Menu playing problem.

[DngrsDan]

First off....thank you Steve for all your assistance.
Yes, I read the manual you posted but I didn't find anything related to this.
Here's my dilemma :

I've set up the menu with individual clips that I want to have played separately by chosing them one at a time. They DO do that and will return to the menu after each one is played. Which is the way I want them to do.

HOWEVER if one of the clips are NOT chosen and the "Play" button is used instead (I have hidden the "Play" button on the menu, I'm talking about the physical button on the DVD player's remote) then ALL the clips are played in succession. I do not want it to do that.

Is there any way to prevent this?

Thanks in advance.

DD

[sjj1805]

Not with videoStudio / MovieFactory.
Although hidden the button still exists. - By the way hiding a button or thumbnail is how you create whats termed "An Easter Egg" - a hidden extra.

You have two options.
Option 1 - burn the DVD to a hard drive folder and then use MenuEdit a software program to make adjustments to your completed DVD Menus.
For an example see This Link
Option2 - Use DVD Workshop 2.

[DngrsDan]

Steve, truly appreciate your input(s).
If I understand you correctly then - even though I have hidden the "Play" button from the menu it still functions and will play the whole DVD if "Play" is pressed on the players control? If I get the MenuEdit program and remove the play button with it will the DVD NOT play the whole presentation if the play button on the physical remote is pressed then?
I want it to ONLY play the selected clips and not the whole presentation. I am willing to purchase MenuEdit if it will do that for me. Heck.....$16.50 is LOTS cheaper than everything else I've already purchased! Would be worth it if it does what I'm interpreting it does.
If that is the case - it prevents the whole presentation from being played when "Play" is pressed - then I will order it as soon as I hear back from you.


Thanks again.

DD

[sjj1805]

That is correct, MenuEdit will completely remove the functionality of the play all button.

A DVD menu is (when it has been created) a small video.
Superimposed upon the video are 'hotspots' and when you press a button on your remote control you either move from one hotspot to another or execute that hotspots function. That function is an instruction like
play this, move to this other menu, select this subtitle track etc.

Menu edit removes the hotspot. What it does not do is remove the visual representation of the 'button' because the 'button' is now a part of that video.

What you have to do in VideoStudio is hide the button so that it does not appear as a part of that video, then use MenuEdit to remove the hotspot.

[DngrsDan]

OK Steve. Thanks again for your assistance. On my way to MenuEdit's site to order it.


Thanks.

DD

[DngrsDan]

Steve,
bought the MenuEdit and it did do what you said. And it worked - no play of all the clips.

But..... here is a copy & paste of the email I'm sending dimadsoft:

...................................................................................
Dear Support Team,
I was informed by a forum member on Ulead's forum site that I could use MenuEdit to do this. He said to hide the "Play" button in Ulead VideoStudio then to open the vob file in MenuEdit and delete the button's hotspot. "Hiding" it in Ulead still leaves a blank colored square area in the menu which functions as the play button. I followed this procedure with MenuEdit and the colored square was no longer displayed in the menu on the finished DVD. The different clips I had in the presentation were the only things that could be selected.

This does work, the "Play" button (on the physical remote control) no longer caused the whole presentation to play if it is pressed. It is not even a selection on the menu anymore. Now ONLY the clips I have on it are able to be chosen and pressing the play button on the remote does not cause the whole DVD to play. Which was EXACTLY what I wanted it to do.

HOWEVER......I now have videos that will distort, break apart, and freeze. When I tried it the first time and had this happen I made up another DVD presentation in Ulead VS 10+ then duplicated it to another folder. I burned a DVD from that copy and another one after removing the "Play" hotspot in MenuEdit. The DVD that I did not use MenuEdit on plays perfectly, albeit WITH the "Play" button still active. The DVD I burned after removing the button stutters, distorts, breaks apart, and freezes at different points throughout the DVD. At one point totally stopping play and going out of the presentation and back to the DVD blue screen.

This is happening with the registered version, NOT the demo. Never tried the demo version.

Any idea what is going on?
.........................................................................

I am starting to get REALLY frustrated. It seems like EVERY time I get one thing working something else blows up.

Thanks for all your help Steve.

[sjj1805]

DD
You shouldn't be getting a black square where the play button used to be.
As a small experiment and also a demonstration of how a DVD Menu is in fact a video with hotspots superimposed.

