[George Wing]

Just to add to your list of decision making questions…

I understand the upcoming DVDLab Pro 2.0 has a bunch of new features that will make it one of the top Authoring packages on the PC (imho)

Some of the new features:
– More compatible slideshow – in full GOP instead of I-frame
– Mega-Project with disk caching – this will cache data during designing into disk which will allow user to create project with huge amount of menus without windows crying for memory. With Mega-Project you can now create up to 640 menus per VTS!
– Each menu can have up to 30 cells inside where each cell can have its own set of buttons and other parameters.
– Smart Compile will recompile only the changed menu parts and keep the video vobs from previous compile. This way you can recompile menu changes within a minute!
– Multi-PGC title. The Segment Title has been now redone to a full Multi-PGC title. (Each segment in a Multi-PGC Title can now have its own pre and post commands)
– Audio Title can show new slide on each mark
– Pre and Post verificaton log
– Multiple Angles
– Buttons on Movies (Each chapter can have different buttons)
– Faster transition encoding
– native 24p support (Note: this is not 23.97 with pulldown)
– Simpler to use and more robust audio transcoder – can transcode any audo file for which you have codec
– Subviews in Conections – place certain project objects to a freely definable subview (up to 9 subviews) so you can work with them separate from the main

[George Wing]

If your computer is fast enough, Ulead’s software offers a direct capture to mpeg2 from a dv source. You could try downloading their trial software to see if it does what you wan (VideoStudio 10, MediaStudio 8, etc…).

But, keep in mind that if you plan to edit further, you could get better end results by transferring the dv .avi, editing, then converting to mpeg2 as your final step…

Regards,
George

[George Wing]

Unfortunately, you can’t do a DVD “Preview” of the entire project…

However, you can do a couple of things to test your DVD

1) You can compile the project, and check the option to do a “Test Compile” — it will build your DVD quickly using dummy placeholders for your video assets

2) You can use the builtin VM Debugger — this steps through all the VM Code and Menus, so you can test your commands to see if they work properly

Regards,
George

[George Wing]

Not sure if this is what you are trying to do, but software DVD Players (like PowerDVD) will let you save current frames to a picture file.

Or, look at your VIDEO_TS folder, there should be some small *.vob files (small compared to the main title in the dvd) — those will be your menus. Perhaps you can change their extension to *.mpg and play them back in a video editor?

Regards,
George

[George Wing]

I use Ulead’s VideoStudio 9 (soon to be version 10) to “Import from DVD” — it can import entire Titles, or specific Chapters. You could import the chapter(s), cut off the “excess”, and output one mpeg section. The software will even let you re-author the “kept” video into a new DVD.

Ulead also has other software that imports from DVD in the same manner — MovieFactory 4 and 5, and MediStudio Pro 8.

You could download their Trial version (keep in mind the Trials might not support Dolby Digital Audio, but the FULL versions support and encode Dolby Digital audio).

Regards,
George

[George Wing]

Try this one from Alex Alexzander

https://www.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/page_wrapper.cgi?page=https://www.creativecow.net/articles/alexzander_alex/bitshifting/index.html&forumid=55

Regards,
George

[George Wing]

You mean like a jukebox — making a playlist and then the playback follows the requested list?

Rregards,
George

[George Wing]

In that calculator you referenced, the item labeled “DVD Max Bitrate” is just a reference for how large your MAX video bitrate can be based on the dvd spec limit of 9800kbps (video+audio — 10080kbps adding in subpics). Notice how it changes when you adjust the audio bitrate (it leaves a little room for menus and overhead). But I wouldn’t necessarily use it for VBR MAX because you might be setting the video bitrate up to 9600kbps (and some encoders will periodically “spike” above your stated max number — potentially making your dvd non compliant).

Also, if you plan to have a second audio track, make sure you change the number of audio tracks using the “Advanced” mode of that calculator.

Regards,
George

[George Wing]

Here’s a cut/paste of my reply to the OP in another forum where the same question was posted. Near the end it has a suggestion for capturing the dvd compliant mpeg2 in realtime (saving any render time)

<<< My standalone LiteOn DVD Recorder can record a live video feed from my camcorder. For instance, say I have my camcorder connected via firewire to the dvd recorder. I can turn on the camcorder to record, and then hit record on the dvd recorder to capture the live video from the camcorder (I don't have to be recording on the camcorder). I can also hit record on the camcorder to be recording to camcorder tape and simultaneously recording the video to dvd recorder (in case you need a backup). You would have to have the dvd's pre-recorded with the intro video, then load a new one up for each jump. How much time before the next jump do you have? The issue might be the loadup time, and the finalize time (if you use DVD+RW discs you might be able to skip the finalizing time). Perhaps two dvd recorders (and an extra person for help). Then as you are doing one person, you could start the load process for the next person using the 2nd dvd recorder? Another approach would be to have a laptop/computer in the field. Have a project pre-authored so that all you have to do is drop in a compliant dvd video, compile and burn to dvd

[George Wing]

The general advice to use the original quality is correct 🙂

However, to answer your question about pulling off segments from your DVD’s and assembling a montage — you can do so without loss in the quality on those DVD’s as long as you do not modify the segments in some way that would force a re-render of the videos…

Regards,
George