Scene selection only DVD

farss wrote on 5/4/2004, 3:19 PM
I'm certain this has come up before but cannot find the answer.
I've followed standard procedures for adding a scene selection menu and then copied the links from the scene selection menu back into the top page.
If I delete the original link to the movie however all the scene selection links are now 'broken'. It seems I need that link on the page to maintain the movie within the DVD. That'd be fine IF I could find a way to make the links button totally invisible.

Comments

johnmeyer wrote on 5/4/2004, 3:39 PM
If I delete the original link to the movie however all the scene selection links are now 'broken'.

Hmm. That isn't how it used to work. I did this all the time. Let me see ... yep, I just tried it, and you are absolutely correct. This works differently than DVDA 1.0. This is going to be a big deal for some folks, because many like to have buttons for each segment (chapter) in the movie, but don't want a "Plan All" button.

Workaround?

The only thing I came up with is to not use the scene selection menu, but instead to simply make copies of the original button, and then change the "Destination Chapter" for each copy.

This behavior may be unavoidable given that you can now specify, for each media asset, or for each copy of a media asset (which is what we have here), not only the starting and ending point (in/out points), but also what you want to do at the end (end action).

What would be useful to know is whether there is some sort of shortcut or clever idea that would let you create ten such buttons, for a ten chapter DVD, without having to "craft" each one by hand, individually. I sure like software where I can select once, and then apply a single command that then applies to each selection in some sort of predictable, linear fashion (e.g., make this one link to chapter 1, then next to chapter 2, etc.).
farss wrote on 5/4/2004, 3:48 PM
I just came up with a simpler workaround.
Make the original "Play Movie" button into the first scene selection button. Well it'll work in my case as all the Scene Selection buttons are only entry points that play through to the end of the movie.

I think you're right though, they actually fixed one problem and broke something in the process but I'd agree it does seem unavoidable.
johnmeyer wrote on 5/4/2004, 4:03 PM
Make the original "Play Movie" button into the first scene selection button.

But of course. Brilliant! Well done.
SonySDB wrote on 5/5/2004, 4:35 AM
Instead of deleting the original button (or making the scene selection's link to the first chapter), in the Project Overview window, you can drag the media out of the menu and under the project root. The scene selection buttons will not be broken.

Or if you want to create a scene selection only DVD from scratch, the following steps are the easiest:
1. File | New...
2. Choose Single Movie and press Ok
3. Choose video file and press Ok
4. Edit video chapters as desired
5. In the Project Overview window, right-click on video and choose Insert Scene Menu... and press Ok
6. In the Project Overview window, right-click on menu page (i.e. Scene Selection (Page 1)) and choose "Set DVD Start"
johnmeyer wrote on 5/5/2004, 9:23 AM
you can drag the media out of the menu and under the project root

Wow, that works! I never would have thought of doing that.

Is this documented anywhere? It should be.

If I understand what is happening, this position directly under the project title, but before the main manu is normally where the "introduction" media resides. However, by dragging the media from the "Menu 1" page to this location, it doesn't get tagged with the "Set DVD Start" tag, so it does not play when the DVD is first started. Thus, the media asset gets included in the project, and therefore the links are not broken, but it is never played "directly" by its own button, or by the "play at start" command.

I have learned more from this thread than any DVDA thread in a long time. Thank you farss and SonySDB!
vitalforces wrote on 5/5/2004, 12:47 PM
I would ask that SonyFo consider putting a few tutorials on the site which illustrate some of these methods. I rapidly got the feeling after buying DVDA2, that I had just traded in my old Corvette for an F-16. Fantastic if you know how to fly it.
SonyKevin wrote on 5/6/2004, 8:38 AM
The online help includes information about creating scene selection menus that either play the remainder of the chapters or return to the selection menu after playing the selected chapter. Just type "Scene" in the Index tab, and the topic is the first hit.

I'll add information today about creating a scene-selection only DVD. That change will show up in the next release.

Thanks,
Kevin
johnmeyer wrote on 5/6/2004, 9:40 AM
I'll add information today about creating a scene-selection only DVD. That change will show up in the next release.

Thanks!