16 replies to this topic

[rawood]

How do you setup menu's like a professional DVD.  I have 5 separate mpg videos that I want to add to 1 dvd.  I'd like to be able to hit play from a top menu and have all 5 video's play.  I'd also like to be able to hit next and skip to the next video.  

If I add 5 separate videos, I can only get one to play and then I am returned to the menu.  I created 1 large video which combined the 5 and added chapters.  However, I can't seem to find a way to hit play to kick them all off, without going to the chapter selection menu first.

Basically, I'd like to have 2 buttons on the top menu, Play and Chapters.  If I click play, the whole video would start playing and I could click next to go to the subsequent videos.  If I click the Chapter button from the top menu, I'd like to see a list of chapters and be able to select one to play.

Is there an easy way to do this that I'm just missing.  Thanks.

[Patty]

To make a play all button
The easiest way:
Open MyDVD
Click ADD MOVIE
Navigate to your file.
Hold down the Control key and click on each file.
Click Add button

This puts all the files under one button. If they aren't in the correct order, you can click on EDIT MOVIE. In the storyboard mode, just drag the panels in the correct order. Click BACK TO MENU

Rename the button PLAY ALL
Select the button and copy to clipboard
Move the button slightly
Paste back the clipboard
Move this button and rename SELECT MOVIE (or whatever)
Right click on it and EDIT CHAPTER
Put a chapter mark where the begining of each movie was.

Done
You should have two buttons: Play ALL and Select Movie
The Select Movie button will take you to a submenu where the viewer can choose for those files you added.


This a workaround to get the movie to play as you have described.

[rawood]

Thanks for the reply.  I'll give that a try.  It definitely sounds like that will fix my problem.

[malatekid]

 Patty, on May 23 2006, 12:37 AM, said:

To make a play all button
The easiest way:
Open MyDVD
Click ADD MOVIE
Navigate to your file.
Hold down the Control key and click on each file.
Click Add button

This puts all the files under one button. If they aren't in the correct order, you can click on EDIT MOVIE. In the storyboard mode, just drag the panels in the correct order. Click BACK TO MENU

Rename the button PLAY ALL
Select the button and copy to clipboard
Move the button slightly
Paste back the clipboard
Move this button and rename SELECT MOVIE (or whatever)
Right click on it and EDIT CHAPTER
Put a chapter mark where the begining of each movie was.

Done
You should have two buttons: Play ALL and Select Movie
The Select Movie button will take you to a submenu where the viewer can choose for those files you added.


This a workaround to get the movie to play as you have described.

Patty,

That's a great workaround! Learned something new today.

In conjunction with the the topic, I have one question: At the end of the selected movie from the Select Movie button, will the rest of the movies play back or will it go back to the menu after that particular movie ends?

Thanks!

Jess

Edited by malatekid, 23 May 2006 - 08:12 AM.

[ggrussell]

RETURN TO MENU is the default for all versions. Only the Deluxe version has an option to change that.

[malatekid]

 ggrussell, on May 23 2006, 12:18 PM, said:

RETURN TO MENU is the default for all versions. Only the Deluxe version has an option to change that.

The way it was desribed, the choices under Select Movie are chapters, so I thought the rest of the "chapters" would be played one after another after the first selected movie.

Thanks for the information.

[ggrussell]

Technically, all you are doing is creating two buttons that 'point' to the same movie. The 'play' button does just that.  The 'select scenes' button will take you to a submenu where there will be thumbnails for each chapter.  When you press the 'play' button, you can use the DVD player remote's SKIP button to jump to the next chapter without going back to the menu to select the other submenu.

If you have added more than one 'movie' to the main menu, those are referred to as 'titles'.  Each movie will have a separate button to play it.  When you select a movie, it will return to the main menu after it plays.

The Deluxe version has an option to change what happens when a TITLE is finished.

Quote

so I thought the rest of the "chapters" would be played one after another after the first selected movie

Not sure I know what you mean since the chapters are just 'markers' in that movie.

Edited by ggrussell, 23 May 2006 - 08:52 AM.

[malatekid]

 ggrussell, on May 23 2006, 12:49 PM, said:

Technically, all you are doing is creating two buttons that 'point' to the same movie. The 'play' button does just that. The 'select scenes' button will take you to a submenu where there will be thumbnails for each chapter. When you press the 'play' button, you can use the DVD player remote's SKIP button to jump to the next chapter without going back to the menu to select the other submenu.

If you have added more than one 'movie' to the main menu, those are referred to as 'titles'. Each movie will have a separate button to play it. When you select a movie, it will return to the main menu after it plays.

The Deluxe version has an option to change what happens when a TITLE is finished.

Not sure I know what you mean since the chapters are just 'markers' in that movie.

I was just confused of chapters WITHIN a movie and chapter BEING the movie.

Thanks for the clarification.

[rawood]

 ggrussell, on May 23 2006, 08:18 AM, said:

RETURN TO MENU is the default for all versions. Only the Deluxe version has an option to change that.

