Audio selection menus?

Robert W wrote on 6/9/2008, 8:01 AM

Is it possible to make a proper audio selection options menu in DVD-architect? I would like to provide a menu that allows selection of AC3 5.1, DTS, Linear Stereo and a AC3 2 channel commentary track.

Any guidance gratefully received!

Cheers,

Rob

Comments

MPM wrote on 6/9/2008, 8:36 AM

I think your biggest problem might be getting the DTS on-board - might have to add it after the fact, but I’ve never used DTS so I’m guessing.

That said, you should be able to do whatever type of selection menu in DVDA you want - the question is how involved you want to get. The trend as-far-as-I-can-tell, seems to be towards simpler rather than more involved. For ideas the DVDA manual & help files have instructions, you can google and find scripting ideas that’ll work, & the DVDLab Pro site has a great example.

The easiest method is to create an audio setting page, list your tracks on buttons, and have each button simply set the audio track & target the same menu page - probably the most common. If you want to spend more time, create a menu page for each audio track - they should all be identical except for some indication of which track is currently chosen... Then when the viewer clicks the AC3 5.1 button for example, it switches to that track & displays what looks like the same menu but with a bullet or something (not a button highlight) next to the AC3 5.1 button. If you want to spend still more time, you can write scripting to query the player on it’s default, set a variable (GPRM) when the viewer selects a track, and use that variable to control which menu’s displayed.

Robert W wrote on 6/9/2008, 11:38 AM

Thanks MPM. Are there any templates or ready to go projects that can I can pick apart? Or does anybody know if DVDA 5 is going to make this any easier?

It usually works out that I spend a huge amount of time trying to do something that should be simple, just before an update comes out that not only makes it simpler, but works better than my laborious efforts.

I don't think incorporating DTS is going to big issue. I'm fairly sure that DVDA 4.5 incorporates clauses to allow DTS to be included (although it can not render DTS streams). Unfortunately, I don't have a DTS codec to test that with yet!

musicvid10 wrote on 6/9/2008, 8:31 PM

For your purpose, you should only need two choices: 5.1 with and without commentary.
Older a/v receivers with DTS, Pro Logic I and II, and PCM stereo will downmix and play your audio remarkably well, better in some cases than the mixes you can create. That is my experience anyway.
You can, of course, include as many audio tracks as you want (limited by disc capacity), and create menu links to them in dvda.

MPM wrote on 6/10/2008, 7:43 AM

"Unfortunately, I don't have a DTS codec to test that with yet!"

AC3 filter comes to mind for playback - might check over at videohelp.com & doom9.org or net. Should be more info anyway - some folks are DTS fans... I'm just not one of 'em so can't be any help.

I'm hoping that DVDA 5 will be a pretty major re-write rather than just sporting a few BD add-ons... 4.5 is 4 with some Vista fixes. If you wanted to chance it - later versions have always opened earlier version projects - page 55 of the pdf manual [bookmarked: "Inserting a setup menu"] gives you just what you need to know for a basic audio selection menu, & is written much better (simpler) than anything I could come up with.