DVDA Menu Based
 

I have a newbie question for you. I am using DVDA and want to create a menu based DVD. I want to create a wedding DVD where when you put the DVD in to play it. The menu pops up and gives you options as to what you want to view. Such as: Play the entire DVD, Cake Cutting, First Dance, The Toast...ect... Here is my question. Do I have to render each part by it's self, then put it into DVDA? or can I render the entire wedding and have thoses parts in the menu? And if I do have to render each part by it's self, is there a way to view the entire wedding. Like having one of the parts say "Play entire wedding" I have read over the manual and just don't understand how to do this.

Any help would be great
Gary

The short answer is yes, render as one piece of video. Then, import the clip into DVDA, and create chapters that point to the various pieces of the long clip that you want available individually. This is the most straightforward method.

The user will see the wedding clip starting from the chapter they selected through to the end.

The DVD specification is very flexible, and so is DVDA, so, it is possible to create this experience with individual clips through the use of "end actions", in which you specify what happens when a clip completes, eg. go to menu, go to sub menu, go to start of next clip, etc. But this is painstaking work for no gain, when the big-clip-with-chapters method works so well for what you want.

For a step-by-step, please see Edward Troxel's excellent newsletters. I believe the DVDA chapters tutorials were written for an earlier version, but this part hasn't changed much.

you can render as 1 piece and place chapter markers (do this in Vegas) OR you can render each piece seperately bring eah piece into DVDA but if you do this you will need to make sure the END ACTIONS point to the next chapter.
Frankly for now since you don't have a lot experience doing this I would render with markers in Vegas then bring into DVDA. Make sure you render to the proper bitrate (Edward has a chart in his newsletters) and render the audio to AC3 (smaller file size -allows for higher bitrate for the MPG) Name them the same such as "the wedding" but each will have different file extensions The video will have an MPG and the audio will have an AC3 extension. When you bring in one the other will follow.

Don

I did the following (rather lengthy response) for a user on another Vegas forum and saved it because I knew it would come in handy sometime soon :-)
Please note that the encoding settings used were for a 70 min. video. and the video was of marginal quality (hence the reason for the 2-pass encode).
Adjust these numbers accordingly.
Here's a link (goes to a zipped file) to the bitrate calculator I use.
Hope this helps.


Make sure to place markers at the appropriate locations and render the video and audio out of Vegas using the following templates.

Make sure the "Render I-frames at markers" box is selected in the "render as" screen for your video.
For the video, use the "DVD Architect NTSC video stream" (or "DVD Architect NTSC widescreen video stream" if it's in Widescreen) template with the following changes:
Click the "Custom" button next to the "Template" box, then the "Video" tab and set the bitrate to a VBR of 8,000,000 / 8,000,000 / 4,000,000.
As this is from a lower quality source, click the 2-pass option;
Set the "Quality " option to it's highest setting (31);
Save this as a template by clicking in the template box at the top of this tab, giving it a name (for example, Christmas Play 2008) and then clicking the "Save" icon (looks like a floppy disc) to the right of this box.

For the audio, use the default AC-3 template with the following changes:
Encode set to AC3;
Click on custom tab;
Dialog normalization: -31 dB;
Dynamic range compression: None;
On the first tab set diag. norm to "-31";
On the last tab marked preprocessing;
Set the Line Mode & RF mode profiles to "None";
Now save this as a preset using the method described above.

Make sure both files have the same name (i.e. Christmas Play 2008.mpg and Christmas Play 2008.ac3) and are saved to the same folder.

If you want to use a picture from the play as the background menu, this can be done very easily.
Either use an image from a digital still camera (I sometimes use a shot of the empty stage) or grab a still from Vegas and use this.
If you're not sure how to do this, place the cursor on the timeline at the desired location, set the Preview Window to Best/Full and click the "Snapshot" icon.
A window will open up pointing to the current folder and giving you the option to save the image in JPG or PNG format. I prefer PNG but the choice is yours.
Give the image a name and save it to the same folder that your video and audio files got rendered to.
This way, when it times to author the DVD, everything needed is in one folder.

