Creating Menus in VideoStudio Plus

John Ruscigno · Post by **John Ruscigno** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 4:12 pm

I'm burning a DVD for family with 12 slideshows and having trouble customizing the menu. I've created a two part menu with 6 slideshows on each and that's no problem both in creation and in navigating from one menu to the other. But I'm having problems trying to simply navigation as follows:

1. I'd like to have only a single navigation button on each menu for moving from one menu to the other so people are forced to highlight the icon for a slideshow. In creating the menus I see where I can "hide" each navigation button so I can "hide" all but the double arrow button that takes someone to the other menu. But when the DVD first loads, the first menu appears and the single button menu that I've hidden is highlighted. If someone selects this button it begins showing all the slideshows sequentially. I'd like to customize the DVD so when the first menu appears, the double arrow button is highlighted by default.

2. I'd also like the DVD to return to the main menu when it finishes each of the slide shows. I see a box I can check that says it will return to the menu after showing a clip but it doesn't seem to have any effect. Once I start viewing one of the slideshows, it just continues on to the next slideshow instead of returning to the main menu.

Any help would be appreciated

Trevor Andrew · Post by **Trevor Andrew** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 5:24 pm

Hi John

Q2
The navigation controls of the menu can be selected by clicking the ¡¥Cogwheel¡¦ (project settings) lower left.

De-select the ¡¥Auto repeat when disc playback ends¡K¡K..
This will allow the ¡¥Clip Playback to be selected¡¦

Selecting ¡¥back to menu¡¦ will return to the menu after each title.

Note that this option controls ¡¥Titles¡¦ not ¡¥Chapters¡¦

Q1
seems a little more involved and I¡¦m not really sure exactly what your after??????? but as far as I know Steve created a 12 menu thumbnail template. This may help
You will have to search the forum, should I find it first I will reply.

rguthrie · Post by **rguthrie** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 5:37 pm

John,

In regards to your first question, I'd say that if you're wanting that much control over your DVD authoring then you should consider using a dedicated authoring program. I have DVD MovieFactory 4, Corel is now at 6, so I'm not sure if that'll do the trick for you. You might want to consider DVD Workshop, however, since Corel has bought Ulead, DVD Workshop will not be getting any new versions. Check out videohelp.com, as I'm sure there's got to be an open-source (and free) authoring program that'll do want you want. It probably won't have a nice, easy to use GUI, but it'll have more power than the authoring capabilities in VS.

Trevor Andrew · Post by **Trevor Andrew** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 5:45 pm

Hi John

A little bit more menu reading here:-

http://phpbb.ulead.com.tw/EN/viewtopic.php?t=19453

Scroll down and find the 12 thumbnail option, not sure if its compatible with VS 11

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 2:06 am

trevor andrew wrote:Hi John

A little bit more menu reading here:-

http://phpbb.ulead.com.tw/EN/viewtopic.php?t=19453

Scroll down and find the 12 thumbnail option, not sure if its compatible with VS 11

Yes it is!!

John Ruscigno · Post by **John Ruscigno** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 5:31 am

Thanks for your input on my questions. I tried the 12 thumbnail menu and it loaded fine but crashed the program when I tried to edit to improve the appearance. So I guess I'll continue to work with my two part menu option.

On my second question, I had already done what Trevor suggested but now I understand that the option controls "Titles" not "Chapters" and that's why it doesn't do what I expect. I created chapters for each of my slideshows which show up as individual thumbnails on my menu. My problem is that when some clicks on one of the thumbnails it starts playing that slideshow and at the end of that slideshow it just automatically starts playing the next slideshow and so it goes through all 12 slideshows. I'd like the menu to function so when someone clicks on one thumbnail, it plays that slideshow and then returns to the menu where they can select another thumbnail slideshow to view. Is there a way I can create the chapters differently to make it do that and create my menus differently??

Black Lab · Post by **Black Lab** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 2:08 pm

To do that you have to make each slide show a separate title, creating each as its own project, and saving each as its own video file. It will not work they way you have it now (as chapters).