I don’t think this is a flaw. I just tried this on a store bought DVD (Paul McCartney - Back in the USA) and I highlighted the second menu item and waited a very long time for the menu to loop and when the menu looped, it reset and highlighted the first menu item. I think you don’t experience it because Hollywood just uses very long loops.

~jr

Actually, that disc is the exception, not the rule. The only way to maintain button selection for a given menu is to set or use a value in one (or more) of the system or general parameter registers and then to check this value when leaving the menu and returning to establish which button to highlight.

This requires access to pre and post commands that are a part of the DVD-Video specifications, but which are hidden and inaccessible to DVD authors in programs like DVDA, DVDWS, DVD Producer, DVDit, etc. Some discontinued programs such as Spruce Maestro gave the author access to the SPRM and GPRM registers, but the original group of DVD authoring software companies were quickly grabbed by larger companies when it became clear that all of the major studios were embracing the technology. You may recall that Disney, DreamWorks and others withheld their titles in the early days of DVD.

AFAIK, only two companies produce software that gives the author access to the registers; DVD SP from Apple, and Scenarist, from Sonic Solutions. Scenarist is the program you'll hear about most often. Most if not all of the DVD publication houses that work on feature films use this software. The software is designed to strictly follow the DVD-Video specifications and will allow the author to do anything that the standards support. The ability to set languages in the Title and Menu space is another key capability that's missing is the above mentioned programs from Sonic Foundry, Ulead, and the up coming Encore DVD from Adobe. Doing so allows you to place your menus in the areas where the standards designed them to be (although this area is commonly used for dummy PGC's to allow for global navigation) and represents the method for seamless transitions between menu elements.

Sonic believes that at $5K for the introductory price of the entry-level version, Scenarist Studio, is a good deal. I, and I'm sure many others, have been trying to convince them for months that they're wrong. Not only because of price, but because this version is limited to a single VTS, just like ReelDVD.

Until someone, somewhere releases an authoring tool that will construct a DVD to specifications giving the author access to the functionality those specifications allow, and offers it to the market at a reasonable price (<$1K) we will be at the mercy of the companies that currently control that technology. As someone who would like to explore the artistic possibilities of DVD-Video, this is a very sad state indeed.

I've been told by someone from a professional production house that they edit the control code with a text editor. Obviously you'd have to have a detailed knowledge of how the code works and probably spend a lot of time experimenting.

Of course he might have been feeding me a line and went very quite when I tried to get more details out of him.
Anyone know if this is a possibility or have I been duped (again).

There are tools to edit the IFO and VOB files. This is likely what he meant. This is at best a stop-gap solution and is in itself only a bandaid for a very few of the actual capabilities of the technology.

Interestingly enough, both were written by a gentleman who is now with 321Studios.

You can probably find some how-to over at dvdhelp.com if you wantg to go vobing. There have a bunch of pretty good tutorials on just about every aspect of video editing, burning, etc.. They just tend to use freeware or shareware tools. Some are very good, (most people learn about TMPGEnc) from this site and some others also.

I don't think DVDA needs to provide full access to the DVD spec or anything like that, there are programs more suited to that, but there are some basic features that just make sense, and excluding them as DVDA has does not make sense. Like allowing a menu to loop without sending the user back to the start. Allowing a scene selection menu to have the current scene still selected when you return, or the option to have the next one selected, as in training videos. I started out with DVD Complete and Studio 8. Studio 8 cost me $80 and you could drop a "Return to last menu" marker anywhere on the timeline, and it did not reset focus when the menu looped. Very basic stuff. DVD Complete had amazing flexibility in the positioning of buttons and the control of which button would link to which when you pressed the arrow keys (you could arrange your buttons in a circle for instance, loop continuously in either direction, and jump across the circle at any angle for example, nice). A reply on that issue some time ago from SOFO was something like "DVDA determines button flow automatically, you do not have control over it". I am not saying they have to go that far, but how about a 16 button menu that will loop back to the beginning after you pass #16, rather then make you have to go back 16 times. These low cost programs could do these things, we are not talking difficult coding here. Why does SOFO think we don't need this? There promo copy for Vegas+DVD touts it's flexability. Sure, in Vegas. That's why the inflexability in DVDA stands out like a sore thumb. Their audio and video software is responsible for unleashing the visions of untold numbers of artisons, something they take great pride in, and they should. The flexibility of their software makes it possible. And then there is DVDA. Make the DVD simple and make it our way and that's it. Not very supportive of the artisons out there. The work around for a continuous looping DVD is hysterical, albeit ingenious, but still, that is a pretty basic use of DVDs, kiosks, Demo displays, etc. Pretty common stuff.

And as many threads in this and other boards shows, a lot of people, from pros to artists to family video editors, are having to turn elsewhere for the most basic features other programs already do. And more importantly, the negativity that potential buyers pick up on coming from unhappy users and the bad press in reviews steers them away, reducing sales, hurting the software's future.

I am not trying to start another thread debating the DVD spec or the pro vs. semi-pro or anything like that, or how one program is better then another, I am just making my opinion known to SOFO that I am yet another user who wants these basic features in the next update.

I think SOFO should come out with a statement of what to expect for DVDA 2.0, and state a good upgrade deal. Knowing that the problems are being addressed would shut a lot of us up and get a lot of people who are waiting to see what happens to go ahead and make their purchases now, rather then wait. That would be good in the short run and the long. And I am talking detailed press release here, not a "these issues are being looked into" statement, that would not calm anyone or motivate any hold outs to buy now.

I am trying to be supportive here, trying to help SOFO develope DVDA into what the majority of us want and need, by letting them know my wants and needs (and letting the potential new owner of DVDA, Sony, know what they should be planning for its future). And I think pointing out what other software can do is helpful to them to see what can be done and is being offered by low price point competitors. I am sure they already know that, but we need to point them to the items that are most important to us. Squeaky wheel stuff.