Menu sequence maker

[manthing]

imagine this scenario:

i have 3 movies.
i design a dvd menu that has 3 buttons, 1 each for the 3 movies.
i also have 1 movie clip. like an intro sequence.

what i would like to do is this:
when i click button 1, the sequence is to play the intro clip, then play movie 1, then come back to main menu and highlight button 2.

similarly, when i click button 2, the sequence is to play the intro clip, then play movie 2, then come back to main menu and highlight button 3 and so on.

is this possible in ulead dvdwsp? or in dvd lab pro?

any help would be appreciated.

the furthest i got to was to create playlists, which would play intro and then the selected movie, and these playlists would be linked to specific buttons.

however, i never managed to get the next menu button highlighted after the movie ended.

any ideas folks?

[lordsmurf]

DVDWS2 can do this:

"when i click button 1, the sequence is to play the intro clip, then play movie 1, then come back to main menu and highlight button 2."

The only tricky part may be the "and highlight button 2". DVD players can pretty much do whatever the heck they want here. By common sense, most jump to the next entry on the list. Some stay on the entry last picked. Some default back to the default button.

I don't even know that DVDSP can set the next button when it returns to the menu. I don't think DVDit! 5 could, and it had some pretty advanced button selection abilities (rest of the program stinks).

[manthing]

ta for that LS. i take it there is no way to write such functionality in dvd code/language?

[lordsmurf]

DVDReMake Pro might have something for this. Ask them about the "and highlight 2" portion of the question. All of that should be in the IFO anyway, not the VOB. Probably can do it in IFOEdit too.

But I'm not an expert in that stuff, you'll have to find somebody else. I can just lead you to the path. You'll have to walk it yourself, and find a guide (meaning a person, not a document).

[markatisu]

Apple DVD Studio Pro can do it but you would need to write a script and maybe enable the story function which is a pain in the ass.

However like LS said a DVD Player can basically do what it wants, some players like APEX and Cyberhome brands can skip any coding completely and just play tracks one after the other regardless of menu structure

But what you want to do sounds more like scripting and I honestly have no clue how to do that since that is WAY beyond my experience.

[Tranzor]

dvdremakepro can change the button functions/info (or pretty much anything else you want) for you. Its sort of advanced software (in some degrees) so if you are a total novice in the sense of messing with commands and changing button info, you may find it more frustrating then anything else.
Although at the same time it is a good learning tool and it tends not to be as hard as it looks.
The downside, the app is NOT free but very worth the price it sells for.

[manthing]

http://www.tvpreservation.com/cartoo...1&pic=tut1.jpg

messed around with dvd wksp 2 and came up with this.

i'll apologise upfront for the poor jpg but hopefully between my ramblings and the picture you can deduce what i'm trying to do.

so onwards with the tutorial ... and i'm going to assume you know how to do most things like setting up menus, chapters, playlists etc.

[1] set up 2 menus
[2] make sure you've associated clips/captures with your buttons/titles.
[3] setup your playlist

in my example, i've setup a playlist for episode 2 in menu 1 where i play an intro first then the episode 2 capture. and the playlist will normally default to the menu that contains the link, "menu" in my example. see number 3 in the picture.

[4] now this is the special bit. highlight the second menu (the "assets" box in the bottom), then drag 'n drop this menu into the playlist for "episode 2" link. see number 4 in picture.

you should now see a popup menu giving you 2 options. "add menu" and "add menu button".

[5] select "add menu button" and you should get a dialog like number 5.

[6] in my example, i've selected episode 3 and clicked OK.

finally, number 6, you'll see your playlist has altered to give you the sequence you want. in my example, click episode 2, it will play intro, then capture 2, then go to menu 2 and highlight episode 3 link.

this is exactly what i was looking for when i posted the question. simple and easy. maybe dvdremakepro is a better tool for this? but doesn't matter. i've got what i wanted.

hope this helps the rest of you budding dvd makers out there.

[Tranzor]

at least you got what you wanted and that is what matters, but yes for the record dvdremakepro would have been much easier as all you do is change the command and tell it to " do this instead of that"

[lordsmurf]

DVDReMakePro, by the way, is not authoring software. It's a piece of software you use to alter commands and structure on an already-authored DVD. I had to use it on my X-MEN set, to get buttons to move in a different direction that what DVDWS2 did for default actions. I've also use DVDReMakePro to merge 2 small DVDs (less than 2GB each) into 1 disc.