Scenarist BD Menu delayed on

[Solaris]

I am authoring a simple BD menu. The background video of the menu starts out black and then fades in after a few seconds. However, the menu appears immediately and I want to delay the menu appearing by let's say 5 seconds. How to do that without working with more than one MO?

[rik1138]

Do you have an 'InEffect' on your menu? (Like, does it pop up from the bottom or anything?) The easiest way I've found to do this is to create an InEffect that does nothing for the duration of your intro. If you already have an InEffect, set the duration of the first frame to how ever many seconds you want to delay it.

If you don't have an InEffect, you will have to create one. You have to create a dummy Page with a dummy auto-activate button (it's easiest if this is the first page of the IG. I'm always in the habit of creating a single dummy Page as the first page in an IG all the time, just in case I need it for something. If I remember correctly, it's hard to add a Page to the TOP of the IG list, meaning it will be the default first-play.). Set the InEffect to 5 seconds (with no graphics). After 5 seconds, the button will activate (which you should program to go to your normal main menu page). You might have to program the Nav Commands on the Top Menu MO to jump directly to the Main Menu page during a loop or coming out of the feature if it doesn't always play the fade up...

If you have access to Sonic's Knowledge base, look up #103917, this explains everything in more detail if you've never done it before.

[Solaris]

Thanks, I'll give it a try. I don't have access to the knowledgebase but your explanation may be good enough to figure it out myself.

[Solaris]

It was just as simple as you explained. It took me all of 5 minutes to get it right. Thanks for the advise.

[srfscenar]

Hi guys,

What i do is to set an offset to my IG in the clip.
It works but without effects.

[rik1138]

How do you do that in a Clip? You can't offset the IG clip to anything that I'm aware of (since there is nothing in the clip but the IG...)

Is it the 'Acquisition Point Interval' you are setting? That's the only editable timecode I can find in an IG Clip...

[srfscenar]

Hi rik,

What i do is this.

In Stream Tree I create a clip which will be my menu.
There i import my background video, my audio and my IG.
Now, if iI double click on my IG it pops the ES Time info. There at the VideoOffset i can set a time. That time is the time that the IG will start. I believe is something like the "Start Time To Video" in Scenarist SD in the Highight settings.

I dont know if it is a correct way to do this, but it works.

I'd love to tell me your comments.

Thanks

[rik1138]

Most people don't place the IGs in the same clip with the video (in-mux IG), usually menu IGs are out-of mux (like the PopUp menu on the feature itself). (Well, maybe saying 'most' is assuming a lot...)

Generally, with Hollywood titles, the main menu is an intro and then a constant loop. So you might have a 10 second intro animation, then a 30 second loop without the animation. You don't want the menu to actually loop every 30 seconds because it makes the IG flash, so you put it in the PlayList 10-20 times thus making a 5-10 minute video loop for the main menu (with the intro animation in the first PlayItem). Then you drop your IG (menu) on the PlayList, and one IG now works for all of the PlayItems. When you loop the menu, you loop to the second PlayItem so you don't see the intro every time.

Even if you make in-mux IGs for the intro (with the offset time), and then for the loop, I think they will flash at every PlayItem, since I think it has to be re-loaded each time, even if it's the same IG (the player doesn't know it's the same IG since it's in-mux).

Now, if your menu is actually a 5-minute piece of video with an intro, and you play the intro each time you loop it, that would be okay (or your menu does something other than looping at the end)... You might also be able to set a chapter point after the intro animation and loop it to that point... You'd probably be okay there too... But most menu loops are kind of short (like 30 seconds...)

I think the main issue is using a single IG on a PlayList with many PlayItems, and keeping it seamless...

[srfscenar]

Hi rik,

well i have an intro clip which is 1 minute long and then another which is 55" long. The second one is the looping without the intro. In the first clip i set the offset to the IG to start 5 secs after. In the looping one the IG does not need offset. I add the first one to a PlayList and add the looping clip many times after that.
I have tested it in PC and deck and i do not see the IG flashing everytime it is changing clip. BUT, that might be the reason why the IG is disappearing everytime a command is executed. (remember my older post?).

Until now i was putting the IG to the clip BUT I think that the way you say is more professional and i will adopt it.

Thank you very much!

[deank]

Most people don't place the IGs in the same clip with the video (in-mux IG), usually menu IGs are out-of mux (like the PopUp menu on the feature itself). (Well, maybe saying 'most' is assuming a lot...)

Generally, with Hollywood titles, the main menu is an intro and then a constant loop. So you might have a 10 second intro animation, then a 30 second loop without the animation. You don't want the menu to actually loop every 30 seconds because it makes the IG flash, so you put it in the PlayList 10-20 times thus making a 5-10 minute video loop for the main menu (with the intro animation in the first PlayItem). Then you drop your IG (menu) on the PlayList, and one IG now works for all of the PlayItems. When you loop the menu, you loop to the second PlayItem so you don't see the intro every time.


multiAVCHD uses exactly that technique and there is no IGS 'flashing'. Players are required not to reload/renew the IG plane if it is already preloaded. The 'invisible' thing in Scenarist which you may not actually notice is that the IGS is attached to each menu PlayItem (just like the POP-UP IGS is).

I think the main issue is using a single IG on a PlayList with many PlayItems, and keeping it seamless...

I'm using 500 playitems in a menu playlist (reduced to 56 in latest builds) to get ~1-2-3-4 hours of menu loop with the same IG. IG is never reloaded and works seamlessly without flashing.

[rik1138]

multiAVCHD uses exactly that technique and there is no IGS 'flashing'. Players are required not to reload/renew the IG plane if it is already preloaded. The 'invisible' thing in Scenarist which you may not actually notice is that the IGS is attached to each menu PlayItem (just like the POP-UP IGS is).

That's good to know... I know players aren't supposed to reload the IG when it's preloaded, I just wasn't sure if they were smart enough to know it was an identical IG. Of course, Scenarist might just be trying to make it easier on us by doing this in the background. I never looked into the technical details of what was happening after a mux.

I'm using 500 playitems in a menu playlist (reduced to 56 in latest builds) to get ~1-2-3-4 hours of menu loop with the same IG. IG is never reloaded and works seamlessly without flashing.

Damn! :cool: I think we figured 10 minutes was enough, and makes life a little easier for QC when they have to wait for the menu to loop to make sure the IG stays on the same buttons and such... A detailed QC will check the menu loop with every button highlighted to make sure it holds (or, at least with one button on each page). With a 4-hour menu, that can take some time... (Although sometimes I'll unlock fast forward during the QC process to speed this up...) I think 20 PlayItems of a 30 second loop was the longest I ever made...

I need to start seriously playing with your program... The more I read about it here the more amazed I am at what it can do... And that's just from reading your posts in the forum.

Rik

[deank]

I need to start seriously playing with your program... The more I read about it here the more amazed I am at what it can do... And that's just from reading your posts in the forum.
:rolleyes:
It is a toy-tool for hobbyists :p and not really configurable... The idea is to author nice looking menu with your videos in few clicks, without knowing all that stuff about navigation commands, IG, etc.

[srfscenar]

Well, I am a bit confused now, so there is no difference if we make it Inmux or Out of mux?
Is my way also correct?

Thanks,

[rik1138]

Either way is probably fine. If you aren't seeing the IG flash as it plays through PlayLists, you should be good... That's the only thing I can think of that I thought might have been an issue...

[srfscenar]

Thank you guys.
Nice to learn! Nice topic!