Getting Very Frustrated With DVD Author 3.0

**JonVic** · 28 Feb 2008, 12:30 AM

Is there really nobody who knows how to do this? I am surprised!

**rcubed** · 1 Mar 2008, 02:57 AM

Frustrated with TMPGEnc Author 3.0

JonVic,
I don't have 3.0 but I have 2.0. I did download the trial version of 3.0. Looking at 3.0 you should have to do something like the following.

The key to what you are trying to do is to created a separate track for the Main movie and a separate track for the special features.

Go to the Source button and add two tracks. Select track 1 and use the source wizard to import your old movie. Label the track "Chapter Menu" Edit that track to delete the special features portion. Put chapter points as desired.

Select track 2 and use the source wizard to import the old move again. Edit that track to only contain the special features. Put chapter points as desired. Label that Track "Special Features"

Select Menu, Select Structure the menu in classic mode. For the top menu Select #2(1) Text - this will give you two buttons track 1 and track 2, for the track menu select one that will give you as many thumbnails per page as you want for the main movie. For the navagate button select Text, leave the Thumbnail Frame with X through it (no thumbnail), select the background you would like.

Do next and Select Top and Track Menu, Do next and select Display the top menu, and Play the next track. Do OK. You should have a Project with a top menu, and two track menus

Clicking on each of the menus will allow you change the lay out for that menu. On the top menu, you can change the text and text size for the Play button to read "Play All" to match the other two button sizes (this is based on the text size) by double clicking on it. You can also drag the buttons around on the menu to place them in what ever position and order you want.

For each track you can select the track and click on the Edit Menu button on the bottom, and select "Apply a different Template to the track x" entry. This will allow you to change the number of thumb nails for chapters shown on that menu.

I'm assuming you have used TMPGEnc Author or are familiar with the different menus.

Once you have gotten the buttons where you want do simulation to make sure it is set up out as you wanted.

Do the Output section and build the DVD. You'll have to look at what the options are here for output type. Version 2.0 only does DVD format (at least that is all I use). Apparently 3.0 allows other options.

This is kind of a brief explanation, but hopefully it will get you headed in the right direction. I hope you are only having problems with the menu sections. Using TMPGEnc Author can be a little difficult. The Trial Version of 3.0 didn't give me the help menu, that may have some additional information that will help explain some of the features, however the help menu for my version 2.0 was a little light on information I wanted.

Lt. Columbo has a very nice tutorial on the general features of Author 3.0 in the FAQ sections of this forum

Hopefully this will help, Good luck,

rcubed

**rcubed** · 4 Mar 2008, 08:39 AM

Well ?

Originally Posted by JonVic

Is there really nobody who knows how to do this? I am surprised!

JonVic,
Well?

rcubed

**JonVic** · 4 Mar 2008, 10:54 PM

hi, thanks for the explanation i will try this tonight when i get home, i assumed this forum would send me an email when i had a post reply which it didnt like many others so i did not check back and did not see this you left me. Thanks for taking the time i will try this and post back if it worked

**rcubed** · 5 Mar 2008, 06:06 AM

Thanks for the response

Originally Posted by JonVic

hi, thanks for the explanation i will try this tonight when i get home, i assumed this forum would send me an email when i had a post reply which it didnt like many others so i did not check back and did not see this you left me. Thanks for taking the time i will try this and post back if it worked

JonVic,
Thanks for getting back. I hope you'll be able to do what you what. I look forward to hearing from you.

rcubed

**Demvang** · 7 Mar 2008, 01:37 PM

Originally Posted by JonVic

Hey guys,I want to create a main menu with text written on it i want to text to say

Play All

Chapter Menu

Special Features

I want the 'play all' to obviously just play the entire file from the beginning, i want the chapter menu text to link to a chapter page where i have thumbnails of all the chapters that are clickable even if it means the chapter menu has to be a few pages to get all the chapter thumbnails on it thats fine. I also want the special features text to link to another page where i can have thumbnails of different special features. The entire DVD i currently have is about 2 hours of motorsport ripped from VHS tape and straight after the main programme there are a couple of news reports that are to be the special features so i would like to have 2 thumbnails on the special features page for these news reports. I hope someone can see what i am trying to do and i am damned if i can work out how to do it, pleeeease help and stop me from getting really frustrated because i just CANNOT work out how to do it, thanks

Basically you have 2 titles, 1 for movie and 1 for special features. This is how you're gonna do but you also need the help of PgcEdit

1/ From Source tab, import movie to track 1 and special features to track 2 (create a second track if necessary)
2/ From Menu tab, choose "Create a custom menu by ..." -> standard mode -> choose text only for Top Menu & Navigation Button, choose thumbnails for Track Menu and it should look like below

You'll see thumbnails based on how many chapters you have for movie & special features. If you want 2 thumbnails for special features, then you make 2 chapters for track 2 from Source tab. Now go to page 1 from Top Menu, rename "Play" to Play All, "Track 1" to Chapter Menu, "Next Page" to Special Features. To get rid of "1/2", uncheck Display page number item.

Author the project. Open it with PgcEdit, change commands for Play All, Chapter Menu, Special Features to jump properly. All left is Top Menu's page 2, you can delete it for good.

**JonVic** · 7 Mar 2008, 07:44 PM

I DID IT! After trying to work things out for months now posting in this forum has worked, thanks so much to all for the help i finally have a working special features section. I do have a couple of minor tweaking issues i could still do with help about and i will post them soon if anyone could help me just sort those the dvd will be perfect, thanks so much guys for all the help

**rcubed** · 8 Mar 2008, 08:10 AM

Glad it worked out

Originally Posted by JonVic

I DID IT! After trying to work things out for months now posting in this forum has worked, thanks so much to all for the help i finally have a working special features section. I do have a couple of minor tweaking issues i could still do with help about and i will post them soon if anyone could help me just sort those the dvd will be perfect, thanks so much guys for all the help

JonVic,
Glad you got it to work. Sometimes the whole process can be a little confusing. I've found the forums very informative, and the people here can be a big help.

rcubed

**JonVic** · 8 Mar 2008, 08:32 AM

'people can be helpful' yes people like you

that guide you wrote was very well written and so helpful, it should be made a sticky post or something im sure it would help many people out. Thanks once again for taking the time to write all that it was really good of you

Getting Very Frustrated With DVD Author 3.0

Getting Very Frustrated With DVD Author 3.0

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