Changing audio during animated menu (solution inside)

[matzed]

Hi,

Im using Scenarist. I have a menu with Scene A on the left and Scene B on the right. Both scenes are movie which is playing (it comes from an editing software). I already have the subpicture and buttons, button 1 and button 2, one on each scene.

I have an AC3 sound file for each Scene : AC3 A and AC3 B. What i want is :

- both scenes are playing
- when i select the first button at, say, 00:30:00;21 from the begining, i'd like to switch to the AC3 A sound file, without stopping the scene nor have it rewinded to the begining : the scene will go on seamlessly to 00:30:00;22...
- the same when i go back to the scene/button B

If it was simple static bitmap instead of the scenes playing, it would be simple (action buttons calling several tracks with the same bitmap but the other sound file) but here it's more complicated : if i call another track with an action button, the scene will start at the beginning of the track, not at the moment the user choses the button... not very nice...

Anyone has an idea ?

Thanks

Matz

PS : The best would be if i can "pause" the first scene when the second is selected, but that sounds really impossible.

[influenza]

Maybe I think to easy here (but I have problems visualising this). You have sort of like a split screen with two pieces of video playing at the same time?

what if you add both audio tracks to both scenes. When pressing the button you simply change the audio track number, it wil continue from where it is (you mentioned this not being possible so I might see it wrongly here ;) )

[matzed]

In fact you're true : i was a little bit too pessimistic yesterday :)

I put both audio streams, switched the buttons to "auto action" (maybe the labels will be wrong, i don't have access to scenarist while writing this) and put the action to "change audio". And the audio is changing when the other button is activated, without restarting the video : good !

My problem now is that i still want it to be a menu : when pressing enter on the button, the DVD should go to the track i want. But the action for this button is now set to "change audio", so i can't use it to "go to track" anymore !

I'm investigating this : i can have the auto action do 2 actions : "change audio" and then "activate a button". So i put two more buttons, invisible : 3 and 4. I set the auto action of the button 1 to :
- change audio to track 1
- activate button 3

I set the action of button 3 to "go to track i want" :). And i set the "right link" to go to button 2 (which actions is "change to audio track 2" and "activate button 4" etc.). I play a little with the colors so it is not confusing the user.

So when the user switch to button 1 :
- the audio change to track 1
- the button 3 is activated
- if the user press "enter", he will in fact do the action of button 3 which is "go to track".

It should work like that, but it's not : the button 1 is still activated, it seems that button 3 is not activated automatically.

I'll try again tonight, making temporarily the button 3 visible to see if it is activated when the button 1 is activated.

I hope i was clear enough and that my english is not too bad :)

Matz

[matzed]

Finally did it. What i've done is :

1- I have a split screen with two pieces of video playing at the same time (thnks influenza for the correct english way of saying that)

2- I have added two audio tracks, one for each scene

3- I put 4 buttons (display color black and 0%, selection color black and 40 %, action color black and 60%)
- button 1 : covering 80% of the first scene
- button 2 : same position and size than button 1 (using the button coordinates of scenarist)
- button 3 : covering 80% of the second scene
- button 4 : same position and size than button 3

4- Link right from button 1 to button 2 and from button 3 to button 2

5- Link left from button 2 to button 1 and from button 4 to button 1

6- Button 1 and 2 set to "Auto Action"

7- Command for button 1 (from top to bottom options) : "Set Angle/Audio/Sub-picture", "Immediate option" enabled, "Set Audio Stream ID to" enabled only and set to "1", "Link" option enabled, "Link Command" set to "Jump by Sub-Instructions", "Jump to" set "No Jump" and "Highlight button" set to "3" (!!!!!). So in the command list the button 1 says : "{SetSTN Audio=1; LinkNoLink, button=3}".

8- Command for button 2 : same as button one, but "Set Audio Stream ID to" set to "1" and "Highlight button" set to "4"

9- Command for button 3 : Link to Movie1

10- Command for button 4 : Link to Movie2

This will have the following behavior : when the user will press on the right arrow, the button 2 will be selected. As it is on Auto Action, the audio will be set to 2 (the audio of the scene2 in fact) and button 4 will be selected, but for the user is seems that button 2 is selected : button 2 and 4 are at the same position and size. The action for button 4 is "Link to Movie2" so when the user hit "Enter", the player will play the Movie2. If, instead of hitting enter, he presses the left arrow, the audio will be set to 1 (the audio of the scene1), and the button 3 is selected so when he presses enter, it will play Movie1.

That's a cool way to do scene selection with 8 playing scenes of a movie (you'll have to play with an editing software of avisynth o do that), and two buttons at the same position for each scene, and one track for each scene. Both buttons will be right-linked and left-linked to the right and left scene. Reproduce what i've done for the commands so the behavior is what we want.

