Layered menu over video background

I'm having some trouble getting this to work - is it even possible in dvd sp4? The main menu comprises three buttons, each with a norm/select/active state; the buttons are a simple calligraphic word with glow, made in PS with all FX/text layers rendered out. They import & look just fine. The 'background' video is a 60 second DV file, a simple animation of the married couple gently zooming forward from the background - again, works fine even though assembled in Premiere...I know...
All I want is the video playing with the buttons visible, but I can't get it to work when simulating. Any advice is really, really appreciated, as this is for my brother in law's wedding, thanks, Chris

If it's possible (budget/time/skill-wise), I'd look into building your Menu using a combination of Photoshop, Motion and DVDSP. In other words, no need to use DVDSP's (limited) text/graphical tools.
Drop your background video into Motion (or FCP or After Effects) and overlay your Photoshop-designed buttons on top of that. Export out a Motion project to DVDSP. (In other words, 'bake' your text/buttons into the background video that you'll use in DVDSP.)
Have another Photoshop file (or maybe a layer in that same .psd) available for use as the overlay layer in DVDSP. Depending on your design(s) you should be able to come with something closer to your layered menu design while allowing a motion background.
I mention all of this in case this is your first time. Depending on your design -- though yeah, this bumps up against limitations of the DVD specification -- you should be able to produce something more sophisticated than DVDSP's native tools.
In particular, use the advanced overlay function to simulate anti-aliasing. Once you've figured that out, you might need a round trip or two (back to Photoshop, out to Motion, back to DVDSP) to get your menu lookin' right.
Hope that helps.

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Menu Over Video... Always Has To Restart

For the last year I have constantly been having an issue where the content I am playing cannot be stopped (mostly video apps but sometimes music) and when I press the menu button, the menus appear but they are over top the content that will not stop playing. I have three Apple TVs... one 2nd Generation and two 3rd Generation models all running the most up-to-date OS. All three experience this issue.
The only solution is to force resart the Apple TV, which I usually do from the remote. My most recent Apple TV which was purchased early this year started presenting the issue during the first week of use. I could understand if this was just happening to one of my devices, but the fact that all three experience this issue is odd, and I am surprised there are not more people complaining about this.
Is anyone else experience this issue as frequently as I am?

If it's possible (budget/time/skill-wise), I'd look into building your Menu using a combination of Photoshop, Motion and DVDSP. In other words, no need to use DVDSP's (limited) text/graphical tools.
Drop your background video into Motion (or FCP or After Effects) and overlay your Photoshop-designed buttons on top of that. Export out a Motion project to DVDSP. (In other words, 'bake' your text/buttons into the background video that you'll use in DVDSP.)
Have another Photoshop file (or maybe a layer in that same .psd) available for use as the overlay layer in DVDSP. Depending on your design(s) you should be able to come with something closer to your layered menu design while allowing a motion background.
I mention all of this in case this is your first time. Depending on your design -- though yeah, this bumps up against limitations of the DVD specification -- you should be able to produce something more sophisticated than DVDSP's native tools.
In particular, use the advanced overlay function to simulate anti-aliasing. Once you've figured that out, you might need a round trip or two (back to Photoshop, out to Motion, back to DVDSP) to get your menu lookin' right.
Hope that helps.

'Resume' function (buttons over video / white rabbit)

The resume function takes me back to the last chapter marker passed in the track I was viewing previously. Is it supposed to work like that? I thought it would take me bak to the last moment viewed (give or take several frames).
I've got a video track, I use buttons over video to jump to a menu with video background. When the menu times out I run a script that just states 'resume', but it will only go to the last chapter marker passed. Some of my white rabbit videos are several minutes long so that's not very helpful.
From what I understand you can only resume from a menu?
I've had another look at The Matrix and note that after a white rabbit it always returns to exactly the same point in the main movie as though there were a chapter marker there... but no chapter marker exists at those points so what did the authors of the Matrix DVD use to target that return point?
Any clues anyone? Thanks

Thanks Trai - I'll try that approach.
After trying all sorts of combinations to get 'resume' working, all I can imagine is it's not properly implimented in DVDSP or it's not properly supported by players.
A button on a menu with a target or 'resume' should according to the DVDSP manuals return to the point the user was at in a track when the menu was launched (see quote below).
I've tested on 3 hardware players as well as a PC player and Apple's own DVD player. Only a sony DVD recorder resumed to the correct place in the video track. The only other possibility I can imagine is that the buttons over video are in some way causing the problem when resuming? I noticed when the sony did resume to the correct point the subtitle stream being used for the buttons over video was no longer visible (even though a prescript on the track was forcing them to show)
<quote from DVDSP3 and 4 manual>
About Resume
If you jump to a menu while watching a track, for example, by pressing the remote control’s Menu button, the DVD player remembers what track you were playing and how far you were into it. A mostly unknown feature of DVD players is that you can press the Menu button while in a menu to resume playing the track at the same place you jumped from. Creating a button on the menu and setting its Target to Resume provides the viewer with a more obvious way to resume playing the track.
</end quote>

No video motion in layered Menu

is there any way that i can add motion to a layered menu ?
cause lots of softwares can if i cant make motion to a menu that i designed then what the benifit from it
cause i kind of read in the manual that i cant add neither audio nor video
anyone can help please ?

