software with submenus

[dipdog]

I have, hopefully, an easy question. I want to create a DVD with menus and submenus. I've noticed that most of the software packages that I can find usually allow you to create several menus, each usually looks like a box that you can put a custom picture in. When you select one of these boxes, then a slideshow starts of each of the videos in that menu. For instance, I have Aimersoft DVD Creator and it allows you to create several slideshows, each containing an unlimited number of videos files. When you select one of the slideshows, it automatically starts to play each video in the slideshow, in ascending order, one after the next. Instead of having a slideshow start, where I have to keep forwarding through the videos to find the one that I want, I'd like to have a sub-menu appear, preferably in a new screen, where I can select the video that I want to watch inside that menu. Is anyone aware of any relatively simple software packages that will allow you to do that?

[nic2k4]

What it comes down to is the way DVDs are layed out, a DVD has tracks and each tracks has chapters. Typically the first menu you would see is the track menu, each track would have it's button represented by some text and/or a box with a picture (still or moving). When you click on a button you see the track's chapter menu; click on a chapter button and playback will start from that chapter position. The problem with chapters is it will only play to the end of the track. You can navigate between chapters using the next previous keys or you can return to the track menu with the title or menu keys.

What does all this means to you? If you want to play one slideshow and then return to the menu and select another one, you need to put each individual slideshow in a separate track instead of putting them into one track as separate chapters.

Now with this kind of layout there's no need for the chapter menu, unless you want to pick individual slides in the slideshow, but don't forget playback won't stop 'til the end of the track. Your software should also let you pick which chapter to show in the menu.

[guns1inger]

What does all this means to you? If you want to play one slideshow and then return to the menu and select another one, you need to put each individual slideshow in a separate track instead of putting them into one track as separate chapters.

True of many lower end authoring tools. Some tools, such as DVD Lab Pro, support playlists, which allow to create menus that point to a single chapter and play it like it was a separate title. This can give you the flexibility to play chapters is different orders, or to have a play all battun as well as play each chapter one at a time.

[dipdog]

Thanks for your replies. Yes, what I was looking for was the latter. It's actually some Karaoke DVDs that I wanted to burn. I have several albums of karaoke songs that I wanted to put on one DVD. I was hoping to be able to see the albums on the main screen, select an album, and then be taken to a screen where you could select which song on the album that you wanted to play (as opposed to automatically starting a playlist that you'd have to forward through to find the right song). I don't think I can do this with my Aimersoft DVD creator. I'm literate enough to probably design something from scratch but, since it's just a bunch of kid's karaoke, I didn't really want to put a lot of time into it and was hoping for a relatively simply program, like my Aimersoft, that would do most of the work for me.

[nic2k4]

I'm literate enough to probably design something from scratch ...

In that case You can fairly easily modify your menu with PGCEdit. Just add a link back to the chapter menu in the post commands for each chapter menu buttons. I know you don't want to spend too much time on this, but once you have the command for one button you can re-use it for the others. Keep in mind each chapter menu will have a different PGC number.

[RBCC]

What are some higher end authoring items?