Linking back to menu after stopping playback

dan63 wrote on 7/15/2006, 8:11 PM
I try to thoroughly search the forum before posting, but I couldn't find an answer on this.

I have a project with one menu. That menu has three buttons: one to a movie, one to a photo compilation, and the third to another movie. If each is allowed to play through to the end, each button will return to the main menu just fine.

If a viewer decides half-way through the movie that they want to stop and view the slideshow instead, pressing stop just ends playback and an empty screen is displayed.

Is there a way in DVDA3c to set it up so that if the viewer dumps out before the end of the item, the main menu will automatically start playing again ?

Sorry if this is a dumb question, I also looked in the manual and help but came up empty.

Thanks in advance,

Dan

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 7/15/2006, 8:20 PM
Stop stops. Menu goes back to the menu. It's up to the viewer to push the correct button. You can't do anything about that when creating the DVD.
dan63 wrote on 7/15/2006, 8:20 PM
10-4.

Thanks for the FAST reply. Now I can finish up.

Dan
johnmeyer wrote on 7/16/2006, 12:59 PM
Kelly is correct: There are certain behaviors that are hard-wired into the DVD design. Stop means stop the disc from playing, and you cannot change that to mean "go back to the menu."

However, in DVDA 3, you can disable the stop button on the remote. Click on the media asset in the left panel, and then in the right panel go to the Remote Buttons section. You will find an item in that list labeled "Stop." You can change this to "Off," and the stop button will no longer do anything. This will force the user to press the menu button or chapter advance button if they want to navigate.

As a side note, be aware that DVDA has an annoying "quirk" that makes the chapter advance button follow the order in which assets are listed in the left panel, regardless of how end actions are set. Thus, you basically have to do your navigation logic twice: once with end actions and once with asset order.

Chienworks wrote on 7/16/2006, 5:35 PM
On the other hand, i wouldn't mess with the buttons. Your viewers expect them to do certain things and when they don't it can be frustrating. I have several Disney discs in which it is impossible to skip the previews. Menu does nothing. Fast Forward and Advance do nothing. Title goes back to the beginning of the previews. On one of the discs the previews are over 12 minutes! It's enough to make you wanna smash the disc on the wall and never watch that movie again.

True, you're only talking about changing the stop button, but still i wouldn't mess with it because you'll have viewers who want to stop, and want the DVD player to stop when they press the stop button.

I think Disney is starting to wise up though. We recently picked up a new pressing of "Lady and the Tramp" and it only has 3 minutes of previews which can easily be skipped.
johnmeyer wrote on 7/16/2006, 5:45 PM
I have several Disney discs in which it is impossible to skip the previews.

If you ever make a backup of these discs, DVDDecrypter has options to remove the "user prohibitions" that make it impossible to skip or fast-forward through certain videos. Depending on your player, sometimes you can press stop and then menu or play to get around the straight-jacket mentality.