vcd menu with highlighting

[w00kiee]

ive been messing with menus and ive been able to make a few and they play on my dvd fine.. but i was wondering, with dvd menus you can highlite the chapter you want and hit enter. with my menus you just type the number in and hit enter. i was wondering if there was a way to make a menu that you can highlight the chapter you wanted (using the arrows on the remote) then hit enter(play in most cases).

[dinesh]

As far as I know, Not all (is there any??) standalone VCD/DVD Players support highlighting VCD menus on the screen. VCD Menus I understand are static clips/stills and may not provide dynamic DVD type menus. HotSpots may be defined on the menu screen but I am not sure that all players translate that and highlight it. Hotspots defined can be accessible on a desktop PC. PowerDVD is an example.

[vitualis]

You cannot use the cursors on a VCD and as dinesh stated, you cannot get "highlighting" the same way as on a DVD (i.e., via OGT).

The "hotspots" on a VCD is really only applicable to software players and on CD-i players. They are essentially never used on any other stand-alone player.

However, if you are clever, you can "simulate" highlighting...

If you selections are side-by-side, you can use the "prev" and "next" button to select choices. Each "highlight" is actually a separate still screen that looks identical except for the choice "highlighted".

You can author the DVD so that pressing the "default" button (usually mapped as "play" on a DVD player remote) will engage the selection on screen.

Regards.

[w00kiee]

virtualis - ahh.. ok.. i was thinking of doing something like that.. i was just hoping i could link it to the cursor not the prev and next.. but it will do. thanx

[dinesh]

w00kiee:
Sorry to bother you. Any luck on this?
I tried this on XML. I got my 5 MPEG Stills(indicating 5 different menu highlighted positions) into the 5 selection tags. The selections were supposed to default to the respective clips.(Still 1 -> Clip 1, Still 2 -> Clip 2,and so on). On building the image and opening the same using PowerDVD on a virtual CDROM drive, only the last option seems displayed. Clicking "prev" takes it to the 4th option (the 4th MPEG Still) but almost instantly jumps back to the 5th. Clicking "prev" again shows the highlight on the 3rd option and again jumps back to the 5th.
I provided a timeout tag inside the selection tags to play their respective clips on timeout of 15 seconds. To my surprise, the timeout clip plays right. ie on starting if there is no user activity for 15 sec, the first clip starts playing, although the menu indicates 5th MPEG Still wrongly.
While on the menu, click "next". The 2nd option is "highlighted" and immediately the 5th still is displayed. On timeout of 15 secs, the 2nd clip starts playing.
I am going wrong somewhere. where?

[vitualis]

dinesh, post your XML and I'll see if I can see if something is wrong.

There is no reason why this couldn't be made to work.

Regards.

[dinesh]

