Thank you for being so helpful. I understand how to insert the chapter markers; however, if I go back to the menu - I'm assuming you mean the menu in DVDA which shows on the left of the screen - I have right clicked on everything and can't find (or understand) how to find the "insert scene selection menu."

Let me see if I understand the rest, though. You are telling me that i can have one video of all four bands, which I have loaded and saved. Now, to add the same clip to the menu FOUR TIMES, is this where I would double click on that same clip four times and it is automatically added to the menu?

Next I double click the first clip and drag a yellow flag to the end, which would be, say, the 5th grade band. Then I double click the second clip and set a marker for the 6th grade band, and so on.

If I'm not on the right track, please help me get there.

Also, I've created a sample project to play around with this. I see that the first chapter marker is automatically named "Chapter 1." i have tried double clicking or, as the manual says, right clicking the marker on the timeline and for the life of me cannot locate or open any "rename chapter" option in order to change the name.

Thank you again - I've read other comments that the manual is not very helpful. Looks like I need a DVD Vegas or DVDA for dummies version!

"I have right clicked on everything and can't find (or understand) how to find the "insert scene selection menu."

Highlight the menu item for which you want a chapter sub-menu in the workspace. You can then either right click and choose 'Insert scene selection menu' or go to the Insert menu and choose it from there.

"Next I double click the first clip and drag a yellow flag to the end, which would be, say, the 5th grade band. Then I double click the second clip and set a marker for the 6th grade band, and so on."

Yes, but you'd probably want to set both the start and end flags.

"for the life of me cannot locate or open any "rename chapter" option in order to change the name"

You need to select the actual flag that marks the chapter point. Right clicking will them allow you to edit it.

Mike

I am obviously not doing something right. I just edited a video to use for a practice for trying to understand this whole process. I saved it, complete with chapter markers, in Vegas. Then I clicked "Make DVD" and sent it to DVD Architect. The box to keep the chapter markers is checked.

There is a pre-made menu and a button with picture in the middle of the page. I click on that and the video plays. The video is great. However, there are no chapter markers that I have made. There is one chapter marker, named "Chapter 1" and, in DVD Architect, if I right click on that marker I cannot change the name of it.

So what am I doing wrong? I put in chapter markers in Vegas and they aren't there in DVDA. I can't change the name of the preset one that is "Chapter 1" but I can add other ones. If i execute a "delete all chapters" Chapter 1 is stil there.

I have been reading more of the forums and also my manuals. The manual seems to contain a good bit of information then says "this feature is only available in the full version of Vegas" with only minimal descriptions of the things I most want (or need) to know.

I'm just an average home user, hoping to finally get the concept of creating manu-based DVDs for our middle school band. Someone gave me the idea fo insert chapter markers and on those put the title of each song. This is a super idea and what I tried above. But if the markers don't remain when I go on to DVDA to make the final movie, what good are they?

Thanks for the help.

Hi again,

I actually have one other bit of info and question. I am using Vegas 6 and DVD Architect 3. Is it possible that the chapter markers, titles, menus, etc., that I'm trying to do are not possible in these versions?

Maybe it'd help it I sort of start over and explain what my ultimate goal would be.

I have a video that is 45 minutes and contains 4 bands (i.e., by grade). I would like to make a movie that has both a menu button for each band as well as one button to play the entire movie from start to finish.

I have the entire movie, with titles, fades, etc., already completed. I do know how to make this into a DVD; however, on the main menu there is one button that plays the whole movie.

In Vegas, I know how to add chapter markers to break it down either by grade or the individual songs. Once my movie is finished in Vegas as I want it, I know how to click "Make Movie" which sends it to DVD Architect and there I can make it into a DVD.

But once I open DVD Arthitect, the chapter markers are not there, even though the box is checked in Vegas to show those markers. Maybe there is a glitch in my program or maybe I am doing something else wrong.

Guess I'm viewing this all as a challenge to learn more. This program is far more advanced than anything I've ever used before. But little by little I'm figuring out things I couldn't do with my old program. For example, I can put a DVD in the computer and load video from that into Vegas and edit that into new movies.

So I have one other question...can anyone suggest where I might be able to take a course in this program? Maybe a local adult education center or something? The information on this site is very overwhelming, which is why I created a new forum specific to the questions I have. It's such a challenge that each day I tell myself I'll leave it along a while yet am always drawn back to this forum to see what else I can learn.

Thanks so much for letting me vent a bit and for the continued help. Yes, sooner or later I'll get it. For now I'm thankful I can do the very basic, which is to get a movie from my videocamera into the computer and onto a DVD.

dfred

I am using Vegas 6 and DVD Architect 3.

Just to clarify, if your Vegas has a "Make DVD" button as you've said, then you have Vegas Movie Studio and DVD Architect Studio. I don't think that makes a difference with regard to the issues you're having here, but it is worth noting. At any rate, "regular" Vegas does not have a "Make DVD" button, although "regular" DVD Architect does.

To the best of my knowledge, though, even DVD Architect Studio should be picking up on those chapter markers. If it's not, try hitting the Load Markers button (it's above the timeline -- looks like a folder with two brown markers. If it still won't, I'm not sure what's up. Check the folder that you saved the video and see if Vegas created a file with the same name and an additional extension of .SFL. That has the marker information in it.

Regarding the automatic Chapter 1 mark, no, you can't rename or delete it, but you can "replace it" by drag a different marker over it. This may or may not result in weirdness on your disc, though. Anyhow, I don't think it really matters. Far as I know, chapter names are only used to create the default text for scene selection menus, so if you create a scene selection menu you can just edit that one item. To the best of my knowledge, the chaper names created by DVDA are not used by DVD players in any way.

