How to approach a specific task (slightly OT)

[Mylenium]

Well, you should move away from that toyish and unprofessional approach with DVD-players – it’s as simple as that. While it is halfway acceptable for one screen, you are largely out of luck with 3. The only solution that is going to work are harddisk recorders, that can be controlled remotely. Trust me, I’ve done my share of sitting in tiny, overheated rooms crammed full of equipment, pushing the buttons just to make tradeshow presentations work and it would have been a hell of a lot harder to do without the pro equipment. Normally this can be rented for reasonable prices and you don’t even have to worry about connecting the cables because the company providing the equipment does it for you. If properly programmed, it’s very easy to pause and play those recorders or show a frozen frame at the touch of a button. If you extend this setup with a video mixer and realtime video processing unit for slowmotion, you will have the maximum flexibility. Of course all this is under the assumption that whatever you do is a pro gig. If not, I guess you have to find some kids, pay them with candy and throw in a few practice hours in frond of your DVD players ;o).

Mylenium

[Pour Myl

[Filip Vandueren]

I don’t use encore, but in DVD studio Pro,I would do something like this:

(for each of the three DVDs):

in AE:

• render the movies,
• export the last frame of the movie as a single frame picture
  (or if possible, let each movie end in a loopable bit of a few seconds, render the loopable bit out to a seperate movie.)

in Encore:

• create a start-menu with 1 button linking to your first movie (this can also be a black menu with an invisble button: looks more pro than a big start button that’s projected threefold 😎 )
• create one track for each movie,
• create multiple menus, each with the single end-frame, or looping background,
• link like this, using endjumps after each track, and invisible buttons on the menus:
  startMenu -> track 1 -> menu 1 -> track 2 -> menu 2 etc.

This should create a seamless transition from movie to holding pattern, to next movie.
You can even do away with the tracks and just jump from animated menu to animated menu.
The advantage of a menu-only approach is that at the end of a skit, you don’t have to think about pressing once (from menu to next track, if the video was done) or two buttons (skip forward from track to menu, OK to next track, if the video is still playing).
The disadvantage is that in the DVD spec. there’s a limit of 1Gb of video material that can be used in menus, so depending on the amount of video, that might restrict the possibility for you.

Also, get yourself three identical DVD-players, so you can use 1 remote, seeing how DVD-players cost $39 bucks that shouldn’t be to much of a problem.
Or if you’re really on a budget, just loan 3 sonys or whatever, different models within the same make should respond to the same remote. BUT maybe different models can be a bit slower to jump from menu to track etc.

Like Mylenium said, It’ll never form a frame-accurate synced up whole this way, but you might get away with it.
Better than pressing three buttons at the same time 😉

I hope this made sense,

Fliip

[Eric Steinberg]

Thank you so much for your kind responses!

Filip, I’m working on the method you outlined in Encore, but so far I haven’t figured out how to make invisible buttons. I’m sure I’ll figure it out sooner or later, but if you happen to have the time to point me in the right direction to accomplish that, I sure would appreciate it!

Kind regards,
Eric

[Filip Vandueren]

Again I don’t work in Encore (don’t own a PC),

but in DSP: you can either create a button by dragging a graphic out of your library onto the menu, OR you can just draw a rectangular button-area over your background if you start from an empty menu.
Usually you would draw that rectangle over a graphic that looks like a button, and assign an overlay so the shape would highlite.

But if your background is clear, and there are no overlay colors used, the button should be invisible: ie. there’s no hilight.

It still has the same functionality, but you don’t know where you are (no visual clues) so just use 1 button per menu

This technique is often used to create easter-eggs in a DVD, so maybe if it’s still not clear you could maybe find some posts in the encore forum search for easter eggs or hidden buttons.

[Eric Steinberg]

Thanks again! I got the answer I needed in the Encore forum! 🙂

Kind regards,
Eric