Oh Yes I should have done it even otherwise. Here it is:
==============================================
<segment-items>
<segment-item src="menu1.mpg" id="menu-01"/>
<segment-item src="menu2.mpg" id="menu-02"/>
<segment-item src="menu3.mpg" id="menu-03"/>
<segment-item src="menu4.mpg" id="menu-04"/>
</segment-items>
<sequence-items>
<sequence-item src="MainMovie.mpg" id="seq-01">
<entry id="entry-01">0</entry>
<entry id="entry-02">205.05</entry>
<entry id="entry-03">432.00</entry>
<entry id="entry-04">606.25</entry>
</sequence-item>
</sequence-items>
<pbc>
<selection id="select-01">
<bsn>1</bsn>
<prev ref="select-04"/>
<next ref="select-02"/>
<default ref="select-chap-01"/>
<timeout ref="select-chap-01"/>
<wait>15</wait>
<loop jump-timing="delayed">1</loop>
<play-item ref="menu-01"/>
<select ref="select-chap-01"/>
<select ref="select-chap-02"/>
<select ref="select-chap-03"/>
<select ref="select-chap-04"/>
</selection>
<selection id="select-02">
<bsn>1</bsn>
<prev ref="select-01"/>
<next ref="select-03"/>
<default ref="select-chap-02"/>
<timeout ref="select-chap-02"/>
<wait>15</wait>
<loop jump-timing="delayed">1</loop>
<play-item ref="menu-02"/>
<select ref="select-chap-01"/>
<select ref="select-chap-02"/>
<select ref="select-chap-03"/>
<select ref="select-chap-04"/>
</selection>
<selection id="select-03">
<bsn>1</bsn>
<prev ref="select-02"/>
<next ref="select-04"/>
<default ref="select-chap-03"/>
<timeout ref="select-chap-03"/>
<wait>15</wait>
<loop jump-timing="delayed">1</loop>
<play-item ref="menu-03"/>
<select ref="select-chap-01"/>
<select ref="select-chap-02"/>
<select ref="select-chap-03"/>
<select ref="select-chap-04"/>
</selection>
<selection id="select-04">
<bsn>1</bsn>
<prev ref="select-03"/>
<next ref="select-01"/>
<default ref="select-chap-04"/>
<timeout ref="select-chap-04"/>
<wait>15</wait>
<loop jump-timing="delayed">1</loop>
<play-item ref="menu-04"/>
<select ref="select-chap-01"/>
<select ref="select-chap-02"/>
<select ref="select-chap-03"/>
<select ref="select-chap-04"/>
</selection>
<selection id="select-chap-01">
<bsn>1</bsn>
<prev ref="select-01"/>
<next ref="select-chap-02"/>
<timeout ref="select-01"/>
<wait>0</wait>
<loop jump-timing="delayed">1</loop>
<play-item ref="entry-01"/>
</selection>
<selection id="select-chap-02">
<bsn>1</bsn>
<prev ref="select-01"/>
<next ref="select-chap-03"/>
<timeout ref="select-01"/>
<wait>0</wait>
<loop jump-timing="delayed">1</loop>
<play-item ref="entry-02"/>
</selection>
.....
... ...
....
====== NOT COMPLETE ==============================
All segment items are stills.
The menu displayed is select-04, although select-01 is active, because after the 15 seconds timeout, select-chap-01 starts playing.
When NEXT is clicked, the select-02 menu is displayed momentarily and almost immediately select-04 is displayed. However clicking on DEFAULT or on timeout the select-chap-02 is played.
Only the display is wrong. Any workaround...

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: dinesh on 2002-01-07 09:09:43 ]</font>

[vitualis]

XML is correct...

Hmmmm......

VCD or SVCD?

How did you make the stills?

How did you burn?

I'd like to get to the bottom of this.

Regards.

[dinesh]

I did not burn the VCD only simulated on a virtual CD ROM drive. Used PowerDVD. MPEG Stills were created with TMPGEnc (yes , not the right method - I shall try with Philips VCDTK2). I shall also keep you posted on any improvement.

[dinesh]

I found out the problem. Stupid of me!!
The original BMPs were named menu1.bmp, menu2.bmp,...which caused TMPGEnc to automatically pick the sequence of numbers and finally menu1.mpg had 5 frames, menu2.mpg had 4 frames,..menu5.mpg had one frame. No wonder all menus were displaying the last frame.I am sorry, I shall double check before posting such issues to this forum.
BTW, the "default" key does not seem to map to my PowerDVD "play" button. After the menu is displayed, I need to wait 15 secs for the corresponding play item to start. I shall try burning to CD and test it.
Is there a way to use "return" here for the same purpose?

[vitualis]

I only have v2.55 of PowerDVD and that proggy just doesn't have the "default" key -- which is a flaw in the program.

You will not have this problem with a hardware player though. All DVD players will have the "default" button mapped somewhere and often it is the "play" button.

You can use "return" in the same way (just use the return tag rather than default) but then it doesn't make the same logical sense in the menus.

Regards.