So I have one other question...can anyone suggest where I might be able to take a course in this program? Maybe a local adult education center or something?

Formal education for Vegas and DVDA is pretty sparse, and even more so for Vegas Movie Studio and DVDA Studio. You could check with your local community colleges, but most schools train on something like Adobe Premiere, Final Cut, or maybe Avid.

VASST does some classes / seminars, but those are usually part of a tour of some kind. And, again, they're usually geard toward "regular" Vegas. They also have training DVDs on their website, including a $50 one for VMS+DVD.

Rob

Hi Rob,

Thank you so much for continuing to help. We are making progress. So here we go in response to your latest post. I appreciate your feedback on the two programs I'm using - glad to know they aren't making any difference in what I want to do.

Although I can't recall at the moment exactly what happens, over the past year (I purchased the programs a year ago) I figured out that I sometimes need to reboot the computer between loading/saving video in Vegas and rendering and sending it to DVDA. I'm not sure if this had any effect on the markers, but, I tried again this morning to make markers in Vegas and, as I shared earlier, the markers did not show up. I shut the computer down when I had to leave for church and just now booted back up and the markers are there! I am thrilled I've gotten this far.

Thank you, too, for letting me know I really can't rename the Chapter 1 mark - couldn't find that info in the book, that's for sure. It never occurred to me to try drag a different marker over top of it. Guess this isn't an important point now that the markers loaded. But I did try dragging a marker over top of the Chapter 1 and that automatically renamed "Chapter 1" to the marker name I created prior to dragging it.

Oh my goodness! I also tried the "insert scene selection" and at first thought nothing happened. But when I double clicked on "Scene Selection", lo and behold the menu buttons showed up for each song! Ok, partial songs - I clipped the clips until I can understand what I'm doing.

You don't know how much I appreciate those who have helped on this forum, including your recent posts. I know I will never be an expert with this program; however, I do enjoy learning and these forums have been a big help in the last several days.

But I do have a couple more questions. One is really more for my own clarification - now that I know my markers will load, does this mean I can create an entire video...my current one is about 49 minutes, includes all 4 bands and 12 songs. I can insert chapter markers for each song, load the scene selection menu, and the viewer can scroll to each button on the TV and view a particular song?

If I'm correct, this is really starting to click!

Though my project is not finalized (saved to DVD) yet, I just added the entire video of all bands and my scene selection menu is still there. So that brings me to one more area I need some help with.

I know how to change text in the menu buttons, as well as how to change the buttons. I also know how to navigate to the "button properties" and see there are 4 color sets. This is where I'm stumped again - how do I know which color set goes with a particular button?

Here's what I did earlier in this project - I made a video with 4 bands plus a combined band (several grades play together). I created the menu and used the option of "text only" for my buttons. I can change the text font and size...got that down pretty good. When I save the video and viewed it on a TV, it was very difficult to determine when a text was highlighted. I know I can go into the menu button properties yet don't know which of the 4 color sets I'm supposed to use nor which item within that color set to get it to highlight in a darker or lighter color. My DVDA manual explains how to edit a color set and briefly explains the fill color, anti-alias, outline/background and transparency color but without knowing which color set to use, I'm kind of lost as to what I can change within the color set to achieve the look I want. Basically, the manual says the same thing as the program itself and neither elaborates on which set does what. So any advice or feedback on this would also be appreciated.

Thanks again for the help. I feel very good about understand more of how this works and hopefully as I do a few more projects will become more comfortable with this entire process.

It's all coming togther nicely. I made a full video, complete with a menu button pointing to the entire project with a title. I included chapter markers and added a scene selection menu in DVDA.

It plays fine; however, I need to know how to set start and end flag for each chapter. The printed manual tells how to set and in and out points but does not state whether or not you can have multiple out points - or end flags...or are they the same thing.

I did finally figure out how to get the chapter markers renamed. Hopefully in another day or two I'll have a great finished project.

Thanks for the help.

Individual chapter have in-points but no out-points. The chapters will play in sequence until the end of the clip.

Mike

Thanks a bunch, Mike. At least I know I'm doing it correctly...and that I won't need to redo the disk (I had already burned two!).

Am just about ready to label the disk w/Lightscribe and thought of something else. Is there a way - or what is the easiest way - to make one button for each song or performance on my video. When that one song plays, the disk stops and automatically goes back to the main menu?

In other words, is there a way to set this up without playing one song and the rest of the video afterwards?

I know how to have the entire movie in the menu and to add individual clips as well; however, this takes up a lot of space. Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

"I know how to have the entire movie in the menu and to add individual clips as well; however, this takes up a lot of space. Any other suggestions would be appreciated."

I'm not sure what you mean about taking up a lot of space. Multiple copies of clips do not add to the space taken up on the disc. DVDA is intelligent enough to work out that the material required is already included in the project and simply points to different sets of in and out flags.

Mike

I believe the first time I tried to add clips to the menu that it added the clip multiple times as I did not know how to do the start and end flags. I have copied the info you and others have shared here, pasted it into an email and am trying to follow the steps.

What I am doing right now is I have the entire movie loaded, saved, and I am doing what someone else suggested - I have added the entire band video five times - one for each band (there are 4) and once for the combined band where several grades play together.

Now I'm going through that and adding (or at least attempting to) add flags for in and out points. I'm hoping that by doing this, one can click a button for, say, the 5th Grade band and play that band only and when it ends, the video will go back to the menu where one can select another band or the entire clip.

Am I on the right track?

"Am I on the right track?"

You are indeed. Provided each clip's End Action is to return to the relevant menu the project will work as you wish.

Mike