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Just for the record chaps, the best workflow for quality results is to go via Compressor (or any other dedicated encoder, such as Cinemacraft), and create MPEG2 files for the video, and Dolby Digital for the audio (AC3). There are several very good reasons for this workflow:
1 - DVDSP has an encoder that is not very accurate. It *does* encode, but is meant for the graphics on menus. Just becau
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
Not really - you can export item descriptions for the tracks from disc 2 and import those into disc 1 if you've got enough space, but you'll still need to create the menus and other features.
In the very old days of DVDSP v1, there was a way to merge two projects, but that was an entirely different application to that which later versions are based on.
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
The output from Compressor can be used in other authoring apps... not just DVDSP.
Whilst DVDSP can't author BD at the moment, there's no telling what changes Apple may be able to introduce. I wouldn't hold your breath while you wait, mind you... :-)
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
Can you give a little more info here?
When the playback starts, do you get to a menu before you press anything? If so, when you press menu, what happens?
If your disc start up item is the track, which plays when playback starts, what happens when you press the menu button?
Or is this happening when you begin playback, get to the menu, press play, go back to the menu when the track finish
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
Tv Vet - make sure that your audio is an AC3 file, and not .aiff. What you describe suggests that your error occurs when audio is present, and the bit rate for your video is on the high side. If you use .aiff audio you will max out the bit rate, and you'll get the rather confusing 'video bitrate too high' error... when it is in fact the audio that is pushing things over the top.
If you encode
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
Pan and scan is not a compression function, but a description of how the video will look on different sized screens if it is applied. It's like saying letterbox... which isn't a video compression either.
If you've shot on DV (in PAL, I take it) then use FCP to edit the footage. Export to Compressor and use an appropriate compression preset to convert your DV material to MPEG2, and the audio to
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
You add a second audio track, and use a 'set up' menu to select the appropriate track to play back.
For example, you have one video track, but two audio tracks. Button 1 on your menu plays the video with audio 1, and button two plays the video with audio 2. You can do this through using button 'conditions' in the property inspector for each button. It's quite easy. You can also do this with sc
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
The software has not been upgraded for years, and as far as I know is not under development and won't be further developed. It is what it is - flaky, unreliable and incompatible with vast numbers of PCs... and on Macs it isn't always perfect either. Avoid it - there are other ways to get your viewers to go to a web browser than trying (and failing) to get @ccess to run.
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
There is one way to do this without using Photoshop layers, and that is to use an overlay masking technique.
Whereas in a normal overlay you work to create highlights that will show when selected, ina masked overlay you create highlights that cover over an area of the background layer, and set the opacity to zero when they are selected. This is the reverse of the usual use of highlights.
Y
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
Get yourself a bitrate calculator... look at the overall length of video that you are using, and type that into the tool, then set the kind of audio you are using and add that in too - the calculator will give you a ballpark figure which will get the footage onto the disc. However, it *wont* necessarily give you a nice looking result, as encoding is way too much like an art for that to happen!
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
There are several ways, but basically, all you do is import your images into FCP, then add them to the timeline. You simply export the footage as normal, and you have some video to put into DVDSP.
As for resolution, you will get the resolution for the video standard you are working with. This will all get encoded to MPEG2 anyway, and even if you add images into DVDSP you'll get them converted
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
If you only want to get to control the font size, all you have to do is double click in the subtitle row for the track in DVDSP to get the caret on the screen, and then type your text. When done, double click the text so that it gets a blue highlight, and then press and hold the command (Apple) key and tap 'T' on your keyboard. The font controller appears, use the size slider on that to get the f
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
OK - so you want the button to appear with no image when in the normal state, an underline when selected and a star when activated (for example). The only way to do this is to use a photoshop layer based menu, and accept that there will be some funkiness to how the menu works in different players.
A normal overlay menu has two elements, the background image (normally with the button text in it
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
A slideshow is a special case of a track. It contains markers in between every image that you add. If you create a slideshow with 20 images, you'll get 20 markers. However, this is not visible in the track timeline.
