Greeings,

Ime attempting to back up some video files that I own onto dvd with a menu.
Problem: The menu highlighting will work on compter perfectly, but not on standalone player.
All other funtions of the dvd are perfect, even the ability to use the menu, although you have to count how many spaces you move, becuase there is no indicator of selection.
Ihave read every available outline that I could find through google, and have been able to:

1.) Convert the avi files into mp2 and ac3 files, and then combine into mpg. This part works great.
2.) I found a sound file to use behind the menu, I successfully used my background jpg to make a 1125 frame pal mpg with music. Plays great.
3.) I created two png files as masks for the menu file while highlighted and selected.
4.) I wrote a spumux xml file to give directives to the menu move, and combine with png's.

Code:
<subpictures>
<stream>
<spu
force="yes"
start="00:00:00.00"
highlight="lotw_s3d1_highlight.png" select="lotw_s3d1_select.png" autoorder="rows">
<button name="b1" x0="63" y0="370" x1="163" y1="450" left="b4" right="b2" />
<button name="b2" x0="227" y0="370" x1="327" y1="450" left="b1" right="b3" />
<button name="b3" x0="391" y0="370" x1="491" y1="450" left="b2" right="b4" />
<button name="b4" x0="555" y0="370" x1="655" y1="450" left="b3" right="b1" />
</spu>
</stream>
</subpictures>

Command:
$ spumux spumux.xml < bg.mpg > bgfinal.mpg

Output:
DVDAuthor::spumux, version 0.6.10.
Build options: gnugetopt iconv freetype fribidi
Send bugs to <dvdauthor-users@lists.sourceforge.net>

INFO: Locale=en_US
INFO: Converting filenames to ISO-8859-1
INFO: PNG had 2 colors
INFO: PNG had 2 colors
INFO: Constructing blank img
INFO: Pickbuttongroups, success with 1 groups, useimg=1
INFO: Found EOF in .sub file.
INFO: Max_sub_size=1180
WARN: Read 0, expected 4
INFO: 1 subtitles added, 0 subtitles skipped, stream: 32, offset: 0.18

Statistics:
- Processed 0 subtitles.
- The longest display line had -1 characters.
- The maximum number of displayed lines was 0.
- The normal display height of the font arial.ttf was 0.
- The bottom display height of the font arial.ttf was 0.
- The biggest subtitle box had 1180 bytes.

I also wrote an xml for dvdauthor:
<dvdauthor dest="DVD">
<vmgm>
<menus>
<video format="pal" aspect="4:3" />
<audio/>
<pgc entry="title" pause="inf">
<vob file="bgfinal.mpg"/>
<button name="b1">jump title 1;</button>
<button name="b2">jump title 2;</button>
<button name="b3">jump title 3;</button>
<button name="b4">jump title 4;</button>
</pgc>
</menus>
</vmgm>
<titleset>
<titles>
<pgc>
<vob file="/storage/LastoftheWineS3/dvdtest/s3e1.mpg"/>
<post>call vmgm menu;</post>
</pgc>
<pgc>
<vob file="/storage/LastoftheWineS3/dvdtest/s3e2.mpg"/>
<post>call vmgm menu;</post>
</pgc>
<pgc>
<vob file="/storage/LastoftheWineS3/dvdtest/s3e3.mpg"/>
<post>call vmgm menu;</post>
</pgc>
<pgc>
<vob file="/storage/LastoftheWineS3/dvdtest/s3e4.mpg"/>
<post>call vmgm menu;</post>
</pgc>
</titles>
</titleset>
</dvdauthor>

Output: The output was enourmous. If you need it, I can pull it up

I am making a pal dvd to play on a player that plays pal format dvds, and all other dvds of mine that are pal play on the machine.
The dvd works fine. the overall video quality is good, the function of the title menus navigation is seemingly perfect, and the return to menu after play is functional as well.
What might be the issue that makes the standalone not perform the highlighting tasks?

Any help might get you any 2 cars from around my block.
Ken

Not sure if this actually helps,
but I've had more success with dvdstyler.

Thanks for the help!
I'm pretty sure that dvdstyer, and qdvdauthor (kinda similar) are just frontends to dvdauthor, and its component spumux.
They build the xml for you and execute the commands instead of trying to do it command line.
I found the same problem with them, thats why I turned to trying to figure it out cmd line.
What I can't figure out is what is goofey with my xml code. It follows the howto examples to the letter.
GGGRRRR.
Anybody had a similar problem?

I suggested dvdstyler as I had limited success with all the other solutions (including java-based freeware (varsha), etc). I was making a dvd-slideshow.

My problem involved burning a dvd to play on a playstation 2 (au pal ... model 7 I think). Initially I was unsure about the types of media the ps2 would read. It turned out that dvd-r ONLY were suitable.

By this stage, getting the right video format 'just happened', so I didn't have to make a few different attempts.

The next issue was the menu system. When using varsha this function didnt seem to work on the ps2, but did on the computer. I ended up going deeper into the problem, found a few problems, and finally used a combination of gallery and dvdstyler to produce results.

Included below is a clipped version of the xml for my menu (it includes highlighting, etc)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<dvdstyler>
<vmgm>
<menus/>
</vmgm>
<titleset>
<menus>
<pgc>
<spumux>
<menu videoFormat="PAL" bgFile="/XXXX/KiahCoverMenu.jpg">
<text x="83" y="9">
<text>Kiah Amber Richardson</text>
<colour>#b000ff</colour>
<font>72;77;93;90;0;urw chancery l</font>
</text>
<text x="255" y="88">
<text>Born April 2nd, 2005.</text>
<colour>#ff0000</colour>
<font>18;77;90;90;0;luxi_sans</font>
</text>
<button x="57" y="173">
<action>jump title 1;</action>
<type>/usr/share/dvdstyler/buttons/simple.xml</type>
<text>Day One</text>
<text_font>20;77;90;92;0;luxi_sans</text_font>
<text_colour>
<normal>#b000ff</normal>
<highlighted>#ff0000</highlighted>
<selected>#7fff00</selected>
</text_colour>
<bgcolour>
<normal></normal>
<highlighted></highlighted>
<selected></selected>
</bgcolour>
<direction>
<left>-1</left>
<right>-1</right>
<up>-1</up>
<down>-1</down>
</direction>
</button>
<button x="51" y="345">
<action>jump title 3;</action>
<type>/usr/share/dvdstyler/buttons/simple.xml</type>
<text>Day Three</text>
<text_font>20;77;90;92;0;luxi_sans</text_font>
<text_colour>
<normal>#b000ff</normal>
<highlighted>#ff0000</highlighted>
<selected>#7fff00</selected>
</text_colour>
<bgcolour>
<normal></normal>
<highlighted></highlighted>
<selected></selected>
</bgcolour>
<direction>
<left>-1</left>
<right>-1</right>
<up>-1</up>
<down>-1</down>
</direction>
</button>


Perhaps that's a little more constructive ?

I'd suggest using any/all of the front-ends you can find so that you can compare/use the syntax (even if you do it manually in the end!).

Thanks!
It looks like the xml is similar for your dvd styler script, however their are some specific differences for that frontend.
Thats a pretty good idea, I'll try setting up a similar menu in several different front-ends and look at the xml structured for dvdauthor and spumux.
It's interesting-looks like dvdstyler includes the dvdauthor and spumux in the same xml file. I'll have to sort through it.
Thanks!