Just to check; you have clicked on the Edit button, top left hand corner of the screen?  See my screenshot below (this is from VPX5 but I'm pretty certain the layout of this screen is identical).

Hi Stephen,

As Jeff assumed, the layout in MEP is indeed the same. Here's a detailed screenshot in case you still haven't found the Arranger.

High res: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/MEP-DVD-Arranger.jpg

Yes in Edit mode. Still don't see the In Arranger button. Could it be a difference between MEP 2015 and MEP 2015 Plus? I'm using MEP 2015.

Yes it could. Can you post a screenshot like mine. Best to upload as I did because of poor Magix resolution (I use Dropbox).

The MEP 2105 pdf help file says (pg 234 ):

"Edit your own menu entries
Note: This function is available only in the Plus/Premium version."

Regards,

Carl

Hi

I presume you can see a section of your movie playing in the picture frame (menu button) and you want to choose a different part of that movie. If you double click the menu button / frame it will open a window where you can alter the  point in your movie where this preview will start, by adjusting the mins/secs/frames spin boxes at top right.

See page in PDF manual (P228 in MEP2014) under Burning>Preview and Editing > "Double clicking the preview picture or a menu entry opens an editor for you to adjust the preview picture or menu entry."

I think this works in all versions of MEP.

Peter

Carl, et al, the saga continues. My pdf manual (that came with the program) for Movie Edit Pro 2015 cleary references "In arranger" on page 230. Let's see what Magix has to say. I will point this out to them if they say Plus/Premium versions only.

Did you read on to page 234, to see the limitation Carl pointed out?

Hi

What I am suggesting is not using the Arranger but opening a separate window (the one where you edit the text) by double clicking in the menu button where the little preview that MEP has chosen is playing. You can not change the video material to some other source like you can in the arranger, but at least you can navigate to a more suitable section of your movie. You can also choose a jpeg to occupy the button in this same window instead of the movie.

I do not think the Plus /Premium limitation applies to this method.

Edit: - Apologies - Just realised that this method only allows you to change to a still frame from any point in your movie.

Peter

Edit: - Apologies - Just realised that this method only allows you to change to a still frame from any point in your movie.

Peter

Hi Peter,

I'm handicapped as I don't have any version of MEP 2015, which is why I've been hoping Stephen would show us a screenshot. Although the Basic version doesn't have the Arranger option, I was wondering if it does have the other option I've shown below. If so, unlike the 'double clicking frame button' you suggested (which only allows a still graphic) he could do what he wants:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/MEP-ChangingAnimatedMenu-2.jpg

Stepen,

Here is how to add a screenshot:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/MagixInfo-SendingScreenshots.jpg

Carl, MEP 2015 does have the option that you show but it applys the video sequence to the whole menu. That is, the video becomes the menu background and is not simply played in the picture frame of the Wedding template.

With regard to posting a screenshot. I was trying to apply it to the "add to question" option. However, the image button is not part of that method of posting. Hence my difficulty. I do see it here in the answer option so if there is a particular sceenshot you would like to see I will post one.

Once again, thanks. Sorry for the being a newbee with respect to this forum.

Stephen

Carl, MEP 2015 does have the option that you show but it applys the video sequence to the whole menu. That is, the video becomes the menu background and is not simply played in the picture frame of the Wedding template.

 

I'm Terry, not Carl.

That sounds very odd. In MEP 2014 Premium it works as you'd expect, changing the framed video. Maybe another user can describe behaviour in MEP 2015 Plus or Premium.

 if there is a particular sceenshot you would like to see I will post one.

Same as the one I showed you, in Burn > Edit mode, with all the options we're discussing. But an embedded screenshot won't cut the mustard because of its low resolution. Can you upload to a host and post the link? I use Dropbox.

Terry, East Grinstead, UK

Good one Terry

I kinda thought that there was a way to change the video from earlier versions of MEP but wasn't aware of that window in your screenshot. But then I make very few discs these days.

I guess the question still remains as to whether that window is accessible in the standard version of MEP or in fact works from MEP2015 plus, as I do not have either version? Maybe Stephen can clarify?

Peter

Hi Stephen,

Let me just jump in here with a suggestion. Crack open the piggy bank and get at least the Plus version, which is what we usually recommend to people in this forum. As you have seen, you quickly run into frustrating limitations with the basic version. The most overriding reasons for me for getting at least Plus are New Blue Titler EX and HDR. The latter has helped rescue many of my underexposed videos. I try to avoid Brighten at all cost.

