Beth Cataldo, February 21, 2004

Setting Button Links

On a computer, viewers can use a mouse to select and activate buttons onscreen as they watch your DVD. On set-top boxes, though users must navigate with the remote control. So you must program your buttons to work with a remote control.

The inspector allows you to program the arrow keys on the console to navigate through your buttons. It also allows you to define what happens when a user chooses other buttons on the remote control.

1. To make DVDSP automatically link each new button to the previous button, go under Settings>Auto Assign Buttons Now in the menu editor. DVDSP looks up, down, left and right and finds the closest button to link to.

2. You can also manually program the navigation in the inspector. Click on the button inspector's button tab for layered menus and the inspector's advanced tab for overlay menus.

Previewing Button Navigation
1. In the outline view, control-click the menu you want to preview and choose simulate.

Setting Your Startup Action
Don't forget to set your Startup Action, which will be the first thing that plays when someone puts a DVD in the player.

1. Select your disc in the outline view.

2. In the inspector dialogue box, choose First Play and highlight what you want the user to see when they put the DVD into their computer or set-top box. Sometimes this will be an intro movie, other times it may just be your main menu.

Assigning Remote Control Buttons
1. The Disc Inspector's Remote Control area of the General tab allows you to eset the functions of several important remote buttons, includingt Title, Menu and Return.

2. Higher up on the tab you'll find the Stream remote buttons, which allow you to set specific audio streams, track angles or subtitle streams when users press certain remote buttons.

3. You should think about creating a navigation uniformity so that the user can expect certain behavior when they choose certain buttons. Pressing the Title button on the remote control, should always bring the user back to the main menu, for example. The Menu button will bring them back to the menu that they just came from.

4. Each track, menu and slideshow has its own remote control area. By default, these will take on the remote button definitions that you have given the disc. If you want to change these, though, you can manually set them for the menu that you are on. This is the one place where you should program the track or menu to return to the menu and button that it just came from.

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