Play Button on Menu

[sgriffis]

Hi,

I've created two unrelated movies and would like to burn them on the same disk. My goal is to list each movie independently on the menu. However, after either movie is played, I want it to return to the main menu (I'm not creating a sub menu - main menu only).

My problem is this:
Scenario 1: If the "play" button is selected, the first movie plays and then the second movie automatically begins to play when movie 1 is finished. (not what I want)
Scenario 2: If movie #1 is selected (instead of the play button), movie #1 plays and returns to menu (perfect)
Scenario 3: If movie #2 is selected (instead of the play button), movie #2 plays and returns to menu (perfect)

What I've tried:
1) Deleting the play button (not allowed)
2) Hiding the play button (hides but still shows when previewed and burned)
3) Adjusting transparency to 99% (still visible when previewed and burned)

Is there any way to accomplish my goal here?

[BrianCee]

Unfortunately no - even if you hide the play button if the viewer presses play on the remote it still plays all

I have added a text on the menu next to the play button which says "play all" - does not change the behaviour but warns the viewer what will happen if they press play

one of the oddities in Videostudio

[lata]

Hi sgriffis

Try setting the Navigation Controls via the Settings Cogwheel lower left of burner module.

Deselect Auto Repeat….
Then select Back to Menu as clip playback option

Should do what you need in 2 and 3

That is assuming you have added two video files to the first page to create a Title menu and not created chapters.

[sgriffis]

Unfortunately no - even if you hide the play button if the viewer presses play on the remote it still plays all

I have added a text on the menu next to the play button which says "play all" - does not change the behaviour but warns the viewer what will happen if they press play

one of the oddities in Videostudio

Darn it...was afraid of that. Is this just a limitation in VidStudio or all editing software?

Thanks for your answer.

[lata]

Hi
as far as I know all disc menu will play all when hitting the play button unless you navigate the menu to choose / select another option.

With Video Studio if you set the navigation controls to Back to Menu.
Navigate the menu to select say title 2, then hit play - only title two will play.
Otherwise use the numeric pad to press 2, then play.

You can scroll through the menu till the play option is selected then the disc will play from beginning.

Basically you have the option to Play All or Play selected Title.

As a test burn a short video having 4 titles, choose to create an ISO file, deselect create disc, you can play the iso using VLC media player to check the menu functions.

[Davidk]

Yes, there is. Noting the remarks by Brian about the play button, you can make selections to enable both of your scenarios 2 or 3 in one operation.

I've made up a quickie disk composition with menu to illustrate. There's only 2 items on it because that's all I need but you can have as many as will fit on your disk and still be on a main menu (depending on the menu type you choose in stage 2, up to eight). The screen capture of the relevant parts follows:

Explanation of the image
Open VS, select share and then the disk icon and the type of disk you want. I've used DVD here, but this also applies to AVCHD and Bluray. All of the following applies to the first "Add Media" page of the author module shown in the image.

When the author (also called burn panel) panel opens at stage 1, import your movie clips using the import video film icon at the top LH side of the stage 1 add media panel. I find that it's best to import individually rendered files at this point - there's a history of using the vsp option not working well.

Introduction
There's an option here to have an introductory clip play before the menu. This intro clip could be a production house logo (like the MGM roaring lion of movie fame) or something else which is a one-time thing. If you want to include an introductory clip, re-arrange (select and drag) to sequence of movie thumbnails in the horizontal clip list so your intro item is the 1st (left-most) item, select it (gets a yellow box around the thumbnail) and tick the box which says "use first clip as introductory video"

Menu
To add a menu to your creation, on this 'add media' page, ensure that the create menu box is ticked.

Play individual menu items and return to the menu - this is the scenario you outlined as 'perfect'
At the bottom of this 1st Add Media page, there is a settings option - an icon with a cog wheel resting on a piece of film. Select it. A project settings panel opens and the options for what you want to do are on this panel. At the bottom of the panel there is a navigation controls section. To have the playback return to the menu when a clip on the disk finishes playing, ensure that the clip playback item is set to "back to menu". The captured screen image above shows this. The default is "continue to play the next clip" which is what you are seeing and asking about. If this is all that is required, click OK on this panel and return to stage 1 of the author sequence. The other navigation control options may also affect what you want to do with the menu - try them out (select, create menu on 2nd page and then preview) and see if you like them.

