Control DVD menu behavior?

[faginbagin]

I am currently evaluating MovieFactory 4.0 Disk Creator TBYB. So far, I like it much better than InterVideo WinDVD Creator supplied for free with my Thinkpad. But I'm not happy with the user interface behavior of the DVDs MF4 creates when I play them back. So I'm wondering if there's some magic option or whether the full version creates DVDs with different, and hopefully preferable, behavior.

What I'm doing is creating DVDs with two to four titles. These titles make up the main menu and each title has it's own sub-menu with several chapters. During playback, menu navigation works as I expect. My issue is with what happens when I'm in the middle of playing a title and I hit the stop button, followed by the play button. When I do this with other DVDs (either those I've recorded or those I've rented), playback resumes at the same point where I stopped. But an MF4 DVD resumes at the main menu! It's very frustrating trying to get back to the same point. Yes, hitting the pause button does allow me to resume where I've left off. But I (and my family) have developed the habit of hitting stop, and old habits are hard to break. Is there any way I can change this behavior in MF4? If not, can anyone recommend another product?

Other annoying user interface behaviors with the DVDs produced by MF4:

- Thumbnail numbers on every menu page always starts at 1. I think it should show the actual chapter or title number (the same numbers shown by a dvd player's on-screen display or status display). IOW, if the layout is 4 thumbnails per page, I think numbering on page 2 should start with 5, page 3 with 9, etc.

- When I use the cursor buttons to navigate thrugh a menu, I think it should wrap around if I hit the edge of the screen.

- When I highlight the play button on the screen and then press enter, I think playback should begin with the first chapter shown on the current page. Instead playback begins with the first chapter of the first title.

In other words, I think a DVD authoring tool should, by default, produce DVDs with user interfaces that are consistent with the typical commercially produced DVD. If MF4 can't reproduce DVDs with defacto standard behavior, what products can?

Thanks in advance

[sjj1805]

It sounds like you need a mixture of
DVD Workshop 2 to create the main bulk of the menu
Burn it to a Hard Drive folder
then tweak it to your satisfaction with MenuEdit
http://www.dimadsoft.com/menuedit/

Regards
Steve J

[faginbagin]

Many thanks for the tip. I will look into it.

[faginbagin]

Hi Steve (or anyone familiar with DVD menu editing),

I'm hoping you can answer some questions about MenuEdit. I downloaded the free version, which is crippled. Whether I spend a few bucks will depend on your advice.

I noticed that it hasn't been updated since Nov, 2003. Seems it's been replaced by DvdReMake. Is is safe to assume you've been satisfied with MenuEdit and haven't seen the need to get DvdRemake?

It seems the focus of MenuEdit is on the buttons displayed in DVD menus. Can it help me solve my main problem of what happens when I press my remote's stop button followed by the play button? If so, can you briefly explain how? It sure isn't obvious tinkering with the free version.

I would like to change the behavior of each DVD menu's play button so it plays the first chapter shown. But the free version won't let me edit buttons. Will the registered version let me do this? I can see the command for the button, e.g. "g[0] = 60, LinkPGCN 60". Is the registered version as cryptic as the free version? I'm a software developer, but I don't know anything about DVD standards. Do you think I'll be able to figure out how to change the command of a button to get the behavior I want? Will it involve reading DVD specs? I'm not sure I'm willing to spend that much time on a learning curve to get what I want.

Will the registered version allow me to view and edit the text in the menus?

I figured out how to implement the wrap around behavior I'd like, but it involves editing just about every button on every menu. Is this any easier with the registered version?

Thanks in advance.

[sjj1805]

DVD Remake and MenuEdit are seperate programs.
DVD Remake claims to be able to merge two or more small DVD's into one big one whilst maintaining the original menus and structure.

The question of menu navigation and also having different moving thumbnails than the actual start of the chapter has been raised a few times in the past and so I have created a small tutorial here:

http://phpbb.ulead.com.tw/EN/viewtopic. ... 4478#54478

Regards

Steve J