Unable To Control Flow From One Movie To Another

[Alan Kough]

If I use the option in "file->project settings->play movie and all remaining movies in project", it does exactly that: when the user selects a movie, the selection plays, followed by the next, etc. until all have been played.

 

If, however, I attempt to control the flow with the settings for each movie individually, it doesn't seem to work.

 

For example, I had a situation where I wanted the first movie to play, then return to the menu. Then, if the user selected the second, I wanted the second to play, followed by the third, fourth, etc. without returning to the menu in between.

 

I un-checked the "play movie an all remaining movies in project", and for the settings for the first movie, I selected "menu" in the "after playing" choices. Then, for movie 2, I selected movie 3 in the after playing choices, and movie 4 in the after playing choices for movie 3, etc.

 

What happens is that the first one plays correctly (returns to the menu). The second is followed by the third, as specified, but after the third, it returns to the menu, even though the "after playing" choice is to play movie 4.

 

I've experimented with this a little, and it seems that it will never play more than two in a row without returning to the menu, unless the overall project setting is changed.

 

I'd really like to be able to mix and match--has anyone discovered a way to do this?

 

Second question: One of the "after playing" choices is "use title action". Does anyone know the definition of this? It seems like all this choice offers is just another way of saying "return to menu".

 

Thanks!

[Alan Kough]

Sorry I am a little short on time this morning.

 

The “Action” is for the Highlighted Button, not the movie.

 

I am out of town, so I can’t confirm this but I think if you click on the Movie Tab, in the left Project Pane, then click on a Movie, you will be able to control it the way you want???

 

If anyone wants to jump in here, the water is fine

 

Thank you very much for trying to help.

 

I'm sorry to be so dense, but I don't understand what you said. "The Action is for the Highlighted Button, not the movie"

 

In my examples above, if I click on the movie in the left pane, both it and the button which represents it on the menu

(center pane) are highlighted--then the options for "after playing" are in the drop-down on the right pane. So, I'm thinking that in my first screen capture above, where "1" is the highlighted movie and "1" is also the highlighted menu item, then the "after playing" option of "2" means "If the user selects "1" on the menu, play movie "1" and then play movie "2" immediately afterwards. Is this not correct?

 

Interestingly enough, this is the way it works for 1 and 2, but after 2, it returns to the menu. Also interesting is that if you start with "2", it will play 2 and 3, and then return to the menu. Similarly, if you start with "3", it plays 3 and 4, and then returns to the menu. In other words, even though in my example above, they should all play in sequence, only two will play in a row, regardless of where you start.

 

I also tried you suggestion of clicking on the movies tab in the left pane. Unfortunately, if you do that, and then click on a movie, the right pane changes to a completely different view, with no way to control the flow:

 

[bimicher]

Thanks for your interest!

 

Your diagram isn't quite what's happening, and I don't know how to draw one on this board, so I'm going to have to try it again in text:

 

 

 

I have five separate clips, each with its own entry on the menu.

 

What I want:

 

If the user selects "one", I want it to play "one", and then return to the menu.

 

If the user selects "two", I want it to play "two", and then return to the menu.

 

If the user selects "three", I want it to play "three", then play "four", then play "five", then return to the menu.

 

If the user selects "four", I want it to play "four", then "five", then return to the menu.

 

If the user selects "five", I want it to play "five", then return to the menu.

 

What happens:

 

"one" and "two" work exactly the way I want them to.

 

however:

 

If the user selects "three", it plays "three" and "four", then returns to the menu without playing "five". This is where the problem, I believe, is.

If the user selects "four", it plays "four", then "five", as I expected.

 

If you look at the screen captures I posted on June 3 (which is just a small test project I put together to illustrate what I believe the problem to be), I have five clips, each defined so that the "after playing" option is to play the next in sequence. (This is not what I wanted to do in my original project, but it illustrates the problem.) In other words, wherever you start, it should play all the remaining clips before returning to the menu. What I've found, however, is that it will never play more than two, without returning to the menu. For example, if you start at "one", it plays "one", "two", then menu. If you start at "two", it plays "two", "three", then menu.

 

I would love for somebody to try a similar small test project and see if it is just me. I may be totally misunderstanding the meaning of "after playing".

 

Again, thanks very much for your help.

 

I have duplicated your setup and have the same problem. So far I have only tested in the preview, will now burn a DVD and see if the problem carries over.

 

I have noticed a problem with the menu system for several version and it has been reported but Roxio seems to ignore it.

[sknis]

Thanks for your interest!

 

Your diagram isn't quite what's happening, and I don't know how to draw one on this board, so I'm going to have to try it again in text:

 

 

 

I have five separate clips, each with its own entry on the menu.

