Spruce DVDMaestro – Getting Something Out of it:
Help in obtaining Photoshop skills for DVDMaestro menu images.
This page last updated August 2003: to split this page into a basic and advanced features page. Some notes on why DVDMaestro added?
My advanced features page for DVDMaestro is accessible from here.
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Basically it must be because you consider there are limitations in what the software people provide. You are objecting to being placed in a iron clad box with no way of getting out into the real DVD authoring world as you think you see it. You want a better outcome! Why?
In my case it was simply:
1) I thought I needed a fully compliant 16:9 authoring program at a time when 4:3 was the total thrust of every provider at a consumer level. I could not effectively use a program that said it was compliant but never produced the goods for viewing on a 4:3 and also correctly on a 16:9 TV, after all they are the only two TV aspect ratios we view on. You may care to read my the 16:9 edit myth page for some interesting aspects of using a 16:9 TV.
2) I wanted to be released from the restriction of not being able to choose how I navigate in my menu structures. Most programs restrict you in options, for example, try using the same file twice on a DVD and ending up on different menu pages without a space penalty. I also wanted to be able to use different aspect ratios on the same disk, just like a commercial DVD and not be restricted to just one as the initial choice in the "iron clad box" supplied.
3) I have a total dislike of what the industry calls chapters or scene lists. They are not. They all end at the end of the movie unless you manually exit when you have had enough. No book has chapters with a common ending. No commercial DVD is authored with individual playing CHAPTERS as they should be and is possible within the DVD specification.
4) Whilst not a specific reason for upgrading to DVDMaestro I find the subtitle option very useful for adding additional titles to a previously edited archive. Often in the second use of an archive one can require a different outcome and adding subtitles that are easy to achieve and read is a bonus in this regard.
I am sure some will also come to Maestro to get more advanced features, such as playing language based audio. Quite easy to achieve with Maestro but requires the use of Command Sequences. Multi language presentations were not a reason for me as I have no multi language requirements for my home brewed DVD’s. Unfortunately I speak but one language and therefore could not begin to prepare other language options. I take my hat off to those that do.
After authoring for about 9 months I find myself asking, do we need all the whiz bang outcome that is possible with a fully compliant authoring program like DVDMaestro? Lets examine that aspect for a moment.
Initially there seems to be an in built need for us all to get far more into our DVD menu structures, maybe its to show how good we are or to impress our viewers. Wow just look at my motion menu, my motion buttons. Yes look at them. The commercial product has one advantage that we do not, they employ artists to do a proper menu, we dabble as best we can. The content of the movie becomes secondary and that is totally wrong. Whether the menu is more functional or worth the time it takes to achieve such a whiz bang outcome is quite another issue. The impression of the movie will last a 1000 times longer than the menu to play it.
We should not loose sight of the fact the commercial DVD is rather set in its presentation methods and most providers satisfy that elementary process, even if restricted in operation by the equivalent of “hard wired” options to keep the price down. The commercial DVD may well be based on an introduction, selection menu, “chapter” listings with access to other tracks for trailers and interviews. I wonder how much of that you really use when you hire a DVD and certainly how much of that is truly appropriate to the home brew?
I have noticed a trend for the commercial DVD to launch into the copyright warning, a logo and then straight into the main movie AFTER WHICH, unless you know something of how to use the controller keys, the menu is reached. My guess is that style of presentation satisfies the hirer’s needs more effectively. They want to see the movie as the main objective, the menu does not enter the arena.
I would suggest, in such presentations, a lot of people never get to the menu or require it as they, like a lot of movie goers, cannot even wait for the end credits to pass. These people probably have never used the menu concept at all. So why are we so hell bent on increasing the level of whiz bang? Why then do we need this complex menu at all? We do not!
Be aware if you decide to get involved, you will need to have, get or learn Photoshop image preparation skills (or an equivalent program that is psd related) to get the best out of it. As your skills increase however, you will find that you can use ordinary bmp's as there is no requirement at all to actually use color mapping via a sublayer, infact your menus will look better without that process.
The new breed of on-line dvd burners will induce even less use of menus than ever before and maybe we should be thinking hard and long about what is really needed in our home brewed presentation. Unless you have very good reasons, DVDMaestro is not a requirement at all.
INTRODUCING THE MAESTRO!
