Wts(jmanz)
Forum Replies Created
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Oh, and to be clear, the audio would start from the beginning each time ‘auto-activation’ occured. As posted before, you can’t have the audio simply play through.
jim
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You can (in a way) create the appearance of layered menus with audio in DVDSP. Navigation could (probably) will be sluggish on some players, but you could have audio. You basically create a series of menus that are identical to each other, with the exception of change of display state of a particular button or background element. You would use ‘auto-activation’ to cause the menu to move to the next display state ‘invisibly’.
For example, let’s say you have a two button menu and you want the background to change a bit, depending on what button you have selected. You would have two menus–one with the background set for button one, and the other for button two. On entry to that menu (and by stating ‘menu’ I mean the collection of both, with the viewer first accessing these menus with button one selected), you could have button one as the default selected button, and assign the menu you created with the background (background one for lack of a better imagination) designed for that button. Activating or clicking on button one will now take you to it’s destination (clip, another menu, whatever button one was ultimately linked to). Button two on this menu would be set for auto- activation, so my simply selecting that button, it would ‘jump’ to your second menu where now button two is selected (that would be the defined button on menu entry) with the background now representing the graphics you wanted to display for button two selection. To the viewer, the ‘switch’ would generally occur without them noticing, but as with layered menus, all may not seem to be so seamless. The viewer would have to click the button to then actually navigate to button two’s linked destination. Selecting button one on this second menu would be set for auto-activation back to you first menu. Both of these menus would allow you to add audio.
This could all be created in DVDSP. I think one of the Lord of the Rings dvd’s had a chapter menu like this, with separate backgrounds and representative audio for a particular chapter/button selection. Looked and sounded good, but at least on the player I watched it on it was very slow to respond at times, and if viewed on a computer (and the viewer is using a mouse to navigate through the dvd) you have to click any of these types of buttons twice (once to cause auto-activation and the second to actually go to the link) which can be confusing. If you are navigating on the computer using the dvd player software virtual remote or if you are using an actual remote/set top player–then you don’t have this issue.
Anyway, I’m sure the above is as clear as mud.
Jim
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ziongm,
If you just need a straightforward, basically play only disc, then something like Toast might work. The question mark for me is whether or not these discs (the Blu-Ray recordables) will play on a Blu-Ray set top player, or just the Blu-Ray players/burners that are connected to your computer. I don’t have any experience in this regards, but I know of some on the PC side of things that have burned a few Blu-Ray coasters in their attempts to get it to work (and these discs aren’t cheap). DVDSP does not support Blu-Ray authoring at all, so it is not an option. I’d try the Toast forums on Roxio and see if anyone there has had success with playback on set top players.
Jim
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I have done a couple of red laser discs with the new update. I only used mpeg2, but menus and stories, sub menus with chapter index/transitions/etc all work on the Toshiba. I have yet to do an H264 project, but I’ve heard (and again not tested myself) that it now works.
Maybe some good steps in the right direction? Hopefully the new HD-DVD burners will be out in the not so distant future that we can really test it out.
Jim
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Danny2007,
I think the devil is in the details. “Supporting” Blu-ray disc burning, and actually offering true HD Blu-Ray authoring with menus and the like can be two different things. It’s not clear to me that one can actually do more than simply dump HD video on a Blu-Ray disc. It’s even more unclear as to how that would actually play back except on the same computer, and whether or not the disc would actually play on a Blu-Ray set top player–and if it does, is it anything more than simple playback of the video stream, or are there any menu interfaces. True dvd authoring for Blu-Ray discs is very limited on both the PC and Mac sides. The Blu-Ray burners are expensive and limited in terms of choices’ for either side, but especially for the Mac. On top of that, it’s very likely that these burners will not allow playback of Hollywood Blu-Ray discs–just your own content.
