Need some help with menus.

[XL5 0]

Hello,

Need some help with menus.  I cut my teeth with iDVD (LOVE IT) and I really miss the ability you know exactly what I'm going to get before I burn a disc.

I'm making some progress with using "Blu-ray Video".  I need simple menus so I am using "Cobblestone" with a black background. The sub-menus look terrific.  It is the main menu that I'm struggling with.

I have figured out how to have a background image in my main menu.  But there's always this big black rectangle I can't get rid of.  I could keep this rectangle if I could figure out how to put an image into it.

I don't even know what this rectangle is. Is it a button?  Can it be deleted or made smaller?  Can I put text in it?  Can I put an image in it? 

There is no black rectangle when using "Splash",  but now I have "My Movie" on the main menu that I cannot eliminate, or change the text.

Suggestions are appreciated.

 

 

[theoldarchiver 53]

The black rectangle is a preview frame from the clip, and as such is also a button (select it for playback on the final disc). You can set which frame to use in the Edit window by double-clicking a clip in the main window, then using a slider (not very precise, I know), then Set Picture.
It is probably black for you, as the first frame (default) of your clip is black (as it often is).

Alternatively, there are some themes (menu templates) that have no preview frame, like Splash.

The ‘My Movie’ text in the menu, is the menu title. You can edit that with Customize in the right side panel, then the Menus tab.

[XL5 0]

Thanks theoldarchiver,

I am getting better at this (with your help)!  I just wish there was a way to create Blu-rays with an easy-to-use program like iDVD.  With iDVD, what you see, is what you get, there are absolutely no surprises when you burn the disc.  I got a spoiled, I guess.

>> The ‘My Movie’ text in the menu, is the menu title. You can edit that with Customize in the right side panel, then the Menus tab. <<

I have discovered that. What is surprising to me is that even when I change the text, Toast still shows it as "My Movie" on the preview image.  Although, the text I want does show up in the final burn.

I have never found a program that will "Play" a Blu-ray from a Blu-ray image file.  I purchased the program "Blu-ray Player" but it presents the Blu-ray menus differently than how the disk is actually burned.  When making DVDs, I can use an image file and play it with Apple's "DVD Player" (still 32-bit!) and it looks exactly how it looks when burned.  Is there anything like this for Blu-rays?

https://www.macblurayplayer.com/how-to-play-bluray-iso-files-on-mac.htm

 

Edited April 20, 2018 by XL5

[theoldarchiver 53]

On 4/20/2018 at 4:41 AM, XL5 said:

Is there anything like this for Blu-rays?

The official way is for a developer to get a license to the full specs and have the software product certified as compliant. The money that this costs will require a lot of sales to earn that investment back. I don’t see that happening on the Mac platform when optical drives are not present on new models. The existing Mac Blu-ray players are incomplete and/or otherwise limited and/or reverse engineered and/or otherwise a non-licensee to avoid the maximum costs. Actually, only WinDVD (Windows) and PowerDVD (Windows) come to mind as a proper software player with Blu-ray disc support.

Edited April 24, 2018 by theoldarchiver