If you control+click on the slideshow and select the option to 'simulate' it, then the simulator will open... make sure that you can see the information tray and turn on the 'SPRMs
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
Chocolate Doughnuts?
Excellent! My next meeting is 1pm in Coventry, UK... see you there... ;-)
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
Why not simply put it in the VOlume Creation field, adding it on to the end of the date stamp in there? Or better yet, each time you make a build keep a spreadsheet and list the time and date against the version number in that.
If you open a replicated DVD in MyDVDEdit or DVDAfterEdit you can look for the volume creation details and work out from that which version it is.
It would have to b
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
Are your menus set to 4:3?
If they are at 16:9 you should only be using 18 buttons on them, max.
Chapter markers will also exist in your slideshow - check you don't have extras in there.
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
Sounds to me as if you have got a time out on the menu set to a very short time... try setting 'at end' to 'still' in the property inspector for the menu.
I have had the same issue when using a very short video clip as a menu background, turned out to be easy to fix.
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
try trashing the prefs first of all, then re-starting... if no good, try creating a new user account and running it from there. If it doesn't work at all then I would think you'll need to re-install when you get back to base.
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
There are several settings that affect the speed of display when you are inside DVDSP. The one that always gets me is the settings drop down in the menu editor - turn off the 'assign navigation continuously' option. This makes sure that every time you move a button when building a menu that links to all other buttons are created in a logical manner. However, even moving a button slightly results
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
I *think* this is an issue with Compressor - a background encoding process or similar. Have you got QMaster running in your activity monitor (found in your Applications/Utilities folder)? It shows as 'qmasterd'
It sounds as if you are getting a problem when you try to connect to the background encoding process.
Can you try taking a short piece of footage as a QT.Mov into DVDSP and using the
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
Just checking, but you are starting off with PAL footage, right? And running it at 25fps, then converting it with Compressor using a PAL setting?
There should be little visible difference to PAL compared to your NTSC if this is the case... other than the different dimensions.
Are you using text as text, or rasterizing it and using it as a graphic before you convert to MPEG?
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
Jim - this is to do with the fact that a button when clicked is calling up an overlay image, which consists of just four colours... or is in four shades of grey. There is precious little control over the quality of the font outline at that point. This is why a lot of menus don't use text in their highlight images, but do underlines or similar to indicate what is being chosen. The text exists on t
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
Try converting the footage to MPEG first. DVDSP is less forgiving than iDVD, which is simply converting it for you. You may prefer to ahve more control over the process though, in which case run it through compressor and get it into the right format first.
Are you hoping to make a HD disc? Or are you wanting to downconvert to SD? Remember, DVDSP can create HD DVDs, but you may not be able to b
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
Absolutely definitely better to compress the footage using Compressor *before* you bring it in to DVDSP.
In fact, you can choose any decent compression system you like, as long as you are getting m2v files and audio files.
Try compressor first - you have to work out the best settings depending on your footage - there is no single right answer, and it depends on what your source footage is l
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
DVDSP should handle this automatically for you - it's in the prefs. If not, you can place a marker manually and in the property inspector you can set it as a layer break marker.
The rules are that layer 0 must be bigger than layer 1, but it may not be obvious where in your track this needs to be, depending on your disc structure.
You could also try changing the DVD settings from OTP to PTP
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
Very peculiar.
if you burn a disc from your mac does the menu show? If not, change the preferences for rendering from hardware to software based (in DVDSP prefs) or vice versa, depending on what it is using at the moment.
When you created the master, did you check it?
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
If you know the exact spot that the video should pause, all you have to do is send the viewer to a menu at that position, which looks like the last frame of the previous video. You can then add a button to call the next video in the sequence, which in fact could be a new track or story. As long as the menu background looks like the video screen it will be fine... a small pause as you enter the me
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
I am not sure I follow completely, but a DVD5 can hold a huge amount of video if you compress it enough, or if you use MPEG1, or half D1. What you should also do is compress the audio to AC3 - it is about a tenth of the file size of AIFF or PCM audio, and yet sounds pretty much the same. Aim for a bitrate of 192 if you want this in stereo.
Have a look for a bitrate calculator, too - this will
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
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