DVD-lab UserGuide v1.3

DVD-lab User Guide
including version 1.3
By Alan Gruskoff
©2003 All rights reserved.
Published by Performant Systems

December 2003
Website: http://www.digitalshowcase.biz
Email: dvdlab@digitalshowcase.biz
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 – Introduction....................................................Page 3
Chapter 2 – Quick! Make a DVD....................................Page 15
Chapter 3 - Menu Development.....................................Page 27
Chapter 4 - DVD-Video File Formats.............................Page 31
Chapter 5 – DVD-lab Menu items..................................Page 37
Chapter 6 - Work Area / Connections.........................Page 107
Chapter 7 – Work Area / Movie...................................Page 121
Chapter 8 – Work Area / Slideshows..........................Page 129
Chapter 9 – Work Area / Menu editor........................Page 141
Chapter 10 - The Preview Window..............................Page 169
Chapter 11 - The Assets Window.................................Page 173
Alphabetical Index..........................................................Page 185

DVD-lab User Guide Chapter 1 – Introduction
Chapter 1 – Introduction
DVD-lab version 1.3 by Mediachance, copyright

Mediachance.
DVD Authoring for creative people
About the Developer

http://www.mediachance.com/dvdlab/index.html
Mediachance of Ottawa, Quebec – Canada, provides multimedia,

graphics and web designers with powerful, easy to use and
affordable software solutions including:
DVD Menu Multimedia Builder MP3

Studio
Real-DRAW Photo-Brush
PRO
Compact PhotoSEAM
DRAW
DCE Digital
AutoEnhance Camera
Tools
Page 3
Chapter 1 – Introduction DVD-lab User Guide
DVD-lab – What is it?
A DVD Authoring tool
Building on a broad tradition of providing digital media design

tools, Mediachance has developed a full featured DVD Authoring
system, titled DVD-lab. Taking the sophistication of their DVD
Menu Studio and surrounding it a superb user interface that will
be immediately usable to digital Video users. Advanced design
features such as Scene Selection, GEN-efx, 3D Rotate, Group
Hotspot and the unique Menu transitions (think CrossFade, Wipe,
Page Peel, etc...) offer a level of creativity not found in the most
costly systems.
The DVD-lab product competes at a level with products costing

$500 to $2500 (US) and is an excellent value at the near $100 price
point, as released in the May of 2003. This product proves that a
well designed product is not always “you get what you pay for”,
in this case you get a lot more.
DVD Authoring is the design and layout of the Menus, links and
presentation the DVD viewer interacts with. While a very creative
process, authoring is a "Final Assembly" phase, taking your
existing Video / Audio / Images and packaging them onto a
DVD compliant DVD-R master disc. That DVD master is a DVD-R
disc, playable on most any DVD player. The resulting master can
then be replicated for 10 or 10 million copies.
The design philosophy of DVD-lab is as a "Final Assembly" tool.

The Author (that's you – the DVD Author) is expected have all
their Video, Audio and still images (known collectively as the
Assets) prepared in a DVD compliant format, ready to be laid out
within the DVD structure. DVD-lab opts for the “professional”
approach of preparing all of the project's assets beforehand as
opposed to the “consumer” approach of a more shoot and burn
activity.
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Encoding is done beforehand
The pros will use separate Video and Audio files, referred to as
Elementary Streams or demultiplexed. Consumer software will
typically use a single Program Stream or multiplexed file that
contains both Video and Audio together.
As such, DVD-lab does not provide the transcoding (conversion

to DVD compliant files) internally. Source Video coming from the
AVI Video format for instance, should be converted (called
encoding or transcoding) to the DVD compliant MPEG-2 format
before being brought into the DVD-lab project.
The good news is that most of the popular Non Linear Editor
(NLE) Video software on the market such as Pure Motion's
EditStudio, Sony/Sonic Foundry's Vegas and Adobe's Premiere,
output a nicely compatible MPEG-2 Video and/or Audio file.
Pure Motion's EditStudio has an optional MPEG XS transcode
plugin to read and write MPEG1 and MPEG2 files in a DVD
compliant mode. With a user interface similar to DVD-lab, this
NLE with MPEG transcoder at about $125 (US) is downloadable
at: http://www.puremotion.com.
Outside the NLEs, there is a selection of excellent standalone

Video encoder software available for around the $50 (US) price
range such as TMPGEnc ( http://www.tMPGenc.net ) and
Cinema Craft Basic ( http://www.cinemacraft.com ).
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It does that? Cool!

Here is a quick look at some of the advanced, yet high ease of use
features you can expect in DVD-lab.
Connections – the visual layout manager

From the start of a Project, DVD-lab builds a Connections map of
the flow and relationships of the Objects that comprise the DVD.
The Author may make custom routing of flow by drawing a line
from Object A to Object B within the Connections window.
Menus beyond the ordinary

We believe the DVD-lab Menu Editor provides the highest
functionality for designing artistically interesting menus, of any
product on the market. Features like the built-in GEN-Efx, 3D
Object Warp, Cardinal Shape Objects, Motion Menus, Motion
Buttons and the unique Menu Video Transition feature, offer
exceptional visual appeal.
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Slideshow Editor
New in v1.3, the Slideshow feature adds a new class of content.
The Author can assemble a set of still images to be shown in a
Slideshow presentation format. DVD-lab accepts standard images
formats and will compensate for image size. Audio can be added
to a Slideshow Audio track as background.
Consistent with DVD-lab style, it's very easy to use, yet offers the
author precise flexibility in setting the exact duration of
individual slides or setting the entire Slideshow program to match
the exact length of the associated Audio file.
Instant Linked Buttons

A very useful and slick feature is the “Insert Chapter Still”, a
Menu editor tool.
Insert Chapter Still tool brings up a list of known Movie Starts

and Chapter Points that you can link a Button to. When an event
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is selected, DVD-lab looks into the Movie, grabs a frame from it,
then places the new Linked Button on the Menu for you. A pre-
made Video image based Button, is automatically created and
linked.
Automatic Add Scene Selection

A very smart feature, this option brings up a window offering a
selection of existing Movies to look within for Chapter Points and
a selection for which Style Menu is to be considered the Parent
Menu.
DVD-lab builds a new Menu based on your selected template,

populating it with Frame images linked to the Movie start and
any Chapter Points it finds. High ease of use automation here.
Preview window Instant Linked Images

A special graphics integration feature is available via the Preview
window. With a Video loaded and stopped any Video frame we
like, DVD-lab will grab that frame and make an instant linked
image using the Click & Drag method. Click & Drag from the
Preview window onto the Assets / Images bin for a new Image or
Shift-Click & Drag onto an open Menu window for an instant
Background image.
Auto Demultiplexing (Demuxing)

The even better news on this subject is that DVD-lab will
automatically demux a couple of the most popular Video formats
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for you, just by dropping a file into it's Video & Audio Assets
folder. You can locate multiplexed files such as MPG and VOB
files right from a DVD itself, drop them into the Video & Audio
Assets bin and then watch DVD-lab demultiplex (separate) the
Video and Audio from these files into their component
Elementary Streams.
For example, Import from a source VOB file into the Video &
Audio Asset folder and DVD-lab will then present you with an
M2V (that's MPEG-2 Video) and an AC-3 (that's Dolby Digital
AC-3 Audio) file to use. Importing from a source MPG file into
the Video & Audio Assets folder and DVD-lab will then present
you with an MPV (MPEG Video) file and an MPA (MPEG Audio)
file.
This feature alone is worth the price of the product itself.
VOB file Auto De-Muxing results
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Notable Features and Enhancements in version 1.3, since

version 1.1
Great New Features

Render Menu Motion / Motion Buttons. This new tool has the
ability to render a Menu with motion Video thumbnails or motion
background into an AVI file, which you can then use to encode
and create a Motion Menu background. Use a Movie to create
mini motion Video thumbnail previews that get embedded into
the Motion Video for use as Motion Buttons you can draw Links
over.
Motion Menus also come with a totally unique Shuffle Loop Point
feature. This feature will shuffle each thumbnail cut point to a
different time so when the menu loops to start again, each
thumbnail will start it's repeat in different time frame. The
resulting effect is that you can hardly spot the point when the
menu loops and re-starts. Your standard Hollywood DVD lacks
this advanced feature.
A very complete Slideshow feature, providing easy Drag & Drop

of image stills and Audio tracks. The Slideshow editor provides
various fit sizes, auto-crop portrait/landscape, backgrounds, drop
shadows, customizable titles for any slide (with text features) and
automatic bleed fitting for 16:9 aspect programs. Ability to adjust
the duration of each slide separately and to fit the entire
Slideshow content to a specific length, such as the length of the
associated Audio track. A project can have multiple Slideshows.
Each Slideshow can have up to 99 images.
Cardinal Shape Objects for menus. A Cardinal polynome or line

differs from a normal straight-edge polynome, as it can be
rounded by setting a Shape Roundness (Tension) which is a great
way to create nice smooth shapes.
The IFO Editor Tool / Audio settings allows you to change the
Audio settings in DVD-lab generated IFO files, which for
example, enables using existing VOBs with multiple Audio
streams. DVD-lab projects are single Audio stream.
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DVD Tools
DVD Topology view which shows the physical position of each
data item as it would be recorded onto the DVD disc.
Allows creating Mini-DVD (DVD on CD-R).
Largely improved standard Multiplexer (Fast, DVD compatible).

Added flexible (relaxed) multiplexer mode. An Author can now
decide between the Fast, DVD compliant or the new Flexible
mode. The Flexible mode takes a bit more time and it also needs 2
times more temporary space, but it should be able to process
almost any file, even non compliant files.
DVD verification of burned discs to compiled hard disk files.
Menu Creation
Menu Count. You can now have 254 menus (previously only 127
were accessible).
Full Adobe Photoshop support: You can now export the whole
menu to a layered PSD file and also import a Photoshop PSD file
as a menu with layer access.
3D rotation tool: You can now rotate or perspective pan any

object, text or Video stills in the menu.
38 different Menu Transitions. No other DVD product even has

Menu Transitions, much less 38 different Effects to choose from.
Multiple selections of Menu Objects: With Multiple Menu Objects

selected, you can now perform operations on all the selected items
at once; such as: move, resize, set same size, align, place to grid,
change color, drop shadow.
Anti-aliasing option for Menu subpictures.
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Navigation Tools
Insert to Project Button: You can add Video and Audio to a Movie
or Connection without dragging by using the Insert to Project
Button by Right-Clicking on a file in the Assets bin.
Connections: You can now draw links from Buttons with the
Draw Buttons Link Tool.
Connections: Ability to link the end of a movie to one of the first

63 menus. You can now link the end of a Movie to another Movie,
Slideshow, Menu or use the RET feature to return to last opened
Menu.
Video Files
Optional Frame-Indexing of Movie files provides better accuracy
with the ability to define Chapter Points by frame number.
System MPEG quick re-muxing (Import without demultiplexing).
Added M2P and Panasonic VRO files as input file type. Also can
import High Definition MP@HL Main Profile & High Level
1440x960 frame files; playable in many software players, many
set-top players will not play MP@HL content.
Joining VOB files option.
Added Reduce Jitter option to smooth the edges of objects which

prevents from jitter of the menu on TV.
Audio Files
Added Convert LPCM to WAV transcode option with correct
WAV headers. An Audio Preview option has been added to check
High-Low Byte Swap.
Audio Delay: Ability to timeline adjust (+/-) the start time of AC-
3 and MPA files.
Added support for PCM Audio 24/96 files (24bit/96kHz).
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DVD-lab System Requirements

DVD-lab is designed to run on Microsoft Windows operating
systems only, versions 98, NT, 2000 and XP. As a pro-level
product it should be run on the most current version, that being
XP (Pro or Home flavor) at the time of this document.
Video and DVD are big and use a lot of system resources. You
want as much processor speed, memory (minimum 512K) and
large, fast disk drives. More is better in all cases here. As DVD
files can get over 4 Gig in size, the user is encouraged to keep files
within a NTFS formatted file system, which handles large files
better than the consumer grade FAT32 file system.
Installation
The fast and easy installation wizard will prompt you to Select
Destination Directory with an obvious default in the “Program
Files” directory. This may be overridden, if needed. The program
itself requires about 32 Meg including quite a bit of supplied
artwork. A Select start Menu folder is offered and the option for
placing an icon on the desktop. The DVD-lab Projects and Assets
can be anywhere you like, preferably on a secondary disk drive.
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Page 14
DVD-lab User Guide Chapter 2 - Quick! Make a DVD
Chapter 2 - Quick! Make a DVD
All right already! Quick! Make a DVD. Show me what you can do.
OK, Let's just try it.
DVD-lab automatically creates a new blank project for you when

it opens. Or, you can start with the File / New selection from the
DVD-lab Menu.
First, you need to have at least one Video with sound, either as
separate Video and Audio files or as one combined file. One thing
you can do is find a non-copy protected DVD, put it in your DVD
drive and locate the VIDEO_TS directory, looking for the first
VOB file. Alternately, you could find an MPG file that you know
has both Video and Audio. We need to load these files into the
Assets Area at the lower left, with the Video & Audio Assets bin
tab active, click on File Manager to find our Video file.
The Video & Audio Assets bin
Once found, Drag & Drop that file into the Video & Audio bin
area at lower left. Depending on the file type it will start
automatically separating (Demultiplexing) the Video and Audio
files, a VOB file results in something like this:
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Chapter 2 - Quick! Make a DVD DVD-lab User Guide
We see our DVD compliant Video as the MPV file and our DVD
compliant Audio as the AC-3 file.
An MPG file Demultiplexed may result in something looking like

this:
We see our DVD compliant Video as the MPV file and our almost
DVD compliant Audio as the MPA file. In this case we may want
to convert the MPA file to a WAV (LPCM) file, but that's for later.
So far so good. More Drag & Drop.

Most of our work in DVD-lab is done within the Work Area, the
upper area of the screen that shows Connections, Movies, Menus
and when applicable the File Browser.
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In the Work Area, locate the Movie 1 window that gets created
automatically with a new project. Click on the Video file (the MPV
file) in the Video & Audio Assets bin and drag it into the Movie
Window's center bar that has the grey film icon. Good. It shows
some frame samples we recognize. This isn't a silent movie, so
click on the Audio file in the Asset bin and drop it into the Movie
1 window Audio 1 area near the bottom. It should look something
like this, obviously with your content.
The Video and Audio content both start exactly at the 00.00:00
point, you don't move or offset these on what looks like a
timeline. There is an offset adjustment for AC-3 or MPA Audio
files, see Movies / Audio Delay.
You can now use the navigation controls in the Preview window
at lower right to review your Movie.
Audio does not play on Preview

As you play your Movie in the window, you might expect to hear
Audio play since an Audio file is in the Movie. At the present 1.3
release this feature is not implemented by design. You can
double-click on an Audio file in the Video & Audio Assets bin to
have it call the associated player for that type of Audio, working
on faith that it is the correct Audio for the Movie. Certainly, this
can be tested in the Compiled Project.
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Make a simple Menu

Now that we have at least one Movie built, we can think about
building a Menu.
In the Connections window, double-click on Menu 1. You can

use your standard window sizing tools to get it in a workable size
for the Menu editor window within the Work Area.
Note that there is a Click & Drag horizontal sizing bar that runs
along the Assets and Preview windows.
Click on the Assets tab for Backgrounds bin. You can add images
at any time to this bin or just use one already there.
Drag & Drop a Background onto our Menu 1.

Now find the Text Tool (Aa) under the Pointer selector in the top
right of the Menu 1 window. With the Text Tool active, click near
the top of the Menu and give it a title, “My DVD-lab Menu”. You
can use the Fill Color or Drop Shadow features within the Color
Tab section to get fancy.
While a Text object is selected (as a bounding box with handles

shows) you can change it's properties. Double-Click on any Text
object to bring up the Edit Text window. As with most Windows
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based graphic programs, you click somewhere else or hit <Esc> to

release a selection.
A Menu with four Text objects
Next, add text for “Start the Movie” under the Title you just
made.
Next, add text for “Chapter 1” and also for “Chapter 2” near the
bottom of the Menu. Note that standard Windows features such
as Copy and Paste are in effect.
Next, we want to mark specific points in our Movie that will serve
as Chapter Points. DVD Menu Buttons can be setup to jump
directly to a Chapter Point that we have defined. Let's do that
now.
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Make the Movie 1 window active (try the tab in the screen center).
In the Preview window, play the movie until a good frame
appears that will represent Chapter 1. Stop the Movie there or use
the Preview Previous I-Frame / Next I-Frame controls to scroll to
a good frame. The left / right cursor arrows also scroll left / right.
An I-Frame is an internal marker within the MPEG file.
Mark a Chapter Point simply by clicking the Add Chapter Point

control. Notice the Red tick mark now set in the Chapters banner
of the Movie 1. We now know where the start of Chapter 1 is.
Note that there is no need to define a Chapter Point for the very
beginning of a Movie, DVD-lab always provides that 00:00:00
point automatically.
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Now the magic!

Click within the Preview window and drag the frame onto the
Menu. Instant Chapter Point Menu Button! Easily done. You can
also drag from the Preview window dropping a still image into
the Assets / Image bin for later use.
Pick another point in your Movie as Chapter Point 2, click the

[Add Chapter Point] to define Chapter 2. Again, click and drag
from the Preview window onto the Menu to create another Instant
Chapter Point Menu Button. Pretty slick.
So now we have these four text items and two Chapter Point
image Buttons on our Menu face. Now, lets make them do
something.
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Note that throughout DVD-lab, the cascading menus (as we see

below) work by Double-Clicking one item to get to its branched
selections. If just dragging the mouse pointer seems to make the
selections “disappear”, try Double-Clicking the current branch.
Right-Click on the “Start the Movie” text object. Select the Link to
the Movie 1 / Movie Start 00:00:00. That's it! You just made a text
Menu Button. Easy! Notice the little yellow 1 at the top left of the
selection marquee, noting the first Menu Button number.
Right-Click on the Chapter 1 Video frame object. Select the Link

to the Movie 1 / Chapter 1 timeline. That's it, you just made a
Chapter Point Image Menu Button. Easy!
Notice the little yellow 2 at the top left of the selection marquee,
noting the second Menu Button number.
For the Chapter 2 image, let's try another easy way to Link a
Button. Click on the Chapter Point 2 Frame image to select it.
Then click the right side Tab “Link” to open the Link section.
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Click under the “Button Link” option box to select where to link
to. It will show “NOP” which is short for “No Operation” when
no link is defined. We do want to define a new link, so click on
the “NOP” panel. A pulldown Menu appears with things we
recognize like our Movie and Chapters. Click on the link to Movie
1 – Chapter 2.
This is a good way to manage our links.
Save your work

Since we are doing so good, let's save our project. Click DVD-lab
Menu File / Save and give it a name. Develop a good habit of
hitting the standard <Ctrl>S for Save, often. DVD-lab will default
to saving the Project as a DAL file in your My Documents folder,
you can override which folder if needed. Remember that the
project file stores the layout and only points to the Video & Audio
content.
The Project file does not store the Asset bin Video & Audio files
internally to the DAL file. Consider that when backing up or
moving your entire project. You may even want to create a
directory that holds the DAL project file and a copy all of the asset
files so that they are all in one place, easy to backup or move.
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Burn, Baby Burn

With our Movie defined and a Menu defined, we are ready to
make a DVD. We are not going to concern ourselves right now
with the quite advanced Connections window's lines and
relationships. Our simple project will work fine with default
Connections for First Play and Title Button.
Everything about production starts from the DVD-lab Project

drop-down Menu shown here. Click Compile DVD, you get this:
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Notice the important Output Folder (Root) directory location.

