I need help with a DVD menu please

NormS

Newbie Joined: Apr 30, 2019 22:27 Messages: 35 Offline

Solved by

Feb 28, 2020 18:35

Hi everyone,

I need some help with DVD menu authoring/modification. I am still relatively new to PowerDirector so please forgive me if I ask dumb questions! So I have a number of slideshows that I want to put all on one disc. I pulled them in as PowerDirector projects and have a menu structure as shown in the first attachment. If I add another slideshow for four in total, I get the menu structure shown in the second attachment. I've watched all the related instuction videos but cannot find one that explains what I want to do. I want one DVD to contain a number of slideshows (I do know that you can't have more than 14). So I tried to create a menu template that had 14 buttons to select which scene you wanted to watch. However, when I use my custom template, I don't get a menu structuer with 14 scenes shown on one page, I get the menu structure shown in attachment 3 where there is only one slideshow per page instead of 3 or 4 or 14. I cannot figure out what's going wrong here. I tried making a new template that had 14 entries, one for each slideshow. When I apply it, it still only has one menu entry for each scene page. I can't figure out how to make the Scenes page show 14 entries instead of 14 pages with one entry per page. I would sure appreciate any help. I have watched all the instructional videos there are on the Cyberlink site as well as YouTube and none of them ever address this issue.

Any help or explanations would be appreciated. Thanks!


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This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Feb 28. 2020 18:45

tomasc

Senior Contributor Joined: Aug 25, 2011 12:33 Messages: 6464 Offline

Feb 28, 2020 20:28

This thread may answer your question on how to create those buttons: https://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/0/81602.page#335850 .

NormS

Newbie Joined: Apr 30, 2019 22:27 Messages: 35 Offline

Mar 01, 2020 14:26

Quote This thread may answer your question on how to create those buttons: https://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/0/81602.page#335850 .

Hi,

Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it. I did look at your referenced thread, but that deals with stretched images rather than adding more titles to your menu. I've attached two pictures to this message. The first one is a project with three titles. I used a pre-made template that supports three titles. Everything looks fine, there are three buttons on the "Scenes" title page. However, when I modify the title to have four scenes then add the fourth title to the project, things go bad as you can see from the second image. Now there are four "scenes" pages, each with one title on it, and you can see what the menu structure now looks like. I'm about ready to give up on this as I've tried everything I can think of to make a template, either from the Templates page, or one I created from scratch, support more titles than it originally did. In the case of the title template shown in the attached pictures or one that I did on my own, starting with the blank template that supports three titles, every time I add even one more menu button, things go bad and I don't have a title page with four icons, I have four pages with one icon. How in the world do you make this work????

Thanks for any help you can give me!

Norm


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JL_JL

Senior Contributor Location: Arizona, USA Joined: Oct 01, 2006 20:01 Messages: 6091 Offline

Mar 01, 2020 15:07

That base menu has 3 buttons, so it can only support 3 titles on a page. The reason you get what you have is the "Buttons per page:" in the upper right-hand corner is at 1. With that you will get one title per page, hence your 4 pages and you see 1/4 in the page section. I'd suggest modifying menu first to get the menu you like and then adding your titles. With such, one can get the DVD menu pic attached.

In the attached pic, if I add another title it will roll to page 2, I only have provisioned for four titles per page.

Jeff


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tomasc

Senior Contributor Joined: Aug 25, 2011 12:33 Messages: 6464 Offline

Mar 01, 2020 18:26

Quote In the case of the title template shown in the attached pictures or one that I did on my own, starting with the blank template that supports three titles, every time I add even one more menu button, things go bad and I don't have a title page with four icons, I have four pages with one icon. How in the world do you make this work????

There was never any need for you to change the setting for Buttons per page from 4 to 1 in the Image7.jpg which gives you that result. Leave that setting alone if you want 4 thumbnails and not 1 per page.

I used that around the world menu a little over a year ago for a project. Attached is the screen recording result of adding the extra button (thumbnails).

Also attached is a screenshot with instructions on accomplishing the results od adding an extra thumbnail in the PD17 menu designer.

