Menu Template Problem in MF5

vmpoulsen · Post by **vmpoulsen** » Thu Jul 24, 2008 7:03 pm

I've created a DVD movie that includes camcorder video and still photos. There is a main menu along with several submenus including one for the 2-hour camcorder video. In the completed DVD, all menus work fine except for the camcorder one which probably has sixty chapters. The indicator of chapter selection--in this case the chapter icon highlights green--only displays on the first two chapters. I'm able to select any chapter but I have to count my cursor movements since there is no visual feedback. Any ideas?

Also, MF5 came with few menu templates. Can I download more from anywhere?

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Thu Jul 24, 2008 10:37 pm

60 chapters

That sounds a bit top heavy - what sort of menu are you using?
Remember that each menu page will take up space on your DVD disc, and if you're using motion thumbnails then each one is also eating up valuable disc space. This in turn means there is less disc space for the actual movie and so you end up having to reduce quality so that you can get everything to fit onto it.

Regarding the number of DVD Menu Templates I checked my recently re-installed copy of DVD MovieFactory 5+ and can see it contains
12 Smartscene menus
11 Text menus
11 Thumbnail menus

You also have various customize options on the [EDIT] tab.
You can add templates from other Ulead products that you may possess.
We also have a number of templates created by forum members.

Shared DVD Menus Created by Forum Users
Extra HD Menu Templates

vmpoulsen · Post by **vmpoulsen** » Thu Jul 24, 2008 11:40 pm

I've made DVDs before with large numbers of chapters--99 is the limit, I think. So I'm suspicious of the template I'm using in this project--05_SceB03. The final rendered project, 6.31GB, easily fits on a dual-layer DVD. I've sent my question on to Corel support. Hopefully they can help as well.

Unfortunately, I don't have the "+" part of MF5 so my menu templates are six. Thanks for the ones you referred me to.

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Sat Jul 26, 2008 1:59 am

My suspicions are that the 2 hour video may be either corrupt or is a format that MF does not like.

What is it (i.e. MPEG2, DV, DivX, QT, WMV etc) plus the various bits of information such as bit rates, screen size, audio format.

Where did it come from?
i.e. camcorder, internet, TV card, DVD etc.

How did it get there?
i.e. internet download, firewire cable, USB Cable etc.

What did you do with it when you got it into your computer.
i.e. did you chop out the adverts, add some titles, perhaps some background sound?

The more information you can provide the better our chances are of offering some suggestions.

vmpoulsen · Post by **vmpoulsen** » Sun Jul 27, 2008 10:14 pm

Thanks for your help, sjj1805. Here's what Corel support had to say:

"It is possible that two menu items must have overlapped with each other. The only way to fix this is to create a new project or if you have a saved one, edit it again but make sure you provide ample space between menu items to prevent overlapping."

In other words, it's a bug in MF5 which Corel obviously knows about. (Hopefully it was fixed in MF6.) It probably happened when I used the multi-trim function to edit out video after having already defined chapters. Deleting and restoring the offending chapters was not sufficient. I had to remove the video from my project and then restore it. When I then added the 92 chapters continuously (i.e. without stopping to do an occasional save), it worked. And now I'm ready to render--FINALLY!

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 2:06 am

Nope not a bug.... and yes I have come across this before.
If it is overlapping items on a Menu then all you need to do is drag them apart. No need to start all over again.

You probably moved items around on a preset menu but dragged them too close. Don't worry - I have done it myself a few times and I "know what I'm doing"

vmpoulsen · Post by **vmpoulsen** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 2:08 pm

As I said, deleting and restoring the chapters did not fix the problem. I even exited MF5 before re-adding the chapters; nothing worked until I completely removed the video from the project and then restored it.

And so I'm sticking with my "bug" description for two reasons:

1. Subsequent chapters should not have been affected in the first place.
2. MF5 was not able to recover even after I deleted the offending chapters.

I'm not sure what you mean by "drag them apart". This was not a menu icon issue at all. I used boiler-plate templates which provided plenty of space between menu icons which I did not move. This was a case where MF5 was unable to make needed adjustments to chapter designations when video was multi-trimmed out. Try it yourself by adding chapters to a video clip and then multi-trim out the video pointed to by your first chapter.

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Tue Jul 29, 2008 2:34 am

vmpoulsen wrote:...... Try it yourself by adding chapters to a video clip and then multi-trim out the video pointed to by your first chapter.

Your work flow is flawed and I can now see why you are having problems.
You need to multi trim your video(s) first.
Create chapters second

NOT the other way round.

vmpoulsen · Post by **vmpoulsen** » Tue Jul 29, 2008 1:50 pm

My decision to multitrim the video came AFTER I established the chapters because of project size. At that point there was no reason for me to think that a mature application like MF5 would not be robust enough to at least recover from (if not effectively deal with) what I did.

vmpoulsen · Post by **vmpoulsen** » Wed Aug 06, 2008 6:50 pm

Just an update to the above... After I got my camcorder video submenu working, I discovered that the last (8th) item on my main munu wouldn't highlight for selection either. Since it was a slide show, my previous investigation was of little use. I assumed it must be chapter related as well so I deleted and restored the automatically placed chapters (every 10 photos) to no avail. Nor did it help when I did the same for the previous main menu item--also a slide show. I found, however, that when I deleted that same slide show (the 7th menu item, that is), the last menu item would now highlight. When I added the slide show back in to its 7th position, the 8th item would not high light. I deleted and replaced both slide shows without change. Suspecting a defective menu template, I selected another--problem fixed. When I went back to the original template the problem returned. Something's just not working right here. Obviously, I'll avoid that particular menu template in the future as I've never had such problems with the many DVDs I've authored in the past.