"lock" chapter cues to certain video clips?

[CaptainKen2]

Is there a way to "lock" chapter cues to certain audio or video clips. It drives me nuts every time I need to insert, delete, shorten or lengthen a clip on the time line, and all the Chapter cues after that point have to be re-done. Doesn't make sense to me that the cues are locked to the time length of the video rather then specific points in the video scenes.

Commercial DVD's are done by scenes. Even DMF6 gives option to create cues based on already defined ones stored in the imported MSP8 file or to create them at certain intervals, so there is a need.

[Devil]

Agreed this is a weakness, but chapter cueing is usually done after the editing is finished.

[lazael]

I don't use MSP's chapter-points feature. Instead, using the scissors tool, I "cut" my clips wherever I want a chapter. DWS and MF sees these cut-marks as new scenes (split-by-scene) when the single file is imported into the project. (I still have to delete the "real" cuts that are not meant to be new scenes though ).

[CaptainKen2]

Devil, I thought about waiting until the end, but I had read in the help file that chapter cues are handy to jump to specific spots in the time line.

"Cues are simply bookmarks for your video project. As your projects get larger and more complex, you can use cues to quickly jump from one place to another, easily align clips when inserting them, or mark the location of a particular event."

In addition to chapter cues, they also mention project and clip cues, but the help is weak on the differences between the three of them.

Expanding on the concept suggested in help topic, it would also be nice to have a hot key combination and/or icon on the time line toolbar that would pop up the Chapter Point Manager window. Odd they make the suggestion , but don't provide an easy way to use it?

I see that I can do Ctrl+F to open the "Find Clip" window, but it looks like it lists all the Production Library clips at the top and then the stuff on the time line at the bottom. Using Annotation makes it easier to find the clip, but scrolling down through everything else is a waste of time. Is there a way to eliminate the library from the find clip window?

[CaptainKen2]

Lazael, clever idea. Does DMF still allow the video to be played from start to finish if the viewer doesn't select a chapter? What if the viewer selects a chapter, will it continue to the next chapter automatically?

BTW, thank you devil and lazael for replying.

[lazael]

Does DMF still allow the video to be played from start to finish if the viewer doesn't select a chapter? What if the viewer selects a chapter, will it continue to the next chapter automatically?

Sure do!
MF5 and MF6 use menu's and sub-menu's. Selecting the main menu's Play button starts the movie, selecting a sub-menu opens up the individual chapter menu/s.

In stage 2 of the MF project, select Advanced Settings and tick Add Title Menu and Create Chapter Menu.

If you wish to go back to the main menu after a selected number of chapters have played, then these have to be on a separate "clip". See page18 of MF5's manual for more info.

[CaptainKen2]

So cutting the clips works the same as chapter cues in DMF. I'll keep this tip in mind. Still would be much easier, cleaner and productive to lock the chapter cues to specific videos.

Have a great weekend.

Ken