Hi,

EDIT: I see that John EB beat me to the post.

Using the DVD menu editor is not difficult......once you know how.

Look at this tutorial by John E. Baker - both pdf files, and do a search under the Tutorials tab, Video for "menu" and you will find a few more. Also read the manual. When you are in the Menu Editor, press on F1 and read carefully the description of all of the boxes, and also read the information in each of the links. Use a test file and try out everything.  Armed with all of that, you should be able to figure out much more. There are also some threads in which we discussed the menu editor at length that you can try to find. We should have documented these.

For buttons, click on the button - preview images are also buttons - then click on Edit under the Design Button part at the right of the screen. You can change the chapter titles in the button editor. Same thing for other elements on the screen or just double-click on anything that has a box.

You cannot re-order the menu items in the list at the left of the screen. You can turn off any chapters that you don't want and the button will be gone. You can drag the buttons around on the screen.

Main menu shows Movies, secondary menus on other screens show the chapters.

For the videos, there are two things that you can do.

1. Under Disk Options, Intro video, you can add an intro video by selecting the .... and view it by clicking on the play button right beside these dots. This is the only way to preview this video. I use this to insert my standard splash video that you see at the beginning of my tutorials.
2. Under Design page, Video, click on the .... and you get a whole new menu where you can add your background video. You can click on the playback button beside the dots to preview the video. Then in Preview mode, click on the Menu Preview button that is at the bottom left of the preview window and you will see your video play just as it would after the intro video plays after inserting a DVD. You don't however, see the intro video play here.

You can also click on the button in the editor at the right under Disk Options, In Arranger to see your video, audio, images and text in the arranger. Here you can add or change things, within reason. Then click on the Burn button at the top right, apply your changes and preview the result.

If you change the chapter title in the Menu editor, click ok, then go back to the main editor, the chapter title will be updated. But if you now rename the title again but in the main editor, the change will not be reflected in the Menu editor. The Menu editor now takes precedence.

Like I said, read everything, and try everything on a test project that has at least 2 movies and a few chapters each.

Hi

@ John CB

. . . . Look at this tutorial by John E. Baker - both pdf files . . .

Oops 😳 I had forgotten I included instructions on how to edit the DVD menu in that tutorial.

@ LeCanadien - apologies for forgetting my own tutorial - how embarrassing!!!.

John EB

Thank you! You guys are awesome! Thank you so much.

I will certainly do more reading. Well, you know, most men do not follow instructions! :)

Apologies accepted John EB. Please also accept my apologies for my rant. I was a bit frustrated. I am a software developer and I expect all software to be user-friendly and intuitive, the way I write mine ;)

Thank you so much again.

Happy New Year!

I forgot to mention to watch for mouseover hints and right-clicking on things as sometimes there is a menu.

Have fun!

Hi

. . . . Apologies accepted John EB. Please also accept my apologies for my rant. I was a bit frustrated . . . .

No worries - frustration is part of using computers - they can be the most frustrating things when they go wrong or do not behave as you expect 😠😡

Happy editing!

John EB

I have imported artwork for my page background and deleted the existing buttons (which were horrible) and tried to add new ones just being text. I have done this before, but now, for some reason on this project I cannot see the text of these new buttons. I am really frustrated here and on the verge of dumping MEP. Any suggestions?

Hi

Have a look at this quick tutorial I did earlier for another topic, which is closely related to yours, and see if you are doing in adding text to the menus - starts about 1 min into the video.

Also check the text colour is not the same as the background.

HTH

John EB

Yeah, Thanks, Johnbaker, but this doesn't help at all. I know HOW to do it but the program just isn't working properly because it's full of bugs. I should say I'm using quite an old version (MEP MX Plus), and it should be as straight forward as in your video, but it isn't. It glitches constantly and I'm having serious trouble with it. I'm now looking at other software.

Hi

MX had some issues with some of the menu templates during menu editing and handling multi movie projects.

The most stable one to modify is Red Smoke

. . . . It glitches constantly and I'm having serious trouble with it. . . . .

Without more information on your computer specification it is difficult to identify what the problem is - see this post and then come back with more information, include:

1. Computer specification
2. Windows version
3. What the 'glitches' are
4. Which menu template you are starting with
5. A screenshot of the program settings, Video/audio and Display settings tabs.

John EB

1) System is AMD 8 core 3.5Ghz processor with 24 MB RAM, 64bit.

2) Windows 10

3) As I said previously, the buttons are invisible. They are there, but I cannot see my text. On another file a button froze, moved and MEP will not allow me to access or delete it. It's so unreliable.

4) I don't know as I always completely redesign the temple to fit my own project. I just modify the first one that comes up.

5) I cannot put screenshot up here. I don't know why it's not letting me, but it won't work.

I'm thinking of moving to Adobe. Magix are too unstable. I've had 2 Magix programs and they were both highly unstable. I'm not asking it to do anything it's not designed to do. It's just not up to any kind of standard or reasonable stability and glitch-free use. I'm looking seriously at Adobe Premiere Pro. Got to be less hassle than MEP and they actually have really good tech support, as opposed to MEP, which leaves you in the lurch with just forums to sort out problems with their own program.

Hi.

Indeed Premier Pro is a good program, but are you prepared to pay the monthly subscription for the latest version? Have you looked at more recent versions of MEP? Or, if you're seriously considering PP you should look very carefully at Magix' Video Pro X. All current versions of MEP and VPX are also on an annual subscription model, but at rather less cost than to use PP, I think. And, if you ever decide to stop paying for PP it will soon stop working completely! Not so with VPX, if you decide not to renew your subscription you will simply have a working program that will never be updated.

