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DVD Architect 4 menu problems
We’re new to DVD Architect 4 Pro, having used it mainly for compilations and single movie DVDs. We got it as part of a bundle a couple years ago.
We’re creating a pretty simple menu based DVD with a main menu, and a submenu, and having the following proglems:
When previewing, if we go to a submenu or are playing a video, hitting the “menu” button on the remote doesn’t do anything. We have everything set to where it should go to the top menu, but it doesn’t.
The menu’s remote properties are all set properly, with “top men” set to “on.”
Is this a bug in the preview? Will it work once it’s authored to an actual DVD? Would a newer version fix this? (Not an option on this project as it has to go out Monday).
We came from using Sonic Reel DVD, and it had a bunch of bugs in it’s preview function and a whole bunch of stuff didn’t work right when you previewed it, but it would work once authored and burned to the DVD. Very disconcerting to work with since you didn’t know if your DVD was going to work until you burned a test.
That’s the main reason we’re switching…only to find DVD Architect seems to either have the same issue, or it’s menu system doesn’t work properly either.
Any help here is appreciated.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com -
8 Replies
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Chris, I’d go ahead and do a test burn.
I’ve never trusted that thing Sony calls a remote.
I’ve had similar issues and the DVD worked as expected when played in a regular player with a real remote. -
Mike,
Thanks. Amazing that 2 separate DVD authoring programs have the exact same issue. We had Adobe Encore version 1 and it did the exact same thing. Audio wouldn’t play right or would play out of sync, the menu buttons were unpredictable etc. But when you burned it, most stuff worked the way it was supposed to.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com -
Chris, it never ceases to amaze me how software companies get some things so right and others so wrong (in the same product) it’s not even funny 🙁
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For what it’s worth, the behavior of the “menu” buttons on physical remote controls is not very consistent, anyhow. Some remotes, in fact, don’t do anything if you press the Menu button while you’re on a submenu — they only “work” while you’re playing a video.
I’d say that, when creating a simulation of a real remote, the developers make their best guess as to what some buttons should do, but it’s nearly impossible to emulate every physical remote buttons — since the manufacturers can’t agree on which should do what when.
Rob
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Thanks Rob,
Appreciate the feedback. I think we’ve used every mid-range authoring program out there. DVDLab, DVD Workshop, Encore, DVD-it, Reel DVD, DVD Architect and a couple I can’t remember the names of!
On every one of them their preview functions are flaky. I guess since it’s consistent across the software, it makes sense that the issue is beyond their programming control.
That still makes it very frustrating when you only occasionally build menu based DVD’s for your clients. I assumed this was the issue with DVD Architect since we’d experienced it on other software.
So an you also confirm that the “top menu” button does indeed work (at least while playing a video) when do you an actual DVD burn?
Thanks
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com -
Chris, I’ve burned several DVDs that have various levels of menus and, as long as I pay close attention to the “End Action” settings of individual clips, DVD Architect has always worked for me.
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We did a test burn and everything works. I also tested a bunch of our kids Hollywood style DVDs and realized that none of them will go from a submenu to the main menu by hitting the remote’s “menu” button.
They all have a “main menu” button. I had never realized that even after the thousands of DVDs I’ve probably watched over the years. The big concern we had was that the Vegas preview would never take us back to the main menu from the videos. But once burned, it works.
Thanks for the help and reassurance.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com -
Chris, I’m glad to hear that it worked out for you.
Now you can go to back to playing with Velocity 10 🙂
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