FCP / DVDSP Authoring Snag

Hello all!

I've had this snag before and never really had the time to ask everyone here about it yet! i'll posted this question in both the FCP and DVDSP forums because I'm not really sure in which the snag exists (although I suspect that it' in DVDSP), or if it's just the way it works.

I am editing a one hour training video that pauses several times for a user-definable length of time to "stop and do the exercise". No music or animation or anything else that distracts the user, just a simple still graphic so that they can concentrate on the exercises.

So, I first edited everything on one sequence in FCP. I faded to black and put DVDSP chapter markers where the DVD is to display the still PSD until the user clicks anywhere on it or taps any key to resume. This actually works well and is pretty straight forward to author. If you just play the DVD in it's entirety, it works as authored.

Here's the snag, however.

When you're playing back the DVD and you want to jump or fast forward or backward to the next or previous programmed PSD, it instead jumps or plays past to the next or previous chapter marker on the sequence and then plays from there without showing the PSD stills (menus) authored in DVDSP.

I thought of a workaround, but it didn't work. Instead of compressing the full hour-long sequence and then programming in the breaks in DVDSP, I compressed each "chunk" of video one at a time and simply authored from asset to menu (and back and forth). The result was the same, though - when you "forward" or "reverse" during playback, it went to the next or previous video asset and ignored the menus. I'm not even sure how DVDSP knows which is the next and previous asset to play when doing it this way, but it knows (perhaps via my sequential numbering of the chunks)!

I haven't tried authoring a Story yet or even know if it's possible to mix and match assets and menus within one but, before I try that, is that even worth pursuing?

Also, I had one other authoring question. Since I'm fading to black in FCP for 30 frames before each user-defined pause authored in DVDSP, I would like to fade up the PSD menu in DVDSP for 30 frames (currently, it just cuts on). I know how to author the DVD to fade out in 30 frames to go back to the video (which then fades up in 30 frames), but how do you fade in a menu at the beginning in DVDSP?

Thanks in advance for your help!
-Pat

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