[Mike Costantini]

Hi Joe, thanks for the reply. Can you elaborate a bit on using multiple timelines? In other words, could I have 52 chapters on one timeline and 52 chapters on a second timeline. But would I still be able to have a “play all” button that would play each chapter consecutively if the viewer so chooses? I would assume I would just create a button that plays a playlist consisting of timelines 1 and 2, correct?

[Mike Costantini]

That’s just how the printout is, if you look very closely at the hardcopy, the edges are rough because it’s a photocopy, not an original print. I scanned it at 300DPI

[Mike Costantini]

I couldn’t figure it out. But reencoding the avi file did the trick for me. Just for whatever reason, something in that first avi file was apparently bad, or at least enough of something was wrong that caused the mpeg encoder to quit.. try re-encoding your input avi file and see what happens..

[Mike Costantini]

Well I woke up this morning and turned on the monitor and saw that 7GB m2v file and knew I was in the clear! Re-encoding the AVI and using the replace asset did the trick for whatever reason. I even looked up online how to test an AVI for errors using the command line tool ffmpeg and I ran it on the original AVI file and it didn’t come up with a single error. But for whatever reason, Encore simply stopped encoding video at that mark. At least now I know if that happens again (or if it happens to anyone else on here) that it’s the AVI file, even know there’s no obvious or even hidden errors that I could find.. Insanity!!

[Mike Costantini]

Well, I’ve basically spent all day and night trying to figure this out. Troubleshooting this problem takes forever because I have to wait so dang long for the transcoding to finish. So far I’ve had no success. I’ve tried:

1) Automatic transcode setting, then build dvd folders
2) Automatic transcode setting, with both auto and manual layer break.
2) Created a preset, then build dvd folders
3) used the “transcode now” feature to try and transcode first instead of going straight to the build.

The funny thing is that based on the progress bar, and the bit calculation, I’m able to calculate 1/3 and 1/2 and based on the progress bar, the video should have been around 7.5GB so the halfway mark would be around 3.75GB. So when I open the transcodes folder as it’s transcoding, it’s right on. When the progress bar got to 50%, the m2v file was at that 3.75GB mark. So that tells me that it’s opening/importing the full length video. But when it gets to that 3 hr, 12 min, 44 second mark, something just makes it stop and start on the audio.

The only thing I can come up with is that there is some sort of problem in my 55GB avi asset at that spot. So, I’m re-encoding that video and am going to attempt to use the “replace asset” feature in Encore to hopefully just replace the avi file and not lose my chapter markers. And then try to build the dvd folders again over night as it’s just about done encoding the AVI right now.

If THAT doesn’t work, I plan on importing the asset as M2V already encoded and I’ll just have to deal with placing the chapter markers in the best place possible.

If somehow THAT doesn’t work, I will have no choice but to split the DVD into two DVD5 discs.

[Mike Costantini]

I decided to try and build the DVD again but this time use the manual layer break setting to see if that changes anything. I’ve attached another screenshot I just took during the build process. As you can see, the disc should be full, 8.54gb. Also, as you can see, the video on the timeline exists after that 3:12 mark. So everything appears to be normal during the build process:

[Mike Costantini]

All my work is standard NTSC. I encode to NTSC DV AVI and bring it into Encore so it’s not like I’m importing any kind of non-standard files. It’s a DVD9 project, a little over 4 hours, 36 chapters, six menus. I created DVD folders, not a disc yet. I had read that it’s best to create folders in case I need to use another application to change the layer break (ImgBurn) The folders on my hard drive play fine in that when the video cuts out at 3 hr 12 min, it just keeps playing the audio on a black screen. I did it again over night last night, woke up this morning, same thing, the video magically disappears. The only thing I can think of doing at this point is to chop the 4 hour AVI file into two files; is there some kind of weird 3 hr 12 min limit to an imported asset? That wouldn’t seem right.. As for a system, it’s a core 2 duo Intel with a gig of ram.. It runs Encore fine and I haven’t received any error messages or crashes from Encore either.

[Mike Costantini]

Oddly enough, when I put the pointer in that apparent blank space after 3 hr 12 mins, the video plays on the monitor, but the image of the video on the timeline isn’t there?! Has anyone experienced this before? If so, what is the solution? I need to get this fixed pronto.

[Mike Costantini]

After reverting to original, and then closing and opening the program again, I was able to trim it back out to meet the end of the audio. I just wanted to ask if there was anything to watch out for or do before transcoding again. Maybe I shouldn’t use the automatic setting? Although I’ve used it before without issues.. Ah heck, it’s just three hours, I’ll try it again and see what happens..

[Mike Costantini]

Hi Joe, that’s crazy that we both replied at the same time to this topic, if you look above, I got it working finally. It took some figuring out and the help file doesn’t tell you things that you need to know too.. If you want to take a stab at my latest post about the timeline being trimmed, that would be really great as that’s the big problem I had to wake up to this morning…