Dave Friend
Forum Replies Created
-
Marion,
eDVD is pretty easy to use and works well on a computer when the required InterActual player (included on the DVD automatically)installs correctly. The disc can be played on a computer without the InterActual player but without the links working.
eDVD Discs will play perfectly in set-top DVD players.
I have had very good results and happy clients thanks to eDVD.
Dave
-
Ron,
Depends on what the contract means by “reproduction.” In the DVD world the terms most frequently used in reference to making copies are duplication and replication.
Duplication implies that copies are created by burning (recording to writeable) discs from a “master” disc. In this case the “master” is the disc you burn from your authoring program (Encore?).
Replication implies that copies are created by a stamping process that uses a glass master. The stamping (glass) master is created at by the replacation facility. Typically, replication means that you must supply a DLT of the DVD to the replacator.
To me the term “reproduction” implies that they want a master videotape. I would ask them to define the word “reproduction” in the contract. Don’t sign until you fully understand what they want.
Dave
-
Lauren,
As your video is only about 60 minutes in length you can use a CBR encode which may help playback reliability a bit. Try 6.5 or 7.0 Mb/s and, even though there is hardly any audio, encode it as ac3 at 192kb. Make the burn a 1x and use good quality discs.
Unless there is some studio pro issue I’m not aware of (I’m not a SP user) the number of markers should not affect playback reliability.
Dave
-
Randy,
I agree with Brojis about the Sonic cards.
On the Mac your two best options are the Mediapress encoder and Optibase’s Encoder.
Dave
-
Mac or PC?
-
Theorist B,
Do you have CSS turned on? Try it without CSS which requires a sector size of 2054 but which your burner won’t let happen. (Can you say industry attempt at copy protection boys and girls?) Setting the CSS flag is pointless until you do a build that will be written to DLT anyway. Encore should know better and automatically strip the extra sector header bytes when you burn a disc. But since it does not, you have to build your folder-set (or disc image) with CSS off when creating a disc.
Hope this helps.
Dave
-
[tommmm] “However the time from when a user presses the menu button to the time the transition starts playing there is a short break and cut in the video. How can I set it up to where it’s seemless with no visible delay?”
This delay is because the DVD player has to physically move the laser to a different location on the disc. It’s fast but not instantaneous. Encore’s preview mode looks worse (longer pause, sometimes a ‘blink’ in the video output) than an actual disc in a DVD player will.
[tommmm] “Is there any way to have video in the main menu and still seamlessly use a transition video?
Sorry, but no.
-
Joseph,
Are you playing the mpeg file or a DVD file-set (ie. VIDEO_TS folder or an *.IFO)? Chapter info is part of the DVD authored file-set and is not “included” in an mpeg file.
When I play a VIDEO_TS with Windows Media Player 10 it navigates chapter marks perfectly.
Dave
-
[Bob Cole] “Is there a benefit to creating a DVD Folder first? Or, to burning from the DVD Folder rather than a DVD Image?”
In theory, if you are burning multiple copies of the disc, then using the image should be a bit quicker. My reasoning is that when burning the folder set to disc the authoring program has to construct and write the various part of the disc one at a time, eg. lead-in, folders/files, lead-out. Whereas, when burning the image file all these elements are already there and layed out (supposedly) correctly. Using burning software (eg. Nero, RecordNow, Roxio) rather than the authoring software to burn the image file might also be faster. But I haven’t tested that premise.
When creating a disc image the authoring software has to first create a folder set anyway (else what’s to be imaged?) so you might as well create the folder set – test it with DVD playing software – and then either create an image from the folders or simply burn straight from the folders at your whim.
[Bob Cole] “2. I only have one DVD player here. That is clearly not smart. But how many should I have, and which ones, for my QC?”
We ususally test on 3-4 set-tops and 2-3 computers. The set-tops range from a $40 Wal-Mart never heard of the brand before player to an very expensive Sony. For computer we run it on average ‘office’ type machines running Win 98, XP and 2000 and possibly on a G4 or G5 running OS X (if the graphic department will let us on their machines that is).
[Bob Cole] “When I mentioned the brand (Apex)…”
We had one of those around for awhile. It wouldn’t even play ‘hollywood’ releases so it went to the junk pile.Hope this helps.
Dave
-
Run a virus scan of your computer lately?