Return to menu after chapter finishes on a DVD

ron-griswold wrote on 2/6/2025, 9:25 AM

Good Morning, i have movie studio 2024 as well as Vegas pro 22 . Currently I'm trying to figure out "if MS" can even do it , but i want to build a video collection "3" and burn them to a dvd. however i can't find anywhere a setting that will allow a chapter to return to the main menu when it's finished. i have looked on the forms, the help menu etc . i found a 12 year old post related to Vegas 2013 and it said " at that time" it wasn't possible. i find it really hard to believe it still can't be done, so here i am . thanks you for your help in advance , RG

Comments

me_again wrote on 2/6/2025, 10:08 AM

@ron-griswold

Greetings Ron,

I'm not near my computer for a few days but if memory serves, I seem to remember that if each "chapter" is edited as a new video on the timeline instead of as part of a large video they all show in the DVD menu but each one is treated by the player as a "stand alone" video so returns to the menu after playing.

In other words, instead of one tab on the timeline you have many, each individually titled. The only drawback being the individual videos can't be played contiguously - if that's the word I want.

It's worth a try anyway. I could be mistaken as its been many moons since I created a DVD.

I hope you can understand this waffling. I'm writing on my phone which I HATE!

AndyW

johnebaker wrote on 2/6/2025, 2:17 PM

@me_again

Movie Studio 24 does not support the options, in the Disc menu editing, to enable single chapter playback and return back to the Chater menu.

The method @me_again gave:

. . . . if each "chapter" is edited as a new video on the timeline instead of as part of a large video they all show in the DVD menu but each one is treated by the player as a "stand alone" video so returns to the menu after playing. . . .

Is correct however, however requires further editing in the Disc menu editor to create separate Chapter menu(s).,, and comes with limitations, ie the full (main) movie runtime should not be more than 1 hr, as you are going to duplicate sections from the full movie, to new timelines (movies).

To do this fully you need to do the following, however while this method will work relatively easily with up to 6 chapters, I do not recommend it if you have more chapters nor use a menu the features text + image buttons.

I would recommend the Red Smoke menu template as it is the one I have found edits better than the image+text templates,.

On timeline (movie) 1 you require the full movie.
On additional timelines (movies) you require copies of the the sections that would make up each chapter.

In the Disc menu editing you should see all the timelines (movies) buttons for playback control on one or more menus depending on the number of 'chapters'.

Add a new menu and edit it adding text, and buttons/icons for each of the timelines 2, 3 , 4 ......etc, linking each button to the appropriate timeline (movie)
Edit the Main menu removing all the 'Chapter' movie buttons, leaving timeline 1 only
Add a new button 'Chapters' and link its action to the second menu.

Take care when doing this, it is easy to 'mess it up'.

If you have a lot of chapters and/or the movie is more than 1 hr long then you are going to need 3rd party Disc creation software that supports defining chapter end of play actions, unfortunately the best one, DVD Architect, is no longer available.

HTH

John EB
Forum Moderator