Editing DVD menus with alternative image editors

nevilleswartz1980 wrote on 7/12/2012, 4:16 PM

Hallo Terry

I would like to make use of a different editor also because Photo Designer is horrible to say the utmost best of it.

I spent at least an hour trying to figure out how to erase something in Photo Designer and replace it with text with no success.

I use GIMP 2.8 for all my graphic editing and would like to use it. I tried editing the path to the Image editor in settings but if you then click on spanner icon while TRYING to customise a dvd menu, it says that Photo Designer is not installed and i need to perform a repair installation.

I am not a professional programmer but can see when something was rushed by the programmers. The burning dialogs and editing features were very much rushed. I'm very disapointed with the menu editing side of MEP. It was one of the main reasons why i bought MEP in the first place is because they said you could make professional dvd menus. I agree, some of the templates supplied are very nice but to customise it is a nightmare if at all a possibility! MEP crashed a number of times on me while trying to make a simple single button 16:9 menu. I placed a video in the arranger and edited it the way i like. That part seems to work. Then i tried to change the graphic of the play button. There seems to be no way to control the highlighting of your button. There seems to be no way of replacing the original first button's graphic.I managed to create a second button and point it to the beginning of the movie just like the original first button. I Managed to change the graphic for the second button and after a long time gave up trying to edit the first so i just deleted it. This causes the second button's graphic to dissapear and nothing can bring it back except the undo button. Now i had two buttons. The original's graphic was deleted but the object is still on the menu. If you test the menu with the preview, you have problems because there is in fact two buttons but you can only see one. this makes the visible button not to respond the way you would expect it to when pressing the buttons on the virtual remote control.

What is wrong with simply having an "edit button" dialogue where you can set an image to use for your button and then a second image that is to be used when the button is clicked or selected? Then having an option where you choose the chapter marker you would like to have associated with the currently selected button.

There should be options to make a simple text button and also animated boxes where you can select a video for the button box with a few default options of different kinds of boxes similar to Nero Recode and many other dvd authoring programs. Button graphics should be stored by default in your project folder but a copy should be kept for easy reuse in future menus.

Also, it would be nice to be able to edit text in the same way as you can in the editor.

johnebaker wrote on 7/12/2012, 5:08 PM

Hi

Unfortunately you cannot blame Magix for the problem CEP and GIMP not returning the image to MEP and the cancel button remaining because it is not bad programming on the part of Magix

I think the problem is that Paint Shop Pro and GIMP and many other image editors are not programmed for Dynamic Data Exchange - ie they cannot not return the data ie images back to a calling program ie MEP.

IIRC Photoshop can do this.

Certainly the labelling of the button is not dynamic to reflect the program being called - it always say Photo Designer

John

terrypin wrote on 7/13/2012, 8:15 AM

Hi Neville,

I agree with you about the many flaws in MEP's DVD menu authoring. I find the UI non-intuitive and inconsistent in behaviour, and the documentation is sadly lacking at a detailed level. As for worked examples...

It does have a good selection of templates however, and I get by with a handful of these, plus whatever customisation I can squeeze out. Note that the details and the bugs encountered differ between versions and templates.

On the central issue that prompted my original post, I'm critical of Magix on that too. The option to specify a user-chosen editor is available (with no apparent strings mentioned), so it should be a simple matter of editing your image in that program, saving it, and returning to MEP. I expect that if I'd been using Photo Designer for a couple of decades, as I have PaintShopPro, then I'd be just as comfortable with it, but life's too short...

I'm not sure about your issue with menu text editing, which I've not found a problem?

--------------------

Hi John: PaintShop Pro does support DDE.

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Terry, East Grinstead, UK

johnebaker wrote on 7/14/2012, 3:06 AM

Hi Terry

What version of PSP are you using - I cannot locate that option on my (PSP X)

Edit:: Doh!!! thats the Windows XP dialog which does not exist in Win 7 have to edit the registry which is also not helpful.

That option looks like DDE for PSP being opened by the calling program - which we know works - as I said in my post it is the return that is not being actioned. (I should have made that clearer)

With Photo Designer my message box closes automatically.

