Stuck again, first week using Vegas. After editing, I now have 32 clips from a dance recital, all labeled with name of song. I now need to create the dvd and menu. I have learned a few things for next time, but can i be saved with a fairly simple workflow/method?:

Main Menu: Simple "Play Show" that would play everything start to finish. (unfortunately, i did not fade out of each individual clip, i would certainly do this next time).

Act 1 Dances: the first 16 dances

Act 2 Dances: the second 16 dances.

I was able to configure a good menu with submenus on architect, and I could have used a playlist for the "Play All" feature, but i would need to fade in/out for a smooth transition.

Ironically, i have this setup perfectly on Cyberlink PowerDirector, only drawback is they only allow 3-4 chapters per page. 10 pages of submenus is certainly unacceptable!!

Will try again in the morning, thanx all.

Assemble in Vegas, name the markers at each dance, do your fades audio and video then render from Vegas making sure to check to include markers in the render. In DVDArchitect start new project, from explorer drag file over the opening menu page. When set right click on video file icon and insert submenu. This will place another button on the menu page and will create pages of the named dances. Go to the insert dropdown and set an empty button and name that act 2, in action select the first dance of act 2. That is very fast input but may get you going. In Vegas find some good points to extract stills and use as menu backgrounds. I mainly use text only for my buttons but you can set the background of the buttons to what you want too.

Hope that has got you started.

Ron Evans

Darryn, you'll find your life much easier if you assemble all the segments on a single timeline, add markers at the beginning of each segment and encode (i.e. render) everything as a single Vegas file.
I shoot a number of plays each year and produce a DVD that has a PLAY ALL button as well as buttons for each scene.
The procedure I use was linked to in your previous thread.

Darryn, you might want to take a look at my newsletters here: www.jetdv.com

There's a few issues that deal with rendering for DVD and authoring a DVD. Just look through the various issues.

Thanks all, I will take a look at "markers" and try again, will also read those threads and newsletters, thanks for support, this is a great place to come when I start to panic :)

A great day, thanx for all help, was able to get a good looking menu, with submenus, 16 clips per submenu, text only, text size 12. 2 newer questions:

1: how do i change the thumbnails on main menu? I have 4 links but are all same thumbnail.

2: can i change the "hover-link" color on my text menus? the text is white and when you scroll through them on dvd player, they only change to a tiny off-white color, kinda hard to see when clicking through.

#1 Click on the button. On the right-hand side you will see many properties. Click on "Media" and you will then see "Thumbnail Properties". Change the "Start Time" to be the frame you want to show. It's possible to also have animated thumbnails. Then animated length will be the same as the menu length.

#2 Click on the MENU. In the same right-hand side properties, go to "Color Sets" and adjust the colors as you desire.

Thanks everyone, all your guidance has helped me create a pro-looking DVD. I will purchase Sony Vegas with Architect and continue reading, viewing and learning. A bit cliche, but i could not have done this without all your input! Screenshots below. Thanks again all!

http://www.harborviewvideo.com/1.jpg

http://www.harborviewvideo.com/2.jpg

Looks good, Darryn, other than the typo where you typed Extra’s instead of Extras. :)

Thanx Adam, fixing it now :)

DVDA should also have placed buttons for top menu, back and forward on the sub menu when you let it automatically create from markers.

Ron Evans

I did get the "Back" button automatically.....

New development, I need to replace a clip.As suggested, I created my 2 hour video with 32 markers (used as chapters), rendered and authored in DVDA. I need to edit and replace a chapter 19 (not just trim unfortunately) so just wondering if I am basically going back to Vegas, edit, render again, then will my DVDA project need to be started from scratch?

I would make the changed in Vegas and then render the whole thing out again.

Thanx Ed, what about when I go to DVDA, can I import without losing all my menu structures?

I would move the current render to a different folder and then just replace the render with the new one using the same name. DVD Architect should automatically pick up the new file automatically. You may need to manually tell it to load in the new markers as the marker locations (after 19, anyway) will change. To make sure you test it. Even if something is off, you can manually adjust the current menu item instead of having to start from scratch.

Great, will give a try and report next week!