Unwanted default "1: Scene/Chapter" marker

fausseplanete wrote on 12/5/2009, 4:05 AM

When you insert a media to a menu, then double click it, that media is shown on the timeline. There is a marker called "1: Scene/Chapter". If I right-click it, the only option available is "Go To Chapter". If I try moving it around then it takes the In-point with it, as if they are attached/grouped.

Is there any way to avoid, delete or rename that marker?

Reason: When I load in my own chapters, from markers in vegas, this one (right at the beginning) sticks out like a blemish.

Comments

fausseplanete wrote on 12/5/2009, 5:29 AM

Googling externally (to this forum) I discoverd I'm not the first to be confused by this, e.g. http://www.jetdv.com/vegas/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3177&sid=576244cd16fb393a9e537f1676f0ff85:

The question there sums up my thoughts: "Why would Architect assume everyone wants their menu to begin with a button labeled Scene/Chapter? Is there a work-around, or do I have to author this as a Menu-Based DVD?".

One semi-workaround seems to be to just rename the text on the button in the scene selection menu, the marker label cannot be changed. I renamed the button to say "START".

Former user wrote on 12/5/2009, 6:01 AM

Every DVD requires at least one Chapter at the beginning. DVDA is defaulting one there. You can change the name of the button so it is what you want to see visually.

Dave T2

fausseplanete wrote on 12/5/2009, 6:21 AM

OK I found the solution, given at http://muvipix.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=5586&sid=24bee4f738d40cb64c39104a015aa375&start=15

<<<
how they handle that automatic scene/chapter marker is a bit odd. It's not very intuitive to say the least.

All you have to do is make sure the current time indicater is at the start (clicking on the marker's tab will place it there) and add a scene/chapter marker. The new marker will override that default one and you'll be able to change the text.

That automatic marker is apparently just a place holder that will be used if you don't add your own marker.
>>>

And furthermore:

<<<
If you drag this marker away from 0, the old '1' returns. This sounds like the correct thing - i.e. there is always a first marker at position 0 whether you want it or not, but you can override it.
>>>

Aha, I vaguely remember having noticed this in the dim and distant past but (at that time) had assumed the new one (I just created) was merely overlapping the old (default) one. But a few experiments with "Insert Scene Selection" (and Control-Z) proved it really does replace it. Also, if you drag the new marker away from zero then the old one is indeed reinstated (and then appears in a freshly-generated Scene Selection menu).

Beware the 1-second minimum gap between chapters:

When I dragged the new marker away from zero, as stated the old default one got reinstated. However only the default one apeared in the Scene Selection menu. That turned out to be because it was within one second of that default marker, and DVDA won't allow Chapters that close together (is that a DVD standard?). This was indicated (subtly, almost unnoticeably) on the marker itself (on the timeline) by it appearing a slightly lighter shade of brown.

Another thing, very much a proper feature of DVDA, and very much an indication of how rarely I have used this app, is that the marker gets a yellow "warning" blob on it when not on an I-Frame. When you drag a marker about, if sufficiently-zoomed-in on the timeline at least, "notches" appear to show where the I-Frames occur (interesting in itself). You can see that each time you drag a given marker to a notch, that marker's yellow warning blob disappears.

Would be better if such warnings always appeared as (more obvious) blobs, having "tooltips" style explanations.

fausseplanete wrote on 12/5/2009, 6:23 AM

Thanks Dave. My problem was I didn't know how to change it, I assumed an absence of rightclick>Rename option meant that was not possible.

Whaledad wrote on 1/1/2010, 3:54 PM

I've struggled with this for a long time too. In my recital DVDs I don't want the start of the entire reel as a scene selection. By adding it automatically I have one too many scenes. If I delete that one from the menu, my item count per page is off on the first scene selection page. I have now finally found the ideal way to deal with this:
1 - work as I would normally do: starting my first marker in Vegas where I need it.
2 - in DVD Architect the point-0 marker is added automatically
3 - I change my own first marker from scene/chapter to chapter only
4 - I generate the scene selection menu - the point-0 scene is there, my own first scene is not
5 - I manually change the first item in the first scene selection menu page to point to the chapter-only marker - even the name changes with that to the correct name