Play all: end actions, etc.

bakerbud9 wrote on 12/28/2003, 7:21 PM

I'm a new user to this forum and new also to DVDA. Not new, however, to Sonic Foundry products, which I've been using for almost a decade.

I've done my homework on the end actions problem with DVDA. I see the threads discussing the lack of this feature in DVDA. I also saw a thread that mentions how end actions, even if added, may not work very well. The reason is that the DVD player needs to read the execution code and then jump to the new video file (instead of the main menu). This may cause a delay or "glitch" in the user's playback experience.

So my idea is this: how about instead of end actions, provide the ability to create a scene selection menu for a video compilation object?

For example, DVDA allows you easily to create a scene selection menu for a single media file. It also allows you to easily create a video complilation object (actually, it is a "music" compilation object, but just insert video files instead of music files). The video compilation object is automatically created in DVDA with chapter markers between the video tracks.

So it seems that a video compilation object is like a "virtual" media object which contains chapter markers and all. So it really seems that the only thing missing is the ability to use the "Insert Scene Selection Menu..." command on a vidio compilation object. Currently this command is greyed out and unavailable unless you select a media object. However, if this command were available when you selected a video compilation object, it seems this would provide the same effect as end actions, but would be a more preferred method because it would prevent "glitches" between tracks during playback.

Does that make sense?

Sincerely,

Nate

Comments

bakerbud9 wrote on 12/28/2003, 7:34 PM

I came up with the suggestion in the previous post because of a workaround that I am currently using. To illustrate, if you have three video clips (A, B and C), you can do the following:

1. On the main menu, create a video compilation out of A, B and C (in that order).
2. On the main menu, insert a submenu.
3. On the submenu, add media objects for A, B and C.

This effectively produces the "play all" effect with simultaneous "scene selection" that people want so badly for a collection of separate video clips.

The disadvantage, of course, is that the media files A, B and C are all written to the DVD twice. This means that only 50% of the effective capacity of a DVD is used, since all video files will be written twice.

This isn't a problem for programs under 40-60 minutes, but certianly would not work for a feature-length project.

Sincerely,

Nate

bakerbud9 wrote on 12/28/2003, 7:39 PM

If DVDA allowed us to create a scene selection menu based on the chapter markers in a video compilation, then the workaround in the previous post would give the desired effect, plus allow us to use 100% of the effective capacity of the DVD (by preventing the video clips A, B and C from being written twice to the DVD).

Sincerely,

Nate

wobblyboy wrote on 12/30/2003, 11:30 AM

I have been reading comments on the forum for a long time regarding this subject. This is a great work around. People have been going back to Vegas and re rendering to create compilations. You should also post this on DMN and Creative Cow forums.

bakerbud9 wrote on 12/31/2003, 6:58 AM

I guess another drawback of this workaround is that each clip in the scene selection returns back to the scene selection menu when its done playing. Sometimes this is the desired behavior of a scene selection menu (like in a kiosk environment), but other times its not (like for a feature-length movie). So depending on the type of project you're creating, the workaround still may not provide the desired effect.

Sincerely,

Nate