Encore: Delay buttons from appearing in menu

[eday_2010]

I am using Encore for the first time, so I am still learning everything and looking at all the relevant tutorials. But I haven't found one that can help me with this.

I am creating a Blu-ray motion menu. I have the video for it already completed and rendered. It's made up of a little intro and then a still of the last frame for the rest of the duration. What I want is for the menu items to only appear after the intro is done. I know it can be done, I just do not know how. I haven't been able to find an explanation or tutorial on how to do that. If someone here knows, and could quickly explain it, that would be wonderful.

It would also be great if the intro could be skipped as well. That way it wouldn't have to be watched every tine the disc is put in. Does that only require a chapter marker after the intro portion?

[DB83]

You could author for the intro as a 'first play' item. The menu, which is only a still, is then invoked after that.

But a 'first play' will always play. It can be skipped by editing the ifo file but, again, that is a permanent edit. I do not think there is any way you can chose one or the other by authoring.

You can not set chapter mark in a menu

[smrpix]

Use looping menus to accomplish this.

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/encore/cs/using/WSF49EA5DB-3743-49c2-9831-F66328B192F8.html

[eday_2010]

I used the looping menu like you said, and it worked the first time I previewed it. After I previewed it again, it didn't work in preview, but I am not sure if that's just an issue with Encore or not since it never shows my video running in the menu when I preview. I am building a disc image to see how it behaves outside of Encore since the preview isn't working right for a few other menu links even though the flowchart shows everything linking the way I want it.

[jagabo]

A video sequence before the menus might be cool the first time you see it. But after that it's boring and a waste of time. I hate them. It's one of the main reasons I started ripping my DVDs.

[eday_2010]

True, but it's not a disc people will be watching over an over. Plus it's short, and it's for family, so I get to annoy them.

[smrpix]

I used the looping menu like you said, and it worked the first time I previewed it. After I previewed it again, it didn't work in preview, but I am not sure if that's just an issue with Encore or not since it never shows my video running in the menu when I preview. I am building a disc image to see how it behaves outside of Encore since the preview isn't working right for a few other menu links even though the flowchart shows everything linking the way I want it.

Check if you have the option to link back to the beginning of the menu or just the looped portion. I don't recall offhand because I stopped using this feature many years ago for the reason jagabo stated above.

[eday_2010]

Check if you have the option to link back to the beginning of the menu or just the looped portion. I don't recall offhand because I stopped using this feature many years ago for the reason jagabo stated above.

How do I specify whether it links to the loop point of the beginning? I want it to link at the loop point.

[smrpix]

As I said, it's been a while. Looks like it is not possible.

The workaround is to create an identical copy of the menu with no pre-loop and simply have all links refer to this second copy after the first one has played.

To clarify, you don't have to rebuild the menu, just copy and paste it and set the loop point on the new one to 00:00:00:00.

[eday_2010]

I can give that a try. Not sure if it will work though, because for the second disc, I skipped having the intro and it's just the plain menu. The Play Movie link goes where it should, as does the slideshow link (the slideshow is on it's own timeline), but the Scenes link just restarts the menu, like on the first disc with the intro. The main movie is one timeline with a bunch of Chapter markers. Is this the proper way to set up a Blu-ray?

And if I select the sub-picture highlights that I created in Photoshop, they show up black in the menu.

There is also the issue of there being a pause in the menu when it gets to the loop point. I have read other people having that problem and that it's an Encore issue since other programs like DVD Architect don't do that.

I also haven't found a thorough tutorial on using the various Encore features, which makes it harder to get a grasp on this stuff. The last time I authored a disc, it was a DVD through Premiere Elements, and everything just worked.

[roma_turok]

What version of Encore you use CS5.5, CS3?

[smrpix]

It sounds like you are trying to use many of the advanced features of Encore but also canned features?

The scenes link should go to a second menu that links to the individual chapters, if I am correctly understanding what you want to do. Once you start a chapter it will play to the end of the timeline unless you create chapter playlists and link to them instead.

As for your subpictures, you have the option to edit the color set per menu. By designating layers as (=1) (=2) (=3) you can get pretty elaborate.

The loop point pause is very common, most commercial dvds find clever ways to mask it with design elements such as going to all white or having some other non-moving image. You may want to make your motion menu longer so people are likely to click away before reaching it.

[eday_2010]

What version of Encore you use CS5.5, CS3?

CS6, actually.

It sounds like you are trying to use many of the advanced features of Encore but also canned features?

The scenes link should go to a second menu that links to the individual chapters, if I am correctly understanding what you want to do. Once you start a chapter it will play to the end of the timeline unless you create chapter playlists and link to them instead.

As for your subpictures, you have the option to edit the color set per menu. By designating layers as (=1) (=2) (=3) you can get pretty elaborate.

The loop point pause is very common, most commercial dvds find clever ways to mask it with design elements such as going to all white or having some other non-moving image. You may want to make your motion menu longer so people are likely to click away before reaching it.

The Scene link goes to a second to page 2 of the menu, where you see the list of chapters. Well, in theory it goes to the second page. In reality, it doesn't go there at all; it just starts the menu over again.

As for the loop point pause, it is common on DVDs, but it doesn't occur on Blu-ray menus; at least none of the commercial ones I have seen. They have all been very fluid. If there is a pause, it is so brief you don't even notice it. I would like to know how that is achieved in Encore, if it's possible.

