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Adobe Encore Playlists & Chapter Playlists

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Adobe Encore Playlists & Chapter Playlists

Postby Bill Hunt » Sun Sep 07, 2008 10:06 pm

In response to some suggestions on Playlists and Chapter Playlists, I've done a simple overview of their use and their power.

Adobe Encore introduced two great features, as of version 2, Playlists and Chapter Playlists (I think that Playlists were first introduced in ver. 1.5). They sound alike, but have some differences. Both offer extra power to Encore and eliminate all but the most obscure reasons for using the least understood, though most disastrous feature in Encore, Overrides. Let’s start this discussion with a bit on Overrides. First, never use Overrides on anything, unless you fully understand exactly what they do. Next, since there are almost no reasons to use Overrides, even if you understand what they do, do not use them anywhere. Stay far away from Overrides, unless to wish to make sure that your Project will not navigate, as you wish. Last, if you are tempted to use Overrides, resist. Do not let your mouse cursor anywhere near the Overrides boxes, anywhere. By the way, have I mentioned that Overrides are like the plague?

OK, now we can talk about Playlists and Chapter Playlists. As I said, they are similar, but with a few important differences. How you edit will likely determine which of the two you will use.

I normally edit my Projects in Premiere Pro’s (PP) Sequences. Each Chapter is in a separate Sequence. This helps me isolate each Chapter, and address it as a separate entity. Because of this, I Export out of PP as elemental streams (DV-AVI video only and AC3 audio only) for each Chapter/Sequence. For this reason, Playlists are the function that I use most often. Because of this, I’ll address Playlists first.

In DVD navigation, one is bound first by the DVD specs. Some things can be done, but others are not allowed. These are not limitations of the DVD authoring programs, like Encore, but are limitations of the specs, themselves. Some authoring programs play fast and loose with these specs, but Encore is stringent with them. After all, the goal is to create DVD’s that will play on the widest variety of machines. Also, Encore is an “abstraction layer” authoring program. This means that much of what is “under the hood” is hidden from the user. This makes its use much easier, though hides a few extra features, like cell-level programing. Remember that if you wish to move beyond Encore, there are cell-level programs out there. Some good ones start at about US$250 and do a good job. You just are no longer separated from the “guts” of the program and need some programing language experience. The price climbs up to about US$50,000 and then you might still have to buy some additional modules, which run about US$10,000 each. Just inherited the estate of you long lost Uncle Jack? Look into the full package of Sonic Scenarist with all modules.

Now we get to use Playlists. Many DVD’s offer the user the opportunity to just hit one Button and have the full DVD play. Often, another Button will take the user to other Menus, from which they can select individual scenes/Chapters. If you have a different Timeline for each Chapter, how do you get it to work for both situations? Well, you could have two copies of your Timelines, one strung together into the full version of the movie, and then individual versions for each Chapter. However that fills your DVD up quickly. Here comes the beauty of the Playlist. Imagine my normal Project. It has, let’s say, 12 Chapters. Remember, in this instance, these are discreet Chapters, and each has its own Timeline. This will work for our Chapter selections from the sub-Menus, but we want them to also function for our Play All Button on our Main Menu. With the Add New icon, we choose Playlist, and name it “Play All.” It appears in our Project Panel. (I always put it into a “Playlist” Bin for housekeeping.) We already have all of our Chapter/Timelines in the Project Panel, so all we have to do is dbl-click the “Play All” Playlist to open it in the Properties Panel. You will notice that the box below the title is empty. Well, we’re gonna fill it up. There is a Pickwhip (that little spiral Tool, that looks like a “Cinna-bun”) in the upper right corner of the Playlist Properties Panel. We’ll use it to link to each Chapter’s Timeline, in the order we want them to play in. Link every one that you want. If you miss the order, you can Move Up/Move Down to get them right.

As an aside here, I always name my Sequence Exports and the resulting Timelines with the logical order that I will want, i.e. “01_Kim’s_Birthday,” “02_Kim’s_Day_At_Park,” etc.. This helps me sort the order for Playlists.

Now, we have our “Play All” Playlist done. One last choice to make. For an End Action, we will most likely want to return to a Menu. I always put my users back to the Menu, from which “Play All” was chosen. In our example, that’s the Main Menu. You have two choices in the End Action drop-down, “Return to Last Menu,” or the ability to physically select the exact Menu. I choose the latter, just to make sure Encore doesn’t get confused. Note: if one has used Assets in Encore in several different Playlists, or Chapter Playlists, or in other ways, Check Project might yield a message concerning End Actions. Depending on what you have done, these *should* be information messages, and not error messages. Playlists End Actions will supercede the Asset’s End Action. This informational message can usually be ignored, so long as you’ve done everything else properly. Check it out, but do not be concerned.

Now, what else can we do with our Playlists? How can they help us navigate? We have each Chapter on its own Timeline. We have just created our “Play All” Playlist. Soon, we’ll Link each Chapter Button to the individual Timelines. But wait, our DVD has a year in the life of two children, Kim and Jane. How about having a Button that will play Kim’s movies, and another playing just Jane’s? No problem with Playlists. All we need are the proper Buttons and then create a “Kim” Playlist and a “Jane” Playlist. Same creation procedure. Dbl-click on “Kim” Playlist and we’re back to that empty box. We Pickwhip each of Kim’s Timelines, omitting Jane’s Timelines. We repeat for the “Jane” Playlist. One could even use this technique to have alternative endings to a DVD. You’d create two, almost identical Playlists, but the ending would be linked to different Timelines in each. Depending on the layout and workflow, one could do the same thing with Chapter Playlists.

