What I have been reading on this forum is that if you have two (2) separate DVD files (MPEG2)'s and you burn these as two (2) files to the DVD using DVDA and then play them in your set top or PC thenwhen the end of the first file is reached it will go back to the menue and stop until you select the second file to play every time. It will under any circumstances play straight into the second file and so on. Correct me if I am wrong please.

I think this something that SOFO shoud address. Currently I do not have Vegas+DVD and use Ulead MF2 to burn my DVD's. The Ulead product gives you the option to continue play or go back to the menue at the end of the file if you have multiple DVD files to burn to single DVD.

I would put any money to bet that without any doubt SOFO WILL add the obvious lacked feature to the next release of DVDA. Wanting control what video clip should play at the end of one is a basic feature that somehow got overlooked by SOFO.

My 2 cents worth.

'Overlooked' is kind. Unbelieveable is more accurate.

I have just finished a dvd which is now out for replication. I wanted all the menu choices on the first menu. So I had to include the complete video on the dvd as well as a copy of each of the five segments.

To avoid this I would have had to add submenus off the main menu.

Personally I think as few menu layers as possible on a dvd provide the best viewer experience. Also, I know that many dvd authors put their video content together in segments then string it together on the dvd by linking from the end of one segment to the start of the next.

The way DVDA has this all set up, if the video content is lengthy and there is no room on the disc for second copies of segments, the menu system is pretty much what DVDA thinks it should be rather than what the author wants.

Since a dvd authoring system, no matter what the background code, is about menu design and navigation, DVDA pretty much limits the author's creativity. Certainly there are bells and whistles available within the choices DVDA offers, but the choices are limited in ways that are illogical, frustrating and in my opinion not very sophisticated.

Richard

You do realize you can set IN AND OUT point for menu options which could play a section of the larger clip?

The only (and also the best) solution to this problem is to join the MPEG files before bringing them into DVD-A. Use TMPGEnc or Womble MPEG-VCR. Then set your edit points as jetdv describes.

I think this point is a tad bit over worked. And I think you are missing the point of this feature not being present.

Of course it is something that can be added...but - even "professionally" produced CDs do not...REPEAT DO NOT play the main feature...and then skip right into any of the sub features that they have on the disc.

That would just be stupid.

Instead it gives the author and the navigator the OPTION of which presentation it wants to play.

Now...mind you...if you have multiple presentations that you want to run one right after the otehr - then take them into your editor (I'm sure you all know that SoFo has a video editor called VEGAS)...and make them one file.

Then...that way ... you can just add chapters - end of the story.

Did I miss anything?

kameronj,
I read through this a while ago and like you I thought it was all getting a bit stupid, what your saying is bleeding obvious but I thought about it again and there is something in it.

Say I've got a video sixty minutes long with 10 chapters. Now through a menu I can jump into the video at any one of those chapter points. But when that chapter finishes it just goes onto the next one.

Thats not really a big issue, you can just hit menu on the remote.

But it would be kind of nice to be able to either play the whole movie a play say chapter 1 and when that finishes you're taken back to the chapter menu and you can then decide to play chapter 6.

I had struck this issue with the first DVD I made with DVDA, it had about three screens of chapter menu and what was frustrating was at the end of the chapter you'd started to play if you decided you didn't want to watch the next one and hit 'menu' you went back to the root menu and had to go through all the menus again.

Hardly a show stopper and I know its difficult to achieve what I'm talking about, the return points have to be stored in registers in the player so to make it happen you'd need to be confident writing code.

My understanding of dvda is that this can only be done by adding a sub menu with chapters links. It can't be done on the main menu.

Sofo tech confirmed this.

Previouisly I was using dvdit pe which has all sorts of failings, but making a proper dvd with menus is not one of them:

Video can either be one large file or in segments.

Main menu links to start of each file or chapter point set by author.

Author determines what happens at end of segment/chapter.

Main menu remembers most recent link clicked.

Done.

I honestly don't understand what the problem is with fixing dvda so it is capable of letting the author use one source video, one menu and determine the navigation to and from any segment of the source.

Of course I also think this could have been done by now, to support the way dvda is advertised if nothing else.

And I certainly hope when it is done that it is dvda 1.0d. If it is dvda 2 and there's a price involved, bye bye.

richard





richard