Sothink HD Movie Maker tutorial: Decorate Your Blu-ray Disc with Menu

With Sothink HD Movie Maker, you can create menu navigation on Blu-ray movie. Some of the parameters and settings are different with DVD.

At a glance you’ll probably think this article is similar with article How to create movie DVD menu navigation by your own with Sothink HD Movie Maker. But in fact it’s very different. The article was talking about menu navigation on DVD movie, while this article talking about menu navigation on Blu-ray movie. Some of the parameters and settings are different. And the template.xml file has some differences.

This tutorial was written by Belinda (Sothink Media) using Sothink HD Movie Maker.

Are you still searching for a simple way to make a movie menu for your blu-ray discs? Why not DIY (do it yourself) family movie menu to decorate baby growth record, wedding or family travelling videos? Forget about the tangle ways, today we will guide you to DIY your own blu-ray movie menu with Sothink HD Movie Maker.

Part I. Blu-ray Movie Menu Components

When talking about the blu-ray movie menu DIY, you need to be aware of the blu-ray movie menu components.

Tab.1 has displayed the files needed and these files are just the components of the movie menu. All of the pictures can be made with Photoshop. You can copy the existing template XML file and then make some changes to it for the convenience.

Tab.1 Movie Menu Components

background image	JPG or PNG; size:1920×1080
background audio	MP3/WMA/WAV
video.png	Button border. The black part (0x000000) is the display area for button background image.
prev.png	Page up button background picture.
next.png	Pagedown button background picture.
video-2.png	Button highlight	The consistent color is recommended to be used in these three pictures.
prev-0.png	Pageup button highlight
next-1.png	Pagedown button highlight
template.xml	Copying the existing template.xml file is recommended.

Note: All the resources name should be consistent with the existing resources (For instance, the designed background image can only be called “background.jpg”, the button highlight should be called “video-2.png” etc.)

Part II. DIY Movie Menu

Small changes will really bring much joy to your life. Expressing your love to your family members through blu-ray movie menu DIY can yet be regarded as a good choice. Following steps will teach you make your own movie menu.

Step1. DIY background image

Family photos, self-portraits, all of the photos or pictures can be used for background image. You can use Photoshop or other image processing tools to handle the pictures.

The menu title on the background image can be changed in the template.xml file.
title_text=”HD Movie Maker” title_font=”Arial” title_font_size=”72″ title_color=”$81223f” title_x=”358″ title_y=”79″ duration=”30″ resource_format=”0″>
For instance, you can change the text to “I Love My Family”, size to “95” and color to “$FFFFFF” or others.

title_x, title_y— The coordinate of the title. You can change this value to alter the position of the title. For instance, the title_x value “358” can be changed to “203” or other value. Then, the title position will align left.

 

Step2. DIY button border, page button and highlight

All of these pictures can be made with Photoshop. The parameters are shown as follows:

 

Tab.2 Button Border, Page Button and Highlight Properties

video.png	Button border. The black part (0x000000) is the display area for button background image.
prev.png	Page up button background picture.
next.png	Pagedown button background picture.
video-2.png	Button highlight	The consistent color is recommended to be used in these three pictures.
prev-0.png	Pageup button highlight
next-1.png	Pagedown button highlight

 

Step3. DIY video button text

Button texts can be added to the video buttons. The text can be the video name or any name that can be defined. Just click the video you want to add texts. Then choose “Font” and “Button text” to set the text font and texts.

Step4. DIY movie menu layout

Video button layout can be changed with the alteration of the button map.
<map width=”3″ height=”3″ Matrix=”1,1,0,1,1,0,1,2,3″ />

Let’s specify the properties in the Tab.3:

Tab.3 Button Map Properties

Button map property	Illustration
width	The column number of the matrix.
height	The row number of the matrix.
matrix	“1” represents video button; “2” represents pageup button; “3” represents pagedown button; “0” represents empty.

Thus, we can get the idea that this menu has 3 columns and 3 rows. While, the third values are “0” in the first row and the second row. So, only two video buttons are displayed on the menu.

Step5. DIY movie menu position

Sometimes, you may not be satisfied with the movie menu display position. Then you can change the coordinate of the video button to alter the position.

Tab.4 Video Button Coordinate Properties

Button Coordinate	Illustration
x0  y0  w0  h0	Coordinate, width and height of button background image/page button.
x1  y1  w1  h1	Coordinate, width and height of button border (video.png). Not applicable for page buttons.
x2  y2  w2  h2	Coordinate, width and height of button highlight (video-2.png /prev-0.png/next-1.png?. The values of the width and height represent the actual size of the pictures.
x3  y3  w3  h3	Coordinate, width and height of button texts. Not applicable for page buttons.
The following values can’t be changed
Video button status	nid=”65535″ sid=”2″ aid=”2″
Pageup button status	nid=”65535″ sid=”0″ aid=”0″
Pagedown button status	nid=”65535″ sid=”1″ aid=”1″

<button x0=”647″ y0=”199″ w0=”244″ h0=”166″
x1=”619″ y1=”181″ w1=”280″ h1=”216″
x2=”640″ y2=”192″ w2=”258″ h2=”180″
x3=”619″ y3=”408″ w3=”280″ h3=”32″
nid=”65535″
sid=”2″
aid=”2″/>

You may change the second button Y properties value to “280”, “262”, “273”, “487” and the fourth button Y properties value to “620”, “610”, “615”, “815” etc. Let’s look at the effect:

Note: The values of the “w1” and “h1” should be the same with the width and height of the “video.png”.

Part III. Add New Movie Menu to the Program

Step1. Create the new folder and save it in the template folder

Create the new folder named “My Family Video” (for example). Then save it in the template folder. “My Family Video” folder should contain nine files mentioned at the beginning of the article.
Note: The name of the new added folder should be the same with the menu name in template.xml file.

 

Step2. Restart the program and select the new file

Restart the program, and click “Add Files” to add the video files. Click the drop down arrow of the templates and select “My Family Video”:

Part IV. Play Blu-ray Movie Menu on HDTV

Step1. Convert and burn the videos to the blu-ray disc

First, you need an HD movie maker to convert and burn the videos to the blu-ray discs, such as Sothink HD Movie Maker. This Blu-ray movie creator allows world-wide users to convert video to Blu-ray, edit and burn Blu-ray discs and AVCHD DVDs from various formats.

Step2. Play blu-ray discs with blu-ray player or PS3

Then you can appreciate the masterpiece on TV with the help of a blu-ray player and switch to another as quickly as using your remote controller.

That seems simple enough right?

This little movie menu has been poured into your full love to your family members, and they will be glad to watch this masterpiece you created on TV with Sothink HD Movie Maker.

In case you are still in doubt about this tutorial, please write to us via support@sothinkmedia.com.