Language and subtitle selection on a menu?

[Gant]

I've read a lot fo stuff here and havent found this information... please forgive me if its arround.

So what i want is this... making a complete authoring of a dvd... and i have 2 subtitle trakcs i'd like to add, also the original divx has 2 languages trakcs.

What i would like to do is have a menu where i could choose what language trakc to use and what subtitle tack to use before the movie actually starts. So far and since i own reelDVD and spruceup i havent seen an option to do such thing. But at a friends house i've seen a webpage stating that it is only possible with maestro and scenerist... meanwhile i got myself a carboncopy of those two beauties and started to explore them... but god damn it... they're super hard to master... and most of the stuff i still cant do.

Please help me in this issue.
I'd also like to state that i'm a complete newbie in this dvd authoring... only bought the dvd burner 3 weeks ago, and got interested in this dvd authoring since then... didnt have time to read much, but looked arround here and did not find it.

Thanks in advanced.

[coona]

I´m not an expert :), but with reelDVD you can create menus. Try Trilight´s guide on http://dvdguides.trilight.net there is link to Menu creation.

[Gant]

yes i know... i work fine with reel and spruceup, the problem is the creation of a menu with the option to choose language and subtitle to show when people choose play.

This cannot be done under reel, nor spruceup, form what i've been told. :(

but thanks for the help anyway... great site. :)

Jya.

[coona]

I know that it is not my bussines;) but why do you want to do this? You want to jump into menu after you press play button??? I guess all movies from Paramount (i´m not sure) have first screen menu where you can choose the "version" you want to see (e.g. English, Japanese,...). After that selection both language and subtitles are set and movie will begin with no other action needed.

Just an idea :)

[Gant]

maybe i did not explain me properlly... what i want is to have a sub menu that can be accessed from the main menu where you can choose what language you want to play and what subtitle you want to play. Like many movies have... since my dvd player command is kinda weird to choose to change from audio track to audio track... same goes to subtitle track.

Thats what i have.

[SomeJoe]

I don't think you're going to be able to do this with ReelDVD or SpruceUp.

Changing the audio or subtitle track from within a menu requires command sequences or an authoring application that will insert the proper command sequences for you. The only two I know of that can do this are Scenarist and Maestro.

I just made a set of menus in Maestro that can do this. Maestro has a place during menu creation that you can tie a specific subtitle track or audio track to a button. When you compile, Maestro actually builds and inserts the command sequences for you that will change the audio/subtitle track when that button is selected.

[dannyv]

Originally posted by SomeJoe

I just made a set of menus in Maestro that can do this. Maestro has a place during menu creation that you can tie a specific subtitle track or audio track to a button. [/B]

SomeJoe-

I've just recently been adding 2 audio tracks to my projects and I was trying to figure out how to create the audio menu.

Do you create the buttons then drag the audio files from the asset bin to the buttons? If not can you give a little more detail on how you link the audio files to the audio menu buttons in meastro?

Thanks

[SomeJoe]

Here's what I've been doing:

You make a menu with, say, 3 buttons:

- "Set audio to track 1"
- "Set audio to track 2"
- "Return to main menu"

Naturally, create the subpicture for your button highlights.

Now, you also need some type of indicator on this menu so that the user knows what the audio is currently set to. What I've been doing is placing an arrow or some other type of indication graphic next to the button for the audio track, but you can also just type out the text of which audio track is selected somewhere else on the menu. (This indicator or text is just a graphic, not a button). This indicator goes on the actual menu picture/.m2v, not in the subpicture.

This also means you need to duplicate this menu for each different indicator you want. Since you have two audio tracks, you'll want to make 2 menus with the same 3 buttons, but on the first one, the indicator points to or says "track 1", and on the second one, the indicator points to or says "track 2".

Now, when you bring up the menu editor in Maestro, on the "Buttons" tab, there is a section on the right that says "Stream Preselection". Here is where you can check the check box to tie the button to a specific audio track (or subtitle track, or angle). So for your "select track 1" button, you'll check the audio stream preselection checkbox, and select track 1 from the pull down menu. For the "select track 2" button, you'll check the audio stream preselection checkbox, and select track 2 from the pull down menu. Remember to do this on both duplicate menus.

When you compile, Maestro will actually build a command sequence that will change to that audio track when the user selects that button.

Now, the stream preselection selects the audio track, but the buttons still need a target. What do here is in both menus, the target of the "track 1" button is the "track 1 selected" menu, and the target of the "track 2" button is the "track 2 selected" menu. Now, when the user selects on of these buttons, the proper audio track gets selected thanks to Maestro's command sequence, and the indicator for which audio track is currently selected changes because the target actually jumps to the appropriate menu! :)

This method works really well except for one problem. When the user is at the main menu and selects the button "Audio selection menu", you have no idea whether to jump to the "track 1 selected" or "track 2 selected" menus, so you can't give the proper indicator. Up until now, I've just been going to the "track 1 selected" menu, and letting the user just choose it over again.

However, I just recently have been building a command sequence that acts as an intelligent dispatcher. What it does is query the SPRM1 register (which holds which audio track is currently selected), and jumps to the appropriate menu based on that comparison. In the main menu, the "audio selection menu" button is linked to this command sequence instead of being linked to the actual menus.

It sounds more complicated than it really is, but it's pretty neat to choose audio & subtitle streams like this. (By the way, if you build the command sequence dispatcher for subtitles instead of audio streams, the register that holds which subtitle stream is currently selected is SPRM2).

If you want to do the register programming, I highly recommend the table on page 280-281 of DVD Demystified, which shows all the SPRM registers, their functions, and proper values.

[Gant]

OMG... i did not understand it completly, but its due to my newbieness... i'll try it.

Thanks you so much for this precious help. :)

BTW, you mentioned a book... can you recomend 2 or 3 books on mastering dvd authoring... espeically if they work with scenerist and/or maestro... since all others that i have are very limited.

Thanks again for this great help. :)

matta ne.

[dannyv]

Originally posted by SomeJoe
Here's what I've been doing:



SomeJoe-

Thank you for the instruction. That clears up and answers all my questions plus gives me a few more things to try.

Dan