Hey guys, is there a way to create a slideshow in dvd lab that runs as a background menu on which you can place buttons to click? I have created several menu backgound jpg's where the left hand side is free for text and the right hand side shows pictures. now i would like to have the dvd show the backgrounds so that i can put the buttons on the left hide side and click on them while backgrounds change...that would mean that the menu could not be an motion menu, right, as i would not be able to interact while it plays..Correct? Please gimme some help if you can!!! Thanks!
The opposite. The menu must be a motion menu. Render your sequence of stills into an mpg video. Import it as the background, make buttons and links, then re-render as a motion menu.
Thanks Jim, but how to do that? - rendering stills? -re-render motion menu with buttons? Do i need dvd lab pro? Thanks already!
YOu need an encoder that will take .jpg (or .bmp or whatever) and render them as short mpg clips. Tmpgenc will do it. You can also join them all together in tmpgenc, merge and cut section of mpeg tools. Once you have the video slideshow in mpg format, load it into dvdlab, then set it into menu1. Add your buttons, links, whatever, then render it as a motion menu. It's all in the help files, with examples and pictures (for the DVDLab stuff). Once rendered, you will then encode the avi to mpeg-2 and load it as the motion menu, replacing whatever you have in menu 1.
Hey Jim, looks like i'm stuck,i'm sorry..i dragged my jpegs into the tmpgEnc window, selected an output video file and let it run. when i merge them together, the final result is a file of 0 seconds and it won't show no different images. how do i set time intervals, f.ex. that each image is shown for 5 seconds in the final mpeg? can you tell me how to do it step-by-step? Do i need to do it with MPEG2? My trial has expired and i can only do 1...Thanks a lot!
You do one file at a time in tmpgenc. Try using VCDEasy instead. You could also use Animation Shop (part of paintshop pro) to generate an avi, then encode that to mpeg-2. No, mpeg-1 will not work for DVD.
Sorry Jim, but it just won't work! I have tried TMPGEnc again...i set the jpg's to ratios of multiples of 8 with easy peg, just as tmpgenc wants them. then i opened the jpgs in tmpg, choose output as mpeg2 caus i have found a new machine where the trial still works and after a half second i get a 56 kb mpeg file which of course won't play in any player. so that's messed up. i then used vcd easy, selected output super video cd, opened my jpgs, had a nice preview and converted them to mpegs. that worked and the "videos" play in a player. but when i open them in tmpg to merge them, it tells me that they are illegal mpeg video streams. subsequently, it won't merge them and i'm stuck again...a vcd easy analysis of my mpegs tells me: MPEG2, PlayingTime=0.000s, Bitrate=2788800bps, PtsOffset=1913s, 49 packets Video-Stream: Still Picture, 704x576, 25fps (PAL), 2500kbps how can it e so hard? what's my mistake? any ideas are truly appreciated!! CRC = 922DD3C2
Try joining them in Womble mpeg-vcr, or VideoReDo. These will both output a compliant video stream. It would be easier to make an avi in Animation Shop, then encode to mpg.
Hey, I have managed to create a MPEG2 from the jpgs with animation shop, so far, so good...i have loaded it into dvd lab and started to add buttons with links to 3 movies. however, when i try to render it only shows me the background video as an object that can be rendered. nothing more. the help files don't help at all, i duplicated what they tell you to do and it's the same thing, the movie is the only renderable object i can choose. the help says "The Render Motion feature will recognize all objects which can chapters, video stills) and lists these in the Motion Objects list." but it won't let me... when i render it nonetheless, i have a motion menu background that looks and plays like the old movie with the buttons added to each frame. but it's just a visual thing, i can't do anything with the buttons. so how can i possibly connect actions to them? I'm beginning to feel really lost, all i want is a movie playing in a background on top of which i have buttons that start the real movies. why does that seem to be so hard to do?
Add the video background. Add all your buttons. Make all your links. Make sure the whole menu is finished, THEN render it. Let DVDLab replace the old with the newly rendered one. If you render as avi, you'll have to re-encode it to mpg, then import and replace the old. Compile and test.
Jim, I really appreciate your help but I can't get it to work! i have tried something else, i have dragged the movies from the project areas directly to the motion menu, so that i can see the first frame of the movie in a rectangle. only if i do that am i able to select movie 1, 2 or 3 to be rendered with the background. if i do that, however, the result is not as desired. it renders the movie clips into the background in a way that when the dvd background menu plays, the shown first frame of the clip changes in time. in essence, i have a video playing within a video, or, as some TV's call it, picture-in-picture. (i have tried compiling the dvd with very short movies to check if it works and played it in VLC player and power dvd) but that's not what i want, i want to create buttons that link to movie 1 and the others. if i do that, the buttons won't be present in the rendering menu and i can't do anything with them. also: if i create buttons and go to the simulation view, the buttons are not visible no more. i get colored rectangles to select the movies that change colors when i select one. but i don't see my buttons anymore. how can i create my menu in a way that in the simulation view, i can select and deselect my buttons rather than rectangles ? do you know what i mean? I'm really sorry if i'm being stupid but i have spent hours so far on that one dvd and i can't get it to work. Please give me some more hints if you can. thanks a lot!
To get the buttons you want, you need switched menus. Although this can be done with motion menus, it won't be seamless. Try this tutorial and see if it helps: http://www.videohelp.com/guides.php?link=734
Sweeet, Jim! Thanks a lot! I have begun looking into your material, but i have another question. dunno if it is answered in what you have given me to read, if so please appologize. Yesterday, i have created a motion menu and dragged two short movies directly from the project tab to the menu so that i get a first frame thumbnail for each. that way, i was able to render the motion menu and the two movies. the result was a menu that worked in terms of what it should do: allow me to select one of the two movies whilst playing the background clip. so far, so good. but, since i could only render the movies when i dragged them into the menu, the final menu did not show a fixed first frame thumbnail but rather changed the frames of the movies to be selected as well. get it? i had a background movie with adjusting frames for the 2 movies-to-be-selected. i found no way around that; if i replace the movies with buttons linked to the movies, they won't appear in the render-menu anymore. Any ideas?
You don't need to replace the still frames with buttons. Just disable the option in the rendering screen. Top right, gives you a list of the objects included in the rendering. Next column left, allows you to hilight them, and disable them from being rendered in the motion menu. Look for "Include this in the final" something...I forget the actual wording.
Well, Jim, I haven't written in a while... I did lotsa testing and, finally, i got it all figured out. your superb guides and your help made it possible and i now have the dvd i wanted!! Thank you very very much, I really appreciated it!
