Menu Disappears in Scenarist HDMV

[tizank tha bizank]

I used an In-Effect on a still of my popup, and then set a Button page to connect the actual pop-up, but when i output, after the in-effect occurs, the menu disapears... BUT, if you click on the blank screen area where the popup would be, it then shows up.

Can anyone explain why this is happening, and how to make the menu show after the In-Effect on my still?

[meisterlee]

maybe you have only one button with only a normal stand (N1: )?
that would explain why it disapears, because your button would be selected after Effect in.

[rik1138]

Did you set that button to auto-activate? (The one on the page with pop-in animation). Double click on the button to bring up the Normal/Activate/select states and make sure auto-activate is checked.

Also, you will want to make sure you have the same graphic placed in all 3 states, otherwise your menu will flash off for a split second as it jumps to the true menu.

Rik

[tizank tha bizank]

Awesome thanks for that reply... I had figured out the auto-action, but I was not liking the little flash that would happen, and you explained that great with the different states.

Thanks again!

On a side note. I'm also having some problems doing the programming for switching audio. I understand the 2-different BOGs, but I'm really not sure how to do the programming. Any tips or recommendations?

--Tizank

[rik1138]

What kind of problem exactly... Actually changing the audio streams, or are you trying to create buttons that actually change the graphics to show which audio stream is currently set?

Rik

[tizank tha bizank]

Have the graphic change to show which stream we are on. My IG is set up proper in terms of buttons, I'm just having issues figuring out the programming. Also, when looking at a sample project, i noticed someone used dummy buttons for chapters and i didn't understand why, and finally, I'm not to sure what the Move command is.

Thanks,

Tizank

[rik1138]

Not sure about the Move command, where do see that?

As for the buttons, here's how I did it:

1st- the IG. The 'non current' state needs to be the top Button and the 'current audio' state should be the second Button under each BOG. The player will use the first by default, so this just makes it look cleaner.

2nd- Create a dummy button for entry into the Audio Setup page, and then a seperate dummy for each audio stream. (You can probably do it with less, but this just keeps the code cleaner and easier to read/write/test.). No audio button should link to another audio button, the links should go to the Dummies (links meaning meaning when you push the left/right buttons on the remote, what button does it go to). (Because you don't know whether the link should go to a non-current or current button.)

Then, your Dummy buttons should have code in them to determine what stream is currently active, and then enable/disable the buttons appropriately, and the set the button page to the correct button.

Kind of hard to explain in words. My project has 3 audio streams- Dolby TrueHD, Dolby 5.1 and Dolby 2.0 (in that order). So the code for my DummyTrueHD button looks like this:

if ( (PSR)Primary Audio[ID:1] == 2) GoTo 5.1[Label] (Each stream has it's own lines of code.)
if ( (PSR)Primary Audio[ID:1] == 3) GoTo 2.0[Label]
EnableButton DOLBY_TRUE_IND[ID:1] (Because streams 2 or 3 weren't selected, TrueHD must be what's selected)
EnableButton DOLBY_5.1[ID:2]
EnableButton DOLBY_2.0[ID:4]
SetButtonPage Button:DOLBY_TRUE_IND[ID:1]
5.1[Label]
EnableButton DOLBY_TRUE[ID:0]
EnableButton DOLBY_5.1_IND[ID:3] (Because 5.1 is selected)
EnableButton DOLBY_2.0[ID:4]
SetButtonPage Button:DOLBY_TRUE[ID:0]
2.0[Label]
EnableButton DOLBY_TRUE[ID:0]
EnableButton DOLBY_5.1[ID:2]
EnableButton DOLBY_2.0_IND[ID:5]
SetButtonPage Button:DOLBY_TRUE[ID:0]

The buttons with _IND are my 'currently selected' states. Notice, this is just the dummy for navigation to the TrueHD button. That's why the SetButtonPage is always one of the two DOLBY_TRUE buttons. But, since you don't know which one to go to without reading PSR 1 first, you have to use this code in a Dummy button. Also, don't forget to do the navigation links on both buttons under each BOG.

This assumes you only have one piece of video on your disc. If you have multiple pieces, you will have to track the audio of the feature in a GPR and read that instead of the PSR directly.

Also, make sure your Top Menu video has the same number of audio/subtitle track as your feature. In Blu-Ray, players will treat this piece of video like a normal piece of video, and if it only has one audio track and no subtitles, that will change what's stored in PSR 1.

I hope that helps, if it's confusing (which would be understandable, I had a hard time getting it the first time I tried), let me know...

Rik

[tizank tha bizank]

Thanks for the help!!!!

[tizank tha bizank]

so after 2-weeks of not being able to even work on the project (since you replied with your great help), I'm finally getting back into it, and I'm committed to getting it completed by the end of the weekend.

