DVDMaestro - Menu button on remote does nothing

[Butcher Wing]

Hi,

Sorry if there is a Maestro help section somewhere, I couldn't see one though.

The problem I have is, I've just started using DvdMaestro

(because dvdlab pro produces ugly subs and fuzzy menus)


So anyway.....Maestro is fine but it seems to make my 'Main Menu' into a 'VMG Menu'. And that's bad because.... when I hit the "menu" button on my remote control, it does nothing! I know this is because of a VMG menu.

So how do I make a main menu that isn't a VMG? It didn't give me a choice. :/


Thanks for any advice you can give. :)


P.S - Why do authoring programs use VMG menus if they cause the remote control 'menu' button to be unusable.?

[setarip_old]

Wasn't DVDMaestro acquired by Apple and discontinued back in 2002?

[rik1138]

Wasn't DVDMaestro acquired by Apple and discontinued back in 2002?

I honestly have to ask this:
What does that have to do with what the original poster is asking?

As for the question, I believe there's a setting in the project properties box to define what the menu button on the remote does... I seem to remember having to actually look for it and set it... Haven't used Spruce in a while, so can't remember exactly where it is...

Spruce doesn't give you a whole lot of control over where menus are placed and how they accessed by the player. You would need to use Scenarist if you want that kind of control. But it's probably not really necessary, with command sequences you can usually get a disc to do most anything you want.

[mp3dom]

You need to enable the advanced commands to have full access to all the menu buttons. Plus, if you want to manually set where to put your menus (by default DVDMaestro puts all the menus in the VTS_01_0) you need to enable the "Manual VTS allocation" checkbox in the project properties. This checkbox is only available on the latest version (prior of Apple acquisition). And yes, Spruce was acquired by Apple with the result of the birth of DVDStudio Pro and DVDMaestro to be discontinued.

[setarip_old]

@rik1138

Hi! What does that have to do with what the original poster is asking?
Simple:
1) Perhaps the OP is unaware that he/she is attempting to use (and obtain information) a program that was discontinued 9 years ago.

2) OP would undoubtedly benefit from acquiring comparable currently maintained software. Certainly, there would be more support available (From both Forum members and software Product Support).

[rik1138]

@rik1138

Hi!
Simple:
1) Perhaps the OP is unaware that he/she is attempting to use (and obtain information) a program that was discontinued 9 years ago.

2) OP would undoubtedly benefit from acquiring comparable currently maintained software. Certainly, there would be more support available (From both Forum members and software Product Support).

Then why didn't you state that you KNEW the software was outdated, and offer the suggestion of alternate pieces of software that he could have used, if that's something you insist on doing?

You asked whether or not the software was discontinued years ago, as if you didn't know yourself...

And again, what did it have to do with answering his question? Did it provide him ANY useful information?

Not trying to single you out in particular, but this forum is plagued with people that just seem to love responding to someone request for help IN A SPECIFIC PIECE OF SOFTWARE by making some kind of comment why they shouldn't be using that particular piece of software. (Codecs are the same thing... Someone asks for advice on encoding audio to DTS, 400 people post telling him why he should be using Dolby Digital instead...)

Posts like 'why are you using that software/codec/whatever' are just a complete waste of time to everyone in the forum (original poster, readers, even the writer...) And, in the end, it's usually down to opinion (use this software, it's better!). Maybe he _HAS_ to use Maestro. Maybe that's the only software the company he works for will allow. Maybe he's restoring old backups to make one change and re-release the DVDs.

Yes, people still use DVD Maestro.. It's still used _daily_ for Hollywood work. It's FAR from obsolete. Yes it's discontinued, but it's not obsolete or worthless by any standard.

[setarip_old]

@rik1138

You've asked me a question about my initial post to this thread and I politely answered you - and I would have preferred to have left it at that. However, I feel that your subsequent post is "Over the top" and must be addressed (Only once):

There's certainly nothing in my posts to this thread that warrants you launching a diatribe stating that, "this forum is plagued with people that just seem to love responding to someone request for help IN A SPECIFIC PIECE OF SOFTWARE by making some kind of comment why they shouldn't be using that particular piece of software. (Codecs are the same thing... Someone asks for advice on encoding audio to DTS, 400 people post telling him why he should be using Dolby Digital instead...)".

