VCDimager Authoring (Menu Mpeg's and Xml)?

[timmy_boi]

Hey guys,

ive been buggin vitualis alil too much with this awsome program and maybe hvr too sorry guys but i apreciate the help alot.

so I jus thought of jus posting the questions up here. sheesh cause there isnt much about vcdimager other than the cool manuel and vitualis lil write up about xml.

one question doesent involve vcdimager YET.
its about Menus. Yea yea i know you can "click and dragg" a background into a menu with nero or vp4 but man i want to do it the hard way the "rock and chisel" way. because its "free" heh heh

anyways ive heard that ntsc size format is about 352x240. so i thought maybe create a menu still from adobe premiere. with the selections listed. with that size or a higer resolution jus so it would look nice. Export it as avi encode with AVI2VCD and then reffer it back to XML as a "Selection" and have it play "-1" infinately till the user presses a selection on the remote.

Well thats waht i thought then I have been reading up on the fourms about "menu stills"
WTF? what i read it says there is wayyy more encodeing or somting that has to go into it and the tech language they were talking about made my head spin. Just for mpeg stills?

i donno maybe im getting the term wrong but can anybody help me out with this? is my method the way to do it or is there wayy more too it.

I have check my xml for a menu and it jus shows that it "reffers" to a mpeg to play in the background while the code has hiddin commands for the user to press 1,2,or 3 to play the tracks.

well thats what i think anyways.

Any help on this would be great guys
thanks

[timmy_boi]

bump?*

[timmy_boi]

Oh dammit nevermind i appologise for posting this question up. Yea there is more to it then a simple movie of a picture. but damm thats insane but sorry for posting up a repeat question.

[vitualis]

timmy,

A menu (i.e., a <selection> in VCDImager terminology) can have two types of backgrounds (i.e., what is defined under <play-item> ).

1. A regular video clip. That is, 352x240/288 @ 25/29.97 fps video clip (i.e., the same specs as what is used for the main movie on a VCD)
2. An mpeg still image

The mpeg still image can be normal resolution (352x240/288 ) or high resolution (704x480/576 ).

The still image is just that. It is ONE frame of a picture which is your menu.

Why is it useful?
1. You may not always want to use a short video clip as a background (e.g., a photo)
2. It allows for high resolution images (704x480/576 is remarkably sharper than standard VCD resolutions -- this is important for fine detail such as text on a menu)
3. It takes up relatively little space on a VCD (each still takes up 2 seconds of capacity... I think).

There was a recent post here: http://www.vcdhelp.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?topic=53314&forum=1

Regards.