Authoring program that has video intro?

[|Supreme|]

I'm looking for a program that'll allow me to have a video intro.. like on regular DVD movies.. and then it shows the menu. But also I was wondering is it possible after showing the video to stop it at that ending frame and then start playing some music over and over again?

[Richard_G]

Ulead DVD Workshop 2, like most authoring packages, gives you the option of a First Play video which runs before you get to the menu. You can have the menu so that it times out and plays the movie or so that it sits there and waits for a button to be selected. You can embed music into the menu so that will play for as long as the menu is displayed. If the menu is set to never time out, the music will just loop.

[|Supreme|]

Nice. What about if I wanted to show a short intro video.. And then when the menu shows up to play another longer video.. that loops. Is that possible? And does ulead workshop do that?

I have Ulead Movie Factory 2 by the way. I don't think it allows videos so that is why I'm asking for such a program.

[Richard_G]

Just had a play with Workshop 2. You can run a First Play video but after that has run you then have to go to a menu. However, you can have a motion background (a video clip) to the menu instead of a plain static background. As the menu can be set to never time out, I assume the video clip used as the background will loop.

Your best bet would be to download the 30 day free trial from www.ulead.co.uk and give it a try. You could also try the latest DVD MovieFactory(version 4) and see if that can do it. It's a lot cheaper to buy though so I suspect it won't.

[mats.hogberg]

..or DVD-Lab. Not so much wizards and premade stuff, but one of the most competent authoring apps, that can do pretty much there is within the DVD standard. But, as such, puts some demands on the driver...

/Mats

[GeorgeW]

Nice. What about if I wanted to show a short intro video.. And then when the menu shows up to play another longer video.. that loops. Is that possible? And does ulead workshop do that?

I have Ulead Movie Factory 2 by the way. I don't think it allows videos so that is why I'm asking for such a program.

DVD Workshop 2.x will allow this. Use a "First Play" video, then have a menu with an auto-activate button that has a playlist with a "Loop" function. Whatever is between the "Start Loop" and "End Loop" in the playlist for your auto-activate button will loop.

And, as mentioned, DVD LabPro can do this very easily...

[|Supreme|]

Wow, I was trying to use DVD lab but its hard to get used too. Still trying to figure out how to achieve what I want. I just want like 3 text objects with links to different movies. And maybe have it underline the words when its highlighted.. and also have those videos playing for intro and menu.

I also d/l the demo of workshop.. that program is confusing too.. I was able to put the first intro video in, but creating buttons and adding the menu motion background didn't seem possible. The option to even check the motion background was greyed out. ahh Didn't think it would be this hard. Trying to read some tutorials

[|Supreme|]

Well.. getting the hang of it more with DVD lab pro. But I'm curious how do you add the first video intro? Don't really see an option for it.

And how do you make sure the background video for the menu loops?

[mats.hogberg]

It's all done using the connections.


/Mats

[guns1inger]

Link the First Play to the intro video in the connections window, then link the first play to the main menu (or whatever you need to come next).

Set the time for the background to 'inf' and it will loop to the length of the video.

[|Supreme|]

ya. just figured it out last night.. DVDlab is pretty easy to use with the connections window. Going to see which dvd players it works on. Its svcd video i didn't do any patching of the header or whatever people have done in the past with svcd videos.

[|Supreme|]

This is also weird.. I have a apex 660a.. and when I try to play the movie.. nothing happens. But I have also a Apex 1200 and it managed to first start the movie.. and then it goes back to the main menu somehow. But it skips the intro movie. I have no clue why this isn't working. I previewed the movie in powerdvd and everything seemed to be right.

The resolution of my intro video and menu video is 320x240. The actual movie resolution is 480x576. All of them are in SVCD format. Any idea why this won't work? I know my dvd player can play regular SVCD movies on cdrs.

I'm guessing the multiple resolutions is messing it up. I'm going to try to convert the 320x240 to 480x576.

I'm wondering though.. what resolution for NTSC is dvd compliant? I might consider reencoding all of my movies.

[mats.hogberg]

See what is DVD top left. 480x576 sure isn't, neither is 320x240 - I'm surprised any authoring app accepts such mpeg sources...

/Mats

[|Supreme|]

It says.. NTSC 720x480 = FULL D1. So I have to reencode everything to 720x480?

[mats.hogberg]

-or 352*480 or 352*240

/Mats

[|Supreme|]

hmm.. well.. the video was at 480x576.. if I went to 352x240 would that reduce the quality a lot? And if I go to 720x480 would that increase the quality a bit or no?

Seems like 352x480 is the closest match. I don't really know how resolution effects video. However I would imagine a extremely low resolution would look like crap.

[mats.hogberg]

Every resize (up or down) reduces quality. Every reencode reduces quality. 352x480 sounds like a good compromise to me. It will be fine with 3-4000 kbps

/Mats

[|Supreme|]

Ok I have another question.. TMPGenc kind of confuses me sometimes when I do re-encodes. First the aspect ratio.. 4:3 is full screen correct? And 16:9 is supposed to be widescreen. And 1:1 is just like a square with kind of like black bars on left and right side.

Because its weird if I have a movie that has black bars on the top and bottom.. and I set aspect ratio to 4:3 in the video tab... it still has the bars. Also.. I'm confused about the source settings.. Took a picture. Why does it matter what the source aspect ratio is set too? So I should set the source to 16:9 aspect ratio? And the video tab should also be 16:9? I've done a video with 4:3 destination ratio and like I said black bars still appeared. Its just confusing to me. Any idea where I can find more info on this?

[mats.hogberg]

If your source is mpeg, it's probably either 4:3 or 16:9. AVI sources are mostly 1:1

/Mats

[|Supreme|]

Ok I have another question.. I'm using TMPGenc.. and doing the re-encoding. But I wonder if sometimes when you re-encode you don't just lose quality.. I mean could you get frame skips or pauses.. if you re-encode too fast maybe? I know theres settings in TMPGenc that make re-encoding go 3x as long but supposingly the quality is better.

I'm trying to encode this pal movie.. thats 25 frames to 29.97 frames... and to 720x480 resolution. Motion search precision is on normal.. no de-interlacing or anything like that. Just hoping when I finally burn it. it won't look messed up.

[|Supreme|]

It probably doesn't mess anything up. Was just curious. Another question I have is DVDlab won't ever let me remove anything.. Only add new movie or new menu. Anyone know how to remove stuff?

Another DVDlab question.. (hopefully my last) is how do you create chapters in 3-5 min intervals.. and set it so when I hit the forward button on my dvd player it doesn't go to the next file to play but instead goes from chapter to chapter.