Click in the [...] box to the right of the folder name to get a file
browser to change it. This folder is where your DVD gets built as
a VIDEO_TS directory along with an AUDIO_TS directory to be
DVD legal. The AUDIO_TS directory will be empty, that's OK.
From here we are pretty much done.
We can immediately open a DVD player software and open the

VIDEO_TS.IFO file within the Output Folder directory to play the
DVD to make sure we produced what we thought we did. The
VIDEO_TS.IFO means Video Title Set Information, like a table of
contents to the DVD.
We could also use a DVD Writer program (GEAR / Nero / Roxio

Easy CD Creator) to create the required UDF file system and copy
our Output Folder VIDEO_TS directory and AUDIO_TS directory
to create a playable DVD.
Note that you don't just want to copy these directories onto a
blank DVD as a Data DVD. That's a different file system and will
not play in a set top player. The DVD spec requires the UDF file
system and a set of directories and files exist in a well defined
manner to tell the DVD player to recognize the DVD and what to
play.
For more on Compile DVD options, see Chapter 5 Menu Items /

Project / Compile DVD
Finally, we can choose Project / Burn DVD from Disk.
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Burn DVD from Disk

With your project Compiled to the Output Folder, you can now
decide to commit this to DVD-R recordable disc, the so called
“burning a disc”.
DVD-lab knows the folder where you Compiled to and now uses
that folder as the Input folder here. The Device listed should be
the DVD-R writer that you intend to burn to. You may choose to
update the Volume Name with something more meaningful to
your project, that becomes the name of the DVD when a computer
sees it.
Click on the Write Button, wait until completed and you are now
a DVD Author. Nice work to get this far.
For more on Burn DVD from Disk options, see Chapter 4 Menu
Items / Project / Burn DVD from Disk.
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DVD-lab User Guide Chapter 3 - Menu Development
Chapter 3 - Menu Development
When a new Menu is created, DVD-lab gives us a new active

window in the Work Area with a blank, Black background. There
are many ways to create a new Menu, start with Menu / Add
New.
The Title Safe Area

We also notice two dashed rectangles that act as guidelines for the
“Title Safe” areas of a potential TV screen. As computer and TV
screens have slightly different geometry, we can have a DVD play
fine on a computer screen but get cutoff when played on a TV
screen. These dashed guidelines help see those areas we should
try to keep text items inside of. These guidelines are always on,
there is no on/off toggle.
Start with a Background

We should first lay down a background on a new Menu. The most
obvious way being to open the Assets bin / Background Tab and
drag any Background image onto the Menu.
Setting the Background from a Video

Another good way to get a Background set is to grab one right
from the Video Movie we are working on. Bring the Video into
the Preview window and navigate it to a frame that would look
good as a Background. Then, Shift-Drag from the Preview
window onto the Menu. This sets the Menu Background to an
image of the current Video frame. Very useful tool.
The contents of a Menu are now going to be either Text or an

Image.
Add Text items

Within the Menu editor, Text is added with the Text tool (Aa) and
updated by double-clicking it to access the above dialog box.
Click on a Text item to be able move it via Drag & Drop. Click &
Drag any of it's corner handles for a proportional resizing that
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Chapter 3 - Menu Development DVD-lab User Guide
automatically re-calculates the font size. Undo (<Ctrl>Z) changes

you don't like.
See the Color Tab for Color and Drop Shadow settings for a
selected Text item. Note that multiple Text items can be selected
and all changed at once, this may save you some time and
increase the consistency of the appearance. A Layers tab also
controls Text layout.
Add Images
We can add any images we like simply by Dragging & Dropping
them from any of the Assets bins directly onto the Menu. We can
also Drag & Drop a Video frame from the Preview window
directly onto the Menu as an image.
Click on an Image to be able move it via Drag & Drop. Click &
Drag any of it's corner handles for a proportional resizing. Click &
Drag any of it's middle handles for non-proportional stretching.
Undo (<Ctrl>Z) changes you don't like.
A Drop Shadow can be effective on an Image. See the Color Tab

for Drop Shadow settings for a selected Image. Note that multiple
Image items can be selected and all changed at once, this may
save you some time and increase the consistency of the
appearance.
Link Text or Images

Now that we have a Background, Text and Images on our Menu
screen, let's make them do something by pointing them to a
Movie, Movie Chapter, Slideshow or another Menu. This is called
a Link. A Menu item with a Link is considered a Button to the
DVD project.
First, click on a text or image item to select it. DVD-lab keeps track
of all of our Movies, Movie Chapters, Slideshows and Menus as
displayed in the Connections window. Right-Click on an item,
then select Link for a list of events you can set this item to Link to.
Also, the Link Tab offers a Button Link box for the same purpose.
The absolute easiest way to add a Linked Button is via the Insert
Chapter Still, the last control along the left side of the Menu
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DVD-lab User Guide Chapter 3 - Menu Development
Editor. A click on this control shows you a list of Linkable Movie

events.
The Insert Chapter Still control
When an event is selected it, DVD-lab looks into the Movie, grabs
a frame from it at the listed (timecode), then places the new
Linked Button on the Menu for you. A pre-made Video image
based Button, automatically created and linked.
Change Size
Any Menu object can be resized precisely as to it's screen
positions and it's object size with this dialog box:
Right-Click on the Menu object and select “Change Size” for

access to the above numeric parameters. You can use this feature
to line up objects in a Row or Column and to set the exact pixel
Width and Height of similar objects.
Multiple Object Selections

Within the Menu editor you can select multiple objects using the
<Shift>Click method. Once a multiple object selection is made, we
can act on all objects as one, moving them with the four cursor
keys, deleting them with <Delete> or changing their color in
Properties.
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Chapter 3 - Menu Development DVD-lab User Guide
Page 30
DVD-lab User Guide Chapter 4 - DVD-Video File Formats
Chapter 4 - DVD-Video File Formats
The DVD-Video spec - “DVD legal”
When DVD was first brought to market in the Fall of 1996, wise
people got together to define and agree on what the DVD
products should do and how they should operate. This was
developed by an international organization called the Motion
Picture Experts Group or (MPEG). The DVD-Video specification
is one of the six DVD specs, it is a standard that DVD software
companies and DVD player manufacturers can mutually target
with high expectation of disc A playing correctly in player B.
The DVD-Video spec is very specific as to what you can and

cannot do. As DVD Authors, we need to know a little bit about
the rules of the game in order to play successfully.
DVD Video formats for NTSC (North American TV)
Allowable NTSC picture resolutions are: MPEG-2: 720x480,

704x480, 352x480, MPEG-1: 352x240
Aspect ratios: 4:3 or 16:9
Compression formats: MPEG-1 & MPEG-2 (Constant or Variable

Bit Rates)
Maximum Video bit rate is 9.8 Mbps. After system overhead, the
maximum rate of combined Elementary Streams (for Audio,
Video and subpicture combined) is 10.08 Mbps.
Source: http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html
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Chapter 4 - DVD-Video File Formats DVD-lab User Guide
Video Files
Considering the use of Elementary Streams (separate Video &
Audio files), the DVD spec allows for the playing of both MPEG-1
and MPEG-2 formats. The advanced quality and feature sets
MPEG-2 allows such as variable encoding rates, progressive or
interlaced frames, and runtime “pan & scan” of widescreen
images have made it the de facto standard for DVD use. We will
try to use MPEG-2 files exclusively within our DVD-lab projects.
Note that there may be some inconsistency as to the nature of a

file name as regards it's Windows file name extension. Once you
have Imported a file into the Video & Audio Assets bin folder, the
folder will tell you what it thinks the nature of the file is. (As
shown in the Demuxing example in Chapter 2)
DVD-lab will directly Import these Video file formats all of which
are MPEG style:
.mp2 .m2v .m2p .mpv .mpg .mpeg
Because Windows looks at the file name extension to tell it what

kind of a file it is, there can be some inconsistency with naming.
An .MP2 file can be considered either as Video or Audio, though
generally Video. An .MP2 Audio file is best renamed to an .MPA
extension. Generally, an .M2V file is an Elementary Stream as
MPEG Video only. The Program Streams (Video and Audio
together) are generally .MPG and .MPEG filenames. These can
easily be Demultiplexed within DVD-lab to separate Elementary
Stream files, by Importing them into the Video & Audio Assets
folder.
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Audio Files
DVD-lab will directly Import these Audio file formats:
.wav Window's Wave format referred to as Linear Pulse

Code Modulation (LPCM). It is important to note that most Wave
files (like from an Audio CD) are 16 bit / 44 kHz. The DVD-Video
spec calls for LPCM files to be 16 bit / 48 kHz, note the difference
from 44 to 48 kHz . Sonicly, this is a minute difference, but that's
what the spec calls for. The likely reason is the acceptance of 24 bit
/ 96 kHz files also, 48 is exactly half of 96 and computers like that.
A standard 16 bit / 48 kHz Wave stereo file is measured at 1.536
Mbps in the total bit stream.
Fortunately, DVD-lab has built-in re-encode Audio features to

handle this subtle difference, more on that later. The DVD-Video
spec says that LPCM files can be up to 6.144 Mbps, and either 48
or 96 kHz, with up 8 channels at 48 kHz or up to four channels at
96 kHz.
.ac3 Dolby Digital AC-3 Audio. Almost every commercial

DVD-Video at your local stores has Dolby Digital AC-3 Audio. It
is the standard in this time. Most all set top DVD players and
many software DVD players have software built in to decode
Audio that was encoded in the Dolby Digital AC-3 Audio format.
This encode / decode software is licensed by Dolby Labs as
proprietary software to the Video / DVD software to encode and
to the player manufacturers to decode.
Dolby Digital AC-3 Audio can come in two main flavors: 5.1
Surround Sound or 2.0 Stereo. The term 5.1 means five sound
sources and a sub-woofer channel (.1). The term 2.0 means Left
and Right stereo, no sub-woofer (.0).
The DVD-Video spec says that Dolby Digital files can be up to 448
kbps, at 48 kHz, with up 6 channels.
.dts Digital Theater Systems. A high end digital Audio

format, using lossy compression from PCM at 48 kHz at up to 24
bits sometimes used as Surround Sound format.
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Dolby Digital and DTS can play mono, stereo, and multichannel
Audio (usually 5.1 channels).
.mpa, .m2a MPEG Audio formats. Used to a lesser

extent than LPCM or AC-3 formats as some players will not
recognize them.
The Big Bit Bucket

Those of you not glassy eyed over all the bits and bytes may have
noticed that the LPCM file can use over 6 Meg bandwidth, while
the AC-3 file is limited to less than half a Meg. Why the 1300
percent difference? Why not use LPCM with all that headroom?
The answer is these specs are just for the Audio portion, mostly
DVD producers are concerned with Video bandwidth.
It turns out the DVD-Video spec says that the total of the Video
and the Audio cannot exceed 10.08 Mbps. So producers opt to get
as much Video bandwidth as they can, with minimal Audio
bandwidth. Using 448 kbps with AC-3 Audio leaves you 9.632
Mbps for your Video, within the 9.8 Mbps maximum Video limit.
You can see why AC-3 became so popular.
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Transcode of LPCM Audio

Should you choose to import a system file such as a VOB file,
DVD-lab will offer a demultiplex option to create separate Video
and Audio files (Elementary Streams), a valuable feature. For the
Audio part of that demuxing, when a LPCM file is encountered,
DVD-lab will bring up an internal transcode option that looks like
this:
Demux Audio LPCM to WAV file transcode
DVD-lab has separated out a PCM file for you, it now gives you
options to change the parameters and Swap High & Low Bytes.
The parameters are likely fine, Stereo, 16 bit and 48 kHz are the
usually values.
A new Play Sample button has been added, to give a quick listen
to the first 3 seconds of this audio file. Should you hear only noise,
try checking the Swap High & Low Bytes box. The Play Sample
audition will replay to let you know how this will sound.
Click OK and a new WAV file is created with the same name as
the Video portion. The WAV file can be easily muxed and
auditioned outside of DVD-lab.
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Page 36
DVD-lab User Guide Chapter 5 - DVD-lab Menu items
Chapter 5 - DVD-lab Menu items
Let's take a look now with some detail at the Menu items that
DVD-lab offers. Note that the standard Windows conventions of
the underlined letter of a Menu can be accessed via the <Alt> key
at the same time as that letter. So, to open the File Menu, hit
<Alt>F. The Menus often have keyboard equivalents, such as File
/ New is the same as <Ctrl>N.
Menu - File
File / New
This option will ask you to save any open Projects and then start a
new Project. DVD-lab opens in a New Project state. Keyboard
equivalent <Ctrl>N.
File / Open
This Opens an existing project file. DVD-lab project files have a
file extension of DAL. Keyboard equivalent <Ctrl>O.
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Chapter 5 - DVD-lab Menu items DVD-lab User Guide
File / Save
This option writes your current project file (ending in .DAL) to
disk. Recall that the project file stores layouts and pointers to the
DVD Video & Audio Assets. The DAL file does not store within it
the Asset files. Keyboard equivalent <Ctrl>S. A very good habit
to get into is to hit <Ctrl>S often to do a quick save, recommended
after completing any feature you are happy with.
File / Save As
This option allows you to save the current project file under a
different name. Useful to open one file that is similar to a new
project, save it to a different name to save some development time
or to make an instant backup.
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File / Import Asset

This is option is the same as appears in the Assets windows as
“Open File Browser”, presented in the File Menu as a user
convenience. Files opened within the File Browser tree structure
are then added to the Assets bin, if of the correct type.
An excellent ease of use feature is called up when dragging a file

from the File Browser into the Assets bin. DVD-lab will
demultiplex a Program Stream or System file (combined Audio &
Video) for you, either automatically or on request (Always Ask)
See Project / Project Properties / Options for control of the

default for feature.
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Print Preview
This option brings up a familiar looking Print Preview window, to
give you a look at what will print when the Print option is
selected. You can Print directly from here or Close to exit.
The Print Preview Window
The current active window in the Work Area will be offered to

Print. This will then be the Connections, a Menu, a Slideshow or a
Movie.
Print Setup
This option brings up the Window's Printer Setup window for
your system.
Print
This option will print The current window Tab in the Design Area
such as the Connections, a Menu or a Movie. Keyboard
equivalent <Ctrl>P.
Recent files list - The recently used files are present in a list with
associated numbers starting at one. You can click on the file name
or hit the key for the number (1, 2, 3...) that relates to the file.
Exit
Close DVD-lab, with option for saving any changes made.
Keyboard equivalent <Alt>FX or <Alt><F4>.
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Menu – Edit
This Menu's options are based on the context of the open window.
Menu options are “greyed out” if not available in the current
context of what you are working on.
Edit / Copy
This option will make a copy of a selected object on the system
clipboard making it available to be Pasted later. Keyboard
equivalent <Ctrl>C.
Edit / Paste
This option will place a copy of an item that was copied to system
clipboard. Keyboard equivalent <Ctrl>V.
Edit / Paste Attributes

After doing a Copy on an object, select another object in the same
or another Menu, then select Edit / Paste Attributes. A dialog box
will give you options as to which attributes to Paste such as:
Height / Width / X & Y position
Color / Text attributes / Drop Shadow Attributes
Link / Visibility / Color Map Group
The feature is best used to ensure consistency of look and feel

between Menu objects, without having to address each attribute.
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Edit / Undo
This option will reverse the results of the last thing you did, in
most cases. You can repeat this command to Undo results going
backwards in order of events. Keyboard equivalent <Ctrl>Z.
Edit / Redo
This option is the opposite of Undo, it places back any result of an
action that was done with Undo.
Snap to Grid
(Snap to Grid and Snap to Guides are both activated)

This option is active when the Menu window is active. It causes
movement of an object by mouse or keyboard to line up with the
grid marks in a kind of magnetic effect, useful for precisely line
up objects. A grid is present represented by a light colored dot, 16
pixels across (X axis), 20 pixel down (Y axis). This option is a
Toggle – each time selected turns it either from Off to On, or On to
Off. You can tell it is on by the presence or absence of the grid
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dots, then Menu item is shaded the Windows selection color and
by this control being the selection color (on) or grey (off).
Snap to Guides
This option is active when the Menu window is active. It causes
movement of an object by mouse or keyboard to line up with
Guidelines in a kind of magnetic effect, useful for precisely lining
up objects. This option is a Toggle – each time selected turns it
either from Off to On, or On to Off. You can tell it is on by the
presence or absence of Guideline(s) or the Menu item is shaded
yellow or by this control being yellow (on) or grey (off).
Creating a Guideline is done by clicking within either the top or

the side Menu Ruler area, (as shown with pixel numbers and tick
marks) then dragging a Guideline to the desired position.
Guidelines can be moved by carefully clicking on them and
dragging them to a new position. Guidelines can be removed by
carefully clicking on them and dragging them back to the ruler
area.
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Edit Guidelines
This option is a handy feature for precisely defining exactly where
your Guidelines are placed. You may know that you want them
precisely at certain pixel places rather than relying on a visual
only approach.
You can add, move or remove any Guidelines simply by typing

their pixel number within these list boxes. You can have multiple
Guidelines in either direction as needed, type their pixel numbers
as a list, each on their own line.
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Menu – View
This Menu section lets you control

what features or items or windows are
able to be viewed or made visible.
View / Toolbar
A horizontal list of controls also available via Menus, presented as
a convenience.
View / Status Bar

Displayed at the very bottom of the DVD-lab window,it shows
various system activity and state conditions.
View / Preview Window
At the bottom – right, displays the Video content of the selected

Movie with tape like controls.
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Note: This is also one of the many windows that can be made an
un-docked floating window by Double-Clicking it's title bar, or re-
docked into the screen by Double-Clicking it's title bar. Re-
docking can occur also by Dragging & Drop the window into the
primary windows area.
View / Compile
At the middle left of the screen, the Compile window displays a
log of the events that took place when the Project / Compile DVD
option was selected. Useful in trouble shooting or time analysis.
Note that windows can be

resized by dragging a divider
bar above it or made taller by
clicking the up triangle in the
top right corner or made shorter
by clicking the up triangle in the
top right corner or closed by
clicking the (X) in it's top right
corner.
Note: This is also one of the

many windows that can be
made an un-docked floating
window by Double-Clicking it's
title bar, or re-docked into the
screen by Double-Clicking it's
title bar.
Within the Compile window are 4 extra controls.
View / Compile / Stop Compile
Cancels the current Compile DVD operation.
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View / Compile / Start Burning when finished
When clicked, this will cause the DVD burning process to start
immediately after the Compile process.
View / Compile / Verify Burned DVD
To be run immediately after the Burn To DVD operation, to insure

that the DVD media contains exactly the same contents as the
Compile Output directory.
View / Compile / Verification log
To be run after the Verify Burned DVD operation, this option

shows a text log file made during the verification process, it's
contents are something like this:
*** DVDLIB Verification Log ***

5 - 24 - 2003 -- 18:14:25
Video Stream Parameters

Frame size - 720 x 480
Aspect Ratio - 2 ( 2 -- 4:3, 3 -- 16:9 )
Frame Rate - 4 ( 4 -- 29.97, 3 -- 25, 5 -- 30 )
Bitrate (1st GOP) - 8000000
Chroma - 1 ( 1 - 4:2:0, 2 - 4:2:2, 3 - 4:4:4 )
Audio Stream Count - 1
Subpicture Stream Count - 0
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Audio Stream Parameters

Stream Type - 1 (1 --LPCM, 2 --MPEG1, 3 --AC-3, 4 --DTS )
Sampling Rate - 48000
Layer (for MPEG only) - 0
Channels - 2 ( 0 -- Mono, 1 -- 2 Channels, ... )
Bit Size - 16
Bit Rate - 0
*** End of Report ***
View / Remote
Displays a mini-remote control emulation in a small window

which is undocked, meaning you can drag it outside of DVD-lab
screen. This is used only within Menu emulation to get a feel for
how Menus might operate. The Enter Button in center doesn't
cause a Link to be executed unless the Follow Links Button is
activated, it will show the current Activate Color as set in the
Menu editor Map Group otherwise.
View / DVD Topology

A graphical representation of the
way your Project will lay out
onto a standard 4.7G DVD drive.
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View / Project
Displayed in the top left area, this window shows and allows
control of the components of your project. Note that this window
can be resized by dragging a divider bar below it or made taller
by clicking the up triangle in the top right corner or made shorter
by clicking the up triangle in the top right corner or closed by
clicking the (X) in it's top right corner.
docked into the screen by Double-Clicking it's title bar.
Double-clicking a Work Area Menu such as Connections or Movie

1 or Menu 1 (in this example) brings that Menu up as the active
Menu in the Work Area. As with many Windows style tree
functions, you can collapse a branch by clicking on (-) or expand a
branch by clicking on (+).
(Right-Click for context Menu)
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A context sub-Menu is available by right clicking on most objects

in the project window. This can be a handy way to quickly add a
Movie, Menu, Slideshow or an Asset.
View / Assets
Displays the various components that are available to be included
in the Project. A series of Tabs at the bottom of this window
determine what class of Assets are being displayed.
Tabs are shown for Video & Audio, Backgrounds Objects, Images,
Clips and Music. See the Window Details – Assets section for
more on the numerous functions available here.
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View / Menu Properties

Active only when a Menu is being worked on in the Work Area,
this toggles the right side bar Menu Properties area with it's
vertically oriented tab set.
This function is duplicated within the Menu editor as:
View / Display Timecode

This is a toggle for the Preview window only to show the time
status at the bottom of the Preview window. Presented as Hours :
Minutes : Seconds : Frames. Also duplicated as a control within
this window.
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The Preview Window with Timecode display
View / NET Style Interface

A toggle for a subtle, more modern Windows user interface style,
defaults to On.
View / File
Valid only when the File Browser is active in the Work Area, these
4 options choose how files are presented in standard Windows
formats.
View / Zoom In, Zoom Out

These functions are only valid when the Menu editor is active
within the Work Area. Each time clicked, they will Zoom in or out
of the Menu, without changing the size of the Menu window.
Note that these functions are duplicated on a context Menu within
the Menu editor, right-click for that Menu anywhere on the Menu
content.
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Menu – Project
Project / Compile DVD
This process takes all the Connections,
Menus, Movies, Slideshows and Assets
combining (Compiling) them into the
actual files the DVD will use. It is
important to set the Output Folder to
one that has at least 6 Gig free space. A
DVD can be up to 4.7 Gig and it needs
some temporary work space. The color
Pie Charts are guidelines as to what disk
resources can be expected to be used.
Output Folder (Root)

Click into the ellipsis, the three dots [...] within the small box next
to the folder name to browse to the folder you want to use. This
folder is where your DVD gets built as a VIDEO_TS directory
along with an AUDIO_TS directory to be DVD legal. The
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AUDIO_TS directory will be empty, that's OK as the Audio

components of your DVD-Video project are included in the VOB
files this Compile process creates. The AUDIO_TS directories are
for DVD-Audio projects outside of DVD-lab.
The Refresh Button will recalculate the available and needed disk
space, perhaps after deleting files to clear up some room.
Temporary Folder
Click into the ellipsis, the three dots [...] within the small box next
to the folder name to browse to the folder you want to use for
temporary disk space. This area should have at least 6 Gig free.
Multiplexer Engine
Main (Fast, DVD compliant)
This is the primary engine for multiplexing your DVD compliant
assets into DVD files. Typically, if your assets are in good shape
this should be a matter of only a few minutes to make working
DVD files. A monitor window shows progress during the
Compilation process.
Alternative (relaxed compliancy)