Continue to stage 2 authoring - menu and preview - to create the menu that you want.

Davidk

[canuck]

Yes, there is. Noting the remarks by Brian about the play button, you can make selections to enable both of your scenarios 2 or 3 in one operation.

I've made up a quickie disk composition with menu to illustrate. There's only 2 items on it because that's all I need but you can have as many as will fit on your disk and still be on a main menu (depending on the menu type you choose in stage 2, up to eight). The screen capture of the relevant parts follows:

VS X9 clip play sequence.jpg

Explanation of the image
Open VS, select share and then the disk icon and the type of disk you want. I've used DVD here, but this also applies to AVCHD and Bluray. All of the following applies to the first "Add Media" page of the author module shown in the image.

When the author (also called burn panel) panel opens at stage 1, import your movie clips using the import video film icon at the top LH side of the stage 1 add media panel. I find that it's best to import individually rendered files at this point - there's a history of using the vsp option not working well.

Introduction
There's an option here to have an introductory clip play before the menu. This intro clip could be a production house logo (like the MGM roaring lion of movie fame) or something else which is a one-time thing. If you want to include an introductory clip, re-arrange (select and drag) to sequence of movie thumbnails in the horizontal clip list so your intro item is the 1st (left-most) item, select it (gets a yellow box around the thumbnail) and tick the box which says "use first clip as introductory video"

Menu
To add a menu to your creation, on this 'add media' page, ensure that the create menu box is ticked.

Play individual menu items and return to the menu - this is the scenario you outlined as 'perfect'
At the bottom of this 1st Add Media page, there is a settings option - an icon with a cog wheel resting on a piece of film. Select it. A project settings panel opens and the options for what you want to do are on this panel. At the bottom of the panel there is a navigation controls section. To have the playback return to the menu when a clip on the disk finishes playing, ensure that the clip playback item is set to "back to menu". The captured screen image above shows this. The default is "continue to play the next clip" which is what you are seeing and asking about. If this is all that is required, click OK on this panel and return to stage 1 of the author sequence. The other navigation control options may also affect what you want to do with the menu - try them out (select, create menu on 2nd page and then preview) and see if you like them.

Continue to stage 2 authoring - menu and preview - to create the menu that you want.

Davidk

How does this avoid creating the "Play" button which is what the sgriffis is looking for?

[Davidk]

You can't avoid it - the "play all" button is a feature of all menus, as Brian noted. However, I suspect that is also tied to the default play next clip option in the navigation control pane of the settings panel I outlined. Moving the 'play all' icon to the opposite side of the menu to the playable clips listed in the menu avoids finger errors . . . and the menu creation process allows each clip to have it's own play button.

But what was asked for was a method of playing a clip - any one of them that are in the menu - and returning to the menu when that clip finished playing was the 'perfect' solution, and a means of achieving that is what I outlined.

There's another capability related to menus, and that is on the "menu and preview" page (step 2) of the disk authoring panel. With the create menu option chosen on page 1, when you move to next or step 2, a selection of menu styles is presented as a gallery. Choose one. Each of the clip items (except the selected intro clip) in the clip list of step 1 is now shown as a menu item. What is presented initially is the clip file name, and you can edit the text of the item presentation to label it in any font and size you wish. There's a box to 'show highlight button' below the preview window - tick it. What it does is provide a highlighted button or marker on the currently 'pointed to' (not selected, but will be played if you press play or OK - just like menus on bought DVD's). Its not defaulted on, nor is it saved with the composition, so every time you open the author panel and get to this stage, you have to tick it again. And you don't have to have it selected for the menu to operate as intended - but it helps to indicate the state of the menu.

In combination with what I outlined in my earlier post, a disk with menu composed like this will
- play the intro clip, then
- display the menu that's been created. About 20sec of the clip at each menu item when the pointer button is moved to that clip (see the options in the edit pane on the LH side of this page).
- moving the highlighted pointer to the clip you want to play, and pressing OK will play it. When the clip finishes playing, it returns to the menu, and you can select another item. Item selection does not have to be in the order laid out in the menu.

