DVDAS4.5d media end action properties

kentm wrote on 1/21/2009, 4:40 AM
I am currently using DVD AS 4.5d . Can someone tell me if this is possible in the Studio version or do I need to move up to the Pro version. It appears that the media end action properties should do this but I sure can't find the right combination..
PROBLEM
I asked this question several months ago and never really solved the issue, so I am going to try it again. I have a program that has seven chapters that were marked in VMS9.0b. The markers were rendered with the media and brought into DVDAS4.5d.
I have the top level menu made with two items. PLAY ALL and CHAPTER SELECT. The seven chapters are arranged on a two page menu. I want it set up so that when I select one chapter and play it to it's end, the system will return to the CHAPTER SELECT page.
I have tried every combination of the media "end action" page that I can come up with but when it comes to the end of the selected chapter, the thing just keeps right on playing through the rest of the material. (This is in the "preview" mode)
Can someone give me a clue as to what I am missing?

Comments

TOG62 wrote on 1/21/2009, 5:37 AM
Chapters don't have definable end actions; they are always followed by the next chapter until the end of the title.

You can achieve what you want by adding the clip to the project once for each chapter and setting the in and out points for each. There are previous posts that describe the process in detail.

Mike
kentm wrote on 1/21/2009, 8:28 PM
It seems strange that each chapter can have several "End Action" properties defined with the possibility of STOP or link to another item within the project. SCS support keeps telling me that what I am doing should work but it doesn't for me.
I tried rendering each chapter separately and then I can get it to return to the menu at the end of each chapter. Now I just have to figure out how to make it play through the whole program if I choose to do so.
TheHappyFriar wrote on 1/21/2009, 9:04 PM
I have the pro version & I don't see any option to change anything @ the end of a chapter. The button action is just what the button does, not what happens when the media gets to a certain point. The video itself can have an end action, but that applies to the whole video.

if you're using multiple media files that's different, that's a submenu with different media files listed. To get that to work you'd change the end action of the media file (not the button) to go where you want.

To get them all to play you add them to a playlist. Then make a button for the playlist.
bStro wrote on 1/22/2009, 9:35 AM
It seems strange that each chapter can have several "End Action" properties defined with the possibility of STOP or link to another item within the project.

Who says it can?

A chapter does not have end actions. A media item (aka, "title") has end actions. When you follow the previous instructions by TOG62 ("adding the clip to the project once for each chapter and setting the in and out points for each"), you are specifically telling DVD Architect to add each of those segments to the disc as an individual media item. They're no longer chapters within a single title, but separate and distinct titles. That is why each one can have end actions.

SCS support keeps telling me that what I am doing should work but it doesn't for me.

Look up "Adding a Scene Selection Menu" in the manual / online help and read the section about creating one that returns to the scene selection menu after playing the selected scene. That describes exactly what to do, and it has worked flawlessly for me every time from DVDA 1.0 to DVDA 5.0.

Rob
kentm wrote on 1/22/2009, 2:37 PM
Another response from SCS provided the answer. They sent the following link.
"http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/news/article.asp?articleid=50&keycode=3511"
This provided the steps required to add a playlist that I named "PLAY ALL". I brought each of the chapters/segments into the program as individual media instead of one long segment and created the menu for playing one segment at a time. Then I added a button for the playlist which plays all segments one after the other.
Thank to all that have responded.