DVDA themes not saved

megabit wrote on 11/8/2008, 9:16 AM

When I export a theme in DVDA 5 (under Vista), it appears in the themes tab OK, but is only there until I close the project; after re-opening, DVDA complains it cannot find the theme file.

Where do they go physically (I know something has changed with the latest DVDA version; also the Vista file scheme can be at fault).

Comments

megabit wrote on 11/10/2008, 2:08 AM

Sorry for bumping this up, but can anyone advise on how to make an exported menu theme permanent, available at later DVDA re-opening?

rs170a wrote on 11/10/2008, 3:26 AM

Piotr, did you check the online help file in DVDA?
Here's what it says.

Mike

Creating Custom Themes

If you're comfortable editing XML, you can create your own custom themes to use with your DVD Architect Pro projects.

Themes are installed to a folder at C:\Documents and Settings\Your Username\Application Data\Sony\DVD Architect Pro\5.0\Themes (C:\Users\Your Username\AppData\Roaming\Sony\DVD Architect Pro\5.0\Themes in Windows Vista). Each theme is saved as a .thm file, which is essentially a .zip file that contains the theme's XML file and media.

In previous versions of DVD Architect, themes were installed in a subfolder below the program folder. However, not all users could access the Program Files folder and the theme information. With the current folder location, if two or more people are using DVD Architect Pro from the same computer, the theme information will be duplicated.

The easiest way to create your own themes is to work on a copy of an existing theme.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Create a copy of the theme you want to modify and rename the file.

Open the .thm file in a program such as WinZip and extract the files to a working folder.

Edit the theme's files as necessary:

You must change the <NAME> field in the <THEME INFORMATION> section to a unique name for DVD Architect Pro software to recognize the theme.

Change the <AUTHOR>, <COPYRIGHT>, and <ABOUT> tags with your own information.

The default.xml file contains all information about the layout, including button positioning/spacing, font, text, graphics, and audio information. Do not rename this file.

The media files in the theme are used for button and menu graphics, backgrounds, and audio. You can use any file format that DVD Architect Pro software supports, including .bmp, .png, .jpg, .gif, .avi, and .wav.

Resave the .zip file, renaming it to a .thm file, in the themes subfolder below the DVD Architect Pro program folder. The program will detect the new theme the next time it starts.

If there are any mistakes or missing files referenced in the default.xml file, the theme will not load.

megabit wrote on 11/10/2008, 6:42 AM

Thanks a lot Mike.

Is it possible that DVDA cannot re-load my theme because of an illegal character in the <COPYRIGHT> tag? I'm asking because - when trying to open the xml file - I got this error message...

Oh, and this character might have been put there by the designer of a jpeg the theme uses.

megabit wrote on 11/10/2008, 8:40 AM

OK, perhaps I need to be more specific...

Some of my themes do save properly, i.e. DVDA will still see them in the Themes tab after re-opening a project. When I unpack their XML file, there is no problem and I can do the edits suggested (although they aren't necessary for DVDA to see and load such a scheme).

The other ones I export from a self-composed menu page, whose background is a jpeg picture I got from my graphics designer. Those will not last in the Themes tab (i.e. on project opening, Vegas will complain the scheme couldn't be found). Unlike those that are stored correctly, when I try to open their XML content, IE will not allow me to do it and says that invalid character was found in the <COPYRIGHT> tag... Now, the content of this tag is partially displayed - up to the offending character, so I can recognize it contains the name of my graphics designer, which uses Polish diacritics ! The displayed string is truncated exactly before the first Polish character...

This is why I suspect DVDA cannot load them - but what can I do apart from having my graphics designer provide me with jpegs without such metadata (BTW, I have no idea how he is encoding this string - in PhotoShop perhaps). My IE displays the bar above the main window with the option to allow running potentially dangerous scripts or ActiveX controls. Should I allow it to run, and - if the whole XML file is displayed - edit it appropriately? I'm a bit concerned about the risk involved, and I cannot contact my graphics designer any time soon.

Well, I'll appreciate further help very much indeed; TIA

Piotr

Ivan_B wrote on 11/10/2008, 12:25 PM

Hello Piotr,

I have same problems as you. As soon I use Slovak characters anywhere in text, DVDA can't load theme after re-opening. There is problem with XML encoding in thm files. If you make few changes as I did I hope it will work for you.

1. rename thm file to zip and extract it using winzip

2. load default.xml in text editor (I use PsPAD - http://www.pspad.com/en/download.php - its free)

3. change document encoding to UTF-16 LE (Alt + R)

4. change first row in XML to <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-16" standalone="yes"?>

5. save it

6. make zip archive from extracted files

7. rename zip to thm

Ivan

megabit wrote on 11/10/2008, 12:45 PM

Thanks Ivan !

I'm missing one step: how do I change encoding using Windows Notepad?

Ivan_B wrote on 11/10/2008, 1:00 PM

Notepad is very simple editor not capable of such things. As I mention before try PSPad it's small and powerfull aplication and its completly free.

megabit wrote on 11/11/2008, 5:10 AM

Thanks again, Ivan.

BTW, this little text editor is quite powerful, and it's "Made in Poland".

:)

Ivan_B wrote on 11/12/2008, 10:23 AM

I have great news :) It also works without any manual editing.

Hold CTRL+Shift, Go to Options / Preferences / Internal tab, look for Force Unicode XML File Writing and set it to True.

megabit wrote on 11/12/2008, 10:37 AM

Thanks so much, Ivan!