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

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Can you loop video forever as a menu background, but audio only once?

I'm wanting to make a menu that has a video background and plays music as soon as the DVD starts up, but I want the music to stop after it plays through twice and the video to continue to loop.
I know I could do this by setting a loop point, but I don't want the user to have to sit and wait the first time the music plays before they can select a button.
Is there a way to do this?

ram8kumar wrote:
There are mainly two workflows to set the looping in a motion menu :
1. If you want to loop the entire video and audio, then there are two ways to do this:
a) In the motion tab of the menus properties, set the loop point to 00:00:00:00 and the loop# to the number of times you want the looping.
b) Go to the Specify Link dialog box to set the End action of the menu, select the menu as the target link and check the 'Set to loop point' checkbox there.
2. If you want to loop the video from a specific point in the time, then in the motion tab of the menu, set the loop point to the exact time of the video you want to stat the looping from and set the loop # to number of times you want the looping.
Thanks for the reply, but I don't think either of your solutions will achieve the result I'm wanting. I want to loop the AUDIO just once (it plays two times after the menu comes up), but I want the VIDEO background to continue to loop forever. I also want the user to be able to make a menu selection at any time, including right when the menu first appears.
If I set a loop point, it makes the menu unusable until that loop point is reached the first time.
I was thinking I could do this with two menus. The first menu would have the audio and video and only loop one time, then its end action would send it to another menu that looks exactly like the first, but only has the video looping on it. The only problem with this solution is that if the user moves their selection to something other than the default button, it will jump back to the default button when it goes to the second menu (or whatever button the "end action" is set to on the first menu).
Would there be a way to have the first menu jump to the identical second menu and stay on whatever button the user currently has highlighted?
Thanks.

Whenever I enter a loop point, menu background disappears

I've tried all sorts of combinations of menu duration/hold forever/animate buttons with different time lengths..but no matter what, if I enter a time for Loop Point, the background of my menu disappears.
I got it working once by deleting the menu and redoing everything, but now that doesnt work. Please help! All I'm trying to do is have a chapter menu with each chapter showing a video preview about 5 seconds long. I'm using one of the standard menus provided by Encore.
Does anyone know how to get it to work properly?
I'm using Encore CS4

Maybe someone can educate both of us on this.
I don't recall where I formed the belief, but I generally do not mix a motion background and animate buttons. I use a still background with animate buttons. If I wanted to mix a motion background and animate buttons, I'd do it all in After Effects rather than using Encore for the animate buttons. (You can in fact mix a motion background and animate buttons in Encore, but it does odd things like the one you are describing.)
I believe the "loop point" refers to the motion background and not animate buttons alone. So when you set a loop point without a motion asset, you see black behind your buttons. You can work around this by making a video of your still menu background, and selecting that as your motion asset.
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Hi,
I'm creating a video for DVD and have got a 15 second AVI file I am using for the DVD menu background.
I've added it in the Create DVD section and it all works fine. However, when I view the created DVD the quality of the menu video is horrible. Lots of compression artifacts.
When I look at the VIDEO_TS folder the VOB file for the menu is about 6Mb.
If I create a movie using the same 15 second AVI as the main movie (and no DVD title) then the SAME 15 second AVI becomes a 15Mb VOB file and looks much better.
a) Why is PE3 using such low quality when compressing video files to use as DVD menu backgrounds?
b) Is it possible to override it and make it use the same quality it uses for the main movie?
Many thanks,
Chris
PS I'm using Premiere Elements 3.02 on Windows XP.

