Rivergate Software Inc. - makers of DVDAfterEdit

Hi Gary,

That's strange, it shouldn't happen. What authoring application are you using to create the new menu ? Have you checked that the permissions on your project are correct before you open it ? To do this, follow these steps:

• Select the enclosing folder and Apple-I to get the info window up
• Unfold the Ownerships & Permissions and "Details" and set all the options to "Read & Write"
• Click on "Apply to enclosed items"

If you are still having problems and the menu project you have made to import is small, maybe you can upload it to our ftp ?

Ian

Hi Gary,

Glad I could help. Just out of interest, was the track Title 1 ? And, if you unfold it's VTS, what do you see ? One PGC, or several ? If you unfold the PGCs, do you see one cell in each, or many ? The reason I ask is that knowing a little more about your project will help me give you the best advice going forward. Anyway:

If I created a replacement menu in DVD Studio Pro with two buttons, could this new menu replace the Panasonnic menu

Absolutely, yes. You can just control-click on the Menu and choose to Replace Menu VOB - copying and pasting the PGC commands if you want to keep the original navigation. Although, at this point I think you would do better to use the Project > Delete All Commands In Project option, and write all the commands yourself - this will avoid confusion, and you will quickly learn a great deal about spec authoring, how powerful DVDAE is, and how else it may be useful to you.

and would the buttons link to the relevant tracks?

Again, the answer is yes - although, exactly what the commands should be, depends on where the additional tracks are. If each is in it's own VTS, they will have unique title numbers. Assuming the original menu is in the Video Manager (VMG), then you can use Jump TT to access each, just as before.

This is the most likely scenario, so I'll leave it at that, for now - if both tracks are in the same VTS, or if the original menu is a VTS Menu rather than a VMG Menu, then you'll have to do things slightly differently - let me know.

Cheers,

Ian

Hi Gary,

This should be a five-minute task, hopefully ! All you need to use is the command Jump TT - TT stands for Title, and the video track you want to jump to will have a TT number assigned to it - in fact, it's almost certainly TT 1, although we can't take that for granted - we'll check in a minute.

To see where the command should be placed, select the First Play PGC in the Left Pane. The First Play Domain is, logically enough, the first thing a DVD Player looks at when the disc is inserted. In the Right Pane, select the Pre-Commands Editor and type Apple-K to add a new command at the top of the list. If there are others already there, you can delete them if you like, but it's not strictly necessary. Click the twirly next to the new Command #1, which will be NOP, standing for No Operation. A drop-down menu will appear - use it to select "Jump TT" - the default will be TT 1. So now, as soon as a player reads your DVD, it will first execute this command, and Jump to Title 1. Now we just need to confirm that the video track you want really is in Title 1.

There are several ways to check, but the most direct is to unfold the Video Title Sets (VTS) node arrow in the left pane. You will probably only see one VTS - select it, unfold the Preview window in the Right Pane, and click Play. Assuming you see the video you expect, look in the Title List area below the Preview. The first item in the list will be headed VTS_TT 1 and then probably (TT 1). If so, you can Save your project and the job is done. If not, you need to make a note of what Title the piece of video you want to see is in, and then edit the command you added to the First Play PGC to match - then Save, and you're finished.

( An alternative method to find a piece of video is to type Apple-G to start Tracer, click the Run button and navigate to the video track in question. Then click Stop, and the Show button - the relevant PGC will be highlighted in the Left Pane, and you will be able to find it's Title number from there. )

The only other thing you might need to do is insert an Exit command right at the top of the Post-Commands of the PGC at the end of your video, to stop navigation returning to the ugly preset menu once playback finishes - or, a Call First Play command if you want it to loop.

So, I hope that makes sense and answers your question ? If not or you have any queries or follow-up questions, please let me know. We will be putting many simple examples like this in the documentation for the new version, after it's released.

Cheers,

Ian