How to create VCD menus and chapters with VCDEasy

You'll find a lot of information that tells you how to add chapters using VCDEasy, but none of them say how to incorporate menus. Since my goal was to make my VCDs both functional and aesthetic, incorporating menus was the next logical step. Specifically, I wanted a main menu, scene-selection menus, and a notification at the end of the first CD to "insert disk 2". This guide will show you how to add an interactive menu structure to your VCDs using VCDEasy.

This guide will assume you already know how to add chapters and burn with VCDEasy. Refer to these guides otherwise:

First of all, let's realize that we have to work within the VCD specification. Our level of interaction is limited to a few buttons: previous, next, return, default, and 1-99.

The guide is split into these sections:

• - Obtaining the Menu Images
  - Creating the MPEG Stills
  - Loading the MPEGs
  - Adding Chapters
  - Adjusting Interactivity (this is where most of the work has to be done)

A. Menu Images
MPEG stills are the way to go. A still is basically just an image converted to MPEG format, but the VCD specification allows a resolution up to 704x480 (for NTSC). So make sure your source image is at least that. Since my source is the original DVD, I captured a few of the menu screens using WinDVD.

Then I opened the images in Paint Shop Pro to paint over the text I didn't want, and added my own fancy text within PowerPoint. (Don't add text too close to the edge as your TV will chop off some of the image). The purpose of adding text, of course, is to tell viewers what buttons they need to push to navigate through the menus. When you're done, PowerPoint has the option to export as BMP. If you'll be displaying on a regular TV, you'll probably want to crop the images down to 640x480 so that they won't look distorted.

B. Create the MPEG Stills
Launch VCDEasy, go to the Tools menu, and select MPEG Stills. Check "Recursive Drag'n Drop" (if you have more than one image to encode), and specify the output folder. Set "Aspect Ratio Correction" to 4/3, and that should avoid distorted images when displaying on your TV. I also adjusted "TV cropping" to 3%, and had to increased the size to 142kb. Now select all of your BMPs from Windows Explorer and drop them into the window (see image below). The MPEGs will be generated automatically.


C. Load the MPEGS
Select "(S)VCD" in the left column and then "Main" from the top menu. You can drag and drop your files so that they are ordered properly. Ordering is important as it will make things easier later. Also, don't forget to change the "Volume Label" and "Album Name" (in the "Options" page).



D. Add Chapters
Refer to the existing guides on this. The only other adjustment here is for the second disk. I prefer to continue the numbering scheme from the first disk, but it's up to you.



E. Interactivity
I want to add a main menu, scene-selection menus, and a notification at the end of the first CD to "insert disk 2". Here's how I wanted the movie to play. You may want to adjust this to suit your own preferences. Go to the "Interactivity" page.

1. Main Menu
Make sure the main menu segment is highlighted.
a) Change to wait 15 seconds (The VCD will start in the main menu).
b) Timeout to the start of the movie (so the movie will start automatically after 15 seconds).
c) Change "Return" to go to the first chapter of the movie (this effectively works like the "Play" button in this case). Or you can disable it by selecting "Event Disabled."
d) Check "Overwrite this default Assignment".
e) Enable the chapter sequence by starting with "Key 1" and working your way down each row. Change "Key 1" to the first chapter of the movie, "Key 2" = second chapter and so on.
f) Now select "All", and the sequence is assigned to the rest of the MPEG stills.
g) You may wish to set the "Default" to the start of the video. "Default" often defines what will happen when you press "play" on your DVD remote.
NOTE: Another way to do this (and perhaps a more standard way) would be to use numbers to control the actions on the main menu. For example:
1. Play Movie
2. Scene Selection
...and then go through steps d through f only for the chapter menus.


2. Scene select menus
a) Change the play item to the second menu.
b) Change to "Wait infinite" (this will play the menu indefinitely - you could also have them timeout to another play item).
c) Change "Return" to take you to the main menu.
d) Again, you may wish to set the "Default" to the start of the video.
Repeat a-d for the rest of the menus.



3. Chapter Sequence
a) Change the Play item to the first chapter of the mpeg movie.
b) Change the "Return" to go to the main menu.
c) Select "All" to propagate this to the entire chapter sequence.



4. "End of Disk/Insert Disk 2" image
After the VCD ends, screen will come up telling you to insert the second disk.
a) Change the Play Item to the final MPEG Still.
b) Change the "Wait" to 10 seconds.
c) Change the "Previous" to go to the last chapter.
d) Change the "Return" to go to the main menu.
e) You can also uncheck "Use numeric keys" since you won't need to access chapters from this menu.



Press "Go" to create the BIN and CUE files. Then you're ready to burn the CD. Want to test the VCD before you burn it? Try Daemon-tools. It allows you to mount the BIN to create a virtual CD-ROM. Then you can test the VCD by playing it in WinDVD, PowerDVD, etc. before burning the disk.

Good Luck!