John

terrypin wrote on 7/14/2012, 9:36 AM

Hi John,

Yes, you're right, I hadn't registered that distinction between calling and returning.

Still seems unnecessarily complicated design IMO, for MEP to rely on DDE 'returning' in that way. In several other of my apps (IrfanView is an example) I can specify PSP8 for 'Open in external editor', and after editing I simply save the result. It can then be viewed in IrfanView or opened in any other program that accepts graphics. That's what I'd expected MEP to do.

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Terry, East Grinstead, UK

johnebaker wrote on 7/14/2012, 1:41 PM

Hi Terry

That is what DDE does - it handles communication between programs MEP gives the image to PSP, but PSP can only 'listen' and take in the information - it appears it cannot talk back or give an 'answer'.

I am currently running a trial of Pro X4 and it does not appar to hand the image back either. I am going to ask Corel if this is possible and if it is then I will purchase Pro X4.

I really do not want to use Photoshop is too heavy for what I need and the installation has a habit of installing lots of unecessary functions I do not need and can be very infuriating updating.

John

nevilleswartz1980 wrote on 7/19/2012, 1:24 AM

Hallo John and Terry

I see and understand the point. This still does not solve the problem. Photo Designer is Horrible. Why Magix went to the extent of actually writing it is beyond me... Most people that do video editing are proficient in picture editing and most have one or the other program that they use. GIMP is great and free also.

It would be nice to have the buttons's graphics saved into your project folder where you can edit them with any program. Then there should just be a refresh button in the menu editor that will reload the images to show any changes that was made.

Why Photo Designer makes use of bitmap files is also beyond me. Why not simply use a PNG file format so that gamma, transparancy and all the rest is saved with the file. Then you would be able to make the buttons Any way you like!

PS: How do you erase a part of a picture in Photo Designer? I cannot find an "Eraser" tool?

johnebaker wrote on 7/19/2012, 12:43 PM

Hi

Received a response from Corel re using PSP -

..... 'We will be investigating the issue, however, we don't guarantee any assurance that PaintShop Pro will be able to work with the program that you use.' .....

The issue continues......

John

terrypin wrote on 7/19/2012, 1:47 PM

Hi John,

Thanks for pursuing that. But given how old PSP8 is, I'm not hopeful of getting a patch from Corel, any more than I would have from previous owners, Jasc!

Hi Neville,

I have to agree about Photo Designer. I wish those resources had gone into fixing many of the bugs and design flaws in all the versions of the main product that I've used from MEP 11 to MX.

Overall it's a great product. I would never go back to any of the NLEs I used before. But disappointingly spoiled by a combination of coding/testing carelessness and haste to get the next version to market. And with the notable exception of Ralf Hentschel I'm unimpressed with the company's support and documentation. When did we last see a post from Magix in the forums?

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Terry, East Grinstead, UK

johnebaker wrote on 7/23/2012, 3:19 PM

Hi

I have received a response from Ralf Hentschel at Magix ( thank you Ralf ) - he 'will bring this up to our video devs in our next meeting with them and ask them for a more detailed explanation as to the requirement and what should and shouldn't work from their perspective'

John

terrypin wrote on 8/9/2012, 6:43 AM

Thanks John and thanks Ralf. Filed as another 'maybe someday, maybe never'!

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Terry, East Grinstead, UK

johnebaker wrote on 8/19/2012, 3:19 AM

Hi Terry

Received a 'response' from Corel - they have closed the case with no solution or recommendations.

They appear to not understand or have a desire to help as they repeatedly kept asking for more information after I raised the original query and gave them full details of the issue.

Do not think I will be buying PSP X4 yet - although it has some great functionality!!

John

terrypin wrote on 8/21/2012, 2:26 AM

Hi John,

Thanks a lot for trying anyway. As I said, I wasn't hopeful of any positive action from Corel!

That sort of reply is either deliberately designed to drag out the communication until the average user loses the will to persist, or just due to staff of abysmally low intelligence/experience. Sadly not unusual, especially in large companies.

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Terry, East Grinstead, UK