MF7SE: Custom DVD Menus?

[UncleBoo]

Hi,

I'm a newbie who has now authored several DVDs using MF7SE. I've figured out how to add chapters, and create DVD menus featuring the chapters. I've found a couple of menu templates I like somewhat, and I've figured out how to do some simple menu customizations, such as changing the menu music, changing title/chapter fonts, turning off menu animation, etc. But it gets tedious making the same customizations manually for each DVD I author, and even repeating some customizations within a single menu. I've searched and I've RTFMed without success. So now I ask the sagacious members of this forum:

1. Is there any way to load a menu template, customize it, and then save the customized menu as a new template that can be used for future projects?

2. Is there any way to create a menu from scratch, that has all the key elements of a menu (chapter entries, menu navigation, etc.)? And then save that menu as a template that can be sued for future projects?

3. Is it necessary to have a "top-level" menu? Can I author a DVD that has only the chapter selection menu? So far it seems that I have have to have a top-level menu simply to choose between the PLAY (the entire DVD) arrow or go to the menu of Chapter listings.

4. Is there any way to customize the top-level menu and tell MF7SE to apply all customizations to the Chapter-selection menu? (Yes, I know I can apply one set of changes to all Menu-selection pages, but I still have to separately customize the top-level menu.)

5. Is there any way to tell MF7SE to apply the same font customizations to all Chapter labels? So far it seems I have to customize each label individually, which is a real pain in the tuchas. Now, if I could make all these changes and then save the customized menu as a template for future use, I wouldn't mind (see Question 1!)...

TIA,
UncleBoo

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi,

I'm a newbie who has now authored several DVDs using MF7SE. I've figured out how to add chapters, and create DVD menus featuring the chapters. I've found a couple of menu templates I like somewhat, and I've figured out how to do some simple menu customizations, such as changing the menu music, changing title/chapter fonts, turning off menu animation, etc. But it gets tedious making the same customizations manually for each DVD I author, and even repeating some customizations within a single menu. I've searched and I've RTFMed without success. So now I ask the sagacious members of this forum:

1. Is there any way to load a menu template, customize it, and then save the customized menu as a new template that can be used for future projects? From the edit tab choose customise-change the template-save template link below preview screen, saves to the favourites folder.

2. Is there any way to create a menu from scratch, that has all the key elements of a menu (chapter entries, menu navigation, etc.)? And then save that menu as a template that can be sued for future projects? You need Photo Impact to create new templates

3. Is it necessary to have a "top-level" menu? Can I author a DVD that has only the chapter selection menu? So far it seems that I have have to have a top-level menu simply to choose between the PLAY (the entire DVD) arrow or go to the menu of Chapter listings.No, you can hide the top level-From the Edit tab-select Advanced-uncheck Add Title Menu

4. Is there any way to customize the top-level menu and tell MF7SE to apply all customizations to the Chapter-selection menu? (Yes, I know I can apply one set of changes to all Menu-selection pages, but I still have to separately customize the top-level menu.)Not if you hide it as 3 above

5. Is there any way to tell MF7SE to apply the same font customizations to all Chapter labels? So far it seems I have to customize each label individually, which is a real pain in the tuchas. Now, if I could make all these changes and then save the customized menu as a template for future use, I wouldn't mind (see Question 1!)...I think this is covered in 1 above

TIA,
UncleBoo

[rguthrie]

I would love it if Corel allowed us to finally create a custom DVD menu template without having to use PhotoImpact. Ideally, this could be handled using images and an xml file. The xml file would contain the information such as the images used, imange placement (such as buttons, frames that outline video(s), text data such as font type, actual text, etc.). Supported images would be what is already supported by VS.

[Black Lab]

Don't hold your breath Ronald!

[UncleBoo]

Thanks for the useful info. I've found a pointer to the elusive MF7 Manual, which also provides some of the info I needed.

A request, for one of the esteemed moderators: Could you provide a pointer to the MF7 manual in a "sticky" posting? I suspect it would be helpful to others who, like I did, incorrectly assume they will find the manual on the Corel website.

Regarding PhotoImpact, other threads indicate that it has been discontinued. Indeed, I don't see it anywhere on the online store site. (Not that I necessarily want to fork over $60 just to be able to create a menu template from scratch.)

So I guess I'll be limited to modifying existing templates to create my own. At least now I know I can do that much!

This is probably a silly question, but is a customized template stored as a file somewhere? Such that users could easily extract, swap and load each others' templates? Done manually, of course.

Cheers,
UncleBoo

[Black Lab]

A request, for one of the esteemed moderators: Could you provide a pointer to the MF7 manual in a "sticky" posting?

Can you supply the link?

[UncleBoo]

Link to the user manual, per sjj1805 on Fri May 28, 2010 4:32 pm, in the sister DVD Movie factory forum:

http://cid-7b0b9c5b899c50fa.skydrive.li ... Manual.pdf

Sorry, I don't know the forum infrastructure well enough to provide a proper hyperlink (feel free to edit), but the above worked when I just tried it. If necessary, head over to the DVD Movie factory forum and search for "manual". NOTE: there are two different links provided there; use the latter one at the bottom of the thread. (Now that I think of it, it might be a good idea to mention the sister forum in the same sticky note, too. I didn't even notice that forum until yesterday.)

Note that the downloaded manual has a leading and trailing underscore "_" in the file name (no idea why). Rename the file to remove the underscores; then the file will open fine in your favorite PDF reader.

Cheers,
UncleBoo

[UncleBoo]

Okay, after RTFPIF (PhotoImpact Forum) I found that PhotoImpact is indeed still available from the ulead(!) web site at the sale price of $29.99 full/$19.99 upgrade, bundled with a bunch of extras. Yup, I succumbed to optimism and bought it. Wish me luck!

Sigh, yet another forum to track.

Cheers,
UncleBoo