'Play All ' default in menu

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'Play All ' default in menu

Postby jworman » Mon Nov 08, 2010 8:37 pm

I may have hijacked an earlier thread, so I thought I'd start a new one.

[Disclaimer} After reading some of these threads, I realize just how poor I am at doing nice things in Producer. I'm pretty much of a hack.

Every two years the crew of my old Navy ship get together for a reunion. This last one was 3 days long. As there were quite a few different activates, I made up individual shows for each one and tied them all together in a project. I have a pre-show that plays before the project menu comes up. When the menu did come up, the first show was highlighted, and if you hit play on a DVD player, that is the only show that played. There is a 'play all' caption on the menu, but it has to be selected with the arrow buttons on the remote. Even moving 'play all' to the top of the menu doesn't cause it to be automatically selected.

This gave me two problems. 1. Some of my audience is quite old and I'm sure DVD player navigation is difficult. 2. I've found some Motel DVD players have limited controls, including the lack of arrow buttons. (We show the last reunion show when we meet again.)

I wanted to make 'Play All' be the default on the first page of the menu. I asked the question at Photodex and was told "Unfortunately, there is no way to set the "Play All" option as the default in ProShow. Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused."

I found a work around that is, in my opinion, more elegant than what I had asked for. I just added a blank menu page to the front of my menu. On that page I put 'Play All' at the top. I left 'Loop All' and I added one more caption; 'Select Scenes' (the click action says to go to the next menu page).

Now when the pre-show finishes, the menu comes up with 'play all' selected. Hitting 'play' on the remote launches all 11 shows, one after another. Navigation is pretty easy as there are only three captions on that first page. I made sure 'play all' and 'loop all' were deselected on all the other menu pages.

At least it works for me and makes the show look better and it's easier to operate.
John E Worman

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Re: 'Play All ' default in menu

Postby ginger » Tue Nov 09, 2010 8:29 am

Nice one John! It pays to think outside the box! :D

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Re: 'Play All ' default in menu

Postby DickK » Tue Nov 09, 2010 7:20 pm

Very clever indeed. Clever enough to report it back to PhotoDex I think--you sure had a better answer than they did. ;)
Dick
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." Aristotle ((PSG, PSE & Fuji HS20 user)) Presentation Impact Blog

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Re: 'Play All ' default in menu

Postby jworman » Tue Nov 09, 2010 8:40 pm

DickK wrote:Very clever indeed. Clever enough to report it back to PhotoDex I think--you sure had a better answer than they did. ;)
Dick


I did do a reply to the tech's email with what I came up with.

I didn't hear anything back. Maybe he liked it, maybe he didn't.

John
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Re: 'Play All ' default in menu

Postby alisoncc » Fri Oct 05, 2012 2:30 am

Wondered whether in the 2 years since this thread was started there have been any changes to setting the default selection on PSP menus without going to a two page menu as suggested here. I have half a dozen "episodes" of a show plus an Intro, yet the default menu selection always seems to come up with the first show and then stops. Some older Users evaluating the show have asked "how do you get to see all the "episodes"".

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Re: 'Play All ' default in menu

Postby jworman » Wed Oct 31, 2012 4:36 pm

alisoncc wrote:Wondered whether in the 2 years since this thread was started there have been any changes to setting the default selection on PSP menus without going to a two page menu as suggested here. I have half a dozen "episodes" of a show plus an Intro, yet the default menu selection always seems to come up with the first show and then stops. Some older Users evaluating the show have asked "how do you get to see all the "episodes"".


I can't answer your question. I have the latest version of proshow, but I liked the 'fix' I came up with better than if they had let me specify the "Play All" as the default in the single menu page, so I haven't checked to see if there are any changes. With the extra page you have a menu that is very simple. It only has 3 elements on it. If someone wants to select the show they want, it isn't hard to move to the next menu page. With the two page menu, your "older users" just have to hit 'PLAY'.
John E Worman

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