Jeff Bellune
Forum Replies Created
-
Hi Bill,
Thanks for buying the book. I’ll probably save the video tutorial for the next version of Encore.
If I understand you correctly, here is an outline of your project:
1 Main Timeline
30 chapters in the timeline.
1 Main Menu
15 buttons linking to 15 of the 30 chapters.There are 2 likely problem areas:
1. More chapter end actions set than you want or need.
2. Overrides set for menu buttons, menu end actions, chapter end actions, timeline end actions or just about any other link you can think of.Make sure you have a good hand-drawn flowchart of how you want the disc’s navigation to work.
Make sure only the chapters that you want to play all the way to the end of the chapter and then return to the menu have end actions set. For example, if a menu button links to chapter 6, and you want chapters 6, 7 and 8 to play before returning to the menu, then *only* chapter 8 would have its end action set.
Change any and all overrides in the project to “Not Set” if they are set to anything else.
Let us know how that works out,
-JeffThe Focal Easy Guide to Adobe Encore DVD 2.0
-
Two things:
1. You must have the 1.5.1 update to Encore to burn DL discs
2. Encore only supports +R DL media.-Jeff
The Focal Easy Guide to Adobe Encore DVD 2.0
-
I haven’t taken the time to test for myself, but have you tried putting a space before the second line of text?
You didn’t say if you had tried that or not.
-Jeff
The Focal Easy Guide to Adobe Encore DVD 2.0
-
You’re welcome. Sorry I didn’t think to ask about the player sooner!
-Jeff
The Focal Easy Guide to Adobe Encore DVD 2.0
-
Written single-layer discs only work on about 90% of existing DVD players. Written DL discs are worse – I’ve read statistics quoted at less than 75%. That means that 1 out of 4 current DVD players won’t read a written DL disc, or won’t read it correctly.
Pressed discs, those pressed from a glass master at replication facility, have nearly 100% compatibility. But you pay a high price for that.
I’m betting on the player being the problem.
-Jeff
The Focal Easy Guide to Adobe Encore DVD 2.0
-
[Cheesefather] “same type of errors, with links going to the wrong places.”
How many hardware DVD players have you tested? You should test in several because that will eliminate player/firmware issues.
Are there *any* glitches in the burned disc when played on a software DVD player? How many of those have you tested?
Do you have any navigation features set in your project that would respond differently to a software player as compared to a hardware player? Auto-activation of menu buttons, for example?
When the hardware player jumps to the wrong place, what operation triggers the bad jump? Is it selecting a button from a menu? Is it using the FF/REW buttons on the DVD remote control to get to the end of a chapter playlist or timeline? Is it using the Next/Previous buttons on the remote? Etc.
-Jeff
The Focal Easy Guide to Adobe Encore DVD 2.0
-
Just use the timeline, if you don’t have chapter end actions set.
-Jeff
The Focal Easy Guide to Adobe Encore DVD 2.0
-
Things to consider:
1. More than 19 chapters in a single playlist may trigger an Encore bug.
2. If the program has natural breaks between chapters (like a fade out of audio and video), then you can save yourself a lot of time by reversing the method you’ve outlined. Give each chapter an end action in the timeline to return to the menu, and use a single chapter playlist for a Play All function. The tiny pauses that occur between chapters during the playback of the chapter playlist will be covered by the natural break between chapters in the program. Only resort to chapter playlists with single chapters if the chapter breaks occur during dialog/music and playback must be seamless.As for workflow, I would rename each chapter playlist after you create it. Encore does not increment the names for you, and duplicate names are allowed in the Project panel.
-Jeff
The Focal Easy Guide to Adobe Encore DVD 2.0
-
Your workflow seems to be OK.
The order that you create your timelines is the order that they will be written to disc. Typically on a DL disc that can help solve layer-break issues, but you don’t seem to be having problems with the layer break. Unless you have omitted important details about your disc navigation, I don’t think changing the import or creation order of your timelines will make any difference. But it can’t hurt to try if you are rebuilding your project anyway.
We talked about chapter end actions – I recommended removing the end action from the last chapter of each timeline. You said you removed them all and the disc navigation still worked on a software player. That’s a potential problem area, since you apparently thought you needed end actions on individual chapters initially.
There is a bug in Encore 2.0 that can cause problems if you have more than 19 chapters from a single timeline in a chapter playlist. I don’t know why 19 is the “magic number”, but if you have one or more chapter playlists with around 19 chapters in it, I recommend breaking it up into 2 or more chapter playlists.
What brand of blank media are you using? Verbatim is the generally accepted standard for dual-layer +R discs. Other brands (Ritek?) are of lesser quality and may cause problems once burned. DVD burners in computers are often able to read discs better than stand-alone players.
Also burn at no more than half the rated speed of the blank media or burner.
-Jeff
The Focal Easy Guide to Adobe Encore DVD 2.0
-
[Cheesefather] “Many of the buttons that should link to their own timelines go instead to somewhere in the timeline I added to the project last (which is one of the 2 longest timelines) when played in a DVD player”
This is either caused by overrides (did you miss any? The suckers can be hard to find) or by “pilot error” when the links were set. Double- and triple-check your links. If you’re not already, try using the Flowchart to examine the structure of your project’s navigation.
-Jeff
The Focal Easy Guide to Adobe Encore DVD 2.0