2 Replies Latest reply: Aug 12, 2008 10:34 AM by Ruud Blauw RSS

    Limitations of DVD Menus.

    Community Member
      I'm not too experienced in the DVD-Authoring world, but I have been a software engineer and designer for many years. I was recently asked to help a co-worker with a DVD-menu, providing graphics etc, and was quickly disappointed at the limitations of DVD's.

      We are using Encore, and I was upset to see that I couldn't have anti-alias on my text when it's selected (or hovered, not sure of the terminology) because I'm only allowed a single color, which isn't helpful when you want to smooth fonts.

      What I had designed in photoshop was a series of buttons that had two glowing effects behind them: 1 was white, and another was black. When they were not selected, I wanted the black background to be visible, and when they were selected I wanted to hide that, and show the white one. Additionally, these buttons were close enough together that these glowing regions behind them overlapped with other glowing regions next to them, but the buttons-images themselves were not overlapping.

      I guess my question is this, are DVD's REALLY this limited (if so, why?), or do simply not know how to do anything attractive with Encore?

      The menu can be viewed at the following url: http://sampsonresume.com/dvd-menu.jpg
        • 1. Re: Limitations of DVD Menus.
          Joe Bowden Adobe Employee
          The limitation is with menu button highlight overlay in the DVD-Video format itself.

          You can work around the limitations by using multiple menus and auto-activating buttons, but the workaround doesn't work with software DVD players, and doesn't work well with motion menus. But if you really need to have what DVD-Video doesn't offer, check here for one tutorial outlining the workaround:

          http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.2ccedd3c

          And another:

          http://www.adobeevangelists.com/movies/colorsandbuttons.wmv

          Personally, I work within the limitations of the format. You'll find most commercial (Hollywood) DVDs do, too.
          • 2. Re: Limitations of DVD Menus.
            Ruud Blauw Community Member
            Jonathan,

            For some additional info see Must subpictures always be on top?

            A possible workaround for your "glow" could be to create it with a single color using dithering. With the glow part of the button you would have to space the buttons wider. The hit area of a DVD-Video is always rectangular. These rectangles are not allowed to overlap, not even by a single pixel.