"Play All" Button On Menu?

BobWard wrote on 9/24/2010, 7:12 PM

I am about to do my first project in DVD AS 5.0. I have loaded my rendered MPEG-2 and AC3 files from VMS 10.

My project includes several movie clips from Christmas gatherings for several years. Each clip (event in VMS 10) has a marker that was inserted in VMS 10.

I would like to set up a menu that would give viewers the choice of individually playing each clip on the DVD, but also have an option to play all clips from the beginning. Is it possible to insert a "Play All" button that would appear on the DVD?

Bob

Comments

Steve Grisetti wrote on 9/24/2010, 7:33 PM

What you want to do is create a Playlist.

Select Playlist from the Insert drop-down menu. An option screen will pop up listing all of the video clips on your DVD. You can then select which you'd like to launch as part of the series and the order they play in. When you're done, the button (which you can name Play All if you'd like) will appear on your menu.

More details and information on playlists and compilations can be found in my book, available on Amazon.com, if you're interested.

BobWard wrote on 9/24/2010, 8:49 PM

Thanks Steve. I will give that a try.

Bob

Richard Jones wrote on 9/25/2010, 3:14 AM

Alternatively, when you open a new project, select "Menu Based." Dragging the mpg file to the blue screen in DVDA (the AC3 file will automatically follow it if it has the same name) will offer two overlapping thumbnails. Right clicking will allow you to choose how many chapters you want on each menu page while separating these two thumbnailswill leave you with "Play All" and "Scene Selection." This latter takes you to the first page of the menu and the first thumbnail there is "Play All" as well (with the others representing each separate event). (You may have to re-name each thumbnail or button but F2 allows this to be done easily).

Richard

Chienworks wrote on 9/25/2010, 5:13 AM

Bob, have you rendered the entire collection of clips into one single MPEG-2 and one single AC3 file? Or have you rendered each clip into separate files individually?

If it's the former, then what you get on the DVD menu when you drag that single MPEG-2 clip onto it *IS* the Play All button. Right-mouse-click on that button and choose "insert scene selection menu" to get a secondary menu that lets the viewers choose chapters to view.

BobWard wrote on 9/25/2010, 12:14 PM

Chienworks,

Yes, I rendered the entire collection of clips (events) as a single MPEG-2 file. I had markers inserted for each event in VMS 10 and those markers came across into DVD AS.

I am trying to get all the selections on one page so the viewers will not have to figure out that there is a page 2.

I have 15 scenes plus the Play All button to fit on one page, so 16 buttons total. Steve's suggestion about using the Play List option has allowed me to get everything on one page.

I played around with your suggestion, but it looks like it is forcing me to use 2 pages. However, this is my first exposure to DVD AS, so everything is pure trial & error at this point. I am probably mis-understanding a lot of the procedures. The tutorials have not been very useful for what I am trying to do.

Bob

KenJ62 wrote on 9/25/2010, 2:32 PM

My recent wedding video had four pages of six markers each. I renamed each page to 'Menu Page 1 of Four' and so on.

Richard Jones wrote on 9/26/2010, 4:28 AM

There are very clear arrows on each menu page whch allow you to move to the next or the previous one or back to the very first page. You can also give a personalised heading to each menu page (again by using F2).

The problem with having too many buttons on a single page is that they can appear crammed too tightly together to be read in comfort.

Richard

bStro wrote on 9/30/2010, 4:30 AM

I am trying to get all the selections on one page so the viewers will not have to figure out that there is a page 2.

Are your viewers younger than 5 or older than 75? If not, I think they can figure it out. ;) And maybe even if they are.

Rob