Right now all of the HD formats and authoring options for ‘the masses’ is in evolution. It’s in evolution even for the ‘big boys’. If you are or have been a distribution house for major Hollywood titles with standard definition content, then it makes sense to be on the cutting edge to try and invest in the costly HD encoders and authoring apps to be a part of the transition. For the rest of us, it’s very hard to predict what or even if these formats will have a big impact on our HD content distrituition. There is a chance that optical delivery won’t be the medium or method to accomplish the task.
The comforting thing for me right now is that there really are no cost friendly alternatives to choose from, I don’t have to worry about the fact I haven’t jumped on one bandwagon or the other.
Jim
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Terri,
Your two options are indeed eDVD and Intellidisc. Eric posted a link to Alex A’s excellent tutorial on the basics of using eDVD 3 (it’s now at version 4), which is very helpful when you are first starting to use the application. eDVD 4 is the only way to do something as potentially complex as you describe. There is another article on the features available with the latest version:
Intellidisc would allow you to have an ‘interactive’ map with changing text and video boxes. However, it will only work on a PC, and it takes some reasonable knowledge on html creation to put it all together.
One last thought, and this is coming from someone who has done a fair amount of these types of discs, I am not sure how much longer rom content enhanced discs are going to be supported for standard definition discs. The next generation HD discs each have their own means of adding enhanced content, which is departure from what is used on standard definition discs. I think future resources will be focused on HD discs, and alas, standard def discs are going to go by the wayside (as it relates to rom enhancement; I think video only distribution will be around for some time). eDVD 4 has dropped off the face of the earth so to speak on Sonic’s website (unless someone can point me to where they are hiding it now). Some types of content (like Flash) have in the past relied on Sonic to update eDVD so that it work appropriately–but if it’s not being actively supported, there will be limits to the types of content you can add. eDVD is based on Interactual Player, and it’s unclear as to what will happen in the future with Vista, new IAP players and the retro-workability of discs created with older players or based on older players and the new systems they will be played on.
I hope the discs will continue to play, but time will tell. For right now your first challenge will be to find a copy of eDVD 4. If you do, then there would be a way to emulate what you describe, but it would take some pre-planning and work to accomplish (but it would work well, and be fun for the viewer).
Jim
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I don’t know, I didn’t update my firmware because of issues posted like yours.
Jim
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This is what I found to work:
1. It has to be the mpeg2 codec, the others don’t work.
2. Audio has to be aiff.
3. Menus don’t work, so leave them off. You can have a menu, but you have to manually pick the title set and chapter with the remote to play your video.
4. Just make a video stream only disc (with the audio format noted above)and set it as first play. Delete the default menu slot that DVDSP adds with a new project (to avoid the error message that says your menu is empty).
5. Chapter marks ARE respected, so you can add marks in your video stream and at least be able to jump to and from segments if you so choose.
6. You can use (without re-encoding) the native m2t file from HDV camcorders, but it takes a little ‘tweaking’ to work.
7. You need an application like StreamClip to accomplish the above. You just capture the native m2t file to HD and then use StreamClip (freeware) to separate the file into elementary streams–m2v and aiff audio. You would then just import the streams into DVDSP and author away.Hope that helps. I’ve made several discs this way, and I can tell you from personal experience they do indeed work on my Toshiba.
Jim
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I have the same problem happening from others, so I think your warning about updating the firmware is a good one.
I wish there was a way for you to revert back to the original state/firmware. You could have gotten your dvd to play with audio if you changed your audio to aiff. Anything else will not play.
Jim
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You have to use mpeg 2 and aiff audio; track only playback (set first play for the track); menus don’t work–hence the need for setting the track as first play (and deleting the default menu that DVDSP will create with a new project so you avoid the error message on disc build). You would build and format/burn to disc as you normally would.
This is if you want your disc to play on a Toshiba set top player. You can author with menus if you are going to play the disc on a Mac capable of playing HD content (which is basically any new Mac or older Mac that would support the latest Final Cut Studio applications).
Jim