Mediachance has added this as option to accommodate those
occasions where your Assets did not work well within the Main
option. An alternate multiplexor is utilized that is much slower,
requires more temporary disk space, but may be more forgiving
as to the nature of what Assets are being put together. Note that
this option may not be present in future versions of DVD-lab.
If selected, there are options for Cut Vob length to video stream
length, Delete Multiplexed VOB's after compile and Delete
Demuxed files after compile. The defaults should be fine for most
cases, unless you want to be able to do something with
intermediate work files used during Compile.
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Pre-Compile Options
Create/Use Frame-Index for better Chapters
accuracy
This option will have the compiler go thru all Movies and create a
Frame Index. This Index would then be used to create Chapter
Points based on I-Frame locations rather than a time basis. This
method will provide a more accurate way to mark places in a
Movie to be used for Chapter Points.
This Compile time option can be skipped if Frame-Indexing has

already been done. See Movie / Frame-Index / Rebuild Frame-
Index for an alternate method for this indexing.
Compile Options
Run on Background
This means to use multi-tasking to let the system crank out your
files, while you do other things. Since we used all DVD compliant
files to start with, you will find that compilation goes rather
quickly as we are not transcoding anything. Some people like to
let their system focus on doing that one job only.
NTSC Safe color

Checking this checkbox will cause DVD-lab to optimize the
specifications of the Video Color Voltage range to fit better on
NTSC TV output.
Reduce Jitter
When checked DVD-lab will process video to appear with less
jitter (shaky) appearance.
Test Compile (replace all movies with dummy)

This option will create a set of DVD files in your Output folder,
but instead of your movies, it replaces them with a marker Video
that says “MOVIE GOES HERE” with the DVD-lab logo. This
feature would be useful for testing navigation when real Video
content is not available.
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Post-Compile Options
Force Audio for all Movies
This is a post compile option to tell the Compiler to force an
Audio track to be present, in case the Audio header caused it to be
overlooked. It should only be needed in cases where the DVD
reports no Audio available, even though Audio plays fine.
Automatically Start Recording

When checked, this means that after the Compile phase is done,
DVD-lab will then create a DVD file system on your blank DVD-R
disc, then start copying all the Output Folder files to the DVD disc
making a DVD compliant disc. That disc should then play fine in
most players and may be replicated commercially, if considered
working fine.
Testing the DVD

Working fine means that disc performs the same way, with Menu
operation, Video and Audio as expected, in every different kind
of player you can try to test it on. Most people will be playing a
DVD on $29 bargain DVD players or their kid's game consoles.
Make an effort to try your DVD on lots of different players before
replicating a million of them and finding out they don't do what
you wanted.
Try starting with clicking on the VIDEO_TS.IFO (Video Title Set

Information) file to start most DVD software players.
Project / Stop
As expected, this will stop the Compile process.
Project / Burn DVD from Disk

With your project Compiled to the Output Folder, you can now
decide to commit this to DVD-R recordable disc, the so called
“burning a disc”.
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DVD-lab knows the folder where you Compiled to and now uses
that folder as the Input folder here. The Device listed should be
the DVD-R writer that you intend to burn to.
Note that the window shown here (DVD-lab Disc record) is an

independent process or undockable. You can actually close DVD-
lab and keep this window open if needed.
Some options of the DVD-lab Disc record window
Media Type
DVD Video
Used for a full DVD content disc, playable in any DVD player,
containing up to 4.7 Gig of content.
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Mini-DVD (CD-R)
An alternate format, to place the structure and format of DVD
files onto the older and way smaller media of a standard CD. The
Author is responsible to be sure that the total content fits on CD,
that being less than 650-700 Megabytes.
This format will primarily be designed for CDs destined for

computers with DVD player software. While smaller in content,
these discs are easily replicated and portable. Some of the set-top
players may play these discs as they recognize the right files in the
right UDF filesystem format the DVD spec requires, this is not a
certainty. Your author's Panasonic player does not play Mini-
DVD.
Consider this format for short features, product introductions,

previews or “trailers”.
DVD-RW / DVD+RW Tools

Erase / Format
Refers to the option of using re-writeable DVD-RW media which
may need to be erased or formatted before recording. See your
DVD recording software for more on that. This step is not
required for a standard write-once DVD-R burn.
Options
Test Write
Checking this checkbox will cause DVD-lab to go through the
motions of writing a DVD-R without actually doing so. The
reason you might want to do this is just to check that everything is
in good order in your Output folder DVD files.
Create Image
Checking this checkbox will cause DVD-lab to perform the useful
feature of writing an image of a DVD as a .IMG file to your hard
drive. Then, you can easily replicate as many as you like from this
image, without having to open DVD-lab at all. The DVD writing
software that came with your DVD drive should work fine for
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duping discs from IMG file images. NERO DVD software is

reported to do this.
You can also try to rename the file to an .ISO extension, which is
more commonly used for Disk Images. Many DVD writing
programs such as Roxio Easy CD Writer or GEAR can replicate
DVDs from an ISO image.
Volume Name
You may choose to update the Volume Name with something
more meaningful to your project, that becomes the name of the
DVD disc when a computer sees it.
Hybrid DVD Writing

An interesting feature of this panel is the “Hybrid DVD Writing”
option. This allows you to add any files of any type that you like
to the DVD – outside of the special DVD “zone”. While a
computer sees these files in this “Non DVD-Video Zone” a set top
player doesn't care about them at all, it just sees the DVD-Video.
When the expanded pane appears for Add Additional Files and
Folders to DVD click on either Add file or Add folder for a File
browser to point to what is wanted. These files or folders will then
appear as above and be burned into the Non DVD-Video section
of the DVD, looking just like any regular files based off the root
folder of the DVD.
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Note that GEAR DVD software for about $80 (US) will do a great
job at mixing and writing many different CD and DVD formats
and combinations of formats. See
http://www.gearsoftware.com/products/dvd/index1.cfm
Write
Click on the Write Button to start the DVD burning process,
watch the progress bar and wait until completed. Some patience is
required, a full DVD can take up to a hour to record. The Pioneer
DVR-A05 DVD drive takes 10-15 minutes. At the time of this
writing, Pioneer announced an even faster A06 model. Who
Knew?
Project / Verify Burned DVD

After a Project has been Compiled and burned to Disk, we can
choose to run this Verify Burned DVD feature. DVD-lab will
check the validity of what was written on the DVD to the files in
the Output folder and report it's findings.
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Project / Project Properties

A number of global features are available to be defined for the
entire project. Four tabs controls at the top offer four sets of
features.
Project / Project Properties / System
A radio Button chooses either NTSC (North America) or PAL

(European) Video format for the entire project. Remember that
most PAL players accept NTSC, no NTSC players accept PAL.
Project Size
Choices are offered for
We typically want the default (720 x 480 Full D1) as shown here.
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DVD Volume name

Enter a meaningful name for your DVD disc as seen by
computers. Has no bearing on a DVD-Video set-top player.
16:9 Display Mode
This parameter controls how the DVD should be Compiled when

it encounters Video in the 16:9 aspect mode. Many players can
handle Pan & Scan or LetterBox, the default Automatic is usually
the best choice for mosts players.
Menu Aspect
DVD-lab allows you build a project with TV standard or
Widescreen aspect format Menus. Menu formats can be different
from Video (Display) Mode.
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Project / Project Properties / Palette
These Color setting determine the standard 16 colors to be used

throughout your project, used directly in the Menu editor Map
tab to determine Hi-lites.
Project / Project Properties / Options
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Options
Number of Undos in Menu
When developing Menus, this controls how many levels deep you
can Undo with Edit / Undo or <Ctrl>Z.
Demultiplex Options
Non-Elementary MPEG and VOB Files
Both features have an option to tell DVD-lab what you want to do
when a Program stream type Video is Imported such as a VOB or
MPEG file. You can set this option for:
Always Ask which prompts for a selection, or
Use without Demultiplexing, or
Demultiplex without asking
depending on how automatic or manual you like to manage these
Asset files.
Quick MPEG Re-mux

These options relate to cases where you have used a multiplexed
(system) MPEG file as a Movie, as opposed to Elementary Streams
of Video and Audio. When the Allow (Quick MPEG re-mux)
default option is selected, files will be re-multiplexed during
Complilation. This is faster and uses less disk space, but may be
problematic if the MPEG file has ratio / bits / speed
incompatibilities.
Alternatively, the Normal De-Mux before compile option

provides for MPEG files to be first de-multiplexed and then re-
multiplexed during Compilation. This option is then slower, uses
more space, but provides "safer" file compatibility.
Demux Directory
Related to the above Demultiplexing option, this radio Button
decides whether to put the demultiplexed files in the same folder
as they came from or to ask you what folder they go in.
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Errors & Warnings

Accept non-DVD sizes
Checking this checkbox causes DVD-lab to issue a warning
message when a non DVD compliant Video size is encountered.
Other MPEG Audio -> LPCM decoding

Checking this checkbox causes DVD-lab to issue a warning
message when MPEG Audio is encountered that could and
should be converted to LPCM 16b/48kHz Audio. Typically this
will occur when demultiplexing MPEG files. Most often a Wave
file Header needs to be added, which DVD-lab can do for you. See
Tools / Transcode Audio for a window dedicated to this feature.
Project / Project Properties / Advanced
Advanced Options
Allow Floating Windows load on Multiple Monitors
Checking this checkbox causes DVD-lab to allow one of it's many
Floating Windows to be dragged over to a secondary monitor
screen, if you have a secondary monitor screen. Floating Windows
are directly part of the DVD-lab program, but can be placed or
closed separately.
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Double-click on Audio in Assets calls Associated

application
Checking this checkbox causes DVD-lab to open an instance of
whatever application is associated with the Windows file type.
Since the Preview window does not do Audio playback by design,
this is how we can listen to our Audio Assets. For instance, MPEG
Audio such as MPA or M2A can usually be played with Windows
Media Player or Real One Player. Dolby Digital AC-3 files can be
more of a challenge, you want to be sure that Windows knows to
associate AC-3 files with your DVD software player, which will
handle AC-3 files and likely MPA and MPV files as well.
Auto enter frame in Chapters if Frame-Index Exist

(slower)
There is an option in Movies to create an internal Frame based
Index of video Frames, as opposed to a timecode basis. This tends
to be more precise. Checking this “Auto enter” option tells DVD-
lab to use the Frame Index number to point to a Chapter Point,
when it knows a Frame-Index has already been built for that
Movie. The alternative is to use timecode to mark the Chapter
Point.
Don't Warn me about Alternative Engine

This is basicly removing a nag warning about the Alternative
Compile Engine being slower and less compliant.
Width of thumbnail dragging from preview or link

The default 240 Pixels width can be overridden here, if you need
the dragged image to be larger or smaller. Try to keep this pixel
value between 40 and 720, even though the entry box allows
otherwise.
Project / Add Movie

Project / Add menu
Project / Add Slideshow
An alternate access to add the respective items to the Project.
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Menu – Movie
Valid primarily
when a Movie
window is active
within the Work
Area, though
Add New is
functional at any
time.
Movie / Add New

Simply creates a new Menu numbered plus one of the highest
number. That new Menu is made active in the Work Area.
Movie / Delete Item

First, select a component in the Menu, either the Video or Audio
track. This is seen as a thin red outline when selected. Then
choose Movie / Delete Item or just hit the <Delete> key, a
confirmation is presented before deletion of the component.
Movie / Rebuild Thumbnails

If you would like to rebuild the representative Movie thumbnails,
click this option.
Movie / Trim End

This option will chop off only the end of a movie after a certain
defined point. That defined point is set in a couple of ways. With
the Movie active in the Work Area, you can play the Movie in the
Preview window to the point from where rest of it should be
chopped off. Recall that you can move to the Next or Previous I-
Frame if needed via Preview window controls or just use the left
and right arrow keys.
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Set the thin red line cursor with the [+] on top to the point in the
Movie from where you would like to chop off the end. Check the
file name to be output as a New file and update as needed. Check
the grey area on the right side of the image that represents how
much is being chopped off, in this example 1.51 Meg.
The Trim End of Movie feature window

The panel offers notices that if you chop content that contained
Chapter Points, DVD-lab will reset (delete) them. And that any
associated Audio track will be truncated at the point of the cut,
during Compile time. The trimmed results will be dropped into
the Assets bin and/or Replace the Current Movie with trimmed,
depending on the checkboxes that relate to each option.
The Trim End command can also be found as a control on the

Preview window and on the Right-Click context Menu clicking in
the Movie Video band.
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Trim End - Options

Add the result to Assets
Check to have the New Video added to Assets, to deal with it
later.
Replace Current Movie with trimmed
Check for instant replacement with the New Video.
Movie / Import Chapters

Movie / Export Chapters
Movie / Delete All Chapters
Movie / Set Chapter Lag
Movie / Set Drop Frame
The five above features are an alternate menu selections to those

in the Movie Right-Click context menu. See Chapter 7 - Work
Area Movies for details on their operation.
Movie / Auto-Chapters by Scene Detection

Here is a little bit of DVD-lab voodoo that can save you a lot of
time and effort, especially on a longer content Video. If you have a
Video asset placed on the Movie Window timeline, it may be
helpful to let DVD-lab search thru the Video and look for spots
that show an obvious “change of scene” to mark as Chapter
Points for us. The Menu building process has a number of ways
for any Menu item we build to point to a Chapter Point.
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Certainly, this is a non-exact science and some “tweaking” may be

required, starting with the Sensitivity factor, which defaults to a
220 value on a scale of 0 to 255. We want to raise this value if we
are not finding enough scene cuts and lower it if we are finding
too many.
Chapters Distribution Type

More tweaking, we can tell DVD-lab to look for a defined number
of scenes or just go about finding whatever it likes by checking the
checkbox for (Find all possible chapters).
Movie / Frame-Index / Rebuild Frame-Index

This option will have DVD-lab analyze the Movie and create a
Frame Index. This Index would then be able to be used to create
Chapter Points based on Frame locations rather than time basis.
This method will provide a more accurate way to mark places in a
Movie to be used for Chapter Points.
This Indexing need only be done once and is also available as a

Compile time option.
Movie / Frame-Index / Index All Chapters

This option will build an I-Frame Index for the Movie, if none has
yet been created, then sets all the defined Chapter points on I-
Frame indexes as shown by the Green Diamond Markers on the
Movie timeline. This is the same feature as performed by the
Movie Right-Click context Chapters / Frame-Index All Chapters.
Movie / Frame-Index / Show Calculated Time

This is a menu toggle to show either the plain timecode or if
selected the timecode with I-Frame reference as displayed in the
Movie timeline above the Green Diamond Markers and below the
Frame number.
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Menu – Menu
A Menu about Menus, as if from some

Seinfeld episode. The Menu editing
window should be active in the Work
Area for most of these selections to
appear.
Note that throughout DVD-lab, the

cascading menus (as we see here)
work by Double-Clicking one item to
get to it's branched selections. If just
dragging the mouse pointer seems to
make the selections “disappear”, try
Double-Clicking the current branch.
Menu / Add New

One of a number of places to create a new blank Menu, DVD-lab
will name it Menu (last number plus 1) for you and make the new
Menu the active window in the Work Area.
To delete a Menu
As there is no Menu item for Delete Menu, you can easily delete a
Menu via the Project Menu. Within the Menu tree there, click on
the Menu object to delete and just hit the <Delete> key and
confirm. A Menu can also be deleted in the same way within the
Connections window.
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To rename a Menu
There are two ways to Rename a Menu object. In the Connections
window, select the item and hit <F2> or Right-Click on the
Menu's icon for a context menu and select Rename and type what
you like for a name. Hit the <Enter> key to confirm or <Esc> to
exit unchanged.
You can also easily rename a Menu via the Project Menu. Within
the Project / Menu tree, click on the Menu object to rename, hit
<F2> or hold down the left mouse Button for a 3 count. When you
release the mouse Button you will be in a text editing. Hit the
<Enter> key to confirm or <Esc> key to exit unchanged.
Menu / Add from Template

This option will bring up a simple select list from which to choose
an existing Template to use as your current Menu.
Choosing Next walks you through a wizard that has prompts

built to replace certain Text items as you go. You can also build
your own Template Menus to be used within this function, see
Menu / Export / As Template.
Menu / Add Scene Selection
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A very smart feature, this option brings up a window for “Add

Scene Selection Menus from chapter points”, offering a selection
of existing Movies to look for defined Chapter Points in and a
selection for which Style Menu is to be considered the Parent
Menu. Choose an existing template as the window presents a
thumbnail for and click OK.
Just as you might expect, DVD-lab then builds a new Menu based
on your selected template, populating it with Frame images
linked to the Movie start and any Chapter Points. Notice the
Project / Menu tree for the newly created Menu, which you can
rename if needed. High ease of use automation here.
You can also build your own Style Menus to be used within this
wizard function, see Menu / Export / As Style.
Menu / Add Duplicate

A simple but quite useful option to add a new Menu as a
duplicate of the Menu currently active in the Work Area. Notice
the Project / Menu tree updated with the newly created Menu,
which you can rename if needed.
Menu / Create / Embedded Vector Object

Embedded Vector Objects. This is a link option to use other
Mediachance graphics tools such as Real-DRAW Pro and DVD
Menu Studio, if either have been installed.
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Menu / Simulate
This option is a very simple navigation testing tool, that uses the
simulated mini-remote control.
The up – down – left – right arrows will highlight the Menu

Buttons designed. Clicking the ENTER Button will not start a
Video but rather show a blast of White to indicate ENTER was
selected on remote. That is, unless you set the Follow Link Button
at the top of the Menu editor, then it will follow the Link. This is
related to the Activated color set, see the Map Tab / Color Map.
You likely will want to use a good software based DVD player (or
two) after the Compile step to really give your Menus a workout
and thoroughly test your Project.
Menu / Show Button Order

This option is a toggle to show or not show a little marker on the
top left of each Menu Button to indicate their order. When set on,
the Menu item is shaded with the system selection color, in this
case Yellow. This is what ON looks like.
Menu / Auto-Route
This option is a toggle. Set On as indicated by being shaded with
the system selection color and the Auto-Route checkbox set on at
the top middle of the Menu edit window. Routing here refers to
the order of the Menu Buttons and where they should send the
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user to according to the remote control. When set to Auto-Route,

DVD-lab makes correct assumptions about Button routing.
The opposite side of this Auto-Route feature is manual route
programming, using the 4 directional drawing controls at the top
of the Menu editing window. Unchecking this checkbox, allows
the Author to manually draw their own links using a tool for each
of the four vectors:
Draw Up Link
Draw Down Link
Draw left Link
Draw Right Link
Menu / Check overlapping

This option performs a single test for overlapping when clicked.
Having Button overlapping in a DVD Menu is a bad thing, so we
want to check for this, so we can correct overlap if needed.
(The red checkered areas showing overlapping Buttons)
Menu / Auto-Deinterlace
This is a toggle, shown to be on as indicated by being shaded with
the system selection color. DVD-lab will by default deinterlace a
graphic image dropped onto the Menu to insure correct image
format, unless this toggle is un-checked. This default is normally
valid unless it causes some unwanted effect.
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Menu / NTSC Overheat

This option brings up a new window, NTSC Video Signal
Overheat for controlling the Video Signal Voltage to be presented
on an NTSC (read TV) screen.
(Before – Original Color)

The horizontal dotted line we see above the 100 IRE line
represents the 10% Maximum Voltage Excursion value, a kind of
headroom limit which can be adjusted to taste.
(After – NTSC Safe Colors)

Notice the top most colors are limited to the 10% line. These
parameters have to do with limiting the Video Signal Voltage
used to display color and optimize it to look best. Certainly, some
experimenting is warranted to see if it the resulting DVD content
looks better to you one way or the other.
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Glossary item: IRE Stands for International Radio Engineers, which

is the name of the group that came up with this scale of values
which range from 0 to 100 defining the brightness level of a
broadcast Video signal.
Menu / Effects
With a text or image object selected in the Menu editor, these
graphic effects features are available:
Sharpen Object – Initially make object appear more sharp
(non-blurry)
Sharpen More – Make object appear even more sharp (non-
blurry)
Blur Object – Initially make object appear more blurry
Blur More – Make object appear even more blurry
Deinterlace Objects – insure correct image format
Gen-EFX – The hidden jewel in this toolbox. Dipping into

the Mediachance developer's graphics software trick bag, this
option shows 12 permutations of various interesting graphics
effects automatically generated as this example shows.
Select an effect to Apply or Restore to original or choose More

like it. Gen-EFX can be applied to the Background or to an image.
Try to be completely sober when you do this, so you can tell the
difference.
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Menu / Load Menu

This option will load a Menu or Style that already exists in the
form of a .mnu or .stm file into the currently active Menu. Look in
the DVD-Lab/Templates folder for Menu Templates (.stm files).
Example of DVD-lab Style 4
Look in the DVD-lab/Styles folder for some Style (.stm files)

examples like this.
Styles are meant to be used within the Menu / Add Scene

Selection wizard.
Templates are meant to be used within the Menu / Add from

Template wizard.
There is no law against using an .stm file for a new Menu if you
like. Note that you can setup your own Templates with your own
prompts the wizard will use via Menu / Export.
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Menu / Export
Just as you can Add or Load Menus from Styles or Templates, you
can export them in various options.
Menu / Export / As Menu

Simply exports the entire contents of the Menu to a folder as a
Menu .mnu file.
Menu / Export / As Style

Exports the contents of the Menu to a folder as a Style .stm file.
Read .stm as Style Menu. These Style .stm files should be exported
to the DVD-lab/Styles folder to be seen when doing Load Menu.
A style is different from a template in that it is used within the

Add Scene Selection wizard as a base layout. A Style .stm file
exported here can be subsequently used in the Add Scene
Selection wizard.
Menu / Export / As Template

This option exports the contents of the current Menu to a folder as
a Template .stm file. These should be exported to the DVD-
lab/Templates folder to be seen when doing Menu / Add Menu
from Template.
A Template is different from a Style in that it is used in the Add

Menu from Template wizard with optional prompting the
Author can design.
The key to this wizard prompting is the value of the “Button

