CS3 Mac: Button highlights preview and show on computer but not set top player

[Graham Jones]

Just an update:

Tried on my Macbook Core 2 Duo 2 GHz, also with a freshly formatted boot drive, OS 10.5.1, QT 7.3.1, Final Cut Studio and Adobe Production Premium at the latest updates.

Started with a fresh project, simple Photoshop menu with overlays. Tests perfectly on the computer, but when I check on a set top player the button highlights do not appear.

Back to DVD Studio Pro… I can’t afford to waste time on this with a pressing deadline. It’s a shame, because when I have to take this project to Blu-Ray I’ll need to bring it back to Encore.

– G.

[Jeff Bellune]

Any chance the button bounding boxes (hit areas) overlap? Your symptoms are indicative of overlapping buttons.

-Jeff

The Focal Easy Guide to Adobe Encore DVD 2.0

[Graham Jones]

Hi,

Thanks for your post. I wish it was that simple, but no, the buttons are nowhere near each other.

Any other ideas?

Thanks,
Graham.

[Jeff Bellune]

If it won’t violate privacy or copyright, can you post a screen shot of the Menu viewer with the problem menu loaded, and the “Show Button Routing” switch selected?

Otherwise, if you email me the .psd file that you used for the menu, I could take a look at it here. FTP is also an option if the file is > 10 MB.

My address is jeff(Shift+2)bellunevideo(the period key)com

-Jeff

The Focal Easy Guide to Adobe Encore DVD 2.0

[Jeff Bellune]

Okay, I got the menu and I have good news and bad news.

The good news is that I added the menu to a new project, threw in a couple of makeshift timelines, linked everything up and burned a disc. It plays and navigates perfectly in my Sony set-top player.

Unfortunately, the fact that I was successful is also bad news, because it deepens the mystery of why you weren’t successful.

Some things to consider:

1. In PS, don’t bother with pretty graphic images or layer effects for the highlight layer – they just end up being 2-bit solid images anyway. Your button highlight layers have a nice rounded rectangle graphic and a drop shadow – don’t do that.

2. On my Windows XP system, the graphic and drop shadow translated to an aliased gray blob with the same shape as the rounded rectangle graphic. Encore translated the fancy highlight layer that you created in PS into that gray blob, which is exactly what Encore is supposed to do.

3. Is that the look you were trying to get for the button highlights? If so, then try going back to PS and making the highlight layers into the gray blob *before* you import the menu into Encore. Who knows? There may be some difficulty with the translation of the fancy layers to the blob layers on the Mac side of things.

4. Are you using Encore to burn the disc? If not, what software are you using? (Assuming you created a disc image or a set of DVD folders in Encore and then used another program to burn the disc.)

5. What brand of blank media are you using? Rated burn speed versus actual burn speed?

Changing any or all of these conditions may help. Or it may not. Let us know.

-Jeff

The Focal Easy Guide to Adobe Encore DVD 2.0

[Graham Jones]

Hi,

Thanks for testing that out.

1. This started out using Photoshop files from a previous DVD Studio Pro project, and when I brought the overlays in to Encore and used semi-transparent color overlays they previewed well, so I just left them. I will try changing the overlays as you suggest.

2/3. As mentioned in #1, I apply a semi-transparent color overlay to make the gray blob look good. I’ll blobbify them in PS as you suggest.

4. I’ve tried using Encore to burn it, and also using Encore to create a disc image and burning from that with Roxio’s Toast. Both ways produce the same result.

5. I’ve tried Verbatim branded and non-branded 16x media – I never burn faster than 4x.

I’ll test and post back. Thanks for all your help and feedback.

– Graham,.

[Graham Jones]

Hi Jeff, (also emailed)

Thanks for your help on this… I made the button highlight layers a rasterized solid black with no effects, and still no luck. I’m beginning to think it is a bug on the Mac version of Encore, especially since the highlights do work when I play the discs in a computer, implying that they are indeed on the disc, just something in the code is preventing my set tops from seeing the highlights.

Any other ideas?

Thanks,
Graham.

[Dean Lilly]

Hi there,

I am having the same issue!

Playback is fine on computer and PS2 machines but no go on other stand alone dvd players..

This is driving me nuts!

Has anyone managed to work out where the issue lies? I have tried everything possible to fix this issue, I have re built the menus etc and tried multiple types of media and no success..

My deadline is tomorrow and this is my only issue and a very frustrating one!

Thanks in advance…

Also I have no standard library menus to try out as I must not have installed them. I would be interested in just testing a library menu if someone could email me one for testing purposes?

[Graham Jones]

Hi,

I had to abandon testing and rebuild in DVD Studio Pro, because of a deadline. Luckily, all of the Encore menus are Photoshop files and can be used in DVD Studio Pro without too much trouble.

– G.

[Dean Lilly]

Hi Thanks for the comment..

I discovered a few things in my nightmare process.

1, this is a mac issue… (hate to say it) FYI .. I am on Leopard 10.5.2 and encore 8.02, which was meant to correct leopard issues.

So I took my project over to a windows machine… Nice to know that the project files from mac to windows and vice versa do not open..!!

So after re building the DVD the windows version did not have the highlight issue…So job completed, but come on adobe!