DVDMaestro: intro clips that smoothly become menus - How ?

[arminio]

I need specific menu performance which is usuall on DVDs but I can't get it in DVDMaestro.

The thing is: I want to have intro clip which "slip" into menu - for example, when DVD starts, playback starts with clip with scenes from the movie and then clip invisible becomes menu - smoothly without any breaks we can select options that become active at end of intro clip. After we select options and go back to menu, intro clip will not be played again - only part with menu ...

Simmilar result can be achieved in DVD Maestro in MENU settings using LOOP option in PLAYBACK CONTROL - Intro clip and menu is one video stream in which I select point where menu starts after intro clip. After creating DVD, everything works fine - intro clip starts and then menu smoothly become active. But, every return on menu start intro clip again - instead to go to the LOOP point. Also, on some DVD Players, menu is not active at all (until entire clip finish and then player goes to the LOOP "menu point"). I have several original DVDs that has this feature which works well but I can't produce the same thing in DVD Maestro.
Only thing I can do is to split intro clip and menu clip when thing works fine (intro is played, menu after intro, going back to menu won't play intro again etc.) - but before player switch from intro to menu, there is annoying pause because there are two clips and not one with loop point...

How to achieve this without pause and have controled playback of intro and of menu part using DVD Maestro (if it is possible to do that in DVDMaestro at all) ?

[adam]

I can only tell you how it is done on commercial DVDs. There are two separate clips. The first clip contains both the intro and the looping part. The loop usually plays twice. Then the second clip contains just the looping part. So when the first clip plays all the way through, it jumps to the second clip and yes there will be a slight pause. Any jumps back to the main menu should be made to the looping part, and from there it should loop seamlessly.

There are many threads on this exact issue already. If you need more information just do a forum search.

[SLK001]

One thing that DVDMaestro cannot do (and which NTScenarist CAN do) is jump to cells inside of a menu - and this is what you need. When you set the LOOP position anywhere other than the start of the menu, a new CELL is created (required), but you cannot jump back into the menu at this CELL from the DVD. Been there, tried that.

What I do, is create two menus, one the entire menu, and the second one where I want to "jump back to". This works exactly like the original, but it also takes up valuable space on your DVD. The first one will play only once, and any "return" to that menu goes to the second - crude, but it works.

[arminio]

To adam:
>I can only tell you how it is done on commercial DVDs. There are two
>separate clips. The first clip contains both the intro and the looping part.
>The loop usually plays twice. Then the second clip contains just the
>looping part. So when the first clip plays all the way through, it jumps to
>the second clip and yes there will be a slight pause. Any jumps back to

I have commercial DVD with this type of menu where are no any pauses between intro and menu ...
Also, I don't understand why need to play loop twice ...
I searched forum but without success (it is hard to select keywords for this topic )

to SLK001:

>jump to cells inside of a menu - and this is what you need. When you set
>the LOOP position anywhere other than the start of the menu, a new
>CELL is created (required), but you cannot jump back into the menu at
>this CELL from the DVD. Been there, tried that.

Will this start menu in LOOP ? On soem Cyberhome standalone models LOOP thing from Maestro doesn't work (menu is not started when it should start - at the beginning of loop) ...

[SLK001]

In Maestro, the LOOP sets the point where the SUBPICTURES are active, and where the menu will loop back to, if you set your end action to loop.

Can't address the inadequacies of certain DVD players.

[arminio]

>In Maestro, the LOOP sets the point where the SUBPICTURES are active,
>and where the menu will loop back to, if you set your end action to
>loop.

I know that ...

>Can't address the inadequacies of certain DVD players.

True
But, obviously that some other method or authoring tool can do this in a more compatible way than DVDMaestro loop thing ...

[adam]

arminio

Read my post again. There is no pause between the intro and menu part because they are the same clip. You don't have to have the looping part loop twice if you don't want to, but whenever the clip ends there WILL be a pause when it jumps somewhere else, so often you will see commercial DVDs extend the loop beyond the point most people would wait. If you sit and watch a commercial DVD long enough there will be a pause also. This point marks the end of the first clip and the beginning of the second.

I suggest you rip one of these commercial DVDs you are talking about to your hard drive and preview the menu vobs using dvd2avi. You will see a structure exactly as I stated. There is one long clip with the intro and at least one loop of the menu. Then there is a second clip with just the looping menu part.

As SLK001 mentioned it is possible, using the right authoring software, to just insert a new scene at the looping part and then just link back to this point. I have done this in my own projects, but sometimes Scenarist will not let you set this link to seamless, which means you still get the pause and that really defeats the whole purpose in my opinion. I'm not sure I have ever seen a commercial DVD authored in this manner either because I doubt all players would play this perfectly seamlessly. Menu's don't take up that much space and by following my method you only have to store the looping part one extra time.

[bacardi/avt]

I usually do it the way adam describes, but with a small differens....

I do the intro turning into a menu as one clip and set the loop point to the place in the clip where the buttons show up and I want them to be selectable, but (and this is the differens) I do NOT lopp the clip I just set it to timeout and set the timeout value to 0 sec. Then I set the action to do after menu has timed out to jump to the second clip just containing the menu that I loop indefinently. That way I have a menu that I can return to without playing the whole intro over again. I have also used this to create a number of menues that play in a specific order but with different parts of a music score, making it possible for me to return to a particullar menu that has music that "fit in" with the music in the sub-menu that the user just left. This way I can jump to the precisly the right point in the music score but still use the whole music score in the main menu (this might seam a bit confusing and pleas do not make me explain it in more detail since it is had without drawing a picture )

by the way I use DVDMaestro.

[adam]

bacardi/avt maybe I didn't explain it clearly but that is exactly the same method I am describing, and that is exactly how it is done on commercial DVDs.

[bacardi/avt]

@ adam: Sorry my mistake....I just did not understand what you meant with palying the loop twice....sorry

[adam]

Definitely no need to apologize. I agree, its difficult to explain these types of things without drawing a picture.

The extention of the loop in the first clip isn't necessary, it just helps to complete the effect. By having the first clip extend an extra loop, you are guaranteed that much time of continuous play. The jump to the actual looping part may or may not cause a noticable pause, but if you put it that far into the playback, most people will never have to see that transition anyway. That's how most commercial DVDs are.

[arminio]

Tnank you all!
I fully understand how to do that but problem with not highlighting button at start of loop on tested players forced me to use Scenarist.

Now I have some other problems with Scenarist ... but that's in another thread ...