Label” set in the Menu editor Links Tab shown here.
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The Link Tab, Button Label value entry

A mini-scripting language is in place here. When the Add Menu
from Template wizard sees a Button Label starting with “ask”, it
knows to use whatever is right after “ask” as a heading to prompt
the user for replacement text. The replaceable text being the Text
item itself.
The trailing “-nolink” value tells the wizard to not make bother
prompting for a Link, this is just a Text item. The wizard will
prompt for a Link if “-nolink” is not present.
Menu / Export / As Overlay

Exports the contents of the Menu to a folder as a Transparent .png
file. This may be used for a single image of the Menu or as a “sub-
picture” overlayed on top of a primary image. This is also quick
way to make a static image file to show someone how a Menu
looks without it's background.
Menu / Export / As AVI

Exports the real time output of the Menu to a folder as a .AVI
Video file with options as to Frame Rate and window size. This is
a quick way to make a Video file to show someone how a Menu
looks in motion.
Menu / Export / As PSD

Exports the current Menu to a Photoshop compatible PSD file
with every Menu object as a separate layer, including Drop
Shadows. Note that this Export Function will be more detailed
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than it's Import counterpart, which will not pick up Photoshop

Layer Effects – Drop Shadows, for instance.
A dialog window offers a choice of version level.
Menu / Export / As Slide

Exports the current Menu to a 720x540 JPG file.
Menu / Merge to Background

This option takes all of the text and images on the Menu and
“flattens” them into the background image. You lose all text and
links when this is done. You might want to do this to “burn” some
text or images into a background that will never change.
Menu / Save Background

This option takes what ever is the current background image of
the current Menu and drops in into the Backgrounds folder as a
.bkg file, complete with a thumbnail. It is then available to be
called from the Assets / Backgrounds tab as background for other
menus. Note that just the background is saved, you may want to
Merge to Background (as above) to flatten the image to use.
Menu / External S-Picture
The above options manage an advanced feature known as

Subpicture which is an image overlay that is used to show or
control how remote actions interact with image. You need to have
Show External Subpicture toggled ON (check marked) for this
feature to appear.
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Menu / External S-Picture / Load External Subpicture

Brings in the BMP file that was saved to show where the current
Menu selections are. A message instructs:
Find the Group Hotspot tool on the left margin of the Menu edit
window, this causes all objects behind the Group Hotspot
rectangle to act as a single Button, a kind of group Button or area
Button.
Drawing a Group Hotspot area

Draw a rectangle around any two objects, then try the Menu
simulation to notice that either image selected starts Movie 1,
Chapter 1. You could certainly use Link / Button Link to have the
area point to another start point.
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Note: You can easily use the Group Hotspot feature without
having to save and load and show an External Subpicture, just by
drawing a rectangle with the Group Hotspot tool. The Subpicture
features add another level of precision to the design process.
Menu / External S-Picture / Remove External Subpicture

Gets rid of the previously loaded subpicture from the Menu, does
not delete the file.
Menu / External S-Picture / Save as a Subpicture

Creates a bitmap (.BMP) file as black on white to show the
existing Menu selections a remote would go to, either text or
image, saving the .BMP file into a folder.
Menu / Transitions
This is an advanced feature that even the most high-end
authoring systems do not even offer. Another feature worth the
price of the DVD-lab product itself.
These 38 different Menu Transitions can add a lot of visual appeal

to your DVD project, just as these type of transition effects already
do for your Videos. This feature is not usually seen by DVD
viewers and can add that extra level of creativity the next guy
doesn't have.
Menu / Transitions / Generate New
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First, define your From: Menu and your To: Menu. Select a
transition Type from the list of 38 and a Transition duration if the
default 0.8 seconds needs to be updated. The HoldA and HoldB
parameters define how many seconds to display a “freeze” image
of the original image before or after the transition respectively.
Click on Proceed and a transition is saved as an MPEG Video

Menu Transition file (.mpv).
When competed in a few seconds, the new .mpv Video now

appears in your Assets bin. Also, a new Menu object now appears
in the Project / Menu tree indicated as “Menu 1 - -Menu 2” in this
example, generated as a unique Menu itself. Actually, DVD-lab
automatically placed the .mpv Video on the Motion Menu
timeline of the new Menu.
Menu / Transitions / Rebuild

Bring up the generated transition Menu (“Menu 1 - -Menu 2” in
this example) as the current active window in the Work Area; via
the Project window tree as a double-click if it is not the current
active window. Then, this option will then allow you to choose
different parameters as the above Generate New step, but
replacing the existing Menu and Video objects. This lets you
experiment with different effects and timing.
So we made this exciting Menu Transition which was pretty easy.

Now, let's integrate this into our DVD project.
Make a new Text or Image Button on the screen, our example

shows text as “Menu 2”. Select that Button and then click the
Link tab, pointing to the new Menu Transition we made to define
where to link to when the viewer selects this choice.
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That sends the viewer on a one way trip, now we need a way to
get back to the main Menu.
Bring up Menu 2 (the landing place) as the active window in the

Work Area. Open the Buttons tab within the Assets bin. Drag &
drop a nice return Button onto the Menu, then open the Link tab /
Button Link pointing to Menu 1.
That's it. We made a Transition Menu and then Linked back to

the ROOT Menu.
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Menu / Render Motion

New to v1.3 is the advanced Render Motion feature. The primary
purpose of this feature is to generate a new Video built from the
contents of a DVD-lab Menu. This new Video can then be used as
a background Motion Menu with some creative effects.
Some Planning
The Render Motion feature performs two main functions:
1) It “burns” any static text, images or other objects into the new
Video onto either a static or motion background.
2) It renders a mini Video thumbnail of a frame that represents a
Movie and “burns” that Video thumbnail into the new Video.
An important consideration is using a Motion Menu is that a

Motion menu replaces ALL of the Normal state objects. Since the
text, rectangles, frames and still images are all Normal state
objects, this is something to consider. Placing a Normal state
object on top of a Motion Menu will make it invisible, only the
selection overlay (subpicture) will be visible.
With the assumption that the Author does want to have a Menu
object displayed and a highlight on the object when selected in the
player, we need to design a way around the Normal state objects
being invisible.
One way to consider is to burn the original object into the

Rendered Motion Menu, then lay the exact same object over the
exact same position so that it generates a the selection overlay.
Since this overlaid object will be invisible in Normal state, only it's
highlight will display. This can be a little tricky as to placement,
consider Locking the position of an object.
See later in this section “What to do with the Rendered Video” for
suggestions and examples relating to Motion Buttons.
Always check the Simulation to know what to expect.
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Motion Buttons
One primary benefit of this feature is in making Motion Buttons
out of the video thumbnails DVD-lab's Render Motion will
provide. A Motion Button is then a mini Video that acts as a
button the viewer would activate to view the content this button
pointed to. The viewer sees a mini preview Video of a scene or a
character they like, they click on that button. Motion Buttons are
then used as a mini preview – “click me to see this”, a very
effective tool for making an easy and obvious user interface.
In terms of planning, we want to consider which Video items we

want to create motion thumbnails for, at what point they should
start at and how long the entire Motion Menus with these motion
thumbnails embedded should be. Typically 10 to 30 seconds is
fine, however there is no specific time limit.
So let's look at an example, we built a Menu having a motion

video background with two frame images from linked Movies.
This example will keep this to just the videos to keep it simple.
You could burn text and geometrics into the new Motion Video
also. The linked frame images here are different sizes on purpose,
to show that CAN be different sizes.
The size and place of the linked frame image will be the size
and place of the Motion Thumbnail Video.
A Menu prepared for creating Motion Thumbnails
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Creative Note: We could make up our own special “Motion Button

Videos” outside of DVD-lab, import them and create embedded
Video from this content instead of Movie Frames. We don't have
to use Project Movies at all for this Rendering. If we wanted a
special scene or preview to use as a Motion Button, make an
MPEG file that does just that. It can be a full size Video, DVD-lab
will scale it down during rendering. Since we likely are going to
make this graphic to point to a real Movie anyway, this gives us
much creative options.
With the above Menu currently open, go to the main DVD-lab

Menu, select Menu / Render Motion, this full featured dialog box
appears.
The Pre-Render Menu Motion window

There are a number of controls available.
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Motion Objects
Here we see a list of all video content DVD-lab found in our
Menu. Notice the background motion Video is listed first. As we
click on each of the Videos in this list, we see a Preview with
controls on the left of this window,and we see parameters for this
Video in a middle box.
Render Motion Video Parameters

Checking (or un-checking) the “Render this object in the final
clip” is done for each Video individually. A parallel control for
this checkbox exists in the Motion Objects file list. Click once on
the left-most margin area to the left of the file name to mark this
Video as “Render”, a check mark will appear. Click that same area
area again to toggle this off, a red X appears. All of the Video
listed in our example will be Rendered as they are all checked.
Also in the Video Parameters box are checkboxes for Repeat if

Shorter and Shuffle Loop Point. These checkboxes are mutually
exclusive, pick one or the other or neither. A parallel toggle
control for these two checkboxes also exists in the Motion Objects
file list. Click once on the margin area to the left of the file name to
mark this Video as Repeat if Shorter, a squiggly arrow will
appear as the Movie 1 video shows in the Pre-Render Menu
Motion window. Click that same area again to mark this Video as
Shuffle Loop Point, a Shuffle marker appears as shown on
Movie 2 in the Pre-Render Menu Motion window. Finally, Click
that same area again to toggle either feature off.
Note that the Repeat if Shorter or and Shuffle Loop Point flag on
the Background Video is meaningless. A Background Video will
always play for the Total Clip Time.
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Repeat if Shorter
Checking this parameter means that if your video thumbnail is 15
seconds and the Total Clip Time is 30 seconds, DVD-lab will
make this video thumbnail repeat within the 30 seconds.
Shuffle Loop Point

This is a bit of DVD-lab magic. By now we have seen other DVDs
or realized that the Motion Video will loop (repeat itself and start
over). At the point of looping, there is a kind of reset and
everything starts over. Mediachance decided to make their
looping work a little better, if you want it to.
There is a concept of Shuffle Loop Point which means that the

time that each video thumbnail's playback loops at will be
staggered, so that all the videos don't reset all at once. The idea
here being that it will produce a smoother content, when the
videos each loop at a different time, without the annoying reset
flash. Now that we know what DVD-lab will do with Shuffle
Loop Point, it's just a matter of checking it On or Off for each
individual Video. The rest is handled for you during Render.
Set Start Point / Fine Scrub

To help define the start point of the video thumbnail, we select a
Video from the Object list, then uses the built-in preview to
navigate to a place we like to start at. Use the > and << >> arrows
to play, fast forward, rewind. The Set Start Point acts as a course
cursor, the Fine Scrub acts as a fine tune cursor. Click & Drag
either to the point you want to start each Video at.
Note that there is no “end point”, the video thumbnail is made to

the length set in Total Clip Time. The video thumbnail will start
either at the (00:00) time or staggered if Shuffle LoopPoint is set
On.
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Global Settings
Total Clip Time
The length in seconds of the entire new video. This value is also
the length in seconds of any video thumbnail embedded during
Render.
If a Motion Video background is set, one of three things can

happen related to the Motion Video background time which will
be the default Total Clip Time.
1. Total Clip time less than Motion Video time
Clip is truncated to Total Clip time
2. Total Clip time equal Motion Video time
Clip time same as than Motion Video time
3. Total Clip time more than Motion Video time
Clip plays the Motion Video, holding it on the last
frame as still image, the video thumbnails play for the Total Clip
time (if long enough)
Temporary Folder
A folder on disk where work files are written to. Should have
plenty of free space.
Render button
Click the Render button, then tell DVD-lab where to put your new
Video via the Save Final Movie as prompt. This new AVI file
will be big, figure 30Meg a second, so that folder should have
plenty of disk space available. When render is completed, use
whatever AVI to MPEG encoder you like to encode that AVI file
to a DVD compliant 720x480 MPEG-2 file, of extension MPV or
M2V.
This new Video will be imported into the DVD-lab Video Assets
for use in our Project.
Note that no Audio is carried into the Rendered AVI file.
What to do with the Rendered Video

First, if you haven't done so already, bring the Rendered Video
into your Assets Video bin, to make it available to our Project.
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Let's start a fresh, new, blank Menu: from the Project window,
Right-Click for Add Menu. The first thing we want to do with
this Menu is to add our newly Rendered Video as a Motion Menu
video. Recall that we do that by Dragging and Dropping the
filename from our Assets bin onto the Menu or even right into the
Motion Menu / Motion track.
The idea is that we want the viewer to point to what they would
like to see, represented here by mini preview thumbnail Videos.
Our job now is to build object that will be highlighted to mark a
viewer selection.
Building Links around embedded video thumbnails produces Motion Buttons

We have two good ways to build Motion Buttons around our now
embedded video thumbnails.
1 - Draw a frame around the embedded video with the Frame

drawing tool as shown above in (1). In this context, Frame means
a hollow rectangle, not a Video Frame. Link the Frame to the
Movie (or Chapter or Slideshow) that you want to send the viewer
to. Use the Automatic Fill Color as the DVD player will set this
Frame to whatever Group 3 Color and Transparency are set to, so
the viewer can tell this is where the selection is.
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2 - Draw a rectangle around the embedded video with the Draw

Rectangle tool as shown above in (2). Link the Rectangle to the
Movie (or Chapter or Slideshow) that you want to send the viewer
to. Use the Automatic Fill Color as the DVD player will set this
rectangle to whatever Group 3 Color and Transparency are set to,
so the viewer can tell this is where the selection is.
Important to set the Transparency slide to about half-way, so that

we can see the Video through the rectangle, yet the rectangle is
shaded in the Group 3 Color and Transparency.
What doesn't work is the Group Hotspot, though it seems a

natural for this, by making a virtual button. There is no way to let
the viewer know what is selected or what they are pointing at
with a Group Hotspot alone. Try one of the above methods.
One thing that we don't have available is a regular text object, as

all Normal State objects get replaced by the Motion Video. Using
an alternate Hi-lite group (1 or 2) and changing the Normal state
color/transparency may appear OK, but does not look good in the
final output. Consider burning in text or geometrics into the
Motion Video.
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Video Attributes for Selections

The last thing to consider in this exercise is the Color Map
attributes that will be associated with either of the three Motion
Buttons we exampled. For these examples, we are going to
assume the standard Group 3 Color Map, though you could
certainly use Group 1 or 2.
For a Frame – we want this invisible until the selection comes to it

and then displayed fully.
For a Rectangle – we want this invisible until the selection comes

to it and then displayed with high transparency.
Both of these geometrics will do as we want in their default

manner, that is be invisible until selected, then shown in the
Group 3 Color and Transparency. This should be fine as is, feel
free to experiment, of course. Check in Simulation.
Here we may need to do a little bit of settings. In the Properties /

Map tab, Click the state slide left to show “Selected”. This sets the
video attributes when the viewer selects a Menu item. Click in the
color box for Group 3 and pick a color form the list of 16
presented. Next, move the Transparency slide to the right until it
looks reasonable.
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Menu – Slide-Show
See Chapter 8 – Work Area / Slideshows

for complete details on Slideshows
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Menu – Connection
These Menu items primarily control the appearance of the

Connections window. See more on the operation of the
Connections in the Work Area / Connections section.
Connection / Show Connections Window

This option makes the Connections window visible in the Work
Area. Double–Clicking on Connections icon within the Project
window does the same thing. Recall the Work Area has tabs at it's
bottom to control which Menu is active.
Connection / Show Jump Links

A toggle to make the automatic jump to an event lines visible.
Example: First Play to first Menu is a jump. Also, the first control
icon shown at the top of the Connections window.
Connection / Show Button Links

A toggle to make the links from Buttons to event lines visible.
Example: A Menu 1 Button to Movie 1 is a Button Link. Also, the
second control icon shown at the top of the Connections window.
Connection / Show Lines / Right Angle

This toggle causes the Connections window to display inter –
connections as right angled lines, and is the default. Also, the
third control icon shown at the top of the Connections window.
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Connection / Show Lines / Straight lines

This toggle causes the Connections window to display
interconnections as straight lines. Also, the fourth control icon
shown at the top of the Connections window.
Connection / Show Pie

This toggle changes the graphic of Movie files within the
Connections window to displayed as a Pie Chart representing the
percent of the DVD each files uses.
Connections with Show Pie ON
Connection / Add Empty Movie

Connection / Add Empty Menu
These buttons add a Connections container object for a Movie or

Menu, which can be later populated or built. Note that this New
container object will not be linked to anything at first, the DVD
Author needs to make connections or links to this new object for it
to be considered part of the DVD Project.
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Menu – Tools
Here a selection of tools and user
interface customization options.
Tools / Transcode Audio

DVD-lab includes this very useful tool to help change the file
format and nature of an Audio file to be used in your project. You
may get Audio in various formats, especially in MPEG format. We
recall from Chapter 4 - DVD-Video File Formats, that DVDs like
to have either Dolby Digital AC-3 or LPCM (16/48 Wave) files for
compatibility will most all players. While legal in the DVD spec,
MPEG Audio files may play fine on software players,but set top
players may not play this format.
The Audio Transcode window
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So let's say we want to use an MPEG Program Stream, we

dropped it into our Assets bin and DVD-lab graciously split it
into a MPV Video and a MPA Audio file for use in our movie.
Now we want to have DVD-lab convert it into LPCM Wave file.
We first point to that MPA as an Input file, which accepts either
M2A or MPA which are synonymous for MPEG Audio.
With the radio Button checked for MPEG Audio -> Linear PCM
Audio, DVD-lab names the Output file as the same file name with
the extension .wav. These files are always 16bit / 48kHz /
1.536bps.
We could click the Output Button and name this file as an M2A or
MPA file if the MPEG Audio -> MPEG Audio – 48kHz radio
Button is selected. In this latter case, we can choose a variable bit
rate from 192 to 448 bps defaulting to “Optimal” which is likely
our best choice.
The External section offers the connection to an outside program

that supports a “DOS” command line interface. Typically this is to
be used with a program that does AC-3 encoding, DVD-lab will
let you use this interface to send the input and output file names
along with any command line parameters. DVD-lab will even
allow you to Save the commands as a .CL (Command Line) file to
be able to be Loaded at a future time.
Outside of DVD-lab there are a number of AC-3 file conversion /

transcode programs available to you, many are free. Notably,
HeadAC-3he and BeSweet are two programs that are a place to
start with for AC-3 files. Sony / Sonic Foundry's Sound Forge is at
the top of the list for Audio file conversion, bit rate and frequency
resampling, though it handles everything except AC-3 format,
though a special $279 plug-in is available for AC-3 transcoding.
Note that AC-3 files can be either Stereo (2.0) or Surround (5.1).
Get on the net and get busy.
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Tools / Audio Delay

For AC-3 and MPA audio only. See Chapter 7 - Work Area /
Movies / Audio Delay as this is the same function. This button
will create a new Audio file in the Assets bin, based on the +/-
Audio Delay factor set. Within a Movie container it's Right-Click
/ Audio Delay which is more meaningful as relating Audio to a
specific Video content.
Tools / LPCM -> WAV

This is the Menu option standalone tool that is built-in to the
Demultiplex process. It prompts first for a RAW LPCM Audio
stream file of PCM or RAW file type. DVD-lab will bring up an
internal transcode option that looks like this:
Audio LPCM to WAV file transcode
DVD-lab now gives you options to change the parameters and

Swap High & Low Bytes. The parameters are likely fine, Stereo,
16 bit and 48 kHz are the usually values.
A new Play Sample button has been added, to give a quick listen
to the first 3 seconds of this audio file. Should you hear only noise,
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try checking the Swap High & Low Bytes box. The Play Sample
audition will replay to let you know how this will sound.
Click OK and a new WAV file is created with the same name as
the Video portion. The WAV file can be easily muxed and
auditioned outside of DVD-lab.
Tools / Fix MPEG Stream Headers
Designed to work only with Elementary Streams (ES), this process

Allows you to Load an MPEG Video file of either M2V or MPV
format. The Fix Headers Button will look at the Video and make
corrections to the header of the file to insure full compatibility
within the DVD project. If it's fine already, DVD-lab with confirm
that to you.
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Tools / MPEG Parse

A viewpoint into the very complex world of the internals of an
MPEG file. There are tree structures for viewing details and
options to save and compare a Description file of this data. This
feature is display only, no editing is provided.
Notice the I-FRAME marker that relates to DVD-lab I-Frame

Indexing and Chapter Points as a time marker within an MPEG
file.
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Tools / IFO Editor - Audio

As DVD-lab will handle only one Audio stream per Title Set, this
tool allows use of VOB files that had multiple Audio streams and
were not de-multiplexed. After a Project has been Compiled, it
build a series of DVD files, the IFO and BUP files can be updated
with this tool. We have control of some Audio only features we
can set for the IFO files, before we burn it to disc.
The primary use of this tool is to accommodate multiple audio

tracks that may have come in with a VOB file that was used as a
System or Program file. DVD-lab does not re-mux such a VOB
file, so in order for the other Audio tracks in that VOB file to be
accessible, we use this tool. This tool will not give a DVD-lab
Project multiple Audio channels, just use those in VOB files that
were already there.
For each of the up to six Audio streams, we can set the major
Audio type in Quick Settings, then set the Coding Mode,
Quantisation and Extension to match our Audio content.
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IFO editor parameter options
Tools / Customize
These options allow some control over the User Interface. You can
add your own custom Toolbars, view Menu commands, assign
Keyboard commands and create new Menu Tools to be used to
call outside programs.
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Menu – Window
Here are the standard Windows user interface options for

managing the Work Area.
Menu – Help
The standard Windows Help options.
Help / About DVD-lab

