[Matt Dubber]

Good to know, thanks for the heads up. I gather your confidence is much higher when using Gear for mastering rather than EncoreDVD. Quite possibly a $400 Gear purchase would be worthwhile insurance when going to DLT for replication.

[Matt Dubber]

Thanks, but I will need to go to DLT for this project because I don’t trust DVD+-R DL as a master and I’m not sure where the client will take it for replication.

I read through the instructions yesterday on how to set the layer break in Gear….I too was a bit overwhelmed. I’ll go through it again today and see if it makes more sense, I’m sure it will once I actually try it. I burned a DVD+R DL last night directly from Encore and played it on my Sony player at home (it has an on screen graphic that shows the location of the laser while playing so you can easily see where the layer break actually happens….awesome feature). The break happened right between two timelines just perfectly…so either Encore did it right or the burn process to +R DL did it right. Either way it will be great for check discs as long as the client can play them.

I think every one of my upcoming DVD9 projects will have a layer break between timelines….how confident are you with Encore writing to DLT with accurate between timeline layer break? I do like Gears ability to verify a DLT and write back to HDD, but I just wonder if for my projects I will need it.

[Matt Dubber]

If I read this correctly, you recommend using DVD-R DL for DVD-Video projects instead of DVD+R DL because with -R DL you can set an ‘uneven’ layer break point. Is the +R DL equal layer rule consistent for ALL types of data on a +R DL?? Ultimately I am wondering if the Automatic Layer Break point in Encore is ignored when writing to +R DL through Encore.

[Matt Dubber]

Neil, great info…thanks for taking the time to write it all out. I am curious about the GEAR software. Have you used it? Does it work well/easily? I will have several DVD-9 projects coming up and want to be 100% sure where those breaks happen…is GEAR the best way to do that? I can’t get Encore to enable the manual layer break placement window….I can only do automatic. When I click on manual, nothing happens. GEAR seems a bit pricey, but if it works well and does what it says it does, it would be great to have. Let me know what you think. (I started a post about GEAR in this forum)

-Matt

[Matt Dubber]

I don’t think that will work. The line 21 information is not actually in the MPEG2 video and the DVD player generates the closed captioning information from a file you must use during the authoring. So, unless you have access to that original closed caption file, I think you may be out of luck.

-Matt

[Matt Dubber]

Thanks for the link….I have read through this Charlie White tutorial before and it made no difference. HOWEVER, the problem is solved now. Here was my solution:

Uninstall Decklink/Blacmkmagic drivers.

That’s it, now all of my HDV and DV workflow is seamless and flawless. I came up with that solution when I tried hooking up my consumer Sony DV camera from home on this system and it didn’t work either. Actually it didn’t work in any firewire controllable program (Windows Media Encoder, Premiere, Movie Maker…) So I uninstalled Decklink/Blacmkmagic drivers and now everything is just fine. There is a Decklink update (v5.6) that I will install next and see if that fixes the firewire conflict so I can go back and forth.

-Matt

[Matt Dubber]

You also might want to make sure the folder containing the project (or any file within that folder) isn’t set to READ ONLY. If they are, it may prevent Encore from updating that file and could cause you to not be able to import anything new. I have had similar things like this happen on other DVD Authoring programs, but it usually was from archiving the project files to a CD or DVD-ROM….when copied back to hard drive the folders and files are automatically set to ‘read only’.

-Matt

[Matt Dubber]

You should be able to render as a DV QuickTime or an Uncompressed QuickTime or even an Animation QuickTime and import that into Encore. Then you can use Encore to make the appropriate conversions for the DVD. Just keep track of your field rendering in After Effects and make the right selections in Encore to keep it consistent.

[Matt Dubber]

If you have some MPEG2 compression software that allows you to pass through the Line 21 caption information you MIGHT be able to make a successful closed captioned DVD (Canopus Procoder has this option but I have never tested it). The proper way to make a DVD with Closed Captioning is to get a caption file in the .SCC format from the company that did the captioning on the BetaSP and author it in Encore 2.0 or DVD Studio Pro. If you don’t have access or contact with the caption house, you do need special hardware and software to make that file from the existing BetaSP. If you need that service….email me and we should be able to get that done for you. Flicker and Blur Seattle Washington.

[Matt Dubber]

A tough one to answer definitively. Technically the picture is stretched on ALL DVD players if it was done properly. The DVD player itself will letterbox the image as it comes out of the player. This is a setting in the DVD player. Typically the factory default is set to 4:3 letterbox meaning that the DVD player is connected to a 4:3 (standard) television set and any 16:9 content should be letterboxed by the DVD player for proper display. The other common setting is 16:9 widescreen meaning that the DVD player is connected to a 16:9 monitor and the output will not be altered coming out of the DVD player…the TV will display in the full 16:9 aspect properly. The thrid setting is 4:3 pan and scan which is really not used to my knowledge and should not be used.

So my theory is that you made the DVD corectly but that DVD player is not set up properly in that it thinks it is connected to a 16:9 widescreen monitor and is not automatically letterboxing the image. I would suggest going through the setup menu in your DVD player and make sure it is set to 4:3 letterbox.

A side note: The easiest and quickest way to figure out if your DVD is properly authored for 16:9 is to put it in a computer DVD player and watch it through the software player NOT full screen. The window should display as a correctly proportioned 16:9 window….not 4:3 letterbox and not 4:3 stretched.

-Matt