The following will show you the Menu - Video all by itself as a small standalone MPG file which can be played in Windows Media Player.

1. Create your menu.
2. Burn to a hard drive folder.
3. When the message "Operation successfully completed" appears - DO NOT click it.



4. Open Windows Explorer and navigate to the location you have created the DVD. In my example this was D:\DVD
My VOB files are then found in D:\DVD\VIDEO_TS

5. Look closely and you will see another folder in my case named:
D:\DVD\DMF_TEMP (Does this imply that the same burning module as DVD Movie Factory is employed?)
There are further sub-directories one named:
D:\DVD\DMF_TEMP\MENU_RESOURCE

6. Here you will find a MPG file - This is your Menu - Video.
(If you had hit the OK button in the box shown above - these temporary files are deleted - this is why you must NOT hit that button just yet.)

If you have hidden the play button correctly you should not see any black square where the 'Play All' button was previously located.



In the Tutorial Workshop 2 and Menuedit. I have demonstrated how to remove the 'Hotspot'

That tutorial was created for a slightly different effect where I remove the hotspot from a moving thumbnail leaving the motion video in place.
It should though be easy enough to work out how to remove the hotspot from the hidden play all button.

[DngrsDan]

Steve,
actually the button DOESN'T show on the finished DVD, it DOES show as a blue (blank) button in the "Preview" screen in Ulead though.

The response (if you can call it that) I got from dimadsoft was : " It may be something with the way you burn files."
Hmmmm....lemmesee..... make two copies of the same set of files, edit one copy in MenuEdit and not the other copy, burn both copies with Nero Ultra7 to the same brand of DVD's using the same techniques on both yet the copy I did not edit plays fine but the one I edited fails.

Stands to reason I did something wrong!

They suggest I try just hiding the button instead of deleting it. OK.....but "hiding" it in VS didn't stop it from still being active and playing all the clips when play is pressed on the remote.

Guess I'll give that a try now. All that can happen is I burn another coaster.

[sjj1805]

........ All that can happen is I burn another coaster.

No need to burn a coaster. After making your changes with Menuedit open it on the hard drive with something like

PowerDVD
Neroshowtime
Ulead DVD Player 2.0
WinDVD 7

[DngrsDan]

FINALLY! Success!

Did as they suggested and "hid" the button, have it set to "jump to non-deleted button" and when "Play" is pressed it now just highlights the first selection of the clips to be played.


Whew! Whatta struggle!


Thanks again Steve. Hopefully I won't hafta pester ya again. Really appreciate the time you have taken replying to my cry for help. Very kind of you.

Dan

[DngrsDan]

&*%$#^*&!!!!!!!

Spoke too soon!

The first DVD I burned as mentioned worked, so I burned 3 more copies for use.....THEY ALL DO THE SAME THING-BREAK UP AND FREEZE.

I can't even access the files through Windows Explorer-the drive freezes up.


%$#@*&^%$#@ &*%^$^ $%#$%^*)!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[sjj1805]

Sounds like a different error. Are you burning at Maximum? if so try burning at 4x or less.

[DngrsDan]

Steve,
I can't tell WHAT the heck is going on with my DVD's. I can play the presentation on my PC....I burn it and it doesn't work on my DVD player.
Burned it at 4x - didn't work. Burned another one at 4x and it did work. Even worked with the play button hidden.

I was beginning to wonder if my DVD player is at fault......but if I try playing the same ones that are giving me troubles in my PC they exhibit the same problems.

Thanks for all you time trying to get this sorted out. Guess I should just drop this thread, maybe I can beat on my PC with a sledge and get it to do things right. LOL

Thanks again truly.

Dan

[sjj1805]

You might have a bad batch of blank DVD's. I buy mine a few hundred at a time and every so often you get faulty ones in the batch.
If it plays correctly from the hard drive copy then it is not a problem with VideoStudio or MenuEdit.

[DngrsDan]

In the words of Homer Simpson.....DOH!

Ya know I completely overlooked that possibility. If that IS the case though it just seems odd that I would hit that problem at the same time I tried working with MenuEdit. And I have used two different brands of DVD's while trying to get this together.

Thanks, again, Steve.

Dan