Over both my many years in the world of business and life in general, I've observed that there are several ways people in need of assistance can be helped - and one method/choice/option is not necessarily better than another, nor is it necessarily the sole solution:

1) Answer their question as succinctly as possible and presume they actually knew they had only one question regarding the topic

2) Ask them some questions to elicit additional information and promote their thought processes, so that you may, with their active involvement, be able to provide a more complete solution than might otherwise be possible

3) Offer alternative solutions that might otherwise not cross their minds

In my opinion, the Doom9 Forums are blessed with a vast majority of members who, in addition to creating wonderful (primarily) free tools/programs/software, are for the most part, sincerely trying to assist other members. Being creative types, the members assuredly have differing personalities and differing ways of offering advice - and that's wonderful ;>} And I'm fairly certain that no one here (including myself) wishes to be referred to as being part of a "plague".

As I said at the outset of this now too long response, "You've asked me a question about my initial post to this thread and I politely answered you." (In retrospect, perhaps I shouldn't have responded to you at all, since you're not the OP of this thread.)

I guess what it boils down to is that at these forums (and other similar forums), many members have many different styles of communicating.

[rik1138]

@rik1138

There's certainly nothing in my posts to this thread that warrants you launching a diatribe stating that, "[COLOR="DarkRed"]this forum is plagued with people


Heh, well 'plague' might have been a bit of a strong word in retrospect... :cool:

And, in all honesty, I only frequent a few parts of this forum on a regular basis:
Audio Encoding, DVD/Blu-ray authoring and Advanced Authoring. It just seems to happen a lot in the audio encoding forum... Someone asks how to encode to a certain audio format, and it starts thread war over which format is better and why with the original question never even getting answered... :rolleyes:


1) Answer their question as succinctly as possible and presume they actually knew they had only one question regarding the topic

2) Ask them some questions to elicit additional information and promote their thought processes, so that you may, with their active involvement, be able to provide a more complete solution than might otherwise be possible

3) Offer alternative solutions that might otherwise not cross their minds

But you didn't do any of these... You didn't answer the question (#1), you didn't ask him a question that would promote his thought process (#2), and you offered no solutions at all, alternative or otherwise (#3).

I suppose it's just the _way_ you responded. I suppose you could argue you were trying to make him think of the possibility of using other software or something? If that was the case, you could have just said that. Or was there another, specific reason you responded with the post you did?

I suspect, like you said, people have different ways of offering advice, and other people interpret things differently... It's a common problem on the internet. :D

[Butcher Wing]

Woah, woah...! No need to argue guys. 'lol

Thanks everyone who replied with some advice. And yes, I realise I'm using an old program and that's the annoying thing. The only reason I've started to
use DVDMaeastro is because I was sick of DvdLabPro producing messy looking subtitles, lack of subtitle settings and my menus coming out soft/fuzzy looking.
If not for that, I would love to continue using DvdLab Pro.

So I tried Maestro and found that it can produce neater, more commercial grade looking subtitles and I'm hoping the menu images and text will look crisper too. P.S - I'm using Maestro version 2.9 which seems pretty basic.

As for the problem I'm having with the menu button on the remote. It's the same problem as with DVDLab Pro. If you use a "VMG menu" instead of a VTS menu,
the 'menu' button on your remote becomes unresponsive. But Maestro seems to create a "VMG menu" automatically. I didn't get an option. It's all down to it being a VMG. Even though I manually program that button to be the button that takes you back to the main menu. It just can't do it, for some reason.

I'm wondering how past users of Maestro got around this problem. :/ I set the title menu button to link to the "root menu", but it didn't make any difference.

Is everyone using "Sonic Scenarist" these days then? Is that the only way to get a decent, commercial looking dvd? I heard it was impossible to learn so I avoided it. But of course I would love to know how to use it.

