burned 1st DVD!!!! (only one glitch):)

[kirov 2]

Eureka! I successfully edited a video in PE9 and then added scene-markers in Architect Studio, burning a DVD that plays great on my TV!!! Thanks to Steve's books and this forum, I'm making great progress.

However, when I try to learn only what I need for a first (simple) project, it's possible to miss a critical step or two.

There is a definite problem with my menu page. My video has only one menu-page with an added Scene Selection Menu of 9 buttons. In the Workspace panel, I was able to add a title to the menu page and import a nice-looking photo. Also in the Workspace, I was able to toggle between the menu page and the second (Scene Selection) page with its 9 buttons.

When I went to burn the DVD under "Make DVD," I did get a glitchy error message under Review Message List, stating, ""One or more menu links overlap." This was very clear not only in the Workspace panel but also when I played the DVD on the television set. My nice menu-page (with title and photo) appears, but there are two dark, overlapping squares on the Menu page-- and (on the television set) the scene selection menu does not appear (although, with my remote control, I can easily navigate to all of the markers that I set on the timeline.

I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong...is there anything glaringly obvious from my description above? Thanks for any advice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

I am sorry but I am not a DVDAS user but my first thought is that the scene select buttons overlap somewhere and that is the cause of the problem.

[Steve Grisetti]

Congrats on your first DVD, Kirov! and glad to hear our book was helpful.

It sounds, in fact, like your disc plays fine on your DVD player, when you navigate with the remote. And if so, you're good to go. Overlapping menus are only a real problem, I believe, when you try to play the DVD on your computer.

The overlap will display pretty clearly in your Workspace panel -- and it sounds like you've learned to see it. And I'm not aware of any solution other than manually separating them so that they don't overlap.

But, as I've said, if it plays fine on your TV as is, don't worry about it.

[Peru]

Sometimes the actual size of the button can be larger than the content within it. If so, you can resize the "bounding box" (I don't know its real name - maybe "resizing box"?) without losing the stuff inside of the that box.

[kirov 2]

Thanks so much for your responses...They helped me figure out what I was doing wrong!

My source-video for this project has 18 seconds of black-screen before the actual footage starts. So when I imported this source-video into the Workspace panel, a little *black* square of course appeared in that panel. Next, when I set my markers for the Scene Selection menu, another little *black* square appeared in the Workspace panel (overlapping the first square). Although I was able to toggle between panels in the Workspace and see my Scene Selection buttons on preview, the Scene Selection page did not burn to the DVD (and thus did not appear on my TV screen). While I was able to use my TV-remote to navigate to all of my markers, I could only navigate in one long, sequential line from one marker to the next, starting with the first marker. With no Scene Selection buttons on the DVD (or TV screen), I could not skip at will to the exact marker that I wanted. So I needed to find a way to get the Scene Selection menu onto the DVD.

It was so easy to just drag apart those two little overlapping black squares in the Workspace panel! This made all the difference! I burned another DVD, and now I have a Scene Selection menu on the TV screen and can skip at will to the exact point in the video that I want!

I think what confused me was that both menu buttons were black. This made me think that the buttons were somehow "inactive" or that I had neglected a needed step somewhere in the procedure. But these buttons were not inactive; they were just reflecting the initial black-screen on my source-video. Also, I learned that the menu square and the scene selection square need to be dragged apart in the Workspace panel, or the Scene Selection menu (although visible in the Workspace) will not burn to the DVD. At least I think that's what I learned! Anyway, the finished product looks and works great, and I am so grateful for all of your help (books, site, people everything!) Thanks again!

[Bob]

these buttons were not inactive; they were just reflecting the initial black-screen on my source-video

You don't have to display the initial black video in the button. You can set the button thumbnail to show any desired location in the source video. Select the button. Under Button Properties, select Media. Then, under Thumbnail Properties, select Start time and set the desired time or frame.

[Steve Grisetti]

Glad you we were able to help you find a solution, Kirov!