Creating proper menus

[dkelly701]

I have checked the guides and can't find what I want to do, but I think that it is so simply that I must be missing something. I am using TMPGEnc DVD Author 1.6. When I author the movie, I want the main menu to have a button that says "Play Movie" ("Play All" would be acceptable) and a buttom that says "Chapter Select" and would take you to the 1st chapter menu. In other words, set up like commercial movie menus are. The templates that say "Double Track 1" and "Double Track 2" appear to do this (even though I only have 1 track ) except they will only create 1 chapter menu no matter how many chapters I have. I guess this template is for creating a disk with 6 or fewer tracks and allowing you to choose to play all or go directly to one of the tracks.

I have tried to create my own with no success. What am I doing wrong?

[lordsmurf]

TDA will never give commercial quality.

But you can do well by making your own templates.
Use the menu editor. Rename things, move them around, use you own images, etc.

[sohaibrazzaq]

TDA can't do this.You can use some other Authoring tools like Ulead DVD Workshop 2, DVDlab Pro 1.53, Adobe EncoreDVD 1.5 etc to create professional menus.

[dkelly701]

Thanks for the replies. I have made my own templates but just could not figure out how to add that "Chapter Select" button to the main menu. No big deal. It does a good enough job.

Thanks again.

[gadgetguy]

I do this all the time with TDA. As lordsmurf suggested, use the menu editor and make your own. As for what you are doing wrong, you haven't given enough information to respond to that. I'm going to assume you know how to prepare your assets, have setup you source, and have already set your chapter points. So I'll go straight to Menus.

Start by clicking 'Edit menu theme'. You will be asked if you want to create and edit another menu theme. Answer yes.
For the layout of the main menu I usually then use Layout#6 so there are no thumbnails, but for this example use layout1#1.
For the layout of the track menu, it depends on how many chapter points I've set, for this example select Layout4#2
For Button Image I like to use Simple White, because most of my background photos are usually dark.
I usually select No Frame for thumbnail frame. and I leave the background image as is (because I'm going to change it anyway)
Then click OK.

You'll be taken to the image of the main menu. In the lower right is the Simple White button for Play All, the thumbnail is in the center, and the track title is under the thumbnail.

Next doubleclick the background image and replace it with the photo of choice. Then I click Edit and select the font and font color for all pages.
Now comes the fun part.

I move the Play All button out of the way and move the Track Name to the location where I want the Play All button to be. Then I double click the track name and change the text to "Play All". Then I make note of the position and size of the Track Name box. Then I take a screen shot (press Alt + PrtScrn)

Then I open Paint (yes Paint), I set the attributes to the same size as I noted that the Track Name was, then I click Edit/Paste. When asked if I want to resize I select no. Then I move the pasted shot until the Play All is centered in the document. Then I save it as PlayAll.bmp.

I then return to TDA and move the Track Name box out of the way and double click the Play All button and select the PlayAll.bmp file I just created. I then set the position and size to what I recorded for the Track Name. Notice how the background line up nicely. Next I right-click the PlayAll button and click Shadow Setting. I uncheck Shadowed so it no longer will appear as a button, but as flat text.

Next I change the text of the Track Name to "Chapter Select" and position it where I want it.
Now I have a Main Menu that shows the Title, the Thumbnail, Chapter Select, and Play All.

Chapter Select will take you to the first page of the chapter menus. By this point you should have a pretty good idea how to customize the Chapter menu(s). Then set your Menu Display Settings and Firstplay Action to your taste.

As before I'm going to assume you know how to move to the next stage and create your disk volume on the HDD.
Play this with PowerDVD or whatever you use and check that it's like you want/expect it to be. If not, go back and make some changes (you did save your project, right?)

[ntscuser]

dkelly 701

You can create any number of chapters with the default menu template but only six will be displayed per page. You can access the other pages by clicking the arrows at the bottom of each page. If you had say 36 chapters, TDA will divide them into six pages with six chapters each.

[dkelly701]

Thanks gadgetguy. I really appreciate you taking the time to post that excellent response. I have printed your directions and I am working on it. I still haven't got it figured out exactly but I will keep trying.

Thanks for your effort.

[gadgetguy]

No problem. There's no substitute for playing with it yourself, but if you have any specific problems/questions feel free to post back here for more.

[dkelly701]

gadgetguy, I have tried to follow your instructions but am having trouble. Specifically, I change the "Track Name" to "Chapter Select" but when I create this menu, "Track Name" does nothing. I end up with the 4 things you say I should but the "Track Image" leads me to the chapter select. I assume "Track Image" is what you are calling the "Thumbnail."

Any idea what I am doing wrong?