Also, you write about PP that

they actually have really good tech support

I'm not sure heavy-duty users of PP would necessarily agree with you! I don't have PP but I am a user of Adobe Audition CC (the subscription model) simply because of the amount/complexity of audio editing I do and the fact that the last version which could be bought outright (CS6) is now getting rather long in the tooth.

Jeff

Hi

Have you raised a support ticket for the problems you are having?

I am having some issues with editing the menus as well one of which is :

. . . . I cannot see my text . . . . They are there, but I cannot see my text. . . . .

The text is not always appearing when you change it from the default or add a new button, however, move the button and it appears - it looks like it could be a screen refresh bug.

. . . . I cannot put screenshot up here. I don't know why it's not letting me, but it won't work. . . .

The image must be saved as a jpg, then uploaded using the Upload button next to the Smiley

. . . . I just modify the first one that comes up. . . . .

That is the Default menu template.

I agree with the menu editing being frustrating in that it allows you to do things and it works fine in the Disc Menu preview, however when you burn it does not behave as expected.

HTH

John EB

1) System is AMD 8 core 3.5Ghz processor with 24 MB RAM, 64bit.

2) Windows 10

3) As I said previously, the buttons are invisible. They are there, but I cannot see my text. On another file a button froze, moved and MEP will not allow me to access or delete it. It's so unreliable.

4) I don't know as I always completely redesign the temple to fit my own project. I just modify the first one that comes up.

5) I cannot put screenshot up here. I don't know why it's not letting me, but it won't work.

Hi,

1) 24 MB or GB?

2) Is MEP MX compatible with W10?

3) Button text - Did you try changing the colour? Is there a text size and font? Is transparency 0% or 100%?

5) Can we see some screenshots now that you know how? Or are you having trouble making them? Show the Menu entry properties for the text as well as the layout of the of the DVD screen. Below is a screen shot of the menu edit properties for a button with text that I posted just to see if there was something wrong with being able to post screen shots.

Posting a screen shot works fine. You can't take a screen shot and paste it into the message, you have to create a jpg file first and upload it.

Hi

Apologies I missed it was Windows 10 😭

MEP MX is not compatible with Windows 10, it does run and there can be issues however this is not one of them - the text appears when I add a button or title to a menu.

What video mode is MEP MX set to ?

Mine is set as shown below

John EB

I'm back. I haven't migrated to Adobe YET. But I will. I still have to master this DVD first though using MEP. I have now completely remastered the as a new file, wherein I can see my buttons. I have changed fonts etc (which rather infuriatingly changed at random when I print the DVD), BUT here's the real bugger - The buttons DON NOT WORK. I can play the Feature, but the buttons for the other items (which are chapter files) simply don't work and send the DVD into stop mode where the DVD is no longer engaged in any player I have tried it on. When I run it in the Preview mode it all works like a dream, and then I print and... Nope! That menu Does Not Work! It's infuriating!

Please, please, please can anyone help me in this?

I know John EB said Windows 10 doesn't like MEP, but there has to be something else wrong. This is inside the actually settings of MEP, it's their own Menu set-up.

btw, I have an AMD 8 core 3.5Ghz processor with 24 GB RAM, 64bit. Graphics card is Nvidia GeForce GTX 960. I'm on Windows 10 OS.

@johncraighowells

John EB said that "MEP MX is not compatible with Windows 10," not that Windows 10 does not like MEP. You are using a very old version; the recent versions are compatible with W10.

One cannot comment on why your buttons don't work without seeing exactly what you did. Post screen shots of the parameters used for your buttons. Maybe you did something wrong. Since you made new buttons, did you link the buttons to the chapters?

Note that the menus work for me and for the others, but we are using more recent versions of MEP.

@browj2

I have made DVD's with this software before, which is why this is so perplexing and infuriating now. Yes, my buttons are linked to chapters. It just looks like I'll have to source another program.

Hi

. . . . I have made DVD's with this software before . . .

Was this before you upgraded or installed the program on Windows 10?

The issues you are having are typical of what can happen when running an incompatible version (MX) on Windows 10.

MX was designed to run on XP, Vista and Windows 7, it is possible to run the program on Windows 8, however Windows 10 introduced a lot of changes to the Windows OS with the result that a lot of old software became non functional or has issues.

HTH

John EB

Hi,

From what I vaguely recall a couple of years ago, Microsoft kept changing things that affected burning DVD's. I remember that in one ticket that I raised with Magix, the technician told me that it would take quite a while to correct certain bugs because the developers were all trying to fix the problems created by MS. It is quite likely that the older versions, like MX did not get the fixes that were sent out, and that going to W10 would just exacerbate the problem.

Were you able to successfully burn a DVD using MX and W10? Did you try a simple project with a few chapters and using the default DVD menu? If not, try it. If that doesn't work, then you may need to upgrade to a compatible version. BTW, you should be using rewritable DVDs as you probably already have a good supply of coasters.

Okay, so I took everyone at their word. I upgraded to MEP Premiere (which is supposed to be Windows 10 compatible) and EXACTLY the same thing keeps happening. My buttons are linked to chapters and all works fine within the MEP Preview function, but whenever I print the DVD these buttons do not work. I'm no better off having spent £55 on an uprgade that does nothing to solve this problem. MEP just does not like you making your own menus, despite it purportedly supporting this function. Any ideas?