menus cycle through, then stop

[twalk]

I'm trying to get 2 mpegs onto 1 dvd with chapter marks. This has a high level menu with 2 selections (each mpeg), which go down to a chapter mark menu for each.

I've tried both Nerovision and MF3, and the same thing happens in both. When you do the menu prevue in these programs, everything works fine. When you run it externally (PowerDVD & VLC), the top menu appears, to be quickly replaced by the 1st movie's chapter mark menus, then quickly replaced by the 2nd movie's chapter mark menus, then it stops, just as if you hit the stop button.

I've tried every option combination I could find in both NV & MF3, to no effect.

My machine has on it:
Nero OEM
Nerovision
MF3
Virtualdub
DVD Shrink
DVD Decrypter
PowerDVD
VLC
autogk

Anyone?

[GeorgeW]

What file are you opening in PowerDVD? Don't just try to play a *.vob file in the VIDEO_TS folder.

Instead, hit CTL+O, then choose "Open DVD FIle on Hard Disk Drive" Then browse to your VIDEO_TS folder, and select the VIDEO_TS.IFO file

[jimmalenko]

TMPGEnc DVD Author can do what you wish on its ear. It has a 30 day, fully-functional free trial, and is probably the most user-friendly authoring software around. All you need to do is add each MPEG in it's own track so each can have a chapter selection menu, then you set your main menu to offer a selection between these track menus.

[twalk]

What file are you opening in PowerDVD? Don't just try to play a *.vob file in the VIDEO_TS folder.

Instead, hit CTL+O, then choose "Open DVD FIle on Hard Disk Drive" Then browse to your VIDEO_TS folder, and select the VIDEO_TS.IFO file

PowerDVD doesn't do anything on the VIDEO_TS.IFO file except make the navigation bar turn purple. The menu itself is in the VIDEO_TS.VOB file.

(VLC & Nero's viewer have the same sort of results.)

[twalk]

TMPGEnc DVD Author can do what you wish on its ear. It has a 30 day, fully-functional free trial, and is probably the most user-friendly authoring software around. All you need to do is add each MPEG in it's own track so each can have a chapter selection menu, then you set your main menu to offer a selection between these track menus.

I've just tried it, and it shows exactly the same problem as NV and MF3.

I'm at a loss here. The authoring tool's previewers show the menus working right. Playback after writing out to file doesn't.

[jimmalenko]

I hate to say it, but everything you've said so far would indicate to me that you're playing the VIDEO_TS.VOB file, and not the VIDEO_TS.IFO file like you're supposed to (that and I've got 100% confidence in TMPGEnc DVD Author to do the job). I tell you what - load your VIDEO_TS.IFO file into IFOEdit and press the "DVD Play" button, just to see if it will play it properly.

[twalk]

I figured it out. I was using PowerDVD on a Dell, and they had it changed so that it wouldn't handle .IFO files on the HD. That got me confused on what was happening.

Using a different OEM version of PowerDVD on another machine works fine with output from all 3 authoring programs.