Rob Strobbe
Forum Replies Created
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Talk about bringing a thread back from the dead… 😉
Anyhow. VOBMerge is a free tool and can be found many places online auch as CNet.
Womble is actually a company. They makes a few programs for working with video files. Far as I know, they all cost money, but there are free trial versions available. For combining videos, MPEG-VCR is probably their most basic, cost-effective option.
These programs don’t work “within” DVD Architect. You would use them to edit video files (in this case, combining several into one) before bringing the file(s) into Architect.
Rob
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In this context, “Title Play” refers to a function of the DVD player. Some remotes (and software-based players) have a feature to display an on-screen menu to jump between movies and menus on the disc. The setting you’re looking at lets you decide whether or not this function is available to the user. It should have zero effect on the behavior of the Next / Previous buttons.
To confuse matters a bit, some DVD player remotes (instead or in addition) have a Title Menu button or even just a Title button that is programmed to return to the main menu of the disc. There are, unfortunately, some button actions that the DVD player manufacturers differ on, which I think makes it a bit difficult for developers like Sony to write software that creates a disc that performs consistently across all players.
As for the issue you had with the Next / Previous buttons, it exists independent of any remote button settings and stems from the cause I describe above. The player manufacturers don’t appear to agree on what should happen if the Next button is pressed at the end of a title or the Previous button at the beginning. I guess they were mostly concerned with its the buttons’ primary function, moving between chapters within a title.
Rob
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Weird. I’d think it would at least pop up a message saying your trial has run out. Oh well, glad you got it worked out. Enjoy your new toy. 😉
Rob
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Need a little more info.
What action are you taking to open it? Try every option possible: Double-click the desktop icon (if you created one), run from the start menu, double-click the EXE in Windows Explorer, use the Run command and browse to the EXE (this would have the same result as previous suggestion, but worth a shot).
Exactly what does happen when you try to run it? I assume there’s no error message? Do you get Windows’ “timer” icon (hourglass in some versions, rotating circle in others) and then nothing?
After you attempt to run it and it doesn’t start, press Ctl+Alt+Del and open the Task Manager: Is DVD Architect listed in the Applications? Is the executable (dvdarchitectstudio.exe or similar) listed on the Processes tab? Sometimes a program is “running,” but with a problem so that it doesn’t actually open. If this is the case, select it in the list and hit the End Process button. Then try running DVD Architect Studio again.
Last but not least, are you running the most current build of DVD Architect Studio? Check sonycreativesofare.com for the most current one.
Rob
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Have you tried playing the discs on a different TV or even on a computer? DVD Architect wouldn’t be changing the color or contrast at all, especially if there was no re-encoding. What you put into it is what comes out.
Does changing the TV settings alter the image at all? If not, I’d definitely suspect something wrong there. It should do something even if it doesn’t give you the image you want.
Another thought is that the computer on which you created the disc may be the problem. The off-color may have already been in the video, but if your computer’s monitor is not calibrated correctly, you may not have noticed anything was wrong. I would start by re-calibrating the monitor. Windows has such a tool, but I’m sure others here more professional than I can suggest a program / method more suitable for video work.
Rob
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Confirm that:
1. You are using DVDA Pro, not DVDA Studio. As far as I can recall, Studio does not do subtitles.
2. If using Pro, you are looking at the timeline for a video within your project and not the timeline for a menu. Menus can not have subtitles, so the function will not be available if that is what you’re editing.
Rob
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Whoops. Sorry, I didn’t see that you had replied.
Well, when you create your menu background, you could make a layer that’s just the text, duplicate that layer, and use the duplicated one as your mask. Just be sure to make it grayscale.
But, really, it sounds like you just want to set your highlight style to “Text mask overlay” — a basic setting in the Button properties window. No need for custom-anything.
Rob
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Each event has a “lock” setting. Right-click one and go to Switches > Lock. To do more than one event, select them all at once and do the same. This doesn’t lock down the entire project — they can still add tracks, insert and edit other media, etc, but they can’t affect the existing ones. And, of course, it’s a simple matter for them to unlock events by reversing what you just did.
Not much other than that within Vegas. You could use Windows itself to make the file read-only; then they could do all they want to the project, but wouldn’t be able to save the changes. And, again, they can reverse this assuming they’re not computer illiterate. 😉 Though more recent versions have better permission control, assuming these others aren’t using your Windows login or administrator accounts. Right-click the VEG in Windows Explorer, choose Properties, and go to the Security tab to alter permissions.
Your last resort would be a third-part program to assign a password to files. I’m guessing some will let you specify a password for saving files but allow free access to open and use them.
Rob
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If you’re putting this back onto DVD again and using DVD Architect to do it, you’re better off rendering your audio as a separate AC3 or PCM file anyhow. DVD Architect prefers that the video be separate from the audio. Otherwise, it’s just going to rip the audio out of the video and re-encode it before putting it back in.
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Do you want to do a layered PSD with all the menu elements separate or a custom highlight mask, which is made up of one flat menu and a mask for creating highlights? Personally, I find the latter much simpler to create and work with. The layered PSD is more for if you need to use it over and over and want to customize individual elements later.
Here’s a tutorial on creating a custom highlight mask.
Rob