Creating Menus with Scenarist

[Mac Sidewinder]

I have read the and followed the help topics in Scenarist but this has got to be one of the most confusing aspects of Scenarist that I have come across. Here is my problem/solution.

I create the menu background and buttons in Photoshop CS the way I want them. I rename the layers to background and button 1, button 2, etc. and save the menu as a psd project.

I drop the menu onto the track editor in Scenarist and select still menu or slideshow (if I want sound in the menu). In the popup I select the buttons, unselect the background, and then select the box to overlay the background with the buttons.

Question 1 - The only way to get full soundtrack duration in the menu is to set the time of the menu and the highlight tracks to the same duration as the soundtrack (I believe the menu is set to 10 sec duration by default). Is this the proper way to do this?

Question 2 - On the layout screen, the Scenarist help section says to add a language module to the VMG and then to drop the menu there. I can do this but it presents a problem. The first pgc module by default is pointing to the first vts. Do I remove the pre command and point it to the menu in the vmg?

Question 3 - Is the proper way to have the menu loop to itself (after the audio has played) is to direct the menu's post command back to the menu?

My dvd player's remote has a button labeled "Menu" and one labeled "Title". If I follow the above method (placing the menu in the vmg, then the menu button doesn't work but the title button does. If I place the entire menu structure (language module and menu) inside the first vts then the menu button works but the title button doesn't. I guess I'm not understanding what exactly is the difference between where I place the menu.

Are there any good tutorials on dvd navigation and how to create menus in scenarist?

Any help would be appreciated.

Mac

[Dimmer]

It appears you've already figured out almost everything by yourself.
Question 1 - The only way to get full soundtrack duration in the menu is to set the time of the menu and the highlight tracks to the same duration as the soundtrack (I believe the menu is set to 10 sec duration by default). Is this the proper way to do this? Yes.
Question 2 - On the layout screen, the Scenarist help section says to add a language module to the VMG and then to drop the menu there. I can do this but it presents a problem. The first pgc module by default is pointing to the first vts. Do I remove the pre command and point it to the menu in the vmg?You can use either VMG or VTS menu or both depending on complexity of your DVD. From the FirstPGC, you can jump almost anywhere you want on the disc.
Question 3 - Is the proper way to have the menu loop to itself (after the audio has played) is to direct the menu's post command back to the menu?Yes, it's one of the ways. You can also use a cell command for that or set NextPGC to itself.
My dvd player's remote has a button labeled "Menu" and one labeled "Title". If I follow the above method (placing the menu in the vmg, then the menu button doesn't work but the title button does. If I place the entire menu structure (language module and menu) inside the first vts then the menu button works but the title button doesn't. I guess I'm not understanding what exactly is the difference between where I place the menu. I suppose this is the only place where you got confused, and it's very simple. Title button on the remote leads to the title menu in VMG. Menu button leads to the root menu of the currently playing VTS. Menu button is used much more often, so you have to ensure that you always have a root menu in each VTS. If you want Title button to work, you can create an empty title menu PGC in VMG and link it through a Pre command to the main menu in the project.

Are you using Scenarist ver.3? Anyway, Scenarist is not the most convenient program to create menus. Some people create the menus in ReelDVD, export the script, import it into Scenarist, and then complete the project there. One nice thing about building the navigation structure in Scenarist is that you can safely drag and drop links from one PGC to another since it won't allow you to perform illegal jumps or calls.

[Mac Sidewinder]

Thanks Dimmer for the info. I tried using DvdLab v3.1 to create my dvds but for some reason my dvd player doesn't like it. I would build a simple menu with two buttons that correspond to two video tracks but when I compile it Dvdlab would not assign the first button. And would assign the second button to the first video. Also when you would select the video, it would play for about two seconds and then freeze. I could take the same assets and manually build the menu in Scenarist and everything would work. Strange.

Yes I am using Scenarist v3.0. Another question I had was since you can't jump from one vts directly to another, why make more than one vts in the first place? Is it simply for neatness of dvd structure? I read about method that uses a dummy pgc in the vmg to "bounce" off of to go from one vts to another.

Is there a way to put the menu in the vmg, and make both buttons (menu and title) point to that menu?

I still would like to know if there are any tutorials on beginning and advanced menu creating with scenarist?

Once again, thanks

Mac

[Dimmer]

Originally posted by Mac Sidewinder
Another question I had was since you can't jump from one vts directly to another, why make more than one vts in the first place? Is it simply for neatness of dvd structure? I read about method that uses a dummy pgc in the vmg to "bounce" off of to go from one vts to another.

Is there a way to put the menu in the vmg, and make both buttons (menu and title) point to that menu?Certain video properties must remain the same within a titleset, such as aspect ratio. So, in case of 16:9 movie and 4:3 extras, they must be located in different titlesets.

Yes, titlesets can only be linked with each other through VMG (also through First Play, but it's very inconvenient). You create a dummy PGCs in VMG, link the source PGC in a VTS to it, and then use drag-and-drop in Scenario editor to link Pre commands of the dummy PGC to the destination.

If you want the Menu button to point to Title menu, create a dummy root menu in each VTS and link it to the Title menu in VMG, where you would put the actual menu. However, especially if you have only one VTS, it's much more convenient to keep all the menus in the VTS since it allows for easier linking to chapters, etc.

Should you find any good Scenarist menu creation guide, please post it here for everyone's benefit. In reality, I don't believe there is much more to it than described in Scenarist help.

[Mac Sidewinder]

Thanks again Dimmer. I should have known about not being able to have 4:3 and 16:9 content in the same vts. I have used the big 3 with scenarist enough times to see that.

Alot of my scenarist projects now days are capped movies with a simple menu (movie and maybe a commentary video) so I will stick with putting the menu in the vts.

If I come across any guides, I will link them here.

Mac