If each song starts with a chapter marker you can insert a scene selection menu to do exactly what you want. No need for separate clips at all.

Thank you, thank you! I put in the selection menu and got it working, but it seemed to want to take me to another page and I want the text on the main graphic to select the songs. So, I deleted it and my text still worked and could be linked to the chapter markers, something I couldn't do up to this point.

Now, hopefully the last question :-) - what do I place at the end of the songs so it returns to the main graphic/memu page?

Again, I can't thank you enough for your input.

Dave

You can not return to the menu after each song if you are using one continuous video, D. A scene menu will take you to a given scene -- then will play from that scene to the end of the entire video.

The only way to return to the menu after each song is to have each song be its own video!

There is a very advanced feature in DVD Architect that allows a user to work around using a scene selection menu and still allow a set-top player to override the next advance to scene 2 etc.

This is not a tool for the faint of heart -so be careful. What you do is create what is called an on-screen video button - I prefer to place just after the beginning of the following scene. You desiginate that button to return to the main menu. This button can only have one action designated. And only 1 button can appear at a time. It is activated by only 1 key on the set-top player remote - the "enter" key.
Rehearse that a bit -you may find that you like it while retaining scene to scene efficiency in the DVD authoring process.

Steve:

Ok, I surrender. So, I go back to Vegas and take my 6 video segments and render them one at a time, then bring them into DVDA one at a time, and place them on the timeline, I assume with a black gap between each clip. Put in Chapter markers, set up my text buttons and link to the clips. Then, will the video return to the main page when the song is finished, for another user selection?

I do appreciate everyone's comments.

Thanks,

Dave

To Dcollins:
You can procede to make 6 separate videos in VegasPro and then import them into DVD architect. Chapter markers will no longer be appropriate. Text buttons -1 for each video and end action for each video will bring you back to main menu.

YOU may have guessed this is not very efficient in production strategy or resources that will be consumed at the set-top player level.

THAT is why I offered by alternate ADVANCED method level for using scene/chapter handling as detailed in my previous post above.

IF your paricular set-top player suffers some anomalies with burned discs you may see a slight black/pause interruption as the player returns from a scene to the main menu. YOUR mileage will vary depending on the particular player/firmware level. That is one more reason to suggest why scene/chapter marks are a more efficient authoring method.

To: videoitguy:

Thanks for your comments. Your earlier comment re On-screen video buttons sounded tricky and I thought I was in enough trouble already, so I tried other things first. I'm now ready to tackle your method.

First I have to vent a little. Isn't this the basic function of DVD software to make a menu driven playback? I can't believe it should be this strange. Now, that feels better.

I'm going to start on this tomorrow, but I have a question, I searched under 'On-screen video buttons' and 'video button' in the Help menu and nothing came up. Where do I find such a button?

Thanks for help.

Dave

Here is what you face when you want fine control of DVD authoring -
learn the scripting language of DVD or Blu-ray Java

OR ELSE you have a choice:
just learn how to do it through the interface (limited as it is - that SCS gives you.)
FOR DVD Architect Pro Ver. 5.0b - use the help index with the search term "buttons on video markers" - then open the "Timeline Window" topic. Navigate down to learn all about marker types including those that carry an on-video action parameter. Take the time to learn how this is done and you will be making markers work for you like there is no other way..UNDERSTAND what each marker type is.

FINALLY - Always create you scene/chapter break markers in the Sony VegasVideoPro software and export them through the sidecar files of your videostream - markers included. Then after import into DVD Arch Pro - you may do this other edit (explained above) for final manipulation and authoring of a great DVD.

One quick question. Do I move each clip up to the last one in Vegas Pro or leave some blank space between the 6 clips?

Dave

My head is spinning....
Don't even think about the DVDA timeline. DVDA is *not* an editor and the timeline doesn't work like an editing timeline.
Just drop your individual MPEG files (encoded in Vegas) into the Project Overview window. I just grabbed four unrelated MPEG files for this example:



Next make your menu with four empty buttons. In the button properties, you point to the media that pressing that button plays.



Next, you tell DVDA what to do at the end of the media. The default is the last menu and if you only have one menu, you don't need to do anything. I prefer to tell it specifically what menu I want it to go to. This way if I add a second menu later, I won't have unexpected results.



Here's an advanced tip - which I prefer over playlists. Suppose I want a menu button to play all videos? Simple, just drop your individual MPEG files into the Project Overview window again. DVDA is smart enough to not duplicate the media on the disc so you aren't using any more disc space.



Next, rename the new copies of the media so that you won't see duplicate media names when you select the end action for a piece of media.



Now, link a button to the first media you want to play, one of the renamed ones, and set the end action of that media to the next one to play, and the end action of that one to the next. The end action of the last media will be to your menu.

Hope this helps get you started.

To DCollins:
The answer to your simple question is "DO NOT LEAVE ANY Video-Black between segments" on the VegasPro Timeline.
In fact there should be no "spaces" on any timeline for export as a videostream. It has to be one continuous timeline for you to place chapter markers in VegasPro.

BUT what you were probably asking is a design question- like this-
if I were building six separate music videos by different artists for each music scene - I would provide an animated title or something as an insert between each segment on the VegasPro timeline. The design emphasis is to give your audience watching the DVD an ability to know what is coming next - and the time to decide and take action to either bail out to main menu OR to just let the next scene play -OR to fast forward through the following scene -- you get the idea..a lot of creativity and audience analysis have to play here.

What the point might be of this topic's discussion - is that - there truly are many different methods to achieve a result. The real heart of the matter --may be what works best for the chosen playback system. It is easy to author a DVD for a DVD-ROM player on a PC because you may wish to only design for the user to interact with mouse cliks- but such a design will ultimately fail on a set-top player because of issues of a user deciding navigation with an infrared remote control with many different buttons.

Hence in the discussion of this thread - it has been pointed out that you can assemble a DVD from several different videos the labor intensive way - or you can use one videostream exported from Sony VegasPro with chapter markers set and use an import into DVD Architect as a scene selection menu - or you can use the playlist tool creation in DVD Architect to manage the playback design.

What I have found in my working with a large test-bed of set-top players and burned one-off disc media is that the scene-selection menu import from SonyVegasPro produces the least anomalies in play. A problem that happens in burned discs (You don't see this problem with commercial discs authored with advanced scripting) is when a user tries to interact with navigation- the player may stutter for a time as it tries to find the user's choice made from a selection menu. Playlist creation does help but can still suffer under particular player/firmware conditions.

Steve & videoITguy:

Thank you for all your help, and Steve for those wonderful links.

You know, sometimes I get so fixated on doing one thing, that I don't look at the big picture and that's what you are making me do now. You made some very good points about the unpredictable nature of various playback equipment and the difference between playing the disc. in a computer Vs. a home set with IR multi-button remote control. I hadn't thought of that, and I'm now re-thinking my whole approach.

Perhaps, having the clips with markers at the beginning, and artwork between each clip would be the safest way to go. The user can always fast forward to skip a song or go on to one that they are interested in.

I can't thank you enough for the time you took to help. I've learned a lot and hopefully, this will help others on this forum as well.

Thank you!

Dave