Quote: Having at last mastered (almost) DVD menus, I now have issues with the sound...

Well, Paul - All these issues you describe about music in a DVD menu are exactly the same for me. I am almost positive there's no way around them. The worst problem is when you're on a chapter menu, and the music starts over every time you hover over a new chapter's button - ARGH!--awful. Do note that this behavior depends on the menu template you use. With the simpler ones, the music doesn't re-start like that. But the fancier ones do keep re-triggering the music. My solution has been to just skip having music after the first splash page.--

I'm also rather sure there isn't a way to prevent the music starting over when you move from the first screen to the chapters. And the music's time limit really is annoying too - You said 90 seconds?-- Seems like I'm only getting 30 seconds. I always make sure the "fade out" option is checked so the looping transition is smoothed out. I don't need "fade in" because the opening of the music is usually already the exact way I want to hear it.

But it's like a lot of things with PD - There are simplified, locked in ways that things work in order to make it all fast and easy for the average consumer to whip together their home videos. There's less flexibility than in more sophisticated editing programs, because with more flexibility comes more complexity - and that's not Cyberlink's aim with this program. If they did offer complete flexibility and a box of tools to be used in any conceivable way, then PD would no longer appeal to the average consumer, its rating would plummet, reviewers would say "Too hard to figure out."

BUT I've noticed a number of long time PD users who are much more expert than me, often say that they don't use PD's menu program at all, since it's the worst part of the program, with too few choices, a clumsy interface, and with funky results. I guess what they're doing is producing a high quality single file of a project, then importing it into another program of their choice for constructing menus.

rbowser

That's precisely what I do. "Too few choices, a clumsy interface, and with funky results" sums it up perfectly. In fact having used a 'proper' stand-alone authoring program for years I found PD9 "Too hard to figure out" Regards,
Mike

Home-build system:
Intel Core i5 Quad Core 3.3GHz, 2 x 4GB DDR3 1333MHz,
Asus Nvidia GT440 1GB, 2 x Western Digital WD10EARS 1TB, 1 x Seagate ST1000DM010 1TB,
Windows 7 Prof 64-bit, PD 9 Ultra 64, PD 13 Ultimate 64

Thanks Fenman, would be very interested if you could recommend a "proper authoring program".

I use something called DVDLab. It's been around a long time and there hasn't been any further development since I started using it. There were three versions, Standard, Studio and Pro with different levels of capability but I think the cheaper versions are no longer available and you may find the Pro version is more than you want to pay, as well as having much greater capabilities than you'll ever use. I started off with Standard and eventually upgraded to Studio. You can check them out here. I haven't even scratched the surface of my Studio version but I'm not bothered about incuding fancy effects in my menus, even motion and/or music.

There must be other equally capable software around but this one fulfils all I need of it so I haven't looked further. I don't think it can handle Blu-Ray but I'm not into that at the moment. Regards,
Mike

Home-build system:
Intel Core i5 Quad Core 3.3GHz, 2 x 4GB DDR3 1333MHz,
Asus Nvidia GT440 1GB, 2 x Western Digital WD10EARS 1TB, 1 x Seagate ST1000DM010 1TB,
Windows 7 Prof 64-bit, PD 9 Ultra 64, PD 13 Ultimate 64

Quote: I use something called DVDLab...

Thanks for the info, Fenman.

This morning I've downloaded what shows up online as the most popular free DVD authoring program, DVDStyler. I haven't tested it yet - was wondering if you had any experience with it?

rbowser

No, I'd be interested to have your impressions. From a brief look at the docs it seems to be quite powerful. Regards,
Mike

Home-build system:
Intel Core i5 Quad Core 3.3GHz, 2 x 4GB DDR3 1333MHz,
Asus Nvidia GT440 1GB, 2 x Western Digital WD10EARS 1TB, 1 x Seagate ST1000DM010 1TB,
Windows 7 Prof 64-bit, PD 9 Ultra 64, PD 13 Ultimate 64

Quote: No, I'd be interested to have your impressions. From a brief look at the docs it seems to be quite powerful.

I've only had time to briefly try it out. So far, when working with one monolithic produced video file from PD, I'm not seeing a way to insert chapters wherever wanted. My impression is that you either put up with randomly inserted chapters, or your video file has to be sliced up before hand in separate video files, because then each clip will automatically start with a chapter in the menu. Hmmm - So, I'll be asking questions at the DVDStyler Forum.

rbowser

Quote:

Quote: No, I'd be interested to have your impressions. From a brief look at the docs it seems to be quite powerful.

I've only had time to briefly try it out. So far, when working with one monolithic produced video file from PD, I'm not seeing a way to insert chapters wherever wanted. My impression is that you either put up with randomly inserted chapters, or your video file has to be sliced up before hand in separate video files, because then each clip will automatically start with a chapter in the menu. Hmmm - So, I'll be asking questions at the DVDStyler Forum.

rbowser

You add chapters in the Chapter Room in the Edit module.

With you project on the timeline. Look on the left row of icons, one is "123" when you hover your mouse is says Chapter Room (F11).

You can add chapters in several ways. Manual as well as a couple of automatic methods.

When you have chapters in your project, you get a Scenes Menu Item in Create Disk.


Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

Quote: ...
You add chapters in the Chapter Room in the Edit module...

Carl, you must be talking about PD. The last two posts were about trying out the free DVDStyler program for creating menus.

rbowser

Quote:

Quote: ...
You add chapters in the Chapter Room in the Edit module...

Carl, you must be talking about PD. The last two posts were about trying out the free DVDStyler program for creating menus.

rbowser

I was. I thought you were referring to PD.

Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

Quote:

Quote:

Quote: ...
You add chapters in the Chapter Room in the Edit module...

Carl, you must be talking about PD. The last two posts were about trying out the free DVDStyler program for creating menus.

rbowser

I was. I thought you were referring to PD.

Right, Carl - Well, if you were responding to the last few messages, in the last four before your first one here we were talking about alternatives to the DVD menu program in PD. Fenman said he uses DVDLab. I said I'd found the highest rated free one called DVDStyler - I hadn't found it to have enough features yet, but I still need to try it out some more, there could be something I'm missing.

And we were talking about alternatives because of so many frustrations and limitations in PD's menu program.

That quote you pulled out from me, you can see I was talkinga bout DVDStyler. I've used PD's menu system quite a bit now, I get OK results, but really would rather have a better alternative.

rbowser