Re: Motion menu - black screen? by Jon Geddes on Jun 27, 2009 at 8:32:25 pm
Have you tried testing the avi file to confirm the avi doesn't have any problems with it? You also might want to try a quicktime export (using the animation codec). You could also create an after effects composition that contains the audio and video of your motion background, then import it in using dynamic link.
You are setting it as the motion video and audio asset of the menu, correct?
Jon Geddes Providing the Best Motion Menu Templates Available for Video Production www.precomposed.com
Re: Motion menu - black screen? by Heath Firestone on Jun 28, 2009 at 3:42:14 pm
This may be obvious, but have you selected the "Render current motion menu or slideshow" button in the preview window? It is fairly easy to miss, placed in the lower left corner just above the size selection drop down. It doesn't even really look like a button, but mouse-over displays it's function.
If you don't select this, it only displays the first frame, which may be black.
I can't tell from your description what is going on, but it occurred to me that your motion menu byuttons might show up black if you hadn't rendered them in the preview window.
Re: Motion menu - black screen? by Jon Geddes on Jun 28, 2009 at 4:02:20 pm
This is actually a common misconception. Encore will render the motion menus during the build process whether you selected "Render > Motion Menus" or not.
In most cases, it will re-render them during the build process even if you have already rendered them by selecting the "Render > Motion Menus", making it completely pointless unless you just want to preview it.
In fact, I find the preview not very accurate either (particularly with Blu-ray), so I usually skip the preview, don't even bother clicking "render > motion menus", go straight to building an image, mount it to a drive, then play it back using a software dvd player.
Jon Geddes Providing the Best Motion Menu Templates Available for Video Production www.precomposed.com
Re: Motion menu - black screen? by Heath Firestone on Jun 28, 2009 at 4:44:02 pm
Jon,
Good points. I realize that it only effects preview, and isn't necessary for authoring. I was a little confused by the description of the problem since he says that they play fine on the DVD. After rereading the post, I think he means that the videos play fine, but the motion menu's show up black. I thought maybe he was just talking about in the preview, which is why I was checking to make sure he was rendering the previews if he was wanting to view them in the preview mode.
My guess is that your question about the possibility that he didn't set it as the motion video and audio asset of the menu, is probably what is causing the problem.
Re: Motion menu - black screen? by Jon Geddes on Jun 28, 2009 at 11:38:12 pm
As I mentioned in my first response to your post, you should try the Quicktime Export using the Animation codec (set to 100% quality) and see if it has the same result. If it does, you know it has nothing to do with the source file, but with how Encore is encoding to mpeg2.
If the quicktime file does not resolve the issue, I would try encoding to mpeg2 outside of Encore using the Adobe Media Encoder so that Encore doesn't have to do any transcoding.
If that fixes the problem, then I would double check your transcode settings in Encore... in fact you might want to do that now before doing anything else.
Jon Geddes Providing the Best Motion Menu Templates Available for Video Production www.precomposed.com
