Sound Optional?

dpetto wrote on 2/19/2007, 2:48 PM

Hello All,

Is there a way I can set up a DVDA file to have sound as an option? I make recruiting videos for high school kids and they like music playing to their highlights. If a coach who views the dvd does not want to listen to the music is there any way I can have an option for the coach to turn off the sound and view it that way (other than muting their viewer)? Maybe click a button or something! I'm pretty green when it comes to DVDA so be as basic with instructions as possible please. I'm using DVDA 4.0
Thanks for your help.

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 2/19/2007, 3:11 PM

You can make an alternate or secondary audio track and have it be silence the same length as the music audio track. The person watching would then be able to bring up the menu for the DVD player and choose the silent audio track.

Seems like this would be a whole lot more effort and button pushing than to simply press the mute button though.

bStro wrote on 2/19/2007, 4:39 PM

I can't think of too many televisions or home theater sound systems that don't have a mute button / option. Can't the coaches just use that?

Rob

dpetto wrote on 2/20/2007, 8:47 AM

I agree wholeheartedly about the "Mute" button, but you know how it is--give the customer what they want!!! Any more thoughts or ideas would be welcome.

thanks
Dave P.

nolonemo wrote on 2/21/2007, 1:53 PM

You can have two soundtracks (one with the music, and one with nothing) and set up a submenu to choose which track to play, just like the language selection menu on commercial dvds. Is that what you're talking about? I've set up disks like that in DVDA3, I could post a link to a .dar file so you could see how the linking works. But I asked about it on this forum last year, so if you'll search on my username you'll find the thread that explained it to me.

[edit]
Actually, here's what was in the thread I mentioned, so it looks like I figured it out from the manual:
>>You don't need two copies of the video stream. You just navigate into your video, insert another audio track, and drag your secondary audio file onto that track. As for the menu, open up DVD Architect's online Help and do a search for "Adding a Setup Menu".<<

Let me know if you'd like me to upload the .dar for you somewhere.

MPM wrote on 2/24/2007, 10:48 AM

As was already posted, DVDs have the option for multiple audio tracks. *Might* get away with just adding 2 audio tracks & just filling the 2nd, but I'm uncertain what the player compatibility would be. That would save you some space on the DVD (if an issue) as would decreasing the bit rate for the silent ac3.

As was also posted could create a menu, but as every remote gives the option of switching audio tracks, not sure how necessary it is -- in this case might even be a detriment from the coach's viewpoint.

While it's relatively easy to incorporate scripting for a more elaborate audio selection menu [DLD Lab Pro docs have a decent example I believe], often it's even easier just to use 2 near identical menu pages, the difference being some graphical indication of which audio track is used. For every action (button, end, etc.) you set the audio track to no-change [the default] or one of however many choices are available (however many audio tracks are used) -- you can switch tracks with the button switching menus, with the play button on a menu page and so on.

dpetto wrote on 2/26/2007, 7:17 AM

Thanks for all the input, I really appreciate it.

Dave