Shows the current release number and registered user.
Help / Visit Web Site

Opens your HTML browser to Mediachance.com's DVD-lab
section.
Help / Help
( or the <F1> key at any time) brings up the online help file for
DVD-lab.
Help / Tip of The Day

Shows a single tip or feature that may be useful, also shown at the
initial start of the program.
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DVD-lab User Guide Chapter 6 - Work Area / Connections
Chapter 6 - Work Area /

Connections
Most of our work in DVD-lab is done within the Work Area, the
upper area of the screen that shows Connections, Movies, Menus,
Slideshows and when applicable the File Browser. This chapter
will go into some depth about the operation of each of the
windows as it relates to the DVD design process.
The Connections window

At the top most level of DVD-lab design is the Connections
window. Here is where all the navigation elements are shown and
to some degree controlled.
To open the Connections window as active in the Work Area,

Double-Click Connections in the Project window or click it's tab in
the Work Area if present. Note the Right-Click context Menu
shown above. The Move objects arrow and Draw Connections
tools are duplicates as controls on the top left margin of the
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Chapter 6 - Work Area / Connections DVD-lab User Guide
window. You can Move Objects as you like within this window
with the Arrow as the current selected tool. Select the Hand tool
to move the entire Connections contents around for better
viewing. At the top of this window are six controls that are
toggles to change how the window is displayed, they are:
Show Jump Links

A toggle to make the automatic jump to an event lines visible.
Example: First Play to first Menu is a jump. We can draw and
control Jump Links to some degree, depending on their nature.
Show Button Links

A toggle to make the links from Buttons to event lines visible.
Example: A Menu 1 Button to Movie 1 is a Button Link. Button
links are usually designed within the Menu editor window. DVD-
lab also includes a Draw Button Links tool for that.
The Connections window displays Button destinations as

represented by the Red lines from Buttons to Movies (or
Slideshows), Blue lines from Buttons to Menus and Green lines
from ROOT Menu Buttons to Menus.
Button Links are displayed from the bottom of Menus to the top
of another Menu or a Movie.
Right Angle
This toggle causes the Connections window to display inter
connections as right angled lines, and is the default. Also, the
third control icon shown at the top of the Connections window.
Straight lines
This toggle causes the Connections window to display
interconnections as straight lines. Also, the fourth control icon
shown at the top of the Connections window.
Show Size
This toggle has the window display the actual file sizes of each
object in KB or MB values.
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Show Pie
This toggle changes the graphic of Movie files within the
Connections window to displayed as a Pie Chart representing the
percent of the DVD each files uses.
Lets look at some of the Connections window objects
The Connections window - First Play icon
First Play
An important part of the DVD spec, Authors can specify that a
single Movie always be played first, before the main program
starts. Producers do this to show a copyright warning or a brief
introduction or a preview as needed. First Play can be linked to
Movie or to a ROOT Menu only.
Most set top players will strictly conform to this First Play
completing it's run before the main program title. The software
players can be used to get around this feature, but it takes some
specific user intervention.
We notice the First Play object as the green universal On signal at

top left of the Connections window. By default it points to the first
Menu, the ROOT Menu in DVD speak. It can point wherever we
like within the DVD spec.
At this point, let's say we have a cute little “Coming Soon” Video
we want as the First Play. Bring it into our Assets bin under Video
& Audio, then drag it from the Assets bin onto the Connections
window, say Yes to the prompt “Create New Movie Title”. That
makes it a new Movie in our project. We could have gone the Add
New Movie route and dropped the Video & Audio Assets into
this new Movie's tracks. Same result.
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Within the Project window, Movies tree, rename this Movie as

“ComingSoon” so we will be sure what we are working on.
Renaming is select and hit <F2>. Now drag the icon for
ComingSoon just to the right of the First Play icon, adjusting for
room for the other icons.
Now the fun part, choose the Draw Links tool under the Arrow
pointer tool on the left side of the Connections window. You
could also choose the Draw Connections tool from the Right-click
context Menu. These are the same tools. Click the First Play icon
(or dot) and drag to within the Coming Soon icon, then release.
Cool! DVD-lab just made this the First Play Video and shows you
the links visually. It should look something like this:
The First Play RET feature

Every Movie has a RET (read Return to Previous Menu) pointer,
instructing the DVD player as to where to go when that Movie
has finished. You may notice in the above image, that the RET
pointer doesn't link to anything for the First Play Movie. Even
without defining this link, DVD-lab knows this is First Play and
will point this RET to the ROOT menu for you, by default. The
more precise design would be to draw a specific Connection from
the First Play RET dot to the ROOT menu, as this is what's
happening, though this is not required.
Some Authors may want to place an entire movie as First Play.

Why? To make it easy, just load & playback, no fumbling for a
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remote. We can also define Menu Timeouts to accomplish a

similar feature, more on that later.
The Connections window - Title Button icon
The blue Title Button (T) defines where the DVD is instructed to
go to when the viewer hits the Title Button on their remote. We
see the strong blue line was built as default, pointing to the Menu
1 icon, which is our ROOT or starting place Menu. For now, this is
fine, though we now know where to look to point the Title Button
elsewhere if needed.
Note that the Title Button may only link to a Menu defined as
ROOT or to a Movie (or Slideshow).
The Connections window - Menu 1 icon

Built by default in all new projects, the first Menu is the important
starting place for the DVD viewer, from which all paths lead out
of. Also by default, this Menu is set as the ROOT or starting place
Menu. The ROOT Menu is shown as (teal) blue with a VTS top
label, making it visually obvious. VTS means Video Title Set,
DVD speak for the program.
We can choose to make a Menu other than the default Menu 1 the
ROOT Menu. Select that new ROOT Menu icon, then the Right-
Click context Menu and select “Set Menu as ROOT”.
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To delete a Menu or Movie or Slideshow

You can easily delete a Menu or Movie or Slideshow via the
Connections window. Just click on the icon to delete and hit the
<Delete> key and confirm. A Menu or Movie can also be deleted
in the same way within the Project window.
To rename a Menu or Movie or Slideshow

You can easily rename a Menu or Movie or Slideshow within the
Connections window. Just Right-Click on the icon, choose
Rename and type what you like for a name. You can also just
select the icon and hit <F2> to edit the name. Hit <Enter> key to
confirm or <Esc> to exit the name unchanged.
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Connection navigation - For Menus

Connection Links (or Jump Links) direct the DVD where to go
when an event is completed. That event will be a Menu or a
Movie or a Slideshow. Menus usually have Infinite (inf) timeout,
so they never really complete, though Timeouts can be defined.
Movies and Slideshows will complete as they are linear.
For those Menus that have a “Timeout” defined in seconds, this is

considered a completion and we need to define a Link as to where
to go when the Menu times out. Timing out in this case means
that the Menu started and the viewer made no selection. A Menu
defaults to looping back to itself if no Jump Link is defined.
The Jump Link (after timing out) can only Link to another Menu.
We can use this rule to our advantage as DVD-lab did when

creating the transition Menu. It built a new Menu linked between
Menu 1 and Menu 2 with the only content of this Menu being a
brief Video set on the Motion Menu track. We could certainly do
such a thing manually and then be able to set a Jump Link to a
Menu that is really just a Video.
The Force Activate Button feature

The exception to this Jump link can only link to another Menu
rule is the use of the Force Activate Btn.
In the Menu editor, Properties / PBC tab, notice the Force

Activate Btn parameter which defines which Button number to
activate when this Menu times out. See the Menu editor –
Properties / PBC tab section for more on this. In this example, if
nothing happens on the viewer end after 43 seconds (without a
selection being made), the player is instructed to jump to
whatever Menu Button 4 is programmed to do.
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The right side middle dots shown on Menu icons determine the
Menu timeout or Jump Link for a Menu.
Menu Linking examples
A Menu can be programmed to loop to itself by drawing a

connection from the right side middle dot to the left side of the
same Menu (See Menu 9 above). This is useful for Menus that
have a Motion Menu or Audio background (or both) that time out
in 30-40 seconds, then loop back to itself to play again.
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Connection navigation - For Movies and Slideshows

The right middle dots shown on Movie or Slideshows icons
determine the End Link. The end of a Movie or Slideshow can
be linked to another Movie or to a Slideshow or to a Menu or to
nothing (RET).
Movies linked to a menu can only link to one of the first 63

Menus (128 menus are allowed). That shouldn't cramp your style
too much.
All of the features described in this section are the same features
for Movies as they are for Slideshows. If it works for a Movie, it
works for a Slideshow.
A new Movie will start out with a RET Link as indicated by a

short arrow pointing up as the ComingSoon Movie shown above.
A RET Link such as this will automatically return the player to the
last Menu that called this Movie. This is termed the (RET)
command, read this as (Return To Previous Menu). The DVD
player keeps track of what Menu it came from.
To Draw a RET Link, just use the Draw Links tool to point a Link
to nothing (anywhere on the open pale yellow workspace).
Let's say we Drag & Drop a new Movie right onto the
Connections window instantly making a new Movie 2. It might
look like this:
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Notice our new Movie 2 is by default set to a RET Link (to the
previous Menu), yet has no way for us to get to it. Let make a way
to get to it. Draw a Connection Link from Movie 1 to Movie 2 and
Bam! We have a link. Certainly, a Menu Button could also be
defined in the Menu editor as linking to Movie 2.
A Connection link made from Movie 1 to Movie 2
When the viewer selects a Button that links to Movie 1, after

Movie 1 completes playing the DVD player will then start Movie
2 after which the viewer is returned to the original Menu. We can
link as many Movies as we like in this way.
Another Movie navigation option we have is to setup an infinite

loop. In this case, draw a Connection link from Movie 2 to the left
side of the Movie 1 icon and it looks like this:
A connection link made from Movie 2 back to Movie 1

This plays Movie 1, then Movie 2, then starts over until the viewer
hits the Title or Menu Button on their remote. Hopefully you
would have a good reason to this, like a kiosk or advertisement
that runs 24/7.
Go the the End and stay there!

If there is need to have the program play and never return to a
Menu, here is what we can do. Since there is no programmatic
way to just Stop the program, as if the user pressed the Stop
button on Remote, we can pull a trick to send them down a one
way street.
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Movie Ending in an Infinite Loop to itself
Place a short all black Video or a “The End” Video as the last
Movie in a chain of Links. Then with the Draw Links tool, Click-
Drag the RET dot to a point on the left side of the same Movie
object, inside the same Movie object. This is now a link to itself, it
should look like the above.
Menus? We don't need no stinking Menus!

We could decide to have a DVD project that just starts playing
without intervention, and loops back to a certain point to play
forever.
Notice the absence of any Menu at all.
We place Movies 1, 2 and 3 on the Connections window, Link first

play to Movie 1, Link Movie 1 to Movie 2, Link Movie 2 to Movie
3, and lastly Link Movie 3 back to Movie 2 creating a loopback.
This will play Movie 1 once, then Movies 2 & 3 all day long.
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Connection Navigation – Drawing Button Links

DVD-lab provides us a very smart and convenient tool to help
visually define our Project's navigation. So far, all the drawing of
Links that we have done is with the Draw Links tool found on the
left side tool area of the Connections window.
Directly under that tool is it's sister tool, the Draw Button Links
tool.
Certainly, the most typical way for us to create Button Links

within Menus is within the Menu editor. The Connections
window makes a useful display of the Button's destination as
represented by the Red lines from Buttons to Movies (or
Slideshows), Blue lines from Buttons to Menus and Green lines
from ROOT Buttons to Menus.
The Draw Button Links tool provide us a way to set or change

where an existing Button Links to. Considering the graphic
above as a starting place, let's draw a Button Link to a Movie and
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also to a Menu. An applicable Menu object needs to already exist,

such as a text, frame, rectangle or still image.
Select the Draw Button Links tool, draw a line from anywhere
within Menu 1 to Movie 2. We see this clever select window:
As you hover your mouse pointer over the various Menu objects
represented here, you will notice an obvious Red border around
the object and importantly the name of it's current Link. We recall
that NOP means “NO oPeration” or no Link defined. So we click
on the Menu object we want to Link to Movie 2 and that's it.
Let's do that same thing do Link to a Menu. Select the Draw

Button Links tool, draw a line from anywhere within Menu 1 to
Menu 9. We again see this select window, notice that the header
reminds you what Link path you drew:
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Click on the Menu 9 text object, which had no Link defined.

Take a look now at the results of these new Button Links within
the Connections window.
We see a new Red line showing a Link to Movie 2 and a new

Green line showing a Link to Menu 9. Pretty Cool.
Changing a Link
Note that while these examples showed Buttons with NOP (no
link) defined, we can easily change an existing Link, just draw out
where the Link path should be and then select the Menu object
that you want to point it, replacing it's existing Link.
Removing a Link
The Draw Button Links tool doesn't remove Links. To do so, open
a Menu, click on the object to remove the link from to select it,
then either Right-Click / Remove Link or select Properties / Link
Button Link/ Remove Link.
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DVD-lab User Guide Chapter 7 - Work Area / Movie
Chapter 7 - Work Area / Movie
Appearing like a timeline strip, the Movie window is a container

for the Elementary Streams of Video & Audio that comprise a
Movie. Refer to “Chapter 4 - DVD-Video File Formats” for more
detail on DVD legal file types. For now, we will use M2V (MPEG)
Video and WAV (LPCM) 16b/48kHz Audio or AC-3 Audio to be
placed into a Movie container.
The Movie window with Right-Click context Menu activated.
Let's make a Movie, baby!
There are lots of ways to create a Movie container. From the DVD-
lab Menu, click Movie / Add New. From the Project window,
Right-Click Movies folder, then Add Movie. From the
Connections window, Right-Click and Add Empty Movie.
Likely the best way, is simply to drag a Video file from the Video
& Audio Assets bin directly onto the Connections window, this
automatically creates a Movie container already loaded with the
Video.
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Chapter 7 - Work Area / Movie DVD-lab User Guide
Adding content to the container

The middle band of the Movie container is where the Video goes,
drag & drop a Movie file from the Assets Video & Audio bin
directly into this middle band and that sets the Video content. The
content always starts at the 00:00:00 point on the timeline, there
is no dragging it or time offset.
The same is true of Audio, it gets dragged to the bottom band,

where it appears light green when loaded. The type of the Audio
file and its file name are displayed in band also. As does Video,
Audio always starts at the 00:00:00 point on the timeline.
Audio Delay
There IS an offset adjustment that can be made as to the start time
of the Audio, DVD-lab calls this “Audio Delay”. This feature is
only applicable for AC-3 and MPA Audio type files. It can be the
case that Audio from a de-muxed file, had a time offset that we
need to correct for via this tool.
Right-Click within the Movie object, select Audio Delay (when not
greyed-out) for this dialog box. Set the Add/Remove Audio
Delay value as the number of milliseconds to move the Audio on
the timeline. Negative values move Audio before (in advance),
positive values move Audio after (delayed).
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This Audio Delay has nothing to do with any kind of Delay

(Echo/Reverb) Audio effect, it is a timeline offset adjustment.
Deleting content from the container

Select either Video or Audio content within the container and a
thin red line bounds it, hit the <Delete> key to get it off the
container, possibly to be replaced with another, since only one file
can be in place at a time. Also, Right-Click, Delete Item performs
the same function.
Movie Chapter Points

Chapter Points are an important part of developing the flow of
your project. Once set, Chapter Points are then known to the
entire DVD-lab project, any Menu object can be linked to jump
to a Chapter Point.
Notice the green diamond tick marks above the timeline in the
Menu 1 picture. Those are representations of where Chapter
Points have been set (by Frame-Index). You may see red tick
marks for timecode based Chapter Point markers. As the Movie
window works closely with the Preview window, you can play
the Movie and stop it at a point where you want a Chapter Point
set.
Recall that the Preview window offers Previous I-Frame and Next
I-frame controls to get real accurate positioning. The Preview
window also offers an Add Chapter Point control, click it and see
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the red tick mark appear on top of the timeline within the Movie
window marking your new Chapter Point. The tick mark will be
green if the Movie was Frame-Indexed. Also, you can just hit the
<Spacebar> to Add Chapter Point any place where the Video is
stopped at. Easy!
The Preview window also offers an Auto-Chapters control, same

as the DVD-lab Menu item: Movie / Auto Chapters. See Menu
items, Movie / Auto Chapters for more on that subject.
The Movie window shows a timeline cursor as a thin red vertical

line with a small (+) above it. You can click within the Video band
to set this cursor position. You can also Click & Drag it to a new
position. At any position this cursor is at, clicking on the (+)
directly will place a Chapter Point.
You can't move a Chapter Point once it has been set, but you can
easily delete a Chapter Point. Click on the tick mark to select it,
then Right-Click for the context Menu, select the first option
“Delete Item”. You will know a Chapter Point is selected as the
current timeline value is shown above it, also the Frame number
will be displayed in red, if the Movie was frame-Indexed.
Other Movie / Chapters context Menu options

Rebuild Thumbnails
Duplicated by the DVD-lab Menu item: Movie / Rebuild
Thumbnails this option is selected if the Video representation
needs to be refreshed.
Trim End
Duplicated by the DVD-lab Menu item: Movie / Trim End and
the Preview window “Trim End of the Movie”, this option chops
off all content to the right of the Movie cursor.
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Other Movie / Chapter context Menu options
Import Chapters
Once a text file has been Exported as exampled above, the Author
could then load these Chapter Points from such a file. The file
extension can be .TXT or .CHP. There is a confirmation and then
DVD-lab lays out all your Chapter Points nice and pretty.
Export Chapters
This option writes out a plain text file that indicate exactly where
all the Chapter Points are. The file extension can be .TXT or .CHP.
It looks like this, for example:
00:00:12:000
00:00:20:000
00:00:24:000
00:00:48:000
There is no reason why an Author couldn't type this up manually
if it gained them some advantage.
Delete All Chapters

Rather self explanatory – it gets rid of all Chapter Points in a
Movie.
Set Chapter Lag

A bit of timeline tweaking here. For Chapter Points that are set on
GOP timecode (Red markers) rather than I-frames (Green
markers), the Chapter start may not be exactly where you like
them in real time, by playing a bit of the previous Chapter. Select
a Chapter Point first by clicking on the Red color marker on the
timeline. Right-Click for the Movie context menu, Select Chapter
Lag for this dialog box. This feature has no effect on I-frame Green
markers.
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A zero will be shown as the Frame Index for a GOP timecode

(Red) marker. This option allows the Author to set the playing of
a Chapter to start either one second after or one second before the
displayed Chapter Time. When set, this parameter displays in
parentheses, to the right of the chapter time above the Chapter
Point marker when selected.
The Add Lag Time to all chapters feature is not immediately

apparent, as it happens to all chapter during Compile. This value
ins in seconds, positive seconds play after the Chapter Point,
negative seconds play before the Chapter Point.
Set Drop Frames
A radio button selection for whichever format the Video content is

in. If you are not sure you are using a Drop Frame format, use the
default Non-Drop Frame. Timing or Sync errors may be evident if
the wrong format is selected. Drop Frame is also referred to as
29.97fps.
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Frame Index All Chapters

This features builds an I-Frame Index for the Movie if no Index
has yet been created, then sets defined Chapter Points on I-
Frames. This only need be done once and can improve the
Chapter Point marker accuracy over time based (Red) markers.
When a Frame Index is present for a Movie, marking Chapter
Points results in a Green diamond marker on the Movie timeline.
Other Movie context Menu options

Zoom In & Zoom Out
When Clicked, will increase or decrease the horizontal frame size
only.
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Page 128
DVD-lab User Guide Chapter 8 - Work Area / Slideshows
Chapter 8 - Work Area /

Slideshows
New to v1.3 is the Slideshow, a collection of still images arranged

with specific display time durations and with an optional audio
background. A Slideshow is a container object, similar to a Movie,
that appears in the Connections window and within the Project
tree. Each Slideshow object can contain up to 99 images, however
a Project can have as many Slideshow objects as you like.
Slideshow objects are treated in the same manner as you have

been treating Movies, they are quite similar. As such, Slideshows
can be the destination of a Menu link just like a Movie;
Slideshows can also be linked in connections to another Slideshow
as a seamless series and have a RET path drawn.
As with many features in DVD-

lab, there are a couple of ways to
accomplish the same task. The
same is true here regarding
adding a new Slideshow. Add a
new Slideshow either by Right-
Clicking on Slides within the
Project window for Add
Slideshow.
Or, from the DVD-lab menu: Slide-Show / Add New.
A new, empty Slideshow object is added as “Show 1”.
To rename a Slideshow object within the Project tree, select the

Object name and hit <F2> for a name edit. To rename a Slideshow
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Chapter 8 - Work Area / Slideshows DVD-lab User Guide
within the Connections window, select the object and hit <F2> for
a name edit or Right-Click for a context menu, choose Rename.
Connections window, Right-Click Rename for Slideshow
With a new Slideshow object created, let's start making our

Slideshow content. Along the top of the Slideshow Preview
window are six control buttons, most of the features are also
available via the DVD-lab Slide-Show menu pulldown.
The Slideshow Preview window

If a Slideshow Preview window is not shown, Double-Click on the
Slideshow name in the Project tree or Connections window.
Load/Add Folder
This presents a File Open dialog that is looking for a specific
folder that contains images that you want to import as your
Slideshow. All of them in that folder. It is a good idea to organize
you work ahead of time and have all these images all waiting in a
folder for that purpose.
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Load/Add Slide(s)
This presents a File Open dialog that is looking for a single file
that you want to import into your Slideshow. Note that using the
standard filename selection methods of <Ctrl>Click and
<Shift>Click will allows multiple file selections here.
Other ways to bring an image into the Slideshow are to Drag &
Drop an image from the Assets Images bin into the Slideshow
Edit timeline with the Slides tab open.
Remove Slide
As you might expect, this will remove the Slide in current view
from the Slideshow. It does not delete the file. Another way to
remove a Slide is to Click & Drag it off the Slideshow Edit
timeline, onto an unused grey Workspace.
Some tricks with Slide images

