VSX2 DVD Creation

[JQ]

Hello,
I am in the process of learning VSX2 and enjoying it quite a bit.
I have a number of small videos created and having difficulty creating sub menus while authoring my DVD. My example is as follows:

I have 6 videos : (vid1 - vid6)
I would like to have a Main Menu with links to SubMenu1 and SubMenu2.
SubMenu1 would have vid1 - vid3.
SubMenu2 would have vid4 - vid6.

I am attempting to create by using VSE / Share / Create Disc and adding vids1 - vid6 .... Unable to create the sub menus and group vid1 - vid3 and vid4 - vid6.

I found a post similar in the forum but it did not explain how to generate.

If someone, could please assist in explaining what I am doing wrong or point me in the right direction...

Thank You in advance for your time and assistance.

[2Dogs]

Hi JQ

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If you insert 6 separate videos in the "Create Disc" step as you describe, they will each appear as menu items in the main menu.

If you wish to only have two items in that menu, you might have to combine vid1 - vid3 and vid4 - vid6 so that you can insert them as only two files in the Create Disc step.

An alternative would be to put vid1 - vid3 into a separate VS project, and make another project with vid4 - vid6. You can then insert those two projects into the Create Disc step of your "main" project.

If you use this latter method, you will create the menus for the two "sub" projects in those projects, and they will be imported into the "main" project.

In the past, some users have reported problems when inserting projects in the authoring module. It has the potential for breaking a project down into more easily mangeable chunks, however, so it should be worth trying.

You might find it easier to create a cohesive menu for the main project by inserting combined video clips, since all the chapter points and menu creation will be done in the main project.

[Ron P.]

With VS or DVD MF for that matter, you can only have Titles and Chapters, nothing below that. What it appears you're wanting to do, requires more levels. Something similar can be done though.

You can render the vid-1 through vid-3 to a single video file and vid-4 through vid-6 to a single video file, (Share>Create Video). What I would also do before rendering each file, is mark chapter points for each video clip, ie; vid-1 = chapter-1, vid-2= chapter-2 and so on. Each video clip would now have 3 Chapters.

Once that is done, open the burn module (Share>Create Disc) with a clean timeline. Insert your 2 videos into the burn module timeline. Now go to Add/Edit Chapters. The Auto Add Chapters should see your chapter marks you placed in the editor. If not you can manually scroll to the start position of each "video clip", and add a chapter. Do this for each title video clip.

Now when you build your menus, you will have a Main menu, that has reference (thumbnails, text) to each Title, Vid-1 to vid-3 and vid-4 to vid-6. Then build a menu for each of those, that would have reference (chapters) to Vid-1, Vid-2, Vid-3 and Vid-4, Vid-5, and Vid-6.

One more thing, you do understand that with Chapters, there is no automatically returning to a menu once a chapter is completed. That is only possible with a Title clip. So in your case let's say you select Chapter-2 of the First Title clip. It would continue to play to the end of that title clip, which would include Chapter-3.

So in VS, there's only 2 Levels possible, Title and Chapter. Titles are the Main video clips in the burn module timeline, while Chapters are bookmarks withing each Title clip. It does not allow breaking it up any further.

Beat me to it 2 dogs...

[2Dogs]

Beat me to it 2 dogs...

I did, but I made the mistake of assuming something!

When I checked with a test project with two inserted sub-projects, with VS11.5, all the chapter points seem to be set from the main project, and the chapter points I'd created in the sub-projects weren't imported into the main project!

I'll have to see if the same applies in X2.

[JQ]

Thank You very much for the quick response.
It seems to make sense now.... My individual vid1- vid3 should actually be treated as chapters and not seperate movies. This should work nicely.

As a follow up could I ask the following with regard to a best practice.

Are you better off creating smaller video files which could always be strung toghther vs. creating larger files which could be split.....?

Curious if there are any pros and cons from a manageability / efficiency standpoint...

Thank You.

[Black Lab]

Are you better off creating smaller video files which could always be strung toghther vs. creating larger files which could be split.....?

Curious if there are any pros and cons from a manageability / efficiency standpoint...

From a "manageability/efficiency standpoint" I don't think there are any pros or cons, just a matter of personal preference. I think your issue is a perfect example of that. It's all in how you want your video/menu to look/work.