[George Wing]

I think it means your project has an item called “PLAYLIST 1” (look in the tree structure on the left), and there are no buttons or “end actions” pointing to “PLAYLIST 1” (so DVDA thinks it is just “hanging” there without any means to play it back).

Regards,
George

[George Wing]

[seminewbie] “I work in the Adobe Video Collection in 720×480 and always transcode using VBR 2 Pass Q5 5.5 MBPS.(anything higher from a MBPS point of view and I always seem to get playability issues)”

What type of audio are you using? LPCM, Dolby Digital, mpeg, other? If using LPCM audio, then that *might* push your bitrate high enough to cause stuttering on some dvd players (but your video bitrate seems low enough). As was already asked — can you list the settings for min/avg/max bitrates?

If you are using LPCM audio, then the first thing you can try is using Dolby Digital audio instead (much lower bitrate). And also upping your video bitrate (if space on the disc permits based on the duration of your video).

Here are some tips I keep handy to avoid dvd playback issues:

-keep video+audio bitrate <= ~7.5mbps -keep the total size <= ~4gb (on dvd5) -use Dolby Digital (AC3) audio for a good mix of "global" compatibility, and a lower audio bitrate to allow for higher video bitrate (mpeg audio can use the same low bitrates as DD audio, but not all NTSC DVD Players will play mpeg audio) -use quality discs instead of no-name generics (Taiyo Yuden's get excellent reviews) -don't use sticky labels on your dvd's -Burn as DVD-VIDEO (not just a data dvd -- the files must be written in the proper order on the dvd) -if you only have a prepared DVD Folder, then use software that can properly format a DVD IMAGE file (*.ISO), and then burn the image file. (I like to use IMGBURN 2.x to create the IMAGE file) -for DVD+R discs, see if your burner supports bitsetting the booktype to DVD-ROM -keep burner firmware up-to-date (follow instructions carefully when updating firmware) -keep burning software up-to-date -if space for your video allows a high bitrate (say >= 7mbps), then try CBR instead of VBR (VBR encodes can have bitrate “spikes”, and depending on how high the “spike” is, it might be enough to cause a hiccup during playback)
-don’t always burn at the max speed of your burner/media combo (I’ve had great success burning at 4x, but others have had better results burning at max speeds like 8x or 16x — it could depend on your dvd disc quality and how well they work with your burner)
-try different media (brands and types) Not all DVD

[George Wing]

Did the person who Authored the DVD update DVD Workshop 2.x with the DLT Patch issued last year?
https://www.ulead.com/tech/dws/dws_ftp.htm

Out of curiosity, the button that does not work — would that button take you to an area of the DVD that would be on the 2nd layer (when the project is burned to DL Disc)?

Also, at the 1:24:00 mark, would that be around/near a layer break (again, if it were burned to DVD9)?

Did the images provided to the Replicator pass their verification process (before doing the print run)?

Regards,
George

[George Wing]

Does it do the same thing in ALL dvd players, or just one particular player? What make/model is the dvd player?

Is it possible that your dvd player is setup to automatically resume from the last time you played that dvd? Some dvd players have a “memory” for the last “x” number of dvd’s.

What happens if you hit the menu button on your remote control — does it go to the menu properly, or does it continue to play?

What happens when you play the dvd on your computer using a software player like WinDVD or PowerDVD?

Regards,
George

[George Wing]

[jeditdv] “The DVD must be MPEG2. DVD Architect will convert whatever video you give it to MPEG2 format and use the proper bitrate for that length of video.”

Just to clarify this comment — one of DVD Architect’s limitations is that it will not produce a dvd with dvd-compliant mpeg-1 video. That is why it will convert to mpeg2 (if not already).

There are other SD DVD Authoring programs that will allow dvd-compliant mpeg-1 video for DVD (as it is within the dvd specifications).

Regards,
George

[George Wing]

WMV video does not fall within the SD DVD Specifications (must either be mpeg-1 or mpeg-2 video — along with restrictions for resolution, frame rate, and bitrate depending on the type of disc you are creating).

So DVDA is calculating the size based on your video duration, and the project settings to be used during the compression to mpeg.

Regards,
George

[George Wing]

Hi Charlie and DV Memories,

Thanks for the info — seems I might request that next time I need to hire a videographer (I can handle the editing and authoring, so it would be great to just get a hard drive with the video files already on it — hopefully first-generation video files like dv .avi if shot on mindDV).

It’s definitely something I’ll keep open as an option in the future. And if I know anyone with a son/daughter getting married, I’ll pass this along as a potential option when they are looking for their wedding videographer.

Thanks again,
George

[George Wing]

Out of curiosity, is this a new era where the bride/groom can hire a videographer to record their wedding, and then they get a hard drive with all the original-quality un-edited footage?

What can be charged for something like that? When I got married, I remember the photographer wanted some outrageous amount for the negatives (which is similar to giving a hard drive with all the original video footage). In hind sight, I wish we did take the negatives (didn’t have much cash when we were getting started).

Anyway, just wondering if this is something that’s happening more these days…

Regards,
George

[George Wing]

What format is your completed 30-minute video? Is it a 30-min video that you then converted to mpeg2, or did you convert directly to mpeg2 from the timeline?

When you say “rendering will take a long time”, how long did it take for your 30-minute original? And do you mean rendering to mpeg2, or some other format? I’m thinking “Magic Bullet” long time (in which case it can be painfully long depending on your computer horsepower).

If you are lucky, the “couple of minutes” needed to be added is all in one section, and it starts/ends with a fade from/to black (if unlucky, there might be 30-seconds here, 45-seconds there, etc…). If you do have a fade from/to black section to replace, then you could try creating a playlist where the dvd plays the first 17-minutes, then the 2-minute replacement video, then the final 11 minutes (just made those times up).

If a “long time” is manageable, then your best bet might be to bite the bullet and make the edit to the original and re-render…

Regards,
George

[George Wing]

It’s interesting that it stops at the same point for those who have a problem. That could be related to how the disc was authored, or perhaps a bad batch of discs? Does the same problem exist (at the same spot) if you burn to a different brand of disc?

Are you burning your discs at MAX Speeds? How do you burners work — if they start off burning at a slower speed, then kick in to a faster speed (which alot of burners do), I’m wondering if the point where they are changing speeds might be giving you a problem.

You mentioned in-house duplicators — I was wondering if the “bad” discs are all coming from one burner in one of your duplicators. Can you track the bad discs to a single burner in one of your duplicators?

You could try downloading the free VS Inspector to san one of the problem discs
https://copytodvd.com/products/inspector/inspector.php

Also, if you know how to use PGCedit (another free tool), you can run it in debug mode to walk through your dvd. It might highlight a problem with one of the VM Commands.

Regards,
George