Dragging a Slide off the Slideshow Edit timeline, onto a Menu
effectively “moves” the image.
<Ctrl>Dragging a Slide off the Slideshow Edit timeline, onto a

Menu effectively “copies” the image.
Re-order or rearrange Slides on the Slideshow Edit timeline by

Dragging & Dropping them to a new position.
Remove All
This will remove ALL Slides in current Slideshow. It does not
delete the files.
Forward / Backward Arrows

The slideshow editor shows two blue arrows for moving the
current Slide display in either direction.
Show Safe Area

A toggle, similar to the screen mask shown in Menu editing. This
outlines the Action Safe and Title Safe areas on a standard 4:3
aspect TV set.
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Clean Thumbnail Files

The last item on the Menu – Slide-Show pull down, this feature
deletes some temporary thumbnail images, some minor
housekeeping.
Show Slideshow Edit Window

The last or right-most control button in the header of the
Slideshow Preview window, this is a toggle to show or hide the
detailed Slides Edit window.
The Slideshow Preview with Edit Window Docked
The Slideshow Edit window undocked

Slides tab
Within the Slides Edit window we can fine tune our presentation.
First by adding, deleting or moving Slides within the timeline. A
single Audio track (DVD legal) can be added to the Slide show by
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Drag & Dropping the filename from the Assets bin directly into
the Audio track indicated by the pale green Audio button.
Remove an Audio track by clicking on the [X] button within the
light green Audio track.
Slides Settings tab
The Author has a setting choice initially as to how to fit ALL

images, whatever their size, into a Slide frame. Coming from a
strong graphics heritage, DVD-lab can handle the fitting of an
image automatically and quite favorably. Note that the settings in
this tab are applied to ALL Slides globally within each Slideshow.
Fit Image
Full Screen – use all of the available screen area.
Crop to 16:9 – if your Project is in 16:9 aspect, this setting will fit
images to the wider format, similar to setting Full Screen for 16:9.
Without this setting in a 16:9 Slideshow, a 4:3 aspect image will be
displayed with black on both sides. See Project / Project
Properties / (Menu/Slideshow Aspect) to set the aspect.
Action Safe area – this will fit images to the outside dashed box.
Title Safe area – this will fit images to the inside dashed box.
Portrait Images
Show as Portrait – this will fit the image to it's tallest aspect,
maximizing the vertical.
Crop to Landscape – this will fit the image to it's widest aspect,
maximizing the horizontal.
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Effects
Drop Shadow – an appropriate Drop Shadow will be applied to
the Slide images. This is only effective on non-Full Screen modes
and works best when a non-black background has been applied.
Adding a Background Image

We have the option of replacing the black background of a
Slideshow with one of our Background images. This Background
image would then be applied globally to all images in this
Slideshow. To do this, Drag & Drop a Background image from the
Background Assets bin onto the Slideshow Preview window, not
the Slides Edit track (it would become a Slide).
Background, Action Safe, Portrait, Drop Shadow applied

Slideshow backgrounds are only effective if the image being
displayed has some black border around it, that would be
replaced by a nice background. A Full Screen or 16:9 (full screen)
would then not be applicable. When backgrounds are utilized,
consider trying the Effects / Drop Shadow setting.
Removing a Background Image

Right-Click on the Slideshow Edit track for a context menu, select
Remove Background.
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Text tab
In contrast to the Settings which are global for all images, we can
add a text object (or not) to individual Slides as a narrative or
caption. With the Slide of interest being shown in the Slideshow
Preview window, click the Text tab for the above entry box. Enter
text there as you normally would, text can be multi-line if needed.
Text will be automatically placed centered, justified at the bottom
of the Action Safe area.
We have lots of choices as to how the text looks, a Font Size value
(default 50) and Set Font Button provide access to setting the Font
type and optional Bold / Italic settings. A style option gives us
these choices for the text appearance:
Note that while each individual slide can have individually set
Text content, these Font and Style settings are globally applied for
all Slides in this Slideshow.
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Time tab
The important Default Slide Duration in seconds is set here. This

value will be the duration for any Slide not manually set in Fine
Adjust.
Total SlideShow Time – a set of three values: Hours : Minutes :

Seconds, that you can modify with the Up / Down arrows at the
top or bottom of the value. This value was initially calculated as
the number of Slides times Default Slide Duration. Changing this
Total will result in DVD-lab re-calculating the Default Slide
Duration to fit.
The complete opposite of this time tweaking is to have an Audio

track in place within the Slideshow and check Match Slides to
Audio Duration. This will then grey-out the manual time values
and set the entire Slideshow's duration to that of the Audio's.
Very convenient to have DVD-lab calculate this for you to match a
song or a narration. Note that this duration matching calculation
does not change the duration of any slide manually set (as shown
in green in Fine Adjust), it re-calcs the non-manually set durations
so that the total is the same as the Audio duration.
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Fine Adjust tab
DVD-lab gives us some good control over the durations of our

slides, as represented here by this alternating color bar for each
successive slide. Click on any color bar segment for a mini image
of that Slide and a number of seconds duration shown above the
segment; our example fourth Slide is 14 seconds.
Hovering the mouse pointer over the grid area, we notice the
pointer turns into an I-bar. Use this pointer to Click & Drag the
time line verticals between slides to the right for longer durations
or left for shorter durations.
The green bars are those that we have changed from the default
duration. In the example above, the selected Slide segment was
changed to 14 seconds duration, note the (14) over the green
segment. Notice the graphic titled “The Slideshow Edit window
undocked” a few pages back, the 2nd Slide is marked (8s) and the
4th Slide marked (14s) to represent the manually changed
durations.
If you know you are going to want the entire Slideshow to match
the Audio in length, then first adjust individual segments here,
then revisit the Time tab to let DVD-lab figure out how to calc the
the rest of the Slide's durations to total correctly to match the
Audio length.
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Some Slideshow Strategies

As we have seen, DVD-lab gives the Author tremendous control
over the content and visual display of Slides within a Slideshow.
One thing we don't directly have is a real time preview, you will
need to Compile the Project and use a DVD playback software to
final proof your Slideshow in the DVD context for visuals and
audio presentation.
Syncing up Audio queues

While we have some very precise tools for setting Slide duration,
we don't have a way to listen to the Audio track in sync as DVD-
lab does not play Audio in sync in this release. If we needed a
certain Slide to appear at a specific point in time (like at 30
seconds) we can manipulate the Slides' durations so that queue
would line up. See the Slide Edit / Fine Adjust.
Linking To and From Slideshows

When first created, a Slideshow object is placed on the
Connections window without being linked to or from anything.
Without some link to it, the Slideshow would not be included in
the Compiled DVD Project. The same kinds of ways we link
Movies are applicable here.
Two Slideshow objects not linked to anything
Lets say we have 150 images to present in a Slideshow. Since there

is a maximum of 99 images per Slideshow, we just split the
images up, making two Slideshow objects: Show 1 and Show 2.
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First, we need a way for the viewer to navigate TO the first

Slideshow. Make a button on a Menu that points it's Link to Show
1, just like you would do for a Movie.
Now in Connections, click the Draw Links tool and draw a link
from the RET dot (right-middle) of Show 1 to the left side of the
Show 2 object. It should look something like this:
A button link from Menu 2 to Slideshow Show 1, then onto Show

2. This creates a playback path that would appear as one
continuous Slideshow to the viewer.
The last part of this exercise is to tell the Slideshow where to go

when the last object (Show 2) is completed. Note that if we did not
set a RET path, DVD-lab would do that for us, defaulting to
returning to the last Menu it encountered, Menu 2 in this example.
It is always best to specificly define your RET action, so Draw
Link from the RET dot of Show 2 to wherever you want the
viewer to wind up at after the Slideshow is completed.
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Slides are Chapters on Playback

One rather nice bonus of the Slideshow is that the Compiler
builds the Slideshow as a collection of Chapters. During
Playback, the player then presents each Slide as a Chapter. This
means if you want to get to Slide 82, navigate to Chapter 82 on the
viewer remote.
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DVD-lab User Guide Chapter 9 - Work Area / Menu editor
Chapter 9 - Work Area / Menu

editor
This is where most of the creative Authoring work on a DVD

project is designed.
Let's start with getting introduced to the numerous tools this

highly graphics oriented Menu editor presents us with. Hover
your mouse pointer over a tool to show it's function. Along the
left side of the window we see eleven tools to choose from:
Selection pointer
The well known arrow tool used to click on objects to select them.
Click another object or outside the Menu window to de-select.
Edit Shape
When a Cardinal Shape object is selected, this tool will allow
changes to the points of a Shape object. See Cardinal Shapes for
full details, as Edit Shape is bonded to that function.
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Chapter 9 - Work Area / Menu editor DVD-lab User Guide
3D Rotate
When an applicable object is selected, this tool will allow changes
to the rotational aspect of an object.
First, be aware that in order to stay DVD legal, everything on a

Menu is a form of rectangle. When selecting an object, however
irregular it may appear, DVD-lab will surround the object with a
edit bounding box, a rectangle, that we can use for this rotational
aspect editing.
Select any Menu object, then move the mouse pointer around the
object while holding down one of these three keys:
Hold <Shift> while rotating the object around the horizon or Y

axis. Notice a red line along the Y axis, within it a blue are
showing the amount of rotation.
Hold <Ctrl> while rotating the object around the vertical or X

axis. Notice a green line along the X axis, within it a blue are
showing the amount of rotation.
Hold <Alt> while rotating the object around in a circular motion

or Z axis, similar to a 2D rotation. No axis lines change color here.
To cancel all rotation features, Right-Click on the object and select

Reset Rotation.
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Text Tool (Text Entry dialog window)

Click this tool, then a click on a spot on the Menu to start typing
text into an editing window that immediately pops up. In that
window, you can define Font Size, Bold , Italic , Left / Center /
Right Justification. Text can be entered as multi-line if needed, a
simple <Enter> is all that is needed. Note that Double-Clicking on
any Text Object will bring up this Edit Text window for text entry.
Draw Rectangle
A standard graphics tool, this creates a filled rectangle that you
can stretch by it's handles to a desired size. Drawn in the Color /
Fill Color, which can be changed at any time. With this object
selected, Click & Drag any corner for resizing; hold <Shift> before
grabbing a corner for proportional resizing. All of the right side
Color Properties tab features are available for the selected object,
such as Fill Color, Drop Shadow and Transparency.
Draw Frame
Draw Frame is almost the same tool as the above Rectangle,
except this tool creates a hollow Rectangle outline of a fixed pixel
border width.
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Cardinal Shape
This tool provides a rather sophisticated point based shape
creation editor. Click on the tool from the left side bar, then start
setting down as many points of the object you would like to have,
by clicking to add a point. There are only two ways to complete
this function, (<Esc> doesn't work for this); either close the Shape
by clicking on the first point you set down, or Double-Click
anywhere to complete an Open Shape. Open Shapes are good for
squiggly lines or curves. Example of a Closed Shape:
Cardinal Shape in point based editing mode
Edit Shape tool

We can select a Cardinal Shape with the Selection Pointer, then
select the tool: Edit Shape, to get back to this point based editing.
Even easier is to just Double-Click a Shape to get into point based
editing mode. Recall that Right-Click context menu offers a Zoom
In /Zoom Out feature that may be useful here.
When presented in the above point editing mode, we can re-shape

the object by Click-Dragging any point as we see fit. There is no
option for adding new points or deleting existing points.
Menu / Break Path

To make a Closed Shape into an Open Shape, with the Shape
object selected, select Menu / Break Path. This will un-link the
first and last points entered, from which you can modify the
newly Open Shape.
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Notice that when we are in the point based editing mode, a new
slider appears on the right side Color Properties tab, that being
Shape Roundness. This directly and only relates to our Cardinal
Shapes.
Cardinal Shape with Shape Roundness applied
With the Shape object selected, slide the Shape Roundness slider
to the right for a more rounded shape, to the left for less rounded.
You can even draw out a precise square with 4 points via the
Cardinal Shape tool, then move this slider almost fully right; this
should result in a nice circle.
Also, be aware that in order to stay DVD legal, everything on a

Menu is a form of rectangle. When selecting a Cardinal Shape
object, however irregular it may appear, DVD-lab will surround
the object with a edit bounding box, a rectangle, that we can use
for rotational aspect editing or any of the Color Properties tab
features.
Feel free to go nuts with any combination of these features to

create interesting graphic objects for your Menus.
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Group Hotspot
This tool allows you to draw a rectangle around a group of
objects, which causes all objects behind the Group Hotspot
rectangle to act as a single Button, a kind of group Button or area
Button. This new Group Hotspot can have a Link defined for
itself.
Some creative uses for this feature are around Motion Buttons that
might be embedded into a background Video or making a live
button out of or over anything that really isn't a button. It's like a
“virtual button” just made out of a rectangle at certain screen
position. Note that no visual clue is given to the Viewer that this
Group Hotspot is selected.
Setting Links
A link is set for a selected Group Hotspot by either the Properties
/ Link / Button Link tab or Right-Click for a content menu of
places to Link this Group Hotspot to. Should you include one
existing linked button within the Group Hotspot, the Group
Hotspot then inherits that Link automatically. Should you
include more than one existing linked button within the Group
Hotspot, the Group Hotspot then inherits the first Link
automatically, and de-links the others.
When you delete a Group Hotspot, the Group Hotspot link and
any link within the Group Hotspot are all de-linked
automatically.
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Embedded Vector Object

This is a link option to use other Mediachance graphics tools such
as Real-DRAW Pro and DVD Menu Studio, if either have been
installed.
Create Lens Flare

This is an artistic graphic effect that causes the Menu image to
appear to have a burst of light on it.
A Lens Flare effect

This effect is created with the Lens Flare tool by clicking one point
on the Menu and dragging to another point to define the area the
Lens Flare effect will be made for. After the Lens Flare object is on
the Menu, it can be moved or resized like other objects.
Change Size
Any Menu object (including Lens Flares) can be resized precisely
with this dialog box:
Right-Click on the Menu object and select “Change Size” for

access to the above numeric parameters.
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Insert Chapter Still

Clicking this tool brings up a list of known Movie Start Points and
Chapter Points that you can link to, same as the Links tab does.
The difference here is that when an item is selected, DVD-lab

looks into the Movie and grabs a frame from the selected time that
it then places on the Menu for you. A pre-made Video image
based Button, is automatically created and linked. A very slick
feature. Now if I could just get it to make lunch.
Moving on to the tools at the top of the Menu editor.
Start Simulation
This option shows the mini-remote emulator just to test the 4
directional controls. Clicking Enter doesn't start a live Video or
Link, it just flashes White to show you what was hit.
Stop Simulation
Cancels the simulation and hides the mini-remote.
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Follow Links
This toggles whether the Menu will follow links during
Simulation. Clicking on a Link would then send you to the Link
destination Movie or Menu, etc.
The four tools below are standard object graphics tools having to
do with layers of images being on top of one another and work on
a pointer selected object. These tools are most useful in the context
of the Layrs (Layers) tab.
Bring To Front
Pushes the object to the very front or top of the layers.
Send to Back
Pushes the object to the very back or bottom of the layers.
Bring Forward
Pushes the object one layer up.
Send Backward
Pushes the object one layer down.
Center Horizontally
Moves the selected object to the center of the horizontal plane.
Center Vertically
Moves the selected object to the center of the vertical plane.
Show/Hide Properties
A toggle to show or hide the entire right side panel of the Menu
editor, useful to get some extra screen real estate to work in.
Motion & Audio Tracks

A toggle to show or hide the band at the Menu editor bottom that
shows the Motion & Audio Tracks.
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Show Navigation Links

This brings up a sub-Menu for these choices of what to see or not
see.
Show from Selected Object means only show links for the one
Object that is selected. The opposite is to Show All links for all
Object. You may also select any of the four vector directions to
exclusively shows links for.
Auto-Route Checkbox
When checked, DVD-lab will automatically make a logical routing
order for the Menu Buttons, such as 1-2-3 then back to 1.
Unchecking this checkbox, allows the Author to manually draw

their own links using a tool for each of the four vectors:
Draw Up Link
Draw Down Link
Draw left Link
Draw Right Link
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The Menu / Properties Tabs

When the Menu / Properties are shown, there are five tab set
panes that have their tab controls running vertically to the right of
the Menu itself.
Note that the entire Properties window can be un-docked and

used as a separate floating window. Double-Click on the top bar
by “Properties” to toggle this window as docked or un-docked.
When un-docked this window could even be dragged to another
monitor if you have two monitors on a dual-headed Video card.
Let's start at the top most Tab for Color.
The Menu / Properties / Color Tab
Fill Color
We notice the most used feature first as the Fill Color. When an
object is selected on the Menu, this determines it's color. Though
names “Fill Color” it is not just for filling a rectangle, it is used to
set the Color for any Menu object. Images are best set to
“Automatic” to leave their Color alone.
This Color can be automatic or from a short list of preset Colors,

the More Colors options allows a wider selection palette or a
completely custom color. Clicking into the Color bar brings up a
selection of three Color options: Automatic, 40 standard colors or
More Colors.
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The Fill Color / More Colors optional pallete
Choosing “More Colors” will open the above Color dialog for
even more Standard Colors or a Custom Color definition.
Drop Shadow
Next we see the popular Drop Shadow option for placing a
shadow behind a Menu object automatically, so that it appears to
have an added dimension as if light was shining on it. This is
often used when the background reduces the contrast of text. A
small black Drop Shadow on text can often make it more readable
on a TV screen.
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Next is another Color Selector, this time for the Shadow itself, the
Shadow Color Selector. Usually a Shadow defaults to Black, but
it doesn't have to. You can create some artistic effects using
different colors for the Shadow.
Under the Shadow Color Selector are two related Shadow controls
slider bars. The first controls the distance of the Shadow from the
object. Under that is a slider for the intensity of the Shadow
Color.
Transparency
Last on the Color tab is the Transparency slider. This controls the
transparency of the object and it's shadow if one exists.
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The Menu / Properties / Link Tab

Used to define what the player should play when the viewer
selects a Menu option.
Button Link
Set by default to NOP (No
OPeration) clicking the
Button Link button brings up
a submenu of known Movie
Starts, Chapter Points or
Slideshows that you can link
your selected object to.
Select the Button Link for a list of places to Link to
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Button Visibility
These attribute options are available for Button Visibility:
Certainly, the default for most objects will be Visible. A Visible

object will be highlighted with the defined Map Set colors.
The Button Visibility attribute options offer a lot of visual

creativity and the possibility to create hidden features, even the so
called “Easter Eggs”.
Invisible Normal
Doesn't show on the background, but does show when selected,
only the highlighted image is shown.
Invisible Selected
Does show on the background, but when selected it doesn't show
the highlighted image.
Invisible All
Doesn't show on the background or when selected. This might be
used for a hidden feature “Easter Egg” as the viewer will never
see it, but it is a valid Linkable object.
The most interesting of these attributes is Invisible Normal. The

author could design a rectangle or line that only appears when
selected with this feature. You could also apply Invisible Normal
attribute to a Frame for a dynamic visual effect, the frame would
only appear as highlighted when selected.
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Button Action
Auto Action
The Auto Action checkbox

The feature called Auto Action means that upon playing a DVD
Menu with a Menu object having this feature checked as on, when
the viewer points to the Auto Action type Menu object, it is
immediately selected as though the viewer hit their remote
Enter key.
Software players may show such a Menu selection as highlighted

when a mouse hovers. Hovering doesn't do it. The viewer needs
to actively hit arrow keys to point to a Menu object, which will
then send the viewer to whatever the Link for the Auto Action
type Button was set to.
When the Auto Action checkbox is set it causes the tiny print on
the bottom left of the object to be displayed as green.
In a small way, this feature changes the standard DVD player user
interface and should be used with good judgment as a special
navigation feature.
Button Label
Shown as Text or Video Still by default, you can type a text value
into this box to define a custom Button Label. The reason you
might do this is that within DVD-lab, a Button Label is used for
it's Menu Templates and Menu Styles.
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Options
Lock Position checkbox
As you might expect, checking this checkbox, keeps the position
of the Menu object from moving when checked. A locked object
displays a red “LOCKED” on a black marker indicating it is
locked.
Though this attribute appears on the Link tab, it applies to any

Menu object.
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The Menu / Properties / Map Tab

This Map (Color) Tab provides the Author with quite a bit of
control as to the value of the Colors used in navigation of the
DVD Menu Button objects only.
The Menu / Map (Color) Tab
Button Hi-lite Group

We can define a Button object to be in one of three color groups 1,
2 or 3; known as E1, E2 and P in DVD-speak. All Buttons are set
to Group 3 (P), by default. Each group being a defined preset or
Color relationship, saved with the project.
Checking Antialiased forces only one Color set (group 3), which
will be a combination of all three, having it's video features
smoothed out. The tradeoff is that the edges of a highlight may
look a bit better, but you only have one Hi-Lite Group to choose
from.
Color Map
The first control shows left-right arrows, defaulting to the
“Selected” values as we see in the above picture. Click the left
arrow for the “Normal” values or click the right arrow for the
“Activated” values. We can define values for Normal”,
“Selected”, “Activated” within Groups 1, 2 or 3. This grouping
makes Color assignments highly consistent and easily applied. It
would make sense to set all of the Buttons on a Menu to the same
Color Map Group (1,2,3) though they don't have to be all the same
Group number.
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For each of the attribute sets there are 3 Color selection boxes that
relates to Groups 1,2,3 and a transparency slider for that Color.
Double-Click the Color box for a selection of the 16 system colors.
The slider at the left most position means 100% transparency,
while the right most position means 0% transparency.
Note : See Project / Project Properties / Palette to set the standard

