Question... How do they make DVD movie menus:question:

Kitsunexus · 04/21/2007, 03:01 PM

OK, so this is kinda random, even for Chit-Chat, but how the heck do they make DVD movie menus? You know, the ones that have music, and animate, and show video clips?

I want to assume it's Flash, but I don't think that DVD player processors could handle it. Could anyone enlighten me, please?

Hobo Xiphas · 04/21/2007, 06:24 PM

It's just a regular video loop.

Pop a DVD into a good computer player like mplayer and if you select the right vob file you'll see it is just a video loop.

Kitsunexus · 04/21/2007, 06:29 PM

So it's just video? How can they take a video and add interactivity to it, like buttons and stuff?

Joe Redifer · 04/21/2007, 07:09 PM

Answer... (thanks for using a teaser subject title on this thread... it tells me EXACTLY what the thread will be about.)

You can use a "yucky" Mac with it's DVD Studio Pro program to do it. It's the best DVD authoring program ever. It's not Flash. Menus without sound can be layered menus... graphics created in Photoshop with layers still enabled. Certain layers are on or off when certain buttons are selected. Stuff with video is simply video, but then you use graphic overlays (different from layers) to choose button. Most studio menus I've seen suck ass and it can be hard to tell what button is selected since they think style is more important than usability (I see this with a lot of teenage-made websites and MySpace pages as well). You can also have a Simple Menu which is just a still screen that can use simple semi-transparencies created by the DVD player to select your button. There can be music playing in the background. Menus can be made to loop and do all sorts of shit. But who gives a fuck about a fancy menu? That's not the reason you're watching the DVD and people will forget about it quickly no matter what. But they'll remember the main program on the DVD.

PS - Unskippable menus suck ass. I hate animated menus that you cannot skip and must watch the animation to it's completion before you can make a selection. Then after you choose something, you have to watch an animated "outro" the menu does, also unskippable. LAME LAME LAME!

Kitsunexus · 04/21/2007, 07:14 PM

So it's just layered pictures and video then? Cool, thank you.

And sorry for the vague title.

Joe Redifer · 04/21/2007, 07:19 PM

Yes, either a layered Photoshop picture (these can seem slow to respond), a single still picture with single-colored transparent shapes created by the DVD player itself, or motion video. Any of these except the Photoshop layered-menus can have graphical overlays which act kind of like the Photoshop layers but are quicker, more versatile and yet a tad more restricted in what you can do (since all the shapes have to be loaded into the DVD player's RAM).

Seldane · 04/21/2007, 07:28 PM

DVDs are for suckers. Illegally pirated and stolen videos all the way. No menus. No "DO NOT PIRATE THIS!" screens. No fuss. Only perfection.

Joe Redifer · 04/21/2007, 07:53 PM

Oh come on. If you are going to pirate a DVD, you MUST pirate the "Don't pirate this" screen just out of spite.

Keranu · 04/21/2007, 08:10 PM

Laserdisc FTW.

Seldane · 04/21/2007, 08:16 PM

I honestly only pirate movies because that "don't pirate this" screen annoys me.

OldRover · 04/21/2007, 09:26 PM

Quote from: Kitsunexus on 04/21/2007, 03:01 PMOK, so this is kinda random, even for Chit-Chat, but how the heck do they make DVD movie menus? You know, the ones that have music, and animate, and show video clips?

I want to assume it's Flash, but I don't think that DVD player processors could handle it. Could anyone enlighten me, please?

It's not Flash. It's a special type of scripting file that is coded in a similar manner though. There's not a whole lot of documentation on the code standard, but it's out there if you know how to find it. I wanted to write my own DVD authoring software awhile back and looked for information on how it's done. It's not terribly complicated stuff but it is rather detailed, so someone without any kind of programming background probably wouldn't want to mess with it.

Kitsunexus · 04/21/2007, 10:02 PM

Cool, thanks! I wasn't going to try and make a menu, I was just curious... ^_^

Hobo Xiphas · 04/22/2007, 01:56 AM

Quote from: Keranu on 04/21/2007, 08:10 PMLaserdisc FTW.

The redardation is spreading.

I'm disappointed in you, K.

nat · 04/22/2007, 02:09 AM

Quote from: Seldane on 04/21/2007, 08:16 PMI honestly only pirate movies becuase that "don't pirate this" screen annoys me.

"FBI Warning"

Do they still use those screens on DVDs or is it something more generic nowadays? I honestly haven't noticed.

