Problem with menus in My DVD

[Old Greg]

I have used the Roxio Video Capture USB device to record three half-hour programs, then brought those into MY DVD to create a disc. I set the program to create chapter divisions every three minutes, but not to create any chapter menus. (I want the buttons to simply play each video from the beginning.)

 

When I test it using the preview mode, it works perfectly, and when I burn the DVD, it plays correctly on the computer on which it was made, whether using Roxio's CinePlayer, Windows Media Player or Windows Media Center. But when I play that DVD on any other computer (using Windows XP or Vista), the menu buttons do not work, and their functions are moved to blank space off to the left of each menu item. That is, the cursor arrow remains an arrow with no function when positioned over the button text, but either works as an arrow to select a program, or changes to a pointing hand (depending on the program playing the DVD) when moved off to the left of the text. And clicking on that blank space will play the proper program item.

 

When the DVD is placed in a standard DVD player, no menu selection is apparent on the TV screen, but if you are aware of this quirk, it is possible to select "down" once or twice to select the second or third item. Of course, pressing Enter without going "down" plays the default first menu item.

 

I've been using Roxio products for many years, and have never seen anything like this in the past. I can't find any solution within the program, either in the way I've set things in this project or from the help files in general. Does anyone have a clue about what to do?

 

This is Roxio Special Edition 2010 (with the USB capture device) w/ all updates, running under Windows 7 with all updates on a home-built system with an Intel Core 2 Quad processor and 4 gigs RAM (3.25 usable). In My DVD, I used the default (Blue/Silver) menu item.

[Wyvern]

Wyvern use of the term "HD" is wrong. He means "HQ" but that does not distract in anyway from his overall solution…

 

Oops. In my mind I did a substitution and didn't recheck that one.

 

As to quality, I'm using to make disk from TiVo recordings of kids programs so that they can watch them in the car. As the TiVo utility limits the quality, it doesn't make a lot of difference.

[ggrussell]

"HQ" makes more sense. If you are making DVD successfully from Tivo files, maybe you could write up a short tutorial. There is another thread where MyDVD wouldn't import the file correctly. Maybe it's a setting in the Tivo software or something.

[bimicher]

I have used the Roxio Video Capture USB device to record three half-hour programs, then brought those into MY DVD to create a disc. I set the program to create chapter divisions every three minutes, but not to create any chapter menus. (I want the buttons to simply play each video from the beginning.)

 

When I test it using the preview mode, it works perfectly, and when I burn the DVD, it plays correctly on the computer on which it was made, whether using Roxio's CinePlayer, Windows Media Player or Windows Media Center. But when I play that DVD on any other computer (using Windows XP or Vista), the menu buttons do not work, and their functions are moved to blank space off to the left of each menu item. That is, the cursor arrow remains an arrow with no function when positioned over the button text, but either works as an arrow to select a program, or changes to a pointing hand (depending on the program playing the DVD) when moved off to the left of the text. And clicking on that blank space will play the proper program item.

 

When the DVD is placed in a standard DVD player, no menu selection is apparent on the TV screen, but if you are aware of this quirk, it is possible to select "down" once or twice to select the second or third item. Of course, pressing Enter without going "down" plays the default first menu item.

 

I've been using Roxio products for many years, and have never seen anything like this in the past. I can't find any solution within the program, either in the way I've set things in this project or from the help files in general. Does anyone have a clue about what to do?

 

This is Roxio Special Edition 2010 (with the USB capture device) w/ all updates, running under Windows 7 with all updates on a home-built system with an Intel Core 2 Quad processor and 4 gigs RAM (3.25 usable). In My DVD, I used the default (Blue/Silver) menu item.

 

Since the DVD does play correctly on your computer syste, that seems to indicate that the software works properly. The problem may well be with the media you are using. What make of DVD are you using? Most of us recommend Verbatims.

Have you tried on of the menu styles? Have you tried using either the software or hardware render option (under Tools/options)?

 

Since your 3 half hour videos cannot fit on a DVD at best quality (HQ), you are propably using one of the lower quality settings, maybe even Fit-to-Disc which gives very poor results. You could burn to an image file (iso) at HQ quality and the using Burn Image to Disc burn the iso file to a DVD. This method transcodes the video to fit on the DVD but does a lot better job then any of the "default" compressions.

