DVD Studio Pro 3 - end of my rope...

[Jonathan Jones]

Callin' out for help. I'm at the end of my rope on this one.

I am currently putting together a disc in DVD Studio Pro 3. I've used it enough to be pretty comfortable with alot of traditional authoring, motion menus and button configs...but right now I'm doing something I've never done on a DVD before, and I have spent tons of time this week trying to figure it out with no luck.

Here's the situation.

I've got the main video feature as a single stream on video track 1. It comprises about 13 various scenes that are set up with markers to form chapters. The chapters are designed to flow smoothly from one to the next and all is perfect.

However, I am supposed to put an 'option' on the disc that allows the viewer to turn on a feature that plays a brief audio/video file that introduces each chapter with an explanation of what they are about to see. There is such a file designated for the beginning of each chapter, but by default, the feature is 'inactive' until the viewer selects it.

At the end of each introduction, the main video feature resumes as it normally would.

I can't figure out a way to set up this configuration. If I simply drop the video intros into in the appropriate place on video track two, it displays the second track of video while the first track continues underneath it.....not what I wanted.

I know there must be a logical way to do this, but I can't figure it out. I can't seem to find the appropriately informational material in the users manual and I can't seem to find any sites that discuss this particular scenario. I have, however, seen alot of feature DVDs that use a similar build.

The only other idea I can think of is extremely inconvenient and disrupts the flow of the chapters. It involves the following:

Re-edit the main feature video to include the video intros by default. Drop it into the DVD build and then create a 'storyline' that skips over the intros for the non-interrupted version...then switch the button functions in the main menu so that the standard 'play' activates the story-ied version. The primary reason I don't want to do this is because it would destroy the seamless tranistions that exist between the chapters when no intros are used (not to mention the need to run another 13 hour Compressor session.)

I know this is a fairly complicated request, but I'm really looking for help on it, and that is why I went into alot of detail about the specifics of my need.

Thanks so much in advance.
-Jon

[Nate Weaver]

I think stories is gonna be the only way.

With finessing and rebuilding your transitions a little bit, you could get them almost seamless.

[Kevin Calumpit]

Yeah i would say the work around is using Stories......too just like Nate said

[Jonathan Jones]

Thanks Nate and Kevin. I figured as much. Oh well. I will begin a re-render tonight to make a new master track that includes the additions....and it should be ready to go in the morning. In the end, I am sure it will still be less time to do that then spend the next few days spinning my wheels and still not figuring a different way to do it other than stories. Looks like it is the way to go.

Thanks for affirming my suspicions. At least now I feel mentally better about having settled on a direction in which to proceed.

-Jon