Can't set video in DVD menu

[wipo]

In the video pane of the DVD menu examples from the gallery it should be possible to select a different video to show. This does not seem to work, it always shows the first 20 (adjustable) seconds of the first chapter which is not helpful.

By the way, the Dutch menu item for changing this video refers to a picture and not to a video. It should refer to a video, just like the two menu items immediately below which are correct.

Anybody knows how to change the video in the pane on the main menu?

THX

[Davidk]

You haven't clearly explained what you are doing and there seem to be a few steps missing.
But on the assumption that you are trying to create a DVD with menu using the Share/disk approach:
- open VS with NO clips in the timeline
- select share mode
- click on the disk icon and choose the type of disk media you want to use: DVD, AVCHD, BR or SD card
- choose DVD: a burn panel opens. After setting up the preferences (eg for format: 16:9, or 4:3) there are 3 steps to execution
- step 1 - load the rendered clips you want to use (strong recommendation: render these separately from individual project files) into the clip strip. click n drag to get the presentation order you want.
- tick the menu box
- step 2 - create the menu. The clip selections here can be previewed, but only (a maximum) of 30 seconds, unless you click on a menu selection to play it. Set this duration, the music and the video background by choosing the edit tab in this step 2 Menu and preview stage.
- step 3 - create the disk. Strong suggestion; create it as an iso file only. Then play the result in VLC, and only when you are happy, create the final disk using a create from iso source tool. One in VS under tools, but there are freebie others that do the job.

[Ken Berry]

David -- I think the user knows how to do all that. What he is more specifically after is advice on the first frame of the video in the project which will appear on the main page of the menu. As you know, on the chapter menu you can select the first frame that will show for each chapter. He wants to know if can can similarly choose a first frame in the video which will show on the main menu but which is not the first frame. In many cases the first few frames are black. They are in my case, anyway.

I think you can do this on the first page of the burning module. You can slide the cursor to the point you want to show then click on the first square bracket over to the right. The one that looks like this: [ -- See attached image.

That should show the image in the preview screen. Then when you click on Next to select and edit the main screen, that image should still be visible in the selected template. But it has been a long while since I have made a DVD and so I will leave it to others to advise further.

It would also be useful to know which version of VS the user has, though the burning module is AFAIK identical in all versions of VS.

[Davidk]

Hi Ken,
Curious. I would have thought that if a clip had black or blank starting frames - or anything else not desirable by the user, like an out of focus shot or blurred imagery whilst moving the recorder to scene - that it would have been edited out in the individually created phase (clip into normal TL, edit etc save vsp, share/render to output file).
But I take it the user is importing the recorder clip/imagery direct into the burn module, where that 1st few frames thing may well be visible. I've never done that. But your method should work - test at preview in step 2. I normally use mark in/out markers for the section of menu music I want - in step 2.
However, given the history of issues with editing functions being specified in the burn module - such as is routinely identified if a vsp is imported in step 1 - I would be more inclined to just edit out what is undesired using the main Edit mode, render that and then import the result to the burn module.

[lata]

Hi
And I read wipo post differently
I believe is referring to Motion Menus where we can choose another background.
After choosing a menu from the Gallery select the Edit tab
Unfortunately wipo is correct that a video would be limited to 30 seconds, by default set to 20 sec
I have just tried to set a video as a background and no video was added and that seems strange
Doing the same with 2019 worked ok and I was able to add a video and set the start position, even so will be limited to Motion Menu duration

Wipo, I believe you will be limited to 30 seconds, there is another issue that I do not think the videos audio is used

For me I cannot add a video as a background using 2020, I'll try again?
But as the Dutch version only shows a picture / image maybe they have disabled the video option, and the reason why i cannot use a video
Were you able to add a video file?

The attached image was taken from VS 2019

Ken the VS version shows in the profile to the right as VS 2020

[Ken Berry]

I would have thought that if a clip had black or blank starting frames ... that it would have been edited out in the individually created phase

Just a quick one, David. I start ALL my projects quite deliberately with a 3 or 4 second black matte then a cross fade transition, followed by the title. That way I have a gentle opening which avoids any possible bump or wobble of a couple of frames which can sometimes happen when you start directly with a title or video...