DVDMaestro, has always been said to be top of the line and at the forefront of DVD Authoring, indeed their motto was, as can be seen above, “We’re Authoring The Digital Age”. Indeed they were, with a lot of skill and attention to detail but not without some mistakes in logic.
The version I will describe here is build 2915a as this may still be available. If your lucky enough to have the program it will probably be without a manual of any sort and that means one has to play with it and try to make sense of the multitude of windows. This page initially describes and illustrates what I discovered and how I was able to at least get a small test titleset to the hard drive for burning to CD-R media within 3 hours of loading the program.
LIMITATIONS
Complex DVD structures are prone to errors and you may not be aware of them until, at worst, you have burnt a test DVD RW. Installing the Matrox Player will alleviate the problem and shorten the authoring time. Believe me, the more complex the menu navigation the higher the possibility of errors in authoring the project and you need to find them before you burn.
I have the Hollywood Plus decoder card by RealMagic but the program does not actually make the connection even though the radio button in preferences is active. I can, however, play a titleset compiled by the Maestro to the base directory of the hard drive. The Hollywood Plus decoder can be made to “see” the whole hard drive as a massive DVD. A very useful feature, what a pity other software players do not always allow the same thing.
What follows here first is a description in a logical sequence of actions to achieve the end result of a simple DVD well below the Maestro’s capabilities but an ideal way to begin the learning curve and to see if you can cope with the higher skill level required to get an even better outcome. You do not need to have the pdf manual which is something like 600 pages and 19M to get something out, these notes will achieve that if you follow them explicitly.
(1) Preparing source material or ASSETS:
My 16:9 mpeg2’s are encoded with averages of 8100 kb/s (k = 1000) to cope with the larger coverage required when expanding the image frame with 33% more information squeezed in, to full screen 16:9. An 8000 16:9 encode contains the same level of bits per pixel as a 4:3 encode does at 6000kb/s.
Audio has been exported as a wave file and then converted to 2 channel AC-3 using the Sonics Soft conversion program.
Menu images are prepared in Adobe Photoshop and consist of prepared “buttons” or text over which an active selection patch is laid in the authoring process, nothing fancy, just a good bmp image. The buttons can of course be thumbnails of the play items but to demonstrate the process I have only used a multipurpose menu which was used for an “in preparation DVD” when I was doing DVD’s by Remote. The image is developed from large frame sizes at the correct 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratio and then reduced in Photoshop to 720 wide x 480 (NTSC), 576 PAL for use in the authoring program. I often use a 1820 x 1024 master and you may find that letting DVDMaestro do the resizing from a larger master is more effective on disk space and in quality when viewed. I found this to be so in menu text.
However, take note that the frame dimensions given in the Maestro Manual for preparing menus are totally wrong, you should refer to my discussion on DV frame sizes for a successful procedure that does give correct representation where "circles will be circles" when viewed on your television display.
The reason for my simple multi-purpose menu is that no provider who says he complies with 16:9, actually does. Every authoring program I have tried gets it wrong with the overlay patch used to select the play item when the presentation is letterboxed on a 4:3 TV. If the image is coded for 16:9 and it is then auto letterboxed on a 4:3 TV, the patch is generally not in the correct position, can actually be outside the letterboxed frame and it is not reduced in height by the required 25%. This is totally unacceptable. The DVDMaestro gets it right so one can again design and use menus to be correctly viewed on a 16:9 TV AND on a 4:3 TV when letterboxed.
Make sure your assets have relatively short names and it may well be an advantage to use only 8 or 9 characters for that purpose, as with other programs long names and multi level folder structures will make the assets difficult to locate in the defaulted window sizes.
(2) The Program Windows and Preferences:
Access the program Preferences in the drop down menu [File->Preferences] and correctly set your TV system and slide show defaults. Note there are other tabs that relate to preferences, in the [Display] tab, I selected to have the Workspace Windows maximized. Inspect the others and take note of what is provided as preferences making any changes you think desirable. Image 2 refers.
Use the tool bar [View] button to select the items that form the full working space. Note from Image 3 below that I opted to not use the RealView(™) option. If you have the Matrox DVD player installed you will of course need to activate this and you will also need to call the use of the Cinemaster hardware decoder via its radio button on the Decoder Tab. I chose to use the Workspace Windows in “WorkBook Mode.” This selection adds tabs to each Workspace Window and allows easy re-access to each after they are developed.