Open a new project in DVD Architect.
Make sure the "Show Title Safe Area" option is enabled (View - Workspace Overlays).
Change the title "Menu 1" to something like "Christmas Play 2008" by clicking the "Edit Text" button at the bottom right of the centre screen.
Change the theme to one of the stock ones or create your own background using the steps suggested earlier.
To use an image that you created yourself, click in the centre screen, select "Set Background Media", browse to the folder where the image is and double-click the file.
You should now have it as your main image.
Move the renamed "Menu 1" title as desired.
In the Explorer tab, browse to the folder with your encoded audio & video files.
Double-click the previously created video file.
It should now be in the centre of the main screen as an image with text underneath it.
Before continuing, you have a few options.
You can leave it as a "Text & Image" button or change it to a "Text Only" or "Image Only" by right-clicking it and going down to "Button Style" for the options.
I usually change it to "Text Only" and rename it to "PLAY ALL" using the "Edit Text" button.
You can also change the font type, size, colour and position as desired.
Double-click it to ensure that the entire play comes up (video & audio) as well as all your markers).
Click "Save As", browse to the folder where the already encoded files are,give it a name and click "Save".
Repeat this periodically during this whole process by simply clicking the "Save" button so that you don't accidentally lose any work.

Now it's time to add a Scene Selection menu.
Right-click in the centre screen and select "Add Submenu".
Change this to "Text Only" and rename it to "Scene Selection".
Double-click it to go to the next page.
Change "Menu 2" to "Scene Selection".
Double-click the video file in the "Explorer" tab as many times as you have scenes in the play (the number of markers you placed on the Vegas timeline).
I generally don't use more than 12 here as the text ends up being too small.
If your play has from 12 to 24 scenes, repeat the "Add Submenu" steps and divide accordingly.
If you have between 25 and 36 scenes, repeat the "Add Submenu" steps one more time.
Go back to the first "Scene Selection" page.
To change all the buttons to "Text Only" place your cursor in an area just outside the top left of the first button and drag down and to the left so that they're all highlighted.
Right-click, "Button Style - Text Only."

At this point in time, assuming you had 12 scenes, you should have 12 "Text Only" buttons on the centre screen.
On the menu on the left side, you should have a "tree" that looks like the following:

Untitled
Christmas Play 2008
Christmas Play 2008 (Page 1)
PLAY ALL
Scene Selection
Scene Selection (Page 1)
1: Link - Christmas Play 2008 (Page 1)
2: Christmas Play 2008
3: Christmas Play 2008
4: Christmas Play 2008
5: Christmas Play 2008
6: Christmas Play 2008
7: Christmas Play 2008
8: Christmas Play 2008
9: Christmas Play 2008
10: Christmas Play 2008
11: Christmas Play 2008
12: Christmas Play 2008
13: Christmas Play 2008

At this point in time, rename all the buttons in the centre screen so that they correspond to what's happening at that time (for example, Grade 1, Grade 2, etc.)


**too much text so it's continued in the next post

And here's part 2.



After this is done, it's time to make the buttons go to the specific scenes.
Double-click "2: Christmas Play 2008" in the tree menu on the left side.
Switch to the "Timeline" view.
You should see the entire timeline with all the markers you placed in Vegas.
Click the marker that denotes the beginning of scene 2 and press the 'O' (for Out) key on the keyboard.
The In point for the first scene is automatically the beginning of the video.
Only the first scene should now be highlighted.
Double-click "3: Christmas Play 2008".
Click the 2nd marker (the start of scene 2, press the 'I' (In) button.
Click the 3rd marker and press the 'O' button.
Only the second scene should be highlighted.
Repeat this procedure for all your scenes.

Now to set "End Actions" so that the buttons behave as desired.
Go to the first "Scene Selection" page and double-click " 2: Christmas Play 2008 in the left side menu.
In the menu on the right side of the screen, click the "End Action" tab.
You now have two choices.
You can have it return to the "Scene Selection" page or the "Main Menu" page.
To have it return to the "Scene Selection" page, click in the drop-down box beside "Destination" and select "Scene Selection".
To have it return to the main menu, click in the drop-down box beside "Destination" and select "Christmas Play 2008".
Repeat as desired for all your individual scene selections.

Finally, let's clean it up a bit more.
If you don't do the following steps, all your buttons and arrows will have a transparent yellow box on them when you click them for selection purposes.
I personally prefer to have an underline instead so that's the procedure I'll explain.
Go to the "Main Menu" page by clicking either "Christmas Play 2008" or "Christmas Play 2008 (Page 1) on the menu on the left side.
In the centre screen, click (just once) the "Christmas Play 2008" button.
Click the "Highlight" tab in the menu on the right-hand side and, in the drop-down box next to the "Style" button, select underline.
Repeat this process for the "Scene Selection" button also on the main page.
Double-click the "Scene Selection" button to go to the next page.
Highlight all the buttons as well as the Up arrow (at the bottom of the page) by clicking and dragging your curosr to select all of these items.
Don't worry about the "Scene Selection" title at the top of the page.
Once everything is highlighted, click the "Highlight"button and repeat what you did on the main page.
Repeat this process for any other "Scene Selection" pages.

