Customize DVD menus and navigation

Joe_Klein wrote on 1/4/2014, 2:27 PM

I am coming from Adobe Encore for DVD authoring, and I am curious as to whether VideoProX5 allows custom menu creation as follows:

Main menu with two links, 1 link to start video at beginning, and 1 link (scenes) leads to 1st of multiple submenu pages that have chapter thumbnails.

Now the custom navigation part, is that when you click on the scenes link from the main menu, it takes you to page 1 of submenu page 1 with the "next" link selected by default. Then when hit enter you will go to submenu page 2 "next link", and so on until the last submenu page comes up and will have the "prev" link highlighted by default (as there is no "next" button on the last submenu page. Then as you start the backwards navigation from the last sub page you will go to all the previous sub page and the "prev" button will be selected on each previous sub page. Hard to describe, but basically by constantly hitting enter, you will be able to go through all the sub pages to the end, then back to to first sub page.

Can anyone tell me if this sort of customization is possible in VideoProX5, and if it is, any guidance on how to do it.

Thanks,

Joe Klein

Comments

Joe_Klein wrote on 1/9/2014, 6:47 AM

Can anyone provide any insight on whether custom menu navigation is possible?

johnebaker wrote on 1/9/2014, 1:31 PM

A qualified answer is yes - this is a standard part of the menu navigation system that VPX creates.

The submenus ( chapter menus) will be automatically created when you insert chapter markers on the timeline.

Customisation is available in Menu editing option.

The qualifications:

1 You cannot play one chapter and then have it return back to the appropriate calling menu - for this you need a more sophisticated DVD Authoring program

2 Depending on the template you start with you may find a limit of 6 or 7 chapters per page for the chapter menus.

Taking it one step further - it is possible to have multiple movies in a project - the max I have done is 7 - each with its own chapters and VPX will create a main menu(s) with links to the movies and their chapter pages - as shown below:

Main menu

One of the Chapter menus

HTH

John

Joe_Klein wrote on 1/9/2014, 5:05 PM

John,

Thanks for the reply.

My real question is about customizing the navigation. When I create the standard submenus as you describe, but when I navigate to each submenu page, the 1st video thumbnail(chapter) is highlighted(selected) by default.

What I want is that the next page button to be the default highlighted button, not the 1st thumbnail. Just wondering if this is possible with VPX.

johnebaker wrote on 1/11/2014, 5:23 AM

. . . . What I want is that the next page button to be the default highlighted button, not the 1st thumbnail. . . . .

AFAICS there is no option to change the button ordering, for this you need a more sophisticated DVD Authoring program or IFO file editor - you would need to edit the IFO and BUP files - the BUP is a backup copy of the IFO in case of corruption.

John

Joe_Klein wrote on 1/13/2014, 1:24 PM

Thanks again John for the reply.

Adobe isn't supporting Encore any longer, so I am looking for a replacement. I tried Sony's DVD Architect Pro, but if keeps hanging my system, forcing a reboot. Do you know of any other authoring tools that will let me customize the navigation as I describe?

Ideally, it would be great if I could find a tool where I can edit the video and custom author the DVD in the same software package, but I haven't found one yet.

I wasn't aware of IFO editing, but are you saying that it may be possible to create the DVD structure with VPX, then edit the IFO file and change the navigation? That may be a good solution. I will try an IFO editor to check it out.

johnebaker wrote on 1/13/2014, 2:26 PM

AFAIK there is no software for video editting which also has the sophistication needed to create customisable DVD menus to the level you require.

I used to use DVD Lab Pro 2, for creating custom DVD menus, however you do have to do a bit of prep work first ie create the main video file(s), images or clips to be used as for graphical buttons, intro / outro videos if required. It also has a relatively steep learning curve for customising button actions etca as you are into the DVD scripting language.

I also tried Sony DVD Architect but did not find it as good as DVD Lab Pro.

IIRC from previous IFO editing you can change the default selected button on each menu page.

When the time comes that MEP or VPX can not create the menu I want for BD, I will look at BD menu editors the only case I can think of that would be useful is a return to menu after playing a chapter instead of continuing to the end of the movie.

HTH

John