Maximum number of menus for a DVD?

[lquantum]

Can anybody tell me:

1. what is the maximum number of menus I can create on a DVD?
2. what is the maximum number of levels of menus I can create?
3. and what is the maximum number of items per menu?

I was not able to find any clear spec and the programs I used to author had their own limitations. I would like to know what's in the specs of the DVD format ...if anybody knows.

[nwo]

i use dvd workshop 2 so am going off that

1. 99

2. 99 Total

3. as many as you like.

Why would you have 99 menus

[petar]

There's no limitation as such on number of menus on a DVD. Menus go in cells. There can be up to 255 cells per VOB ID and up to 65535 VOB IDs. It's safe to say that you can have more menus than you can fit on a disc (even DL). That's as far as the DVD standard is concerned. Some authoring tools may have a limit due to their design.
This goes both for question 1 and 2. As for question 3, if you mean buttons, it's 36.

[cona812]

Petar said:
3, if you mean buttons, it's 36.

If you have 16:9 you may have more then 1 highlightstream, one for each displaymode. The number of 36 items max is the sum over all streams.

Cona

[lquantum]

Guys thanks for information

Why a lot of menus and a lot of items / menu? Here is what I want to do:

I want to compile a DVD with lessons (small MPEG animations and I would like to run them based on a selection from a hierarchic menu (around 4 levels). The problem I have is that I have around 400 hundred MPEGs and I would like to be able to select any of them and run.

The best I was able to do is to have 99 MPEGS with max 99 chapters/MPEG (more than enough in term of accessing if I merge my MPEGs in a smaller number of files) the problem with chapters is that I cannot return to the menu when a chapter was played. And using just 99 independent sequences (that will allow me to return to the menu) is simply not enough for me.

[petar]

Let's see if I understand. You don't need a great deal of menus, just like a dozen that can access around 400 videos, right?

Well, I'd imagine most tools in the lower price range will probably have a problem with this, but have you tried DVD-Lab Pro? According to their web site it supports 99 titles per VTS and 99 VTSs (which is the DVD max).

[cona812]

Well, I'd imagine most tools in the lower price range will probably have a problem with this, but have you tried DVD-Lab Pro? According to their web site it supports 99 titles per VTS and 99 VTSs (which is the DVD max).

Should be a bit complex, you will need VMG menus for this solution and you will have problems if you want to jump to the next mpg with the "next" button on your remote (you have to go over VTS and VMG dummies).
Complex but possible with DVDLab Pro.

About the items: 400 mpgs in a dozen menus with links to the next and previous menu are 35 links min. per menu. If your footage is 16:9 you will need much more menus (if the mpgs are 16:9 you don't need to make the menus in 16:9 too).

have fun with your project looks like much work

Cona

[petar]

Should be a bit complex, you will need VMG menus for this solution and you will have problems if you want to jump to the next mpg with the "next" button on your remote (you have to go over VTS and VMG dummies).

This feature (if supported by the player) uses the titles table in the VMG so it doesn't really matter if you have all the titles in the same VTS or each one in a separate one. The VMG uses an absolute reference for the titles, i.e. if you have titles 1 to 5 in VTS 1 and 1 to 4 in VTS 2, the VMG references 9 titles (1 to 9) and you can jump between them with the next/previous buttons without the need for dummy PGCs. So he basically needs 400 buttons (in about a dozen VMG menus) and a JumpTT command from 1 to 400 for each button respectively. A lot of work but shouldn't be too complex.

[cona812]

My Standalone jumps between programs and not between titles when pressing next or previous. I thought this is the standard.

[petar]

Yes it is. But most players can also jump to the next (or previous) title when playing the last (or first) program of the last (or first) PGC. That's what I thought you meant with your previous post since lquantum doesn't want to put his mpegs in the same PGC as different programs. He wants to go back to the menu after each is done playing. Though this can also be done with cell commands, I can't imagine he's got an authoring tool that can do this, otherwise he wouldn't be asking this question.

[handyguy]

Hmm, on my panasonic e30 recorder you can create a play list which is similar to a menu of about 1000 items I think. I'd have to recheck that manual.