Defining DVD Behavior

Once a project is populated with Tracks, it is possible to author playback flow and user navigation. This involves executing the decisions made in the project plan about the order of content playback, the links from menus to content, and the DVD player’s response to user input via the remote control.

This sections includes the following topics:

Defining Chapters

ReelDVD supports DVD-Video’s ability to navigate directly to individual chapters in a video track. Chapters are accessible through links, and viewers can also navigate chapter-by-chapter using the Skip Forward and Skip Backward keys on the DVD player remote control.

Chapters are created with the New Chapter button on the Track window tool bar (lower left). The new chapter starts at the start of the nearest MPEG Group of Pictures (GOP) to the current location of the green timeline indicator (GOPs generally occur once every half second throughout the video, and usually begin with an MPEG I-frame). A new chapter marker (yellow triangle) will appear in the display area at this location, and a vertical dashed line will appear across the streams in the Track window to show the chapter break.

Video stream with chapter breaks in the Track window

Chapter markers can be moved by dragging them on the timeline. If it is difficult to position the marker precisely, try zooming in with the Zoom button to stretch out the timeline display.

Chapter breaks can be removed. Click to the right of the marker for the chapter break you want to remove. Then click the Clear button on the main Tool Bar, press the Delete key, or choose Edit > Clear.

Note: DVD-Video does not support adding chapters to Stills, Slide Shows or Still Shows. Also, some DVD players may have trouble playing tracks with greater than 72 chapters defined, although the DVD specification allows for up to 99.

Creating Menu Buttons

Visually, a menu is made up of a background image and a subpicture overlay that are composited to create the menu image seen by the viewer. A menu also includes a button highlight stream containing both the hotspot definitions and the commands for on-screen buttons (see Button Highlight Stream).

After the background image and corresponding subpicture have been imported into a menu Track, the button hotspots (up to 36 for 4:3 Standard, 18 for 16:9 Widescreen) and commands are defined in the Preview window.

  • A hotspot is the rectangular area of the screen that is assigned to a given menu button. This rectangle determines the area that will be affected by Selection and Activation colors when the viewer uses the Up/Down/Left/Right and Enter keys on the remote control. If the DVD is played in a computer-hosted DVD-ROM drive, a button’s hotspot defines the area of the screen within which that button will respond to mouse rollovers and clicks.
  • Button commands tell the DVD player what to do when a given button is activated. Buttons created in ReelDVD can link to another Track, link to a Chapter within a Track, or can have “No Operation” (“Nop”).

To create a button hotspot, start with the Track selected and the Preview window in Design mode (see Design Mode). Click the Create Button tool on the Preview window tool bar, which sets the cursor to New Button mode. Click and drag in the Preview window display to define the rectangle of the new button hotspot. The hotspot area you define will normally correspond to graphical elements in the background image or the subpicture overlays.

Preview window tool bar

Note that buttons are numbered by ReelDVD in the order they are created. The first hotspot you define should be for the button that you want selected by default when the viewer arrives at the menu.

Defining Button Paths

Paths between buttons define the order in which button selection moves around the menu in response to the Up, Down, Left and Right keys on the remote. To define these paths, choose the link type (Up, Down, Left or Right) from the button link tools in the center of the Preview window’s tool bar. Then click within the hotspot of one button and drag to the hotspot of the destination button. See Button Link Tools for more information on button paths.

Menu with button links

Defining Subpicture Colors

In DVD’s subpicture system, each of the four colors in a subpicture image file is used as a mask to define a complex region of the screen, much like a video color key mask. The actual color that appears in each of these four areas during playback, as well as the contrast value (opacity) of each color, defaults to values set in the Highlight colors tab of the Project Settings dialog (see Color Tab). The same is true for the colors and contrast used within button hotspots when a button is selected and when it is activated.

The default color and contrast values can be modified for any given menu using controls in the Preview window as follows:

  • Use the color mode buttons in the right part of the Preview window tool bar to select Display, Selection or Action mode (see Viewing Modes and Color/Contrast Settings).
  • To change the color mapping for a given color (1 through 4), click the indicator for that color (below the Preview window tool bar) and select a new color from the pop-up palette defined on the Color Palette tab of the Project Settings dialog (see Color Palette Tab).
  • To increase or decrease the contrast, click the “+” and “–” buttons on either side of the color indicator. The DVD specification supports sixteen contrast levels ranging from 0% (transparent) to 100% (opaque).

