If you mean with DVDA, no. Maybe with a WMV render & markers, but I never tried.

In my previous post I refer to programming languages, disc front-ends, and authoring systems. There are a great many of these that have been used, some more successful than others.

The HappyFriar's post actually may refer to a subset called Windows Media Authoring which was set in to motion by Microsoft several years ago. Not exactly one of the more successful and Microsoft has reached farther into the web domain authoring with SilverLight.
The original WMA offered WMV as a multi-media format - but the format is so problematic - I do not advocate any one bother with this out-moded tech.

Well, he wasn't very specific, but I'd say it's safe to assume he wants to have a video play like a DVD.

But if a computer has a DVD drive, odds are it can play a DVD, so it might be a non-issue, just include your non-DVD video stuff in a separate folder on the disc.

data folders are data.
dvd folders are dvd.
no further discussion is necessary.

Not the "END" for any discussion here. There is a discussion going on. I will acknowledge that several trends and changes in recent years has re-focused the industry entirely away from this form.
These trends include but not limited to:
1) Microsoft lost a huge marketshare over the issue of hyper-media programming because of the trend of the growing internet. Their Windows Media Authoring initiative was revived several times by the company - and it now exists in SilverLight for what it is.
2) The prevalence of DVD's and their playback on computers that could handle DVD video streams eliminated the bottleneck that previous data DVD programming solutions were trying to solve.
3) The emergence of Blu-ray format meant more storage capacity for video streams and indeed commercial authors gained greater access to complex programming tools ( independents however do not have license to use those tools as yet).

These are just a few of the issues that ran away from the process of completing complex programmed front-ends for Rom hybrids.

??

Why the "??", I understand everything that VideoIT said.

The Blu-Ray capabilities in DVDA are limited to a simple menu system called BD-MV for the Movie mode. It’s similar to the navigation system used in standard definition DVD’s. When we can use Java and program in BD-J we will be with the big boys. It is available from Sony in their product called BluPrint. (http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/bluprint).

The last time I looked it was around $6,000 per seat.

I was really disappointed when Sony bought BluPrint and made it a new, very expensive product and didn't roll anything from BluPrint into DVDA.

O.K. Now can we come back to my problem, please.

I have a project -- 13 hours of lecture and 305 PowerPoint slides, divided into 21 sections. The slides, over which I have had no creative control, include graphs with 8 and 10pt type and page after page of excerpts from scholarly journals.

The original intent was to create a series of DVD. Unfortunately MP2 compression makes the PowerPoint slides completely unreadable. After trying other formats I found that rendering as WMV provided excellent clarity for the slides and the video.

So the solution has been to put the WMV files onto data DVDs; no further compression, everything is readable and the client is happy, even though the people who will be receiving the discs will only be able to play them in their computers. Now, however, he has decided he wants chapter stops -- "just like a DVD" he says.

I can break up the project into 21 files to accomplish this, but I wondered if there was a better approach, something that will look more like a DVD menu?

Any specific suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Jack

Many years ago I used OPUS Pro. It does exactly what you are seeking.

Cheers

Grazie

Grazie is onto something.
Scorn may work for you.
another thought is a flash presentation.

data folders are data.

According to Edward Snowden, it's all data and we''re just being fed government lies about what it is.... *shifty eyes*

Why not have the whole thing as a powerpoint project? Would do the same thing, no need to learn some new programs, and it is what powerpoint is designed to do and it can be standalone.

+ HF!

FWIW, you may want to take a look at Multimedia Builder from Media Chance. This program is from the company that created my GoTo DVD Authoring software - DVDLab Pro. In the past few years they've moved away from DVD and Multimedia oriented software, in favor of high end Image editing tools. So DLP and MMB are pretty much obsolete, but you can still buy them; and they still work very well. Like all their software, MMB has a 30 day free unlimited trial period.

"[I]So the solution has been to put the WMV files onto data DVDs; no further compression, everything is readable and the client is happy, even though the people who will be receiving the discs will only be able to play them in their computers. Now, however, he has decided he wants chapter stops -- "just like a DVD" he says.[/i]

You have found a legitimate reason to use Blu-ray. It works "just like a DVD" and you still maintain image quality. You should ask him if Blu-ray is a possibility.

"but I wondered if there was a better approach, something that will look more like a DVD menu?"

Make the data DVD into a website. Instead of http:// you would use file:///. (I often wonder why File: is followed by three slashes). Sounds like an interesting project, and you might be able put the index.html into the autostart.inf file.

To original OP, JackW''s, question. It appears you are seeking a front-end for a data DVD that will have a large number of discrete video segments.

You can get there with a product called AUTOPLAY MENU BUILDER Ver7.1 from the linasoft.com website. This is a very good and low-cost authorware for building ROM disc front-ends. It is compatible with display upto Windows 7 OS ( should be ok with with 8.1) and useful for DVD and Blu-ray ROM front-ends.

OK, I just tested making a data DVD into an autorun web site.
And it works.

Download the test here:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1421565/Vegas/Autorun%20Test.iso

I did not burn a DVD, but I used a program called Virtual CloneDrive to mount the iso file to Windows. (I think that you can mount an iso file in Win7, but I've been using Virtual CloneDrive so long, I haven't looked into the Win7 method).

Also, Windows popped up the "What do you want to do" box, and if you click on "always", it won't ask again on later loads.

A few new ideas:

1. If you had to do the project again, you might consider taking each slide and making it into two slides (or three or four). Zoom into each slide. This will make the text easier to read. Then, move the pan/crop rectangle to another part of the slide and make this event a second "slide." Repeat as necessary. This technique also has the advantage of making the presentation conform to the main "rule" of PPT presentations, namely you shouldn't have more than 4-5 fext points on a slide.

2. Since you probably don't want to re-do the project at this point, another solution to give you what you want is to instead render to MP4 instead of WMV. I assume that the reason you were able to get the small text readable in WMV is that you are using higher resolution and bitrates than MPEG-2. All you need to do is use the same resolution and bitrate in the MP4 encoder. Then, once you create the MP4, use the Drax utility to add chapter stops.

3. If you actually didn't use higher resolution and bitrates when making the WMV file, then we need to re-visit the techniques you are using to create DVDs because there is nothing inherent in WMV that would make the text readable. Put another way, if you used 720x480 and 8,000,000 bps when making the WMV and then got sharper, more legible text, then you did something wrong when making the MPEG-2 file for the DVD.

[edit] I have read that you can use the Windows Media Encoder to add chapter stops to WMV files. I don't have this utility and haven't done it myself, so I can't tell you for sure whether it works. However, this is exactly what you were asking for, so you might want to look into it.

Thank you all for your suggestions. They have given me a lot to think about and explore. I appreciate the time and expertise you've all brought to bear on my problem. You've all been very helpful.

Jack

I had experimented with Windows encoder. It wasn't a pretty sight.... It would surely require a real Guru to have a go.

Grazie

If you are dealing with video clips, what's wrong with just dropping those into DVDA and creating chapters for each one???