[George Wing]

1) Hold down CTL+Shift when starting Vegas

2) Setting Window Layouts

FAQ from Sony Manual
<<< What do you want to do? Save a window layout Arrange the windows and docked windows as desired. Press Ctrl+Alt+D, and then release the keys. Press a number on your keyboard (not the numeric keypad) to save the layout in that space. Recall a saved layout Press Alt+D, and then release the keys. Press a number on your keyboard (not the numeric keypad) to recall the layout saved in that in that space. >>>

[George Wing]

Can you setup a slideshow, and set the duration between pics to a long time value? I believe it will let you hit the next to go to the next slide (the drawback is that it will automatically advance after it reaches the specifid duration).

How many stills are you talking about? If not over the limit — can you set them up as MENUS, and then just have a button go to another menu (next and prev buttons)? You could probably do this in DVD WS, but not in MovieFactory.

[George Wing]

Next best thing to Scenarist on the PC side (imho) would be Mediachance’s DVD LabPro.

[George Wing]

If you have a PC with a DVD drive that will let you explore the disc, you can use IFOedit to open up the VIDEO_TS.IFO (in the VIDEO_TS Folder). You should see some info that would point you in the right direction…

[George Wing]

DVD LabPro does come with a burning engine — although they offer a more robust burning engine as an addon at a relatively low cost 🙂

DVD Labpro accepts dvd compliant mpegs — what are the attributes of your source files???

You have the option of burning a “Test” version (it builds the dvd for you — but links to movies only show a blank screen — it’s a good way to test the navigation of your dvd menus).

[George Wing]

AFAIK, DVDLab doesn’t come with an encoder (it can do a quick shrink, but necessarily a re-encode to new mpeg parameters).

[George Wing]

Depends on how “Advanced” you need to be, and whether you want a user-friendly interface, or you need to learn all there is about dvd commands…

Ulead’s DVD MovieFactory gives you the Title and Menu’s in a Wizard approach. You have a menu of all your Titles, then when you select a Title, it can go to the Title’s Chapter menu. It has a builtin mpeg encoder, and some pretty good templates that you can customize by moving thumbnails around and resizing text/thumbnails.

Ulead also offers a more advanced Authoring package called DVD Workshop 2.x (this gets you full menu customization, and you have control over navigation through the use of “Playlists”). Still somewhat user-friendly, but with advanced features like multiple audio tracks and subtitles.

For access to many advanced navigational commands and control, there’s MediaChance’s DVD LabPro (steeper learning curve, but worth it if you want to learn about DVD Authoring). This program offers many many many Advanced features, and will grow with you as your dvd authoring skills grow. It does not have a builtin encoder, and the burning engine is a little “weak”, but it does offer addons for both at a very reasonable cost. You can do just about anything within dvd specs (sans multi-angle) with this program…

All of these have Trial Downloads, so you get the chance to try them to see what makes sense for your workflow…

I’m sure others have their favorites too…

hth,
George

[George Wing]

I agree with DRW, the more you know about what’s going on “under the hood”, the better prepared you are for making a compatible disc…

I posted the following in another forum yesterday in reply to someone looking to make compatibile discs. There are other tips I’m sure, but here’s some that seem to work for me…

<<< There are some "general" rules that will increase your chances for creating a dvd that will play on your client's dvd player. -total bitrate (video plus all audio tracks) at/under ~7500kbps -don't fill up entire 4.37gb disc -- keep it around 4gb -no sticky labels -burn slower (instead of 8x or above, try 4x and below) -use quality discs (try different brands) -turn off virus scan and don't use computer during burn process -check for burner firmware updates -check for software burning patches -book type setting to dvd-video (if your burner supports it) That said, depending on the types of video services you plan to offer (it would have to be cost justified), you could always include a dvd player that you know works with the software and discs you plan to use. I mean, several large retailers in the U.S. offer a $20 DVD Player nowadays (Memorex or Cyberhome or something like that...). Even if you add the $20 for the DVD Player to the cost of services, the client will think they are getting much more in value because your package includes a brand new dvd player 🙂 >>>

[George Wing]

Hi,

If you do end up just creating the mpeg-2’s, how many minutes are all of the .avi’s? Will they be burned to DVD5 or DVD9 or other?

What format audio is expected (LPCM, Dolby Digital, mpeg L2…)

I agree with DRW — if you learn DVDA3, you can add that to your list of services 🙂

[George Wing]

To prevent the “casual” disc copier, you could try the “scratch” approach.

Basically, add a few hundred MB of useless extra content to your disc (your video will have to be short enough to do this). Then look at the bottom of your disc and deliberately put a pin scratch in the outer edges of the burned section (hopefully this will be the useless extra content section).

The scratch prevents disc copying software from properly reading your disc (but others who are more computer savvy will be able to circumvent this approach). And this doesn’t prevent an analog copy of your dvd (like from a dvd player to a VCR).