CS4: Linking buttons to specific chapters in timeline

[William Mcqueen]

Followup question is how do I get all of the chapters to play continuously for Button 5.
B

[William McQueen] “I have a single menu with five items.

Items 1-4
I want each of these to play 1 chapter and only 1 designated chapter.

I have connected each of the buttons as linked with a chapter marker in the timeline, but instead of ending at the end of the chapter I’ve linked to, the DVD continues to play on to all subsequent chapters.

How do I get each selected chapter to end at it own natural end and return to the menu?

I can’t seem to make a chapter an asset.

Thanks for your help,
Bill in Toronto”

[Minu Sharma]

hi william ,

If i understood correctly you want one button to play complete timeline having all the chapters and other buttons to play individual chapters . You can do this by using chapter playlist .

Link “Playall” button with timeline .

Create chapter playlist for every chapter , set end action. After linking when chapter plays end action will be executed (ex: return to menu)

Link button 1 , 2… to chapter playlists .

Try this solution if this works or you.

Thanks
Minu

[William Mcqueen]

Thank you so much for your reply.

I’ve set up a Chapter Playlist and each of the first four buttons play a designated chapter and then returns to the menu.

However, I seem to be unable to designate the “play all” function for the 5th button. I linked it to the single timeline, which has 5 named Chapters 1,2,3,4,5.

However, I see no “play all” function and when the play all button is activated, it persists in playing just chapter 1 and then returning to the menu.

I do see timecode for chapter 1 defined as 00;00;00;00 to 00;00;03;00. I wonder if I made chapter 1 to run to the end of the timeline. Probably would just set the entire timeline to one chapter.

I did make a copy of the one main timeline and renamed it and removed the designated chapter numbers, but Encore read it as requiring additional space and a double layer diskette.

The learning curve has been “healthy”, but I cannot seem to solve this last question of how in addition to playing each chapter separately, I can have the play-all function play the entire timeline at the same time.

Thanks so much for your interest to help.

Cheers,
Bill in Toronto

[Minu Sharma]

Hi william ,

I think you have set end action to chapters , don’t set end action to chapter rather set end action to chapter playlists (5 in numbers).

You need to do the following :

1. Create timeline , add chapters to timeline.
2. Create 5 chapter playlist having one chapter each( Ex:chapter playlist 1 having chapter 1 and so on …) .
3. Set end action to chapter playlist(return to menu)
4. Now link your button 5(play all button) to timeline.
5. Link other buttons to chapter playlists .

You don’t need to duplicate timeline to do this ( this will add up space ).

Reply if this worked for you.

Thanks
Minu

[William Mcqueen]

Hi Minu,

Yes, originally I did set the individual timeline chapters end actions, but later have changed them to “not set” by deleting the previous references.

I deleted an earlier Chapter Playlist, and replaced it with a new one, specifying the end action for the Chapter List designating returning to the menu at the end of the chapter.

**I also set a 12 second avi transition for each of the first four buttons, but it fails to appear in the DVD rendered.

For the first four buttons I’ve used the “preview from here” option, and the “execute end action” (which is supposed to be to go back to the menu).

In the DVD for the first button, the DVD continues to play into the next chapter instead of returning to the menu

The same is true for the second, and other buttons. The menu starts properly to play a selected chapter, but it does finish by going to the menu.

For the fifth – it now does play the entire timeline, but for it to do that, I had to use the Chapter play list to make that work, but the menu doesn’t appear at its end.

When I test “execute end action” in “preview from here” it indicates a return to the menu, but this is not rendered to the DVD when I’ve burned it.

It is the same on a computer playback, a fairly new Toshiba and a slightly older Sony player.

It has been a good learning occasion and I appreciate your willingness to help, but I wonder if the programme retains some erroneous info and maybe I should do another iteration with a fresh start from the beginning. Time consuming, but….I don’t know.

Cheers,
Bill in Toronto.

[Minu Sharma]

Hi william ,

Can you post screenshot of your flowchart , i want to have a look to understand whats going wrong in your project .

Thanks
Minu

[William Mcqueen]

Hi Minu,

Here is the screenshot of the Flowchart. I see there is an orphan element, but when I do a Build-Check Project there are no “complaints” from the programme.

https://i1.creativecow.net/u-upload.php#

Thanks so much,
Bill in Toronto

[Minu Sharma]

Hi william ,

There are somethings not correct in your flowchart .

1. Link button 5(playall) with timeline(which is orphan) . Set timeline end action to menu. No need to create chapter playlist for this.
2. Your chapter playlists should contain single chapters and should have end action set to menu .There is no end action set in your flowchart.

I am posting my project screenshot covering same workflow. I hope this will help you in understanding.

In my flowchart 1st button is linked to timeline and rest are linked to chapter playlist .You can distinguish between items from there icons .

Let me know if this solved your problem.

Thanks
Minu

[Minu Sharma]

Here is my flowchart screenshot :

[William Mcqueen]

Hi Minu,

>>2. Your chapter playlists should contain single chapters and >>should have end action set to menu . There is no end action set >>in your flowchart.

I notice that the menu icon is connect to the right of each of chapters 1, 2 ,and 3 in your representation. I assume this is what is called a representation of an “end action.”

I have indeed set the menu as the end action in “Chapter Playlist” properties tab, but those icons do not appear in the flowchart. And using the whip thingy, I cannot drag a connection between each of the C3,C4,C5 thumbnails and the menu.

Also would like to have transitions for chapters 2-5, but I will run another diskette and see what happens. The Check project shows no anomalies.

Thanks so much,

Regards,
Bill in Toronto