8 Replies Latest reply: Oct 28, 2012 9:33 AM by Soshman RSS

    Orphan Menu question?

    Soshman Community Member

      Hello,

       

      OK i am making a DVD and creating a menu. I had a bunch of errors 10+ and am down to 1....and i am lost.

      I dont understand this orphan menu problem. It is the main menu.

      I read the post on it and it didnt make any sense to me.

      I did see someone post the flowchart so i am doing it here.

      Also would be glad to give any other information needed to help me burn this DVD:-)

       

      Thanks

       

      10-24-2012 7-23-37 PM.jpg10-24-2012 7-24-31 PM.jpg10-24-2012 7-24-46 PM.jpg

        • 1. Re: Orphan Menu question?
          Stan Jones CommunityMVP

          Thanks for posting the flowchart with your question.

           

          You are using HD  menus. Is this DVD as you say, or Bluray?

          • 2. Re: Orphan Menu question?
            Soshman Community Member

            Regular DVD widescreen 16:9

            • 3. Re: Orphan Menu question?
              Stan Jones CommunityMVP

              You should be using regular SD 16:9 (not HD) menus.

               

              You cannot use multi page menus on DVDs.

               

              The orphans appear to be chapter playlists, and the chapters you are playing are timelines? Not sure what you have.

              • 4. Re: Orphan Menu question?
                Soshman Community Member

                Ok so the HD menus wont work and i will have to change them all...whew!

                It there an easy way to change the menu without having to rebuild it?

                 

                As far as multiple pages on DVD's...my editor ( who is busy on a movie now ) has built many DVD's for me with up to 4 pages

                so i am wondering if i am thinking pages means something different?  So do i build multiple menus and link them?

                 

                Sorry i dont understand the third line

                 

                Thanks

                 

                Mark

                • 5. Re: Orphan Menu question?
                  Stan Jones CommunityMVP

                  Starting an Encore project over is not as bad as it seems. For the redo, you generally have many of your decisons made. And it is sometimes necessary. Changing lots of things, through experimentation or error, may corrupt the project.

                   

                  "Multipage" is a special type of menu that has more than one page in one pdf file. Your main menu has "page2" at the bottom of the flowchart picture. Inadvertent, but it might cause problems. Yes, you can have many menus on a DVD. That is not what multipage means.

                   

                  At the bottom of the flowchart is the "orphanage," timelines, menus, etc, that are not connected to anything else in the project. It doesn't look like an orphan menu, but several orphan chapter playlists.

                   

                  By "not sure what you have," I don't know whether you have several short videos in separate timelines, or a few longer videos, with buttons linked to chapters. That makes a big difference on how you build the menus and navigation.

                  • 6. Re: Orphan Menu question?
                    Soshman Community Member

                    Good Stuff Stan! Thanks

                     

                    I am starting to get it

                     

                    I have 4 timelines

                     

                    First is the intro: 1 time line around 18 minitues

                    Then the MPFF: 1 timeline around 20 minutes

                    third Abundant Space: 1 timeline 20 minutes

                     

                    the last is a bit more complicated

                    When i did talk to my editor a week back he said to export the whole timeline

                    which included 9 different videos for a total of about 30 minutes

                    ( 1 video called Mind Flex 19 minutes...and a series of 8ea 3-4 minute videos meant to be watched together...but could be watched one at a time if wanting to review just that video) I linked chapter playlists and playlists so they would have an end action of coming back to the menu...unless they hit play all to watch them all through.

                    On the time lines i went in and made chapter markers very percisely for each video. I also did the poster markers for the animated buttons.

                     

                    The Mind Flex video ( video #3) is part of the 4 video buttons on the first menu

                     

                    All 8 of the 3-4 minute videos are on the second menu.

                     

                    I use the same menu video  and audio on both menus . I made the video in Premier Pro cs5 and it works great and looks good.

                     

                    What i am looking for the dvd to do is be able to watch each video seperately and then come back to the menu page they were on....or watch them all from menu #1 or play all on menu #4 ( not sure why it named it #4 because it is actually #2 )

                     

                    I guess i can go back and build them all....the biggest issue for me was lining them all up to look even:-)

                     

                    Thanks for staying with me on this so far!

                     

                    Soshman

                    • 7. Re: Orphan Menu question?
                      Stan Jones CommunityMVP

                      I'll be off line for the night shortly...

                       

                      An ambitious project, and I think you can do it!

                       

                      Most current users use single chapter chapter playlists to play individual chapters  and return to menu. I prefer just using an end action (on the playlists) of return to last menu rather than specifying the menu.

                       

                      Avoid any overrides. That was the strategy before chapter playlists.

                       

                      I would have exported your videos that were really separate as individual files, rather than making a longer one, but you don't have to go back at this point.

                       

                      Are you using "edit in photoshop" to modify the menus?

                      • 8. Re: Orphan Menu question?
                        Soshman Community Member

                        Hey Stan!

                         

                        Wanted to let you know i went back through and re-rendered each one seperately and then did the flowchart and it worked great..thanks!

                        I also changed the buttons from HD to regular.

                         

                        I do now have some new issues i cannot figure out yet that came up from the guy who duplicates my DVD's

                         

                        I will put a new post in

                         

                        Thanks again!

                         

                        Soshman