(3) Developing the project:
Now lets add the source material or Media Assets to what I have called the [Source Asset Window], simply right click inside the window and a pop up menu will appear as shown in image 5 above. Select the option “Import Media Asset.” This in turn will bring up another window in which you can locate the assets needed for the project. Take note of the other options in this pop up menu for future use. As the assets load you will find the program prepares them for actual use. This action may take time to complete. You must of course import all your menu bmp’s suitably identified and the mpeg2 files with your AC-3 audio files named in an identical way to the associated m2v file. Maestro will of course accept other audio, a PCM wav or mpeg layer 1 (mpa) file are alternatives, although many will say mpeg audio is incorrect for NTSC, but testing indicates they play OK in most set tops. In my view Dolby ac-3 is the best.
(4) Making the Workspace Window pages for the source assets:
At this point you should note the menu page has a viewing aspect ratio window, you should select this to suit the menu. You have two options of 4:3 and 16:9. This option will code the ifo files in the titleset and ensure the images are displayed correctly by the DVD player. You can use either format or mix both if you wish. DVDMaestro does not require you to set a format at the beginning of the project like a lot do. Most commercial DVD’s contain 16:9 and 4:3 items so why should those programs be so restrictive?
Follow now with setting the movie pages until you have all source material added to a Workspace Window Page. Remember this is achieved by simply double clicking the movie items on the project tree in the [Project Window]. Image 7 shows a typical Workspace Window movie page. You simply drag each mpeg component file from the [Source Assets Window] to the appropriate video track and the audio file to the audio track as is indicated in image 7 above.
Take note that at the lower left of the page there is a movie aspect ratio indicator. If you right click on the segment a pop up menu will appear with 4 specification options for coding a movie, as shown in image 7 above. Select that which is appropriate for each file as you build each page.
If you have different track times, even just one frame as shown, then right click in the audio track to bring up the window shown above and use the option to sync the track with that of the video. The program will make a new track audio asset and use that in place of the original audio file. I have had, in a large project, tracks with a 2 second difference in the timed lengths which have been fully corrected with this option and have played in sync after authoring. You may in the end decide to make this a standard practice.
The video track window has some limitations that need highlighting. Its unlikely you will be able to play the video by using the blue buttons at the top of the page so nicely arranged to do so. If you try, its inevitable that an error will occur which indicates no connection with the hardware decoder has been achieved. And therefore you cannot play video at all. You should, as noted above install the Matrox DVD player to achieve this.
We therefore have to initially achieve some actions with a get around till you can load the player. The golden magnifying glass at top left will increase or decrease the timeline graduations. You should also notice that if you place the mouse arrow in the gray area just above the video track (or for that matter anywhere on the computer screen) the wall clock on the left will indicate the position of the arrow head.
On the extreme left edge of this gray area, along side the wall clock digits is a little protruding grey/blue rectangular button. Place the mouse pointer on it, left click and drag this button to the right and you will find it is the edit cursor button. The position of this line will provide the video track image in the film window at the top right of the page. The position of the edit line is also given in the window below the unusable blue play buttons. In combination these utilities become the way to achieve those chapter points you all desire. You can also right click in that gray space and select “set pointer” from the drop down menu.
Referring now to image 9 you will note the program sets the first Chapter point on the extreme edge of the timeline window. It is named in a total “zero” time format. Lets assume we want to add another Chapter point, expand the timeline with the + button of the golden magnifier. Drag the edit line button to the appropriate position whilst watching the film window to indicate the image at the edit line in the film frame.
You should be aware that accuracy in positioning the chapter points is dependent on the length of the GOP structure you have encoded with. I have always used a GOP length of 4 so any chapter points (which will be related to the I frames) can be achieved with a 4 frame accuracy. For those using 12 or 15 frames there will not be the same accuracy.
Now place the mouse arrow directly under and as close as possible to the track edit line and left click. This will induce the window shown in image 10. Set the options to auto update both the name and the position of the cursor line. Use the “snaps to” default buttons to accurately position the point which you will note is defaulted to be a chapter point. Watch the film window in the process and when satisfied with the position, press OK and you will find your chapter point has been added and is shown by a triangular marker. Refer image 9.
Repeat the process for any other chapter points. To change an existing mark, just right click on it, select Edit Marker and use the same process as described to make changes in the marks position.