So I'm kind of getting the way you did the coding and all that, but i hate to admit, I'm having an issue with the Dummy buttons. How do i actually create those. Do I create that in Photoshop when designing pre Designer export. Or do i add those from inside Scenarist? And in Scenarist do i like copy and paste the buttons, and then just delete the image files associated, or is there another way?

Hate to ask such simple questions, and i appreciate your help very much.

[rik1138]

To create Dummies, it's easiest to do it in Scenarist (you can create small dummy graphics in Photoshop during export, but then you have to go through them all and delete the actual graphics or you will see them on the screen).

In this case, for the Audio menu, right-click on the Audio Page, go to New, then Virtual Asset. It will give you one option (ButtonOverlapGroup), click okay. Then, on the new BOG, right-click, go to New, then Virtual Asset. It will give you another option (Button), click okay. You now have a dummy button. It will appear in Scenarist as an icon with a 'broken graphic', this is fine. Double-click on the Button you just created and click the Auto-Action check box.

Now you just program and link it like a normal button.

Since there's no graphics applied to it, if you re-update your menu with a Designer save-out, these buttons won't be affected.

Rik

[tizank tha bizank]

The programming worked!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm psyched. Thanks so much.

OK, here's my last issue with this one. For some reason, on my Main Menu, when I click on a Page (chapters or Audio) when it goes to the new page, the BG image from that page (ie the slices that became Non-Buttons) no longer show. The crazy thing is, the menu is built the exact same as my popup, and I don't have that issue.

Any ideas?

i will probably just redo that.

[rik1138]

Well, if you are jumping to a new page, only the graphics actually on the Page will show, so you have to re-create the 'non-active' menu parts as graphics... ( but you are probably already doing that...)

Next thing you have to worry about is memory. All of your menus have to fit in the 16MB requirement (which Scenarist isn't accurate at determining). But if it's reporting under 15MB you are probably okay.

Double check that none of the non-button graphics have select or activate states, and also double check that they don't have any navigation commands (even NOPs, it should be completely blank).

Now, I have seen on a couple of my projects that some graphics just wouldn't show up sometimes. In this case, manually delete the graphic from the button, delete it from the Data editor (the .PNG file), and then just drop it back in from Windows Explorer and put it back in the button. That usually fixes it... Not sure what causes it, it happened to me after re-importing a new Designer delivery...

And, now that I think about it, it's only happened on a project where I was doing this multi-button thing... Could be an obscure bug in Scenarist...

Hope that helps... Rik

[tizank tha bizank]

OK... so it seems that although my programming worked on the software player, when i finally burned it and tried it on the PS3 I had some issues. It seems as if I'm having issues with the Auto Action, because when i go the Audio page, the menu shows up, but the auto action does not activate the proper BOG's as neither show an activated state. On the software player I can navigate with a mouse and change the audio streams fine, BUT, if using the arrows to navigate like a remote, I can't change anything or go anywhere.

I have 2 audio streams.
I have each audio button pointing to the dummy buttons for navigation, but I did not set any navigation (left, right, up, down) for the dummies, as I figured with the auto action it takes care of it.

Is there any way you could steer me in the right direction again. man, i thought I was done with this finally, but nope, still stuck on my 1st project. It's killing me.

[nazo-gema]

which software player are you using? If it is the Scenarist QC tool, FYI you will 90% of the time not get an accurate idea of what is really going on, especially
with using the keyboard instead of the mouse. Their QC tool is still in beta phase and really needs a lot of work. My advice, just burn to a BD-RE to get accurate results..

Also, I see you have used 'labels' in your audioswitching. Have you done so in your menu switching?
It's makes authoring a tad more easy and accessible yes, yet I have found
this to be usually the root of all my weird and painful errors.
I hardly ever use them, except for looping certain menus.

[rik1138]

Not sure I understand what you mean by using 'labels'? In Scenarist HDMV, that's the only way to program a GoTo command... You don't have line numbers like in Scenarist DVD, so you have to create a label to jump to. And I've never had a problem with them, I don't see how they can cause any problems...

[nazo-gema]

@rik1138

Sorry I might have worded it a bit different, I was sort of referring to a thing I encountered a couple of weeks back, where if you try to put new commands between labels they can sometimes end up in the wrong position or completely ignored. Even moving the new command up or down if you want that command to start first, you would have to put the label on the newly entered command for it to be in the right order.

Logical yes, but can cause some confusion sometimes.
So yeah, maybe a label is in the wrong position is what I was getting at. Hope that makes sense.

(sorry I am only just starting to learn this sh*t myself hehe)

Wasn't kidding about the Scenarist QC tool though. It needs a LOT of work to become a full fledged QC tool