menu highlight

Russell Snyder · Post by **Russell Snyder** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 10:53 pm

I am trying to create a simple text menu that allows the viewer to choose between two slideshows. I do not understand the significance of a third highlight button that appears in this menu. This is the button that is initially highlighted in the menu when the DVD is played. This button is off by itself and seems not to be associated specifically with either slideshow. When it is selected, however, the first slideshow plays, following which the viewer is returned to the menu with the button for the second slideshow highlighted. One can cycle between the three highlights by using the arrows surrounding the select button.

What is this button? It seems unnecessary. Can it be eliminated?

Can the buttons for the slideshows also be eliminated? Can the slideshows be initiated by selecting highlighted text rather than a highlighted button?

What is the significance of the 1/1 fraction which also appears in the menu and looks to have some relation to the initially highlighted button, which fraction can be hidden with a right click?

It may be that the manual explains all of this, but, if so, I have missed it.

Russ Snyder

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 12:37 am

Easiest answer first 1/1 means page one of one page.
If it said 2/5 that would mean you were on page 2 of a set of 5 pages and so on.
Now for highlight images.
This is a matter of personal preference you can choose to use or not to use highlight images. When you pop a DVD into your DVD player and get to the Menu(s) you are presented with a series of options.
You get the very obvious ones Play, Next, Previous, Home.
On many DVD's you also get a chapter menu - popularly called a scene selection menu. here you can quickly jump to a certain point in the video.

The commercially produced DVD's - or those created with more elaborate software such as DVD Workshop - also allow you to have things like an extra's menu where you can select different audio and/or subtitle tracks.

When you are looking at one of these menus on your TV screen you need to know where you are so that you can press the left / right / up / down buttons on the remote and move about the menu. This is where highlighting comes in.

There are various ways to highlight something on the menu. This can be a change in colour, in the case of thumbnails the whole thumbnail could change or just the frame around that thumbnail. Highlight images are just another way of denoting which object currently has focus. In other words instead of the item changing colour - a small image appears next to it.

Like I said - it's down to you to decide how you want your DVD menu(s) to look and you can either use highlight images or not.

Russell Snyder · Post by **Russell Snyder** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 1:18 am

Thanks for your response.

Let's just say I like to keep things simple. In particular, I prefer not to use thumbnails in a menu because I think they tend to clutter the menu unnecessarily.

In DVD Architect (Sony), one can set things up so that the text identifying the items in a menu can be highlighted and then selected to start the item. Is this possible in MF6 or is it not possible?

I don't think you answered my principal question. What is this third button that is initially highlighted when the DVD is played? Is it possible to eliminate this button?

Russ

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 1:30 am

Select a text only menu.
Uncheck the show highlight button.
The text will then highlight rather than have a highlight.

Sorry if that wasn't clear in my earlier reply.

CBC · Post by **CBC** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 9:54 am

Tried, but this doesn't work quite right. I unchecked the box, but when I preview, the highlight icon still appears, with the default being in the lower right corner for what appears to be the 'play all' button. I've even tried hiding all the objects on the page except the titles, and while the 'play all' icon no longer appears, the highlight 'star' does, with the default being the hidden 'play all' icon -- as it's hidden, just the 'star' shows up.
Ideally, I'd like to create a disk with a couple videos, the first one being auto highlighted (just the text, not 'star'). Seems simple enough -- if I could just make it happen

I thought maybe it was just showing up in the preview, but would burn with the appropriate options in place -- but it showed up in the burned disc as well.

sjj1805 wrote:Select a text only menu.
Uncheck the show highlight button.
The text will then highlight rather than have a highlight.

Sorry if that wasn't clear in my earlier reply.

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 11:57 am

Yes I just tried that as well and it seems the on/off button only turns the preview off on the design screen.
Which menu are you trying to use and I will upload a copy with the highlight removed.

CBC · Post by **CBC** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 12:59 pm

06_text08_w is the most recent one -- I tried to figure out how to change things in PI12 with the DVD plugin -- a bit of a learning curve...

sjj1805 wrote:Yes I just tried that as well and it seems the on/off button only turns the preview off on the design screen.
Which menu are you trying to use and I will upload a copy with the highlight removed.

Russell Snyder · Post by **Russell Snyder** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 2:34 pm

CBC wrote: Ideally, I'd like to create a disk with a couple videos, the first one being auto highlighted (just the text, not 'star'). Seems simple enough -- if I could just make it happen

CBC's desire here and his difficulties with realizing this desire are precisely what has been vexing me as well.

Apparently, the third button I refer to is a 'play all' button. I'd like to see it gone. (Who needs it?)

