I don't think you could be 100% sure of eliminating this even using something like IFOEDIT. Anytime you do a "jump" like this in the DVD you have the possibility of an interruption because you are changing A/V streams.

You'll be much better off accepting the limitations of the players and DVD specification and designing your audio/video around those limitations.

Now, you might be able to play a few tricks that would get you close. For example, your introductory video could end with a screen shot of your menu, so from the visual part you probably wouldn't see much change; then you just use some care to transition your audio on a beat or some such.

I've not seen a way for DVDA to capture a screen shot of the menu display to a file, so you might have to go thru a couple of steps - author the menu, prepare the menu project, play it back using something like WinDVD and then pause the play to capture a screen shot to disk. Then this image would be pulled into Vegas where you would use it in finishing your intro.

Adapt this technique some and you can make individual menu buttons appear as if the menu was being constructed.

--Scott

ScottW wrote:

I've not seen a way for DVDA to capture a screen shot of the menu display to a file

Well, there is the Copy to Clipboard button on the Preview screen.... ;-)

Rob

I apologize, yes I did ask this before but the IFO editing way seemed very confusing. Just figured maybe another way came up.

Silly me. I didn't look on the preview screen. Looked everywhere else, but not there. Thanks for the pointer!

Learning about the low level structure of the DVD by using tools like IFOEDIT and VOBEDIT can be very useful, especially if you plan on authoring really cool and flashy DVD's. Very few (if any) authoring programs expose all of the capabilities of a DVD - mainly because the authoring tools are usually WYSIWYG oriented, and the really complex stuff doesn't lend itself well to that environment.

For additional information on low level stuff, I recommend:
http://www.dvd-replica.com/

They now have an eBook that you can purchase for $20, but the site still contains lots of useful info on DVD structures that can help any author in understanding exactly what they can and cannot do with a DVD.

Once you dig into it, you may find that it's actually kindof fun to see how programs like DVDA put things together; it's also fun to compare with other authoring tools - DVDLab for instance takes a somewhat different approach to how things are organized. Ok, I admit this may be a little geeky for some.

Also, by knowing how things work, it may give you other ideas about how to achieve a certain effect.

--Scott

I apologize, yes I did ask this before but the IFO editing way seemed very confusing.

Perhaps, but the last suggestion in that thread didn't involve IFO editing. It involved making two copies of the menu -- one with the introductory media and one with out. You set the end action of the first one to lead to the second one, and the second one loops.

Rob

I am going to do this, but when people press the MENU button, won't it go back to the main menu, eg: the one with the intro?

I believe that what happens when someones presses the Menu button can vary from player to player. But most will return to the most recent menu, the one that led to the video they're currently on. If the viewer clicked the first copy (the longer version), then yes, the Menu button would probably lead them back there. If the viewer clicked the second copy (the looping version), the Menu button would probably lead them back there.

If you want more insurance, you can specifiy where the menu button leads to from any particular video. Double-click the media on your menu or in the Project Overview window, and then find the Remote Buttons section in the Properties window. Click the plus sign next to "Menu," and you'll see settings similar to the End Action settings.

Whether all DVD players will honor what you implement, I don't know.

Rob

OK, I am really confused.

I made a video in Vegas of the intro, fading into a screen shot from the menu. Since I needed active buttons to be a part of this intro, I made the first play a menu, and used this intro containing the screen shot of the menu as the background to the first menu.

Everything is cool, except I can see the highlited part of the buttons all the way from the beginning of the intro. An ugly transparent square shouldn't be seen until the part where they select which video they want to watch shows up.

How in the world can I fix this?

You have 2 choices. Specify that your video footage is to be used as an introduction (if you right click in the tree view on the very top item, I think this is an option - I'm doing this from memory since I'm not at my computer with DVDA 2.0 on it). I've not gotten DVDA to accept audio and video with this method, and I've not checked to see if this is fixed in the latest build or not, so if it's not fixed and you need audio and video.....

Create a menu based project. On the first menu, create a sub menu. Set the button style of the sub-menu link to text only and delete the text (I usually then re-size the button down and pull it off to a corner of the screen).

For the selected button/activated button, select for the color sets "none (transparent)". You shouldn't be able to see the button at all now if you preview.

Navigate into your submenu, delete the button that returns you to the main menu. This is now the menu that you'll have people navigate from. Create and arrange your buttons, do the preview thing and capture the image to use in Vegas. Produce your intro footage.

Navigate back to the top menu, and specify your video footage for the background.

Set the end action of the menu to "activate button" and then specify the button for your submenu.