[Davidk]

Trevor,
I've done many DVD's with menus for class work, and you are correct: the menu section of a DVD composition does not use clip audio. You can use the default music, or choose music of your choice, and the duration is 20sec default and 30sec max. Assuming the music clip is long enough, with either the default or your choice of music, you can choose which section of music you want to play in the menu, by using the [ and ] mark-in and -out markers with the time limits. When the menu music plays to the end, it auto repeats. And you can use different music for any sub-menus. I found this disk burn panel and particularly the menu component to be very effective. The only complaint I have about it is that there is no volume control on the selected menu music; it's always 100% of clip. If you want it louder or softer, you have to do that externally to VS, and then choose the adjusted clip for the menu music. That can be repetitive, and inconvenient. I made suggestions to include a volume slider in this pane, similar to the one for captured voiceover, for years but was ignored: gave up eventually.

Ken,
I start all my projects with an image (photo or video) within a frame, with title and music: usually for 3-4 sec but sometimes longer. Often, I have a P&Z filter on the photo used here. On a few occasions the frame I've used is FR-D01.png (from the X10 library) and the title is running within the frame, which gives the effect that you often see when breaking news is being announced on TV. I've never had any experience/ evidence of clip wobbles starting projects like this over any of the VS versions I've used.

[lata]

David
Have you tried using 2020 and adding a video as the background, for me that did not happen the video file was not added I can only us Images / Photos
Wipo also mentions the naming of the Background only showing Photo, has Corel changed the function of Backgrounds disabling the use of video.

As for audio, yes the sound is high, If I use this option I would create a new audio file having a lower volume, also allow it to fade to make the replay as seamless as possible
Also deselecting Motion Menu would allow the audio file to play in full. I could play a full song in preview, but reverted to 30 seconds when burnt to disc. Bummer

VS authoring and menus are not the best, and Corel no longer provide the extra menus, maybe My DVD would give better results, that has been updated over the past few versions, lots of menus to choose from, I have not tested the background options using My DVD
In fact I have not burnt a disc for a few years now

[Davidk]

Trevor,
No. I generally follow the Gartner group advice and don't use a program until the 1st service pack, or in the case of 2020 until sp3 with it's leaked huge fix list comes out.
But following your remarks about choosing a video background on menu, I tried it out using 2020 @version 23.1.0.481: open a new project, share, choose disk, DVD and when the burn panel opened make a DVD with menu using 2 clips I'd rendered for another project. And in the burn panel for 2020, there are at least 2 bugs I encountered doing this:
1. the burn panel opened OK, and on step 1 I could import clips to the time strip, but panel as a whole kept vanishing from the screen, and I was back to the share display of disk media options. Clicking the DVD media selection button got the panel back in the 'as vanished' state, but it should not do this.
2. in step 2, the clips presented in the default theme (top of the list), then selected the edit tab, I then clicked on the add video background button, and could navigate to a clip and Ok to get it, but that ended the whole thing - no video background as selected was presented, and I was back at the edit tab, with the box still indicating that no background video was selected. Repeated this 3 times with same results.

Comparably, this wasn't an issue when I last did a class disk, using 2019 in Nov 2019. So I repeated the simple test I did with 2020 in 2019, v 22.3.0.436. Neither of the problems I outline above were evident: the 2019 burn panel worked as expected.

So, the 2020 burn panel definitely has at least 2 bugs in it. Buggable on centrecode?

The new UI versions offer great feature improvements, but until Corel can get them a lot more reliable, makes one glad to use venerable older versions like x9 and x10 for serious work.

[lata]

I then clicked on the add video background button, and could navigate to a clip and Ok to get it, but that ended the whole thing - no video background as selected was presented, and I was back at the edit tab, with the box still indicating that no background video was selected. Repeated this 3 times with same results.
.

Thanks David for replicating the add video issue as same results as i experienced.

