stupid DVDSP menu timing question
 

So, in DVD studio pro (from FCS2) I'm trying to make a slightly interesting DVD menu. When the menu first pops up, I want a movie to play, for about five seconds, and then a "play" button to pop up when the movie stops and becomes a still. This sounds simple, right? I have no idea how to do this. I can get the movie to play, but I don't know how to delay my "play" button 'til the movie stops.

I'd probably handle that as a First Play for the part without the button and then a Menu when the button is supposed to show.

Ah. I don't know exactly how to do that but i can look it up. Thanks.

Make a movie that you want to show. Make a still from the last frame, and make a menu with it in Photoshop or how you would otherwise do it.

Put the movie on a videotrack and put that as First Play. End Target: Menu 1. You then put out the menu. And maybe you can put a dissolve transition with it, I don't know the exact details of that.

Yes, thanks. I was able to figure it out, but it's still not perfect. The still and movie were both exported from the same program, but the color saturation is different between them!

Also, I wanted the music to start when the movie plays, but continue as it freezes and the play button pops up. I don't see a way to do this.

There is a way to do exactly what you want but it requires using "scripting", which is similar to hand-coding a website. I you read the DVDSP4 users guide you'll get info on what and how to use scripting but beware, for the newbie it's going to take quite a while to get a handle on the code-wrangling and it's effect on the menu structure.

But, once you master scripting it opens up a whole world of deep possibilities - like timing plays such as you're attempting, using "codes" to open up special features and even "locks" to lockout sections unless you know the code. Amazing stuff awaits deeper in the code.

Thanks. I'm pretty sure anything involving programming languages is outside the realm of what my brain can handle. I barely made it through my first (and only) MIS class.

Don't give up so easily; if you made it through one MIS class you can handle DVD scripting. I'm no code-monkey myself (hate it, actually) but give it an honest try before you throw in the towel. Once you get the basics it's really no harder than basic HTML code, you just need to know the basics.

Try it, then tell me you hate it once you get your first customized script to work.