At long last, you're almost ready to burn the DVD.
If you have DVD burning software, my recommendation is to use DVD Architect to "Prepare" the files and the burning software to do the actual burn.
If you don't have burning software, you can use DVD Architect to "Burn" the DVD for you.
I use RecordNow so I'll describe what I do and hope that yours is similar.
Click the "Make DVD" button at the top of the screen.
Click "Prepare" and browse to a folder location to store the files.
I always suggest that you create a new folder and title it accordingly (for example, "Christmas Play 2008 - DVD").
This way, you know what the folder is.
Click "Next", "Next" and "Finish".
If you clicked "Burn" instead of "Prepare", it brings up a folder that should be self-explanatory.
Once again, create a "Prepare/Burn" folder as I just described.
The rest of the steps are the same.
Stick in a blank DVD and hit "Burn".
As you've already done the encoding in Vegas, this process should be fairly quick.

If you chose to "Prepare", you 're done with DVD Architect at this point.
Click "Save" one last time (this creates a file called "SPREPARE.SPSS".
This file allows to make changes to this process and then only "prepares" the changes so it's very quick.

Launch your burning software and tell it that you want to create a DATA DVD as opposed to a regular DVD.
Browse to the "Christmas Play 2008 - DVD" folder and drag the VIDEO_TS and AUDIO _TS folders into your software.
Stick in a blank DVD and hit "Burn".

I'd recommend using a DVD-RW the first time just in case you find out that you've made a mistake or two.
That way, you're not going to be wasting DVDs.
I'll use this moment to highly recommend that you stick to name brand media.
My personal favourites are Verbatim and Taiyo-Yuden with the latter being preferable.
If you have a printer that works on DVDs, I highky recommend the Taiyo-Yuden Watershield brand.
They're a bit more money but the image quality is fantastic!!

Thanks
 

Seth, Don and Mike, Thanks a lot to all three of you. Yor inputs really helped

Gary

DVD Architect currently has a problem in not returning correctly to the TOP MENU button on a remote. It will instead return to the last sub menu created.
An alternate approach to Mike's excellent post is to set sub menues by right clicking the video icon in the project view of DVDA and select scene selection and DVDA will automatically create the sub menus based on how many markers you want on each page. I start with a menu based DVDA project, drag the video to this top menu, then select the video icon as above, this will place a scene selection button on this top menu and create all the other menus automatically. IF you don't like the result delete and do it again until the number of menus and markers per menu are what you want. I use the Corporate Style as it is the only one with text buttons and then change as I need. You can drag a picture over the menus pages to change to the background you want etc and if you use picture button rather than text only you can also change those backgrounds too.
Other than the above issue with TOP MENU return I like the current version of DVDA 5 and use for Bluray though for SD DVD because of the above problem I still use DVDLab 2.0. For Bluray return to last menu only works for the fancy overlay menus so in some respects it has problems in both SD and Bluray!!!

Ron Evans

Mike u r the Michael Jordan of DVD aRCHITECHT!

Thanks Marcus.
I wish I was a guru but that honour has to go to Edward Troxel.
He's bailed me out of more Architect problems than I can remember.

Thanks to you all for the fantastic expertise. I am workign my way through a trial of Vegas, trying to improve on Pinnacle Studio, and was unable to find this information anywhere inside the Help Index or on Sony's website, manual, etc. I can't help but wonder why a major player like Sony does not document the capabilities of the system better. Mkes me want to try out FCP, and I don't even own a Mac!

After using the suggestions above, even a rank newbie like myself was able to make some headway and got a submenu test to work on the first try. Thanks again guys!

scrolling issues with remote on set top player
 

I have DVDA 4.0 and put several videos on to the menu page. I'm able to scroll up and down with the mouse and choose to play whichever video I want if I'm on the computer, but on a set top dvd player, the arrowing up and down on the player Remote doesn't work. I'm unable to scroll. Is there a fix for this? I know I've got something checked that shoulden't checked, can't figure it out though.

I'm using text only for the menu buttons.

Brian, open up the navigation tool and you should be able to adjust where each button goes when you press the up/down/left/right buttons.

Thanks, I think I may have set the highlight button to transparent, it *was* scrolling I just couldnt tell. Duh.

Mike,
I follow a similar workflow but have often wanted to create a DVD that behaves differently. I am going to layout a wedding-type scenario and see what you guys think.

Assets
1 - long movie with many chapter points for each major event and many sub-sections with AC3 audio.
1 - main menu
4 chapter selection pages.

I have attached the graphic to clarify the behavior I would like to see. At this time the only way I have found to make this behavior work is to place the main video clip on the DVD twice. Once as a solid piece for the play all and chapter options and once broken into 4 clips to play each one isolated. This is really inefficient use of disc space so I am wondering if there is a better way. What do you guys think? Is there another way?