I am on DVD 2 in my process of learning/using EMC8's MyDVD. DVD 1 had this problem, but I was able to trick it into doing what I want. I cannot seem to trick DVD 2 into working correctly doing what I did on DVD 1 since the correct procedure did not work on either.
I did a capture of a television program. Of course, I started the capture before it began. I pulled the capture into MyDVD. The first thing I did was, using the Timeline editor, I split the stuff before the show away from the show and deleted that Panel. I then deleted material in spots throughout the length of the captured file (the equivalent of commercials) creating a whole list of panels. I generated chapters for those Panels using the Edit Chapters tool and had it create Chapter buttons on Menu pages. All works fine up to then. All chapters are of varying length, but none are less than 2 minutes and most are over 6.
I then attempt set the thumbnail in each of the Menu buttons for the Chapters. Buttons 2-through-X all work perfectly. I get the Thumbnail tool and play the segment to the point where I want that image to be the thumbnail and when I click OK, the thumbnail appears in the button on the menu. This is how both DVD #1 and DVD #2 worked. However, the Chapter 1 thumbnail was a different matter.
On DVD #1, when I chose the point in the chapter where it would take the thumbnail, if it was too early in the chapter, the thumbnail would be black. I then chose a much later image from the chapter (near the end) and discovered that the thumbnail it actually chose was about 1.5 minutes earlier than what I chose. So, by choosing a point 1.5 minutes later than what I wanted, it would use the image I wanted (or darn close).
On DVD #2, when I choose any point in Chapter 1, I get a black thumbnail. However, if I choose any point in any other chapter for Chapter 1's Thumbnail, it works perfectly.
Here is something I have observed that may be significant:
For DVD #1, the leading material I trimmed was much shorter that it is for DVD #2. In fact, the length of the leading material on DVD #1 was almost 1.5 minutes. The leading material trimmed for DVD #2 was significantly longer than the length of the first chapter. It suggests to me that the software choosing the thumbnail of Chapter 1 has some unintentional sensitivity to the length of the material trimmed prior to Chapter 1.
Thanks,
Gene