AutoReturn 2 Menu after chapter has completed

Wiley wrote on 11/3/2005, 4:08 PM
Is it possible to to have Architect return the user to the Menu that he or she just came from after he or she has viewed a given chapter within an .avi (or .mov or whatever)?

If that question isnt clear then here is an example:

I have movie.avi and I have 20 chapter marks in it. I now have a menu with 20 buttons on it for each chapter mark. Is it possible to view chapter 13 and then right before chapter 14 begins have the user returned to the menu that 20 buttons are on?

Thanks for anyone who can give me any help with this, even if its just telling me that I cant do it.

Comments

ScottW wrote on 11/3/2005, 5:30 PM
That's not how scene selection was designed to work. In DVDA, scene selection is designed to work just like it does with a commercial DVD - you select the scene and the movie continues forward from that point.

You can create what you want though - one way is to simply bring the movie into the project multiple times (once for each chapter) and set in/out points for each unique instance that match with your begin/end chapters. DVDA2 and later are smart enough that the movie is only placed on the DVD a single time.

Why people want to do this, I don't know - but it's asked for so often that you ought to send Sony tech support a suggestion to add this feature to a future version.

--Scott
cbrillow wrote on 11/4/2005, 3:01 AM
A live performance by a musical group is one case where this is a desirable feature. You can 'Play All' or select from a list of songs, each with its own chaper point. Automatically returning to the song selection menu at the end of the selected tune makes a lot of sense.

It all comes down to personal preferences, and it's nice to have the flexibilty to do things in different ways to satisfy them.
Wiley wrote on 11/4/2005, 8:21 AM
Thanks guys for the feedback. The reason I want to do it is because I keep hitting the "The Project has too many titles that use unique media. 99 is the maximum number of titles using uniue media"

The way that I get around this is to "merge" several .movs or .avis into one large .avi (in Vegas) and each of the pervious .movs or .avis is seperated by chapter marks. I want to just be able to play that given section.

Is there any easier way for me to get around the "99 is the max" issue?

Thanks again
plasmavideo wrote on 11/4/2005, 10:15 AM
There is a way around this 99 limit by using playlists, as I understand it. Check in the manual. You somehow trick it into using more by making it a "music compilation". Sorry I can't remember more specifics.

BTW, I've been trying for weeks to get the return to menu function working properly. I can set it up as suggested by bring the video in multiple times and setting up the marker in/outs, and it works in preview, but the burned DVD merely goes to the next chapter in the desktop player. I wonder what I'm doing wrong - and - perhaps doing it as individual playlists would make it work correctly. I'm going to try that method this weekend and see what happens.

Jeez, I've burned a lot of coasters figgerin' out these dang DVDs.
plasmavideo wrote on 11/4/2005, 7:47 PM
Well, that didn't work either, so I don't know how to accomplish it.

Any other ideas, please let me know.
PeterWright wrote on 11/4/2005, 10:16 PM
While you're waiting for a solution, get yourself a rewritable DVD so you don't waste discs.
plasmavideo wrote on 11/5/2005, 6:05 AM
Peter, you are right, however my desktop DVD player won't read them. I need to pick up one that will.

In the meantime, I discovered that this method does work, and perhaps the method described in the manual does also (where you create same instances of the the main file, set in and out points for the scenes and give a return to menu action at the end).

The problem is the behaviour of the "NEXT" button. In preview in DVDA, if you are in the middle of a chapter that has a return to menu end action, and you hit the "NEXT" button on the virtual remote, it takes you to the end of the scene and dumps you back to the menu. On the desktop player, if I do this, it instead jumps to the next scene. If I'm patient, and let the scene end by itself, it does indeed return to the menu. I wasn't patient enough to wait for it to end by itself.

Peter, I'm heading out to buy a DVD player that reads RW. My wife will send the bill to ya.

Tom