How do I set the DVDA Project TOP MENU

Gary James wrote on 4/28/2014, 12:38 PM
I'm building a widescreen NTSC DVD. When the DVD is inserted into the Player I want a specific video to start playing and endlessly loop until the player is turned off or either the "Menu" or "Top Menu" button is pressed.

While the First Play video is playing, I want to be able to use the Remotes "Top Menu" button to go to menu in my project that's assigned to be the "Top Menu", and when the Remotes "Menu" button is pushed, to go to a different motion menu that plays a short video.

I can't find any way in DVDA to assign a particular Menu to be the Remotes "Top Menu" button. So what's the secret to doing this?

Comments

Steve Grisetti wrote on 4/28/2014, 1:44 PM
As I show you in my book, the order that the scene buttons are highlighted on any menu page is determined by the order they're listed in the Project Overview directory, illustrated in the panel on the left side of the interface.

Drag the listed buttons for the page into the order you'd like your viewer to navigate through them.
Gary James wrote on 4/28/2014, 2:39 PM
I think we're talking about two different things. I need to know how to assign a Menu so that it gets called when the "TOP MENU" button is pressed on a DVD Players Remote Control.

I've worked with other DVD Authoring software that lets you assign a project Menu to the Top Menu button an a remote. This is different than the regular Menu button that can be assigned to a menu or a piece of media.
videoITguy wrote on 4/28/2014, 3:08 PM
Gary, just so you realize this - the button calls that are made by a set-top player's included remote is programmed into the firmware of that particular player. So another way to say this - there is no hard and fast way to predict that an authoring package can be programmed to do exactly the same thing with every set-top player.
Unfortunately this kind of implementation over the years has become sloppy because not all manufacturing adhered to what would be a best practice adoption of the original DVD standards.

You can predict how older set-top players MIGHT work - but given the implementations of playing back a DVD on a newer Blu-ray set-top player is going to throw your method.

As I recall the necessity of getting into the DVD scripting is necessary to make the predictable call - the given interface in most authoring programs does not give you all of the exacting control that you may need to author the best implementation for most set-top players.
Gary James wrote on 4/28/2014, 4:17 PM
Normally I use a program called DVD Lab Pro 2 to do all my DVD authoring. This program has the most flexibility in creating DVDs than any other program short of Scenarist. It supports true Virtual Machine language programming, that is the native programming language for all DVD players; not the abstract "scripting" capability that DVDA provides.

It also has a very simple graphic interface that lets you create a DVD by "wiring" blocks together, where the blocks can be menus, playlists, media, etc. A DVD has two entry points using the programs abstract layer. (A) The First Play domain, and (2) The Top Menu domain. These two nodes can be wired to the same entry point in the DVD, or individually to different objects. For example. When the disk is inserted in a player, whatever is wired to the First Play domain is executed. This could be a menu or a movie. And, whenever the Top Menu button is pressed on ANY DVD PLAYER REMOTE, whatever is wired to the Top Menu domain gets executed, be it a menu or movie. This works 100% of the time for every DVD player. After all, the operation of the Menu and Top Menu buttons are defined in the DVD specification. From it looks like, Sony DVD Architect does NOT adhere to the DVD spec when it comes to implementing Top Menu functionality.

videoITguy wrote on 4/28/2014, 5:20 PM
I am quite familiar with DVDLabPro2 and the points you speak of - however my statements above still apply to the current generation of releasing functionality in set-top players. The original specification is not the issue, but the adherence to same is.