You will be well advised to put a chapter point as close as the program will allow to the end of the movie. This will allow you to auto exit when you use the "next" key within the last chapter. If you do not do that the only exit out will be via a correctly nominated "menu" key.
You can mix 4:3 aspect ratio movies with for example 16:9. As mentioned in image 7you can select letterboxing as an option. This coding is used by the DVD player to auto letterbox a 16:9 movie on a 4:3 TV whilst still playing it full screen on a 16:9 TV a very important operation. You should note there is no specific option for a 2.35:1 aspect ratio widescreen movie because it is simply a file generated in letterboxed mode and encoded as a 16:9 file.
The Amsterdam information email had this to say about improved negotiation of the timeline: be aware that you can "scroll" through your MPEG2 on the timeline in the following fashion: Place your mouse pointer on the section of the timeline that shows your chapter points. Do not click the mouse, just point it in the chapter area of the timeline and press "CTRL". Now hold "CTRL" and move the mouse along the chapter area of the timeline (do not click).
Voila, you can play the I-Frames of your MPEG2 by moving the mouse pointer. You may need to activate the Real View function (ALT+R) in the view menu for this to be effective otherwise you can see it in thumbnail size at the top right of the window.
(5) Menu buttons:
Simply position the point of the mouse arrow at the required starting point for a rectangular shaped patch, left click and drag the resulting rectangle to cover the text or button. Image 8 below illustrates the result for button 1 which simply covers some appropriate text.
You can change the shape of each patch by dragging the handles to suit. You can relocate the patch with the left, right, up down keyboard keys. I simply used all of the default colors and settings, it’s easier at this point to do so. Repeat this process for every button on each menu page until ALL button active patches are laid and correctly positioned for the project.
(6) Navigating with the Menu Page Buttons:
Go to each menu page individually; Open the [Advanced] tab and select the “options” button in the Navigation Group and select Grid with Horizontal and Vertical Wrap. In the Display menu group set “Always True.” Now open the [Button] tab which initially will have blank entries for the up, down, left and right keys. Decide what the operations of each key will be and enter the BUTTON numbers into the appropriate blank spaces.
Alternatively, you can open the [Advanced] tab again and elect to use the “auto assign” button to provide the programs idea of navigation between buttons based on the grid setting suggested above. I prefer to allocate my own button routes.
Image 8 shows what I decided for the 3 buttons you can see on this menu. I suggest you ponder the selections. Where there is no button to access I left the selection key blank. For example none of the play item selections have buttons on the right so the right selection key is left blank. I prefer that operation. Experiment and come up with your own ideas.
(7) Allocate play item or asset selection functions to each button patch:
You will need to repeat the following process for every button patch on every menu. Select the appropriate menu tab in the [Workspace Window] or double click on the project tree icon in the [Project Window] to activate the appropriate page should the tab not be available.
Place the mouse arrow within the button patch, right click and a window will appear that lists the available options. My first button is related to other menu pages - highlight the “Menus” option and another window will appear giving the available targets. In this case highlight menu 2 and this will bring up the available buttons on that page. Highlight the appropriate button target and left click to set this choice as the button action. Refer to image 11 below which illustrates the windows used in the process.
Move on to the next button on the menu which in this case is a movies related button, place the mouse within the button confine, right click, highlight the “Movies” option, highlight the appropriate movies track number, highlight the appropriate chapter point, left click. Since the aim of this button is to begin at the beginning of the video it will be the first chapter point in the list that becomes the set action for the button. Refer now to image 12 for an illustration of the widows and actions selected in each.
As you are setting up the menu button actions with the process described above, the [Connections] work page is continuously being up dated to provide a reference list associated with each menu. Select the [Connections] tab followed by the appropriate Project Window menu icon. Note the header at the top left of the page changes – you can right click in this header to set any of three listings, at this point, for the purpose of simplified discussion, select the “standard” option. The resulting list of actions for Menu 1 is shown in image 13 above. The lower listing relates to all media and provides details of the allocated functions in the process so far. You can scroll down through them to inspect the full list of settings – with menus a full button list, with movies a list of all chapters, it’s a handy, essential reference.
