editor, it would help you a lot. I use UltraEdit - great tool!

Hope this helps. Good luck.

[vitualis]

As per the above post.

Metallo, if you have that many still pictures, I think that you will have to go beyond just having 9 main menus with all the pictures (if that is what you are doing).

I strongly suggest a menu - multilevel submenu type schema...

For example, the menu schema might work like:

"My Holiday"
(1) Location 1
|- Day 1
| |- Page 1 of n
| |- Page 2 of n ... etc.
|- Day 2
|- Day 3
(2) Location 2
|- etc.
(3) Location 3
(4) Location 4

I would doubt very much you would need more than 3 levels of menus...

Regards.