Creating sub-menus

rigpig · Post by **rigpig** » Sun Apr 03, 2005 3:31 pm

Hi all, I have a feeling I've misunderstood the way VS8 works with chapters and menus - can someone point me the right way please?
I've created a number of projects which I want to burn as a single DVD. There are quite a few of them and would result in a lot of selection on teh main DVD menu, so I decided to put a few (all similarly themed) on a sub menu navigated to from teh top menu, but it doesn't look like you can do it this way.
I can see that, if I join all the projects I want on the sub-menu together as one, I can then create chapters where each new video starts. But that's a lot of work, you can't merge seperate projects together either can you?
It looks like I'm going to have to render each project as a seperate MPEG then import these files back into the timeline to create one big file which I can then chop up into chapters, would that work?
Looks like I should understand what the programme actually can do before I embark on thigs in future

jchunter · Post by **jchunter** » Sun Apr 03, 2005 5:41 pm

You can select any number of project VIDEO FILES in the Share/Create Disk (Add Video File control). Do NOT select PROJECTS because there is a bug that will force an unneccessary (multi-hour) conversion of compliant video clips.

You can give each video file a top level DVD menu and its own submenus.

Follow the Recommended Procedure (top post). Don't forget to manually set your Burn properties.

BTW, you can place project video files in the timeline of a new project if you wish and add transitions between them or another sound track, etc..
John

rigpig · Post by **rigpig** » Sun Apr 03, 2005 9:43 pm

jchunter wrote: Do NOT select PROJECTS because there is a bug that will force an unneccessary (multi-hour) conversion of compliant video clips.

Oh, I never knew that. I've created a DVD direct from projects before and it's worked fine.

Anyway, thanks for the prompt reply. I've decided to go about it another way, I think I was trying to be too clever with my original project. Thanks again.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Sun Apr 03, 2005 10:40 pm

Just to repeat what John Hunter said, you certainly _CAN_ create a number of main menu items (first level) and then create a number of sub-menus in each of the first level ones, with the videos they refer to grouped however you want -- just as you intended to do. With my own home videos, for instance, I may want to include a number of separate clips about my travels in, say, France, and each clip would cover a separate subject e.g. Paris, Rouen, Nice. Then I have another set of my travel in Belgium: Brussels, Bruges etc. So I set up my first level menu with items labelled 'France', 'Belgium' etc, and set up photos (or with Movie Factory, moving menu facades) and music etc for each of those first level menu items. Then I create, in each one, a set of sub-menus (Paris, Rouen etc) each with its own photo/moving facade and music and label etc). This works well.

Can you tell us exactly what you have been doing to try to set up your menus, and maybe then we could help you more.

As for your idea of doing one overall DVD-compliant file and then setting as chapter points the various sub-themes, yes that will work, but it is rather a heavy handed way of going about things. Chapter points are basically intended to be just a quick way of getting from point to point in a video, either in terms of a (usually brief) time period (e.g. every 3 or 5 minutes) or from main scene to main scene or other chosen point. What you are thinking of doing in this regard falls into the latter category, I know. But if the various clips you have are of distinct -- though related -- subjects, then it is a klutzy way of doing things: you would essentially have to just keep hitting the chapter key on your remote to move from clip to clip. And that is precisely what the menu/sub-menu framework is designed to avoid.

jchunter · Post by **jchunter** » Sun Apr 03, 2005 10:49 pm

rigpig
You were lucky. If you either (1) try to burn a DVD directly with a project in the timeline, or (2) Select projects in the SHARE module using the ADD Project control, Video Studio will convert the whole thing whether it needs it or not. Moreover, the Burn properties are usually set (default) to something other than your captured video properties and users have gotten a great variety of errors and DVD beer coasters.

If you get a warning messagebox that says something like "Converting videos, this will take a long time...", the best thing to do is hit the escape key and start over.

rigpig · Post by **rigpig** » Mon Apr 04, 2005 2:53 pm

Ken and JC,
Thanks again, yes it looks like I was lucky burning DVDs from projects!

My project is about my time living in Cyprus. I want to divide the videos up into 'theme's e.g:

1.Our home, the beach and club
2.What our kids did
3.Where we went on days out
4.Any special events that took place

So, I've created a number of short projects (I don't want to bore people with huge great long movies to watch

) of about 5 minutes each that fit into the categories above. In all there are about 15 or 16, can't recall exactly how many individual projects.

Then, I want a short introductory video that leads into the first menu (I can do that bit) and then 4 selections to make:

1.Our home
2.What the kids did
3.Where we went on days out
4.Special event

Selecting any one of those categories takes you to one of four sub-menus from where the actual videos can be played, eg. the days out selection takes you to a sub-menu with the videos from Paphos, Nicosia etc etc. And of course you need to navigate back up to the main menu.

Is this possible?

Post by **Ken Berry** » Mon Apr 04, 2005 10:52 pm

I thought I had made it clear that yes you can do exactly that.

rigpig · Post by **rigpig** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 8:22 am

Ken Berry wrote:I thought I had made it clear that yes you can do exactly that.

Ken, sorry to repeat the question as you did make it clear that it is possible to do what I was asking.
The problem is, I just don't seem to be able to set it up the way you describe i.e. photo on top menu linking to videos in menus below. The program (VS8) just doesn't seem to work the way you suggest. I'll go off and have a further look and see if I can figure it out.
Thanks for your time.

rigpig · Post by **rigpig** » Sat Apr 09, 2005 8:30 pm

OK, sorry to keep banging on like this, but I just cannot for the life of me get this sub-menu thing to work in VS8 unless I join all the clips I want on any one particular sub-menu together and set up chapters within the resulting single joined up clip.
I then get a sub-menu for each group of clips but, as they are now chapters and not individual clips, I'm not returned to the menu after each clip has played; it just goes on to the next chapter- playing each in turn until they've all played.
Am I being dumb and missing something here? I just cannot get it to work as Ken berry suggests, unless I'm misunderstanding him.