It doesn't seem like I am trying to use some advanced features because there only seem to be a small number of options to change for the loop point, and the Scenes sub-menu is supposed to be pretty straight forward. For me an advanced feature would be creating the menu buttons in After Effects. I just used a video file for the motion and did the menu buttons in Photoshop.

[DB83]

There is an old saying "You should learn to walk before you can run"

Or, get the basics right before trying the clever stuff. A 'Looping menu' is NOT 'basics'. Start with a simple menu and make sure that your links are properly set up then more on.

[smrpix]

The Scene link goes to a second to page 2 of the menu, where you see the list of chapters. Well, in theory it goes to the second page. In reality, it doesn't go there at all; it just starts the menu over again.

Then you must manually direct it, using either pull-down menus or using that little pully-thingy to draw the links where you want them to go. Don't forget about button order!

As for the loop point pause, it is common on DVDs, but it doesn't occur on Blu-ray menus; at least none of the commercial ones I have seen. They have all been very fluid. If there is a pause, it is so brief you don't even notice it. I would like to know how that is achieved in Encore, if it's possible.

Encore will do what it will do in this regard, there are no options.

It doesn't seem like I am trying to use some advanced features because there only seem to be a small number of options to change for the loop point, and the Scenes sub-menu is supposed to be pretty straight forward. For me an advanced feature would be creating the menu buttons in After Effects. I just used a video file for the motion and did the menu buttons in Photoshop.

If you're dealing with manually routing links, modifying colors and creating chapter playlists and secondary menus you absolutely ARE using advanced features.

[eday_2010]

There is an old saying "You should learn to walk before you can run"

Or, get the basics right before trying the clever stuff. A 'Looping menu' is NOT 'basics'. Start with a simple menu and make sure that your links are properly set up then more on.

Well, the simple menu wasn't working either, so I am following along with the Video Copilot tutorial on disc authoring. Even though he's doing a DVD, the principles are the same. And it's the first tutorial that is slow paced and explains everything in detail.

As for the loop point pause, it is common on DVDs, but it doesn't occur on Blu-ray menus; at least none of the commercial ones I have seen. They have all been very fluid. If there is a pause, it is so brief you don't even notice it. I would like to know how that is achieved in Encore, if it's possible.

Encore will do what it will do in this regard, there are no options.

If that is the case, if I cannot get a result that is satisfactory, I'll have to look at another authoring option. I would figure that Encore would be able to avaoid this issue since other authoring programs do.

If you're dealing with manually routing links, modifying colors and creating chapter playlists and secondary menus you absolutely ARE using advanced features.

I've done that kind of stuff before for Premiere Elements, so I don't consider it that advanced. Granted Elements is consumer software and simpler, but I created my menus from scratch, so I had to go through all the same steps in Photoshop as I do now. I am going to try it the way it is done in the Video Copilot tutorial and see how that works. He makes it look far simpler than other tutorials.

[DB83]

Well if even a simple menu was not working then you are doing something proufoundly wrong.

No point in trying to compound your errors by doing the clever stuff.

[smrpix]

And remember when all is said and done, people pop in a disk to watch the movie -- not the menus.

[eday_2010]

Well if even a simple menu was not working then you are doing something proufoundly wrong.

Obviously, even though I follow the tutorials to a tee. Maybe my menu length is too long (the length of a song I am using). I had high hopes for doing some commercial-grade stuff with Encore. Had I known it would give me such a hassle and I would end up doing a boring DVD-style menu, I would have stuck with Premiere Elements.

[eday_2010]

As it turns out, the problem wasn't that I was doing something wrong. It was that Encore cannot preview multi page menus (which is stupid). I burnt my project to a disc and everything worked the way I wanted. I wanted to avoid wasting Blu-rays on testing, but since Encore isn't advanced enough yet, I guess I have no choice.

[DB83]

You do not have to waste disks to check. I can not speak of Encore but most packages will allow you to burn folders to a HDD and you then use a software player to test.

[roma_turok]

Don't know what problem you have
but you don't have burn disc to check, you have option make ISO file and load to virtual drive on PC
then you play with blu-ray player software

[smrpix]

Encore's internal preview is fine for checking links but it has never been good for checking the speed of transitions. Also, motion menus must be rendered before they can be previewed in motion, otherwise they are represented as stills. Adobe's documentation is clear on this.

The option to build a disk image (iso) or folder are right there at the top of the build tab.

[eday_2010]

Yes, but those options don't work well. I tried both building an ISO and folders, and neither ran correctly in Power DVD or WinDVD. Only making an actual disc lets me preview things properly.

[DB83]

Yes, but those options don't work well. I tried both building an ISO and folders, and neither ran correctly in Power DVD or WinDVD. Only making an actual disc lets me preview things properly.

Then you are not using these programs properly either.

The older versions of Power-DVD had a direct option to run from HDD. Now you select the 'Video' option from the top screen. You may have to double click on the folder to ensure that the play button becomes active which you then click to play. You do not select any particular file. The 'DVD' option only applies for actual drives and disks.

[smrpix]

Then you are not using these programs properly either.

I'm in agreement with DB83, here.

Your ambition is admirable, eday, but you really ought to slow down a bit and double check your work.

DVDFab Virtual drive is a good iso mounter.