Animated menus in Roxio Easy Media Creator 7.5

ID:276265
 
Jul 12 2005, 8:04 pm
I just bought Easy Media Creator 7.5 today, and so far I'm having mixed success. The good part is that most of the programs in the suite are easy to work with and fit my needs.

The bad part is, the support for "animated menus" in the DVD builder doesn't appear to be as robust as the name implies. I can add a video to the menu, and I can give it an animated thumbnail button, but the animation must come from that same video. This is a slight problem for me because I created montage videos for this purpose.

If worse came to worst I could live without the montages, although I really want them there. Does anyone know of a workaround that might help me, or a dirt cheap DVD builder that can take what I've got and finish the job?

Lummox JR
Jul 12 2005, 8:16 pm
Nero has a nice one, but I am not sure if it will do what you need.
Jul 13 2005, 11:23 am
In response to Scoobert
Scoobert wrote:
Nero has a nice one, but I am not sure if it will do what you need.

It's the not being sure part that bothers me.

I'm pretty well convinced DVD-lab would work, but the program is designed for more advanced users and requires you to demux all your input first (and reencode it with a separate encoder, though you can purchase that separately).

And although DVD-lab has some very advanced options, it isn't free. It is however significantly cheaper than bigtime commercial software that does the same things, and in some cases offers features no one else has. Still I can't justify spending $100 or more on that when I just spent a tidy amount on EMC 7.5, even though it was on sale.

Lummox JR
Jul 13 2005, 11:33 am
In response to Lummox JR
Well, you might be able to get a copy of Nero from someone with a cd-burn. LiteOn gives a copy out with every cd burn. I have 2 OEM copys of nero because of my cd-drives. I guess it is not totaly legal, because you did not buy the cd-burner. You decide how you want to deal with that one.
Jul 13 2005, 11:47 am
In response to Scoobert
Scoobert wrote:
Well, you might be able to get a copy of Nero from someone with a cd-burn. LiteOn gives a copy out with every cd burn. I have 2 OEM copys of nero because of my cd-drives. I guess it is not totaly legal, because you did not buy the cd-burner. You decide how you want to deal with that one.

I think you're missing the point here. I'm not going to use Nero without knowing if it has the feature I need. I'm not going to buy it, and I'm definitely not going to use an illegitimate copy.

What I need to know is what tool will suit my needs.

It occurs to me that an alternate possibility is to develop an entire animated menu sequence which incorporates my montages as overlays. The question is which programs will do that. And I'm wondering if the result will be workable in Roxio EMC or if basically the DVD builder is too limited for me.

Lummox JR