Creating "Start Item" copyright page

mudsmith wrote on 7/28/2009, 7:33 AM

Folks-

Although a very experienced audio engineer and tech manager for video projects, I am only recently, at an advanced age, starting to crank up my video editing and DVD authoring chops.

Using Vegas Pro 9 and DVD Architect 5 is making this process fairly intuitive, but I am having trouble doing something that seems like it should be fairly easy:

I have created a straightforward DVD with a menu that allows play from the beginning, and a link to a Scene Selection menu. Both work fine, look sharp on screen, and the burned DVD is totally functional.

I want to add a simple copyright warning type page prior to these menus which will always play as a Start Item when the disc is inserted.

I see no way to do this except by importing media as a start item. I would like to be able to build a simple, static page with sharp graphics a la the menus. I cannot find a methodology to accomplish this inside of DVD Architect, despite the ability to build the menus there.

I had initially imported a frame from Vegas to do this, but it was unacceptable from a quality standpoint, and was considerably worse looking than the frame it was drawn from.

So:

-Is there a way to create this Start Item page within DVD Architect?
-If not, is there a way to create a relatively sharp looking page within Vegas?....I am assuming I would probably have to make a new project just to create this still.
-If I have to go into Photoshop or Illustrator to create a page, which I really do not want to do, does anyone have any tips?

Thanks in advance for any info...

Comments

JVRaines wrote on 7/28/2009, 8:29 AM

Yes, you can create another menu and set it as the startup item. Insert an empty button into this page and set its Action to link to your main menu. You can make the button "Image only" with no highlight and very tiny so it is effectively invisible and unuseable. Change the startup menu's End Action to "Activate button" and set your desired display time in Timeout.

When you checked quality, did you compare actual MPEG renditions? The preview in DVDA can be rather horrible. I prefer to do titles in Vegas because I get animation and fades; I have never found them to be inferior to DVDA titles.

mudsmith wrote on 7/28/2009, 8:40 AM

Thanks, I will try what you are suggesting.

My quality control viewing was of the actual burned DVD. How I saved the frame may have something to do with the issue, of course, as I am a bit inexperienced yet.

If you could give me a quick tutorial on creating titles within Vegas in a way that would allow me to bring it in to DVD Architect as a high quality title page, I would appreciate it......This was the next thing I was going to try before asking forum members for help.

JVRaines wrote on 7/28/2009, 9:03 AM

I'm a newbie, too, and learning fast!

Be sure to render from Vegas using the "DVD Architect NTSC video stream" preset. You want to create a file that DVDA does not have to recompress. When you prepare DVD files, pay close attention to the reports and watch out for any "Recompress - Yes" messages. This is expected for material you generate within DVDA but you don't want to see it on prerendered media. The Optimize button takes you to a very useful display showing detailed statistics.

I also use Photoshop for static text because it has much better typesetting and layering controls. PSDs can be directly imported to DVDA. In this case start with a 655x480 canvas to compensate for rectangular pixels. If you are being NTSC compliant (which is a good idea, especially if your DVD will be distributed), use a Levels adjustment layer and set the Output level bounds to 16 and 235.

mudsmith wrote on 7/30/2009, 6:50 PM

Just wanted to let you know that I was finally able to accomplish this task from inside DVDA, in approximately the way you suggested. There was a little confusion about where some of the menus lived, and it would not work until I realized that I had to drag the new menu to the top of the list in the Project "Explorer" window. I still have not figured out where the controls for reducing the size of the button area are, but currently have it in "underline" mode, which is acceptable until I can figure this out (text button with no text entered}

An empty button, by the way, implies no action. I suppose I could enter the action later, but that seems to be a terminology issue and definition.

I am not sure that I could bring in media as a Start Item and determine the length of its time on screen the same way you can by creating this menu page inside DVDA.......When I did it that way before, the time on screen was too short, but it is possible that there was a menu item for this that I did not see. The timeout using the current method is totally tied to Button Action....perhaps there is a default button action when you bring in Media for a Start Item, even without a displayed button.

Geoff_Wood wrote on 7/30/2009, 6:58 PM

Yes, it's not that intuitive. That's why I'd like a 'show me how' as in Vegas, Acid, and Sound Forge !

geoff

mudsmith wrote on 7/31/2009, 1:47 PM

.....This methodology also winds up given me a "Script Orphan" warning before I burn, too......Just one more thing I'll have to figure out down the road when it matters. For now, the DVD burns and plays just as I wanted it to.

I was able to reduce the size of the button with the timeout to virtually zero pretty simply in the little menu that pops up on the right when you select the button, so that was easy. I just hadn't seen it when I was rooting around earlier trying to figure out how to make this page work.

In short, I got good advice here right away that allowed me to do exactly what I wanted without having to root around in Photoshop or somesuch.

Thanks again, folks.