In my example, what is nice is that each scenes have people talkings. In the editing software, i have mixed the voices with a music playing in the background. I used the same music for each scene. So when i switched from on scene to another, it's really nice.

Maybe this has already been explained somewhere here, but i didn't find it !

Matz

PS : the "Jump to" set "No Jump" at step 7 will ensure that the cell won't be played from the beginning when changing audio. If you chose to go to the currently playing cell, it will be restarted, which is not very fine...

[influenza]

Nice that you solved it. And thank you for the explanation, could indeed be usefull for other people as well :)

[zappppp]

but there's a problem with that. when you watch it on computer using software like powerdvd or windvd, most people use mouse instead of keyboard(left,right)to select track, and you have to click twice to activate the track. there's another way doing it.

-button 1 link to movie 1
-button 2 link to movie 2
-button 3 invisible(put it to the very edge of the menu as small as
possible
-button 4 same as button 3
-link right button 1 to 3(button 3 auto action)set audio 2
highlight button 2
-link left butting 2 to 4 (button 4 auto action)set audio 1
highlight button 1
when you first view the menu button 1 is hightlighted and audio 1 is
playing

[auenf]

Originally posted by zappppp
but there's a problem with that. when you watch it on computer using software like powerdvd or windvd, most people use mouse instead of keyboard(left,right)to select...

DVDs were meant to be used with the remote, those who use the mouse to navigate advanced menus need to be shot (or other lesser things if you want).

Enf...

[zappppp]

whatever.

[matzed]

Originally posted by auenf
DVDs were meant to be used with the remote, those who use the mouse to navigate advanced menus need to be shot (or other lesser things if you want).

Enf...

I totally agree. Besides, even with PowerDVD or WinDVD you can use the arrow keys to navigate like on a standalone.

But i have a problem with that solution :

- under scenarist, with the simulation windows, it is not working like it should (the button 3 and 4 are not activating the tracks),
- i made the disc with scenarist though, mount it with DaemonTools, and it worked under PowerDVD (using the navigation tab of power dvd, not the mouse)
- on a standalone, the audio tracks are not activated...

Hmmm... I'll have to try again, maybe i made something wrong on the buttons or on the guide itself...

Anybody has tried this guide, and make it worked on a standalone ?

I'll teel you about my tests.

Matz

[influenza]

Software dvd players are usually not very strict about dvd standards and behaviour. So this could be very true that on powerdvd it works but not on your standalone.

Maybe ifoedits dvdplayere behaves more like a 'real' standalone.

[matzed]

I have to admit that in the simulation windows of Scenarist it was not working. I compiled the ISO though, and it worked with PowerDVD. I thought Scenarist was wrong, but it seems to act like a real standalone !

I have to review my method... Any ideas ?

Matz

[DaRat]

I don't know if this is still bothering anyone but here it goes. :D I don't know why it won't activate the corresponding audio stream, it should but the Jump by Subinstruction' "LinkNoLink, Button [wahetever]" results as Link NOP, no highlight changes, my pdvd even stop playing the menu when encounters one... Sad, but there's no way to make it work.

For PC users you can actually trick the double click" thing the way you mentioned, like placing a other button (#1, the "linkPG button") on the top of the auto action audioselector (#2), this way the highlight (so the LinkPG) of button #2 will take precedence when a user moves over it. However the poor standalone user won't be able to use the LinkPG button, since he has the other button highlighted.

The only solution for this is if you somehow make the user press a another directional instead of the enter. Example: you have 3x2 chapters, the top row plays the scene if she press up, the bottom ones play if she press down. Of course you have to make more buttons with auto action and your menu will look... Well, strange to say the least.

Here's a li'l test meun I made for this, it works flawlessly as far as I can say. :D

http://darat.freehosting.net/chap_example.jpg

(this was done in 10 minutes only for testing purposes, not actual stuff I would use anywhere... :D:D:D:D)

So, here we have 18 buttons altogether, #1-#6 are the auto-action buttons, none selected by default (use pre-command and link to the current cell in the post-command), they have left and/or right and up or dn link for each other, also links for the corresponding "play scene" button, pretty simple. Buttons #7 through #12 are plaxced atop #1-#6, slightly larger, theese contain LinkPG commands, so our dear point-and-click user would be able to hit'em with the damn mouse. The button links point to the neighbours, but into the bottom set (eg #7's left link points to #2, etc, this way if someones screwing around the mouse and then uses the keyboard he gets the same results as he never used the mouse). Buttons #13-#16 are links to PGs again but this time auto-action enabled, no button-links here. Of yourse this requires a bit creativity in the designing process, and pressig a arrow instead enter could be pretty strange (and hard to understand) for Joe Widescreen, so it's your call if you want to use it or not. (Try adding a help page where you could explain how to navigate efficiently on your disk.)