Once you have finished linking together the various elements in your DVD design, it’s a good idea to check the navigational flow before you start burning discs. You can use Encore’s built-in Preview function to play through your DVD design, or, even better, you can preview individual sections of the disc before the full design is complete. Beyond your manual preview, Encore also provides powerful Check Project tools to find and report missing or broken links.
Using Encore’s built-in Preview function to check out the flow through your design is easy, but I will warn you: the preview in Encore is not intended to provide an accurate simulation of the timing of the final DVD playback (which can vary between different DVD players anyway). Instead, it provides helpful assistance for following the navigational flow through the design, and also provides an opportunity to check your menu layouts and timeline tracks.
Once you have finished creating your DVD project, you also can check how it plays by building a copy of the final DVD to hard disk, as described in Chapter 8. You can then use a software DVD player application to play through the entire disk, checking both the visual look of the menus and media content (including motion menus), and the navigational flow between menus, buttons, and timelines.
To preview the current DVD project (i.e., from the first play), choose File → Preview, or click the Preview button at the bottom of the Tools palette. Or, to preview a section of the design, select a menu or timeline (or associated button or chapter) in the Project, Menus, or Timelines tab, and choose Preview From Here from the right-click context menu. You also can preview a menu design from the Menu Editor by choosing Preview From Here from the right-click context menu.
Encore then displays the Project Preview window, with the DVD playback display area and controls along the bottom (see Figure 7-29).
Figure 7-29. Use the Project Preview window to check your project’s menu layouts, timeline tracks, and navigational flow.
- Render current motion menu
This button generates a rendered preview of the motion menus (background video or audio, or animated buttons). If they are not rendered, motion menus are displayed with still clips.
- Display area zoom
This selects the magnification of the preview video display area.
- Mute audio
This button alternately silences or plays the audio.
- Toggle subtitle display
This button alternately displays or hides subtitles.
- Select audio track
Use this drop-down menu to choose from the available audio tracks.
- Select subtitle track
Use this drop-down menu to choose from the available subtitle tracks.
- Status area
This area displays the menu or timeline name, current chapter number, elapsed time, and audio format.
- Remote control title button
Pressing this button restarts the DVD playback (as defined by the Title Button link in the Disc Properties palette).
- Remote control menu button
Pressing this button returns to the menu for the current section of the disc (as defined by the Menu Remote link in the Properties palette for each timeline).
- Arrow and Enter keys
These buttons mimic the DVD remote button controls to select (highlight) and activate menu buttons.
- Execute end action
This button skips to the end of the currently playing element (timeline or menu) and executes the associated End Action link.
- Playback controls
These are the standard transport controls for playing through clips (timelines): Previous Chapter, Stop, Pause, Play, and Next Chapter.
- Jump to entered chapter
Pressing this button after entering a chapter number enables you to jump to the specified chapter.
- Exit here
This button stops the preview, closes the Project Preview window, and returns to editing the displayed timeline or menu (i.e., opens the current element in the Timeline or Menu Editor window).
- Exit and return
This button stops the preview, closes the Project Preview window, and returns to editing the project. (Or just click the close box in the top right of the Project Preview window.)
Although most of the controls at the bottom of the Project Preview window replicate the buttons found on a typical DVD remote control, others are particularly handy for checking and editing your projects:
The status area displays the name of the current element being played (menu or timeline), and displays the elapsed time and chapter number so that you can follow the progress of the playback. The elapsed time display is particularly useful for motion menus, as you can watch them play and loop.
The Execute End Action button is tremendously useful for saving time when playing through all the navigational paths in your DVD. Instead of having to play or skip through each entire timeline (or menu), click Execute End Action to immediately jump to the end of the playback and execute the associated End Action link.
The Preview From Here and Exit Here options are useful when you are alternating between checking and editing your project. You can check the playback and navigation of any element of your project at any time: just choose Preview From Here from the right-click context menu. Encore displays that element in the Project Preview window, so you can immediately check out any defined links. And, while you are previewing, if you see a problem in a specific menu or timeline, just click the Exit Here button at the bottom right of the Project Preview window to immediately edit that element by opening the Menu Editor window, or the Timeline and Monitor windows.
Warning
By default, Encore previews all menus as stills. To preview the motion elements of an individual menu in the Project Preview window, click the Render Current Motion Menu button on the bottom left of the window. Encore then builds the composited video for that menu. (You will need to rerender after any changes to the menu.) To preview all the menus in the project in motion, choose File → Render Motion Menus to have Encore render previews for all the menus.
