Chapter thumbnails (Pro X7)

[bardsleyh]

I'm probably missing something obvious but I'm not able to change chapter thumbnails (from the default first frame) while creating either a DVD or AVCHD disc. The main menu is fine as I just do the regular thing of jogging to my required position and right clicking the smaller image, and a menu emerges with a 'change thumbnail' option. But for chapters the obvious place to do it is while you are adding/editing chapters as you have a larger screen with all the chapters marked and below it all the chapter images, but no left/right/double clicks will induce a menu with 'change thumbnail' on it. Although I don't use chapters that much i feel sure I must have been able to do this in earlIer versions of VS.

[lata]

Hi

and welcome to the forums

No not the same as titles nor from the create chapter points window.

View the Chapter Menu page in the preview screen, selecting the Currently Displayed menu option.
Right click a thumbnail for Change this Scenes Thumbnail.
Opens a window to choose a frame.

hope this helps

[bardsleyh]

Thanks for your reply lata. So it seems, then, that my problem is associated with Smart Scene menus (the only kind I get offered when creating AVCHD discs). Some of them have a form of thumbnail which, while not a traditional square thumbnail, still contains the first frame of the clip. These do not get the Change This Scene's Thumbnail option offered on right-click like traditional thumbnails do (e.g on a DVD thumbnail menu). I don't know if this is a deficiency - it certainly feels like one to me. Thank you, anyway, for pointing me in the right direction and if you have any further comments I should be glad to receive them.

[lata]

Hi bardsleyh

Apologies for the delay in my reply,

Yes the AVCHD menus seem to use a version of Smart Scenes, these are also used for Bluray.

I can however change the scene thumbnails from the Edit tab.
Right click the thumbnail on the preview screen and I have the option to “Change this Scene Thumbnail”

The main problem I have with AVCHD menu is that I cannot set the Motion Menu, this option being greyed out.
Bluray although using the same templates allow for Motion Menu.

I have also burned AVCHD to standard dics, but never looked back once I bought the Bluray burner.

[bardsleyh]

Thanks again for your reply. Are you sure you've tried that on a SmartScene menu? - your attached screenshot looks like a standard Thumbnail menu as it has several thumbnail images (I can see 3) whereas the SmartScene ones usually show only one scene with others 'virtually' stacked behind it. If that really is a SmartScene menu would you mind telling me what version of VideoStudio that is - I'm on Pro X7 and I also tried it on Pro X6 which I still have on my desktop, with the same result. All the other text edit menu options that you have are showing on my version. I have raised it with Support now as well.
Incidentally I have to say I have never seen the Motion Menu greyed out on my AVCHD Menu & Preview screens; that's quite an odd one if it's OK on your BluRay burn (especially as the file structure is more or less identical). Has it never shown or could it be there wouldn't have been enough space on the disc to include a motion menu (obviously takes more space) and so it greyed it out for you automatically? Just a thought.

[lata]

Hi Apologies

I seem to have been testing CVSX8, however X7 is very similar and I have no problems changing thumbnails.
As for the motion menu that is not available when using X8, different problem?

Using X7 I can change the thumbnail view from the first page.
This affects the Title menu.
Play the video to the required frame, right click for “change thumbnail”
The new frame then shows on 6 of the eight default menus.

Also as described earlier I can change the thumbnail from the preview screen, right click a thumbnail for options.
Creating Chapter Points ---These thumbnails are only changed from the preview screen again as earlier image.

The menu I used was downloaded from the Do-More templates, there are two available, (Menu Pack and Menu Pack 2) adding 10 menu’s to DVD and 10 for AVCHD/Bluray. (pack2 for AVCHD)
X8 menu downloads are the same as X7

Sorry for any confusion, but I can change thumbnail views using X7

Post Updated
Hi

Ok I have done a few more tests, for AVCHD out of the eight default menu’s available only the yellow bus uses thumbnails for chapters.
All other menus use the Title menu and text for chapters.

If you download and install the extra menu packs, some contain Titles (large image) and Thumbnails as chapters (smaller image), well 4 of them.
The others are again Titles and or Text as chapters.

[bardsleyh]

OK thanks for testing it out, Trevor. I hadn't noticed that the yellow bus menu had thumbnails - I thought that all the provided SmartScene menus contained only what you call Title images. So maybe I should stop using the term thumbnail for these then. But my point, really, is this - that the Title image always shows in a sub-menu as the first frame of the chapter and I would expect to be able change it to a later frame in that chapter rather than put up with an often blurred first frame of a clip, and this is what I can't do. I realise that as the editable screen only ever shows the first chapter image there would need to be a mechanism to change each of the chapter images, but I thought that it might be done in the add/edit chapters process. But then maybe the complexity is too much for Corel, but it leaves my sub-menu looking a bit unprofessional. Perhaps I have misunderstood this kind of menu but as this is the majority type of the ones provided for AVCHD (and I don't want to use the yellow bus!) then I am trying to make sense of how I can change that Title image from the first frame. I never used to use chapters as I used to render separate clips and I had the old Ulead DVD MovieFactory authoring program to assemble them; but it's a bit dated now, especially for AVCHD/BluRay, and I thought chapters would allow me to do what I want yet still change the sub-menu image. So my alternative will have to be, like you, to download some extra AVCHD menus (containing amendable thumbnails) for the Gallery. So are those extra menu packs you have a purchasable item or are they free extras? Thanks, again, for your help.

