VCD Menus

[DavidEggins]

Hello

I have burnt a VCD with 54 chapters to a CDRW several times, and want to get the menus working. If I use the text only menus, the first page only of the menu displays when I hit the play button, and I cannot get to the second to seventh menu screens.

If I try the menus with the 6 pics per page, I get no menu or any video if I press play, nothing happens. The only way to start playing the video is to press 2 for chapter 2. Then I can use the next chapter buttons. When I get to the last chapter, then the last menu screen shows. I can not get to any other menu page.

The format I use is PAL.

Is this just a problem with the Pioneer DV-626D? Or am I doing something wrong?

I also tried the VCD in Intervideo DVD 2000, and it shows almost the same results. With the text only menu, it shows page 1. Then when I press the next chapter button, it skips to menu page 2 for less than a second, then back to menu page 1. If I keep hitting next chapter many times, I can cycle through the menus, but as soon as I leave it on a menu, it jumps back to menu page 1.

Should I giv up on menus working, or is there a trick to it?

Thanks for any help.

David

[vitualis]

No you shouldn't give up on menus, but you should give up on using Nero for menus!!

Nero still menus are incorrectly authored and don't work on most software DVD players and even some hardware DVd players.

You could try using VCDImager +/- a GUI (e.g., TSCV or VCD Easy). If you search the forums for TSCV or VCD Easy then you'll find links to download and guides.

If you want to learn more about how menus on VCD actually works then read some of the articles here: http://www.geocities.com/medinotes/vcd

Regards.

[sullen]

I agree on not giving up. I personally use Easy CD Creator Deluxe to create my VCDs and make my own menus. Yes they are rather simple, but very effective if you know what you are doing. Currently mine are simply BMP images with the menu selections coupled with a dead audio track. There are several good things about doing menus this way. 1) You have a great deal of control about how many pages/entries you have. The menu page itself is simply a short MPG with the selections on it. The numbers on the remote only work with the corresponding menu page. 2) It is simple. Just make a BMP image, run some dead audio and your image through TMPGEnc, and viola- a menu page. 3) Using EZ CD Creator to make your menus, after your menu page plays it's entire length it either repeats endlessly until a selection is made for a VCD with a single menu page or goes to the next menu page for multiple pages. 4) EASTER EGGS! You can do easter eggs with your VCDs on the last page. You put say 4 menu choices on the menu page, but include a MPG under the 5 button during creation.
Just some of my own random thoughts on the subject.

[DavidEggins]

Thank you very much for your help.

I will try these new tools.

David