I have a menu that needs three parts:
Part 1: An intro during which a title rises up while music plays and then the selection button text fades on, but no actual buttons are present so that no highlight will appear. This part is complete as soon as the text is fully visible, but the music is only partway through. In DVDA, this is the video that plays automatically on start. Its end action is to go to the menu for part 2.
Part 2: A transition that has the same title (fully visible and static) and button text (now with actual buttons) and the rest of the musical selection. In DVDA this is a menu that has as its end action the activation of a hidden button pointing to the menu for part 3.
Part 3: Same as 2 but starts with the very beginning of the musical selection and contains the entire selection so that it can be looped at a pleasing point. In DVDA this is a menu that loops from the beginning.
On playback in a DVD, there are of course noticeable pauses between each part. From reading other posts, I guess that is unavoidable. So I have 2 questions:
1. What is the best way to list the video and audio in my tree so as to minimize the pauses? Right now I don't even have the menu assets listed; the "background media" property for each menu simply points to the relevant file on my hard drive. I don't know how DVDA places them on the DVD. Would listing these files in the DVDA tree be better? If so, what order should they be in?
2. Is there any better way for me to construct this menu? I know that I could make all three parts into one long file so that the music repeats several times and then I loop back to a suitable point where the music restarts but after the title has risen. The problem with that is that then the buttons show their selection highlight right away before the title has risen and the button text has faded on.
The only really objectionable pause is between parts 1 and 2, because the music is right in the middle, but I haven't been able to figure a way to fade the button text on before the highlight appears, and I don't want to make the viewer wait until the music has gone once through before being able to select anything.
Part 1: An intro during which a title rises up while music plays and then the selection button text fades on, but no actual buttons are present so that no highlight will appear. This part is complete as soon as the text is fully visible, but the music is only partway through. In DVDA, this is the video that plays automatically on start. Its end action is to go to the menu for part 2.
Part 2: A transition that has the same title (fully visible and static) and button text (now with actual buttons) and the rest of the musical selection. In DVDA this is a menu that has as its end action the activation of a hidden button pointing to the menu for part 3.
Part 3: Same as 2 but starts with the very beginning of the musical selection and contains the entire selection so that it can be looped at a pleasing point. In DVDA this is a menu that loops from the beginning.
On playback in a DVD, there are of course noticeable pauses between each part. From reading other posts, I guess that is unavoidable. So I have 2 questions:
1. What is the best way to list the video and audio in my tree so as to minimize the pauses? Right now I don't even have the menu assets listed; the "background media" property for each menu simply points to the relevant file on my hard drive. I don't know how DVDA places them on the DVD. Would listing these files in the DVDA tree be better? If so, what order should they be in?
2. Is there any better way for me to construct this menu? I know that I could make all three parts into one long file so that the music repeats several times and then I loop back to a suitable point where the music restarts but after the title has risen. The problem with that is that then the buttons show their selection highlight right away before the title has risen and the button text has faded on.
The only really objectionable pause is between parts 1 and 2, because the music is right in the middle, but I haven't been able to figure a way to fade the button text on before the highlight appears, and I don't want to make the viewer wait until the music has gone once through before being able to select anything.