Comments

ScottW wrote on 5/1/2006, 11:57 AM
What do you mean by crashes? Does the entire program terminate or does the preview mode simply terminate?

Given the way music compilations are supposed to work, adding a scene selection menu to it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to me (so I suspect the bug is in allowing you to right-click add a scene selection menu). A music compilation is designed to be a bunch of clips that just play in sequence that get all combined into a single title set when the DVD is created.

It sounds like you should be building a menu based project with a playlist that can play all of your clips and then a menu that lets you select each individual clip.

--Scott
ralford wrote on 5/1/2006, 12:14 PM
What do you mean by crashes? Does the entire program terminate or does the preview mode simply terminate?

DVDA Terminates with an error. Preview has nothing to do with it.

wrt making sense? The compilation is the poorly named method of collecting a bunch of videos. Making a link to the individule videos seems a reasonalbe operation to this simple mind. Considering there is no other viable method of controling the the linking or order of a collection of videos.

And, of course, I am creating a menu based project. A playlist isn't viable because when it is burned the sequence is not predictable!

Richard
ScottW wrote on 5/1/2006, 1:10 PM
A playlist shouldn't be unpredictable - it should play the video in the order that it is shown in the playlist.

There are lots of ways to skin this cat depending on what you are actually trying to do.

For example, if the playlist isn't working for you, then bring the video clips into the project a second time by dropping them on the DVD icon in the project view - this way they won't initially be associated with a menu. navigate into each clip instance and set the end action to play the next clip, etc. On your menu, create a link that takes you to the first clip in the sequence.

Then if you want to be able to just play a single clip, from the explorer window, drag the clip onto a menu.

DVDA is smart enough that it will only put the clip on the DVD once (even though it is in the project twice), as long as you don't change any of the attributes of the second instance of the clip (like use a different audio track).

--Scott
bStro wrote on 5/1/2006, 1:31 PM
A music compilation is designed to be a bunch of clips that just play in sequence that get all combined into a single title set when the DVD is created.

Yes, but aren't they created as chapters within that titleset?

At any rate, practical or not, I was able to insert a scene selection menu based on a music compilation. No crash. I suspect there's something about one or more of the original poster's files that DVDA doesn't like.

Rob
ScottW wrote on 5/1/2006, 4:31 PM
Rob, you're right. My mistake was I started out with a music compilation project rather than a menu based project. It wasn't clear in the original post that it was a menu based project. What I found was that for a music compilation based project, it would let you insert a scene selection menu, but in preview mode when you clicked on the menu button preview mode would terminate/

--Scott
bStro wrote on 5/1/2006, 7:21 PM
What I found was that for a music compilation based project, it would let you insert a scene selection menu, but in preview mode when you clicked on the menu button preview mode would terminate

As in, it crashes? 'Cause that works okay for me, too: previewing the "chapters" of a music compilation using a scene selection menu.

How peculiar.

Rob
ralford wrote on 5/2/2006, 8:23 AM
My first approach was a compilation - it did play predicably on the preview, however, when I burned them to disk and then clicked through chapters (on several DVDs) the order was not the same as in the preview. It appears that the hardware "next" is the next file, whereas the software (preview) next is a link. Strange but true and a SOB to discover and diagnose. Caviat: This is from memory last fall but it was burned in fairly well as it cost me a day of productivity.

For completeness: I am creating a menu based video DVD and using the music compilation, as described somewhere in the documentation to create a set of links to the data. Problem is I need to be able to play all and to also select individule items. The problem is exacerbated because I have to do this for many custom DVDs so I do need to minimize the manual work.

I am want a way to skin the cat that doesn't cost me arms and legs :)

Cheers,

Rusty