Yes - right again! Transitions do not support audio.
However, you can add your own interstitials which are very short tracks between menus - these can have audio, of course. The price to pay is that they can work slowly. You could also add your transition to the start of the track with the main footage in it - I do this a lot.
Remember that DVDSP is not a Spec based application... the ease of use and additional features that it gives you means there are some compromises. The abstraction layer commands which make DVDSP so easy to use mean that you cannot always do the things that are possible in the DVD Spec, and which tools like Scenarist can do. However, DVDSP is a fraction of the price of any Scenarist installation, integrates with the other Pro applications from Apple and is a Mac based authoring package with enormous capability.
If you need to add motion to a menu, don't use a layer based menu... use a standard overlay instead. If you need to have audio with your transitions, think about how that can be applied - add the transition to the start of the track that you are going to and it can have the audio or create an interstitial track (or menu) for it (but accept there will be pauses as it plays).
Yes, there are limitations, but there are usually ways to work around them or minimise the impact of them. It all depends on what you are after doing, and if DVDSP isn't able to do it your only choice is to spend money on a PC based application to get full control over the discs your are creating.
What were you using before you moved to DVDSP?

I am making a graduation video for my cousin using Final Cut Pro. I have photos layered over videos, and I was wanted to find out how you can add a border around the photos so they stand off of the video. Anyone know what I could do?

I am making a graduation video for my cousin using Final Cut Pro. I have photos layered over videos, and I was wanted to find out how you can add a border around the photos so they stand off of the video. Anyone know what I could do?

You would need an image editor to edit the images and add a border to the image first before importing them into Final Cut.
Cheapest and very good image editor?
PIxelmator.
Located in the Mac App Store. $14.99 USD.
Here is the Pixelmator website to give you an overview of the app.
http://www.pixelmator.com/
Good Luck!

Apple TV Menu Icons Show Up Over Video PLaying

Menu icons keep showing up over video I am playing. I have restarted and that will fix it for a while, but it keeps coming back.

I’ve been having the same issue’s [AirPlay / HomeSharing notworking or working intermittently] after some digging and testing I found that this worked…please note I made the change 1 hour ago and things are still working.
Steps to Fix:
Login to the Router
Select Wireless settings
Change the “Wireless Mode” change it to 11G only. [Default is mixed mode]
Power off your computer[s], Apple TV and all other connecteddevices [wireless/wired].
Unplug the power on your router and wait 20 seconds…then plug itback in.
Once the router is full started up [5 min]…now turn on all youconnected devices such as computer[s], Apple TV and all other connected devices[wireless/wired]
You should now be able to access Airplay as well as HomeSharing.

How do you apply a Motion Video Asset as a button on a layered Menu?

Hi Guys,
I am trying to create a layered menu with 2 x Motion Video Asset's as buttons (toggling between the two buttons for selection & activation).
When I add a menu - The motion video asset is perfectly displayed as a button in the menu screen. But when I add a Layered Menu and drag my motion video asset across, it does not show the video...it shows an empty square/button in the menu screen. When the drop-down menu pops up when dragging the video asset across, I choose 'create button & track' as when I choose the other option, the 'templates' window pops up and I have my own layered menu created by Photoshop, so I don't want to use the templates. Please help?? Thank you. Anthony

Welcome to the boards
You cannot use video in Layered Menus

HELP! Exporting smart build over a video background to QT?

Hi,
I have a single slide with a QT movie as a loop in the background with a smart build of images over the top. It's for a corporate event and the build needs to loop during the coffee break.
I need to export this to a movie file and then place it back in to another presentation so i can make the build loop.
However, when i export to QT the background movie plays once, stops and then the smart build runs through.
I've tried removing the background movie as I'm happy to have the smart build only to loop. When i export the build with a transparent background it is replaced with black. This means I can't place this over the original movie background.
The other, more simple alternative which I can't fathom is to make the smart build loop on it's own on the original slide so I don't need to export it as a video!!!
Any help is greatly appreciated!
Thanks
Simon

I've worked out that if you export to QT using png Codec it WILL keep the transparent background! I've now managed to solve this problem by creating a transparent QT and placing over the video background.