 

What I want:

 

If the user selects "one", I want it to play "one", and then return to the menu.

 

If the user selects "two", I want it to play "two", and then return to the menu.

 

If the user selects "three", I want it to play "three", then play "four", then play "five", then return to the menu.

 

If the user selects "four", I want it to play "four", then "five", then return to the menu.

 

If the user selects "five", I want it to play "five", then return to the menu.

 

What happens:

 

"one" and "two" work exactly the way I want them to.

 

however:

 

If the user selects "three", it plays "three" and "four", then returns to the menu without playing "five". This is where the problem, I believe, is.

If the user selects "four", it plays "four", then "five", as I expected.

 

If you look at the screen captures I posted on June 3 (which is just a small test project I put together to illustrate what I believe the problem to be), I have five clips, each defined so that the "after playing" option is to play the next in sequence. (This is not what I wanted to do in my original project, but it illustrates the problem.) In other words, wherever you start, it should play all the remaining clips before returning to the menu. What I've found, however, is that it will never play more than two, without returning to the menu. For example, if you start at "one", it plays "one", "two", then menu. If you start at "two", it plays "two", "three", then menu.

 

I would love for somebody to try a similar small test project and see if it is just me. I may be totally misunderstanding the meaning of "after playing".

 

Again, thanks very much for your help.

 

It is probably a bug and will not be fixed.

 

Add one

Add two,

Add 3, 4 and 5 together As one button

Add 4 and 5 together as one button

Add 5

 

Note that you never said if you want 3 and 4 to play separately and return to menu. If so, you would add each of those as a separate button. You can name them to indocate that they are just one piece or two or more pieces.

 

You can add the same music piece more than once. I'm not sure if yoy are going to run into space problems but if the total time on the disc is about 1 1/2 hours it will still be of good quality.

[Martin Dekker]

Alan,

 

Yep, I can reproduce your issue... can't solve it though I as well would expect the items to play in the sequence you described, but indeed only a maximum of two items get played for each menu item, after which it will return to the menu (no matter what your settings are for the second item in the sequence). Just as you described.

 

The way I worked around this undocumented feature:

 

1 - Create one movie from the clips you want to be played sequencially (I used VideoWave, but you can use any other video editing program: just put the clips on the timeline and create a movie-file of your project)

2 - Open My DVD

3 - Add the first movie after which you want to return to the menu and set the settings as you described in your earlier post

4 - Add the second movie after which you want to return to the menu and set the settings as you described in your earlier post

5 - Add the movie you created in step one

6 - Add chapters to the movie you just added in step 5 ("edit chapters" in mid left pane)

 

The result will be slightly different as you wished, since not all clips will be listed in one row: there will be a submenu for the sequence of clips you added at step 5... but this is as close as I could get

 

Cheers,

 

Martin

[Alan Kough]

All the text is a little confusing for me, I like it a bit more visual and tried to draw it out. Is this what you described in your OP? Black being the flow you require, red and blue scenarios where it goes wrong.

 

Martin

 

Thanks for your interest!

 

Your diagram isn't quite what's happening, and I don't know how to draw one on this board, so I'm going to have to try it again in text:

 

 

 

I have five separate clips, each with its own entry on the menu.

 

What I want:

 

If the user selects "one", I want it to play "one", and then return to the menu.

 

If the user selects "two", I want it to play "two", and then return to the menu.

 

If the user selects "three", I want it to play "three", then play "four", then play "five", then return to the menu.

 

If the user selects "four", I want it to play "four", then "five", then return to the menu.

 

If the user selects "five", I want it to play "five", then return to the menu.

 

What happens:

 

"one" and "two" work exactly the way I want them to.

 

however:

 

If the user selects "three", it plays "three" and "four", then returns to the menu without playing "five". This is where the problem, I believe, is.

If the user selects "four", it plays "four", then "five", as I expected.

 

If you look at the screen captures I posted on June 3 (which is just a small test project I put together to illustrate what I believe the problem to be), I have five clips, each defined so that the "after playing" option is to play the next in sequence. (This is not what I wanted to do in my original project, but it illustrates the problem.) In other words, wherever you start, it should play all the remaining clips before returning to the menu. What I've found, however, is that it will never play more than two, without returning to the menu. For example, if you start at "one", it plays "one", "two", then menu. If you start at "two", it plays "two", "three", then menu.

 

I would love for somebody to try a similar small test project and see if it is just me. I may be totally misunderstanding the meaning of "after playing".

 

Again, thanks very much for your help.