But the "FBI Warning" screens with the colorcycling background from the Betamax and VHS days are classic. Beta was the shit.

Joe Redifer · 04/22/2007, 02:13 AM

The old pirate warnings with color cycling backgrounds were unique to Paramount releases. Rarely does any movie these days or even back then have actual FBI-provided screens. Some do, though.

Seldane · 04/22/2007, 03:31 AM

Quote from: nat on 04/22/2007, 02:09 AMBut the "FBI Warning" screens with the colorcycling background from the Betamax and VHS days are classic. Beta was the shit.

At least you could fast-forward through those screens. On DVDs, you are forced to watch them, and they're usually displayed for a very long time. Definitely a great annoyance, at least to me. Sometimes you even have to watch the ads in the beginning of the DVD. Those bastards!

SuperDeadite · 04/22/2007, 07:11 AM

Quote from: Seldane on 04/22/2007, 03:31 AM
Quote from: nat on 04/22/2007, 02:09 AMBut the "FBI Warning" screens with the colorcycling background from the Betamax and VHS days are classic. Beta was the shit.
At least you could fast-forward through those screens. On DVDs, you are forced to watch them, and they're usually displayed for a very long time. Definitely a great annoyance, at least to me. Sometimes you even have to watch the ads in the beginning of the DVD. Those bastards!

Yeah, there is no excuse to show unskippable previews when a DVD boots up. If they made special "rental only" DVDs then I could understand the reasons, but paying $30 for a movie that forces you to watch advertisements every single time is simply unacceptable. They should be stuck in the extras menu and nowhere else.

Turbo D · 04/22/2007, 07:58 AM

Ya seriously, I hate that.

Keranu · 04/22/2007, 05:51 PM

Quote from: Xiphas on 04/22/2007, 01:56 AM
Quote from: Keranu on 04/21/2007, 08:10 PMLaserdisc FTW.
The redardation is spreading.

I'm disappointed in you, K.

lol w/e

Joe Redifer · 04/22/2007, 06:14 PM

If you come across DVDs with unskippable menus or previews where pressing the "menu" button doesn't work, try this:

Press the "Chapter Forward Skip" button, or

If that fails, try fast forwarding normally to make it quicker.

A lot of times this works, but it doesn't with Paramount DVDs. It can also help you skip animated menu intros and outros. Usually when I see the menu pop up and start showing scenes from the movie which I have not yet viewed (I hate that) I just press "Menu" and it goes right to the real menu where I can make my selections. After I press play I skip the outro with the

button.

Kitsunexus · 04/22/2007, 07:02 PM

Quote from: Joe Redifer on 04/22/2007, 06:14 PMIf you come across DVDs with unskippable menus or previews where pressing the "menu" button doesn't work, try this:

TR0N · 04/22/2007, 11:02 PM

Quote from: Kitsunexus on 04/22/2007, 07:02 PM
Quote from: Joe Redifer on 04/22/2007, 06:14 PMIf you come across DVDs with unskippable menus or previews where pressing the "menu" button doesn't work, try this:

Some times i want to do that on a universal dvd.

They, have been pretty bad when forcing you to watch their previews

Joe Redifer · 04/23/2007, 12:02 AM

I don't think I've ever been forced to watch any trailers/previews on any DVD. Got any examples of titles that do this?

MrFulci · 04/23/2007, 01:16 AM

What Joe said; If pressing menu doesn't work, chapter skip, nothing there, fast forward.

There are certain DVD players that will skip through this mess pretty much no matter what. I've seen DVD players advertised in that they make it so you can skip through "unskippable" preview stuff.

Never encountered previews I've been forced to watch. When previews appear, and pressing menu does nothing, I skip through them of fast forward.

If I know ahead of time a disc has some unskippable advertisement, I load the dvd, get something to drink, etc. By the time I'm back the DVD is at the menu.

Hobo Xiphas · 04/23/2007, 01:17 AM

I don't know how the hell I know this since I hardly ever watch DVDs, but I believe Disney DVDs are notorious for doing the no-skip thing.

GUTS · 04/23/2007, 02:33 AM

Yes I have some disney DVDs that are very irritating like that. Makes me mad I bought them instead of pirating them.

gundarN · 04/23/2007, 04:18 AM

There are a lot of UK DVD's with unskippable crap on them. It's amazingly frustrating. I wonder if it's worse here than the US?

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Question... How do they make DVD movie menus:question: