DVD-LAB PRO – Need help with chapters, menus and subtitles

[rock_king_my]

Hi

Not sure if this enquiry is BASIC or ADVANCED but here I go!

I want to make a multi-movie only compilation DVD with DVDLAB PRO:
- When first played, the default MAIN MOVIE SELECTION MENU should give me a choice of the films on the DVD
- When I select the movie, this should lead to a CHAPTERS/SCENE SELECTION menu for that movie
- Only 1 English audio stream per movie
- Only 1 or 2 optional subtitle streams per movie + Subtitle Off option as default
- I don’t need a menu for Set-Up / Languages

At the moment I am testing with NTSC movies but will try to do PAL ones later on.

All the DVD movies I’m using at the moment are WIDESCREEN VERSIONS but may use FULLSCREEN movies later on too.

QUESTIONS:
1. For default project, do I choose Normal or Advanced Menu to suit the above requirements? At the moment, I chose Advanced.
2. Do I need to create one VTS per movie or just use one VTS for all the movies on the DVD?
3. Is it possible to add extra buttons/links on the Scene Selection Menus? For example, I am at Page 1 of Scenes Menu but I want a link that will lead me from Page 1 to Page 3, 4, 5, etc. Link to Page 2 is already there as NEXT.
4. Assume that there are 4 scenes per Scene Selection Page. When you’re at the first page, you press 1 on the remote you get chapter 1, 2 to get chapter 2, etc. Can DVDLAB PRO make sure that on the 2nd page, you need to press 5 for chapter 5 to get chapter rather than re-starting with 1 again? I haven’t test this yet as I don’t know how to preview the output DVD.
5. DVDLAB PRO has a Load Menu function, taking .MNU & .STM. How can I convert original menus from commercial DVDs to MNU or .STM?
6. How can I make sure that I don’t lose ITALICS & special characters like musical notes when importing subtitles? At the moment, they are in .SUP format (I used PGCDEMUX get them) and DVDLAB PRO doesn’t take these.
7. If I want to convert the movie’s audio from 5.1 to 2.0, can I do this within DVDLAB PRO?
8. Can I change the grid guide for menu making from dots to more viewable lines? Some of the menu background I use are light coloured and the white dots are hard to see.
9. How do you test / preview your project to make sure everything’s ok with Video/Audio(s)/Subtitle(s) synchronization, the chapter points are where I want them to be, general navigation of the DVD from menu to menu & movie to menu, etc.
10. If I have used DVDSHRINK first to make the multi-movie compilation (to cut off rubbish in the beginning & end of each movie, selecting the audio & subtitles of my choice), can I import that into DVDLAB PRO without having to sort out the audio & subtitles in DVDLAB PRO later on? Use DVDLAB PRO just to make menus.

CHEERS!

[buzzqw]

i am not an expert of dvdlab but...

1) advanced is necessary due to menu selection
2) more vts should be used only if AR change from movie to movie (ones 4/3, another 16/9)
3) yes. build an autoo chapter menu then edit to your taste
4) don't know if is possible directly using interface. but dvdlab support programming of varius jump... so should be possible
5) menu inport is based on image NOT on MOVIE. using dvdmenu (another mediachage product) is possible to build there file. I think should be easier to import a movie and use it as menu (as looping transition)
6) SRT subs are supporting this extension. Export your sub to SRT (OCR)
7) yes. DVDlabPro 2 has a minumun audio and video encoder. BUT i suggest to use the free AFTEN (search in audio forum) audio encoder
8) don't know
9) when you it BUILD, there is a check button to made a test compile (all but movie)
10) by importing you are loosing subs (afaik)

try yourself, dvdlab is a very nice application

BHH

[zeropolis79]

DVD Lab Pro is the program which I use - never let me down yet.