[Alan Kough]

You said "Then, I put the individual pieces that the group performed onto the menu, and wanted it set so that after the user played the first piece, it would automatically NOT return to the menu, but instead play all of the performance in sequence."

 

I'm still having trouble understanding. Let's say you have the third piece and you want the DVD to show that third piece and then go on to four and five. After playing 5, you want the DVD to go back to the menu. Is that correct? Another time you want to be able to select the fourth piece of music and then what?

 

It looks like you are going to have to duplicate buttons and navigation to do what you want and with an hour concert plus there will be a problem with the amount of time on the disc.

 

If you are still having trouble with the navigation, then there is a glitch in the program so you cannot do what you want. There has been navigation issues with previous versions and it looks like it has never been corrected.

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry.

 

Perhaps someone else can help, you may need to have a different piece of software or you may have to change what you want to do.

 

 

Again, thank you very much for trying to help. I'm sorry I've been unable to make it clear, but I'll try to explain it two different ways:

 

First Explanation:

 

I have five separate clips, each with its own entry on the menu.

 

If the user selects "one", I want it to play "one", and then return to the menu.

 

If the user selects "two", I want it to play "two", and then return to the menu.

 

If the user selects "three", I want it to play "three", then play "four", then play "five", then return to the menu.

 

If the user selects "four", I want it to play "four", then "five", then return to the menu.

 

If the user selects "five", I want it to play "five", then return to the menu.

 

Second Explanation:

 

Please look at the five screen captures I posted above (June 3). In this example, (which is a second case of what I believe to be the same problem), I THINK I've got it set so that:

 

If the user selects "1", it will play "1", then "2", then "3", then "4", then "5".

 

If the user selects "2", it will play "2", then "3", "4", and "5".

 

If the user selects "3", it will play "3", then "4", then "5".

 

If the user selects "4", it will play "4", then "5".

 

If the user selects "5", it will play "5".

 

Do those screen captures show that I've set it up that way? If not, then I'm totally misunderstanding what "after playing" means.

 

If they do mean what I think they mean, then here's the problem: No matter where you start, it will only play two clips, then return to the menu. So, for example, if you start at "1", it plays "1", "2", then menu. If you start at "2", it plays "2", then "3", then menu.

 

I would love for someone to try setting up a test project similar to my screen captures, and tell me if it's just me or really a bug.

 

Again, thank you for your help.

[Martin Dekker]

All the text is a little confusing for me, I like it a bit more visual and tried to draw it out. Is this what you described in your OP? Black being the flow you require, red and blue scenarios where it goes wrong.

 

Martin

[sknis]

You said "Then, I put the individual pieces that the group performed onto the menu, and wanted it set so that after the user played the first piece, it would automatically NOT return to the menu, but instead play all of the performance in sequence."

 

I'm still having trouble understanding. Let's say you have the third piece and you want the DVD to show that third piece and then go on to four and five. After playing 5, you want the DVD to go back to the menu. Is that correct? Another time you want to be able to select the fourth piece of music and then what?

 

It looks like you are going to have to duplicate buttons and navigation to do what you want and with an hour concert plus there will be a problem with the amount of time on the disc.

 

If you are still having trouble with the navigation, then there is a glitch in the program so you cannot do what you want. There has been navigation issues with previous versions and it looks like it has never been corrected.

 

Sorry.

 

Perhaps someone else can help, you may need to have a different piece of software or you may have to change what you want to do.

[Alan Kough]

OK thanks, That helps:

 

 

My concept for the final DVD was to put the program slide show on the menu first, after which I wanted it to return to the menu.

 

Add the program slide show as an Intro Movie. That will start playing as soon as the DVD player is ready. After playing this intro, the program will go to the menu.

 

>>Understood. I'd prefer not to use an intro movie, though.

 

 

Then, I wanted the screen capture slide show on the menu second, after which I also wanted it to return to the menu.

 

This would now be the first menu Item after playing this, the normal is to return to the menu.

 

Then, I put the individual pieces that the group performed onto the menu, and wanted it set so that after the user played the first piece, it would automatically NOT return to the menu, but instead play all of the performance in sequence.

 

Here is where I need a little more clarification: Do you want the person watching the video to have only the options you posted (start at first piece and continue to the end) OR do you want that PLUS the person to select each individual piece?

 

>>Yes, I want the person watching the video to have only those options I posted.

 

If you want the person watching the video to select the first piece and then go through the entire concert than that is pretty easy. When you go to add the individual pieces of music, select them all in the order you want (CTRL-Enter). When you have done that and click OK, you will get a pop up asking if you want them all as one piece or individually. If you select one piece, then that will be button 2. If the person selects button 2 they will watch the entire concert and not return to the menu until it is finished.

