Menu with still picture background loops too early

Bielec wrote on 3/5/2010, 10:36 PM
In Architect PRO - I created a menu with still picture background and a music background. Adjusted lengths accordingly. In Menu Page Properties - General tab:

- Menu Length: Specify
- Lenth: 00:00:31.456 - (the length of the background music piece)
- Loop Point: 00:00:00.000

Rendered and burned to disc in BD format.

When I <Preview> the project in Architect PRO, everything works OK. When I play the burned disc on my computer (with CyberLink PowerDVD), everything is OK. But, when I play back the burned disc on my BD player, the menu loops before the music is finished and before the time elapses. It always loops at the same point, after playing about one half of the background music length.

In another attempt, I created a video of this still picture, with the same music background, using Vegas PRO. Then I used this video as a menu background in Architect PRO. This time, it rendered properly and the menu plays to the end, before looping. However, it flickers more than the still picture background.

I would like to use the still picture as a menu background in Architect PRO. What am I missing or doing wrong? Please help.

Comments

paige wrote on 3/7/2010, 4:46 AM
Hi B

When I add a music track to the menu pag, I generally leave as auto calculate and it works fine and plays till end of the track before it loops.
I'm not sure why it's not working when you specify the length though.

If the only answer is to render a video file from vegas to use as the DVD menu, there's a couple of reasons that it may be flickering.
- Check the picture file isn't huge - I resize to around 800 pixels.
- also add 'reduce interlace ficker' both in the vegas project and the General Tab in DVDA
- I also render background videos as Progressive Scan.

Hope this info helps!
Paige
Bielec wrote on 3/8/2010, 8:52 AM
I tried the auto calculate with the same result.

Thanks for the tips re background video file. Out of curiousity though, I would like to solve the original problem. Using a still pic as a menu background is more convenient and tempting in some situations. I want to be able to do it.

Any ideas?
paige wrote on 3/8/2010, 4:38 PM
There's a couple of ways to do this - you can either 'insert graphic' on the DVDA menu page, or, what I usually do so the picture fills the frame exactly as I want:

Open a project in Vegas with the same project properties as the DVDA project.
Then add your picture file to the project in vegas - here you can resize, crop, add backround, whatever you want to do with it - then 'save snapshot to file'.
Then in DVDA, go to 'Background Media', and from the 'Video' drop down list 'replace with your saved snapshot from vegas.
Then go to 'General Tab' and turn 'Reduce interlace flicker' to 'on'.

Hope this works for you,
Paige
musicvid10 wrote on 3/8/2010, 7:05 PM
I have found that I often need to tweak the "Length" setting by trial and error -- in my projects it is often off by 6 to 8 frames from the reported length of the background media. Don't know why this is so. . . .
LivingTheDream wrote on 10/19/2010, 12:38 PM
Bielec,
Were you ever able to resolve this issue? I'm also seeing the same thing with BD's that I make. Funny thing is when I make an SD disc out of the same project and play it in the same Blu-ray player the menu loops perfectly (doesn't cut early, disappear, and then return after 1-2 seconds). And my BD menus loop just fine on the computer, but not on a set top player. I've never seen this problem with my home-made SD DVD's.

Hopefully you have a DVDA success story to share on this.

Thanks!