Because the Preview mode in Encore is simulating the behavior of a DVD player, you can specify the same settings used in set-top players to define global options for DVD playback. To set preview preferences, choose Edit → Preferences → Preview. Encore then displays the Preferences dialog, along with the Preview options (see Figure 7-30).
Figure 7-30. Use the Preview options in the Preferences dialog to define global DVD playback options.
- TV mode
This specifies the TV aspect ratio: standard 4:3, or widescreen 16:9.
- Player region code
This is the designated DVD region code for the player, which is checked against the DVD region code if it is set in the Project Settings dialog (this dialog is located under the Disc tab in the Project window).
- Audio language
This sets the desired audio language. This code is used to automatically select a matching audio track in the disc, if available.
- Subtitle language
This sets the desired subtitle language. This code is used to automatically select a matching subtitle track in the disc, if available.
Encore’s Check Project feature is designed to scan your entire project for possible problems. You also can check your project at any time while you are creating it, and just ignore errors associated with missing or incomplete elements (or choose to not perform some of the tests). An end action link may not need to be set, for example, if all links to the timeline include an override, or the timeline is used only in playlists.
To check your project, choose File → Check Project, or click the Check Project button on the Disc tab. Encore displays the Check Project dialog, with a list of the available checks that can be performed, as shown in Figure 7-31.
Figure 7-31. Use the Check Project dialog to analyze your project for broken navigation, unused elements, and DVD performance issues.
Select the checks that you want to perform in the top half of the Check Project dialog, and then click Start to have Encore analyze your project.
The checks that Encore performs address several general issues: navigational links, DVD design, content, and performance.
- Button Links
Searches for any links that are broken or not set.
- End Actions
Searches for menu or timeline End Action links that are broken or not set, or timeline End Action properties that are set to Stop (ending DVD playback).
- Overrides
Searches for any Override links that are broken or not set. (These are typically not an issue for links that do not require an override.)
- First Play
Check whether the project’s First Play link is broken or not set (in the disk’s Properties palette). All projects must have a First Play to specify where to begin playback when the DVD is first inserted in a player.
- Title Remote
Checks whether the project’s Title Remote link is broken or not set (in the disk’s Properties palette). It’s good form to make sure that pressing the Title key on the DVD remote control causes your DVD to restart cleanly.
- Menu Remote
Searches for any timeline Menu Remote links that are broken or not set. It’s good form to make sure that pressing the Menu key on the DVD remote control causes each timeline to return to the menu from which its timeline was accessed.
- Orphans
Searches for orphaned menus, timelines, and playlists that are not used in the project.
- Playlists
Searches for empty playlists, or playlists with the End Action link broken or not set.
- Button Overlap
Searches for buttons that overlap (i.e., the bounding boxes around the extent of all the elements in the button). Overlapping buttons may confuse users by making it difficult to highlight individual selections.
- Total Size of Menus
Checks the combined total size of all menus, and warns if it exceeds the DVD limit of 1GB.
- Disc Capacity
Warns if the project size is larger than the chosen disk media.
- Timeline Bitrate Too High
Checks timelines for bitrates that exceed the DVD limit of 9 Mbps.
- Chapters and Trims
Searches for timelines in which chapter and trim locations were adjusted when transcoding to MPEG. You then can verify the new locations, or adjust the chapter points appropriately.
- Subtitle Text Overflow
Searches for subtitle text that is offscreen because it has overflowed the text boundary. You can then reposition or resize the text so that it all displays in the safe area.
After you check your project, Encore displays a list of the elements in your project for which it has found problems in the bottom half of the Check Project window. You can twirl-down items with multiple problems to see the full list. See Figure 7-32.
As with other Encore lists, you can click a column heading to sort the results by that column. This is especially useful as you display more columns of detailed information. To see more details on the elements with problems, right-click the column headings to choose additional columns to be displayed, especially link settings.
To further explore and correct a problem, select the associated item in the Check Project window to display the associated Properties palette, and then edit the properties to resolve the problem: for example, by updating a link that is broken or not set.
To fix a group of related problems across multiple menus or timelines, you can use Ctrl-click or Shift-click to select them in the Check Project window, or use the Menus or Timelines tabs. For example, to set the Menu Remote button for a group of timelines organized under a particular menu, display the Timelines tab, shift-click to select all the associated timelines, and then use the Properties palette to update the Menu Remote field for all the selected timelines at once.
Or double-click a menu or timeline listed in the Check Project window to open the associated item in the Menu Editor or Timeline window for editing. You can make these edits while the Check Project window is still open.