First time authoring blu-ray, disc menu does not work

[fingerbreaker]

Making a family pictures/videos blu-ray using VSx9 with bluray plugin on Windows 10 Pro burning to an external Pioneer burner. First time doing this so I made a trial disk with two titles, each with a few random chapter points. In the preview within the share popup menu, everything works as expected. I didn't make any changes other than changing the title of the disc; just took all the defaults. When the disc, having been burned, is in my bluray player, the main menu appears but it doesn't respond when either of the two titles are selected, in fact after down-arrowing to title 2 I can't even up-select back to title 1, it just locks up. However, my player (Samsung UBDM9500) has a Tools menu which I can use to select either title and their chapters and both titles play fine from that menu.

I don't know if that's enough information to make a diagnosis but I'm hoping it sounds familiar enough that someone can tell me what's wrong. I can certainly live with it since I know how to do the "Tools" workaround but I want to send copies to family without having to include an instruction sheet on how to play it.

Thanks,
FB

[fingerbreaker]

Hoping for some insight. I burned another disc and the same problem occurs: the main menu appears, but I can't select any of the titles and can only navigate to the first two of four.

This time I first "burned" to an iso file which played normally on my pc, the physical disc doesn't work. I can get to all of the titles and chapters via the settings menu on my player, so I know all of the content is there. I just can't navigate to it with the main menu.

ANY help would be appreciated!

Thanks,
FB

[fingerbreaker]

Tried it again using best practices gleaned from other threads on Videostudio's very touchy authoring capabilities. I have three titles. I rendered each of them to a video file. I closed VS. I reopened to a blank project and went straight to create mode. I imported the video files. I auto added chapters at each scene. I didn't rename any chapters or do anything else. I "burned" to an iso file only. The iso file plays normally on my pc. I burned this iso to disk using VS. Same result: bluray player displays the main menu but I can't select anything. Again, through settings I can select all titles and chapters and they play fine. Also burned the iso to another disc using another program, not VS, with the same result. So something is wrong with the way VS is creating the iso image.

PLEASE, if anyone has any ideas on things to try, settings to check/change, what possible source could cause a problem like this, etc. I would love any input at all. We need to save Christmas!

Thanks,
FB

[lata]

Hi FB
Apologies for the delay in our reply.
I missed your original post, now you seem you are still having the same problems.
Your last post on the 19th is what I would do, creating a video file first to compliant Bluray settings should avoid the additional render of the files as Convert Title, so when you hit the burn it should start with Convert Menu.
I used to Create a Bluray folder not the ISO as I could play that with menus to check quality before burning to disc using ImgBurn
I Used Img Burn as Video Studio could not burn the BD Folder, in fact I did not realise that Video Studio could burn a Bluray Iso?
It has been a while since I burnt a Bluray disc but have to say nothing complicated and I usually only create the titles and do not use Chapters and as such never had a problem.
I am wondering if you did actually create a compliant Bluray video and avoided the final render / Create Title, if not then your video files are being converted again, although I do not know if that would influence the chapter menus.
Can you run the burner module again using the video files to create the iso, when you hit Burn it should start with Convert Menu.
So what are the properties of the videos?

Another option you could try is the MY DVD program, provided with Video Studio can burn DVD or Bluray with menus
Again you would first render the projects to a compliant video file to use in MY DVD

Of course we don’t wish to waste discs, although Christmas is near and the coasters may come in handy

Many on the forums are now playing the videos directly on their TV via a memory stick thus avoiding burning a disc.

[fingerbreaker]

I haven't tried without chapters to see if that's the problem, but I kind of want the chapters so it wouldn't help me much to go without. I did use a different free program to burn a disc without chapters as a backup plan and it works fine (DVDFab).

"if you did create a compliant Bluray video": I rendered the projects to mpeg4 videos. Is there more to it than that?

I don't understand "Can you run the burner module again using the video files to create the iso, when you hit Burn it should start with Convert Menu." So, burn another iso from the video files (not .VSP) and confirm that the burn process starts with "Convert menu..." (on the same line as "Total progress:")? If that happens, the implication is my video files are compliant because otherwise the first step would be to render the videos or something? If that's correct, I'll try that and reply back, but I believe it starts with "Convert menu..."

I don't have MyDVD for some reason, but I'll keep it in mind as another option if this doesn't work. The DVDFab software I used worked fine (with the same video files), but it's the free version so I couldn't make any chapters. I can't check the video properties because I'm in the middle of another burn attempt (I don't even remember what I'm trying this time, just need an even number of coasters I guess) but I'll confirm and reply later.

Thank you!
FB

[fingerbreaker]

My rendered video files used to burn are: MPEG-4 AVC (1920 x 1080, 30p, 15Mbps)

I tried burning a new disc with 4 titles (all rendered to above properties) and no chapters whatsoever. I noticed that the disc size was much smaller (almost half - sorry, forgot to write down numbers) than when I had chapters in there. Is that a clue, or expected? This disc actually works in the bluray player: all four titles can be selected and played. The catch is that whenever I navigate from one title to the other in the menu, or when returning to the main menu from playing a video, there is literally a 15 second lag with a black screen. If it was 3 seconds, that would be annoying but tolerable. But 15 seconds is enough to take a nap to.

