Can I randomize the audio on a menu?

Evan B. Peters wrote on 8/30/2009, 7:56 PM

I want to play different clips from my project during the main menu screen, and I want them to be played randomly. I would like to upload a list of audio clips and then have it randomly play one each time the menu is activated. Can this be done using chapters? Is there a random chapter button?

Thank you,

Evan

Comments

bStro wrote on 8/31/2009, 6:53 AM

DVDs don't really work that way. A menu is a single entity made of one video track and one audio track. By the time your project is made into a DVD, that video and audio track have been muxed together forming a single file. They (video and audio) start playing together and they stop playing together.

No, this can't be changed using chapters, and menus don't have chapters anyhow.

The closest you can come is to maybe futz around with multiple menus, each exactly the same other than the audio track, and using DVD scripting to randomize which menu is presented to the user.

Rob

darkframe wrote on 8/31/2009, 1:35 PM

Hi,

just in case anybody is interested: Here's some valuable information about random generators in DVD scripting. Well, the programme which is/was used is DVDLab from Mediachance but a really interested programmer might try to rebuild something similar in DVDA.

Cheers

darkframe

A. Grandt wrote on 9/8/2009, 6:49 AM

You could just use the Random generator in DVD author in a script.

Statement type: Command
Command: Set GPRM
Target: GPRM5
Operator: Random
Source: Value
Value: 6

This will set a random number between 1 and 6 in GPRM5.

A set of test projects where I try out/collect different ideas:
[url=http://www.grandt.con/tempdata/DVDTest_fade_and_runonce.zip]
If the project files are located in C:\work\DVDTest_fade_and_runonce\ you should have no problem generating the DVD.

darkframe wrote on 9/11/2009, 12:05 AM

Hi,

You could just use the Random generator in DVD author in a script.

thanks for that hint! I didn't even know that there's a random generator.

Cheers

darkframe

A. Grandt wrote on 9/11/2009, 5:36 AM

thanks for that hint! I didn't even know that there's a random generator.

To be honest, it took me a while to find that one my self, and then only after implementing the RANDU function described in your previous link. I'd even like to think I managed to improve on it to the point of making it redundant, though I didn't take that last step after finding the build-in random function.

I discovered it by reading about a DVD creation app for Apple, and thought that if they can, so can Sony, and they could :)

P.S.: if you want to use the RANDU, you can copy it from the "Menu 1 Start" in the "DVD test ... Script implemented random" project file in my zip file in my previous post.