I'd also like to see the highlighting associated with the menu items transferred from the 'stars' to the text identifying the items, with no 'stars' and with the first text item 'auto highlighted' when the DVD is initially played.

Question is, are these menu modifications possible in MF6? If so, how does one go about realizing them?

Russ

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 12:06 am

Please see my reply in this other post it should make things a bit clearer.
MF 6 Plus - "Show Highlight Button" not working!

Regarding a "Play All Button." - it is normal to have one.
There are typically 3 styles of DVD menu:

Text Only
Thumbnail
Smart Scene

All of these will have a Play all Button.

In addition to the Play all button, if your menu spans more than one page you also get one or both of the following [Next page] [Previous Page]
It is also normal for all pages other than the Root menu (Home page) to have a [Home page] button.

If you wish to make a non standard DVD menu - by this I mean one where these buttons are not included - then you would need more expensive software such as DVD Workshop. The more expensive software such as DVD Workshop also enables you to do other things such as the creation of Audio selection and Subtitle selection buttons - plus you can create "play lists". For an explanation of this please view:
Objects and buttons on the menu in the DVD Workshop forum.

CBC · Post by **CBC** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 8:07 am

According to the help file, you should be able to 'hide' the 'play all' button, uncheck the 'show highlight button' option and your disc will default to highlighting the first clip. This is not how it actually works. With 'play-all' hidden, and 'show highlight button' unchecked -- the disc defaults to showing the highlight button, with it selected -- though the 'play-all' icon is hidden.

One thing I did notice though -- it did work this way until the first time I checked the 'show highlight button' option -- from that point forward, things became messed up -- until I tried that option out, it worked as expected.

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 12:48 pm

To demonstrate how easy it is to remove the highlight images as per my tutorial:
Tutorial: PhotoImpact: Creating DVD Menu from scratch
I have modified the 16.9 menu mentioned above 06_text08_w by removing the highlight images and saving under a new name of 06_text08NH_w
Click the image to download the zip file:

Russell Snyder · Post by **Russell Snyder** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 2:54 pm

OK, Steve. I read your reply to mean that, in MF6, one cannot get rid of the playall button or the highlight buttons, and one cannot initiate the play of a menu item by highlighting and selecting the text identifying the item (instead of the button adjacent to this text).

Is it possible to change the color scheme used in highlighting and selecting the various buttons (within MF6)?

I won't waste any more of your time on this issue. I would be using DVD Architect, but it does not yet have (and may never have - being a Sony product) HD DVD capability. (Chalk one up for MF6!) In the meantime there are several MF6 menu templates using rectangular buttons that I can probably work with. (I find the other button styles kind of dorky.)

Thanks for your indulgence.

Russ

Russell Snyder · Post by **Russell Snyder** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 4:54 pm

Sorry, Steve. My last post was sent before reading your post with the download.

I have now downloaded your NH template, added it to the appropriate MF6 folder, and checked out the resulting template. I see that the new template in fact accomplishes one of the things I was looking for. It removes the highlight button from a menu item and transfers the highlight/select feature to the text itself. Bravo!

The playall button is still there, even (as CBC reports) when hidden, but that's OK, it's clean, and I suppose the feature is not that extraneous. (I can see occasionally wanting to play through everything on the disc in sequence.)

I would quite happily use this template, except I suspect that I cannot use it in an HD DVD project. It has the proper aspect ratio, but not, I suspect, the proper resolution. I think what I need is something similar for one of the HD templates. Would you be willing to make available for download the analogous modification of one of these templates, say template
06_HDType1_07?

Thanks,

Russ

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 6:53 pm

Russell Snyder wrote:......
I would quite happily use this template, except I suspect that I cannot use it in an HD DVD project. It has the proper aspect ratio, but not, I suspect, the proper resolution. I think what I need is something similar for one of the HD templates. Would you be willing to make available for download the analogous modification of one of these templates, say template
06_HDType1_07?

Thanks,
Russ

Sorry but this is the last request folks, Ulead might get annoyed if I converted ALL of their templates and posted them here, especially when they offer extra templates for purchase.

Click the image to download the zip file: New file name 06_HDType1NH_07

Home made templates by forum members is a different kettle of fish - nothing to prevent anyone creating their own from scratch and sharing it.

Russell Snyder · Post by **Russell Snyder** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 7:40 pm

Steve,

The download contains only a single .ufo file. There is no .ini file. Is that correct? (The files in the HD template folder seem to be in threes, a .ufo file, a _BD.ini file and a _MS.ini file.)

The previous download contained two files, a .ufo file and a .ini file, matching the structure of the folder into which it went.

Russ