Tom's Life Bits

Setting up a menu with “Play All” and “Play One” buttons involves managing the end actions and override settings. In order for the Play All button to work, the end actions for the timelines should be set so that timeline 1 activates timeline 2, timeline 2 activates timeline 3, and so on. To make the buttons for the individual timelines work so that they return to the menu after the video finishes playing, set the override for the buttons to come back to the menu.

A question related to the “Play All” workflow that often comes up is “Can I have the DVD return to the menu when the timeline gets to a chapter point?” Unfortunately, no. Chapter points are no more than identification markers. You can go to a chapter point using a menu or the next/previous chapter buttons on the remote, but there's no mechanism in Encore to tell the DVD how to stop or do something different when a chapter point is reached during playback. In order for the “Play All” scenario to work, each segment must be in a separate timeline.

How do I create a 'Play All' button, but still play Chapters individually?

First, it’s important to understand how Encore DVD 1.x works with timelines and chapters. Since this version of Encore does not support cell commands, to do what we want requires that each chapter be imported as a separate asset with its own timeline (therefore some pre-planning). This FAQ will require a basic knowledge of End Actions and Overrides.

Once you understand the above, follow these steps.

# 1. Import your assets into Encore’s Project Window.

# 2. Drag the menu you’d like to use from the Library palette to the Menu tab of the Project Window or import your own pre-made asset as a menu.

# 3. For the sake of this example, the menu will have 3 buttons (1 for each chapter) and a PLAY ALL button.

# 4. Go back to the Project Window and begin creating timelines for your chapters.

[IMPORTANT] If you have updated your Encore to v1.0.1, you can create your timelines in the order you want them to appear on your DVD. If you haven’t yet updated (you should as soon as possible), your titles will be ordered in the opposite order of how you create your timelines (In a project with 3 timelines, T1 will show up as title 3 on your DVD and T3 will show up as title 1 on your DVD—again…pre-planning).

# 5. From Timeline 1, link the chapter marker to Button 1 on the menu. Repeat this for the other timelines.

# 6. From Timeline 1, link the chapter marker to the Play All button on the menu.

# 7. Next, highlight the first timeline in the Project Window and then go to the Properties Window and set the end action of T1 to the first chapter of T2, the end action of T2 to the first chapter of T3, and the end action of T3 to the first chapter of T1. This will allow the chapters to play consecutively. (You could also link the End Action of T3 to the menu if that’s more to your liking.)

# 8. Now go to your menu in the Menu Preview window. Highlight Button 1 and then go to the Properties Window and set the Override to [Menu Name] Button 1. Repeat this for the other 2 Chapter Buttons.

# 9. Save your project.

Now, if you File>Preview your project, you should have the following results. If you click on any of the chapter buttons, they should play their linked chapter and return to the menu. If you click the Play All button, the chapters should play straight through.

Note that due to the DVD spec, there will be a slight pause between timelines. This will be less noticeable on a set top player than in the preview window.

Also, since the NEXT button of your remote is designed for chapters on the same timeline, that feature will not work with this project. However, there is a work-around. Just add a chapter point in the last possible frame of each clip and then when the NEXT button of the remote is pressed, it will ‘virtually’ take you to the next clip.

A playlist is a group of timelines that play sequentially (from each one's specified chapter) and can include one end action. Playlists provide more efficient and robust navigation possibilities than overrides alone. After creating a playlist, you populate and edit it by using the Playlist Properties palette. You can specify different audio and subtitle tracks for timelines accessed from a playlist also. You can choose playlists as a link or an end action from other elements. A playlist plays back all the timelines included and cannot be interrupted, except by the viewer using the remote. You can also chain multiple playlists together using End Actions.

Playlists, in effect, let you set overrides for several timelines at once, making DVD authoring more efficient. For example, if your project includes a collection of music videos, you can create a menu with buttons that let's the viewer play them all or select a specific music video (timeline). You create a Play All button that links to a playlist containing all the timelines and an end action that points back to the menu; you then create the individual music video buttons that link to each separate timeline with an end action pointing back to the menu. To create this navigation scheme without using a playlist, each timeline's end action points to the next video (the play all scheme) and you need to set an override for each video button pointing back to the menu (the play individual videos scheme).

To create a playlist:

1. In the Project tab, click the Create New Playlist button Create New Playlist button , or choose File > New Playlist. Enter a name for the playlist, and click OK.
2. Select the playlist in the Project tab, and bring the Properties palette to the front, if it's not visible.
3. Drag the pick whip from the Timeline section of the Playlist Inspector to a timeline in the Project tab. Adobe Encore DVD adds the specified timeline to the playlist.
4. Using the pick whip, add the other required timelines.
5. If desired, use the pick whip to set an end action to link to a timeline or a menu.

To edit a playlist:

1. Select a playlist in the Project tab.
2. Edit the playlist as follows, using the Playlist Properties palette:

• To reorder the timelines, select a timeline and drag it to a new location in the list.
• To add a timeline to a playlist, drag the pick whip to a timeline in the Project tab. Adobe Encore DVD adds the timeline to the end of the playlist.
• To delete a timeline, select it and click the Delete icon or choose delete from the palette's pop-up menu. You can select multiple, discontinuous timelines by control-clicking each timeline.
• To specify a different audio or subtitle track for the timeline, choose Specify Other from the Properties palette pop-up menu. In the dialog box that appears, select the timeline, and then specify the new tracks using the Audio and Subtitle pop-up menus.