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Show all posts by user
The problem is that dissolves are one of the hardest things to encode well - pans, zooms and action footage come a close second! When you encode a dissolve, every single pixel changes on every frame, making it a very intensive process to get right. What you can do is set up some compression markers in FCP either side of the dissolve to ensure Compressor assigns an I frame at the right point, or y
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
The limit is 99 tracks, stories and slideshows, in whatever combination - so 1 track and 98 stories, or fifty tracks each with one or two stories (up to 99), or ninety tracks and nine slideshows, or... well, you get the idea :-)
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
No -what you have to do is export the item description and extract the subtitles from that using a tool such as Subtiler, created by Palmer Eldridge. You can try emailing him here:
PalmerEldridge at gmail dot com
Or, rip the DVD and use this:
Not used it myself, but it looks as if it might do the job.
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
It really should just work! I am not sure why it doesn't, but trash prefs and try again. This is, as you say, a basic thing!
Also, check that the file you are importing matches the video format you are using in DVDSP (i.e. PAL/NTSC, etc) and that it complies with other preference settings in DVDSP.
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
You can flag any tile - just highlight it and type 'f'.
All this is for is to act as a reminder that you need to do something to the tile - add an asset, change the background in a menu, whatever. It is nothing more than a tool to help the author, and has no other meaning.
Check chapter 4, page 174 of the DVDSP manual, v4.
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
There *is* a way to add a menu, but you'll need to delve into the build files using a tool like DVDAfterEdit. This is easily able to replace menus and re-write the necessary navigation, but it takes a while to understand how it works. That said, there is a good group of people willing to help you over at DVDAfterEdit.com.
If you don't fancy that, or don't want to pay for it, then as John said
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
Try adding the button text to the video footage, then export it using QT as MPEG2 and using that as the menu background. You only then need a simple overlay to complete the menu, and the quality will be far higher, IMO.
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
Right - having just rebuilt a couple of projects that needed merging, how about a merge facility similar to that in v1.5? Import a VTS and enable it to be linked in to the current navigation - this is probably waaaaayyyyy down the list, but I am sure it would be useful - especially if the original assets are lost.
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
Almost certainly, store bought videos will not have used DVDSPs built in objects from templates, nor the underlying QT based encoder which is used when the disc compiles. To get a better result on your menus you have several options, but all require you to use external applications.
Firstly, use Photoshop to create your stills and make sure that you flatten the image before saving it out. For
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
The maximum bit rate for video allowed for in the DVD spec is in fact 9.8Mbps, and the total bit rate for all elements of the disc combined is 10.08Mbps. If you encode at 15Mbps this will be outside of the spec for a SD disc and will not get imported into DVDSP in a SD project.
If you are burning to a DVD-R then keep the maximum bitrate for video to 7.4Mbps and encode the audio to AC3, reducin
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
DVDSP is designed to make a compliant DVD-Video and that means content needs to be encoded to MPEG2. What you seem to be suggesting is that you want to deliver the footage as a QT file, like .mov or .dv.
This will not then be playable on a set top DVD player in the normal way, as these devices are basically MPEG2 decoders. You will only ever be able to open the disc on a computer and load the
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
There are several, including Sonic Scenarist, DVD Creator and DVD Fusion as well as DVD Maestro (although rare now). Some folk also use high end Toshiba stations but using these tools means that you have to understand much more about the DVD structures and be able to program the entire disc from scratch - setting all of the navigation in place. There are no easy ways to link between the different
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
As Bob said - the Stop button will stop the playback in most players, resulting in a black screen in some cases (which is what you are seeing).
You can either use stories to ensure that you can set different end jumps and return to the correct menu, or you can use some simple scripts to do the same thing. If you have never used scripts before, now might be a good time to learn - however if the
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
This is done by adding ROM content to the disc - the trouble is that it is not the most intuitive process. You could try to get this file to launch automatically using DVD@ccess linking, but I wouldn't bother... just add it as a file in a folder at the root of the disc and use a menu screen to advise the viewer that it is there to find.
