Hi, I use TMPGencAuthoringWorks 4
I have built a menu with 4 button. Each button links a page which contains from 3 to 6 clips. When I push a button, correctly goes to the page. Than I click the clip thumbnail and the clips starts. This is OK. The trouble is that at the end of the clips starts the next clip of the page, instead of stopping and showing again the page with the clips and I don't know where I can set the "no transition".

Thanks in advance

Mino

Since your clips are all in the same track, they will play one after the other as if the entire track was one movie. You will need to put each clip in a separate track if you want to go back to the menu after playback ends.

In TAW5, there is an option to go back to the menu after a chapter ends, but this feature is not in TAW4.

Thanks for you answer but I have another question.

As I have explained before I have a main menu with some button that
links to some submenus. ( Simply each button in the main menu
show an year and each submenu contains all clips of that year ).

Every submenus have 2, 3, 4, or 5 clips that can be started with a button.
I cannot understand where I can set a different number of button for each submenus.

For example : year 1984 contain 1 clip, 1985 contain 5 clip, 1986 contains 5 clip.
When I choose the menu with 4 button the program inserts 4 + 4 + 3 button but
this is not what i like since I want to insert a button for each clip in different submenu.
Sorry, for my long question and for my poor english.
I hope I was clear enough

Mino

I've had AW4 on my computer for ages, but have just started using it. I have 2 videos set as tracks. What I'd like is a top menu with 2 buttons and to link directly to 2 'scene/chapter' menus. What I get is a top menu, which links to another menu which in turn has links to the 2 scene/chapter menus. How can I link directly from the top menu to the scene/chapter menus?

Surprised this is that difficult. This software seems to be ridiculously inflexible. For instance; you can't use elements of a theme. Has to be the whole thing or nothing. Crazy. DVD Workshop-2 was a LOT more capable - and that's stone-age software now! Now I know why I've left it on the shelf for so long.

Yeah, that's one of the things that bothers me about TAW; they haven't really improved the menu making process since version 2 or so. Maybe they don't want to make it too complicated, but I feel they are seriously behind the times compared to other software.
If they want to keep it dumbed down, that's fine, but at least include an "advanced mode" or something for people who expect to do more.

Hello,
I returned the DVD authoring with reason:
Video Manager IFO and BUP files in Same ECC block.
I scouted the internet and found a solution with PgcEdit. But I wonder whether it has already set TMPG to work correctly.
My original workflow: TMPG authoring, Nero Burning ISO image sent to FTP.
William

Hi, TMPGencAuthoringWorks 4.0.2.14
I have 6 video clips and I wish to see a menu appear showing all 6 clips thumbnails when dvd inserted into dvd player and autoruns.
User navigates to e.g. clip 3 and hits ok, clip plays and loops when it reaches end, so it plays again and again, until user chooses menu option from dvd handset, then user sees the 6 thumbnail menu option and can choose another clip from the 6 clips showing.

Alternatively if thats not possible, clip plays then when it reaches end the 6 clip menu re-appears and user chooses that clip again to replay it.

What should the source window have in it, 6 tracks each with 1 clip, or one track with 6 clips ?
What should the menu choices be when compiling menu. I usually opt for the user chooses thumbnails and frame style etc route !

Merlin

The only thing that's not possible is setting a single track to repeat automatically. TAW4 only lets you repeat ALL tracks. However, your alternate goal is possible and you can set it to go back to the top menu after the track playback ends.

I would add each clip to a separate track, so you'll have 6 tracks.

You can do either custom or template menu option--that's up to you.
If you do not need chapter menus, choose "Top menu only" when the option comes up. Choosing this also allows the track to play immediately once it's selected.
For Disc insertion action, choose "Display the top menu".
For Track Playback end action, choose "Display the top menu".

That should do what you want.

Many Thanks, I shall follow this.

I do find the way TAW gives the menu options confusing, maybe someone has done a...you want this, so choose this...user guide to TAW, I could do with one. I mess around with DVD_RW discs and various combinations and it takes ages, sometimes as this, I get nowhere.

Cheers

Merlin

Hi,
Is there any chance to burn more than one DVD at once? I have 3 DVD burners in my PC and it takes ages to burn let's say 30 DVDs. I tried to run another session of AW 4 but cant run burning tool as it says another application is active.

My PC is i7-3770K, 32 GB RAM, all HDDs are SATA 6GB and all DVD burners are SATA. System drive is 240GB SSD so it should not be a problem for PC to do that kind of job.

Not possible right now, but who knows? Maybe they'll see this request and add it later.

Hi,

When I was adding my clips into authoring works to create a DVD it stored the files on the HDD in the export folder.

At the time the HDD had the drive letter as E: and this has now changed. How do you amemd the file location in a saved Project?

Thanks

Just open the file in TAW4. An error window will show up for each missing file; in the window, click on the "Browse..." button and select the file in it's new location.

I am creating a custom Blu-ray menu with a background image that I made in Photoshop. When importing the new BG into BG Editor the image looks fine, like it should. Then when I click OK the actual menu looks like it's being compressed like crazy. The text is blurry and pixelated and the gradient that is used is dithered.