OK, I tried Patty's suggestion and it did work.  However, It still doesn't fix all of my problem.  I realized I didn't frame my question quite right.  In my case, I have 4 Titles that I'm working with.  If I do as Patty suggests and add all fours videos at once under 1 play button, it does create 1 video.  However, I can't skip to the next scene.  The only way I can see to do that is utilizing chapters.  However, once I mark a few spots as chapters, I can no longer play all of the video's without going to the chapter submenu first.

It sounds like I need the Deluxe version to do what I want.  I hate it when SW companies dumb down features like this just to make an extra buck.  

I call Roxio sales and see what they have to say.  I'll report back.

[rawood]

Just talked to Roxio and they confirmed that I need the Deluxe version to do what I want.  I still can't believe that this was left out of the basic version, but what can you do.

Anyway, they are refunding 100% of my money for the standard version and I bought the deluxe version instead.  All in all, that seemed a pretty fair thing to do.  I'll let you know if the deluxe version fixes the issue.

[Patty]

 rawood, on May 23 2006, 01:09 PM, said:

Just talked to Roxio and they confirmed that I need the Deluxe version to do what I want.  I still can't believe that this was left out of the basic version, but what can you do.

Anyway, they are refunding 100% of my money for the standard version and I bought the deluxe version instead.  All in all, that seemed a pretty fair thing to do.  I'll let you know if the deluxe version fixes the issue.

Actually that is a great deal, I am glad they were able to do that for you. I have deluxe myself and I think you will be happier with it.

 malatekid, on May 23 2006, 09:11 AM, said:

Patty,

That's a great workaround! Learned something new today.

In conjunction with the the topic, I have one question: At the end of the selected movie from the Select Movie button, will the rest of the movies play back or will it go back to the menu after that particular movie ends?

Thanks!

Jess

I can't take the credit, it was Gary's solution, I just copy them to a file, then when someone needs help with something that I have copied, I use it. He does such a great job of verbalizing.

[ggrussell]

 rawood, on May 23 2006, 03:51 PM, said:

However, once I mark a few spots as chapters, I can no longer play all of the video's without going to the chapter submenu first.

If you followed the directions to the letter, you should have had two buttons: one that plays the entire movie consisting of the four files you added and one button that takes you to a submenu with chapter thumbnails. BOTH buttons point to the SAME MOVIE and chapters!!!  So when you selected the first movie to 'Play All', you can still use the DVD Player remote's SKIP button to jump to the next chapter (which is the SAME chapters that show up in the submenu thumbnails). You DO NOT need the Deluxe version to do this.

The feature that is included with the Deluxe version will let you add the four movies as separate buttons on the main menu. You can then have the second movie play right after the first movie instead of returning to the menu.

Edited by ggrussell, 23 May 2006 - 02:49 PM.

[rawood]

 ggrussell, on May 23 2006, 02:47 PM, said:

If you followed the directions to the letter, you should have had two buttons: one that plays the entire movie consisting of the four files you added and one button that takes you to a submenu with chapter thumbnails. BOTH buttons point to the SAME MOVIE and chapters!!!  So when you selected the first movie to 'Play All', you can still use the DVD Player remote's SKIP button to jump to the next chapter (which is the SAME chapters that show up in the submenu thumbnails). You DO NOT need the Deluxe version to do this.

The feature that is included with the Deluxe version will let you add the four movies as separate buttons on the main menu. You can then have the second movie play right after the first movie instead of returning to the menu.

I followed the directions and created the two buttons.  However, when I clicked on the button which played the entire movie, it would not skip to the next title/chapter.  The only way I could move forward was to just fast forward.  If I clicked the button for chapters, I could select a chapter and start playing from that point.  With this option I could click next and it would work.  Am I missing something?

[ggrussell]

Have you tried another DVD player?  What I describe works for me on 4 different DVD players.

[rawood]

 ggrussell, on May 23 2006, 07:07 PM, said:

Have you tried another DVD player?  What I describe works for me on 4 different DVD players.

Actually, I'm trying it with the preview option in MYDVD.  Since I now have the deluxe version, I'm not really sure if I did it right before or not.  It is working correctly with the Deluxe version in the preview mode.  

The deluxe version did add a button called "more settings" which does give better control of the menu's.  I'm not sure if this helped fix the problem, or if I just did it right this time.

[francecr]

Hello
I bought Easy Media Creator suite 8.
It's the first time I,m using this link.... and a talking link...
Is it because i'm not having the Deluxe version that when i want to add a button on my menu after selecting the icon menu at left, and selecting add button , it's still impossible, because it's in gray.
Thanks for the time you'll spend to answer me

France


cretefr@hotmail.com

[ggrussell]

Not sure if I understand your question. The 'Add Unlink Button' doesn't really work correctly in any version except the Deluxe version because the 'settings' is grayed out.

However when you add a video file or still images, a linked button is created automatically.