Need Command Sequence help in Maestro

[Five_by_Five]

Hello. Using Maestro, and I'm familiar with all the baisc options, and then some. But this is what I would like to do. My disc will have 4 short movies which can be selected from the main menu. Buttons 1, 2 3 and 4. When any of these are selected, it will play that one movie, and then return to the main menu. The navigation for those is simple enough. But I want to add a 5th button - a "Play All" button which will run through all 4 movies w/o any user interaction, before returning to the main menu, after the 4th one is done of course.

I believe this can only be done with Command Sequences, but that is what my problem is. I'm sure this this would be a very simple script, but I'm not sure where to start. If possible, PLEASE be specific and provide all the info I would need to create these Command Sequences from scratch, and explain how to add the commands properly.

Thank You


5x5

[Five_by_Five]

Curious that I haven't received any replies on this yet. From reading other posts, I know there are many talented Maestro users here,...still hoping someone can help out.

Thanks.


5x5

[Five_by_Five]

Well, still hoping someone can help. Thanks.


5x5

[Peka]

Do you have the helpfile? I think I saw something in the help about using Command Sequences. I haven't had a need for them yet so I haven't really delved into it.

[Five_by_Five]

Thanks for the reply. Actually, I do not have the help file. Tried to find some online help, but none of the guides explain this. If you have the file, and wouldn't mind copying that section here for me, that would be great. Thanks.


5x5

[da_burl]

I don't really think you can do what you want, but of course I could be wrong. You have an option of what to do when each movie is finished, and you already picked to go back to the main menu, so you can't also make it play the next movie, even with another button
You could point the end of each movie to the next instead of to the menu, and if you wanted to watch a different one, use the menu button on the remote to go back to the menu and choose another one, but you probably knew that!
Unless you had the space to make another movie which consisted of all four :=)

[Cornucopia]

It could be done with command sequences, but that's not the easiest (or only) way.

Use PLAYLISTS. It's in the manual.

Scott

[Peka]

Cornucopia, I couldn't find anything about PLAYLISTS in the online help. Couldn't find anything in DVD Maestro either. I have V2.9 Build 2915a. Is this the same ver you have?

[Cornucopia]

Peka-

can't help too much cuz I'm at home w/ FLU right now, but I know it's in pdf manual (huge size for pdf!). If that isn't available to you right now, this is what i can tell you from memory...

When you click on a/the movie in the project tree, the movie timeline will show up on the right. In addition to having section for play timecode, vcr controls (top) and chapter marks-video-audio-subtitles (main), it should also have in the lower right corner of the same window, a button for playlists--which can be doubleclicked to create 1 or more playlists.
You might also be able to get to it by right-clicking on the movie item in the project tree. Should be some kind of "create playlist" command (not sure though).

*Note: Playlists in Maestro make use of a similar feature to what parental version/multiangle does, and so has similar requirements of CLOSED EVEN GOP's in MPEG file. If the mpeg movie is not already that way, it may not want to even let you create one.

I know this feature works, cuz i've done a couple of DVD's using exactly the layout you were describing.

BTW, I find command sequences better for things like counting # times selected, randomness, toggle on/toggle off, reading users player features, etc.

HTH and I'll be able to help more later this week after I get better and go back to work,

Scott

[Peka]

Cornucopia, thanks for your help. I found where I can create the playlists, now I just have to work out how to use them! I'm experimenting with that now.

Hope you get rid of the Flu soon....

Cheers,

[Peka]

OK, so I've had a bit of a play with these playlists. Can you tell me if I'm on the right track as to how they work:

1. You create a single movie with video and sound streams with all your chapter points

2. Create playlists and select the relevant chapters in the relevant order to playback the video/audio streams the way you want

3. Assign this playlist to a button so it can be selected from the menu

Now, I make videos of Karate tournaments and usually create a separate movie for each event. This way I can create a menu that allows the users to select on an event by event basis. I would also like to have a button that allows the user to play all events in the order that I choose. To use playlists in this example would I have to create a single movie in Maestro containing ALL events with chapter points at the start of each event. Then create separate playlists to allow the choice of a single event from the menu/s?