Again, the image looks completely FINE in BG Editor. Though when it goes to the actual menu it is either compressed or Authoring Works imported it as a small image and then resized it causing it to pixelate.

Couple of notes;
1. I have done this before with no problems
2. I have tried importing BG as JPEG/PSD/TIFF/PNG
3. The file is in standard HD settings (1920x1080 - square pixel ratio)
4. Get the same result if I attempt to increase DPI

Any help would be greatly appreciated

So it appears pixelated in the Menu Stage preview? What about in the Simulation Stage?

I am simply trying to build a basic menu that you'd find on most retail DVDs. That would mean the disc loads and you are given the options of play, set-up (audio and/or subtitles), special features, and scene selections.

If I try to do it all on the track page (with no top menu), all of the chapters appear on the first page, which defeats the purpose of having a chapters page in the first place. I have tried workarounds including creating a bunch of phony chapters and then trying to make the thumbnails tiny and delete the chapter names, thereby making the second page the actual starting point. That way I can just change the button that says "next page" to "scene selections." Of course, that creates a problem if I'm using a 16x9 menu, as you are limited to 18 items on a page. But even if I were using a 4x3 menu, I'd still have a whole bunch of pointless, tiny blank buttons that I'd have to navigate around to get to the actual buttons I want to use.

Of course a lot of this could be solved if I could create my own links within a menu page. In other words, I'd like to have custom buttons that I can link to pages within the menu, instead of relying on the choices TDA4 has already made for me. That way I could just create a top menu and link to each page, with no workarounds needed. Is this possible? All I'd need is one button that I can name and add to the title page within my single track.

Or is there a way to simply delete the thumbnails on a page? I know I can delete the text, and have no thumbnails visible, but I'd still like to see the visuals of the chapters, not compromise because of finicky software.

I'm fine with keeping the special features in the same track as the feature film so I can have all the audio and subtitle options in the same track. Of course the only foolproof way to do that is to treat the special features like extra chapters, making sure that they get their own page by choosing the correct template that corresponds number-wise to your total chapters. But is there a way to access a second audio track from a non-audio page (other than while playing the actual movie and doing it on the fly), much as a you would if there was an audio commentary listed in the special features section?

I have taken some screenshots, which you can see below, of some rather basic attempts to almost remedy the situation, though as you can see, I am always one button short.



Track page 1 with no top menu or title page.

http://s10.postimage.org/lu2y4jvon/menudamage1.jpg


Title page with no top menu.

http://s16.postimage.org/eg1ho1bxv/menudamage2.jpg

You can create menus of emerging as bluray movies, Lord of the Rings in a menu appears on the main menu and merge as one. If possible someone can guide me to incorporate a menu similar to my projects. Thanks

I think you're talking about adding a "first play" track. In the Source stage, right-click on the track list and select "Add a firstplay track". The firstplay track plays once you insert the disc in your player and will go directly to the top menu after it plays.

All you need to do is make a video that transitions to an image or the first frame of your menu background.

Sorry, did not see you were talking about popup menus. I don't really understand what you want to do though.

Hi There
I'm brand new to TMPEG. How do I add an audio track over the slideshow and video clips that I have just added, so that the music will play when and where I want it ?
Am I missing something in the tutorial ? I cant seem to find anything that tells me how to do it !

TAW4 isn't a sophisticated editor, so it'll take a bit of work to do what I think you want to do. If you have software with a layered timeline editor, you should use that instead.

You can replace the audio of a video clip or add audio to a slideshow, but if the video clip and slideshow are in the same track and you want to add audio over the entire track, it gets a little more complicated.

TAW4 can only change the audio on a per-clip basis, not for the entire track. So in order to have audio span multiple clips/slideshows, you'll need to encode the track first (just output as a DVD/BD without burning it to disc). This will combine the video clip and slideshow into one clip.
You can then import the encoded DVD/BD track and it'll show up as one clip which you can then replace the audio for.

The second issue which could be difficult is getting the audio to start when you want it to. TAW4 has an audio gap tool that can offset the audio by up to 1 minute. If you want to start the audio at more than a minute later, you'll need to add dead air to your audio track with an audio editor (Audacity is a good one).

Obviously, this is not ideal but TAW4 was not designed for this type of editing.

I'm a new user having trouble doing the simplest thing. I have a single video file with 5 chapters. I simply want a top menu with a button to begin playing the file, and that's it. I don't want all chapters listed on the menu page, and I don't want a second menu page listing the chapters. No matter what selections I make the program wants to create a list of tracks or track page. Is there a way to do this?

I was able to accomplish what I needed using a built-in template, and it worked fine. However I needed to relocate items on the menu for a better fit for the ratio I'm using on playback, and the program would not allow me to move items in the built-in templates. Why can't I move items like titles and buttons?

Create a menu with the "Top menu only" option. That's it. It can be a custom menu or template.

I don't know why template menu items can't be moved.

Dear friends, I made a dvd movie (in the divx format) using TAW4 with some avi vids. Now I need to recover those vids (I deleted the originals) from the DVD Divx, is there a way to recover them by splitting the divx movie I did?

Regards

Miguel Ch