[Ken Berry]

So are those extra menu packs you have a purchasable item or are they free extras?

They're free.

[lata]

Hi

I think the confusion is that the AVCHD menus are not all smart menus but seem to be a mix of Menus.
Anyway we can change the Title image and the images showing on the Chapter menu, including the larger image which I suppose could be confused with a Title?
Here I have used clips from the library starting with SP-V12.wmv and created chapter points for each clip.

Share – Disc – Avchd

The Title frame being displayed can be selected from the first window

The Chapter image and larger image if used can be changed from the Chapter menu display.

In fact the Main Menu thumbnail can also be modified from this window as well as first window.

[bardsleyh]

Thanks Ken for the info about the freebies.

Trevor. Thanks for your continued help. The confusion you mention is that they list all 8 menus provided at release as SmartScene ones in the Gallery heading, including the Yellow Bus which is clearly a thumbnail menu (i.e if you right-click either thumbnail you get the option to change the image) as opposed to the true SmartScene ones with a single image (right-click it and you DON'T get an option to change it). And, yes, I know I can change the image in the first VS screen because that creates an image for the Main Menu ONLY; but if you add more chapters to your first example (NOT the Yellow Bus which, as I've shown, is a Thumbnail type) it creates a named sub-menu and where are you going to change the images for each chapter it creates in that named sub-menu (including the first chapter actually). Not in the Add/Edit Chapter section because although it shows the chapter points and the first frame of each chapter it doesn't give any option there to change the image. So the Menu Preview screen then? No, at least not if you choose a SmartMenu for the named Sub-Menu (not the Main Menu); because, as I've shown, when you right-click the single image it doesn't give you an option to change it, and to be fair it couldn't because the prototype menu only shows the first chapter image anyway and not the succeeding chapters which only display when you test run the preview or you actually create the menus/sub-menus at the time of writing to disc. The only way it could work is if Corel used the chapter names to switch the image shown; but if it were to work then I think it would be better to do it at the Add/Edit Chapter point from the first screen. I can see the problem Corel might have had to implement it but they are providing all these SmartScene menus (rather than thumbnail types) but have left my menus looking unprofessional because I can't change the menu image for chapter start-points. Anyway I'm raising it with Corel (not with much hope I'm afraid) and I will download those free extras to see if I can find a usable menu that doesn't involve a means of transport!! Thanks again for your assistance.

[lata]

Hi

Yes you can change the frame for the Chapter menu.

I don’t think you have actually accessed the Chapter menu screen

Below the preview screen, as my last image is Currently Displayed Menu, that shows the Title menu by default, you can change that to view the Chapter menu using the down arrow.

[bardsleyh]

Trevor. Yes I have gone to the chapter menu via the down arrow. It's what I'm calling a named sub-menu. If I right-click the (only) image of its SmartScene menu in X7 there is no option to change the image. In your example you used the Yellow Bus menu but as I've said that's a Thumbnail type. Try one of the SmartScene ones showing a single image (not a text-only one obviously), right-click the image and (in Pro X7 anyway) there's no option to change it. In my project I have several chapters but even if it's just one you can't change it from that second screen (the Menu & Preview screen). Please prove otherwise to me and I will start to crave Corel's forgiveness! Thanks.

[lata]

Ok

I think I understand you.
The first template of the open book is a smart scene “text menu”
As a Title menu you can change that panel to display a different image.
As a Chapter menu that option is not available, but the panel is not a link, even so I guess you should be able to change that as part of the smart scene.

Unfortunately from the eight default templates there is not a smartscene “thumbnail” menu, the nearest is the bus.
If you download and install MenuPack 2 there are 4 SC Thumbnail menus, two small thumbnails and one larger image, all can have their image changed from the preview screen (by right click) and its these types I have been using.

As I said not all templates are the same type most are text menus.

But I do agree that the text menus do not allow you to change that single panel when in Chapter menu.
I was concentrating on the Thumbnail type menus having a large image + small thumbnails, here you can change all images

I have done a few checks burning a DVD, here you have several options from the gallery, the thumbnail types work ok and can change all images, all other types give some problems as AVCHD menu’s

[bardsleyh]

Thanks - can I ask you about MenuPack2? I understand that you access the extras via the Do-More tab in the Corel Guide. But although I still have that in my previous X6 version via the funny orange button in the top right corner, in my Pro X7 version the button, though having the same design, is blue rather than orange and takes me to the Corel Discovery Centre, not the Guide, and I can't see a Do-More tab anywhere. Is that the same for you on your X8 version?

[BrianCee]

That is strange - in my X7 (and in X8) although I have a blue button in the very top right corner of the screen I still have the orange "get more" button on each library pane - see below - does your version not have that

click on the image to see it bigger