You got everything done right. Just don’t overdo things that you don’t know anything about. Jeff’s advice is good for creating the menus properly. You may want to read about the Menu Designer auto align button and use it if you want. I believe that you can have at least 14 thumbnails on the Titles/Chapters menu if you want.

Edit: This forum timed out, so I had to reduce the screen recording size to be smaller to try to get it posted.


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NormS

Newbie Joined: Apr 30, 2019 22:27 Messages: 35 Offline

Mar 01, 2020 19:44

Quote

There was never any need for you to change the setting for Buttons per page from 4 to 1 in the Image7.jpg which gives you that result. Leave that setting alone if you want 4 thumbnails and not 1 per page.

I used that around the world menu a little over a year ago for a project. Attached is the screen recording result of adding the extra button (thumbnails).

Also attached is a screenshot with instructions on accomplishing the results od adding an extra thumbnail in the PD17 menu designer.

You got everything done right. Just don’t overdo things that you don’t know anything about. Jeff’s advice is good for creating the menus properly. You may want to read about the Menu Designer auto align button and use it if you want. I believe that you can have at least 14 thumbnails on the Titles/Chapters menu if you want.

Edit: This forum timed out, so I had to reduce the screen recording size to be smaller to try to get it posted.

Thanks to both of you for your feedback! Attached are two scrrenshots. I opened PD and did not load any content. Went to Template Designer and selected Around The World. Went to the Titles/Chapters level and added a fourth button. In Image8.jpg attached you can see all three levels. The root level I left unchanged. The Titles/Chapters level I added a fourth button. The Subtitles level was left unchanged. When I added three titles to the project they were all on the Scenes page. When I added the fourth title, I then got two Scenes pages, one with three, one with one. As you can see in the second image, the Buttons Per Page only has 1, 2, 3. There isn't a choice for 4. Obviously I'm still missing something, please let me know what!

Thanks again for your efforts, they are very appreciated.

Norm


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JL_JL

Senior Contributor Location: Arizona, USA Joined: Oct 01, 2006 20:01 Messages: 6091 Offline

Mar 01, 2020 19:57

Quote Thanks to both of you for your feedback! Attached are two scrrenshots. I opened PD and did not load any content. Went to Template Designer and selected Around The World. Went to the Titles/Chapters level and added a fourth button. In Image8.jpg attached you can see all three levels. The root level I left unchanged. The Titles/Chapters level I added a fourth button. The Subtitles level was left unchanged. When I added three titles to the project they were all on the Scenes page. When I added the fourth title, I then got two Scenes pages, one with three, one with one. As you can see in the second image, the Buttons Per Page only has 1, 2, 3. There isn't a choice for 4. Obviously I'm still missing something, please let me know what!

Image8 shows the "Around the World" menu
Image9 shows the "World Monopoly" menu

I'm unsure what you are trying to show. But correct, the changes one does to one menu say, "Around the World" and saves it will not be reflected in another menu like "World Monopoly"

Jeff

NormS

Newbie Joined: Apr 30, 2019 22:27 Messages: 35 Offline

Mar 01, 2020 20:04

Quote

Image8 shows the "Around the World" menu
Image9 shows the "World Monopoly" menu

I'm unsure what you are trying to show. But correct, the changes one does to one menu say, "Around the World" and saves it will not be reflected in another menu like "World Monopoly"

Jeff

OH MY GOSH, that slipped right past me. I have no idea why there was two different menus there but when I re-selected the modified ATW menu and Applied To All, everything got corrected and I now have 4 buttons on the page!!! Hallelujah!!!!!!!

Thanks so much for bearing wiwth me!

JL_JL

Senior Contributor Location: Arizona, USA Joined: Oct 01, 2006 20:01 Messages: 6091 Offline

Mar 01, 2020 20:09

Quote OH MY GOSH, that slipped right past me. I have no idea why there was two different menus there but when I re-selected the modified ATW menu and Applied To All, everything got corrected and I now have 4 buttons on the page!!! Hallelujah!!!!!!!

Ok, I think you got it now. PD kind of strange in that you always need to apply the menu you were just working on.

This very old post https://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/7497.page#post_box_30591 may give you some guidance on "Titles" and "Chapters" as many confuse the two when it comes to playback. If you look at the menu.gif and then follow through the discussion I think you'll have it.

Jeff