Menu help

SamG · Post by **SamG** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 4:23 pm

OK, I know I'm not doing something right, but after going through the manual and the message board, I can't figure it out. Any help would be appreciated.

I bring an mpeg movie into DVD workshop. I put the video in the title bar as "automatic play" (sorry, I'm at a different computer so if I get some terminology wrong, I apologize).

I click the movie in the Video-General window which puts it into the editor, and I mark chapters. I have 11 chapters lined up on right hand side.

I go to the menu settings. I create a custom menu with the background I want. I want links on the menu (actually two) to each of the chapters. I have not found a consistant way to display the chapters (on the right side of the screen) when I'm in menu editing. I was able to do it once and drag the chapters onto the menu screen. BUT, even when previewing before I burn to disk, if I click on a chapter in the menu, nothing happens.

I know I'm supposed to use playlist, but I don't know how to drag the chapters into the playlist window. As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, I can't always get the chapters to even display once I'm in the menu tab.

I should also mention, I'm running WinXP Pro, and the trial version of DVD workshop.

I hope this makes sense.

Thanks

DVDDoug · Post by **DVDDoug** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 7:06 pm

I don't have Workshop on this computer either... So I'm going from memory too...

I have not found a consistant way to display the chapters (on the right side of the screen) when I'm in menu editing.

As far as I know, all of the chapters are displayed in time & chapter sequence. If you move the mouse over the thumbnail, it will breifly show the chapter number and starting time.

I was able to do it once and drag the chapters onto the menu screen.

That's normally the way you do it... You drag the chapter-point onto a button. If you don't drop it on a button, I think it will create a thumbnail button... But, I rarely do that, so I'm not sure.

I know I'm supposed to use playlist, but I don't know how to drag the chapters into the playlist window.

The playlist is associated with a button. So, first you have to select a button, and then you can see the playlist. If you have already dragged a chapter to the playlist, that chapter should show-up in the playlist. I'm not really sure if you can drag anything into an empty playlist. But, a playlist is always associated with a particular menu button.

My procedure usually goes something like this....
- Set the chapter start-points.
- Create the menu. (This can be done before you set the chapters.)
- Link chapters (or titles) to buttons.
- Click on the buttons and modify the playlist as needed.

SamG · Post by **SamG** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 1:26 am

I figured it out... I needed to have the movie (with the chapters) as the 2nd clip... NOT as the "First Play" clip. I hope this helps someone else.

MrA · Post by **MrA** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 1:36 am

SamG wrote:I figured it out... I needed to have the movie (with the chapters) as the 2nd clip... NOT as the "First Play" clip. I hope this helps someone else.

Just getting in here, yes, First play is the clip that would normally play BEFORE the menu stuff appears. This is great for "teasers", "trailors" of other work, etc. It gives you the ability to "Hollywood" your DVD, and to be quite honest, you could be VERY creative with this. I.E., have that video morph into the menu..

SamG · Post by **SamG** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 4:29 pm

I knew it was something I was missing. The first play doesn't fit with this project I was working on, but now that I understand it, it makes sense.

Let me ask this question... is there a way in the menu to play the audio from the clip? I saw where you could link to a wav file, but not where you could play audio from the first chapter.