It is said on this site (by a Mr VCD I think) that no vcd should be made without that option. Well .......

For those actually creating such "nice" options can someone comment on how things work on their PC's. My interactive skills are still climbing, the product is produced in VP4.

My latest creation, if you could call it that, contained a main menue with 4 choices:

2 options to play tracks direct, one option to go to another menue and select 2 more items called highlights and the fourth, an option to play some "high definition" stills (what ever they are, they all look the same to me from my DV source material).

Works fine on the DVD player but on the PC???????????

I have two computers, one at home (233 pentium) and one at work which is a 350 Pentium 2.

I use Cyberlinks Power Player (they also have the VCD PowerPlayer at half the price and half the size - bit misleading) for playing vcd's. I hate the enormous hand piece of the so called expensive PW PowerPlayer, covers a lot of screen and keeps popping up when its not needed. For an interactive vcd you need the number pad so minimising the big hand is of no use and the right click menues on both versions do not include an option for a number pad. I do not think programmers actually use the stuff they program. Wonder how it all works with a DVD Rom or what ever they are called.

Anyway, the works computer does not play the stills at full screen beyond the first and never returns to the main menue from the stills choice. At 100% size it cycles OK but gets the timings all wrong, despite all set at 8 seconds to read some sub-titled information.

The works computer goes into the second level menue and never returns to the main menue despite having an "exit" button to do so.

On my home computer the only problem occurs with slide timing that is not a consistent time, first & last slides are OK the others just shoot thro' one after the other much like a machine gun.

None of these problems exist on my DVD player.

So whats the point of a menu system if those receiving the vcd do not have set top players and want to play it on a computer. I wonder how many of you in USA can play a PAL format vcd and see all of the frame unless you play it on a computer?

There seems to be little reliability between computers - surprise surprise!

I would hate to take the time and effort to make an interactive vcd in several levels if it can only be played by indivual files or gets lost in the menu system. Maybe everything should happen from one level of menu only, with lots of choices, then maybe it would work reliably on a computer as well. Mr VCD what now???????????

-- Ross McL (rmclennan@esc.net.au), December 28, 1999

Answers

Hi Ross, Well I can only help with your DVD-Rom question. The programs that drive them usually try to imitate a standalone-DVD, so you have the screen and a controlling panel simulating the front of a lone DVD and of course a silly on-screen "remote". I've tested one level menus only and work fine. By "fine" I mean that it does what it's supposed to. (I tried one-level menus with 6 to 9 options, didn't go further that)

*Personally* (remark on this), I don't see an advantage in using menus in a PC because clicking into a "virtual" remote with the mouse and having this "remote" hiding, then poping up and covering the image, is more annoying than the go-get-it way of picking the right file and using the slidebar.

But on the other hand, sooner or later we will all end up having a standalone player (ok, maybe in 10 years from now, but we will) so it doesn't hurt to build up a simple menu and make VCDs ready for that occasion.

-- Matias (petrellm@telefonica.com.ar), December 29, 1999.

Hi Matias,

Would not it be nice if the key board would substitute for the "virtual" number pad - whats wrong with these program people or maybe Cyberlinks PowerPlayer or their VCD PowerPlayer are not the programs to be using are there others that cope better?

Your reply and my between computer problems mean I will only produce a single level as you have done, then at least it will work on any PC as well as the DVD player. What a waste of a program like VideoPack 4 to only use single levels!

-- Ross McL (rmclennan@esc.net.au), December 30, 1999.

Maybe that's why Easy CD permits menues but only one level. S/w MPEG player apps always have all of those little unpredictabilities: for example a Xing 3.30 I installed on one machine launches a VCD properly, menue and hotspots and all, but the same on another PC will only allow playing single tracks without hanging. Installing/uninstalling other apps no doubt mess with a typical MPEG player app, no doubt; the same thing can't be said on a DVD set-top, where your multilevel-menued VCDs will almost always play okay. That's the real dedicated thing they were really meant to be played in, anyway; PCs are general-purpose things.

-- EMartinez (epmartinez@hotmail.com), January 01, 2000.

Thanks EM, you could be correct, there seem to be problems going from computer to computer etc etc.

There are a few surprises in VP4 when you start to use it seriously, buttons that do not hold the assigned dimensions, if I put in a height of 20 I expect that, not for the program to change it to 19 or 21 at random. Text within the button that looks great on the computer screen and comes out at about 1/3 the size when burnt to vcd - you must use best fit or its an awful problem. Think I will begin using Photoshop to get better control of the menu.

You cannot effectively change a project layout because when you delete a node it does not delete the associated file from the video track layout and deleting that file manually actually destroys the project. So as programmed in this situation, you end up with more video tracks than are required by the nodes.

I accidentally put an avi file into a play item node and it of course asked did I want to encode it. (Must try that encoder sometime to see what standard it provides - WinonCD was terrible). When I deleted the node and put another in with the correct mpeg it continually asked the question about encoding the previously removed avi - I had to scrub the project and start again.

There are other non friendly features as well but.....

I have now made up a standard project using consistant file and node names so I do not have to do it all over again each time I want an interactive VCD. It is impossible to take a previous project and modify it to suit unless you actually add nodes, removing them aborts the project in the end.

For the recommended price its a Bl..dy awful example of programming that you have to strickly stay within some "rules of experience" to succeed with.

-- Ross McL (rmclennan@esc.net.au), January 03, 2000.

Here are the results of a test on Video Pack 4 timings for slides - high definition.

I set the program timings for 10 seconds each - 6 slides = 60 seconds.

1) Computer - total time 72 seconds

2) DVD set top - Philips 725 - 21 seconds

Well that says it all. I am going to use a video track generated in the normal way from the timeline so that at least I can get consistant times for both playback methods.

-- Ross McL (rmclennan@esc.net.au), January 04, 2000.