[Jeff Bellune]

If the thumbnail isn’t going to be a button, then the best way to add it is to make it part of a video clip that will be used as a background video for your menu.

If you make it a button, it can always be accessed in some way, even if you cleverly change the button routing to skip that button. Direct input of a button number on the remote control of hardware DVD player, or clicking on it with the mouse in a software DVD player are 2 ways that it can be accessed.

BTW, the reason it’s not animating now is because you probably didn’t render the motion menu before trying to preview it. Try File>Render>Motion Menus (the syntax may be a little different – I don’t have Encore open right now).

-Jeff

The Focal Easy Guide to Adobe Encore DVD 2.0

[Jeff Bellune]

Sorry. I meant to put that in my last post.

The AUDIO_TS folder is for DVD-A discs only. It has no meaning or relevance for DVD-V. If you check Hollywood DVDs, a lot of them don’t have an AUDIO_TS folder.

However, some older players check for its presence, even though it is useless. Newer players shouldn’t do that.

-Jeff

The Focal Easy Guide to Adobe Encore DVD 2.0

[Jeff Bellune]

Hi Geert,

Do you know what the bit rate was set to before? Because 9.4 is really too high for a burned DVD. It’s dangerously high even for a pressed DVD.

The maximum total bit rate for a DVD is 10.08 Mbits/sec, which includes video, audio and subtitles. With a bit rate of 9.4, you havent’ left much room for audio or encoder mistakes, such as bit rate spikes that go over the max. A good rule to follow when planning your disc is to keep the total bit rate for video and audio combined below 9.8 Mbits/sec. And some hardware DVD players will choke and sputter on burned DVDs if the video bit rate exceeds 7 or 8.

PCM audio is 1.5 Mbits/sec, so the max that realistically would be left over for video is about 6.5 Mbits/sec. In most cases, Dolby Digital would be a better choice unless you have a short program. MPEG audio is an optional format, so some DVD players won’t play it. I never use MPEG audio.

To summarize – if you keep your video and audio bit rates under control, you will have more success with your burned DVDs.

-Jeff

The Focal Easy Guide to Adobe Encore DVD 2.0

[Jeff Bellune]

[Anne Muun] “Everytime the processing reaches the end of the bar, it just goes a little bit back and then it goes to the end again.”

Here’s the solution from the Encore FAQ on the Adobe forum:

Symptom:
Transcoding keeps getting to 99% or so, and reverting back to 75% and continuing Ad Infinitum in a seeming never-ending loop.

Problem:
The registry is corrupted.

Solution:
1. Close all programs.
2. Run Regedit.
3. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER -> Software -> Adobe -> Common.
4. Delete “Media Cache”.
5. Restart computer.

Another possible culprit has proved to be an application called “FindSounds Palette” and it should be uninstalled completely using the following method:
Uninstall “Find Sounds Palette” (FS Palette).
Delete the two registry key folders for “Comparisonics”.
Uninstall Encore CS3.
Delete Registry Keys for Encore.
Restart.
Re-Install Encore CS3.
Re-Install Encore 3.0.1 update.
Restart.

-Jeff

The Focal Easy Guide to Adobe Encore DVD 2.0

[Jeff Bellune]

File>Project Settings>Advanced.

Check the Audio Transcoding Scheme.

-Jeff

The Focal Easy Guide to Adobe Encore DVD 2.0

[Jeff Bellune]

The only thing that I can think of is that you are transcoding the audio to mpeg audio, which may not play correctly or may not play at all on some set-top players.

Is Encore set to transcode audio to MPEG audio? Try going to the Advanced tab of Project settings and switch that to Dolby Digital or PCM.

-Jeff

The Focal Easy Guide to Adobe Encore DVD 2.0

[Jeff Bellune]

[Donovan Werts] “I wonder why such a basic feature (to build from an image file: img or iso) would be removed from Encore from 1.5 to CS3.”

With all due respect, Donovan, it hasn’t. It works just fine here. We’ve been trying to help you get it to work on *your* system and with *your* file.

-Jeff

The Focal Easy Guide to Adobe Encore DVD 2.0

[Jeff Bellune]

What is the file extension on the image file? If it’s .img, change it to .iso. If it’s .iso, then change it .img. See if that helps.

Otherwise, download the free image burning program called ImgBurn. It’s a great little utility that can burn almost any image at all. If ImgBurn won’t burn your image, then I would suspect something very wrong on your current system.

The Focal Easy Guide to Adobe Encore DVD 2.0

[Jeff Bellune]

2 things to check:

1. Is the file that you selected a valid disc image?

2. Do you have any blank media inserted in the burner?

Obvious, I know, but it’s odd that the disc size indicator is showing 0 bytes for the size of the disc.

-Jeff

The Focal Easy Guide to Adobe Encore DVD 2.0

[Jeff Bellune]

Paul,

How about this? Create a complete menu animation in AE that is as long as the 4 min. audio file. The last 3:45 of the animation will just be a still frame of the completed menu.

Use that 4 min. animation as your background video. Set the menu loop point to 15 seconds so that the buttons aren’t active and the button highlights won’t appear until then.

You have 2 options from there:

1. Set the existing menu to loop forever – it will loop back to the 15-second loop point that you set, bypassing the opening 15 seconds of the animation. The problem is that the audio will be joined “in progress” when the menu loops.

2. Create a duplicate menu (without the opening 15 seconds of the animation, and without any bg animation at all if the menu is supposed to be just a still image after that). The benefit of the duplicate menu is that you can set the audio track for the dupe menu to fit just right, even when it loops. Set the end action of the opening animated menu to link to the dupe menu, set the dupe menu to loop forever, and link all timelines that are supposed to return to that menu to the dupe menu as well.

-Jeff

The Focal Easy Guide to Adobe Encore DVD 2.0