The LEAD DVD Writer: Menus, Titles, and Chapters

About menus, titles and chapters

The typical DVD includes a menu with one or more titles. Think of a title The name for a group of related video files (called "Chapters") on your DVD. For example, for a DVD called "My Summer Vacation," you might have the titles "Water Skiing," "New Friends," and "Hiking." For each of those titles, you might have one or more different video files. as being a complete movie. When the DVD player reaches the end of the title, it usually returns to the menu.

Each title has one or more chapters. Think of a chapter The name for each individual video file on a DVD. For example, under the title "Water Skiing", you might have the chapters "My first try," "My first wreck," and "My first jump." as a scene in the movie consisting of a few minutes. When you click the Skip button on the DVD player, you go to the next chapter in the movie. The DVD player plays all of the chapters in a title without any pause between the chapters. When it reaches the end of the last chapter in the title, the DVD player usually returns to the main menu. The titles are broken into chapters so you can quickly skip to the next chapter.

Technical information about DVD images

The DVD menu and the titles are stored in a series of files that make up what we call a "DVD image". The DVD image A set of files that contain all of the video and audio content for a DVD, organized with a table of contents (optional). See also: Title, Chapter, ISO Image An ISO image (.iso) is a disk image of a file system. It includes data files that are contained in the ISO image along with filesystem metadata. ISO images are an alternative to physical media for distribution of a "DVD" over the Internet. Most operating systems allow ISO images images to be "played" as if they were physical discs. See also: DVD Image. .ISO Image . consists of a series of files (.IFO, .VOB and .BUP):

The VOB files contain the video data.

The IFO files contain the information needed to read the data from the VOB files. The data inside a VOB file can be stored in any order, and the only way to play the DVD correctly is to parse the IFO files.

The BUP files are nothing more than backup of copies of the VOB files and are of little importance (usually ignored).

Some people try to play the VOB files directly (because they look like regular MPEG-2 files), but that is not recommended: there is no guarantee that they will play well. As mentioned earlier, the video data can be in any order in the VOB file and the timestamps might reset to the beginning of each chapter, which will cause unexpected behavior: you might be able to play the VOB file for one DVD but not for another. For more information, refer to VOB Files.

The menu and all the titles and chapters making up the DVD need to be compressed with MPEG-2 video compression and AC3, MPEG-1 or LPCM audio compression. You can do this by using the following codecs:

Video codecs:

LEAD MPEG-2 Encoder (2.0)

Audio codecs:

LEAD AC3 Encoder

LEAD MPEG Audio Converter

You can get the LEAD MPEG-2 Encoder Also known as compressor, this is a module or algorithm to compress data. Playing that data back requires a decompressor, or decoder. compressor Also known as an encoder, this is a module or algorithm to compress data. Playing that data back requires a decompressor, or decoder. , this is a module or algorithm to compress data. Playing that data back requires a decompressor, or decoder Also known as a decompressor, this is a module or algorithm to decompress data. .compressor , this is a module or algorithm to compress data. Playing that data back requires a decompressor, or decoder . (3.0) and both audio codecs by purchasing the DVD module .

What type of DVDs can you create with the LEAD DVD Writer?

When you convert a file with the DVD imager, the result can be one of the following three types of data:

1. Video used as background for the menu ( TitleMenu property is TRUE) .

2. Chapter in a title ( TitleMenu property is FALSE, TitleBreak property is FALSE) .

3. A new title ( TitleMenu property is FALSE, TitleBreak property is TRUE).

The menus in a DVD image created by LEAD are a list of strings displayed on a background video. The background video might loop when it reaches the end (this is usually the case). Each menu item should correspond to a title in the DVD. If you have more titles than entries in the menu, you will NOT be able to play that title from a regular DVD player (because you have no way to select it)!

If you do not have a menu, you can create a DVD with multiple titles that are played seamlessly, one after another. To create this DVD, set the ltDvdWriter.MenuLessTitlePlay property to TRUE.