Menu Background Problem

I'm using a Quicktime video as the Background to my iDVD menu. It looks great in the Preview, but when I burn to the disk, it results in a badly digitized image.
What's the problem? The Quicktime file is 720x480 so it shoud be full TV resolution.
How do I ensure a 1:1 quality ratio from the preview to the finished disk?
My Encoder is set for "Best Quality" but it doesn't seem to make any difference.

I'm using a Quicktime video as the Background to
my
iDVD menu. It looks great in the Preview, but when
I
burn to the disk, it results in a badly digitized
image.
What's the problem? The Quicktime file is 720x480
so
it shoud be full TV resolution.
... but on the TV set, the image has been mpg-2
compressed and mpg-2 compression is NOT lossless!!!
What CODEC did you use when you made the Quicktime
background movie?
How do I ensure a 1:1 quality ratio from the
preview
to the finished disk?
You can't because of mpg-2 compression.
My Encoder is set for "Best Quality" but it
doesn't
seem to make any difference.
Actually, despite the names Apple has given the two
compression modes, for content under 60 minutes on a
single-layer disc, 'BEST PERFORMANCE' gives better
quality than the so called 'Best Quality' mode. Only
use 'Best Quality' when the length of your content
requires it.
F Shippey
I appreciate the response; I'm new to this whole thing. I'm not sure what the CODEC is, but I know when I watch the DVD, on TV or on a computer, the image is badly digitized.
How can I create a broadcast quality menu with iDVD? It works fine with a still image, but everytime I throw a clip in there, it's horrible. This is especially frustrating because the iDVD sample menus have movie clips in the background that look great before and after burning.

Similar Messages

Using LT for motion menu background – problems

I’m trying to use a LT texture (Canvas>Sinopia) as a motion menu background. I exported 30 secs of the rendered texture direct from LT. The QT file size is 1.09 GB. Couldn’t get it to work in DVDSP. Took that file into FCP and re-exported it using custom settings. File size now 108.7 MB. Still doesn’t work in DVDSP.
Should I be putting the 30 second file through Compressor? Is it the large file size that is causing the problems?
Importing the .lpr file into DVDSP also doesn’t work (although I prefer to pre-render all assets, otherwise DVDSP slows to a crawl).
I’ve now tried the texture as a 5 sec version (20 MB file) – works fine, but there’s an annoying jump in the loop every 5 secs. If I could fix that, the menu would probably be OK.
Any advice appreciated.
Regards. Robert.

Both solutions worked. Wish I could award 2 solved stars.
Compressor produced an m2v file of 21.9 MB. I'm going with that because the workflow is quicker and simpler on my old setup.
Exporting as DV from FCP produced a file size of 103.2 MB. My DVDSP slows down with large file sizes, so I'll give it a miss. Or could still be me doing something incorrectly.
I'm working in SD PAL 16:9.
Help was much appreciated.
Regards. Robert.

Spry vertical menu background problem in IE

The background of the <li> items show as white on the spry menu items here. http://www.steveelson.com/index.html. Menu items are .pngs, but I've used the iepngfix.htc fix, but still have the problem in IE 8 and 9. So I assume it's a css problem, but can't figure it out.

Save a copy of the css file as you have altered it, but under a new name. You might want to save a copy of your menu, too, so you'll have something to refer to. Then delete your menu widget and re-insert it.
You will most likely be very surprised at how easy it is to style it up (referring from time to time to your saved, former stylesheet).
If your page works without your menu, you should be successful inserting your menu to it.
Beth

Tab menu background problem

I am using the spry tabbed menu and currently I have the
background image of the entire header section set to a repeating
image. I left the tabbed menu div background color and image blank
so that the header section will come thru. It works fine in IE 7
but in FF the tabbed menu adds a white background... here is the
link to the test page...
http://afm.geofoam.com/homepage.asp
Any suggestions?

Hi,
Try to add a fixed height for the header container. I added
for this css rule: .thrColFixHdr #header the height:105px and seems
to work also in FF.
Please let us know if this fixes your problem
Diana

CS5 Encore Multi page menu background problem

I am trying to create a multi-page Blu-Ray so there is seamless background video playback while navigating to different pages. On one of the secondary pages, I am needing to cover up a portion of the BG video with a still and some buttons over the still. Encore seems to ignor anything but buttons for all sub pages..
I'm sure it's just an issue with my PSD layer structure/ naming, but I have no Idea.
Here is page 1, each tile is a looping video
This is what Page 2 should look like. All 3 tiles to the right are stills.
Here is a shot of my layers if that helps. The highlighted folder is what is being ignored..
I know with a single page menu, you can have it set up this way, with anything you want as a BG all just put into a folder.
With the way it's currently set up, when I build an iso, it ignors the stills on the right and shows the video with the buttons ontop of that.
I have also tried making the stills the actual buttons, but the loss of color quality and an issue where some pixels are rendered transparent makes that solution not work for my purposes.
Please help, thanks!

