Just made my first DVD with DVD Author
after a small learning curve - all I can say is WOW - GREAT program !

(wish it had capability to add photos to make a slide show - but I might have just found that in the AVS Disc Creator Program - which I will test next)

ANYWAY =

the DVD is for a family vacation of slides
I used Picasa to make 3 different *.mpg files with embedded audio (each about 4 to 5 mins)
and AVS Video Editor to make the 4th (22 mins ) in which I used the same audio clip (6 mins) four times (Picassa would not let me add more than 1 audio file and I had none long enough)

I made each file be a chapter - worked great
BUT - as chapter 4 is LONG - I would like to have had "sub-chapters" (?? - not sure if that is the correct term) - but what I want is for the user to be able to 'click' to 'next' on the remote, but now it just clicks to the next chapter - I wish it would go about 4 mins ahead - NOT to the next WHOLE chapter (and I prefer not to have the 'sub-chapters' IN the menu)

Question No 2
now it is EASY to make each chapter just be whole new file (from the chapter "making" menu)
but what if I made my own chapters - how hard to pick the exact spot you want?
then can I still make sub chapters as above?

#3
if the above are not easy, can I make the NEXT page in the menu system be just my 'SUB-chapters - maybe sort of like scenes in a commercial DVD)

it is kind of hard to do testing as it takes about 1-2 hours to actually MAKE each DVD
I have 3.2Ghz Dual Core with 4Mb ram

To: greggustin


Item #2 works
BUT, still trying to make page 1 be MAIN chapters
and a SEPARATE page for sub-chapters
right now, they get listed IN ORDER of the timeline

still working on it

greggustin:

To: greggustin Item #2 works BUT, still trying to make page 1 be MAIN chapters and a SEPARATE page for sub-chapters right now, they get listed IN ORDER of the timeline still working on it

got it to work -- thought I would share my solution
you can make the front page (chapters) have all then MAIN chapters
which were set by new chapter for each imported video clip
(or however you make it)

but then when you make sub-chapters INSIDE each video clip, the program automatically rearranges the buttons to be LINEAR = BUT + you can re-assign what chapter each buttons points to by using the Properties Column (far right)

still a little research = I made 14 chapters but only saw 9 in the list
anyone else have any ideas?

To: greggustin


oops - false report
looks like the numbers 0-9 refer to the number of the chapter ON THAT PAGE
still cannot find a way to reorder the chapter icons (images) on the chapter menu pages

help !

To: greggustin


Thank you for kind words about our software.

You can add chapter at time position you wish on the Timeline of AVS DVD Authoring.Common DVD Menu structure does not suppose sub-chapters for a chapter. When you click Next playing DVD, all chapters you've made will be played one by one according to the time position, it is also a rule for DVD menu's. However, if you have number of movies and want to create own DVD menu with chapters for every movie, you can use titles. You should create set of titles. Here you can find the details how to create titles in AVS DVD Authoring.

To: Vlad


thanks = your post and some reading
I accomplished what I wanted
I made each of the MAIN video clips be a different title
then I could make chapters only where I wanted
(ie not each title needed chapters - some were too short)
worked great
even learned about 'play first video'
(is there any way to add any text to 'play first video'???
or do I have to embed it INTO the video??)


FYI
I posted in a different post
one disappointment
the video used as a menu background had its audio stripped and
was cropped to seconds

To: greggustin


Hello,

Unfortunately, there is no option in AVS DVD Authoring to add text to First Play Video, perhaps it will be avaliable in the next version.

As for your menu background issue, when you import video as a background for menu, it does not suppose to import audio as a backgorund as well. There are separate options for adding video to background and audio to backgound in AVS DVD Authoring. Duration of imported video will be cut to 5 seconds by default, however you can extend it to 20 second (maximum) using Timeline.