Hi Steve,
The 15 second DVD menu background AVI was created in Premiere Elements in a separate project. I created some Titles with Motion paths, layered them and then added some music.
I then used File->Export->Movie... to save it as a Microsoft DV AVI which I then imported into the main movie project.
I then selected Create DVD and dragged the movie into the Menu Background place.
The project seems to work fine. The only issue is that the generated VOB for the menu is only 6Mb and very poor quality whereas if I create a DVD from the separate project where I created the 15 second title movie the same movie clip becomes a 15Mb clip (and hence 2-3x the visual quality too).
Note that the rest of the movie is fine. It's just the menu background that appears to have been badly compressed.
Chris

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If you have done what Russ describes and it does not work...
Encore replaces the background layer with your motion video. So make sure you have a) a layer at the bottom (in Photoshop layer order) that is named "background," and b) no other full layer above that (for example, an image in another layer you've used instead of the original background layer).
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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BJBBJB1

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Placing button on a video asset rather than menu asset?

Is it possible in iDVD to place a button on a video asset rather than a menu asset?
Is it possible to have "invisible" buttons (ie a button with no associated subpicture).
I'd like to be able to have an invisible button present during a chapter on a DVD so that if you push the "enter" button on your DVD remote, it jumps to a hidden track.
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Nice solution! I'll do that... note the highlight colour will also need to be the same as the background colour to make it invisible in both selected and unselected states.
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A button with no subpicture is an invisible button, ie there is no onscreen feedback as to whether the button is selected or not, or even whether it exists. It is simply a rectangular screen area of some defined size that has DVD navigation commands attached to it. It will still act like any other button if you "select" it by using arrow navigation keys then press "Enter", and it will take you to whatever you've linked.
One of the best examples I've seen is in the recent R.E.M. DVD collection of their early IRS clips. The clip for "Radio Free Europe" is just one big invisible button that fills the whole frame for the entire clip. If you press "Enter" while it is playing, you jump to the original version of that video, stored as a Menu object (and not a Title or Chapter, hence not accessible using the DVD player's Disc Navigation menu).
Neat.

[Python pygame] Graphic equalizer - keeping sound and video in sync

Hi!
I'm writing a graphic equalizer in python and I want to use pygame for the video and audio output.
The video display of the moving bars works great, now that I have a correct way to read samples and decode them.
The problem now is: they're way out of sync with the audio playing in the background!
At the moment my code, that draws the bars basically looks like this:
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The way I'm thinking, this should be enough to keep sound and video in sync. Because we know the time that one cycle should take at most,
we can set the clock to tick_busy_loop this time. This way we make sure that the video is not faster than the sound.
But to me it seems that is is the other way round, i.e. that the video is slower than the sound. I already did some timing, but to no avail.
Is there perhaps a more easy, more elegant way to make sure that image and audio are in sync?
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Last edited by n0stradamus (2012-10-01 18:36:53)

Thanks for your ideas. I assume you mean I should go with a $1200.00 final cut pro software. NOT.
Sure the video will be on myspace and youtube but wether they are noticed or not is not as important as self satisfaction. I can easily split scenes into equal time zones as I said. Then drag them into clips and back all using the same camcorder. Multiple cameras and angles would be nice but this can be done on a low budget and still look good. I guess my original questions were not answered. Is there a way to determine the length of a transition and shorten the clip by that amount. Or the length of a still shot and do the same. Or perhaps they have been answered and the answer is NO WAY, and I am just not hearing it.
I suppose reimporting a video would be great if I could use two timelines like in audio and then blank out what I don't want in the first. But I just don't think this is possible, or is it. I've been reading iMovie HD6 The Manual that should have been in the box. It's a help but doesn't take you from the beginning of a project to the final project. Exporting to imovie or idvd is not an issue. BTW I got the clips in sync as I said by leaving blank spots and placing effects over them. I could insert the proper length video in those spots but that can look silly without transitions. But then again so can transitions. This stuff is very fun and interesting and a great learning experience. If I stop now as you suggest then I am not pushing myself to the limit. But thanks for your reply.

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720 x 540 pixels for standard video in NTSC format
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As Drew said - read the manual... the correct dimensions and way to approach this are all in there.

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Here is one of those THREADS.
Here is another THREAD.
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Video & voice sync in menu background

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