The jury is out on whether or not the 3 Red Giant plugins included in the Premium version are worth the extra cost. They are if you want some extra effects. 

@All,

I don't have the particular Wedding DVD menu with the picture frame in which there is a moving video in the picture frame. I have checked throughout MEP and VPX6 and I can't find it.

From what you are saying, there is a video that plays within the picture frame. I have been confused throughout thinking that there was a way to get a video to play in within the preview button. As far as I can tell, this is impossible. The video only plays in the background as far as I can find. I seem to recall that I was able to get videos to play within the menu preview buttons using another program.

What I understand about the Wedding image, is that the picture frame is not a button, but is actually part of the background. Is this correct? In this case, one can get the video to play in the picture frame by using the Arranger.

I assume that the picture frame is a mask or is transparent and that whatever is behind it will show through.

I prepared up a couple of screen shots showing what I mean.

Below shows a picture frame in the upper left that actually plays a video within the picture frame. The background is also a video. This was done in the Arranger. But the button showing the dog is a static image from the main video, and cannot be transformed into a video as far as I know.

Below shows the Arranger and how I put the elements together. The picture frame is a transparent png and I put the video behind it.

Or for a better image.

I presume that this is how it is done and that there is no way to get a video to play in the image type button. Is this correct?

Terry, Sorry for referring to you as Carl. Carl, sorry for implying that you were Terry. Thank you both for your help.

John, for $39 I can and will upgrade. Should have purchsed Plus from the start but at the time I didn't understand the limits of the lower priced version.  Would have loved to have seen a side by side check box comparison of the 3 versions.

As for your suggestion, moving to Plus is the right thing to do. I could spend hours tyring to figure out to brut force it only to find that there is no way.

Terry, the example you posted the screen shot of...

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/MEP-ChangingAnimatedMenu-2.jpg

...does exist in MEP 2015 but results in taking the place of the template and the movie sequence becomes the menu background once "OK" is pressed.

Thanks all

Stephen

@All,

I don't have the particular Wedding DVD menu with the picture frame in which there is a moving video in the picture frame. I have checked throughout MEP and VPX6 and I can't find it.

Hi John,

To quote Lewis Carroll, probably inaccurately, "Curiouser and curiouser." If Stephen has it in the basic MEP 2015 it surely ought to be in Plus/Premium?

If necessary you can copy it across from MEP 2014.

My own curiosity won't be quenched until I get confirmation from a MEP 2015 user other than Stephen that my suggested MEP 2014 Premium method doesn't work. 

Once again, can't see for lookin'.

Found the wedding - it's called Afternoon, not Wedding and I was looking in the wrong place.

As I suspected, the video playing in the frame is not actually in the button, which is transparent except for the text. The video is playing in the menu background and shows up in the Arranger behind the frame.

I found a fundamental difference between 2014 and 2015 (Plus/Premium) and you'll have to bear with me.

In MEP2015Premium, in the Arranger, I have the background colour on track 1, videos and images from my timeline on tracks 2 and 4, afternoon_bg.tga on tracks 14 (image) and 15 (sound), and the button text with Play and Chapters and my text shows up on tracks 31 (_MenuAlpha_.bmp Alpha) and 32 (_MenuPicture_.bmp).

@Terry,

Here is what happens with your screens in MEP2015Premium.

In the Menu Image video background design screen, so long as I have "Use background project" checked, all is fine. See below.

If I change it to "Use sequence from movie" then I lose the background project and here is the result after doing ok (with the Background design screen superimposed).

Definitely not what is wanted.

Now going back to the normal design and opening the Arranger, I see part of 5 of my objects from the timeline staggered on tracks 2 and 4. The first one is a video clip and the other 4 are images. How they were selected, I don't know.

If I delete 1 of them, it exposes the placeholder image.

Thus the menu is set up as a template. The placeholder cannot be deleted from the Arranger in MEP2015Premium, and this is the big difference. I cannot find a way to apply a different image to the placeholder.

As a result, I cannot find a way to select what plays in the picture frame; it is selected by default.

I tried this in 2014 and found the big difference between the 2014 and 2015. In 2014, I could delete the placeholder image and replace it with anything that I wanted.

