There is an option for what item to display first.

Tog62' s observation after experimenting with OP's formula of disc authoring technique seems to properly conclude that OP accidentally produces a disc with non-play behaviors ( as Arthur.S points out - leaving off the natural start item). This now is certainly understandable as OP observations about his performance data.

WHAT is most regrettable is the title given this thread. It has obviously led us all down a path of trying to second guess what the OP is suggesting. In hindsight the answer to this thread would have been easy and given just one post, if it were not for the title. That seems to be a hazard from second-guessing thread title implications.

Yep, spot on comments. I re-created the ISO after specifying the menu as first play and it worked perfectly.

I was rather intrigued by the idea of making a disc with a chapter menu but no main menu and overlooked the obvious.

Hi.
Here's my sixpennorth for what it's worth (if I'm understanding the OP's problem correctly).
Using DVDA 5, start with the opening initial screen. Right click "untitled", then "Insert Media". Insert your movie containing the scenes. Right click on the inserted movie title now showing in the left side menu tree. Select "Insert Scene Selection Menu". This should give a pop-up with the number of scenes in movie. Click ok. Right click on the menu item just created in menu tree. Select "navigate Into" and the individual scenes should appear in window. Then you can "Make Blu-ray Disc". This works for me (Panasonic Blu-ray Player).
Don't go thru the "new", "Single Movie" route.
Hope this helps.
Steve.

Hi Guys - Thank you all for your wisdom and contributions !!! You are all fabulous.

First of all, I will update my DVDA to the current build.

Thanks SteveQ : "Don't go thru the "new", "Single Movie" route" - this is an idea I have not tried. I'll give it a try - sounds promising.

Maybe my Post title is not appropriate. Just to simplify the discussion, all I want to achieve is the following:

- When my BluRay disc loads I am presented with a menu. On that menu are my 6 chapters. If I have more than 6 chapters there will be an arrow button taking me to the next 6.

I have built over 60 SD discs where I would work through the "Single Movie" route, then later apply the scene selection menu. In this way I never had "Main Menu". Something I do not want. It always worked well.

When I apply this work flow to a BluRay disc I end up with an unplayable disc and an ISO image in a folder. To answer an earlier question, not I can not see the contents of the resulting BluRay disc.

Many Many Thanks to all !! :o)

cheers Vince

Back again - Built another Blu Ray disc this time using SteveQ's work flow. I followed it to the letter and once again DVDA generated an ISO file. Thinking all would be well, I burned the file onto a BD also using DVDA. And once again the file is unplayable.

Essentially what I see is that the iso file does not contain the BDMV folder with all the supporting folders underneath - hence the Blu Ray player ( Samsumg - 3yrs old ) Can Not find the right folders so it does not load.

Bummer !

What file structure layout do you have on the finished disc? What do you see when you look in the root directory?

I assume you mean what do I see when I open the disc in windows explorer:


However, the disc is full - and it took 30 mins to burn .. so not everything is being presented. I tried to paste a screen shoot without luck but check this out - it's a screen shoot of what I see:

http://d.pr/i/NLmX

I must have wasted 10 discs by now.

Many Thanks !!

Come on Vince, your uploaded image is nothing even close to what we are asking for.
Put you entire system specs in your profile. Specify what is your Blu-ray buner here. Specify what optical media you are using. Specify what software you are using to burn to disc.

Then specify what is your native language, your country of origin, and then goto windows OS explorer window - click on the Blu-ray burner drive icon, then right-clik properties, bring up a window that shows the volume of the disk.

Also in explorer - explore the contents of the burned disc to show us what files/folders or anything shows on the disc. Capture the last two efforts on alt/prntscreen keystroke and upload those images for us.

The ISO file is an image of the disk- not a playable file. Try using the free program ImgBurn to burn the iso file to a BD disk.

Have you tried mounting your created ISO file so that it appears to the operating system as a real Blu-ray disc?

You can use the free program Virtual CloneDrive to do this.

http://www.slysoft.com/en/virtual-clonedrive.html

Once mounted, you should be able to see all the folders and files that you expect on your final BD.

I recently experienced a similar case using ImgBurn and got exactly the same screenshot as the OP had in http://d.pr/i/NLmX.
The relevant ImgBurn log kindly informed me that Source File Volume Identifier was ImgBurn_Discovery_Image. Turned out I had pressed Write while in Discovery Mode...

You would easily get this piicture of your disc any time a burn goes bad - it is indicating the disk lead-in is blocking the OS from reading further into the disc structure. Media bad or burn bad or some combination to create it so.

Guys - MANY THANKS for your help.

I am a total newb when it comes to HD even though I have done 60+ discs in standard def. I was not asked to provide the data videoITguy asks for, so it never entered my head to provide it, even though much of the data is sprinkled through out the various posts. Here goes, all in 1 place:

Canada / English
Burn s/w: DVDA 5

system:
Dell 9150 i7 16GB ram 1tb disc
Win 7 Pro
Optical drive was shipped with Dell PC( data from device manager) : HL-DT-ST BD-RE BH30N
Media: Verbatim BD-R LTH Type

Contents Of the disc:

when you double click BD-RE Drive, the only contents of the burned disc are exactly as I showed you yesterday:

http://d.pr/i/NLmX

there nothing else to show

Many thanks again for all your help !

Update: I downloaded virtual clone-drive. I tried mounting the resulting iso which DVDA created and it would not play. So, the error, may be in the prep stage from DVDA and not the burn.

I am becoming very certain that the real culprit here is how the menus are being created or not created. To repeat myself. The result I want is when I play my disc the first that comes up is the scene selection. I do not want some higher level menu which I have to then click through to get to my scene selection.

Again Many thanks for all your help !

You are showing us that you are creating discs that are finalized and closed but with not any usable file structure. That has nothing at all to do with your menu needs.

You are burning bad media, or your burner is bad.

ok - assuming that 10 verbatim discs are not likely to be all bad, then the most likely culprit is the burner. As you are an IT guy, any suggestions how I can check the integrity of the burner ?

Insanity is doing the same thing over again an again and expecting different results.

Go back and read mine and Peter's suggestions.

If the ISO file cannot be mounted and played then there is no point looking at the burning software or hardware.The ISO file itself is clearly faulty.

I suggest that the OP drop his method of authoring and use one that works, such as I suggested some time ago. Don't agonize over why his method doesn't work. Find a method that works and move on.

You check the burner, by first creating a project that is made to deliver a really small DVD with DVD media. Also check whether you can burn a CD with CD media thru the native WIN OS interface for writing CDs.

Then get a different Blu-ray media - preferably a read/rewrite type which gives you chance to experiment with writing and erasing.

Vince, are you using Windows DVD Maker ? Or are you right clicking the .iso file and sending to you Blu-ray burner?
What you create this way is a data disc not a Blu-ray disc.
Prepare your movie in DVDArch. and then use burning software, like Nero or ImgBurn.

I only use DVDA 5 for all my burning. I use the "previously prepared" function.

I checked out the dvd burner ( btw - a hitachi product) using the DELL in built hardware check facility. and it check out fine.

So many people suggest 3rd party products to burn the DVD --- why??? What is wrong with using DVDA to burn my discs ??