Motion menu transition, and seamless main menu intro.

[donhieu2003]

HI, I have been using DVDMaestro for a long time. I am a wedding videographer and dvd is my core. I ran across several questionable concerns regarding how to make DVD menu intros that takes you into a motion menu seamlessly.
I notice alot of Hollywood DVD movies have a seamless transition between a Menu introduction and the Main Menu. I makes all the difference to me. How do they do it I don't know. Maybe they use Scenarist.
In DVDMaestro, there is an option to delay the appearing of subpicture in a menu. That is to set the loop/highlight to a point that you want the subpicture to appear.
BUT! the problem is WHEN YOU GO BACK FROM ANOTHER MENU TO THAT MENU, it takes you all the way to the begining, but Not at the point that you had set the subpicture to appear in that menu.
IT IS ONE OF DVDMAESTRO's BIG DESIGNING FLAWS. That is there is no way to link to a point WITHIN a motion menu. You can only link to the begining in a MOTION MENU.
I think I've lost some brain cells trying to figure out, but could not. IF somebody knows, please help me out.
Please don't tell me to split the menu introduction and menu into two separate videos, becasue there is that PAUSE.
And the BUTTON OVER VIDEO METHOD is inappropriate, because DVD players will recognize the menu NOT AS MENU, but as a VIDEO STREAM, which gives rise to more problems.

[adam]

In most authoring software it is possible to insert a chapter point so that you can jump just to the looping part of the motion menu after having watched the intro the first time. I would think Maestro would have this option, but there is a very easy workaround and it is actually the method that pretty much all commercial DVDs use....use two menus. Have one clip with the intro + looping part, and then when this clip finishes have it link to another clip with just the looping part. Then when you want to jump back to the main menu you just jump to this looping part. Rip some commercial DVDs and preview the vobs in dvd2avi. You will see that the looping part is stored twice.

[freestyler]

BUT! the problem is WHEN YOU GO BACK FROM ANOTHER MENU TO THAT MENU, it takes you all the way to the begining, but Not at the point that you had set the subpicture to appear in that menu. the begining in a MOTION MENU.

Not a design flaw, an authoring flaw on your part. Thats how it is and how its always been. You have to make TWO separate menus, there will always be a pause. Make it so that the first menu is played only once, and after a piece of video is viewed/selected, the user is sent back to the second version of your menu to further navigate. That's how I do it on maestro and dvdsp2.

Come up with a flowchart for your project and it should make more sense, thats the only logical way for you to do it - there's no way to put any type of chapter point in a menu in dvd maestro.

[donhieu2003]

I understand completely how to use two clips, one is an intro and the other is a menu, and then link them appropriately.

But I have been noticing alot of Commercial DVDs, recently Saving Private Ryan (there are others things in THIS DVD that fascinate me, like seamless music through multiple different menus), that the intro and the main menu are recognized by the DVD player as ONE MENU. Maybe they used a different DVD authoring software out there that is unknown.

I mean linking to a point within a Menu seems SIMPLE. I am shocked that DVDMAESTRO does not include this option. It has everything but this. I mean WHY LET YOU DEFINE A SUBPICTURE HIGHLIGHT STARTING POINT AND LOOPING POINT, but NOT let you link to THAT POINT.
It is CLEARLY a design flaws, I can argue.
I am a perfectionist, and I admit that I can be very picky sometimes.
Thanks for the response

[donhieu2003]

I THINK I FOUND THE SOLUTION TO THIS PROBLEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THanks you so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Please response and let me know what you think.

You have to make TWO menus.
FOr the first menu, set the loop point and subpicture highlight point. Set all navigations and buttion links. LET this menu to be the MAIN MENU that will be encountered FIRST when put the disc into the player.

FOr the second menu, make this one only the loop part, the same video content in the loop part of the first menu, and with the same navigation and button links. Let this be the Main menu that will be linked back to by other submenus.

THERE YOU GO, THE PAUSE IS GONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!
The down side is that you have to have TWO MENUS with the same loop point. BUT THE FIRST have an introduction.

Thanks again,
This forum is great.

[adam]

Isn't that exactly what we told you to do from the beginning? Like I said, this is how it is done on most commercial DVDs.