Buttons Over Video In A Menu?

Hi,
I created a 40-second motion menu (Menu 1 in the scheme of things) with a music track. I will put "Play Movie" and "Scene Selection" buttons in this menu, but I want to them to appear about 15 seconds after the menu starts playing. Is there a way to do this? I know you can put buttons over video for the main video track at any time, but how about a looping menu?
TIA,
James

What I did was add my short intro video to the end of my main video track (V1) in the Track Editor, and add a chapter marker between them. Then I set the First Play setting of the disk to that chapter marker. Then I set the disk's End Jump setting to Menu 1 (my main menu with highlighted navigation buttons). This was pretty simple to do and it looks seamless during simulation.
So, the disk will play the intro video first, then jump to to the main menu.

Menu problems - changing background video length to fit audio

Hi,
I've been struggling for hours (feels like weeks!) trying to adjust the background video length to match the audio length on my encore menu to prevent the white screen appearing once the background video has finished.
Having read through some previous questions on here I see the general advice is to adjust the audio length to match the video length but is there really no way of doing it the other way around?
I tried editing the background video in premier pro, and managed to do that effectively so it was identical in length to the audio track, however then I couldn't work out how to export it back into encore so it would use it as a menu.
I'm still getting to grips with all the software so any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you!!
Liz

Hi jsbman,
Thanks for your reply, I'm not sure I was totally clear about what I am trying to do. Basically I have a menu image with background video that currently runs on a loop of 16 seconds, and I have an audio file (song) that lasts 3 minutes and also loops. I can put the audio on the menu fine as long as I have menu with no background video but if I try and have both it runs but then goes to a white menu screen after the 16 second loop while the audio continues to the end.
I understand from what I have read that the audio track and video background need to be the same length (I guess so they can loop together or something) and to edit the audio track down to 16 seconds makes it pretty pointless in using. This is why I have been trying to increase the background video to the same length as the audio track. They will then both loop until play is pressed on the remote for the DVD to start.
I forgot to say in my original post I am using CS4, with Windows 7 - I'm not sure if that makes a difference.
Any ideas welcome!
Thanks
Liz

Freeze between the end of a timeline and a menu with video.

Hi,
I have a timeline with some content advisor in the beginning of my encore cs3 project, then redirects to another timeline with a segment of a video, after that it redirects to the menu with another video (that video is the continuation of the previous one, and it is where the fusion occurs.)
The problem is that after redirect to the menu, it freezes for 2 secs. Is there any way to avoid that freeze? Or at least smooth it?

Bruno Gargaglione wrote:
Thanks for answering me.
However I still have some questions regarding this proccess:
1) Why AVI or MOV instead of M2V? If I export avi or mov from PP I will get my footage transcoded in encore.
2) Why can't I use in PP the PSD Menu I am using in my project in encore (without having to export from Encore)?
and the most important:
3) When I turn off visibility for all menu layers, how come they show up after it? After the loop point?
I understood almost the entire proccess and the reason you have to turn off the visibility for all menu layers but not how they show up after the loop point.
How?
1. You could export an M2V file from Premiere if you like, but then you'll need to make doubly sure that you have no visible menu layers in Encore, or Encore will render the motion menu and re-transcode your m2v to m2v again. If you used an AVI instead, Encore will transcode it to M2V. Either way, it will end up as M2V on the DVD. The key thing is to avoid re-transcoding.
2. I don't really understand your question. Do you want to somehow use the same PSD file Encore is using as your menu? If so, you'll have to dig in the Sources folder for that. It's really much simpler to export the PSD from Encore and use that. There is no quality loss in doing this, and far less chance of messing up your Encore file structure than if you go digging around in the Sources folder for the original that Encore uses. Just export the menu as a PSD from Encore and use that in Premiere...trust me, I'm a doctor.
3. You do this so that Encore doesn't render your menu Photoshop layers over the first video clip you are using as your menu video background.
* Regarding your last "How?" question...there are no menu layers on a menu when it's written to DVD - a menu is written to disc as an MPEG-2 still file (or in a motion menu case such as yours, an MPEG-2 video file) with a button highlight overlay to show your button selection status.
Message was edited by: jbowden

Button highlight colors in layered menu

Hello all,
I am wraspping up a dvd project and just have one small issue. I have a layered menu here with an overlay layer that contains noting but a white background and a few little black boxes for showing up when a button is selected. When a button is selected, I want those boxes to black, and when activated i want it to turn gray, but as it is now when a button is selected those boxes are white, and when activated they turn yellow. Ive messed around some in the colors tab of the buttons, but as of yet have been unable to figure it out. Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

You're welcome, k chen, but be careful. Some clients are very picky about fonts.
The layered menu method lets you basically use any graphic element you want, which can then be replaced with any other graphical element, of the same relative size, for the selected and activated states. So, for example a blue frowny face can be replaced with a multicolored happy face. Or, more specifically to your project, a nonstandard font can change colors. But, you lose reliability, player compatibility, and responsiveness, not to mention audio and video motion background capability.
An overlay menu, which is the standard for commercially produced dvds, is best used to add a graphic element to your menu, rather than replace or alter one that's already there, e.g. an arrow that appears next to a menu item to show that it's selected. What you lose in graphical flexibility, you gain in performance speed, reliability, compatibility. And you can have a video background and audio.
That's why overlay menus are the industry standard.

