Previous & Next buttons causing problems

[Joe Bowden]

Not sure I fully understand the problem – you’re referring to Next & Previous buttons on the DVD player remote control, yes?

Have you got chapter end actions or overrides in your project?

[Wendall Woodbury]

Yes, Joe. The Previous & Next buttons on the DVD wand amd the Forward & Reverse buttons on either side of the Play button in Windows Media Player.

I do have chapter end actions, but no overrides. At the end of each chapter the viewer is returned to the menu. The problem arises when the viewer wants to leave mid-chapter, either forward or reverse.

Thanks.

Wendall

Filmmaker42

[Joe Bowden]

What should happen is when you press the Next button, the chapter end action executes. This takes you back to your menu, right?

What buttons do you press from the menu at this point?

[Wendall Woodbury]

Once the NEXT button is pushed it goes to the menu and then the viewer selects another chapter to view(shown by a red arrow) and then pushes the PLAY button.

The trouble comes when the viewer doesn’t want to watch the whole chapter and tries to return to the menu. Sometimes the PREVIOUS button works, except on the computer player, where it does not work at all. And, sometimes he NEXT button also works. However, MOST of the time, once those particular buttons are pushed, and the action is executed, the DVD (stand alone player) freezes up and has to be ejected.

Wendall

Filmmaker42

[Joe Bowden]

Wendall, please pardon my confusion after reading your post.

In your first paragraph, you state that pressing the Next button takes you to the menu, but then in the following paragraph you write it sometimes works but most times it freezes the player. Is the first paragraph describing your expected behavior, and the second paragraph the actual behavior occurring?

Do I have the right take on this yet?

[Wendall Woodbury]

Sorry Joe, I’m even confusing myself on this one! Let me re-word the problem I’m encountering.

* I built a 6-chapter, 1-page menu in Encore (with moving video.)

* Chapters play back fine on my stand alone DVD player AND on my computer Windows Media Player.

* HOWEVER, I have encountered another problem with each.

* First the STAND ALONE DVD PLAYER:
when I am in the middle of playing back one of the chapters, and I click either the PREVIOUS or NEXT button on the wand, it completes the action okay…but, when I try to click either PREVIOUS or NEXT AGAIN the player freezes up. In other words I can’t make it play or do anything, until I restart. Now, this does NOT happen every time. The PREVIOUS AND NEXT buttons may operate properly for a couple of trys (reversing or going forward) but, eventually clicking either PREVIOUS or NEXT will freezes up the DVD player. I’ve tried it on several DVD players with the same results, so the problem is on the DVD.

PLAYBACK ON MY COMPUTER PLAYER:

* Using the same DVD in my computer player causes a different reaction.

* Everything functions fine, EXCEPT the PREVIOUS BUTTON. I cannot go back to a former chapter or the menu. However, unlike the DVD standalong player, I CAN use the NEXT button without a problem (on windows Media Player.)

* I’m just wondering if I might be doing something wrong in the creation of the project in Encore? Or, perhaps it’s just a bad DVD (Taiyo Yuden.)I’m about to re-try the project, but am hesitating, simply because it’s rather arduous and I don’t want to repeat the same mistake, if there is one.

I hope this is a bit clearer.

Thanks for addressing this issue with me.

Wendall

Filmmaker42

[Jeff Bellune]

It seems that you made your chapters as separate timelines, instead of making a single timeline with chapter markers.

Each timeline on a DVD disc gets put in a separate VTS, and you cannot navigate between VTSs like you can navigate between chapters in a single VTS. The PREVIOUS and NEXT buttons on the “wand” are for navigating between chapters.

You can fix this issue by either:

1. Using your editing software to stitch all of the chapters together into one video file.

2. Dragging each separate video file sequentially to a single Encore timeline. En will generate the chapter markers at the joins automatically.

-Jeff

The Focal Easy Guide to Adobe Encore DVD 2.0

[Wendall Woodbury]

Ah-ha Jeff. I think you may have hit the nail on the head…because, I did make seperate time-lines when creating the project. I’ll re-try the project making a single time-line with the same end-actions etc., via your #2 method, and see what happens.

Thanks for your input Jeff.

Wendall

Filmmaker42

[Wendall Woodbury]

It appears I need a bit more information to complete my Encore project.

I followed your directions Jeff, regarding putting all my video segments on one timeline. I was able, after much experimenting, to make a DVD, which will open up on an introduction, then go to the Main Menu. I can play a segment and then forward to the next segment, or back up to the previous segment. Unfortunately, when a chapter ends, it does not go back to the Main Menu. It just goes to the next chapter.

I also found 2 errors at the end of the building process. The first was No End Action for 5 of the segments (even though I did disignate them, as you’ll see) and there were 5 orphans in the Flowchart, which I just ignored.

Here is the sequence I followed to build the DVD:

 Opened ‘pre-built menu’ with moving background video
 Imported Intro Clip as timeline
 Imported video segments as timeline
 Named & saved project
 Brought 6 video segments to timeline as chapters
 Pick-whipped from ‘motion’ to ‘moving background video’
 Clicked Animate Buttons
 Pick-whipped each of 6 chapters to their counterparts on timeline
 Set poster frame for each chapter
 Set ‘Name From Link’ & typed in name of each chapter
 Opened Flowchart and Pick-whipped from Main Menu to Disc
 Pick-whipped each segment name in Flowchart to each segment on timeline, starting with bottom name
 Pick-whipped Intro Clip to Disc in Flowchart
 Pick-whipped Main Menu to the Intro Clip in Flowchart
 Pick-whipped from Properties End Action of each segment to Main Menu in Flowchart
 Selected Intro Clip in Project Window & set ‘Timeline User Operations’ to ‘None’
 Rendered Motion Menus & saved

NOTE: I disabled ‘Sync Button Text & Name Selected’, before beginning, as I read somewhere this may cause problems.

Is there anything I missed?

Thanks.

Wendall

Filmmaker42

[Jeff Bellune]

I think I understand what you did. Your 5 orphans are 5 of the 6 timelines that you created when you imported them as timelines. The sixth one is the timeline you used to stitch together the other segments. Delete the unused timelines from the project. That may or may not make the end actions warning go away too, depending on the answer to the next question.

[Wendall Woodbury]
 Pick-whipped each of 6 chapters to their counterparts on timeline
 Pick-whipped each segment name in Flowchart to each segment on timeline, starting with bottom name
 Pick-whipped from Properties End Action of each segment to Main Menu in Flowchart

Aren’t each of these 3 steps doing the exact same thing: that is, linking each menu button to the matching segment/chapter on the timeline? It appears you are wasting triple the effort on executing the same task. If not, if you intended to do something else, then please clarify exactly what each step was supposed to accomplish.

Once you get that sorted, then put each chapter/segment into its own Chapter Playlist. Then put all the chapters/segments into a single Chapter Playlist. Link the Play All button to the long Chapter Playlist, and then link each individual chapter button to the appropriate Chapter Playlist.

-Jeff

The Focal Easy Guide to Adobe Encore DVD 2.0