TmpgEnc 3 Menu Confusion

[marioval]

I have played around with the menus and have searched these forums and cannot figure this out. Here is what I want to do. I have 2 titles. Title1 has 1 movie. Title2 has 5 short movies which are actually just different theatrical trailers for the movie in title1. I want a 2 page menu. The first page will have 2 buttons. One button will play the movie. The other button will take me to page 2 which will have 5 buttons representing each trailer as well as a link to go back to the main page. I do not want chapter menus since none of those trailers have chapters and my main movie has 30 chapters. Can someone tell me the best way to do this. Thanks

[ozBillo]

Hi marioval,

TDA3 can do what you want with a little bit of fiddling.
What we'll finish up with is a 2 page menu, like you want.
Page 1 will have your "Main Movie" button and a "Trailers" button.
Page 2 will have your 5 trailers and a "Main Menu" button.

On the Source page add 10 tracks. 1 track for your main movie, 4 dummy tracks, and 5 trailer tracks (1 for each trailer).

Put your Main Movie in Track 1 (and do your cut-edit, chapters, etc).
Back on the Source page, right click on your "Main Movie" and choose Duplicate Clip from the popup menu.
Now you should have 2 clips in Track 1. "Main Movie" and "Main Movie(Copy)".

Click the Edit button for "Main Movie(Copy)".
On the Cut-edit page press right-arrow once to move to the second frame.
Click the "Sets the start frame" button.
Cut the current selection (Del key).
Now you should have a 1 frame clip.
Click the "Mute" button (near the Volume slider).
Click "OK" to save the clip and return to the Source page.

Right click on your "Main Movie(Copy)" and choose Duplicate Clip from the popup menu.
You should now have third clip in Track 1 called "Main Movie(Copy)(Copy)".
Click and drag "Main Movie(Copy)(Copy)" to Track 2.
Duplicate your "Main Movie(Copy)" 3 more times and drag them to Tracks 3, 4 and 5.

On the Menu page click "Launch the Menu Wizard".
Choose the "Create a custom menu..." option.
Click "Next...".
It doesn't matter whether you choose standard mode or classic mode.
Click "Next...".
For Top Menu choose "#5(2D)".
Track Menu doesn't matter.
For Navigation Button choose "Text Button".
Thumbnail doesn't matter.
For Background you can choose one of the built-in pictures or choose your own later on.
Click "Next...".
For menu type choose "Top menu only".
Click "Next...".
For playback settings choose "Display the top menu" and "Play the next track" (so all the trailers will play after the main movie).
Click "OK".

Click "Page editor".
Select "Track 2" on the menu page and drag it to the far left of the menu page so it will be out of the way.
Do the same for "Track 3", "Track 4" and "Track 5".
Select "Name of Track(#2)" on the left and click "Menu item settings".
Press the Del key to delete the text and click "OK".
Do the same for Track(#3), Track(#4) and Track(#5).
Select "Next page button" on the left and click "Menu item settings".
Change the text to "Trailers" and click "OK".
Now click-and-drag "Trailers" to a position underneath "Main Movie".

Click "Link editor".
Click on "Main Movie" to select it.
There should be 3 arrows coming off "Main Movie".
We don't want the left arrow so click on the little square at the start of the left arrow and drag it to some blank area on the menu page. This should get rid of it.
Click on "Trailers" to select it.
We don't want the left arrow so click on the little square at the start of the left arrow and drag it to some blank area on the menu page.
Do the same for the bottom arrow on "Trailers".
Click on "Play" to select it.
Click on the little square at the start of the left arrow and drag it up to link with "Trailers".

Click "Page 2" on the left to select it.
Click "Page editor".
Select "Go to the previous page button" on the left and click "Menu item settings".
Change the text to "Main Menu" and click "OK".

Now go through Menu Page 1 and Page 2 and reposition and rename the tracks, etc to whatever you want.

Hopefully, now the menu will work how you want.
If you have any problems let me know.

Bill

[marioval]

Holy Cow!! I'll give that a try. Thanks

[gillmacca]

I have used this tutorial on a project of my own, and it has helped a great deal, so thanks for posting this.
Using the technique, how would I get it to play just one trailer, and then return to the trailers page?

[ozBillo]

Hi gillmacca,

I don't think you can do exactly that in TDA3.
You could go to "Global DVD menu settings" and select "Display the top menu" from "Track playback end action setting". But this will cause it to go back to the Main Menu (not the Trailers Menu) after you play one trailer. Probably not what you want.