Blu-ray menu chapters not working

MikaS wrote on 1/4/2024, 7:56 AM

I’m trying to make a blu-ray disc with one 90 minute movie and several chapters with MEP. The disc would have a main menu with a ”play movie” button and a ”go to submenu” button. And the submenu would have buttons for all the chapters of the movie. I tried to make this project, but the chapter buttons or chapters didn’t work.

Then I have done some tests with a shorter and simpler movie (2 minutes and 2 chapters). The movie is 1080p50 mp4. I put it in the timeline, then right-click, select ”markers” and then ”set chapter markers”. I set two chapter markers; the first at 0:00 and the second at 0:56.

Then I go to the Burn interface. In my first test I used the default menu and in my second test the Red Smoke menu. I didn’t make any changes to menus. Then I open the Burn dialog window, and select AVCHD, and then burn an image. And finally I burn the image to Verbatim BD-RE with ImgBurn.

Then I try the disc with several players. I would prefer to play my blu-rays with my stand alone Samsung blu-ray player. Samsung plays the test movie, when I press the play button in main menu. It also plays chapter 1 when I press that button in submenu. But it freezes (black screen), if I press the 2nd chapter button in submenu, or if I try to jump to the 2nd chapter when playing the movie. I got same results with the default menu and Red Smoke menu.

Then I tried three different players in my computer.

Media Player Classic doesn’t seem to support Bluray menus at all. But it plays the movie, and even allows me to jump to the 2nd chapter, and it plays fine. Same results with the default menu and Red Smoke menu.

CyberLink PowerDVD 12 plays the movie and plays 1st chapter, when I press that button in submenu. But if I press the 2nd chapter button in submenu or move to the 2nd chapter, I get distorted video (strange color bars etc.). The movie rolls though, and audio seems to be ok. Same results with the default menu and Red Smoke menu.

VLC Media Player gave different result for the default menu and Red Smoke menu. With default menu, the movie rolls, and I can hear the sound, but there’s no picture at all. I can reach the 2nd chapter, and sound is ok, but no video. With Red Smoke, the movie plays ok (this time with video), if I start it from main menu. But if I press either of the chapter buttons in the submenu, I get no video, only audio.

Any suggestion show to make the chapters and chapter buttons work?

Comments

johnebaker wrote on 1/4/2024, 9:30 AM

@MikaS

. . . . burn an image . . . .

Does the image (ISO file) play correctly in VLC and PowerDVD. Right click the image file and select Open with... , Windows Explorer or if the option is present Mount. This will mount the ISO file as a disk drive

The nearest version I have to MEP/Movie Studio 2022 is the 2023 version and after several tests I have no issues with Chapters not playing both with Blu-Ray (BD) disc or AVCHD disc in VLC* and PowerDVD 22.

The results you are getting are very odd, if the main movie plays all the way through without issues, yet gives issues when trying to play just the Chapters this would suggest there is an issue with the players

Chapters are not separate 'video clips' they are 'time marks' telling the player to move to a specific time in the main movie,

In the Burn dialog, do you see the Chapters listed as shown in the image below - the test project has 4 Chapter markers numbered 1 to 4.

Have you tried using the Blu-Ray disk option instead of AVCHD - I do not use the latter?

Note: I find VLC to be unreliable playing Blu-Ray/AVCHD discs, in particular the menu system, where the menu is more complex eg each button having different icons.

HTH

John EB
Forum Moderator

MikaS wrote on 1/4/2024, 1:03 PM

Hi John,

The ISO files had exactly the same problems, when I played them with PowerDVD and VLC.

In the Burn interface I can see my two chapters listed, just like your four chapters.

I also used the Blu-ray disc option, but got the same results.

Strange problem, indeed. The chapter markers clearly are there, because the players "move" to the right "spot". But instead of playing the movie from that spot on, they either freeze completely (Samsung) or show weird color bars (PowerDVD). What's even more strange is that PowerDVD plays the audio from the 2nd chapter correctly. It's only the picture that is messed up. And both players play the 1st chapter correctly, when I press that button in the submenu. When playing the movie from start, PowerDVD allows me to jump to the next chapter when I choose that function. Samsung freezes if I try that.

Is it perhaps a menu problem? Should I try other menus?

edit. I made an additional test. Instead of placing the first chapter mark at the first frame of the movie, I placed it a few seconds later. Then I played the disc with PowerDVD. Now it couldn't even play the first chapter mark correctly (color bars). But if I played the movie from the main menu, it was fine. So it seems that my players can play the movie correctly only from the start. Any chapter marks that are beyond the first frame give bad results.

MikaS wrote on 1/4/2024, 2:56 PM

More information: I remembered, I also had an older version of MEP still installed in my computer (17.0.3.184). I tried to do the same test project with that version. I did everything exactly the same as I did with the 21.0.2.138 version... and the disc played smoothly in both Samsung and PowerDVD! The 2nd chapter markers were no problem at all.

So I can try to use the older version for my actual project. Unfortunately, it seems to be very slow with HD videos. So if anyone has any suggestions how make the newer version work, I'd be very happy. Would reinstallating help? And if I reinstalled my current version, would I have to also activate "content packs" etc. again?