Chapter Thumbnails are blank

[pawley]

Hi Folks. First time here.

 

This message is repeated in the "usability" forum, because I am not sure which forum my question falls under. I apologize for the repeated post.

 

I have edited a video in EMC9 Video Wave. Then in MyDVD9, I select that Video Wave project as my media. Using the chapter creator in MyDVD9, I created an automatic chapter every 15 minutes in the video. In the Create Chapter window, I can see the thumbnails and their times. After clicking OK, the menu(s) are correctly created with thumbnail buttons, but the the thumbnails have blank checkerboard empty images.

 

When I preview the project, the buttons work, they correctly jump to the right point in the video, but their thumbnails are still blank. Even after burning test disks, the thumbnail images are missing, but the buttons do jump to the correct part of the video.

 

Back in MyDVD, when I select the properties window of each button, the preview correctly shows the frame I want as an image, and I can scrub to change that position, but even after scrubbing to a new time, all of the buttons give me no thumbnail image.

 

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance for any help,

Pawley

[ggrussell]

Curious that the standard answer of "are your video drivers updated" seems to be a catch-all for anything that can't be figured out.

It may seem that way, but most programs don't use the GPU (the processor on the video card) or DirectX like Videowave and MyDVD.

 

You are correct. The thumbnails are extracted frames or series of frames for motion. The only thing the menu would affect is whether or not it is a motion menu. For still menus, the thumbnails of course would also be still frames. However, you can define the menu as 'motion' with a still image background and have the thumbnail in motion.

 

I'm not familiar with the Radeon Mobility chipsets, but the X1400 should be new enough to fully support the 3D functions in DirectX. Have you run the graphics test?

[pawley]

The thumbnails are extracted frames or series of frames for motion. The only thing the menu would affect is whether or not it is a motion menu. For still menus, the thumbnails of course would also be still frames. However, you can define the menu as 'motion' with a still image background and have the thumbnail in motion.

 

I'm not familiar with the Radeon Mobility chipsets, but the X1400 should be new enough to fully support the 3D functions in DirectX. Have you run the graphics test?

 

Yes I have run the graphics test.

 

here is what I have found by poking around. This may be a problem with my system only, but I am not sure....

 

 

With the "Settings" palette open, select a chapter button on a menu and select the "style" button at the top of the Settings palette. The thumbnail section has "Use linked menu/movie" selected, but the "Motion Thumbnail" checkbox is unchecked. Putting a check in this box displays a thumbnail image. If I choose "Make all menus still" from the "DVD Menu" menu, the thumbnails will be freeze frames. If I "Apply motion to All Menus" from the same popup, the thumbnails play a short section of video in preview and authoring.

 

This is good, but it seems wierd that the default after automatically creating these thumbnails is to have the motion checkbox in the settings palette Unchecked. Is this what oethr folks are getting as well?

 

I can easily change all the chapter buttons to the correct setting, but it would be easier to have a global change method for all of them, or have them set this way upon creation. As it is now, I have to change each button's status manually and that could get tedious if there are lots of buttons.

 

Maybe there is a global change method somewhere and you can share it with me?

 

Thanks for any help,

Pawley

[ggrussell]

This is good, but it seems wierd that the default after automatically creating these thumbnails is to have the motion checkbox in the settings palette Unchecked. Is this what oethr folks are getting as well?

I think the 'default' depends on which style you have chosen. Some styles have text buttons, some have still thumbnails and others have motion thumbnails. Keep in mind that EMC is designed with predesigned styles. I'm not familiar with DVD Design Pro on the Mac, but most 'pro' level authoring apps don't start with predesigned templates.

 

that could get tedious if there are lots of buttons.

Unfortunately, there is no gobal change that I can find and yes, it would be a nice feature. I did something similar and watned to change the button on the chapter menus. There were something like 25 chapter marks and it was indeed tedious at best changing all of those to match.

[sierratech.net]

Never mind I figured it out. Thanks.

 

What did you do? I have the same issue with NVIDIA GO FX1000.............

[MichealR]

What did you do? I have the same issue with NVIDIA GO FX1000.............

I created a new menu style with the global Apply motion to All Menus option on.

After importing the movie in the new Menu Style and creating the chapters, they would be black and white checkered.

Right click on the black and white checker, there is a Setting option.

There are two tabs. I can't remember the name of second one (Style?) there is a check box for Motion Thumbnail. Check it, take a second and it works. Make sure Use linked menu/movie is checked too.

Have to do it for every chapter.

Hope that helps. I tried using the same thing on Button settings which right click you get same options, but the options will not stick there.

[pawley]

Ahhh... I think this is the key.

 

I created a custom menu style which uses all still menus. So when I use the auto-chapter creator, maybe the chapter buttons are defaulting to the un-checked "Motion Thumbnail" box. I will try using a predesigned motion menu style as a test and report back as to how the chapter buttons get created.

 

 

I just made a new project with the default "Seasons" menu style, going throught he same motions as my other projects importing an edited Video Wave project as the media source. I made sure to "Apply Motion to all Menus" before creating chapters with the auto-chapter feature. The Chapter buttons still came up blank, and I was able to get an image by selecting each button and toggling the "Motion Thumbnail" checkbox in the button style window to be on.