(8)The Video Connections Page Functions:
Image 15 shows how you can define what happens at the end of the chapter, in this case I have used the same process as described above to induce these sub windows – right click within the target line. Highlight the appropriate actions. In this case I wanted to end the play and go back to the menu from whence it came AND to the button from which the action was initiated. In this case it is menu 1 button 3. You just as easily could have gone off to another movie play item chapter.
It is possible to set these actions from within the movie work page by simply right clicking on the chapter marker. I found it was expedient to treat the programming in the way I have described as it is part of a very logical group sequence, you can choose to suit your own method of working. This process now leads logically to some advanced actions.
Right click on the top left title on the Connections Page and choose “Show advanced sources.” This now includes several other functions that you can program. Notice that the Previous and next keys are programmable. These keys on the DVD controller as you are all aware allow you to go from chapter to chapter within a move. Programming the keys to return to the menu from whence it came ensures that you will automatically do so. Image 16 shows a movie track with the details of programmed chapter points and the programmed keys.
Let me describe what happens during the playing of this movie as programmed here. Selecting it from the appropriate menu button begins playing the movie from the start, as it moves within the first chapter the Previous key will auto return to the menu from whence it came. The next key will go to the next chapter, and when you finally reach the last chapter the next key will automatically return to the originating menu and its associated button.
There is therefore a case for always using the “advance source list” in the [Connections Page] as it allows you to complete the programming task in one viewing.
Connections - the last actions for authoring a simple DVD
Unless you have the Matrox DVD player installed do not at this point use a movie file as the First Play item, use the Title Menu image – see warning notes below. Use the process already described to open those associated windows and add the details in the two lines identified with blue buttons and the yellow numeric 1 & 2 in image 17 above.
Make sure you save the project at this point as you should also have done throughout the authoring process.
WARNING if you cannot make a connection to the hard ware decoder and have not installed the Matrox DVD player you will not be able to play ANY video. The first frame will show with an error message. With large or long movies the computer may give the impression it has locked up as it can take a considerable time before the error message appears. Just do not panic! What this means is that you can only change to a movie as the first play item after you are happy with button navigation. Repeating: without the Matrox DVD player installed you must first use the Title Menu as the First Play Item to allow navigation checks to be made.
Now you are in a position to check button navigation for the project, click on the toolbar button along side the help question button as indicated by the arrow in image 17 and the simulator will show. Use the provided keys to navigate the menus, check that the operations are as you intended, modify the appropriate workspace page if found to be faulty.
In relation to using the Matrox DVD player to achieve preview I found the checking process did not include any audio that you may have been separately added at a menu, you should take note and check that the asset was actually loaded correctly.
The last action is to compile the project as a titleset on the hard drive for burning to your chosen media or in my case for playing with the Hollywood Plus decoder before burning. At the bottom left of the screen is the [Compile Results Window]. Be sure to click on the Compile tab. The tool button associated with compiling the project is indicated above the black button I have added in image 17. As the project is compiled, notes will become visible in the compile window. At the end of the compile the program will tell you that you really did not do all that well since you have no sub pictures – Ah well, as I said at the start “Learn to walk before you fly” with this program.
I use the compiled titleset on the hard drive and burn it to a compliant DVD with Gear Software. This software in my view provides the most compliant outcome of all that will play in more DVD set top players than any other. Often set top players listed on the web as "non players" of DVD-R burns will actually play a Gear Software burn. Try it!
Finally at this point in the learning curve – if you save the project with all windows closed as the last action it will re activate next time around without a mess in the Workspace Window.
I believe that following these instructions will provide you with a simple DVD above the standard of the cheap authoring program with its built in restrictions. It maybe the best you can do without applying additional skills in using Photoshop for the sub layer which is the basis of the commercial DVD. The Maestro is relatively difficult to get to grips with and “walking before flying” is good advice. Many will ask for the manual, and have done so but it will make easier reading of its 600 plus pages if you follow these notes to this point first and at least get a basic understanding after which the advanced features will be easier, much easier to achieve should you need them.
On the other hand there is no need at all to use the sub layer option in DVDMaestro. If you have photoshop skills or can develop them you can make a better, more effective menu system by using only photoshop bitmaps and allowing DVDMaestro to simply add blank default sub layers as is described on this first page.
"First play" is the action that happens when you put the DVD in a desktop player or when you launch the "video_ts.ifo" in your software player. First play can be a menu or a movie. First play is to be assigned if you want something to happen automatically like starting with a menu or a DVD Movie with your animated logo etc. If you do not specify a first play, the end-user will be left staring at a black TV screen and will have to fumble with the remote and press "Play" for the 1st DVD Movie or "Menu" for the 1st Menu.