 

>>Yes, you're quite right--it's easy to get it to play all in sequence without returning to the menu. What I can't get it to do is have some return to the menu and some not.

 

There are some other things you can think about. If you add chapters, then selecting button 2 will go to submenus where the person can select where to start watching the concert. From where they start the concert will continue to go to the end without returning to the menu.

 

How many pieces were in the concert? If you want each piece as a separate menu item, add them individually and then do as above for both options.

 

>>There were 8 pieces in the concert. I see how to add each individually as a separate menu item, but that doesn't get me where I want to go.

 

In my first reply, I asked how much video you wanted to put on the disc. You can put a total of one hour of best quality (isn't that what you want) on a single layer DVD; double that for a dual layer DVD. Most every burner will do DL and most every player will play them. Commercial discs are usually DL.

 

>> Understood. The total for everything is just under one hour, so I can get it to fit in high quality mode. The interesting thing is, though, that in the screen captures I posted above, I made just a little test project with 5 movies each less than a minute long. Exactly the same thing happens--no matter where you start on the menu, it will play two, and then return to the menu, even though the third says to continue to the fourth. That's the real problem.

This is important to factor in to what you can do on the disc.

 

Post back if you need some clarifications.

 

 

 

[sknis]

OK thanks, That helps:

 

 

My concept for the final DVD was to put the program slide show on the menu first, after which I wanted it to return to the menu.

 

Add the program slide show as an Intro Movie. That will start playing as soon as the DVD player is ready. After playing this intro, the program will go to the menu.

 

 

Then, I wanted the screen capture slide show on the menu second, after which I also wanted it to return to the menu.

 

This would now be the first menu Item after playing this, the normal is to return to the menu.

 

Then, I put the individual pieces that the group performed onto the menu, and wanted it set so that after the user played the first piece, it would automatically NOT return to the menu, but instead play all of the performance in sequence.

 

Here is where I need a little more clarification: Do you want the person watching the video to have only the options you posted (start at first piece and continue to the end) OR do you want that PLUS the person to select each individual piece?

 

If you want the person watching the video to select the first piece and then go through the entire concert than that is pretty easy. When you go to add the individual pieces of music, select them all in the order you want (CTRL-Enter). When you have done that and click OK, you will get a pop up asking if you want them all as one piece or individually. If you select one piece, then that will be button 2. If the person selects button 2 they will watch the entire concert and not return to the menu until it is finished.

 

There are some other things you can think about. If you add chapters, then selecting button 2 will go to submenus where the person can select where to start watching the concert. From where they start the concert will continue to go to the end without returning to the menu.

 

How many pieces were in the concert? If you want each piece as a separate menu item, add them individually and then do as above for both options.

 

In my first reply, I asked how much video you wanted to put on the disc. You can put a total of one hour of best quality (isn't that what you want) on a single layer DVD; double that for a dual layer DVD. Most every burner will do DL and most every player will play them. Commercial discs are usually DL.

 

This is important to factor in to what you can do on the disc.

 

Post back if you need some clarifications.

 

 

 

[Jim_Hardin]

Sorry I am a little short on time this morning.

 

The “Action” is for the Highlighted Button, not the movie.

 

I am out of town, so I can’t confirm this but I think if you click on the Movie Tab, in the left Project Pane, then click on a Movie, you will be able to control it the way you want???

 

If anyone wants to jump in here, the water is fine

[Alan Kough]

Some Screen Caps would go a long way here (HERE)

 

The Project View pane in the Lower Left of MyDVD is really useful

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you sknis and Jim Hardin for your interest.

 

I've made a short project which demonstrates the problem, and below are the screen captures which illustrate it.

 

I've added 5 individual movies as shown (labeled 1-5), and set "after playing" for movie #1 to be play #2:

 

 

Then I set "after playing for movie #2 to be play #3.

 

 

Similarly, after playing 3, play 4, and after playing 4, play 5.

 

 

 

 

However, when you actually run this project, it plays 1, followed by 2, and then returns to the menu instead of playing 3.

 

The only way I've found to get around this is to set the "project settings" to "play all movies in sequence", which would work fine for this simple example, but doesn't work if you want to have some movies return to the menu and others not, depending on the actual project.

 

If it helps, here's how I ran in to this situation. I recorded a concert with my camera. I took the raw video, and edited it into individual clips, one per selection that the group performed. Then I took the printed concert program, scanned it, and turned the scanned images into a slide show. Finally, I took individual screen captures of the performers, and turned them into a slide show also.