Take the file and place it in a folder called 'Extras' on
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
To get from camera to DVD you have to at least encode to MPEG2 on the way. There are several real time hardware encoders and devices which write to DVD in real time, such as set top DVD recorders. However, more often than not you want to review the quality of the encode and check that it as it should be.
A reasonable work flow for DVD authoring is to shoot, capture, edit, encode, author and th
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
It's down to the way different players interpret the command... not your programming. The simulator really isn't all that accurate.
on a CD player, or a tape, when you press the previous button it takes you to the start of the current track. You need to press it twice to go back further than that. I'd suggest therefore that is what should also happen with your DVD, and that simulator is not gi
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
Well... that's not strictly true - you *can* do it, if you really want to.
The reason for my hesitance is that it is either going to involve using photoshop layer based menus (which are slow to use on the final DVD and do not let you use audio) OR you have to construct a fairly intricate system of sub menus with auto-activating buttons... OR you use an overlay mask.
Each of these options ha
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
As John said, mixing different bitrates for video is no problem whatsoever - in fact a lot of titles have been released which have had sections encoded separately.
The bigger issue is that you'll need to use the same audio encoding for both audio files if the clips are to be placed in the same track. You cannot mix audio types or bitrates for audio.
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
Perla - you may find these two articles of use:
and
Both of these are by Alex Alexzander, and whilst written for DVDSP v2, the methods are exactly the same for v4.
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
OK - another one...
Moving audio clips on the timeline - you should be able to shift+select a group and move all of them in one go, or use a command such as the FCP 'close gap' when deleting clips and shuffling the remaining audio along. This one really bugs me when I have a track with many clips in it!
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
How about a 'collect for output' kind of feature, for bringing all the assets together into a single folder ready for archiving? If the user is careful about having folders in the assets tab, perhaps these can then be reflected in the collected space, i.e. video assets folder, audio assets, graphical assets and so on?
Then the issue of re-linking files, or deleting those that are in use on the
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
No limit to the length apart from the disc capacity and the way you encode the footage. You can of course use half D1 or MPEG1 for really long titles, and really pack the footage on there! It will come down to the visual quality that you can get from the footage using whatever encoder you use rather than the length in time for the footage.
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
There is a theoretical maximum of 10,000 menus on a DVD... and if you imagine a layer based menu system with some very full (36 button) screens which have different layers for each button state, one menu could occupy over 100 real menus very easily. Imagine also a quiz feature disc, which has a lot of answer screens and subsequent questions, display of totals and so on - I think you could soon ge
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
As to those subtitles - let's have a decent subtitle editing system built in - export subs to a text file, move subs as a group, etc.
Don't forget timecode adjustments in that!
There's more, but that'll do for now!
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
I wish it were as easy as that! A lot depends on the footage and how it was shot, the quality you have got and the amount of movement in the footage (pans, zooms, fades, etc). However, a simple calculation to fit the footage onto a single layer disc indicates that you should encode at 7.4mbps and use AC3 audio at 192kbps. If you use .aiff audio then you'll need to drop the bitrate to 6.5Mbps, but
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
Yes - TMPGEnc is pretty good (and pretty cheap, too...), but the best is generally claimed to be Cinemacraft, which can get expensive!
Procoder offers a decent encoder which is very easy to operate and generates a nice sharp and clear file.
Compressor does OK, IMO, but is not without it's faults. Compressor 2 is a lot better than v1, for sure and has the distinct advantage of coming as part
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
I'll add to John's starter...
Use Simulator with caution - it is not reliable as a test of playback. To get a better idea, build to your hard drive and use DVD Player, or better still burn a disc and check it in a set top player.
Always look to encode your audio to AC3. Uncompressed formats add greatly to the overall bitrate of the disc and can cause the all too familiar 'Bitrate too high'
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
Spot on, Bob - WMP needs the user to download a plug in to even begin playing DVDs... there are far, far better players available, including Real Player and Power DVD.
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
John Foley Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> DVD Studio needs to have MPEG-2 compressed media.
> Any other format will not work.
It will take any format of QT based video as a source, but works best if you use MPEG2 - if you add anything else DVDSP will attempt to convert it to MPEG2 as it builds/formats the project. If the source is something like M
by Hal MacLean
- DVD Studio Pro
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