DVD menus don't function properly

[bernares]

Hello Everyone, hopefully someone can give me a hand.

 

I have been using Roxio EMC 8 to edit a wedding video for a relative (using Videowave). I have a video of the ceremony and the reception exported as MPEG2 videos. I also have three slideshows exported as MPEG2. When I used MyDVD to work on the DVD menu itself I had two specific and unnerving (because I couldn't solve them) problems creep up.

 

First, When I added all five titles to the menu, both in the preview and on the final DVD, the titles would highlight erratically. Pressing the down arrow in both would get three of the titles in no specific order to highlight and then pressing up would get a different set of three to highlight, as would using the right arrow. This was quite annoying but I could get to each title with a convoluted order of right, up, and down cllicks.

 

Second, after selecting one of the tiltes and watching it, two of the five failed to return to the menu after playing - the DVD stopped and the player moved on to the next disc.

 

Of note, redoing the entire project, burning straight to the disc or to an ISO first, deleting and reimporting the titles, and reordering the titles did not solve the problem.

[Larry]

A new question, this about button creation. I have MyDVD Premiere 8. For whatever reason I cannot create unlinked buttons. Why would this not be working?

 

Thanks...

Because it's a feature they only included in the EMC 8 Deluxe Suite.

[Charlie22]

Yes, The size of the menu buttons does make a difference when selecting them. If some are too short they will be skipped. To all users: keep them all the same size with spaces on the end. To check and compare the length use select all.

[Tim T]

Ok, I took the time to go back and re-create the images for the DVDs that had menu problems and here's what I found. My "solution" might only work for the Brook menu style since this is the only one I have used. As mentioned before, the problem with the menus is related to the length of the text placed next to the video clip thumbnails. For instance, using the following title for one of the thumbnails would most likely cause the issue of being unable to select that video clip when using the right arrow on the DVD player remote.

 

|--------|

| video |

|--------|

John and Jane's 20th wedding

anniversary party at the Space

Needle on September 29, 2006

 

If the above example is the 6th video clip on my menu, I would be able to scroll right to select videos 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. However, I would not be able to select video 6. In some cases I found that I could select the video by highlighting video 3 and then using the down arrow instead of the right arrow.

 

The Brook menu style looks like this.

 

1 2 3

4 5 6

 

What I would recommend is to limit your video titles to 1 line if possible with 2 lines being the max. I've had the menu problem almost every time I created a title with 3 lines of text. Also, make sure the text does not go beyond the right edge of the thumbnail. For instance, in the above example I would need to limit the text to "John and" to keep it from going beyond the edge of the thumbnail.

 

Let's face it. MyDVD has a lot of problems with it's menu styles. In my opinion, these are bugs in the software that should have either been caught before it was releases or should have been corrected with a patch. For what ever reason, Roxio has chosen not to acknowledge the issue. I think the best we can do at this point is to understand the issue so that we can work around it.

 

If anyone decides to upgrade to EMC 9 and finds that the issue has been resolved, please let us know. At this point I won't be upgrading to EMC 9 since I've been rather disappointed with EMC 8/MyDVD 8.

[Kable]

This is my first time to this forum. I am another user with the same problem.

 

I have spent hours trying all sorts of different approaches and each time the video creation process has taken 2 hours and then the Home, "Next Screen"-arrow "Previous Screen"arrow do not work, Sometime the intial menu is absent.

 

I thought that it was me, or my laptop, or a bug that I could download an update for.

 

Have Roxio replied to anyone on this issue? What did they say? I am using version 8.

 

Kable

[Tim T]

http://forums.support.roxio.com/index.php?...amp;#entry20493

 

Take a look at this thread. It appears that the issue is related to the length of the title text below each video. I noted in my post above that typically the titles for videos 5 and 6 are much longer than the titles for videos 1 through 4. This might explain the common problem of not being able to select video 5.

 

Why the title text has anything to do with the select order is beyond me. Poor coding/testing if you ask me. The worst part about all this is that it takes 2 hours and 45 minutes for my system to encode and create the ISO image for each of my DVDs (110-120 minutes of video). With this kind of time commitment for each DVD, my testing will have to be limited.

 

Tim

[Tim T]

I too am having the same problem as mentioned above. I've spent the last couple of weeks trying to put together several DVDs. Each DVD contains 6 videos for a total of about 110 to 120 minutes. I am using the default menu layout. I basically rename "My Menu", change the background and add each of the six videos with a title. I'm not doing anything fancy with the menu setup and I've been very careful to add the videos in the appropriate order. The DVD that I created last night has the following menu problem.

 

"My Menu"

1 2 3

4 5 6

 

When using the right arrow button, the highlight jumps from 1 to 2, 2 to 3, 3 to 6. I can't select videos 4 and 5 using the right arrow button. I can however select videos 4 and 5 by going to video 6 and then using the left arrow. I've tested this on both a standalone DVD player and two computers. The menu functionality is the same. However, on a computer you can just click on the video you want to play.