[Butcher Wing]

Cut a long story short -

The fact that my root menu is a "VMG menu" is what's stopping the remote control button from doing what it's set to do.

Why does Maestro create a VMG menu by default? :scared:

I think I need a regular "VTS menu".

This is madness. It's the only thing holding me back now. This dvd would be done if not for this stupid problem.
Surely people that use Maestro in the past didn't put up with this problem. I'm baffled.


I need to find a beginner's tutorial for Scenarist, which I expect doesn't exist in english. :/

[mp3dom]

Almost all are using Scenarist (or DVDStudio Pro, which resemble DVDMaestro). The learning curve is high if you need to learn from scratch, but if you've already some experience with DVDLab or DVDMaestro then you should be able to do a medium-complex project without high troubles (if you have some experience with manual VM Commands)

[Butcher Wing]

That's the problem. I haven't been able to find out how to use manual VM commands. I really want to.

I have just found 2 newbie guides for Sonic Scenarist though, on this here board! So I'm off to give that a go. :D

[Butcher Wing]

Please can somebody help? :( I'm so stuck. I found Sonic Scenarist too hard to understand when I got the menu/ connections stage.

And Maestro would be fine if not for this ''VMG menu'' issue.

The main menu button on one's remote control should take you back to the ''root menu'' during playback but it wont because the ''root menu'' is a VMG menu.
How do I get around this? There must be a way. Surely everyone using Maestro years ago didn't put up with this. :/

The connection is set up for the main menu button to take me back to the ''root menu'' on the dvd, but all it does is cause the movie to pause for a fraction of second, then carry on playing.
I know this is down to it being a 'VMG menu'.

[mp3dom]

I've made in the past something near to 100 dvd with DVDMaestro and all the times the Root Menu worked fine (or exactly as it should). It's not a problem of menus being in the VMG, but in general that problem appear when you don't specify anything as a Root Menu. Every title has its own 'Root Menu' routing. Are you sure to specify it for every title? You need to enable the advanced routing to have Root Menu/End Title routing for every title (plus all the other routings like Audio Menu, Chapter Menu, Angle Menu and so on, plus Previous and Next commands).
If you want to move your menu from VMG to VTS you need to enable the "Manual VTS allocation" as I've already said in my previous post. In that way you should obtain something that acts more similar to Scenarist. Have you enabled that checkbox?!

P.S: Anyway, DVDMaestro covers pretty much everything you can do with Scenarist. The only limitations are the animated subpictures and some other minor limitations that you can circumvent in other ways (and the fact that with Scenarist you have full control over your authoring project so on real complex project with Scenarist you are sure that the compiled dvd works, while DVDMaestro can hangs or create playback problems when you start to use more than 100 menus)

[Butcher Wing]

Thanks so much for trying to help, mp3dom. I really appreciate it. The fact that you used Maestro plenty of times and never had a problem makes me feel confident I can get through this. :D

Take a look at my screen shot. My dvd is so basic, it only has one menu, with on button (for now). It couldn't be simpler! That menu is my root menu 'aka' menu1.
As you can see, I have set up the button to link to this menu. I think.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v106/gregobehave/th_7e970dcd.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v106/gregobehave/7e970dcd.jpg)

So can you see anything wrong there?

I can get the movie to return to the main menu by pressing the "title menu" button on the remote", but not if I press the most
commonly used "root menu" button that one would normally press. Or is that normal for Maestro dvds?



Also, I would love to find this "Manual VTS allocation" option, but I can't find it anywhere.

Baring in mind I'm using Maestro v2.915a - Is this is the latest version for PC?

-

[mp3dom]

"Movie1: Chapter 1: Menu Key" (and the same for all the other chapters) is what you need to fill to enable the "Root Menu" on your remote. The small pause you have when you press "Root Menu" on your remote is bacause you don't have specified anything in that field.
To enable the manual VTS allocation, you need to right click on your project (in the example "test.author.dvd.project") and choose its properties.

[Butcher Wing]

Thank you so much! I can actually feel the muscles relaxing around my skull finally.

Much appreciated, mp3dom!


;)