 

My concept for the final DVD was to put the program slide show on the menu first, after which I wanted it to return to the menu. Then, I wanted the screen capture slide show on the menu second, after which I also wanted it to return to the menu. Then, I put the individual pieces that the group performed onto the menu, and wanted it set so that after the user played the first piece, it would automatically NOT return to the menu, but instead play all of the performance in sequence. I thought to do it that way because then the viewer would also have the option of choosing any individual piece from the menu, if he or she only wanted to see that one, but could also watch the entire concert without interruption if they wished.

 

Again, thank you for your interest--does that explain it any better?

[Jim_Hardin]

Some Screen Caps would go a long way here (HERE)

 

The Project View pane in the Lower Left of MyDVD is really useful

 

[sknis]

Thank you for your reply, sknis. To make sure we're on the same terms, I'm using individual video clips from my camera--I haven't divided them up into "chapters" yet in Roxio.

 

The reason I don't think I'm asking too much of the application is that Roxio is giving me the option of what to do next when a clip finishes--at least that's what I interpret the "after playing" choices to be. If I don't use the over-ride in "project settings" to have it play all movies in sequence, but instead try to "mix and match" (having some return to the menu and some not), it doesn't work.

 

I'd also still like to know exactly what the definition of "use title action" is in the "after playing" choices.

 

I always thought that it meant to return to the menu. There is no formal definition in the help menu that I can find.

 

How many clips do you intend to put into the production and what is the total time for the production? Are you using the clips in their entirety or are you intending to edit them? Please remember that Edit Video -Advanced is the video editor part of the program where you can cut out sections or put sections (clips together). You can put clips together to play as one movie in Creator DVD by selecting add movie and then using Windows to select more than one.

 

For the ones where you want to play them and then the next one(s) in sequence, do you always want to play them that way or do you want them to return to the menu some times.? Do you want every one of the clips to return to the menu sometimes?

 

Perhaps someone else has made a DVD with the choices you want and has some better ideas.

[Alan Kough]

First make sure we are on the same terms. A movie is like a book. It is complete, Chapters are like chapters in the book. Chapters act like chapters in the book in that you can start at any place but the remaining chapeters follow.

 

If I understood what you are asking for, I think you are asking too much of this program. If this is a commercial applicqtion, you can look at the old DVDIt. It may be able to do what you want.

 

How much time are you trying to put onto the disc? You may be able to play around with setting movies and chapters if the total time is short.

 

Thank you for your reply, sknis. To make sure we're on the same terms, I'm using individual video clips from my camera--I haven't divided them up into "chapters" yet in Roxio.

 

The reason I don't think I'm asking too much of the application is that Roxio is giving me the option of what to do next when a clip finishes--at least that's what I interpret the "after playing" choices to be. If I don't use the over-ride in "project settings" to have it play all movies in sequence, but instead try to "mix and match" (having some return to the menu and some not), it doesn't work.

 

I'd also still like to know exactly what the definition of "use title action" is in the "after playing" choices.

[sknis]

If I use the option in "file->project settings->play movie and all remaining movies in project", it does exactly that: when the user selects a movie, the selection plays, followed by the next, etc. until all have been played.

 

If, however, I attempt to control the flow with the settings for each movie individually, it doesn't seem to work.

 

For example, I had a situation where I wanted the first movie to play, then return to the menu. Then, if the user selected the second, I wanted the second to play, followed by the third, fourth, etc. without returning to the menu in between.

I un-checked the "play movie an all remaining movies in project", and for the settings for the first movie, I selected "menu" in the "after playing" choices. Then, for movie 2, I selected movie 3 in the after playing choices, and movie 4 in the after playing choices for movie 3, etc.

 

What happens is that the first one plays correctly (returns to the menu). The second is followed by the third, as specified, but after the third, it returns to the menu, even though the "after playing" choice is to play movie 4.

 

I've experimented with this a little, and it seems that it will never play more than two in a row without returning to the menu, unless the overall project setting is changed.

 

I'd really like to be able to mix and match--has anyone discovered a way to do this?

 

Second question: One of the "after playing" choices is "use title action". Does anyone know the definition of this? It seems like all this choice offers is just another way of saying "return to menu".

 

Thanks!

 

First make sure we are on the same terms. A movie is like a book. It is complete, Chapters are like chapters in the book. Chapters act like chapters in the book in that you can start at any place but the remaining chapeters follow.

 

If I understood what you are asking for, I think you are asking too much of this program. If this is a commercial applicqtion, you can look at the old DVDIt. It may be able to do what you want.

 

How much time are you trying to put onto the disc? You may be able to play around with setting movies and chapters if the total time is short.