dvd menus

[whitedawg]

can someone help me...

ok this is what i want to do. i want to have a main menu where u can choose to play all clip[s or to choose them from a selection. then when u go to choose clips there is a list of clips then when u clik on one then you are able to see a synopsis and a couple thumbnails then u will b able to press go back or play episode. i have seen this done on a dvdr before but i was wondering if anyone knows how to do that

[housepig]

the question is, do you want the viewer to return to the main menu after you play an episode?

To do what you are suggesting, let's say I have 3 movie clips, A, B & C.

I put the disc in, and I have a menu with 4 options - A, B, C or Play All.

If I press A, I go to another menu with a description, a thumbnail or two, and 2 buttons, one to play and one to go back to the main menu. This also happens for B or C.

If I press Play All, the movies play in sequence.

This is not hard to do - in DVD Lab you can connect the end action of movie A to the beginning of movie B (the default would be for movie A to revert to the main menu after it ends). You do the same from B to C.

You create pre-movie menus for A, B & C with the description, thumbnails, etc. and connect them to the appropriate buttons on the main menu.

The only thing I don't know if there's a way to do is set up a Play All button, but have the movies revert to the main menu after playing as well. (Like movie A ends, movie B begins ONLY IF you've pressed "Play All", otherwise it goes to the main menu)

But all the stuff you've got is pretty easy to set up - what authoring prog are you using?

[whitedawg]

no...thats not really what i ment...cus i have like 10 dtv episodes, then i want there to be 2 options 1.play all episodes 2. choose episode then when u go to choose episode there will be a list of the 10 episode then when u clik 1 the synopsis and thumbnails come up and there is a back/play option

[housepig]

okay, I must be missing something.

you have a first menu, which allows you to choose to play all, or select from an episode list.

If you select the episode list, it brings up another menu that lists the episodes. When you select the episode you want, it brings up a menu for that episode, which has a description, thumbnails, and two choices - play the episode, or go back to main menu.

Am I correct so far?

If that is what you want, like I said, it's really easy to do in DVD Lab. If you have 10 episodes, you're going to have to make 12 menus - 1 main, 1 episode list, and 1 menu for each episode with the thumbnails and descriptions. All you have to do then is connect the right buttons to the right episodes, and daisy chain the episodes together so that when one finishes, the next one starts.

So what am I missing?

[rsuave5]

see the dvdit how to to the left very easy

[whitedawg]

i have 4.3 gb worth of video on 11 episodes...every time i do that u say...it allways says i have 6.9gb why is that?

[housepig]

i have 4.3 gb worth of video on 11 episodes...every time i do that u say...it allways says i have 6.9gb why is that?

are you using authoring software that reencodes your audio, perhaps?

or is doing some other reencoding while your back is turned? Are your files not only dvd-compliant, but acceptable to the authoring software you are using?

have you even said what authoring software you're working with?

[whitedawg]

im using dvdit pro...and they are mpeg2 videos that are about 400 megs each...i dont have any idea what its doing...im so confused

[housepig]

check to make sure that DVD-IT is not converting your mpeg audio to PCM, if it is it's going to bloat the files considerably.

If there is not an option to accept files without reconverting, you might want to switch to a different authoring software - DVD Lab is great.

I don't know if that's the case, but I do know that ReelDVD from Sonic is super-picky about importing files... I have tons of stuff that is 100% compliant with the dvd spec, doesn't matter - Sonic doesn't like them.