With that confirmation, I used the workaround of making the main menu button a title-sized heading at the top, then making its text vary (e.g. the Page 0 version was Main Menu from Page 0, from Page 1 "main menu from Page 1" etc). Since the main menu button has an opaque background, it appears to change the title for each page.
Edit: You cannot use this method for a background, since it creates overlapping buttons.

Video & voice sync in menu background

I have a problem with a video clip used as a menu background. It is 25 seconds, a talking head, but I cannot get the voice and video to sync. All movies in this iDVD v 6.04 project sync fine. The movies and background clips were created in FC Express and then exported as Quicktime movies. The exported .mov files play fine in Quicktime. I did delete the old .mov file, re-export it from FCE and drop it into the menu background box but it's still out of sync. I deleted my preferences for iDVD in Library/Preferences and restarted my computer but this didn't work either. I have made other movies where the voice syncs fine in the background, but it isn't working here. I have not burned an image to see if it works as a completed DVD; it's a long DVD and that seems unlikely.
I would appreciate any thoughts.

Preview doesn't always portray things accurately, so you might just let your computer work overnight on a disc image, and see how that behaves.
John

DVD menu background not working in some players only

I put together a DVD in DVDSP 3 which works fine on most players. However on some players the menu backgrounds are grey instead of the graphic that should be there, and the buttons all say "Introduction" instead of having the proper titles. The first Main Menu looks fine and works properly. But the other menus don't show the background images at all.
I've tried using JPG, TIF and MPEG-2 files for the backgrounds on those menus, but none of those file formats works. The buttons all function properly and go to the correct targets, but the button text is the same wrong text on all the buttons. Also, the transitions work fine. And the tracks all play fine. It's just the non-Main menus that have the problem, and only on some DVD Players.
The specific players that have the problem are the Sony DVP-NS55P and the Philips DVP3140, both set top players.
Has anyone seen this type of behavior? And fixed it?

I have a similar problem. When I create a movie background and test in the simulator, the movie doesn't play and I get the grey screen with all the buttons and menus. The DVD created only plays the movie background only after you click a button and it tries to move on to the next track. I have never had a problem before.

CS5 Encore Animated Menu Rendering Problem

Anybody who could help! I am still experimenting but haven't find the solution (either very simple, or a serious bug ). Here is the problem: If I do any edit on the menu after setting the poster frames and/or inserting a motion (avi) or still (wav) background and re-render the menu, it plays the audio but shows the highlights only on a black background. Before rendering, all the (non-moving) background and/or the button pictures can be seen. For a simple experiment, I use the "NTSC Blank Menu" from the "General" Set in the Library panel with the "Drive-in Video Button". My only solution at this point is to start from the beginning with the Blank Menu and copy everything from the non-functioning menu, and insert the background and/or the button pictures (via the poster frame selection), but do not touch anything at this point, and render it, it works as it supposed to. I checked the layers in Photoshop and there is no difference between the functioning and non-functioning menu layer sets. (It points to the animation part as a possible culprit in Encore.) Also, I couldn't find any way to just remove/reinsert the background/button pictures and make it work. This might even be a quirk only with this menu? I would greatly appreciate any suggestion. - Laci.

Hi LaciG,
I just encountered the same problem tonight. So I knew exactly what you were refering to. I tried several approaches to work around this issue including erasing the motion menu background source file and re-importing in and starting the menu from scratch again and neither worked. Eventually I did find a work around here it goes: First I erased the buggy menu and motion menu source file (AVI). Next I copied the whole Encore project file and renamed it. Then I copied and renamed the avi file I used as the motion menu. After this I went in and used the template menu I originally used but renamed it in the asset list. Like you said when ever you mess with the menu like changing the chapter timeline poster or such, it messes up the render. So I made sure everything was the way it needed to be then added the AVI to the motion menu. I re-rendered and it worked. I know this is convoluted but it works, I guess this a good start but I may work on finding out what specific step it was in the process that did it. I had a similar problem in CS4 but could never figure out how to fix it and now that I have Windows 7 using CS4 Encore was a nightmare so I switched to CS5 and ran into the same bug as you. Well I hope this helps