So, for now, I will have to live with the initial result (using settings menu in bluray player to access titles/chapters) because that is in truth probably as or more user-friendly than a normal menu interface which always seems a little sluggish. It's just not intuitive for family members I would send copies of this disc to.

Let me know if you have any other things to try. My conclusion at this point (based on my experience and all of the documented threads on VS authoring being wonky at best) is that I should try MyDVD or just buy another program that does authoring right. But I'm willing to live with workarounds in VS if I can find any that are at all reliable.

Thanks,
FB

[lata]

Hi
As you are using MPEG-4 AVC (1920 x 1080, 30p, 15Mbps) I would expect the burner to recode those / Convert Title
Can you confirm that, as your comments regarding file size would be correct if it started with Convert Menu
The MPEG 4 uses 15mbps and the Convert Title would use 35Mbps as shown in the Cogwheel lower left (Project Settings)
Here you would also set the Navigation Controls, are you doing that? You may wish to set it to Back to Menu
By the way the Navigation Controls only affect the Titles

As far as I know to burn a Bluray we need motion transport video files, from Share – AVC/H.264 the top profile would do AVC (1920 x 1080, 50i, 18Mbps) or AVC (1920 x 1080, 60i, 18Mbps)
This will create a video using m2t as its file extension, notice that it uses interlacing 60i not 30P progressive.
I have some notes on my web site here http://lata.me.uk/corel/all.htm
Even so burning with the correct M2T files may not alter the menu issue you are experiencing, and the menu structure that VS uses is pretty basic.
My DVD is part of CVS X9 Ultimate it is provided in the Standard Contents folder of the download installation files, If you have that then run the folder contents by double clicking the setuo_CHD.exe

[fingerbreaker]

I rendered the projects again as m2t files as you suggested, started a new blank project, inserted the m2t files, added auto-chapters, burned and got the same bad result.

I don't follow your comment on Navigation Controls. I don't know what or where the Cogwheel is (I'm using VSx9). I don't see anything about nav controls in the create menu.

I was able to get MyDVD and it creates a working disc, but the 4 chapters per menu limit is a dealbreaker at least for this project. One of my titles has over fifty chapters so it's much easier to navigate to a specific chapter if there are only a few menu pages with 9 each instead of three times as many with only 3 each.

Because you mentioned project settings, which I usually ignore (out of ignorance, not strategy) I opened them and found it was set to "mobile" so I changed it to "bluray" and am burning a new disc with just one title but it's the only with 50+ chapters, so I'll see if that changes anything. Is there any reason to think that the large number of chapters could be causing any issues?

Thanks,
FB

[lata]

Hi
I did not realise you had so many chapter points, 50 is a lot
Video Studios authoring and menu options are pretty basic it uses a Main or Title menu, each Title can have Chapters applied, a sub-menu
The Navigation Controls effects the way the disc reacts to being played
When we first insert the disc it loads to the Main menu, here we can see the Title links as text or thumbnails
This is how I understand it after loading the disc.
1 / There is a Play All option which is selected by default, so hitting that will start playing the disc from the beginning
2 / We can select any Title using the remotes arrows or numerical keypad, doing so will open the associated chapter menu
We can show the thumbnail numbers via the Edit Advanced options – Show Thumbnail Number
3 / Each Menu will be limited to about 5 links, where you have more then additions chapter pages will be provided, having 50 is probably the cause of the delay as the player is reading all the additional pages.
4 / When we play any Chapter the disc will play to the end of its Title, it does not only play the individual chapter.
5 / At the end if the Title it reacts to the Navigation Controls, by default just repeats play, so the disc plays forever.
6 / Deselect the Auto Repeat ……… and the Clip Playback becomes active
7 / Continue to play next clip will play to the end of the disc, then return to the menu
8 / Back to Menu, will play the disc to the end of the Title, then return to Menu

And yes I would think the large number of chapters or the number of chapter pages could be causing the delay you are experiencing.

One of our forum members “rjkok67” has provided menus with 30 or so links, view this post
viewtopic.php?f=48&t=60117

I cannot vouch for all the menus but the ones I tried did work, however I only tried for DVD not Bluray.

click image for larger view

click image for larger view

[fingerbreaker]

Not a resolution, but an update with kind of a good result: I took the disc to a family member's house ready to explain how the menu doesn't work, and lo and behold, the disc works perfectly in their player (a cheap Sony player - forgot to note the model number). So, still no idea why it doesn't work in my player (a much more expensive Samsung!). But since the iso plays correctly on my pc and the disc works in a different player, it must be something unique to my player (Samsung UBDM9500). Thanks for all of the help, it is much appreciated!

Thanks,
FB

[wiselx]

I followed a thread about blu ray authoring posted on the forum late last year that you provided advice on and wondered if you could give me some guidance on the use of the disc template manager.
I have been making blu rays for some time and have made up my projects, usually avchd or bluray 1920 x 1080, frame based PAL then 'same as project' to make up the M2t file then finally SHARE-disc-Bluray etc but I have never set up any parameters for the project settings on the disc template.
I always assumed that the project info would be passed on automatically to the burn process. Is this not the case ?
Do I have to set this up separately on the Settings & Options and the 'cog wheel' for blu ray.
What do I need to do to be able to optimize (and understand) this set up parameter to as it it looks like the selection for the BD disc is upper or lower field but not frame based. My BD movies look good but I would like to understand this last step so that I can be sure of what I am doing and not operating with the 'force'.