Need a help. How to author both "Play it all" and fragment by fra

[amaxim]

Need your help, gurus!

I am using Adobe Encore 1.5.
I want to build a live music video DVD. I created the main menu with two buttons “Listen all” and “Fragments”. I spitted the whole video into separated timelines per every song. The timelines chained together by “End action” links. “Listen all” button is linked to the first timeline.
Main menu’s “Fragments” button linked to the second menu which is a list of buttons linked to the corresponding song’s timeline. I set “Override action” for the every such button to return to the fragments menu.
Encored produced DVD that consists of many titles with 1 chapter within. The VOBs are split at title (song) boundaries.
Menu and navigation are perfect, but when I playing the whole video using “Listen all” button the playback pauses for a second or two at every chapter boundary. Not satisfactory!
The far less disturbing drawback is I can not skip a song with remote’s “Next” button.

Another approach I could imagine is to glue all songs to a single title (need to use video editing software), then set chapter marks at songs boundaries, then link menu buttons to corresponding chapter. In this case I don’t know how to make it to stop playing after a song is over, and to return to “Fragments” menu, in the case one started the song playback from “Fragments” menu. Button’s override action does not work at chapter boundaries, only at title’s one.

Is there any way to achieve all three goals: smooth playback, ability to playback the whole video, and ability to play it song by song? Please help.

Thank you in advance!

[guns1inger]

Smooth playback - single title
Play All -> link to first chapter of title
Song by Song -> Don't know how you would do it with Encore, but aome packages support what is called a playlist. You create a playlist and add into it any chapters would want played, in the order you want to see them. You then link to the playlist instead of the chapter. In your case, you would have one chapter per playlist.

This would also solve your Next button problem, because you would be in fact skipping chapters (what the Next button does by default) instead of trying to jump titles. An alternate way around the Next button problem is to put a chapter stop i the last few frames of the title, so you hit next, jump to the last chapter marker, play a few frames to the end, then automatically jump to the next title.

[amaxim]

Don't know how you would do it with Encore, but aome packages support what is called a playlist. You create a playlist and add into it any chapters would want played, in the order you want to see them. You then link to the playlist instead of the chapter. In your case, you would have one chapter per playlist.

This would also solve your Next button problem, because you would be in fact skipping chapters (what the Next button does by default) instead of trying to jump titles. An alternate way around the Next button problem is to put a chapter stop i the last few frames of the title, so you hit next, jump to the last chapter marker, play a few frames to the end, then automatically jump to the next title.

Encore has playlists.

Manual says:

"A playlist is a group of timelines that play sequentially (from each one's specified chapter) and can include one end action. Playlists provide more efficient and robust navigation possibilities than overrides alone. After creating a playlist, you populate and edit it by using the Playlist Properties palette. You can specify different audio and subtitle tracks for timelines accessed from a playlist also. You can choose playlists as a link or an end action from other elements. A playlist plays back all the timelines included and cannot be interrupted, except by the viewer using the remote. You can also chain multiple playlists together using End Actions.

Playlists, in effect, let you set overrides for several timelines at once, making DVD authoring more efficient. For example, if your project includes a collection of music videos, you can create a menu with buttons that let's the viewer play them all or select a specific music video (timeline). You create a Play All button that links to a playlist containing all the timelines and an end action that points back to the menu; you then create the individual music video buttons that link to each separate timeline with an end action pointing back to the menu. To create this navigation scheme without using a playlist, each timeline's end action points to the next video (the play all scheme) and you need to set an override for each video button pointing back to the menu (the play individual videos scheme)."

I did not consider using playlists 'cause I am a newbie at Encore. I thought that playlist is just a bunch of titles and won't play smoothly.

But the manual describes my case, absolutely

I'll try to play around with playlist.

Your hint about setting chapter at the end of title sounds interesting too. Thanks a lot!

[guns1inger]

You may still find that separate titles have pauses. This is just how DVDs work. The correct method is to create a single title with chapters, then use playlists to isolate each chapter for playback. Creating a playlist to combine a whole lot of small titles is an arse-about way of going, and may still give you what you already have.

[amaxim]

You may still find that separate titles have pauses. This is just how DVDs work. The correct method is to create a single title with chapters, then use playlists to isolate each chapter for playback. Creating a playlist to combine a whole lot of small titles is an arse-about way of going, and may still give you what you already have.

Yeah I combined all 20 timelines into a playlist. Resulting DVD hash 20 title, and pauses at title boundaries.

Finally I combined 20 pieces to a single timeline (title) and set 20 chapter marks. It plays back all right. The only thing is not quite perfect. When I play a single song from "Fragments" menu, it does not return to the menu at song end, but continues with the next song.

guns1inger, I did not understand your idea about "use playlists to isolate each chapter for playback".
How could I use playlist to "isolate each chapter"?

[guns1inger]

I don't use Encore, so I don't know how it's playlists work. In DLP, you can create a chapter playlist. In it you can put in one or more chapters, in order you like. When selected, these chapters play int he order they appear in the playlist, and at the end follow the end action. If Encore's playlists are similar, you should be able to create a playlist for each chapter, put the chapter in it, set the end action to return the menu, and link to the playlist, not the chapter itself.

[amaxim]

I don't use Encore, so I don't know how it's playlists work. In DLP, you can create a chapter playlist. In it you can put in one or more chapters, in order you like. When selected, these chapters play int he order they appear in the playlist, and at the end follow the end action. If Encore's playlists are similar, you should be able to create a playlist for each chapter, put the chapter in it, set the end action to return the menu, and link to the playlist, not the chapter itself.

Encore has the same fature. Playlist can include chapters. But I don't understand how the feature could help me. I linked "Play all" button with the whole title. I think combining title's chapters to a playlist will give the absolutely same result. Am I wrong?

[guns1inger]

You need to create a playlist for each chapter, and put only one chapter in each playlist. Instead of linking to chapters, you link to the playlist. The playlist should play just that chapter, then return to the menu. 20 chapters means 20 playlists.