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1. Re: Looping background menu stops and goes to black for a second before starting motion again
Bill Hunt Sep 27, 2009 1:40 PM (in response to Robbie Dahl)Robbie,
Exactly how did you create this looping AV file, that you are using in your Motion Menu? What is its Duration, format, etc.?
Good luck,
Hunt
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2. Re: Looping background menu stops and goes to black for a second before starting motion again
Robbie Dahl Sep 28, 2009 2:11 PM (in response to Bill Hunt)I created a spinning logo in Ulead's Cool 3D. I rendered it as an AVI Pal file that in PP starts at 00:00:00:00 and ends at 00:00:01:23 with a duration of 00:00:01:24. I place 12 copies of this file on the timeline with the sequence being 00:00:23:13. I rendered the sequence as an PAL DV file which when looped in Media player looped seamlessly. I imported the file into Encore and using the Blank Menu dragged the file into the background.
The menu is set as first play, the motion shows a duration of 23:13, the loop point is set at 00:00:00:00: and is set to loop forever and the end action of the menu is set to go back to this menu.
When the menu plays to the end of the first loop it goes momentarily black, starts on a still of the first frame (all of which takes about a second) and then the motion starts again. It is not the end of the world, but I would prefer my menu to just keep playing as though there was no beginning and no end.
By the way, I lied, I checked my earlier video that I used this technique on and I had the same result.
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3. Re: Looping background menu stops and goes to black for a second before starting motion again
Jeff Bellune Sep 28, 2009 5:43 PM (in response to Robbie Dahl)Please burn an RW disc (no coasters) and test this on a proper hardware DVD player, if you haven't done so already.
-Jeff
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4. Re: Looping background menu stops and goes to black for a second before starting motion again
Robbie Dahl Sep 28, 2009 6:29 PM (in response to Jeff Bellune)Jeff, I did burn it onto a RW DVD to see if it was just encore's preview, but I had the same result on the final product.
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5. Re: Looping background menu stops and goes to black for a second before starting motion again
Jeff Bellune Sep 28, 2009 7:58 PM (in response to Robbie Dahl)Try changing the end action of the menu to "Stop". If you're looping the menu forever, the end action will never execute anyway. Changing the end action *may* fix any problem with En getting confused on what to do next when the end of the loop/end of the menu arrives.
-Jeff
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6. Re: Looping background menu stops and goes to black for a second before starting motion again
Jeff Bellune Sep 28, 2009 8:15 PM (in response to Robbie Dahl)Also, please check the disc you already have on more than one DVD player in case it's a player/firmware issue. At least one more hardware and one software player would be best.
-Jeff
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7. Re: Looping background menu stops and goes to black for a second before starting motion again
Robbie Dahl Sep 28, 2009 11:32 PM (in response to Jeff Bellune)Set the Menu end action to stop and it made no difference. Have played the disc in two players and in Power DVD 9 on the computer and same thing. When it finishes the first loop, and before it plays the first frame there is a flash of black, then a still frame and then it starts playing again. All this takes a little less than a second. I think that perhaps I am trying to do something with Encore that it cannot do.
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8. Re: Looping background menu stops and goes to black for a second before starting motion again
Stan Jones Sep 29, 2009 4:06 AM (in response to Robbie Dahl)Jeff, I've never experimented with the options - what is the "correct" behavior we are looking for? There will be some kind of pause/black; is his "still" the problem?
Robbie, I had some problems with motion menus if I did not correctly name a replaced background layer. I used to add a background, deselect the original Encore template background, but not delete it and make my new layer the background by name. But I think this created bigger problems (no motion at all), so I don't think this is your problem.
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9. Re: Looping background menu stops and goes to black for a second before starting motion again
Jeff Bellune Sep 29, 2009 6:35 AM (in response to Stan Jones)There will always be a pause when a motion menu loops, even on Hollywood DVDs. Typically though, a still frame of the last frame of the clip is shown while the laser seeks back to the beginning of the clip.
I probably misunderstood the problem at first. I thought the OP was getting black during the pause. If the OP is getting a flash of black before the still frame, maybe there's an extra frame included in the clip or at the end of the Pr sequence. It's worth checking.
I recommend some sort of fade out/fade up for motion menu video because the pause when it loops is impossible to avoid.
-Jeff
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10. Re: Looping background menu stops and goes to black for a second before starting motion again
Robbie Dahl Sep 29, 2009 1:30 PM (in response to Jeff Bellune)I don't think my menu looks too bad really and I have noticed that most commercial menus don't loop seamlessly, so I may have been trying to do the impossible. I will however have a play with a few different ideas and techniques to see what works best and will post my results. Thanks for all the input.
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11. Re: Looping background menu stops and goes to black for a second before starting motion again
Bill Hunt Sep 30, 2009 6:11 PM (in response to Robbie Dahl)Robbie,
There is a slight pause, even with the Motion Assets in an Adobe .EM Menu Template, but there is no "black frame," or "black flash." The Menu background holds, and the Motion Asset pauses, then starts over again.
Now, if you created your Motion Menu's Motion Asset, here's a possible "trick" to help you. If you used the Blank Menu, it IS black. When the Motion Asset pauses, one might see that black. Instead, take either the first, or last (you may need to experiment here) Frame of you Motion Asset, and keep the dimensions and PAR exactly the same, then use that, as the Background image on your Menu. Your Motion Asset will play over it, but during the pause, the user will see that Background, instead of black.
Hope that this helps, and good luck,
Hunt
PS - I'd start with the last Frame of your Motion Asset first.
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12. Re: Looping background menu stops and goes to black for a second before starting motion again
Robbie Dahl Oct 1, 2009 2:47 PM (in response to Bill Hunt)I tried another menu, instead of the blank menu, that already had a motion background but that made no difference. Still got the black flash.Fortunately, with my looping background, it was a series of shorter clips which looped when joined together. So I picked a new loop point. This got rid of the black "flash". Still has the slight pause, of course. Thanks for the suggestion.
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13. Re: Looping background menu stops and goes to black for a second before starting motion again
gnokka Apr 24, 2012 5:15 AM (in response to Robbie Dahl)That last black frame in the menu is the second field of your exported movie.
you have to put the out mark just one or more frame before movie end, and then export it again.
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14. Re: Looping background menu stops and goes to black for a second before starting motion again
ThePetal Apr 27, 2012 1:22 AM (in response to gnokka)I would love to know if that works for you. I didn't think it was possible to seemlessly loop the background.




