Help with creating a very simple menu template

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metmot
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Help with creating a very simple menu template

Post by metmot »

I spent the evening reading Steve's tutorial on creating a DVD menu from scratch. I downloaded a trial of photoimpact and gave it a go and it was just too much for me at present.

I use a very simple menu structure over and over again for tribute DVD's I produce for a local funeral home. I have been doing the best I can by choosing the simplest menu template in my combined VS10-11 library. I hide all of the attributes because the only thing I want is my background image, the deceased person's name and for the DVD to start playing with the play command and return to the menu at the end. I make all the buttons and text as small as possible, hide it and drag it off the screen to the far corners outside the title safe area. The funeral director will have the DVD in the player with the menu showing on the tv and when the appropriate moment comes at the service he will just push play and it is foolproof. When it's over it returns to the menu.

Well my desire is to have the simplest menu template available to accomplish this and I get tired of wasting time and again doing the same modifications to the same menu to make it work. Also if I'm not careful stashing it in the corner sometimes the attribute although hidden will show up in green when highlighted by the DVD player. This sucks. I want a template with zero buttons visible and only a background and one title to use for the deceased name.

These tributes always have only one title so this simple menu is all I need.

Does anyone know a quick way to make this or have one already made they might be willing to share for VS11? Frankly I was overwhelmed with photoimpact and hate to climb that learning curve for this simple project. I have found this to be much harder than I imagined.

Thanks
John
sjj1805
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Post by sjj1805 »

The pictures have gone missing again but you can try this method
VS9 & PI11: Creating a Custom DVD Menu Layout

Basically you open an existing DVD Menu template using PhotoImpact
(Find one that is as near the one you want as possible) and then simply alter it by either deleting unwanted bits and resizing things.

The things to be careful of are:
1. Using this method don't add new stuff
2. Be careful not to overlap anything
3. Save it with a new name so you don't lost the original.

Another alternative is to do it all in VideoStudio.
When you have modified the Menu save it - a message pops up when you have completed your editing inviting you to save the menu. That will now appear in your list of Menu templates.
metmot
Posts: 184
Joined: Mon Nov 27, 2006 2:28 am
operating_system: Windows 7 Ultimate
System_Drive: C
32bit or 64bit: 64 Bit
motherboard: Asus M2N SLI
processor: AMD Athlon 64 x2 Dual Core 6000+ 3.0 gh
ram: 8 GB
Video Card: Nvidia Gforce 7300se
sound_card: Onboard PnP Sound Device
Hard_Drive_Capacity: 1.7 TB
Location: Oregon Coast

Post by metmot »

sjj1805 wrote:The pictures have gone missing again but you can try this method
VS9 & PI11: Creating a Custom DVD Menu Layout

Basically you open an existing DVD Menu template using PhotoImpact
(Find one that is as near the one you want as possible) and then simply alter it by either deleting unwanted bits and resizing things.

The things to be careful of are:
1. Using this method don't add new stuff
2. Be careful not to overlap anything
3. Save it with a new name so you don't lost the original.

Another alternative is to do it all in VideoStudio.
When you have modified the Menu save it - a message pops up when you have completed your editing inviting you to save the menu. That will now appear in your list of Menu templates.
Thanks Steve,

I figured out what you mean by editing it inside VS and saving. This suits my needs well. I was looking for a complex answer to an easy problem it seems.

Appreciate it
John
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