DVD authoring question (new MS DVDA)

jtuffen wrote on 10/12/2004, 2:23 AM

I'm nearly ready to upgrade my MS3 to the new VMS+DVDA, but I have a question about 'Menu-driven' DVDs... What I'm after doing is having a DVD made up of separate movie files (all assembled seperately from movie studio) - which play one after another; and also from a menu.

Hmmm, an example might help. Let's say I have three clips: A, B , C. What I'd like to happen is have clip A start when I insert the DVD into a player; when clip A finishes, clip B should start; when clip B finishes, clip C should start. At the end of clip C, I'd like a 'scene select' menu to appear. I can achieve something like what I want using dvdauthor, but it's a real PITA to use - DVDA is fantastically useable.

I can kind of see how to do it if I render all the clips to a single huge movie file, which then autoplays. Then, at the end of the movie, the menu will be displayed; it's just that I like having the flexibility of having the scenes in separate files (allows me to tweak scenes without re-rendering a massive file)

Any hints?

john..

Comments

ChristerTX wrote on 10/12/2004, 10:49 AM

Well, not sure if you can do this without rendering A,B and C into one file.
Normally you designate a video clip as the first to be shown and then it will jump to the menu.
(I normally don't use that, but I saw it on Ulead's DVD authoring program and it only handled the first in a line of clips)

I would probably choose to put the three together and make some sort of cool transition between them.

allyn wrote on 10/12/2004, 11:12 AM

hey, the poor-featured sonic mydvd that shipped with MS3 can do that! i'd be surprised if DVDAS can't do that too.

jtuffen wrote on 10/12/2004, 1:22 PM

yeah, that's what I thought too!

DVDAS looks really nice, it's intuitive, and works well. The feature I'm looking for is something like 'play this file next' - something which you can do in dvdauthor (there you say play clip B when clip A finishes; play clip C when clip B finishes; show the menu when clip C finishes). That way, the movie continues from wherever you start (i.e. b->c->menu)

I'm not sure you can do this with MyDVD either (you can with NeroVision Express tho')

Maybe I'll just have to rethink my design :-|

gogiants wrote on 10/12/2004, 4:45 PM

As far as I know, going from clip A to clip B would fall into the category of being an "end action", which I don't believe Architect Studio provides.

lk wrote on 10/14/2004, 10:17 PM

hi ,
I was just trying to figure this out the other night also -
I was assuming that author and my dvd did it of course dvda
would and i would find out when it was time to burn-
I have a extra long wedding project with shower pics ect-a before video each person growing up with together pics and wedding day pics
and then wedding day video and honeymoon pics and honeymoon video
so all together it will be about 7.5 gig and 6 parts so i would really like it to
go from one to the next too-or use the menu if you want to skip around-
I ordered a dual layer dvd for this special project and am waiting on it to come before i burn -if anyone finds out for sure please post !