16 colors to use throughout your project. These are the 16 colors
presented in the 1-2-3 Color selection boxes.
The “Normal state” values relate to the Color attributes when a

Menu object is not selected. We usually want to leave these alone,
and as such all the attributes here default to 100% transparency.
The “Selected state” values are the ones we are most interested
in. This sets the Color and transparency that is used when the
player navigates the Menu, to indicate to the viewer by Color,
where the current selection is pointed to. We want to be sure this
Color is in high contrast to the Menu object and Background, so
that it will be obvious where the player's current selection is.
The “Activated state” values relate to the Color and transparency

that is used when the viewer hits the remote “Enter” key to
Activate a link. Notice that the default Group 3 is set to White on
Activate? During Menu Simulation, we saw a flash of White when
we hit the Enter Button on the mini-remote. That's where this is
used. It doesn't show up in the DVD program, and that's OK since
the player would immediately jump to the Link anyway.
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The Menu / Properties / PBC Tab
Let's call this Play Back Control.
Here is where a lot of the very advanced authoring flow control

features are set up. Where some of the real creative things that
make the DVD medium interesting as an interactive medium are
developed.
Note: the two “Btn” values relate to Menu Button numbers, which
start at 1 for the first, and can be set to be visible via the Menu /
Show Button Order toggle set on. This option is a toggle to show
or not show a little marker on the top left of each Menu Button to
indicate their order. When set on, the Menu item is shaded with
the system selection color, in this case Yellow.
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Menu Playback
Timeout / Still time
This is a value set in number of seconds. It determines the

“timeout” value, as the number of seconds to wait for the viewer
to make a selection, after which a timeout condition is sensed and
some action can be programmed. These actions can be either to
jump to another Menu (via Connections) or jump to the Force
Activate Btn if defined.
The prompt shows Timeout unless a Motion Menu is loaded, in

which case the prompt shows Still Time, as shown on the
previous page.
Note: You can set the Timeout value to 255 to indicate "inf" or
Infinite, meaning it never times out. This is the default. Don't type
the timeout value "inf" to set it back to Infinite. Even though the
value "inf" shows in the dialog box, it is interpreted as 0 (zero).
Force Select Btn

This value defines the Button number which is made the first
Button selected in the Menu, normally the first Button - Button 1.
This value defaults to zero, meaning no override of the first
selected Button is needed. You can however, set a valid Button
number greater than zero value here to tell the player which
Button to select first, if other than 1.
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Force Activate Btn

Notice the Force Activate Btn parameter which defines which
Button number to activate when this Menu times out. In this
example, if nothing happens on the viewer end after the Timeout
value in seconds, the player is instructed to Activate whatever
Button 4 is programmed to do. The completion of a Motion Video
is also considered a “timeout”.
This is a best of both worlds user interface feature. You can set up
a Menu to wait patiently for the viewer to pick something and
then gracefully send them to a good place if nothing was selected.
In this way, you can still get your main feature to automatically
start playing and also give the user interactive Menu choices.
Audio
A Menu can have it's own Audio track associated, to play as
background while the Menu is being viewed. Here is where we
define which Audio track to use from our Video & Audio Assets
bin. Audio is added by Drag & Dropping the Audio filename
form Assets bin onto the face of the menu or the Motion Menu /
audio track. Audio is removed either by the below displayed [Del]
button or by clicking the [X] shown on the Motion Menu / Audio
track. The Menu times out at the completion of the Motion Menu
if one is present, even if the Audio track is of different length.
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Motion Menu
A Menu can have it's own Video track associated, to play as
background while the Menu is being viewed. This Motion Menu
replaces the still image background. Here is where we define
which Video track to use from our Video & Audio Assets bin.
The Menu times out at the completion of the Motion Menu if one
is present.
Motion & Audio tracks

An area at the bottom of the Menu editor is available to work with
the Audio and Motion Menu tracks.
This area is made visible by the toggle control at the top of the
Menu editor labeled: Motion & Audio tracks.
The Motion Menu tracks window un-docked
Loading a Motion Menu or Audio background track

All we need do to load either a Motion or Audio track is to Drag
& Drop a Video file or a Audio file from our Assets bin onto the
Motion or Audio track respectively. We can even drop the Video
file or a Audio file directly onto the face of the Menu and DVD-lab
will know what to do with it.
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Note: We can play the Audio in the Audio track here just by
giving it a click which will call up the associated Windows player
for that file type. Same as Double-Clicking in the Assets bin.
Replacing or Deleting a track

We can “re-drop” another file on one of these tracks, we don't
need to delete it first. However, should we decide we really don't
want any file sitting in our tracks, hit the “Del” Button alongside
the file name within the PBC Tab – or click the (X) on the track.
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Strategies for using Motion Menu or Audio background

tracks
When we load in a Motion Menu Video, DVD-lab reminds us:
As this event makes such important changes, it is best to develop

a Menu that will have a Motion Menu by dropping in the Motion
Menu Video FIRST. Otherwise you could clobber some images
and text without realizing it. Consider a “Save” before doing this.
As the message reminds us, all the items in the “Normal state” a
relates to the Map tab / Color Map, will now be displayed. A non-
Motion Menu will work with the Normal stage objects as we see
them in the Menu editor. A Motion Menu makes all Normal stage
objects invisible, only showing their highlight as Selected mode.
For an Audio background track only

You have two choices as to which way to go to deal with the
timeout condition.
1) When an Audio track is in place as a background track, DVD-

lab automatically forces the timeout length to be the length of that
Audio track. The timeout value here has no meaning and can be
set to zero. The timeout condition will occur at the end of playing
the Audio track.
You need to load an Audio track, set Timeout to 0 (zero), then set
the Force Activate Btn to what Button's link should be activated
on timeout. Alternately, you can skip setting Force Activate Btn if
the Menu is linked to go someplace other than itself in
Connections when a timeout occurs.
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2) Without an Audio track is in place (or a Motion Menu), the

Timeout value sets the number of seconds for the Timeout
condition to occur.
For a Motion Menu Video track only

The Motion Menu's Video length overrides any Timeout (or Still
Image) value with it's own length in seconds. The Timeout (or Still
Image) number has no meaning if a Motion Menu Video is in
place.
For both a Motion Menu track and an Audio background

track.
The rule here is that Video wins.
The length of the Video track always takes precedence over the
Audio track. So that means the combined Video and Audio tracks
are determined in length by the Video track's length.
Video strategies with Motion Menu Videos

As we saw above dropping a Video into the Motion Menu track
gets us a whole new layout. We may consider making some
simple text Buttons over the Video that are represented in the
Normal state color as set by the Map Tab / Color Map.
We could also draw up some Frames or Rectangles to represent

selection areas over the Video that would be visible to the viewer.
Pseudo Motion Buttons

As a roundabout way to make live Motion Buttons, we could get
real creative and make one special Video to be used as the Motion
Menu that in fact had embedded into it representative clips of the
Videos they would play. Like like mini previews.
Use EditStudio or Vegas or Premiere or whatever you like to

produce an MPEG file of that content and then use the resulting
Video file as the Motion Menu Video, building frames or Group
Hotspots around wherever the embedded Videos are. This will
then appear to the viewer as a Motion Button. DVD-lab provides a
built-in way to accomplish this, see Render Motion.
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The Menu / Properties / Layers Tab

Though labeled as “Lyrs” we know DVD-lab means Layers by the
familiar layered object user interface.
A number of mini icons will display within the layer. An eye if

visible, an cursor on a Button for a Linked Button, a red lock for
position locked, and a yellow A for Auto Action. These mini icons
are a good way to quickly visually manage Menu objects.
The various layers in our Menu here are comprised of Text or

Video Still type objects. Directly related to these layers are the
four controls on top of the Menu editor screen for:
Bring To Front
Pushes the object to the very front or top of the layers.
Send to Back
Pushes the object to the very back or bottom of the layers.
Bring Forward
Pushes the object one layer up.
Send Backward
Pushes the object one layer down.
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The way the layers are organized determines how they appear as
who is on top of who. We can change the order of the Layers not
by dragging them but by using the four layering controls. When
repositioned the Layers Tab will redisplay their order. Clicking on
a Layer makes that Layers's object automatically selected.
Note: We can Double-Click a Text type layer to bring up the Text

dialog with options for content, fonts, size and justification.
Double-Click a Text type layer for this Edit Text window
Note that you can Right-Click on a Layer, select Copy, Right-Click

on another Layer, select Paste Attributes for any features to copy
between Layers.
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DVD-lab User Guide Chapter 10 - The Preview Window
Chapter 10 - The Preview

Window
This is the viewing port for your Video content. Audio content is
not played here, just Double-Click on the Audio file in the Assets
bin to hear it playback with associated Windows player for it's file
type.
docked into the screen by Double-Clicking it's title bar. The
Preview window is a real good candidate for undocking to
increase it's size or place onto another monitor in a dual monitor
system.
Note: When docked on bottom-right, there is a horizontal sizing

bar that runs the length of the screen above the normal position of
the Preview and Assets windows. You can Click & Drag this
sizing bar to use more or less screen real estate as needed. There is
also a vertical sizing bar between the Preview and Assets
windows.
To play a Video or Movie

Starting with the Assets bin, Video & Audio tab, either Double-
Click or Click & Drag a Video file name into the Preview window.
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Chapter 10 - The Preview Window DVD-lab User Guide
For Movies, all you need to do is make the Movie you want to see
as the active window in the Work Area. Try the Projects window
for easy navigation of Movies.
Controls at the top of the Preview window include from left to

right: Play, Fast Forward, Stop, Previous I-Frame, Next I-Frame,
Add Chapter Point, Auto-Chapters, Trim End of the Movie and
Time-Code.
Play, Fast Forward, Stop do just as you might expect.
Previous I-Frame, Next I-Frame navigate 15 frame units at a time,

essentially half seconds. You can also just use the left-right cursor
keys to navigate the same way.
Add Chapter Point

Mark a Chapter Point simply by clicking the Add Chapter Point
control at any point where the Video is stopped at. Notice the red
tick mark now set in the Chapters banner of the Movie 1. We now
know where the start of Chapter 1 is. Also, just hit the <Spacebar>
to Add Chapter Point any place where the Video is stopped at.
Timecode or I-Frame Markers

For Movies that have not had a I-Frame-Index built for them, the
Chapter Points are timecode markers and represented by a Red
marker as shown above. For Movies that have had a I-Frame-
Index built for them, the Chapter Points are time on I-Frame
markers and represented by a Green diamond marker on the
Movie timeline. In DVD speak, the timecode marker represents
GOP (Group Of Pictures), the I-Frame is an internal MPEG index.
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DVD-lab User Guide Chapter 10 - The Preview Window
Auto-Chapters
See the previous section on Movie / Auto-Chapters by Scene
Detection as this is the identical feature.
Trim End of the Movie

This option will chop off only the end of a movie after the point
where the Movie is stopped at. See Movie / Trim End for more
details.
Time-Code
A toggle to show or hide the numerical display of
hours:minutes:seconds:frames at the bottom center of the Preview
window.
Preview window Instant Images

A special graphics integration feature of is available via the
Preview window. With a Video loaded and stopped any Video
frame we like, DVD-lab will grab that frame and make an instant
Preview window onto the Assets / Images bin for a new Image or
Shift-Click & Drag onto an open Menu editor for an instant
Background image.
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Chapter 10 - The Preview Window DVD-lab User Guide
Page 172
DVD-lab User Guide Chapter 11 - The Assets Window
Chapter 11 - The Assets

Window
Last in our DVD-lab tour (only because we went clockwise) is the

Assets window, a series of Tabs that serve as bins for the various
components of our project. Some of the Tabs contain libraries of
Backgrounds, Objects, Clips or Music that are shared between all
Projects, the rest such as Video & Audio are populated as needed
and saved with each Project individually.
The Assets Bins

Notice there are 4 navigation controls at the bottom left of the
window. These are used to help select which Asset Tab is to be the
current active bin. We can move the visible list of Asset Tabs one
right with the right arrow, to the end with right-end mark, one
Asset Tab left with the left arrow and to the start of the list (Video
& Audio) with the left-end mark. We can also select an Asset Tab
directly by clicking it's Tab name if visible.
Note: When docked at the bottom-left, there is a horizontal sizing

bar that runs the length of the screen above the normal position of
the Preview and Assets windows. You can Click & Drag this
sizing bar to use more or less screen real estate as needed. There is
also a vertical sizing bar between the Preview and Assets
windows.
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Chapter 11 - The Assets Window DVD-lab User Guide
There are nine controls along the top of the Assets window which
offer the following features:
File Browser
This brings up a standard Windows style File Browser into the
Work Area. From there you can navigate to find files, and then
drag & drop them into the current active Asset bin. A simple
Double-Click on a DVD compliant filename will bring it directly
into your Assets bin as well. DVD-lab will exclude invalid file
types and offer Demultiplexing services for some Video file types
when drag & dropped. DVD-lab will also issue warning or error
messages when a file is brought in that is not DVD compliant in
some way.
Import Files
This brings up a standard windows style File Open box, looking
for these file 13 types: *.m2p; *.m2v; *.mpv; *.mpg; *.mpeg;
.vob;*.vro; *.mpa; *.ac3; *.mp2; *.m2a; *.dts; *.wav
These are the file types that DVD-lab expects to work with. Recall
that the Author is expected to have transcoded or converted all
their Asset files to a DVD compliant form, before bringing them
into DVD-lab for final assembly. Some of the system or
multiplexed files will or can be demultiplxed on the fly, such as
MPEG and VOB types.
Remove Asset
With an Asset file selected in the current active Asset bin, click
this control or just hit the <Delete> key to remove an Asset from
the bin. This does not delete the file from disk within the Video &
Audio bin, which is tied to each Project. All other Asset bins will
delete the file from disk.
Audio Transcode
See the section on Tools / Transcode Audio as this is the same
function.
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Audio Delay
For AC-3 and MPA audio only. See Chapter 7 - Work Area /
Movies / Audio Delay as this is the same function. In the Assets
bin, this button will create a new Audio file, based on the +/-
Audio Delay factor set. Within a Movie container it's Right-Click
/ Audio Delay which is more meaningful as relating Audio to a
specific Video content.
Parse MPEG stream

See the section on Tools / MPEG Parse as this is the same
function.
Bitrate Viewer
With a Video file selected in the Video & Audio tab, click this
control to view an analysis of the bit rate requirements for the
specific Video.
This may help in setting a lower or higher Video bitrate to more

efficiently use the available bandwidth, since you can now see
what the content requires. Notice each Video's Average Bitrate is
displayed as the right most column in the Video & Audio Assets
bin.
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Switch Asset Thumbnail / Text

Valid on all Asset Tabs except Video & Audio, this control is a
toggle between presenting the bin displayed as Thumbnail images
or as Text file names.
The thumbnail text display mode
Certainly the bin we will use most often, wisely made the first &
default bin. We drop all of our DVD compliant Video & Audio
files into this bin to organize what we have to work with. This bin
is not a folder on the disk where files are copied to. It is a logical
area that keeps pointers to the real files for you, saving this file
structure along with your project.
Recall at the start of this document we were showing the Auto-

Demultiplex feature? Here is where those Demultiplexed files
appear , ready to then be dragged into Movies, Menus or the
Connections window.
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Deleting an Asset file

Assets can be deleted from the Video & Audio bin by first
selecting their filename, then either click the red (X) control or
simply hit the <Delete> key. Deleting an Asset like this does not
delete the actual file from your disk, it just removes the pointer in
our Video & Audio bin.
Viewing or Listening to an Asset file

You can view a Video file by double-clicking the file name or
dragging a file name into the Preview window, then hit the Play
control.
You can listen to an Audio file by double-clicking the file name for
playback with an associated Windows player for it's file type.
Adding a Movie into your Project

The most straight forward way to add a Movie to your project in
DVD-lab is to drag the Video Asset filename directly onto the
Connections window, answer Yes to “Create New Movie Title?”
and a Movie container is instantly made. Alternately, drag the
Video Asset filename directly into an open Movie container.
Using either of these methods there is now a Movie container
known to the project.
Instant Motion Menu

Should you want to use a Video as a Motion Menu Video, just
drag it directly onto a Menu open in the Menu Editor. DVD-lab
will drop that Video into the Motion Menu Video track for you.
Instant Background Image

background image. Shift-Click & Drag from the Preview window
onto the an open Menu editor for an instant Background image.
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The Backgrounds Asset bin
The Backgrounds Asset bin
Here are a selection of Backgrounds images that are made for

DVD Menus, as supplied from Mediachance. These images are
loaded into the DVD-lab/Backgrounds folder when the program
is installed as .bkg and .tmb files. These file types are used with
other Mediachance graphics programs.
With the Menu editor active in the work Area, just drag a
Background image into the Menu and that's it.
Add your own Backgrounds

Right Click in this bin for the Import tool or just click the Import
tool for a File open dialog looking to find these image file types:
*.jpg; *.png; *.bmp; *.tga; *.psd; *.pcd; all of which can be used as a
DVD background within DVD-lab.
Note that Background images should be 720 by 540 pixels. Yes,

we recall that the DVD/NTSC format is 720 by 480 pixels, why
the subtle difference? Pixel shapes are a little different on
computer and TV, when you stretch the 720 by 540 pixels into a
720 by 480 pixels box, the proportions are considered to be more
correct. The .png format is popular for use as a DVD Background
file type and is the file format DVD-lab supplies.
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With a file found, DVD-lab will ask you if you would like to
permanently copy this file into the DVD-lab/Backgrounds folder.
You need to click Yes, this adds the new file to the Backgrounds
library for all future projects.
You can also close DVD-lab and just move any Background
images you like into the DVD-lab/Background folder. These
newly added files will be available in the Background bin the next
time you open DVD-lab.
Preview window Instant Backgrounds

Preview window onto the Assets / Backgrounds bin for an instant
Background image added to the bin.
DVD-lab makes a 720x540 .jpg file named image.jpg for you in the
DVD-lab/Backgrounds folder.
Deleting a Background
Backgrounds can also be deleted with the Delete tool found at the
Assets bin top or on the Right-Click context Menu. Unlike the
Video & Audio Bin, this deletion does delete a file from it's source
folder.
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The Objects bin
The Objects bin
A selection of usable graphic items are installed by DVD-lab as

libraries in the Objects tab. Within this area are five sub-bin
folders containing Arrows, Bullets, Buttons, Frames and Other.
Most of these items are transparent, as indicated by the black
background.
When Dragged & Dropped on a Menu, these items can easily be

moved or resized. Use Shift-Click and Drag on any corner of a
selection box to resize an item proportionally.
Add your own Objects

First, open one of the five sub-bin folders within the Objects Tab.
Right Click in this bin for the Import tool or just click the Import
tool for a File open dialog looking to find these image file types:
*.jpg; *.png; *.bmp; *.tga; *.psd; *.pcd; all of which can be used as a
graphic item within DVD-lab. The standard format for the
included Object graphics are transparent .png files. The included
items were built with Mediachance's REAL-Draw.
Adding Photoshop PSD files as Objects

We can now import Photoshop .psd files, preserving their
transparency and allowing precise options for dealing with
Layers, which is how PSD files are typically designed. When
DVD-lab encounters a PSD file to Import to Objects it prompts:
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Choosing the Yes option will then ask to replace or append layers.
The result is now we have all the Photoshop Layer objects lined
up with our Menu Layers to do with as we please. The 1.1
version did not support this Import as well as is now
implemented.
With a file found, DVD-lab will ask you if you would like to
permanently copy this file into the DVD-lab/Objects folder. You
need to click Yes, this adds the new file to the Objects library for
all future projects. As the DVD-lab Objects folder is a real folder
on you disk, you can add your own folders under the DVD-
lab/Objects folder. This new folder will be available the next time
you open DVD-lab.
Objects can also be deleted with the Delete tool found at the
folder.
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The Images bin
When first installed, the Images bin is just an empty folder,

actually the DVD-lab/Images folder. The Author can Import most
image formats here, either using the Right Click in this bin for the
Import tool or just click the Import tool for a File open dialog
looking to find these image file types: *.jpg; *.png; *.bmp; *.tga;
*.psd; *.pcd; all of which can be used as an Image within DVD-lab.
A very good feature DVD-lab offers is to load up a Video or

Movie in the Preview window, then just drag an Image from the
Preview window directly into the Images bin for an instant shot of
your Video or Movie. These images make great Buttons to drag
onto a Menu, then be Linked to the Movie or Chapter they
represent.
You can also close DVD-lab and just move any graphics you like
into the DVD-lab/Images folder. These newly added images will
be available the next time you open DVD-lab.
Objects can also be deleted with the Delete tool found at the
folder.
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The Clips bin