Selecting preview (bottom of this page) will enable you to try the composition out before burning a disk or disk image. And it works just like your DVD player/TV combo - opens, plays any intro clip, then shows the menu. On the remote control image, move the selection pointer to the one you want, and OK to play. Confirm that it returns to the menu when finished, then select another item and so on . . .

Lastly, saving the composition - is in the/a project file. So, make sure you name and save it correctly. Packaging of a composition isn't possible, altho it's been asked for often enough. Re-opening that project file on the same PC will present the composition as you last saved it when the burn or author module opens with the same share/disk/filetype selected.

Davidk

[canuck]

Unfortunately no - even if you hide the play button if the viewer presses play on the remote it still plays all

I have added a text on the menu next to the play button which says "play all" - does not change the behaviour but warns the viewer what will happen if they press play

one of the oddities in Videostudio

Darn it...was afraid of that. Is this just a limitation in VidStudio or all editing software?

Thanks for your answer.

Unfortunately it is a limitation of VS software. I don't know about some other software packages but with Roxio Creator NXT 3 or earlier (Roxio Creator is another Corel product), you can create just such a menu which has no Play button. On its default menu page, you have just the buttons to select each movie and the default is to return to the main menu. The menu page has no navigation buttons (such as Play All, Next, Previous etc) but they can be added if you want them. Thus you could create a menu page that is similar to the VS default menu page.

[Ken Berry]

Thus you could create a menu page which VS uses by default.

But how would you get VS to recognise it? AFAIK VS can only see menu templates prepared with that format which only PhotoImpact has (whose name escapes me for the moment... )

[canuck]

Thus you could create a menu page which VS uses by default.

But how would you get VS to recognise it? AFAIK VS can only see menu templates prepared with that format which only PhotoImpact has (whose name escapes me for the moment... )

Sorry I did not mean that you could create menu pages which can then be used in VS and I have corrected my post above.

[rjkok67]

What would happen to the menu if you opened the UFO file in Photoimpact X3 and deleted the play all button from the menu in layer manager? Do you think it would process & export properly!

[BrianCee]

I don't know if any one has actually done that - it *may* work but I think pressing the play button on the remote will still play all



..

[lata]

What would happen to the menu if you opened the UFO file in Photoimpact X3 and deleted the play all button from the menu in layer manager? Do you think it would process & export properly!

Hi rjkok67

you could try that but I think no the UFO would not save correctly, in fact I do not think PI would allow you to do that.
A DVD menu has to have certain controls, navigation controls whether used or not.
Some are hidden, for instance the next menu button will not show unless there is another menu page, but it does exist.

one of these is the Play all, it has to be there, we do not have to use it, we can select a title and play that.

I have attached a DVD Menu Maker.pdf, may help.........

DVD Menu Maker.zip

photo impact X3

(720.9 KiB) Downloaded 1969 times

By the way I have had problems modifying older UFO to use in X8 / X9, I have to use a newer menu file from X8, seems the later versions are more complex?

[rjkok67]

Last night after submitting my question, I decided to open one of my menu's in photoimpact X3, it was a 27 text 4x3 UFO; I then deleted all navigation buttons. photoimpact X3 would not let me export the menu as you would normally need to do so I tried just saving my changes in photoimpact X3 and closed the menu then opened it back up and the menu had no nav. buttons.I then copied my modified menu to my doc's
VS PRO 15.0 FAVORITES 4X3 FAVORITES and then opened VSX5 and selected 19 video file tutorials and browsed my menu's found the menu with no nav. buttons selected it finished the project burnt dvd tested in dvd player and the dvd menu comes up and nothing happens you can't playall only anyone menu item that is selected and I always have options set to go back to menu.
This got my curiosity and had to try it and I am not saying that it will work on all UFO menu's.Again the menu Iused was it was a 27 text 4x3 the same one I beleive is in that public folder I have available.
I do have some menu problems between programs mostly VS5,8,9 menu's that I try to use in earlier Moviefactory 6 or 7. This was all for education purposes.If anyone wants the no navigation text menu I can add it to my public folder if requested. By the way the public folder menu's all work like corel's standaed menu's.