 

I guess this will have to be the method I will be using from now on. Must be my system if no one else is getting this problem.

 

Thanks

Pawley.

[pawley]

I think the 'default' depends on which style you have chosen. Some styles have text buttons, some have still thumbnails and others have motion thumbnails. Keep in mind that EMC is designed with predesigned styles.

 

Ahhh... I think this is the key.

 

I created a custom menu style which uses all still menus. So when I use the auto-chapter creator, maybe the chapter buttons are defaulting to the un-checked "Motion Thumbnail" box. I will try using a predesigned motion menu style as a test and report back as to how the chapter buttons get created.

 

Thanks,

Pawley

[ggrussell]

Rather Odd and sounds like it still isn't working 'correctly' although it works in the end. When you create a new menu 'style' and then 'Add New Movie', the thumbnail should be created automatically. The gray & white checkerboard thumbnail usually indicates an unlinked button.

 

For anyone looking, the 'Apply Motion to All Menus' is under the DVD MENU at the top.

[ggrussell]

Strange,, you shouldnt have to do that. Must be somw quirk with how MyDVD interacts with the ATI driver and that particular chipset.

[sierratech.net]

I created a new menu style with the global Apply motion to All Menus option on.

After importing the movie in the new Menu Style and creating the chapters, they would be black and white checkered.

Right click on the black and white checker, there is a Setting option.

There are two tabs. I can't remember the name of second one (Style?) there is a check box for Motion Thumbnail. Check it, take a second and it works. Make sure Use linked menu/movie is checked too.

Have to do it for every chapter.

Hope that helps. I tried using the same thing on Button settings which right click you get same options, but the options will not stick there.

 

 

Thanks for your input! I feel this is a bug and not related to video driver issues since we eventually can see the thumbnails. My list of work-arounds for EMC9 continues to grow.

[james_hardin]

One posting is sufficient, I deleted the other one.

 

Have you updated the drivers for your Video card?

[MichealR]

I am having the same issue and did everything exactly how you did it, but cannot get thumbnails to show, even after burning.

I have a eVGA Nvidia 7900 GT/GTO 512 MB DDR3, (latest driver, Forceware 93.71) Intel 3.0GHz HT D945PVS system board. I have messed with this all morning and cannot get the setting for 'Motion Thumbnail' to stick. I don't even need motion thumbnail as the chapter titles are a Text panel anyway.

Yes, I tried using one of the motion scenes too, no go. I created a new menu with 'Apply Motion to All' menus, still no go. This is not critical, but I would like it to work. The dvds are of my parents, passed since 2002.

Is there a patch or something or just bad software?

The only reason I upgraded to EMC 9.0 is because I like IE 7.0 more then DVD editing and EMC 7.0 would not work with IE 7.0.

The only thing i have not tried is moving all my video clips to my internal SATA II drive instead of my USB 2.0 external drive. Seems like the program just chews up a lot of time coming from external drive.

Anything would be appreciated.

[ggrussell]

If it was a 'bug', then everyone using the application would have the same problem. It is a simple fact that most laptops do NOT have video chipsets that are fully DirectX 9 compliant. Compatible - yes. Unless you can find a laptop specifically designed for GAMING, the video chipset most likely will not work well with Videowave or MyDVD 9.

[pawley]

One posting is sufficient, I deleted the other one.

 

Have you updated the drivers for your Video card?

 

Brand New Dell Inspiron 1505 w/ ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 card & drivers. All just a few weeks old. According to both the Dell and ATI web sites, my drivers are the most current for this model.

 

Curious that the standard answer of "are your video drivers updated" seems to be a catch-all for anything that can't be figured out. I can't actually see what the video drivers would have to do with my blank thumbnail problem, when the edited video asset is displaying no problem both while editing with Video Wave, and in preview or authoring in MyDVD, and also after burning a disk and taking it to a DVD player. The chapter thumbs are still blank in all cases, and I assume that MyDVD get's it's image data for the thumbnails from the video asset itself.

 

Does Motion vs Still menu types have anything to do with this?

 

I am much more familiar with DVD Studio Pro on a Mac, so I apologize for my newbie experience with MyDVD.

 

Thanks for any help,

Pawley

[MichealR]

I am having the same issue and did everything exactly how you did it, but cannot get thumbnails to show, even after burning.

I have a eVGA Nvidia 7900 GT/GTO 512 MB DDR3, (latest driver, Forceware 93.71) Intel 3.0GHz HT D945PVS system board. I have messed with this all morning and cannot get the setting for 'Motion Thumbnail' to stick. I don't even need motion thumbnail as the chapter titles are a Text panel anyway.

Yes, I tried using one of the motion scenes too, no go. I created a new menu with 'Apply Motion to All' menus, still no go. This is not critical, but I would like it to work. The dvds are of my parents, passed since 2002.

Is there a patch or something or just bad software?

The only reason I upgraded to EMC 9.0 is because I like IE 7.0 more then DVD editing and EMC 7.0 would not work with IE 7.0.

The only thing i have not tried is moving all my video clips to my internal SATA II drive instead of my USB 2.0 external drive. Seems like the program just chews up a lot of time coming from external drive.

Anything would be appreciated.

 

Never mind I figured it out. Thanks.

[ggrussell]

Please let know your fix. I could help others in the future. Thank you.