Oh by the way My DVD does not allow video to be added as a background, only images are allowed
I would assume VS 2020 was done intentionally

My internet speed is painfully slow today

[Davidk]

Trevor,
I don't think you can assume it was done intentionally. There was no advice about it, true, but that has sadly become normal when feature changes happen. For example, we only found out about the reasons for changes surrounding discarding LSC in favour of MCCL when we challenged Nick. That was clearly deliberate and there were no leftovers of the old method.

But in this case, there are too many tails or leftovers. If this was deliberate, then why is the option to change the video background for more than one menu option still there? why does it proceed as it usually did, to allow selection, and then go nowhere? screenshot

I still think this is a bug.

[lata]

Hi David
Wipo did mention that in his program a Dutch install that the option only showed Photo being available with no reference to Video
I do recall either Nick mentioning or I had read that the authoring stage has been updated, I did look at the time but found nothing obvious.
Given that My DVD does not allow video to be added one could assume as I did that this was done intentionally. Of course I could be wrong, either way it does not help
However I can probably understand the reason not to allow video as a background.
We cannot compare LSC with MCCL as they were stand alone pieces of software and not embedded to the programs UI, so how would we have leftovers?

I would agree it is wrong to have the so called leftovers, If you think it’s a bug then you should report this to Corel Support

[Davidk]

Done.
Altho a new service pack version 23.2.0.587 is now out, and there is not often a another one before Corel focusses the next version.

If they would concentrate - for just one year - on removing/fixing all the reported issues the program would be both reliable and a winner. As it is, despite all the new features since 2018, the newer versions have a continually reported habit of silent crashes. The most reliable versions are the older ones - X9/X10 - and the older users are frequently commenting about reverting to using them.

[wipo]

Hi David, Trevor and Ken,
my apologies for the late reply and for the fact that my description was apparently not very clear. I'll do my best to improve:

- First I just installed the latest update to see if that makes any difference but the issue I have is the same.

- What I use is the Share to DVD functionality embedded in VideoStudio itself. I am not using the MyDVD application

- When I open this function I first select and add five project I have produced for my DVD. The first project called Intro is the Introduction fragment and I have tagged the appropriate checkbox. The second project (fotos) is an animation of a number of still foto's and the remaining three projects (1986-deel1, -deel2 and -deel3) contain the video material. So far so good. Screenshot

-Then I select a template from the gallery (the second one on the first row, with the shelves). In this template there is an area in which a video is played in the black rectangle. The four projects (not the first since it is using this as intro) become the chapters of the DVD. So far it all makes sense I guess. Screenshot

- Now what I want to do is define the video which is to be played in this black area. So I go to the second tab (to the right of the galery tab) which allows to make modifications. The first part of the form allows to change the background music and the second part (motion menu) allows to change background image/video. If I click on the litlle button in this area the menu with 9 selections (3 x 3) pops up. Here things are starting to become problematic. In the English version (thx David) you can see that the first line of the second group of menu-items refer clearly to selecting a background video (!) for this menu. In the Dutch version there is a wrong translation (afbeelding = image) but OK this is not the main issue for me (and easy to be fixed I guess).

- The real problem is when you use this function and VideoStudio allows you to set a different video file nothing really happens. I assume this would allow you to determine which video to play in the black rectangle, just like the duration of this video is determined by the first parameter in the motion menu (and this works fine). The reality is that in the black rectangle (using preview) always the first 20 seconds (or different if changed) of the first project and menu is shown (in my case the Fotos project).

- On a side-note, it is not clear for me what the other 4 menu items (all greyed out in my case) and referring to similar selection of Image/Video for All Main Menu's and All Menu's are supposed to do. Also the function of the last three menu items for apparently resetting the background image/video and also greyed out is unclear.

I hope it is more clear now, thanks for your help

Wietse

[wipo]

Hi again,
just found by coincidence how it works. The black square shows a preview of the selected chapter. Didn't get that at first. What the background video is supposed to do is not clear yet but that's less of a problem now that I know the concept.
Also found that double clicking in the black preview square allows you to set the start point in the video, which was a kind of issue.
Thanks for helping out anyway.

Wietse