As long as the video is less than 1GB, the easiest way to do this is to use it as the background media for the main menu page. Remove the "Main Menu" title. Set the end action to Loop. That should do it.

Had the same request from a client.
Discovered that most DVD players have loop setting.
That's how I show my stuff at trade shows now
Rather than burning a looped DVD, set player to loop.
Done!

Yup! - Loop action on the Zapper! Done! - G

thanx gang - I'll put your info to good use.

Dave

The advantage to this is you can make it stop looping. When you program it into the DVD it always loops.

On the other hand, it requires a little effort and the client may want it to work without having to fiddle with the remote.

Rob Mack

I've done this sort of thing for trade-show displays for clients. The less they have to mess with the DVD-player the better.

I normally setup the video as a first-play with an end-action to loop.

Then I also setup a menu. I duplicate the video on this menu with two links. One is setup with an end-action to loop the video continuosly... the other is setup to play the video once and return to the menu.

That gives the client the ultimate flexibility.

Liam! Excellent tip! . . obvious once heard - I should have thought of it. - Grazie

Okay, here's where it can go wrong. and maybe how to cope with it as well.

I did the exact same thing a menu with two choices. One looped, the other didn't. My producer and I had both been told that this video would play in a loop at several monitors around the fundraising event. We also had subtitiles so people could read them even though there was a lot of noise at the event.

Here's what really happened. The several monitors actually played a single static graphic over a kind of improvised distribution system-the monitors were all daisy chained from one source. When it came time to play the video they popped the DVD in, hit play, ant then switched to the DVD player as the source. They never saw the menu but they got the looping program out of dumb bad luck.

Why bad luck? Well, they decided they were only going to play the video once. So they played it and when it got to the end they switched the source back to the graphic. But not the audio. It was very poorly done. So there's the graphic on screen, the director of the organization is on stage and starts to speak, and then the audio for the DVD starts playing again.

You know, it was they're own damn fault, but I suppose if the "Play once" button had been the default button on the DVD menu then luck would have been on their side. Anyway, making things automatic took away any control they could have had. If you do follow this path, make the default button the most benign choice.

Rob Mack

That was bad luck... which is why I try to take all the guess-work out of it and make sure the I and the client knows exactly what the needs are.

I have definitely produced these video displays for a client where the video by default played once and returned to the menu... and they could then choose to play the looped version.

Just make sure you agree on how it is used... and then there will be no surprises.