10 Replies Latest reply: Nov 8, 2013 6:51 PM by Stan Jones RSS

    Subpictures not showing up in menu

    ntreuter Community Member

      Hey guys,

       

      Working on a simple DVD menu. I have four chapters, a Main Menu and Next button.

       

      My subpictures are a simple horizontal line under the text. It shows up for the four main menu items, but won't show up for the top items (Main Menu and Next) when I am in actual preview mode. As you can see, it does show up in the Menu Viewer within Encore (although, for some reason the horizontal lines are way lower than they are in the oringal PSD file).

       

      Here is a screenshot from Encore:

      Capture.JPG

       

      Here is my Photoshop file layout: photoshop.JPG

       

      ANd finally here is where the subpictures for the top SHOULD be:

       

      next_main.JPG

       

      Any idea? I'm anxious to tie this up but I can' tseem to get this menu to work right no matter what I do.

        • 1. Re: Subpictures not showing up in menu
          Stan Jones CommunityMVP

          My subpictures are a simple horizontal line under the text. ... (although, for some reason the horizontal lines are way lower than they are in the oringal PSD file).

          What is the pixel size and par of the menu in Photoshop?

           

          Thin horizontal lines may "disappear" when they are toward the edges of the menu and/or the pixel size or par of the menu is not to DVD spec. If you make the lines fat rather than thin, you can often see that the highlight does not disappear, but is being cropped.

           

          This is more like a bug than logic, but I suspect it has its roots in the DVD spec and the method Encore (probably the underlying sonic code) uses to calculate positions of the highlights.

          • 2. Re: Subpictures not showing up in menu
            ntreuter Community Member

            I'm not sure what par size means. I set the image to be 1920x1080. In this case I am burning a DVD but  in the event I wanted a blu ray I wanted a high res version also. It looked good on my TV when I previewed it yesterday.

             

            The horizontal lines are identical in size to the ones below that do show up.As a matter of fact I just copied the layer over and over again.

            • 3. Re: Subpictures not showing up in menu
              Stan Jones CommunityMVP

              I understand your confusion. It never made sense to me either. I just know that other users have had the same experience, and I was able to replicate it.

               

              Thin line highlights may work fine in some parts of the menu and not others.

               

              1920x1080 is a pixel size. Check your menu in Photoshop to be sure that you made it the size you intended. PAR (Pixel Aspect Ratio) is normally 1.0 for that size. DVD for NTSC is 720x480 and PAR .91 (for a standard 4:3 shape image). You set your menu size for HD/Bluray size, and it is probably a par of 1.0 (square pixels). That makes it wrong for DVD. For some highlights it may work; for others it may not, and this may be the cause of your problem with the highlights.

               

              When you use an HD sized menu in Encore for a DVD project, Encore resizes the menu. For some menus you may not have a problem; for some you will.

               

              When you look in Photoshop, what is your menu size and PAR?

               

              Here is where you find PAR in Photoshop:

               

              EN CS6 PS PAR.png

              • 4. Re: Subpictures not showing up in menu
                ntreuter Community Member

                Thanks Stan! I won't be able to check until later this afternoon but I appreciate the feedback.

                 

                one question: I wanted the DVD to be widescreen DVD so I assumed it maintained the same ratio as a typical 1920x1080 just scaled down for SD.

                 

                I built my own menus  as well because there were on preloaded templates in my version of Encore (CS5.1)

                • 5. Re: Subpictures not showing up in menu
                  Stan Jones CommunityMVP

                  I wanted the DVD to be widescreen DVD so I assumed it maintained the same ratio as a typical 1920x1080 just scaled down for SD.

                  It will be 16:9, which for SD NTSC will be 720x480 but a PAR of 1.21.

                   

                  And yes, that will be a close look. But it is not exact.

                  • 6. Re: Subpictures not showing up in menu
                    ntreuter Community Member

                    So when I change the PAR in photoshop and go back to Encore, I see the black bars on the top and bottom. I assume that is expected behavior but I was getting full screen before.

                     

                    Also, my footage (which is a Premiere Pro sequence dynamically linked) is 1080p / 24fps. It played well on my TV but is that showing up OK and does premiere automatically adjust PAR for the footage?

                     

                    Sorry for all the newb questions. BTW, changing the PAR did not in fact adjust the menu bars. They still aren't showing up :/ Earlier, I had tried using the official Button markers (+> for next and +^ for Menu and +< for previous) but that didn't seem to make any difference.

                    • 7. Re: Subpictures not showing up in menu
                      ntreuter Community Member

                      I'll tell you. Encore is one bizarro program. I just was working on my menus and I have a 3rd page in the chapter index that is behaving entirely different from the other menus. i checked it three times and nothing is different about it.

                      • 8. Re: Subpictures not showing up in menu
                        Stan Jones CommunityMVP

                        I was not suggesting you change the par, just trying to determine if that was an issue. You would have to change the pixel and par, but that won't work based on where you are starting.

                         

                        Start with a menu template from the Encore library, for example, in the General set, Radiant Submenu Wide. When you add it to Encore, you will see that it is set to 16:9 Display Aspect Ratio (i.e. wide screen). Turn on the title safe grid, see that all the buttons and highlights are inside? This is not strictly a rule, but I think that is part of what may be creating a problem for you.

                         

                        Right click and edit in photoshop. You will see that it is 720x480 and has a PAR of 1.21.

                         

                        You can get close to what you want just by replacing the background with yours, and scale it so it fills the frame (you'll distort it just a tiny bit). Then replace the text, and move the main menu and arrow(s) as needed.

                         

                        I would avoid the underlines, but if you use them, create them in the new menu. This will avoid down-scaling them and reducing their size unnecessarily.

                         

                        Are you also creating a Bluray?

                        • 9. Re: Subpictures not showing up in menu
                          ntreuter Community Member

                          I actually don't have any templates for some reason. I downloaded the CS6 template pack but they don't seem to be appearing within my CS5 install. I couldn't find a CS5 specific pack.

                           

                          In any event. I beat around a few times and did something different. For the BACK / NEXT / MENU buttons I just converted them to objects and applied menu defaults so the text changes color instead of the underline. That will be good enough.

                           

                          I am not going to be creating a blu ray right now, it was more future proofing

                           

                          Stan - I really appreciate all your help. I didn't think after coming this far with the editing process the DVD build would be such a pain in the a$$ but it has been !!!!

                          • 10. Re: Subpictures not showing up in menu
                            Stan Jones CommunityMVP

                            Those workarounds should get you set.

                             

                            To get workable templates, find your CS5 install folders. Should be something like Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Encore CS5\. If you see Library as a folder at that level, see if it has content. If it does, you just need to point  your Encore preferences to that location. If not, copy the library you downloaded to that location.