"Title Menu" controls what happens when the end-user presses the "Title" key on the DVD players remote control. Sometimes called the "Root Menu."
"Menu Key Action" for each chapter is what happens when the end-user presses the "Menu" key on the DVD players remote control, DURING THE CURRENT CHAPTER.
Timesaver note: This action only has to be connected once if you want the same action for every subsequent chapter in a DVD Movie when pressing the "Menu" key on the remote. So if you set the "Chapter End Action" for chapter 1, but not for chapter 2 and chapter 3, all three chapters will respond with the same action upon pressing the "Menu" key on the remote. Setting a different "Menu End Action" for chapter 4 will result in a different result, ONLY from chapter 4 onwards. These "Duplicate chapter-by-chapter Chapter Connections" are INVISABLE in the connection window, they work in the background.
"Chapter End Action" is what you want to happen when a chapter has reached its end. If you make NO connection, the next chapter will automatically play (if there is a next chapter). If you make a "Chapter End Action" connection in a chapter in the middle of a DVD Movie, the DVD player will finish playing the chapter that has the "Chapter End Action" set and navigate "out of the movie" to perform the next action that you have specified. You have to set an end action at the end of every DVD movie otherwise the player stops playing at the end of the last chapter. (Perhaps that is exactly what you want it to do.) These "Automatic chapter-to-chapter connections" are INVISABLE in the connection window, they work in the background.
"Next" and "Previous" correspond to pressing Skip Foward and Skip Backwards on your DVD players remote control. These keys make the DVD Movie jump one chapter point forward or backwards by default. Again this is done automatically, you do not have to make these connections.
The only time you have to specifically connect "Next" and "Previous" to a source is when you want to Skip Forward in the LAST chapter or Skip Backwards in the FIRST chapter in a DVD Movie. In that case however, you will not be able to set the "Menu Key" for each individual chapter, only for the 1st chapter.
"GoUp Link" controls what happens if you press the "Return" key (NOT Resume key) on your DVD players remote control. This gives you a fast way to navigate back up in the menu tree. You have to set this connection manually for each menu. A GoUp link can only connect to a menu.
"Angle Menu", "Audio Menu", "Subtitle Menu"and "Chapter Menu" determine what happens if you press the Angle, Audio, Subtitle or Chapter key on your DVD players remote control. If you do not make any connections for these menu's in Maestro, most DVD players (only if they have these keys on the remote to begin with), default to a connection automatically. Pressing the audio key will let you change audio stream in the standard menu of the DVD player, but not an audio menu on the DVD title as there is no connection to such a menu. The same goes for the angle, subtitle menu keys.
The chapter key will default to the Title Menu or Root menu. Every commercial DVD Title has all these elaborate Audio, Subtitle and Chapter menu's so users with very simple remote controls (only one "Menu" key) can navigate to these Audio, Subtitle and Chapter menu's by pressing the "Menu" key that leads them.
You as DVD authorer can force end-users down this path by disabeling user actions in the DVD Movie and DVD Menu properties windows. In that case pressing the Audio, Angle, Sub picture or Chapter key on the remote will bring you nowhere if they are disabled in the authoring process.
Other specials:
When the end-user gets to the audio menu, the player has to know what language is the current selection by reading its own register. So if audio is set to stream 1 and you want stream 1, you make an action that reports "audio set to stream 1" However if the player is set to stream 2 (by the end user) reading the players register will tell you so. In that case make another action that results in a report "audio set to stream 1" . Command sequences are needed to do if / then logic within DVD titles.
A much more simple approach is to do nothing and wait until the end-user hits the "audio" key. There are two drawbacks to this scenario. The end-user might not know that there is another language on the DVD title or the end user might not even have an "audio" key on the remote.
The secret authorer’s code says "do not settle for less than perfect" so the smoother and less confusing you can make your title for the end user, the higher will be your ultimate reward and it’s the Maestro that gives you the tools to achieve it.
Thank you for these detailed notes that may also help others to “achieve.”
Good luck I hope these notes will help. Cheers!
First prepared 21 October 2002
Why are you considering DVDMaestro?