Note that areas of the subpicture that are not within any button hotspot will not be affected by the settings in the Selection or Action modes.

Defining Program Flow

The core of DVD authoring is defining the flow of the program. This includes designating special Title and Menu Tracks and defining the playback order of content (motion video, Still Show, and Slide Show Tracks) and menus.

Layout of a typical project in the Storyboard area

Much of the work of defining program flow is done in the Storyboard area. Before you begin, it’s recommended that you organize the Tracks in a way that corresponds visually with your intended program flow as defined in the project plan.

Auto Play, Title, and Menu Tracks

ReelDVD’s Storyboard area contains three special icons (Auto Play, Title, and Menu), each of which is used to define Tracks that have a special function in the program flow (see also Auto Play, Title, and Menu Icons).

Auto Play, Title and Menu icons in the Storyboard area

  • The Auto Play Track is automatically defined by ReelDVD as the first Track created in the project. (If that Track is cleared, the Track that was created next becomes the Auto Play Track.) A yellow arrow from the Auto Play icon to the Track indicates that this Track will play automatically when the disc is first inserted into the player or drive. The Auto Play Track is usually used for the opening sequence, copyright notices and other important introductory information.
  • To designate the Track that will play when the viewer presses the Title key on the remote control, position the cursor over the bottom of the oval Title icon. The word “CMD” (command) will appear next to the cursor. Drag a link from the icon to the Track you want to designate.
  • To designate the Track that will play when the viewer presses the Menu key on the remote control, position the cursor over the bottom of the oval Menu icon. The word “CMD” (command) will appear next to the cursor. Drag a link from the icon to the Track you want to designate.

Track-to-Track Links

A DVD title can include a series of video segments that are intended to go from one to the next without any action by the viewer, or to go from the end of a video segment directly to a menu. This flow is achieved by adding Next Track links to the Track icons that represent the DVD’s video content in the Storyboard area. In addition, Previous, Next, and Return Track links are used to define the project’s behavior when the viewer presses various keys on the remote control (see also Track Icons):

Next, Previous, and Return links in the Storyboard area

  • To create a Next Track link (blue Link Arrow) position the cursor over the right side of the current Track icon. The word “NXT” (next) will appear next to the cursor. Drag a link from the icon to the Track (content or menu) that you want playback to jump to when the current Track ends. This is also the Track that the player will jump to when the viewer presses the Skip Forward key on the remote control.
  • To create a Previous Track link (red Link Arrow) position the cursor over the left side of the current Track icon. The word “PREV” (previous) will appear next to the cursor. Drag a link from the icon to the Track you want the player to jump to when the viewer presses the Skip Backward key.
  • To create a Return Track link (green Link Arrow) position the cursor at the top of the current Track icon. The word “UP” (go up/return) will appear next to the cursor. Drag a link from the icon to the Track you want the player to jump to when the viewer presses the Return key.

Note: Deleting a Track will clear all links to and from that Track.

Defining Button Commands

Another aspect of defining the flow of the program is to define button commands. A button command can link from the current Track to another Track (magenta Link Arrow) or to a chapter within a Track (orange Link Arrow). Until its command is defined, a button is referred to as having No Operation (“Nop”).

Button command links in the Storyboard area

When one or more buttons are created in a Track (see Creating Menu Buttons), the Command (CMD) Track link indicator appears at the bottom of the Track icon.

To create a link from a button in the Track to another Track or a chapter within a Track:
  1. Position the cursor over the indicator at bottom, center of the Track icon. The word “CMD” (command) will appear next to the cursor.
  2. Drag a link from the Track icon (the originating Track) to the Track you want playback to jump to when the viewer activates the button by pressing the Enter key on the remote (the destination Track).
  3. If the destination Track has more than one chapter, the Select Chapter dialog opens. Select from the destination chapter (by clicking its thumbnail). To link to the beginning of the Track, click the first thumbnail. The Select Chapter dialog closes.

  4. When the Choose Command Button dialog appears, showing the menu’s background image with the hotspot areas of the menu’s buttons, click within the hotspot of the button that you want to use for the link. The dialog will close and a Link Arrow will appear in the Storyboard area showing the path of the link from the originating Track to the destination track. The button’s number will be shown on the arrow.

Note: Deleting a Track will clear all links to and from that Track.

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