 

So far I've created close to 10 similar DVDs. I'd say about half have some kind of problem with the menu. The most common problem is that I can't select video 5. The menu will jump from video 4 to 6. All the DVDs have 6 videos with the first 4 videos being about 25 minutes each. Videos 5 and 6 vary in length but are generally 3 to 5 minutes each.

 

The only thing that I can think of that is different about the videos that I can't select is typically their titles are longer. For instance, I usually have a title of "Day 1", "Day 2", etc for the first 4 videos. For videos 5 and 6, the titles are usually 25 to 50 characters and are split on 2 or 3 lines.

 

I'm creating these DVDs in MyDVD 8 that is bundeled with EMC 8. I have applied the latest update which is 805B30B. I see that someone mentioned problems with ATI video drivers. I'm using a computer with an ATI Radeon X850XT 256MB PCI-E card. However, I've upgraded my ATI drivers several times since I purchased EMC 8 in February 2006 and I've had the menu problem pretty much since day one. I just didn't realize what the issue was at first since I was only creating an occasional DVD. Now that I have a project to create up to 16 DVDs, I'm seeing the menu problem quite frequently. Needless to say, I'm quite frustrated.

 

I'm half tempted to upgrade to EMC 9 to see if that fixes the problem. However, I really hate to reward Roxio with another purchase since this is clearly a problem with their product.

 

Tim

[Charlie22]

This is my first time to this forum. And now you guys have another user with the same problem.

I didn't find this forum on Roxio support but with a google search. Roxio support is less than worthless and very frustrating. Roxann????

The menu buttons sometimes work and sometimes don't. They seem to work before you edit them. But even after editing, some menus work and some don't. I have a whole project saved that all buttons work and another project with some menus work and some don't. Go figure. Must be something in the way movies get added, but I don't remember what I did different.

 

I wonder if it has something to do with how many movies are added at a time?

 

Oh and I didn't rrealize there were two different versions of EMC8?? No wonder some functions don't work in mine. Is there only two? Mine says EMC8 Suite.

 

Sure hope someone from Roxio or another user reads this forum and comes up with an answer.

[Rob Fodder]

The way around it should be Roxio fixing the problem. It's poor programming if the fix is a "hack" that the end users have to come up with to make it do what it should of done out of the box.

 

-Rob

[chops11]

This is an unreal "bug". It basically makes the software useless. I have tried all the given templates, and at no time does any of them capture all the menu buttons. I take it noone has found a way around it?

[Rob Fodder]

I've tried several styles and found that none of menu buttons worked in any consistent manner. The only way I've been able to get the menus to behave close to what I want was to add and delete menus until the program puts them in the order I want. Outside of dumb luck, I don't know of another solution and even my adding / deleting produces random results.

 

One time I had my menus behaving, I then changed the text of one of the menu buttons. I checked in the preview for the menu ordering and the program decided that it would skip over that menu button. When I changed the text back, the program then decided that it was okay to select that menu button. Why would changing the button text change the menu order?

 

If anyone from Roxio is reading please do me / us a favor. Test your products with a fine tooth comb. Listen to the complaints of your customers and address them, especially if you would like us to continue buying your products. Get rid of the grayed out menus for features that are not available, that is a cheap ploy to get people to upgrade and is an insult to the customer. And make it really clear what features are or are not available for a particular version of a product. This includes the help documents that vaguely tell you that some features may not be available for the version of software that you have. Well then, if I don't have that feature, I don't want to know about it. It's as simple as that.

 

-Rob

 

p.s. If anyone has come up with a workaround for solving the problem with menu tab orders please let us know. I've been using Roxio MyDVD Premiere 8.

[malatekid]

For what ever it is worth - I just spent most of the evening carefully and thoughtfully putting together a large slide show for a wedding containing the Wedding style and over 500 photos with 6 menus. When all was done and checked carefully I burned a DVD and then found the menu problem. After another hour of trouble I checked here and found two things:

1- I am not the only one with the problem

2- The problem is real and there does NOT seem to be a solution

 

If there is a solution that does not take another day to impliment I would sure like to have it. If not I will have to go back to my previous application and start all over tomorrow not to mention my frustration over the $$ spent for the package

 

Any input or help would be appreciated

 

Jeff621

Just an idea.

 

Is there any particular style where you verified the menu navigation to work? If so, I am thinking of you using that style, then edit the background menu and change it to Wedding (maybe an avi file in the Roxio folder) as well as the audio (maybe an mp3 file in the Roxio folder). And don't move buttons around. I don't know if V8 allows you to tweak menu background (V9 does!). My idea is to preserve the navigation instruction that comes with the "working" style.