We can also break Kim’s and Jane’s portions of the DVD down even more with Playlists. We could do “Jane’s Friends,” “Jane’s Family,” and so on. These could use some of the same Timelines as in the earlier example and obviously some of the same Timelines as our “Play All.”

One can even do games, where different “answers” Link to different Playlists with different orders.

Playlists allow one to have only one copy of their Assets’ Timelines, but different orders and outcomes.

Now, that we have covered some of the power and uses of Playlists, what are Chapter Playlists? Many people edit in a more linear fashion, with one long Sequence. Each Chapter is delineated by a Chapter Marker. PP will allow one to Export with Encore Chapter Markers. There are some ins-n-outs to these, and the manuals for PP cover them well. For our discussion, we have one long Timeline, with Chapter Points either added in Encore, or Exported from PP. We now wish to do the same thing as before, a “Play All,” and then individual Chapters. Our “Play All” is easy, since we only need to point that Button to the full Timeline. It will play through (so long as we have no Overrides, or Chapter End Points, and we do not, except for the last Chapter, which will return us to our last Menu - remember, there are two ways to do this, as per above). What happens with our individual Chapters, in our Scene Selection Menus? Well, in a simple form, we do a Chapter Playlist for each one, and set it’s End Action to Return to Last Menu. Why do we do this? Well, if we set each Chapter’s End Action to Return to Last Menu, our “Play All” would not work correctly. It would play Chapter #1 and go back to the last Menu. That is not what we want, right? Chapter Playlists to the rescue.

We now have our “Play All,” and then each individual Chapter set up. What do we do with “Jane’s Friends?” Chapter Playlists once again will allow us to select just the Chapters, that feature Jane and her friends. Again, these Chapter Playlists’ End Actions can be set, as required, without affecting our “Play All.”

The main power of Playlists and Chapter Playlists is that one can order their Timelines and also control individual End Actions - no Overrides anywhere! Remember, once created and populated, you will Link your various Buttons to the individual Playlists, of either type. You can create different endings, or different orders, and never have to have duplicate Timelines, or Assets, beyond the Playlists.

Oh, did I mention that you will have no Overrides anyplace?

Hunt
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Re: Adobe Encore Playlists & Chapter Playlists

Postby Helen » Sun Sep 07, 2008 10:28 pm

Thanks
I have printed this out for future reference.
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Re: Adobe Encore Playlists & Chapter Playlists

Postby Chuck Engels » Mon Sep 08, 2008 9:03 am

Never Mind Bill, I found it :oops:
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Re: Adobe Encore Playlists & Chapter Playlists

Postby momoffduty » Mon Sep 08, 2008 9:37 am

Thanks Bill!! Great reference.
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Re: Adobe Encore Playlists & Chapter Playlists

Postby tjodork » Tue Sep 09, 2008 10:05 pm

Thanks Bill !
That is a very detailed reference... I think I will need to read it several times...but will save all a lot of time !! :-D
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Re: Adobe Encore Playlists & Chapter Playlists

Postby jackfalbey » Sat Sep 13, 2008 1:03 pm

Thanks Bill! =D>

I've been using overrides without any problems, following the Lynda.com tutorial, to have my chapters return to the Chapter Menu page when played individually, but the Playlist is so much more versatile I'm going to change my workflow.

Thanks for the detailed post; I've made it a "sticky"! :-5
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Re: Adobe Encore Playlists & Chapter Playlists

Postby Helen » Sat Sep 13, 2008 5:49 pm

Thanks Bill =D>

I decided to use a playlist for my "Play All" for the first time in creating my menu and it worked superbly. It was so much easier and quicker than what I expected. I will definitely use it a lot more in the future.

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Re: Adobe Encore Playlists & Chapter Playlists

Postby Zippydiver » Fri Oct 01, 2010 5:29 pm

Please help.
I have read your blog over and over and still having problems.

I have a timeline which is just under 1 hour. I have set up chaptermarkers. set a play all it plays Ok.

I then set up menus for the individual chapters. created a chapter playlist.

The individual chapters return to their correct menu.

When i go to the play all it only plays the first chapter.

Where am i going wrong. It's getting vry frustrating i have spent 2 days trying to suss this out to no avail. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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Re: Adobe Encore Playlists & Chapter Playlists

Postby Chuck Engels » Fri Oct 01, 2010 7:35 pm

Hi Robert, Welcome to Muvipix :wcm:

First, is your Play All a Chapter Playlist or just a Playlist?
Second, have you set the End Action for the Playlists?

You can can check what might be missing by going to File/Check Project.

I only use Chapter Markers and a Play All Chapter Playlist that includes all of the Chapters.
The Chapter markers are used in the Scene Menu only and do not have an End Action.

Does this help at all?

Hopefully Bill will pop in and help out as well :)
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Re: Adobe Encore Playlists & Chapter Playlists

Postby GerryB » Sat Oct 02, 2010 3:25 am

Every so often 'a little gem' appears and this must rank up there with the best that Muvipix has become known for.
Well done Bill.
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