Rob Strobbe
Forum Replies Created
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What you’re seeing is the end action for the movie, not for the chapter. A chapter is nothing but a bookmark. And it doesn’t have an end action.
From your description, what you really want is for the chapters you have now to behave as individual movies.
Check the manual / online help for the section on making a scene selection menu. There is a part of it that explains how to get your “chapters” to return to the menu when they’re done playing.
Rob
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Technically, that bit you quote from the manual doesn’t claim to trim the media without re-encoding. It says it will trim the media. Period. The statement is incomplete, but it certainly doesn’t make any false promises either.
As for other programs being able to do it, and how easy it would be for Sony to change it…well, I’ve never worked on the code for DVDA, so I couldn’t really tell you what would be involved in making it behave the same. Vegas can do it, but only under perfect conditions.
Rob
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It’s nothing to do with Steve Jobs or Quicktime. Unlike most other common video formats / codecs, MPEG2 playback must be licensed. So most computers do not come with MPEG2 (and therefor DVD) playback preinstalled. Even computers that come with a DVD-ROM drive usually come with TRIAL playback software so the user has to buy it in order to continue watching DVDs.
This has always been true for PCs also, though I think Microsoft started eating the cost of the license as of Vista. If Alf Hanna’s post is correct, then perhaps Apple has started doing the same.
Rob
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> Hi Robbe,
I don’t know who “Robbe” is, but I’ll try to help anyhow. 😉
> Is there anyway to make a menu button highlight … switch off/fade
> out when the menu cycle ends and the screen fades to black
> momentarily before the menu begins to play againWell, first off, is that really what you want the menu to do, fade to black before it loops? It’s not the norm and, frankly, I think it would confuse most viewers. Only a little, but probably enough to be distracting. Generally speaking, the transition from the end of the menu back to the beginning should be as invisible as possible. But I’m sure you may have your reasons.
To answer your question, No, you can’t fade or turn off the highlight during the loop. The highlight turns on when the menu is entered and off when it’s exited. This has nothing to do with Sony or DVD Architect — this is simply how DVDs are.
Rob
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Go to the End Actions tab of the Properties window for that menu and change Command to “Loop.”
Rob
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I assure you, no standard DVD (not even the ones of Hollywood movies you buy) has a resolution higher than 720×480. (Except for PAL DVDs, the format used in Europe. That’s 720×576. 😉
They may look better than what you’re getting out of Vegas and DVD Architect, but it’s not due to the frame size. More likely it’s due to the makers using equipment and people that cost thousands upon thousands of dollars. 😉
Rob
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No, DVD Architect will not burn HD video to a DVD. It creates standard DVDs according to the official DVD specifications with which DVD player manufacturers must adhere to in order to carry the DVD logo.
Those specifications do not allow for HD video. Therefore, DVD Architect does not do HD video. 🙂 Sorry if I sound snooty, but those are the facts.
You can burn a data disc in Vegas Pro (can’t recall if Vegas Movie Studio will do this, but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t), though. But it will not have menus, and a regular DVD can only hold up to around 20 minutes of Blu-ray-like video.
Rob
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First, I’m afraid I feel the need to clarify Mike’s post. DVD Architect will accept several formats besides MPEG2. But whatever you give it, it’s going to re-encode into MPEG2 because that’s the format used by DVDs. (I know Mike knows this, but the way his post is worded is a bit unclear, I think.) It’s this re-encoding that will take a long time in DVD Architect — especially if the file(s) you’ve given it is something highly compressed like MP4.
To get an MPEG2 out of Vegas that DVD Architect won’t have to re-encode, select MPEG2 for the filetype and choose the appropriate DVD Architect video stream template. This will output a [i]video only[/i] file. Do a second render for the audio and choose Dolby Digital AC3 or WAV (former is more standard).
One other option is render / encode your videos as AVI (using a DV template if you’ve got lots of room on your harddrive), give those to DVD Architect, and let it do the MPEG2 encode. After you’ve added your files to DVD Architect, go File > Optimize DVD and use the Fit to Disc feature. DVD Architect will calculate the bitrate to make everything fit.
Bottom line, there’s not getting around it: Your files will have to be MPEG2 by the time they’re burned to the disc — whether Vegas does it or DVD Architect does it. Authored DVDs use MPEG2. Period.
Now, with regard to those 20 low quality videos of yours… What’s the total time length all together? With standard DVD bitrates, you can get up to around two hours on a disc. One hour or so if you use a high bitrate (higher quality, and probably not worth it if you’re starting out with crappy quality) or around three hours or so with a low bitrate (higher quality). Try to get more time than that, and you’re asking for trouble.
If these are, like, really poor quality, skip DVD Architect and just make a data disc with your original files. It won’t play on every DVD player, and you won’t get a menu, but you’ll get out of it what you put into it — “20 low quality videos.” 😉
Rob
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The trouble is that most of the “new, fangled codecs” (Divx, Xvid, etc) use something called DirectShow. Vegas doesn’t cooperate too well with DirectShow-based codecs — it likes the old reliable type of AVI, Video for Windows (aka, VfW).
Download and install ffdshow. It will make it so Vegas can interpret DirectShow files without you having to add a bunch of errant codecs to your system.
Rob
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If you’re using Vegas Pro, bump the files together edge to edge on the timeline and save this to a VEG file. Then crate a new project and drag that VEG onto the timeline. Vegas will treat it a single event, and you’ll be able to pan/zoom around it.
Rob