[jeff621]

For what ever it is worth - I just spent most of the evening carefully and thoughtfully putting together a large slide show for a wedding containing the Wedding style and over 500 photos with 6 menus. When all was done and checked carefully I burned a DVD and then found the menu problem. After another hour of trouble shooting I checked here and found two things:

1- I am not the only one with the problem

2- The problem is real and there does NOT seem to be a solution

 

If there is a solution that does not take another day to impliment I would sure like to have it. If not I will have to go back to my previous application and start all over tomorrow not to mention my frustration over the $$ spent for the package

 

Any input or help would be appreciated

 

Jeff621

[Rob Fodder]

You know Roxio is really ticking me off. Had they made it clear that Premiere DID NOT have that feature then I would of bought Deluxe. Instead, I pissed away the money for Premiere and ended up with half of what I really wanted.

[Rob Fodder]

A new question, this about button creation. I have MyDVD Premiere 8. For whatever reason I cannot create unlinked buttons. Why would this not be working?

 

Thanks...

[ggrussell]

Is there a way to view the menu selection order without the guesswork?

As far as I can tell, the button 'order' is the same as the order in the tree to the left and should be in the same order that you added the files.

Is it possible to fix the menu style to the button order that I would prefer?

Not that I know. I did accidently change the button order once by dragging the button titles in the tree, but never could repeat what i did.

[Rob Fodder]

Back to the topic of menus.

 

I'm glad that I'm not the only one having the problem with menus but also sad because the problem exists.

 

As mentioned in the thread already, I selected a menu style that appears to use a vertical button layout (at least when I create the buttons or arrange them, they are vertical) but moving up and down does not select them in order by appearance. Is there a way to view the menu selection order without the guesswork? Is it possible to fix the menu style to the button order that I would prefer?

 

Thanks,

Rob

[ggrussell]

No need to double post. I think you made your point. Everyone with ATI cards are reporting more problems than those with nVidia. The whole 'adding 3 movies' ONLY shows up with ATI cards so I think that proves the point whether you want to beleive it or not. I'm not the only user that hasn't had a single a problem with the menu styles. If it was an actual BUG in the software or menus, we would be seeing more posts on the subject.

[videomkr]

I recently did a memorial DVD. Had LOTS of problems with the default Brook menu style. Could not add a 3 movie without the blue screen of computer death popping up. I found that by creating my DVD using a simpler menu style and then switching back to the Brook menu style worked. You might try that -- creating in a different menu style and then switching back. I found it really frustrating, but must say I did eventually get it to work. There is obviously wrong with some of the style templates -- not necessarily the video card as many believe. I had 4 movies and actually used the top level of the Wedding menu style to create what I wanted before switching the menu style back to the Brook menu style.

[ggrussell]

There are several solutions for teh 'Play All'. Just do a search on the forum. You just need to rethink how you are creating the DVD menu.

[Beverly]

Regarding Issue #1 - I have had the exact same experience with the menus that you have had on the Wedding style. It is VERY frustrating. I am creating an anniversary DVD for my 74-year-old mother-in-law. She will never be able to play it by herself because she will never be able to figure out the combo of left down right up arrows to get back to the skipped menu item. Of course MyDVD 8 doesn't offer the "play all" feature that would allow all of us to get past using the menus at all.

[nehnevp]

I've never used the Wedding style, but the other styles with vertical text, you use the up/down only to navigate.

 

When adding individual titles to the main menu, they should all return to the main menu. No idea why they aren't. If you have EMC8 Deluxe, you could check under Settings to make sure.

 

 

I also am having serious navigational problems with the Wedding Style. The navigation is erratc even when I create a new project and create the buttons sequentially. If anyone has a solution to this, please let me know. As it now stands, on my submenu I cannot even get to one of the menu items (left-right, top-down, down-top, right-left...nothing will allow me to navigation to that button).

 

My assumption is that this style is broken and I will not use it (which only leaves two other styles that came bundled with the software).

[ggrussell]

I've never used the Wedding style, but the other styles with vertical text, you use the up/down only to navigate.

 

When adding individual titles to the main menu, they should all return to the main menu. No idea why they aren't. If you have EMC8 Deluxe, you could check under Settings to make sure.

[bernares]

I was using the wedding style, which lists the titles from 1 to 6 top to bottom. - Have you any suggestions as to why some titles don't return to the menu?

[ggrussell]

Which menu style are you using or modifying? Usually the button order is predetermined by the style and by the order you add the files. Some styles, the button navigation is by physical location instead of order. For example:

1 2 3

4 5 6

 

Obviously you would use left/right for the rows. NOT Up/Down. The Up/Down would be to change row (1 to 4). If 3 is highlighted, pressing Down would go to 6 (not 4).

 

This is how it works for me.