In mid October 2002 I updated my computer platform to Windows 2000 Pro and this page concerning the DVD authoring Program DVDMaestro (by the now defunct Spruce Technologies Inc, bought out by Apple) was the main reason for doing so.
Because Spruce no longer exists there will never be any updates to correct any program errors or to add additional support for later hardware such as DVD burners or decoders should it be needed. The program was designed to be used with hardware decoders by Cinemaster and RealMagic and its unlikely you will make the hardware connection. This in short may mean you will not be able to play or simulate your project on the computer screen. However, from an Amsterdam email contact: there is a way to get realtime preview in the Maestro. Most people that have realtime preview without the realtime decoder hardware, have installed the Matrox DVD player. This player is based on the Cinemaster player and installs the correct drivers for Maestro. You will then be able to check button navigation on the computer screen.
This page as usual, is specific to the use of DV handicam source material in 4:3 or 16:9 widescreen. It has been edited in Premiere 6.5, is exported using the CCE mpeg encoder v2.64 plugin for Premiere to a DVD compliant m2v file as set up in the encoder. Maestro considers all other extensions as non compliant but will load them provided they are fully DVD compliant (what ever that might mean).. Maestro will only accept elementary streams. Normal video frame sizes of 720 wide by 480 high in NTSC, 576 high in PAL have been used.
After the program is running you will see, probably what is shown in image 1 below – take note of the labels I have used to identify each area. Note: the images in this page are based on a computer screen resolution of 800 x 600 merely to improve the readability of the images here, you should use at least a resolution of 1024 x 576 to provide a larger working space and full coverage for the windows.
This begins in the [Project Window] space, by adding the number of Movies and Menus you will require in the project. Use the tool bar buttons directly above the Project Window to achieve this. Refer to image 4 in which I have added 3 movies and 3 menus.
This is achieved by double clicking the items on the project tree in the [Project Window]. Notice how this action produces a tabbed page in the [Workspace Window], beginning left to right along side the “Connections tab.” As each window appears find the appropriate source file in the [Source Assets Window] and drag it into this window – it may pay to have previously sorted the assets in order. This result for the menus are shown in image 6 below.
This is important to get correct. Select the appropriate menu tab and make sure that full resolution is ticked. Open the [Buttons] tab as well to show blank patches for the up, down, left, right keys. As I stated at the outset, this description is simply related to adding or drawing active selection patches over buttons or text that exists in the menu image.
This is the next logical phase in authoring the DVD. You must of course have worked out what you wish to achieve. This process leads to achieving those pre conceived aims, its made a lot easier to achieve if you spend time making a sketch of what you want to achieve.
If you intend to use a movie as a First Play item, you should have added it to the tree and developed the appropriate page as Movie 1. The First Play item and the method of setting it up is discussed later in these notes.
If you now change the [Connection] page to represent the video tracks, one by one, then surprise, surprise there are no functions or targets listed against the Chapters in the left column. This is shown in image 14 as related to movie 2. Notice that a single chapter has a pair of action lines, the bottom one relates to an action at the end of playing the movie. The top line can perhaps be related to the starting point of the chapter. If you compile this project in this state the buttons on the menu pages will ensure you play the movie item but when or if you use the “next” key on the DVD controller nothing will happen. Indeed at the end of the track the screen will simply go blank and you will have to use the “title” key on the controller of the DVD player to induce the title menu back onto the TV screen.
You must now define the “First Play” and “Title menu”, do this by using the Connections Page. Click on the project title in the [Project Window] to highlight it and then see the All Sources connection details. At this point the First Play Item and the Title Menu will not be defined.
ADDITIONAL NOTES & COMMENTS FROM AMSTERDAM:
DVD Control Keys – Maestro relationships)
The following control keys on a DVD player remote correspond to the following navigation sources in the connection window of Maestro. Keep in mind however, that not every remote control has EVERY key that is mentioned. You must also keep in mind that some connections between remote control keys are made automatically, so you do not HAVE to connect them every time in the connection window.
You can make an audio menu that lets the end-user decide what audio to choose from. You set the initial audio stream that you want to present to the end-user in your DVD Movie (or Menu) properties and you hope that the end-users DVD player's audio settings do not override your suggested initial audio stream. Therefore the audio menu will have to be more elaborate than just a choice of audio streams. You have to program an if/then sequence in the command sequences options. Reading the manual is necessary here.