Menu background image size

Hi...if I follow this link http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=iDVD/6.0/en/17.html and the instructions for preparing menu background images. My images still get cropped. Does anyone know the real sizes that will fit perfectly?
From the Apple link:
"If you want your images to fit the DVD window exactly, use an image-editing application to crop and resize the images to the following dimensions:
720 x 540 pixels for standard video in NTSC format
854 x 480 pixels for widescreen in NTSC format
768 x 576 pixels for standard video in PAL format
1024 x 576 pixels for widescreen in PAL format"
Many thanks in advance

Shingy,
Today there is an update to iDVD (as well as other iApps) that you should make.
After doing the update this is what I found:
I'm not sure if the things I'm seeing are a result of the update, but after updating I have further defined the problem.
The problem now seems to be in figuring out the proper background size when using a widescreen theme converted to 4:3
Widescreen as widescreen and 4:3 as 4:3 work as expected in PAL.
So, if you stick with the originally discussed image sizes for PAL you will be OK AS LONG AS you don't try to use a widescreen theme as a 4:3 theme. (I didn't try using a 4:3 theme as widescreen.)

Menu background blacks out after 10-15 seconds

Using Encore in Production Premium CS3 and simple menus from library, suddenly menu backgrounds are disappearing after 10-15seconds.When running "preview" before burning a disc, things appear normal. Project check reveals no items. Buttons, titles, and audio continue to play normally against a black background. These exact menus, with audio, have worked on 50 different projects over the past two years, but crashed today! I have not changed any hardware or software, so this problem is perplexing, annoying and time consuming. I have tried several different menus, HD, widescreen, animation and no animation.
Any ideas greatly appreciated.....

The duration is whatever audio track I've selected, i.e. 1 min 59sec.
The "hold forever" box is greyed out and I can't figure out how to cjange that, so I cannot check the box.
Loop Point is 00;00;00;00.
The thing that puzzles me is I'm using a library menu (NTSC_Television Menu) which I've used successfully about a month ago. Preferences are all default and I can't really think of anything I've fooled with in the program.
Is an uninstall/reinstall of Production Studio Premium likely to help? Hate to do that since it takes so long.
TIA

Still image disappears from menu background on burning to DVD

I’ve just completed a project in Adobe Premiere Elements 9 in which I’ve personalized the menu background with a still image (trying two different disc menu templates - sport swimming and one under memories - can't remember the name of that one). With both these templates the still image shows up perfectly on my computer screen while I'm in the project but when I burn the project to DVD the still image doesn't appear on playback of the DVD. I have done other projects in PE9 with no problems with still images in existing disc menu templates - travel ship template and the template that comes as standard with PE9 before adding additional templates). I would prefer not to use either of these templates for my current project.
I see previous treads have commented on changing the size of the image...this doesn't seem to make a difference for me and the other suggestion is to somehow change the name of the file for the templates to get around this problem but i'm not understanding this. I still don't understand why some templates work and others don't. Does anyone have a simple to understand solution to this?
Or does anyone have a list of the disc menu templates that work with personalizing?
thanks heaps.

There does seem to be a bug that affects some menu templates.
Try the Generic template under the General tab.
There are also a number of menu templates available at Premiere Elements support site http://Muvipix.com that will work with no problem and can be easily customized.

How can I change a the dropdown menu background according to the text selected?

How can I change a the dropdown menu background according to the text selected?

Read here about how to use the color object correctly:
http://livedocs.adobe.com/acrobat_sdk/9.1/Acrobat9_1_HTMLHelp/wwhelp/wwhimpl/common/html/w whelp.htm?context=Acrobat9_HTMLHelp&file=JS_API_AcroJS.88.260.html
http://livedocs.adobe.com/acrobat_sdk/9.1/Acrobat9_1_HTMLHelp/wwhelp/wwhimpl/common/html/w whelp.htm?context=Acrobat9_HTMLHelp&file=JS_API_AcroJS.88.261.html

Ideas for HELP sizing a photo to display as a menu background

Hey gang. I'm authoring in iDVD and have a photo with DVD credits that I want to display as a menu background. There won't be any buttons on the page. Just this image of DVD credits. The iDVD manual tells you to size photos for an NTSC 4:3 display at 720 x 540 pixels. However, when I drop it onto the menu, it automatically enlarges the image so that there's only a partial view of the image. The only adjustment that can be made is vertically. I've even tried shrinking the image with text and mounting it on a matte so that it appears in the TV safe viewing area, but no luck there. Same thing happens. Any ideas? If someone want to mess around with the image, let me know and i'll email it to you. Thanks!

hey there koshercuts, welcome to Discussions.
have you tried to edit your pic in iPhoto before dropping it into the iDVD menu? this is where you edit your pix, not in iDVD. also see this: http://www.danslagle.com/mac/iMovie/, Dan's site has a lot of great info, especially "Tips & Tricks".
good luck.