Do a preview disk and see if it does what you want. You should see the intro footage on the first menu at which point it will transition to the second menu where the highlighting will be active.

--Scott

But then won't the transition from the two menu's have a pause instead??

If your video shot at the end of your intro matches the menu you are transitioning too exactly, people won't be able to tell that you went from one menu to another, other then the fact that the highlight turns on for the first button.

Now, if you have audio going on you also need to be careful to split the audio at a point where a slight pause can be accepted.

Didn't even think of that! I thought there'd be a black screen or something for a second. Thanks!

I'm not sure I understand the need completely, but I think there may be an easier way to do it. You just want an intro that ends in the menu screen, then the menu becomes "live" for user input?

Rather than actually managing two menus, why not just set the menu to transparant highlight, preview, copy to clipboard, and then go set it back to normal? Use Vegas to make your intro fade into this screenshot, which has no highlighting now. Isn't this easier than actually trying to maintain a dummy menu in DVD-A? Of course, if you make changesto the menu, you will need to go through the process again and go back to Vegas. But it's not too hard... save this step until the end.

-Jayson

And you set this clip as the background of the single menu, correct?

The problem is that when you go back to the menu and turn on highlighting the highlight shows up over the background clip that you've generated without the highlighting, which is exactly what you don't want to happen.

Now, it may be possible to take this clip and set it as the introductory media; the only potential issue is that I've not been able to get DVDA2 to accept both video and audio as part of the intro media; however, I've not had a chance to download the latest build, so I don't know if this is a bug that's been fixed or not. Which is why I suggested 2 menus if this problem still exists.

--Scott

I have introductory media with both video and audio; in fact, one DVD has 2 short introductory clips, both with audio, which end action together and then into the main menu. Has never been a problem for me.

What my solution will do is this:

1. Run interoductory clip that transitions into menu without highlight. This is all one video transitioned together in Vegas... DVD-A is just playing a title and not doing anything special.
2. Clip ends and slight pause occurs while DVD player finds main menu and launches it.
3. Video cuts to main menu. Since main menu is exactly the same as the end of the introductory clip, minus the highlight, it just LOOKS like the highlight just appeared and nothing else changed. Of course, audio will be killed during the pause, so this must be taken into account when designing the sequence.

If this is not what he wants, then, as I said, perhaps I misunderstood the request. If it IS what he wants, then it will work. I've used this to good effect before.

-Jayson

That was the solution originally presented, but DaddyLongLegs didn't like the pause that his DVD player put between the intro and the menu. The dual-menu solution was an attempt to make the transition from intro to menu (more) seamless.

The bottom line, I think, is that it would be tough to make this appear seamless on all players. The best thing to do, I think, is to have the "break" at a good place (like between beats if there's music) so that the pause either isn't noticed or "fits in" somehow.

Rob

Now, it may be possible to take this clip and set it as the introductory media; the only potential issue is that I've not been able to get DVDA2 to accept both video and audio as part of the intro media

Odd. Never had an issue with 1.0c, 1.0d, 2.0, or 2.0a. What steps are you taking to add the intro media? In what way does DVDA not accept both audio and video (ie, what happens when you try)?

Rob

DVDA 2.0 - I click on the Insert Intro Media. Select an MPEG, that comes in but the AC3 file of the same name doesn't (as I can see when I double click on the "film" icon. DO a preview and all I get is the video.

So, go back to Insert Intro Media - select the AC3. Now I've got 2 film icons, and if I double click on the one flags as "start" I can see the audio track show up, but the video track has now gone all to black.

A preview at this point results in audio only.

I can change the DVD Start from one to the other, and it only plays whichever one is selected as start.

Insert Intro Media, select the MPEG you want to use

Go to the Project Overview window and double-click the intro media video that you just inserted (or right-click it and choose "Navigate Into") so that you get its timeline. Drag your audio file from the Explorer window to that timeline's audio track. [Edit: Incidentally, my intro medias are usually a muxed MPEG rather than separate video and audio files. I figure that this intro is usually so short that I don't mind letting DVDA re-encode the audio.]

Interestingly enough, I just realized that the Intro Media can have alternate audio tracks as well as a subtitle track. Huh.

Rob

This IS what I want. However, I do have audio going from the intro to the menu, and this kills it.

If anyone has a way to do this without audio being paused I'd be eternally grateful.

I think this has been over before. You cannot prevent the pause in the audio when changing streams like this.

The same issue would exist if you were to loop the menu.

Design your audio so that you can accomodate the pause.