When first installed, the Clips bin is a folder with only a few files
in it, actually the DVD-lab/Clips folder. As a live folder, this bin
was meant to hold some small clips of Video like intros or logos,
that are often re-used. It is not for your major Assets. A warning
appears when attempting to import files over 15 meg here.
The Author can Import most Video formats here, either using the
Right-Click in this bin for the Import tool or just click the Import
tool for a File open dialog looking to find Video file types which
can be used within DVD-lab.
You can also close DVD-lab and just move any Video files you
like into the DVD-lab/Clips folder. These newly added files will
be available in the Clips bin the next time you open DVD-lab.
Clips can also be deleted with the Delete tool found at the Assets
bin top or on the Right-Click context Menu. Unlike the Video &
Audio Bin, this deletion does delete a file from it's source folder.
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The Music bin
When first installed, the Music bin is a folder with a few MPA
Audio files in it, actually the DVD-lab/Music folder. As a live
folder, this bin was meant to hold some small Music clips like
intros or corporate themes, that are often re-used by any Project. It
is not for your major Assets. A warning appears when attempting
to import files over 15 meg here.
The Author can Import most Audio formats here, either using the
Right-Click in this bin for the Import tool or just click the Import
tool for a File open dialog looking to find Audio file types which
can be used within DVD-lab.
You can also close DVD-lab and just move any Audio files you
like into the DVD-lab/Music folder. These newly added files will
be available in the Music bin the next time you open DVD-lab.
Music can also be deleted with the Delete tool found at the Assets
bin top or on the Right-Click context Menu. Unlike the Video &
Audio Bin, this deletion does delete a file from it's source folder.
***
Page 184
Alphabetical Index
AC-3 9, 12, 16, 34, 100, 121, 122, 175 Auto-Route Checkbox 74, 150
AC-3 encoding 99 AVI 5, 10, 91
Accept non-DVD sizes 65 Background from a Video 27
Action Safe area 133 Background image 27, 81, 171
Activated state 159 background motion Video 89
Add/Remove Audio Delay 122 Backgrounds Asset bin 178
Add Chapter Point 20, 123p., 170 Backgrounds bin 18
Add Empty Movie 121 Background Video 89
Add from Template 78 BeSweet 99
Add Images 28 Bit Bucket 34
Adding a Background Image 134 Bitrate Viewer 175
Adding a Movie into your Project 177 Blue lines 118
Adding content to the container 122 Blur More 77
Adding Photoshop PSD files as Objects 180 Blur Object 77
Add Lag Time 126 BMP file 82
Add Movie 121 Bring Forward 149
Add Scene Selection 8, 78p. Bring To Front 149
Add Slideshow 129 Burn DVD from Disk 26
Add Text items 27 Button 28
Add the result to Assets 69 Button Hi-lite Group 158
Add your own Backgrounds 178 Button Label 156
Add your own Objects 180 Button Link 23, 28, 154
Adobe Photoshop 11 Button Links 120
Allow (Quick MPEG re-mux) 64 Button Visibility 155
Allow Floating Windows load on Multiple Monitors Cardinal Shape 144
65 Cardinal Shape object 10, 141
Alternative (relaxed compliancy) 54 cascading menus 22
Alternative Engine 66 Center Horizontally 149
Antialiased 158 Center Vertically 149
Anti-aliasing 11 Change Size 29, 147
ask 80 Changing a Link 120
Assets Window 173 Chapter Point 19, 21, 55, 68, 70, 73, 125, 127
AUDIO_TS directory 25, 53 Chapter Point Image Menu Button 22
Audio background 114 Chapter Points 8, 12
Audio background track 165 Chapters Distribution Type 70
Audio content 169 Cinema Craft 5
Audio Delay 12, 17, 122, 175 CL (Command Line) file 99
Audio formats 184 Clean Thumbnail Files 132
Audio in Assets calls Associated application 66 Clips bin 183
Audio play 17 Coding Mode 103
Audio playback 66 color bar segment 137
Audio stream 103 Color Map 158
Audio track 162 Color Tab 18
Audio Transcode 174 Compile 56p., 126
Authoring 141 Compiled 26
Auto Action 156, 167 Compiled DVD Project 138
Auto-Chapters 124, 171 Compile DVD 24, 46
Auto Demultiplexing 8 Compile Options 55
Auto enter frame in Chapters if Frame-Index Exist Connection / Add Empty Menu 97
66 Connection / Add Empty Movie 97
Automatic 151 Connection / Show Button Links 96
Automatically Start Recording 56 Connection / Show Connections Window 96
Automatic Fill Color 92p. Connection / Show Jump Links 96
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Connection / Show Lines / Right Angle 96 DVD-Video File Formats 31

Connection / Show Lines / Straight lines 97 DVD Volume name 62
Connection / Show Pie 97 Edit / Copy 41
Connection Navigation – Drawing Button Links Edit / Paste 41
118 Edit / Paste Attributes 41
Connection navigation - For Menus 113 Edit / Redo 42
Connection navigation - For Movies and Slideshows Edit / Undo 42
115 Edit Guidelines 44
Connections 6, 12, 18, 24, 28, 49, 72 Edit Shape 141
Connections window 107p., 118, 120, 129 Edit Shape tool 144
Convert LPCM 12 EditStudio 5
Create/Use Frame-Index for better Chapters accuracy Effects / Drop Shadow 134
55 Elementary Stream 5, 9, 31p., 35, 101
Create Image 58 Embedded Vector Object 147
Creating a Guideline 43 encoding 5
Crop to 16:9 133 Erase / Format 58
Crop to Landscape 133 Exit 40
DAL file 23, 38 Export Chapters 125
Default Slide Duration 136 File / Import Asset 39
Deinterlace Objects 77 File / New 37
delete a Chapter Point 124 File / Open 37
Delete All Chapters 125 File / Save 38
delete a Menu or Movie or Slideshow 112 File / Save As 38
Delete Menu 71 File Browser 174
Deleting a Background 179 File Manager 15
Deleting an Asset file 177 Fill Color 1 8, 151
Deleting content from the container 123 Fine Adjust tab 137
demultiplex 39 First Play 24, 109
demultiplexed 5 First Play Video 110
Demultiplexing 15 Fix Headers Button 101
Demultiplex Options 64 Flexible mode 11
Demux Directory 64 Follow Link Button 74
Digital Theater Systems 33 Follow Links 149
Dolby Digital AC-3 9, 33, 34, 66, 98 Font Size 135
Draw a Connection Link 116 Force Activate Btn 162, 165
Draw Button Links 118 Force Activate Button 113
Draw Button Links tool 108 Force Audio for all Movies 56
Draw Buttons Link Tool 12 Force Select Btn 161
Draw Connections tool 107 Forward / Backward Arrows 131
Draw Frame 143 Frame-Index 12, 55, 66, 123
Draw Links tool 139 Frame Index All Chapters 127
Draw Links tool 110 Full Screen 133
Draw Rectangle 143 GEAR 25, 59p.
Drop Frame format 126 Gen-EFX 77
Drop Shadow 18, 134, 152 GOP timecode 125
Drop Shadow style options 152 green diamond tick marks 123
DTS 33p. Green lines 118
DVD-lab Menu items 37 Group 3 Color 92pp.
DVD legal 31 Group Hotspot 82, 146
DVD-R 56pp. Guidelines 43
DVD-R recordable disc 26 HeadAC-3he 99
DVD-RW / DVD+RW Tools 58 Help / About DVD-lab 105
DVD Topology view 11 Help / Help 105
DVD verification 11 Help / Tip of The Day 105
DVD Video 57 Help / Visit Web Site 105
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horizontal sizing bar 18 Menu / Add Duplicate 73

Hybrid DVD Writing 59 Menu / Add from Template 72
IFO Editor 10 Menu / Add New 27, 71
IFO editor parameter 104 Menu / Add Scene Selection 72
I-Frame 20, 67, 127 Menu / Auto-Deinterlace 75
I-FRAME 102 Menu / Auto-Route 74
I-Frame Markers 170 Menu / Break Path 144
Images bin 182 Menu / Check overlapping 75
IMG file 59 Menu / Create / Embedded Vector Object 73
Import Chapters 125 Menu / Effects 77
Import Files 174 Menu / Export 79
Infinite 161 Menu / Export / As AVI 80
Insert Chapter Still 7, 28, 148 Menu / Export / As Menu 79
Insert to Project 12 Menu / Export / As Overlay 80
Installation 13 Menu / Export / As PSD 80
Instant Background Image 177 Menu / Export / As Slide 81
Instant Chapter Point Menu Button 21 Menu / Export / As Style 79
Instant Linked Image 8 Menu / Export / As Template 79
Instant Motion Menu 177 Menu / External S-Picture 81
Invisible Normal 155 Menu / External S-Picture / Load External Subpicture
Invisible Selected 155 82
ISO extension 59 Menu / External S-Picture / Remove External
ISO image 59 Subpicture 83
Jump Link 113p. Menu / External S-Picture / Save as a Subpicture
Layers Tab 28, 168 83
Link 28 Menu / Load Menu 78
Linked Button 28 Menu / Merge to Background 81
Linking To and From Slideshows 138 Menu / NTSC Overheat 76
Link Text or Images 28 Menu / Properties / Color Tab 151
Load/Add Folder 130 Menu / Properties / Layers Tab 167
Load/Add Slide(s) 131 Menu / Properties / Link Tab 154
Loading a Motion Menu or Audio background track Menu / Properties / Map Tab 158
163 Menu / Properties / PBC Tab 160
Lock Position checkbox 157 Menu / Render Motion 86
looping 113 Menu / Save Background 81
Loop to itself 117 Menu / Show Button Order 74, 160
LPCM 16, 35, 65, 98 Menu / Simulate 74
M2P 12 Menu / Transitions 83
M2V 9, 91, 101, 121 Menu / Transitions / Generate New 83
Main (Fast, DVD compliant) 54 Menu / Transitions / Rebuild 84
Match Slides to Audio Duration 136 Menu Aspect 62
Maximum Voltage Excursion 76 Menu Background 27
Mediachance 3p., 105, 147 Menu Button 19, 113
Media Type 57 Menu Button number 22
Menu 18, 27 Menu Button numbers 160
Menu – Connection 96 Menu Buttons 74
Menu – Edit 41 Menu commands 104
Menu – Help 105 Menu Development 27
Menu – Menu 71 Menu editor 141
Menu – Movie 67 Menu emulation 48
Menu – Project 53 Menu - File 37
Menu – Slide-Show 95 Menu Objects 11
Menu – Tools 98 Menu Ruler 43
Menu – View 45 Menu Styles 156
Menu – Window 105 Menu Templates 78, 156
Page 187
Menu timeout 114 Objects bin 180

Menu Transitions 11 offset adjustment 17
Mini-DVD 11 Optimal 99
Mini-DVD (CD-R) 58 Other MPEG Audio -> LPCM decoding 65
Motion & Audio tracks 149, 163 Output Folder 26
Motion Button 10 Output Folder (Root) 25, 53
Motion Buttons 87, 92, 146, 166 Panasonic VRO 12
Motion Button Videos 88 Parse MPEG stream 175
Motion Menu 86, 114, 163, 165 Paste Attributes 168
Motion Menu Video 92, 166 PCM 100
Motion Objects 89 PCM Audio 24/96 12
Motion Thumbnail Video 87 Photoshop 80
Motion Video 93 Photoshop Layer objects 181
Movie 12 Pie Chart 97, 109
Movie / Add New 67 Pioneer DVR-A05 60
Movie / Auto-Chapters by Scene Detection 69 Play Sample 35, 100
Movie / Delete Item 67 Post-Compile Options 56
Movie / Rebuild Thumbnails 67 Pre-Compile Options 55
Movie / Trim End 67 Premiere 5
Movie Chapter Points 123 Preview Window 20p., 27, 169
Movies 170 Preview window Instant Images 171
Movies linked to a menu 115 Previous I-Frame 20
Movie Start 00:00:00 22 Print 40
MP@HL 12 Print Preview 40
MPA 9, 12, 16 Print Setup 40
MPA 66 Program Stream 5
MPA audio 99p., 122, 175 Project 6
MPEG 12, 20, 31, 98, 121, 170 Project / Burn DVD from Disk 56
MPEG-1 31p. Project / Compile DVD 53
MPEG-2 5, 9, 31p. Project / Project Properties 61
MPEG Audio 34, 65 Project / Project Properties / Advanced 65
MPEG Audio -> Linear PCM Audio 99 Project / Project Properties / Options 63
MPEG encoder 91 Project / Project Properties / Palette 63
MPEG Video Menu Transition file 84 Project / Project Properties / System 61
MPG 9, 15 Project / Stop 56
MPV 9, 16, 66, 91, 99, 101 Project / Verify Burned DVD 60
multiplexed 5 Project Size 61
Multiplexer 11 Projects window 170
Multiplexer Engine 54 proportional resizing 27
Music bin 184 PSD 11
NERO 25, 59 PSD file 80
Next I-Frame 20 Quantisation 103
NLE 5 Quick! Make a DVD 15
Non DVD-Video Zone 59 Quick MPEG Re-mux 64
Non-Elementary MPEG and VOB Files 64 RAW LPCM Audio 100
Non Linear Editor 5 Real One Player 66
NOP 23, 119, 154 Rebuild Thumbnails 124
Normal De-Mux before compile 64 Red lines 118
Normal state 159, 165 red tick mark 124
Normal state object 86 Reduce Jitter 12, 55
no stinking Menus 117 Remove All 131
NTSC 31, 76 Remove an Audio track 133
NTSC Safe color 55 Remove Asset 174
NTSC Video Signal Overheat 76 Remove Background 134
Number of Undos in Menu 64 Remove Slide 131
Page 188
Removing a Link 120 Slide's durations 137

Rename a Menu 72 Slides Edit track 134
rename a Menu or Movie or Slideshow 112 Slideshow 7, 10, 129, 137, 139
rename a Slideshow object 129 Slide-Show / Add New 129
Render button 91 Slide-Show menu pulldown 130
Rendered AVI file 91 Slideshow objects 129
Rendered Motion Menu 86 Slideshow Preview window 130, 134
Rendered Video 91p. Slides Settings tab 133
Render Menu Motion 10 Slides tab 132
Render Motion 86p. Snap to Grid 42
Repeat if Shorter 89 Snap to Guides 43
Repeat if Shorter 90 software based DVD player 74
Replace Current Movie with trimmed 69 Some Slideshow Strategies 138
replacement text 80 Some tricks with Slide images 131
Replacing or Deleting a track 164 Sound Forge 99
Reset Rotation 142 Start Simulation 148
RET 12, 110, 115 state slide 94
RET Link 115 Still Time 161
RET path 129 Stop Simulation 148
Right Angle 108 Straight lines 108
ROOT Buttons 118 Strategies for using Motion Menu or Audio
ROOT Menu 85, 109pp. background tracks 165
Roxio Easy CD Creator 25 Style Menu 8
Roxio Easy CD Writer 59 Styles 79
Run on Background 55 Styles 78
Scene Selection 73 subpicture 81, 86
Selected state 159 Surround Sound 33
Selection pointer 141 Swap High & Low Bytes 35, 100
Send Backward 149 Syncing up Audio queues 138
Send to Back 149 System file 39
Set Chapter Lag 125 System Requirements 13
Set Drop Frames 126 Templates 78p.
Set Font Button 135 Test Compile 55
Set Start Point / Fine Scrub 90 Testing the DVD 56
Shadow Color Selector 153 Test Write 58
Shape Roundness 10, 145 Text object 18
Sharpen More 77 Text tab 135
Sharpen Object 77 Text Tool 143
Show/Hide Properties 149 Text type layer 168
Show All 150 Thumbnail / Text 176
Show as Portrait 133 Timecode 170
Show Button Links 108 Time-Code 171
Show External Subpicture 81 timeline offset adjustment 123
Show from Selected Object 150 Timeout 161p.
Show Jump Links 108 Timeout / Still time 161
Show Navigation Links 150 Timeouts 113
Show Pie 109 Timeout value 166
Show Safe Area 131 Time tab 136
Show Size 108 Title Button 24, 111
Show Slideshow Edit Window 132 Title Safe area 27, 133
Shuffle Loop Point 10, 89 Title Set 103
Shuffle Loop Point 90 TMPGEnc 5
Simulation 86 Tools / Audio Delay 100
Slide Edit / Fine Adjust 138 Tools / Customize 104
Slides are Chapters on Playback 140 Tools / Fix MPEG Stream Headers 101
Page 189
Tools / IFO Editor - Audio 103 View / Compile / Start Burning when finished
Tools / LPCM -> WAV 100 47
Tools / MPEG Parse 102 View / Compile / Stop Compile 46
Tools / Transcode Audio 98 View / Compile / Verification log 47
To play a Video or Movie 169 View / Compile / Verify Burned DVD 47
Total Clip Time 91 View / Display Timecode 51
Total SlideShow Time 136 View / DVD Topology 48
transcode 12, 35 View / File 52
Transcode of LPCM Audio 35 View / Menu Properties 51
transcoding 5 View / NET Style Interface 52
Transition duration 84 View / Preview Window 45
Transition Menu 85 View / Project 49
Transparency 153 View / Remote 48
Transparency slide 93p. View / Status Bar 45
Trim End 68, 124 View / Toolbar 45
Trim End of the Movie 124, 171 View / Zoom In, Zoom Out 52
UDF filesystem 58 Viewing or Listening to an Asset file 177
UDF file system 25 virtual button 1 46
User Interface 104 VOB 9p., 12, 15, 35, 103
Vegas 5 VOB file Auto De-Muxing 9
Verify Burned DVD 47 Volume Name 26, 59
VIDEO_TS.IFO 25 VTS 111
VIDEO_TS directory 15, 25 WAV 16, 35, 121
VIDEO_TS directory 53 Wave 33
Video & Audio Assets 38 Wave file Header 65
Video & Audio Assets bin 9, 15, 163, 176 Width of thumbnail dragging from preview or link
Video & Audio Assets folder 32 66
Video Attributes for Selections 94 Windows Media Player 66
Video file formats 32 Work Area 16, 27, 49, 107
Video Signal Voltage 76 Work Area / Connections 107
Video strategies with Motion Menu Videos 166 Work Area / Menu editor 141
Video thumbnail 86 Work Area / Movie 121
Video thumbnails 10 Work Area / Slideshows 129
Video Title Set 25, 111 Write Button 26
View / Assets 50 Zoom In & Zoom Out 127
View / Compile 46
Page 190
DVD-lab User Guide
By Alan Gruskoff
©2003 All rights reserved.
Published by Performant Systems

December 2003
Website: http://www.digitalshowcase.biz
Email: dvdlab@digitalshowcase.biz
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in

any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of Performant
Systems, with the exception of brief quotations for purposes of articles or reviews.
The author and publisher have made every effort in the preparation of this book to
ensure the accuracy of the information contained herein. However, the information
contained in this book is sold without warranty, express or implied. Neither Alan
Gruskoff, Performant Systems, Mediachance nor it's dealers or distributors will be
held liable for any damages caused either directly or indirectly by this User Guide.
Microsoft DOS, Windows 98,NT,2000, XP - Trademarks Microsoft Corp.

Pioneer DVR-A05 - Trademark Pioneer Corp.
Adobe Premier, Adobe Photoshop – Trademarks Adobe Systems Inc.
Sonic Foundry, Vegas – copyright Sony/ Sonic Foundry Inc.
EditStudio, MPEG XS – copyright Pure Motion Ltd.
TMPGEnc – copyright Pegasys Inc.
Cinema Craft Encoder Basic- copyright Custom Technology Corporation.
Dolby Digital (AC-3) - copyright Dolby Laboratories, Inc.
Dolby and the double-D symbol are registered Trademarks of Dolby Laboratories.
GEAR DVD – copyright GEAR Software Inc.
Easy CD Creator - copyright Roxio, Inc.
Nero Express - copyright Ahead Software AG
BeSweet – copyright DSPguru
HeadAC3he – copyright Dark Avenger
All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

DVD-lab UserGuide v1.3

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DVD-lab User Guide

including version 1.3

Published by Performant Systems

Chapter 2 – Quick! Make a DVD....................................Page 15

Chapter 3 - Menu Development.....................................Page 27

Chapter 4 - DVD-Video File Formats.............................Page 31

Chapter 5 – DVD-lab Menu items..................................Page 37

Chapter 6 - Work Area / Connections.........................Page 107

Chapter 7 – Work Area / Movie...................................Page 121

Chapter 8 – Work Area / Slideshows..........................Page 129

Chapter 9 – Work Area / Menu editor........................Page 141

Chapter 10 - The Preview Window..............................Page 169

Chapter 11 - The Assets Window.................................Page 173

Alphabetical Index..........................................................Page 185

DVD-lab version 1.3 by Mediachance, copyright

DVD Authoring for creative people

About the Developer

Mediachance of Ottawa, Quebec – Canada, provides multimedia,

DVD Menu Multimedia Builder MP3

DVD-lab – What is it?

A DVD Authoring tool

Building on a broad tradition of providing digital media design

The DVD-lab product competes at a level with products costing

The design philosophy of DVD-lab is as a "Final Assembly" tool.

Encoding is done beforehand

As such, DVD-lab does not provide the transcoding (conversion

Outside the NLEs, there is a selection of excellent standalone

It does that? Cool!

Connections – the visual layout manager

Menus beyond the ordinary

Instant Linked Buttons

Insert Chapter Still tool brings up a list of known Movie Starts

Automatic Add Scene Selection

DVD-lab builds a new Menu based on your selected template,

Preview window Instant Linked Images

Auto Demultiplexing (Demuxing)

This feature alone is worth the price of the product itself.

VOB file Auto De-Muxing results

Notable Features and Enhancements in version 1.3, since

Great New Features

A very complete Slideshow feature, providing easy Drag & Drop

Cardinal Shape Objects for menus. A Cardinal polynome or line

Allows creating Mini-DVD (DVD on CD-R).

Largely improved standard Multiplexer (Fast, DVD compatible).

DVD verification of burned discs to compiled hard disk files.

3D rotation tool: You can now rotate or perspective pan any

38 different Menu Transitions. No other DVD product even has

Multiple selections of Menu Objects: With Multiple Menu Objects

Anti-aliasing option for Menu subpictures.

Connections: Ability to link the end of a movie to one of the first

System MPEG quick re-muxing (Import without demultiplexing).

Joining VOB files option.

Added Reduce Jitter option to smooth the edges of objects which

Added support for PCM Audio 24/96 files (24bit/96kHz).

DVD-lab System Requirements

Chapter 2 - Quick! Make a DVD

OK, Let's just try it.

DVD-lab automatically creates a new blank project for you when

The Video & Audio Assets bin

An MPG file Demultiplexed may result in something looking like

So far so good. More Drag & Drop.

Audio does not play on Preview