Can I take a frame from my project and use it as a custom menu background with CS4 and its Encore

My project is edited in CS4.
I moved it to Encore CS4.
I don't want to use any of the supplied menu templates in CS4 Encore.
I was hoping CS4 would be all I needed to create custom menus using scenes from my project.
My question is: Can I take a frame from my project and use it as a custom menu background with CS4 and its built in Encore or do I need some other element from the Adobe catalog to make these custom chapter menus and sub-menus?
Thanks Jim

OK, I'm back. Here are my steps for creating Custom Menus with PS, En and PrPro:
In PrPro, move the CTI (Current Time Indicator) to the desired Frame. Check Frames on either side, with the Program Monitor’s Magnification to 100%, or maybe even 200% (you’ll need to scroll, but get a really clear picture). You want the clearest Frame in that area. With AME, in CS4, you’ll want to Export that Frame as .TIFF, or .BMP. I use .TIFF for this.
Now, for a caveat. When you Import this Exported Frame into Photoshop, be sure to check the specs., especially the PAR. You may have to use Image>PAR to adjust this to match your Project’s specs. Or, all might be perfect - just check this out.
Now, at this point, I choose the Library Menu, Blank, so that everything is setup. One can create the Menu from scratch, but careful attention needs to be paid to the exact naming conventions. At the very least, unless you’ve done this dozens of times before, use that Blank Menu, or similar as a guide, so you get things done, as they must be done.
Using that Blank Menu, just drag the Layer from your Exported Frame to your Menu image. It will appear above the black Background.
Add, or manipulate your Button Layer Sets, as is required, keeping them together. Remember that Button #1 will be the Button Layer Set, that is lower down in the Layers Palette. This can play a roll with Button Routing, back in Encore. Lower Button Layer Sets will have lower Button numbers.
Now, I always rename my Button Layer Sets, keeping the required characters - just changing the name. I also do all of my Button text in PS, and make sure to turn OFF Sync Button Names.
When done, Save_As .PSD, and then Import_As_Menu into Encore. Note: if you start with the Blank Menu, you can choose Edit in Photoshop, and then when done in PS, you just need to Save, and it will update in Encore. This is a personal workflow choice. I do the Edit in Photoshop route, but it is not necessary. One just needs to Import the resulting .PSD into Encore with Import_As_Menu, so that Encore does all the things that it needs to and recognizes the .PSD as a Menu.
When deciding what to base your Menu on, remember that you can "populate" your Menu with Buttons from the Functional Content. I’d suggest studying these Assets, and picking the ones that work best for you. You can still alter/edit those back in PS, so you just need to "get close."
Pay special attention to the required naming conventions. You cannot deviate from those first characters in the Button Layer Sets. They MUST be followed.
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask.
Good luck,
Hunt

Spry Menu background is white in IE

I've created a vertical Spry menu with submenus. The menu should not have a background color, so it should take the color of the image it's on top of. This looks fine on Safari (Mac) and Firefox (Mac/Windows), but on IE 8 (Windows), the menu background is WHITE. This makes it difficult to see the menu items. What can I do so that the menu background is transparent and does not show up white in IE?
The site: http://chrysacupuncture.com
I'm attaching index.html, my own css file, and the Spry css file.
Thanks for your help.

Actually, now that I look at it, I think one of your IE hacks might be malfunctioning:
/* HACK FOR IE: to stabilize appearance of menu items; the slash in float is to keep IE 5.0 from parsing */
@media screen, projection
     ul.MenuBarVertical li.MenuBarItemIE
          display: inline;
          f\loat: left;
          background: #FFF;
This is the bottom-most item in your CSS file. Notice the typo in the float:left and that it does indeed state a white background background:#FFF. I don't usually put IE hacks external CSS, you might try moving it to the main HTML file and using IECC. Place it in the header as you would if you had internal CSS:

I removed the background color altogether, but you may have to define one (I don't usually support IE5 so I'm not sure).
If you insist on having this hack externally, you can try placing the background: transparent in the first item of your CSS:
ul.MenuBarVertical
     margin: 0;
     padding: 0;
     list-style-type: none;
     font-size: 100%;
     cursor: default;
     width: 9em;
     padding-top: 80px;
     background: transparent;

Menu Background Problem

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for