Is this what you have found as well?

Thus those using MEP2015 cannot do what was possible in 2014.

I conclude that what Stephen has found is that it is not possible to determine what plays in the picture frame in MEP2015.

Have others found the same thing?

Of course I could build the DVD menu myself using the Afternoon elements, just as I did in my previous post, and avoid the template problem.

I have another problem in MEP2015Premium, when I go to the Arranger, things are all out of place. Here is an example. The timeline does not show and I have to go to Window, Window Arrangement, Default to set things straight, each time. The arrangement problem is not always the same, sometimes the three windows are squashed up into the upper half of the screen. Strange. Works fine in 2014Plus.

Hope I haven't confused things too much.

Further to my last message, I tried the same thing in VPX6 and I was able to delete the placeholder images and replace them with whatever I wanted in the arranger to show up in the menu picture frame.

Thus it is a particularity of MEP2015. I noticed that Movie Templates are also locked in 2015.

I have the same windows problem in VPX6 as in MEP2015Premium when I go into the DVD menu Arranger.

Terry

I have played around with that window a lot in 2014 and can not get any changes to the settings to give anything other than what the other guys are seeing in 2015. the only thing I have inexplicably changed is the frame that shows as a still when the menu preview is stopped.

So strange that you have been able to effect a change to what previews in the picture frame and we can not, even in 2014!

Also tried the Coffee and cake template - same thing - the whole background changes!

John CB

Confirming that the default video clip sequences in the frame can be changed and the placeholder also deleted in 2014.

Peter

Terry

I have played around with that window a lot in 2014 and can not get any changes to the settings to give anything other than what the other guys are seeing in 2015. the only thing I have inexplicably changed is the frame that shows as a still when the menu preview is stopped.

So strange that you have been able to effect a change to what previews in the picture frame and we can not, even in 2014!

 

Hi Peter,

I've spent most of the day trying in vain to reproduce my earlier 'result'! Apologies for wasting your time. I can only conclude that after taking my settings screenshot
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/MEP-ChangingAnimatedMenu-2.jpg
I must have somehow switched back to 'Use background project'.

I had used six  JPGs (with no effects) for my test and thought I was adjusting the starting point used! But I didn't check carefully enough, nor did I even display the Arranger, given that Stephen was unable to access it.

Hi John,

And I should have known better, because way back I recall analysing the apparent 'rules' MEP used to deliver its pseudo-random pans and zooms to the frame, in either this template or a similar one. I think I summarised that in a forum post, but can't quickly find it.

So, yes, the Arranger is the only way to go.

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

EDIT: Here's an extract from an old post of mine, in a thread covering rather similar territory:

I got some solid help from Magix Support on this and now know how to do it. It's relatively simple.

When in the Arranger, drag and drop your required substitute clips onto the existing ones to replace them. You'll find that you might need to move tracks around to make room, such as when you're dropping in a clip with audio. And you'll need to be careful about durations.

Magix confirmed that the Design page > Video button I described is one of the design flaws in the DVD menu section of the program. User Defined templates are not intended to be customised via this route. And realistically this is not going to get sorted as it's low priority.

@Stephen,

Have you got it figured out yet, or did we just confuse the issue?

Regards,

The only confusion was at the start when I couldn't figure out how to control the video in the frame. Once everyone pitched in with their investigations and knowledge the confusion disappeared. The bottom line is MEP 2016 (non Puls/Premium) does not have support for controlling the background video inside an existing template. However, it does allow you to create a background video as the main menu.

Haven't done it yet but I will be upgrading to MEP 2015 Plus soon.

Thanks all for your interest and support. I was surprized to see how much discussion this question generated. Hope it will be helpful to others who encounter the same problem.

P.S. Magix should consider adding this feature to basic version of MEP 2015. I was very frustrating to see a video sequence selected for me without understanding the basis for picking it and without being able to control it. The wedding video was for a friends daughter and new husband and I had no control over what played in the frame.

EUREKA!

I don't know why none of us found the answer. It was too obvious, I guess.

I simply added a video or image below the default image in the menu Arranger and all worked. I had my new video or image in the frame.

Here is the screen shot.

You can simply add a clip the entire default length (trim it if necessary) and place it below the other images, say on track 5 or 6 and it will take the place of the default images/placeholders.

Let me know if this works for you.