Photoshop CS2 layered menu compressed by DVDSP4 problems....

Oh wise ones,
I've made a layered menus in PS CS2.. i have also imported them into After Effects 7 to make transitional clips (through the colour white) between the different menus. The problem i have is that DVDSP4 compresses the video and the PS file differently. So that they don't match exactly when the videos run into the layerd menus. The compression has lost it's sharpness in the layered menu but it's perfect in the video clip. :-$
I have changed the encoding settings to max in DVDSP4 with no joy. Any ideas on how to matchup the same file in the video and layered menus?
thanks in advance...

unfortunately the design doesn't allow for standard menus at present.. although i like the concept of a still frame as a video in the background. The problem seems to be that the text (flattened) in the layered files (I'm using 18 pt Eurostile) ends up being compressed and missing some of the font.
I have tried different fonts and sizes up to 20pt. But still the problem exists.
The PSD has to be 8 bit.... text objects aren't allowed in layered menus nor are text with the buttons... i've run out of ideas :-$

Using Photoshop in layered menu

Fellow DVDSP menu builder: please advise.
In Photoshop, I built my menu with background with several layers with text, and a light blue START (text) to act as a button. Another layer, when selected START (activated) the word START should turn white. When looking at the menu in photoshop, I see all my colors as I built them. When importing into DVDSP as assets (using a layered menu), the photoshop file I built does not show the light blue START but it shows only white START, why is this? Is there a lost in translation while importing? Please assist.
Many thanks in advance.

You're welcome, k chen, but be careful. Some clients are very picky about fonts.
The layered menu method lets you basically use any graphic element you want, which can then be replaced with any other graphical element, of the same relative size, for the selected and activated states. So, for example a blue frowny face can be replaced with a multicolored happy face. Or, more specifically to your project, a nonstandard font can change colors. But, you lose reliability, player compatibility, and responsiveness, not to mention audio and video motion background capability.
An overlay menu, which is the standard for commercially produced dvds, is best used to add a graphic element to your menu, rather than replace or alter one that's already there, e.g. an arrow that appears next to a menu item to show that it's selected. What you lose in graphical flexibility, you gain in performance speed, reliability, compatibility. And you can have a video background and audio.
That's why overlay menus are the industry standard.

My layered menu shows up as white screen!

I'm working on a 5,9 GB DVD-9 project in DVDSP 4.0.2.
The DVD consists of 3 movies and 3 layered menus. The layered menus use a .psd file with up to 7 layers. Nothing fancy, a background and a couple of buttons. The tracks have a couple of stories and there are subtitles.
Here's the problem: In the simulator everything works flawlessly but as soon as i build a VIDEO_TS or burn a DVD, my layered menus show up as white screens.
This error happens when I preview the VIDEO_TS in DVD Player but also on a physical DVD+DL. Again, in DVDSP's simulator all looks very good.
I've tried all kinds of things: I created a new and very simple DVD-9 project with only one layered menu and a very short video track: no problems! I've played around with the break point on my 5,9 GB projekt but this doesn't make any difference.
So, does anyone have the same experience with layered menus showing up as white screens? Is this a bug in 4.0.2? I'm considering a complete rebuild of my project in DVDSP 3, unless there's something i've overlooked...

THANK YOU CHRIS!
You solved my problem. I did have one unused language defined, i thought i needed 2 languages but apparantly i don't, because my DVD now works fine.
It was very hard to trace the problem because the whole concept of languages and menus is still sort of unclear to me. I guess i need to do some studying on that. The DVDP manual sadly lacks a good tutorial on how to set up a multi-lingual DVD with multiple subtitle streams.
Now i've set up 2 menus for each version (the movie with and without subtitles), only one language and all is well.
One thing still puzzles me: The first version (the one with the unusued language) did play fine on a G4 with Panther. The white menus showed up on a G5 with Tiger and on my standalone DVD-players. So somehow Quicktime also plays a role in this. The fact that this is a DVD9 has nothing to do with it. Thanks again.

Layered menu over video background

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