Playlist problems

OK, so I'm finally getting close to making this project work - I actually got it
to play on my standalone DVD player, a big hurdle. While it seems that all the
scene selection buttons work correctly (they select the proper chapter and
return to the selection menus as appropriate) I did something wrong with the
"play all" button, because after it plays the first chapter it goes
back to the main menu. It did NOT do this when I previewed everything before
compiling.

It seems I'm having a problem understanding how the playlists work, and the
"help" file is no help at all. Virtually worthless at explaining
clearly how playlists work or how to use them effectively.

At the very first I did away with the playlists I had created because I couldn't
figure out how to make them really do anything, and when I "check
project" most of the issues related to the playlists that I wasn't really
using, so I deleted them. Instead I tried linking each button to a chapter and
using overrides to return to the menu after the scene played. The button types
were set to "chapter". The button to play all was set to
"normal" and seemed to work fine, playing the whole movie and
returning to the main menu. But the chapters wouldn't stop at the end of the
chapter, but instead played from the selected chapter forward to the end of the
movie. So I went back in, deleted all the overrides and started the navigation
over, this time trying to do it just using playlists. I created one
"playlist" and one "chapter playlist". Following the help
file suggestion I linked from the main playlist to the timeline of the main
movie. The way I read it that was how to do a "play all". Then I
opened the chapters playlist and proceded to link each end action for each
chapter to the appropriate menu. Everything looked like it would work when I
previewed everything. When I "checked project" it came up with 2
errors for each of the two playlists: orphan timeline and an end action issue. I
still haven't figured out what the orphan timeline is all about, since I only
have two in the project and they're both linked to stuff. The end action issue
had something about it couldn't perform an end action because there was already
an end action set. Thinking that maybe the last chapter had to be set with no
end action I cleared the end action on both timelines, which made the
"check project" happy, but it still shows the orphan timeline thing.

Sorry for the long post, but I'm pretty frustrated at spending weeks on this and
still not having a final product, so please forgive me. To sum up my questions:

How do I deal with the orphan timeline when there's no unused timelines I can
delete?

How do I get a "play all" button to play all, using the playlist?

Should I be setting an end action on the last chapter, and if so how do I
resolve the check project error message that will occur if I do so?

Why do things appear to work when I do a full preview in Encore but act
differently when the DVD is played?

Thanks for any help,

      How do I deal with the orphan timeline when there's no unused timelines
      I can delete?




What's linked to your orphan timeline?

      How do I get a "play all" button to play all, using the
playlist?




If you're using a playlist with multiple timelines, then link a button to the
playlist. If you're using a chapter playlist, then link a button to the chapter
playlist.

      Should I be setting an end action on the last chapter, and if so how do
      I resolve the check project error message that will occur if I do so?




It all depends on what you want the DVD player to do. If your last chapter and
the timeline have different end actions, then the chapter end action wins. The
Check Project error is only informing you of the situation...it's your choice as
to whether you want to do anything about that.

      Why do things appear to work when I do a full preview in Encore but act
      differently when the DVD is played?

      How do I deal with the orphan timeline when there's no unused timelines
      I can delete?




What's linked to your orphan timeline?

      How do I get a "play all" button to play all, using the
playlist?




If you're using a playlist with multiple timelines, then link a button to the
playlist. If you're using a chapter playlist, then link a button to the chapter
playlist.

      Should I be setting an end action on the last chapter, and if so how do
      I resolve the check project error message that will occur if I do so?




It all depends on what you want the DVD player to do. If your last chapter and
the timeline have different end actions, then the chapter end action wins. The
Check Project error is only informing you of the situation...it's your choice as
to whether you want to do anything about that.

      Why do things appear to work when I do a full preview in Encore but act
      differently when the DVD is played?