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Hi there,

Is there any way to activate MOTION MENU when authoring an AVCHD menu? It seems always disabled, and even when using one of the default HD menus, nothing runs in the big thumbnail. Only the music plays on a totally static background.
I was able to use smart menus successfully for SD DVDs or Blue ray discs, but never for AVCHD.
Even the background music is defaulted to 20 seconds (and not active), making sometime imposible to have a nice loop maintaining the original bit-rate.

Another question: Can I somehow create AVCHD "folders" on my HDD rather than burning directly on discs?

Thanks

I don't think there is, unfortunately. You can have a motion background to the menu, but not in the thumbnails. And while some of the provided audio clips will run longer than 20 seconds (but only to the maximum allowable for any menu of 30 seconds), your own music is limited to 20 seconds.

One thing you need to realise, though, is that VS is one of the few editing programs which allows you to build any type of menu for AVCHD hybrid discs. And I suspect the reason for the limitations is size. As you would realise, if you create a hybrid disc using high quality settings (e.g. bitrate of 18 Mbps), you can only fit about 20 minutes of video on a single layer DVD. And if you created motion menus (and longer music clips, even if only a few seconds longer), these take up space which might otherwise be devoted to the main video... Admittedly, though, it is an anomaly that you can nonetheless have a motion background to the menu!

So I just thank goodness that I can build a reasonable looking menu, even if the thumbnails only have a still photo in them. I don't use the motion background anyway, just a still photo of my own choosing. And I don't worry too much about the limited background music as I usually create a music loop so it doesn't sound short. (And who is going to leave the menu play for much longer than 20 to 30 second anyway?)

And as for your last question, yep, you guessed it, the answer is no, you can't build an AVCHD 'folder' using VS (or an ISO). There may be programs out there which will do it, but I am not aware of them...

Many hours later, it occurred to me to try Movie Factory 7 Pro which can also burn AVCHD hybrid discs. However, it is exactly the same as VS X2 in this regard -- just a different selection of menu templates and music!

Thanks Ken,

You were fast and prompt as usual.
I appreciate your advise.

On the same note, is there a AVCHD computer player that actually plays AVCHD discs showing theyr menus as well? So far I've tried VLC, Oxygen and BS players but all of them can only open the m2ts-movie file created by VS in the STREAM folder, so for the other m2ts-menu files only plays the sound... Couldn't browse the disc as you do using a regular Blue ray player.

The two software players that I use -- WinDVD 9 with Blu-Ray and PowerDVD 9 -- both play AVCHD discs with menus.

For hardware playback of the discs, I use my Sony PlayStation 3, which also happily plays the menus.

But I also use an external hard disc or USB stick with the high definition video, either HDV or AVCHD, as edited, copied to a VIDEO folder. Those are then connected to the PS3 via its USB ports and the PS3 detects the video. That way, you don't have a menu, but the PS3 displays the names of the videos in the folder, and you simply choose.

Another alternative is that the PS3 can be networked direct to your computer (by LAN cable or wireless if you have a wireless PS3). Using, say, Nero Media Home or Windows Media Player as the media server, the PS3 can detect and play your high definition (and all other multimedia files, for that matter) from your computer direct to your HDTV... Again, no menu, but you don't have the hassle of having to burn an AVCHD disc either! Works a treat!!!

This might seem very naive but if you go to Share, Create Video File and choose AVCHD does that not produce the same file as when you burn a hybrid disc? If so can we not just burn that saved file to a DVD. Perhaps you would need to change the file extension to m2ts. Does that sound daft?

Mitchell65: An AVCHD disc obviously has AVCHD files on it, but they are burned in a Blu-Ray structure (a folder labelled BDMV, which contains a number of sub-folders. One of these is STREAM, which contains the actual AVCHD video files in their native .m2ts format).

A standard video DVD, of course, has a totally different structure on it (a Video_TS folder and an inactive Audio_TS folder; with the video having been converted to .vob files in the former...)

So when you have a project in the Editing module, and select Share > Create Video File > AVCHD, yes it will produce a single AVCHD file of your project which you can then burn to disc -- either as a Blu-Ray or an AVCHD hybrid disc. The latter, of course, goes onto a standard DVD, but it still has to be in the BDMV structure I mentioned above. So you are still going to have to choose Share > Create Disc > AVCHD at some stage if you intend to burn a hybrid disc (with or without menu).

Personally, I ignore the advice I normally give to people who are producing standard definition DVDs that they should first produce a standard definition DVD-compatible mpeg-2 in the Editing module, and then separately burn that to DVD. I find that I don't like the two standard AVCHD templates offered by VS. By doing my editing, and then using the project VSP file in the burning module, I can change the properties to what I prefer. Anyway, just a personal choice.

But getting back to your question, if you have produced a new AVCHD file in the Editing module, if you then choose Share > Create Disc > DVD, it will of course downconvert the AVCHD to standard definition mpeg-2 in the burning module i.e. no longer high definition.

The only other way to burn your AVCHD to a DVD is to burn it as a data file i.e. merely archiving it to DVD (and not using VS to do so). That will work if you then have a stand-alone player which can recognise and play the media in its native format on a data disc. I am not sure that many Blu-Ray players will do that. Blu-Ray players will of course recognise and play AVCHD, but a DVD containing it would still have to be in that BDMV structure I mentioned above.

The only player I know which will recognise an AVCHD (or for that matter a HDV) file burned as a data file on a DVD (i.e. without the BDMV structure) is the PlayStation 3. (However, AFAIK in that case the AVCHD has to be burned to a folder labelled, in Upper Case, VIDEO on the data disc...) There may be other Blu-Ray rated players which can also do this, but if so, I am not aware of which ones they might be...