[Old Greg]

I've had this problem the entire time I've used this product. It is entirely a software problem.

I suspected as much!

 

I had a very tedious work around ... until about five days ago. Now it easy and quick to solve this problem. I've built four double layer (8.5Gb) DVDs this way and they perform as desired.

 

First lay out your DVD as you want it. Then when you are ready to burn the DVD, do the following:

 

* Under the "File" menu, select "Project Settings...".

* Go to the "Default encoding settings" and set "Preset:" to "High Definition (HD)".

* Press "OK" to close this window.

* On the right side of the window is a square with two check marks. Press it to get more settings.

* On the left bottom is the "Project View" select "Movies".

* Click on the first item in that line. The movie show start playing and show its settings on the right side of the window.

* On the right panel, click the "X" next to "Use project default encode settings" to allow changing the settings.

* Under "Preset" on the right panel select "Standard Play (SP).

* Click on the next movie clip and set it to "Standard Play (SP)" as above.

* Repeat for each movie clip.

 

Now you are ready to press the Burn button.

 

The menu will be in HD and the movie in SP.

 

Good luck.

Thanks! I don't mind using a workaround that's as simple as this one is. But I hope Roxio gets this fixed with a patch. We paid for fully functioning software and shouldn't have to hope they get it right again in the next version!

 

By the way, I do agree that higher quality levels are much to be desired. But this was a conversion from some VHS tapes which were not all that great-looking when they were new. I can't tell the difference between the source material and the SP quality level of the digital recording, so there's really no sense in spending the disk space to go with HQ for this one.

 

Thanks,

Greg

[Old Greg]

Since the DVD does play correctly on your computer syste, that seems to indicate that the software works properly. The problem may well be with the media you are using. What make of DVD are you using? Most of us recommend Verbatims.

The DVDs I normally use are Verbatim 16X Inkjet hub-printable DVD+R discs. I also tried some older Magnavox 8X (non-printable) DVDs I had and got the same results.

 

Have you tried on of the menu styles? Have you tried using either the software or hardware render option (under Tools/options)?

In terms of menu styles, the default one wasn't objectionable, so I simply left it in place. If nothing else, I figured the default setting would not cause any problems. Bad thinking?

 

I have things set to use Hardware Rendering, as I've always believed it to provide the best results, but the first DVD I burned may have been set to Software Rendering before I thought to check that setting. I'm not certain, as I've checked into so many things trying to solve this. But I do recall changing it from software to hardware rendering at some point early on.

 

Since your 3 half hour videos cannot fit on a DVD at best quality (HQ), you are propably using one of the lower quality settings, maybe even Fit-to-Disc which gives very poor results. You could burn to an image file (iso) at HQ quality and the using Burn Image to Disc burn the iso file to a DVD. This method transcodes the video to fit on the DVD but does a lot better job then any of the "default" compressions.

I had set it to use Standard Quality compression, as that was the level of the original recordings, and has always been what I've used in past versions of Roxio. It's never failed to work properly before, so I had no reason to think it would not work now. The default was "Fit to Disc" which caused problems in past versions, so I avoid it. DVDs burned at that setting were unreliable when it came to playing in standard DVD players, as though they were not always able to decode whatever compression it used. But it never occurred to me that the compression level in the movies would have anything to do with correct performance of the DVD's menu!

 

Your mention of image files reminds me of another question which may be related. I did save the last version as an ISO file, although still at Standard Quality, but expected problems when I would eventually burn to disc because the disc type was set to "-R" and grayed out so that I couldn't change it to "+R". (It burned OK, but still had the same problem as when I burned directly to DVD.) Since I primarily use +R discs because they're far more likely to play on general DVD players (I've only run into one which required -R discs), I'm curious why they've frozen the choice at -R. In previous versions I was always able to change that setting to match what I was burning. Both of the DVD burners in my system are compatible with both +R and -R discs, so it shouldn't be a hardware issue. But I can't think of any other reason it would not let me change it. Or maybe that setting is a non-issue? I can't say that I understand the difference between +R and -R DVDs, but I know the difference is significant.

 

I will try saving an ISO at HQ compression, then burn that to a disc and see what happens. It never occurred to me that it would even let me use a disc which wasn't supposed to fit the compression level used to save the ISO. I suppose the worst that can happen is just another wasted disc!