This will change my workflow quite a bit, as I would have to create a single ac3 and video stream for ALL events, and I'll end up having lots of chapter points. It will also make it difficult for me to customise DVD's for people - I currently allow people to tell me what events they want on their DVD and then just use the separate video and audio streams I've created for each event.

Thanks again,

[joepic]

Now, I make videos of Karate tournaments and usually create a separate movie for each event. This way I can create a menu that allows the users to select on an event by event basis. I would also like to have a button that allows the user to play all events in the order that I choose. To use playlists in this example would I have to create a single movie in Maestro containing ALL events with chapter points at the start of each event. Then create separate playlists to allow the choice of a single event from the menu/s?

This will change my workflow quite a bit, as I would have to create a single ac3 and video stream for ALL events, and I'll end up having lots of chapter points. It will also make it difficult for me to customise DVD's for people - I currently allow people to tell me what events they want on their DVD and then just use the separate video and audio streams I've created for each event.

Maybe this will help to clarify PLAYLISTSin Maestro, as taken from the manual:

Playlists are a way of including a single DVD movie or any of its chapters or sequences of chapters, in alternate play paths - without creating a duplicate of a DVD movie that would occupy disc space. You can think of the Playlist as being similar to an "alias" or "shortcut" on a computer.

As Playlists are defined, they appear in the Connections window as sources and targets. In effect, each Playlist becomes a new DVD movie with its own chapter points; in turn, each chapter in each Playlist has its own Menu Key Action and End Action.

[Peka]

OK, I understand all that.

If I have 3 movies, say A, B, and C, I can create a playlist under movie A, but it only allows me to include chapters from movie A, not B or C. What I want to be able to do is create a playlist that allows me to play movies A, B and C one after the other and then return to the menu.

Is this possible to do without creating a single movie using chapters?

Thanks,

[Cornucopia]

Peka--

Ok, I think I know what you want to do, and how you should do it. I kinda thought that you couldn't include in playlists separate movie sections, but hadn't responded cuz I couldn't check on it.

Try this...

Don't do:
Movie_A=A1,A2,A3 (chapters)
Movie_B=B1,B2,B3
Movie_C=C1,C2,C3

Do instead:
Movie_A=A1,A2,A3,B1,B2,B3,C1,C2,C3
Playlist_A=A1,A2,A3
Playlist_B=B1,B2,B3
Playlist_C=C1,C2,C3

Since Maestro can concatenate (join) either before or during compiling, this shouldn't be a problem unless you have Movie_A a diff MPEG type than B or C (e.g. Mpeg1 vs. Mpeg2, or 720x480 vs. 352x480). It should be ok w/ diff bitrates.

Then in connections window:
Menu_Button_A__target=Playlist_A1
Playlist_A1__end=Playlist_A2
Playlist_A2__end=Playlist_A3
Playlist_A3__end=Menu_Button_A
same for B, C
Menu_Button_All__target=Movie_A1
Movie_A1__end=Movie_A2
Movie_A2__end=Movie_A3
Movie_A3__end=Menu_Button_All

Well, I kinda did your homework for you, but that should get you off to a quick start. 8)

HTH,

Scott

[bacardi/avt]

HI,

Since I didn't have the manual I did it the following way:

I had 5 different movies and created a command sequence to each of them like this:
Compare GPRM 1 to a Immediate number in this case 1.
If the number GPRM equal 1 then jump to movie number X else return to main menu.

And then I created a command sequens that was ran when someone chose the paly all alternative, like this:
Set GPRM to Immediate with the value 1.
Then jump to the first movie.

This worked fine but I think the Playlist option would be easier to use.

[Peka]

Great, thanks guys now I have 2 options. My only issue with Cornucopia's method is to do with the audio rather than the video. DVD Maestro allows me to the video for movies A, B & C together but not the separate AC3 files. When I try to add AC3_B after AC3_A, it wants to replace AC3_A with AC3_B.

So, I would have to make AC3 file of all movies put together, but can use the separate MPG2 video files I've created.

I'll also have a look at the Command Sequence to do the same.

Thanks again,