Quote: Sorry - probably another silly question that will be easily solved!

I want to create my own personal menu. I can manage to set up the chapter/title page to include thumbnail buttons, but cannot workout how to get a thumbnail button on the root menu?

Please help!

Thank you

Are you using the "Menu Designer" option and just want to make buttons thumbnail? You really didn't give us much to work on. If my guess is correct, perhaps this image will help. You can change the buttons to anything you want as long as it is a png image.

Please come back and let us know if this is what you were asking about and if it works for you. .
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BoilerPlate: To posters who ask for help -- it is nice to thank the volunteers who try to answer your questions !
Anything I post unless stated with a reference is my personal opinion.

possibly not!

I want the complete video I have just made to appear & run on the root menu and then on the chapter menu I want each individual chapter to run - so you can see what you are choosing. (the latter I can achieve). Does this make sense?
I want it to work like the menu template "cinematic" but I want to personalise it and this template seems to be the only one I can't modify!

Quote: possibly not!

I want the complete video I have just made to appear & run on the root menu and then on the chapter menu I want each individual chapter to run - so you can see what you are choosing. (the latter I can achieve). Does this make sense?
I want it to work like the menu template "cinematic" but I want to personalise it and this template seems to be the only one I can't modify!

Perhaps I am a little more confused now.

You may have to add the video twice (don;t go over 1 hr of video on a standard DVD /2 hours on a double layer).

To get the video to run first, add it as a "First Run" movie. It will start playing when the disc is put into the player. If you want the video to be part of the menu, you can do that with menu designer option for background but it will probably not run the full time.

You would have to add that video again as part of the menu play options.

Build you own rather than trying to take a template and try to force it to do what you want it to; it probably won't.! Some people are unhappy with the options for menus but I think that of the five video editing programs I used has the most options except for one obsolete $500 program that was designed to do nothing but menus.

Remember what you are trying to show -- the menu or your videos. Mosat people would skip looking at the menus after the first run video and just go to the video they want to watch. (Long experience in that).

Good luck.


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BoilerPlate: To posters who ask for help -- it is nice to thank the volunteers who try to answer your questions !
Anything I post unless stated with a reference is my personal opinion.

Hi wiz71 -

To create a menu that functions like "Cinematic" you'd need to know how to do a few things that are beyond the expected level of expertise of PD users. You certainly can't modify that template in the regular way menus are modified in PD. That's why the Modify button is greyed out.

When you look in the template folders you'll see why...

First, go to C:\Program Files\CyberLink\PowerDirector12\Menus\Cinematic and have a poke around in the sub-folders.

In C:\Program Files\CyberLink\PowerDirector12\Menus\Cinematic\background you'll see a series of WMV & PNG files that help to create the menu. "Menu_opening.png" is a mask - that allows the thumbnail to be displayed

Now look in C:\Program Files\CyberLink\PowerDirector12\Menus\Cinematic\LayerTemplate\LayerTemplate2 - some similar files that make the menu opening work."Menu_opening_mask.wmv" is a shifting alpha mask.

Creating menus that function like this is not within the realms of Menu Designer. The people who made those menus did not make them in PD in the way regular users would!

It may be possible to modify that menu template (= make something that functions in the same way) by substituting video/image files... never tried it so I can't say for sure.

P.S. You may also find the template folders for "Cinematic" at C:\Program Files (x86)\CyberLink\templates\PowerDirector Content Pack 12\PowerDirector 12 Content Pack Premium\Menus\Cinematic

Cheers - Tony
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thanks for all your help ;