 

Thanks!

 

[Wyvern]

I've had this problem the entire time I've used this product. It is entirely a software problem. It is not your hardware or the DVDs you are using. The menus only work properly if they are generated at the HD level.

 

I had a very tedious work around ... until about five days ago. Now it easy and quick to solve this problem. I've built four double layer (8.5Gb) DVDs this way and they perform as desired.

 

First lay out your DVD as you want it. Then when you are ready to burn the DVD, do the following:

 

* Under the "File" menu, select "Project Settings...".

* Go to the "Default encoding settings" and set "Preset:" to "High Definition (HD)".

* Press "OK" to close this window.

* On the right side of the window is a square with two check marks. Press it to get more settings.

* On the left bottom is the "Project View" select "Movies".

* Click on the first item in that line. The movie show start playing and show its settings on the right side of the window.

* On the right panel, click the "X" next to "Use project default encode settings" to allow changing the settings.

* Under "Preset" on the right panel select "Standard Play (SP).

* Click on the next movie clip and set it to "Standard Play (SP)" as above.

* Repeat for each movie clip.

 

Now you are ready to press the Burn button.

 

The menu will be in HD and the movie in SP.

 

Good luck.

[ggrussell]

The menu will be in HD and the movie in SP.

Interesting trick - but tell me what DVD player do you have that will playback high definition menu?

 

I have burned hundreds of DVDs and have never had any problems with menus. If you check out the pinned post at the top of the 'How to' forum (see the 'Menu Buttons Not Highlighting' thread), you will see there is a known issue when trying to use the lowest resolution settings. Personally, I hardly ever put more than one hour a 4.7 disc and NEVER over 1.5 hr.

[Wyvern]

Interesting trick - but tell me what DVD player do you have that will playback high definition menu?

 

I have burned hundreds of DVDs and have never had any problems with menus. If you check out the pinned post at the top of the 'How to' forum (see the 'Menu Buttons Not Highlighting' thread), you will see there is a known issue when trying to use the lowest resolution settings. Personally, I hardly ever put more than one hour a 4.7 disc and NEVER over 1.5 hr.

 

The definition of HD for DVDs is not related to HD as in HDTV. DVD players which can play HD mode have been the standard for a long time. When single layer DVD were what was available for Movie DVDs, they were recorded in Standard Play mode. They could get about 2 hours on a DVD, which fit most movies. (Some longer movies were issued on double sided DVDs which had to be flipped.) For a number of years the double layer DVDs have been the standard used for movie DVDs; they are now recorded in the HD mode. It provides a better quality than before.

 

If you use the "Fit to Disk" and keep it to around an hour, your disk will be recorded in the HD mode. Except if the original movie clips are in a lower mode, they are left alone.

 

As to my above method, I have built several disks which have three hours on a 8.5Gb double layer disk. They (including the menu) would as expected in four different DVD players we have. They include a couple of cheap ones and a Blu-Ray player.

 

[Jim_Hardin]

The definition of HD for DVDs is not related to HD as in HDTV. DVD players which can play HD mode have been the standard for a long time. When single layer DVD were what was available for Movie DVDs, they were recorded in Standard Play mode. They could get about 2 hours on a DVD, which fit most movies. (Some longer movies were issued on double sided DVDs which had to be flipped.) For a number of years the double layer DVDs have been the standard used for movie DVDs; they are now recorded in the HD mode. It provides a better quality than before.

 

If you use the "Fit to Disk" and keep it to around an hour, your disk will be recorded in the HD mode. Except if the original movie clips are in a lower mode, they are left alone.

 

As to my above method, I have built several disks which have three hours on a 8.5Gb double layer disk. They (including the menu) would as expected in four different DVD players we have. They include a couple of cheap ones and a Blu-Ray player.

I am still on my first cup of coffee, but this does appear to work!

 

Wyvern use of the term "HD" is wrong. He means "HQ" but that does not distract in anyway from his overall solution…

 

I will use it in my test projects today to confirm but it really looks like a promising workaround!!!

 

As far as the Quality of a disc, I consider myself a Video Snob - the clearer, sharper the image, the better I like it!!!

 

But we have to recognize that a majority are happy with the results SP or LP and let it go at that. Leading a Horse to Water situation I suppose…