[Tim Kurkoski]

All DVD’s are data discs. DVD-Video discs just have a certain set of data (DVD VOB and IFO files) on them. What happens when you open the Apple DVD player app?

[Tim Kurkoski]

It could work. I’ve heard that MP4 works relatively poorly in PrEl, but if you had a decent DirectShow codec installed or were using QuickTime MP4 files, it should work fine.

I’m a little mystified in general what advantage you gain in using PrEl to edit your proxies over PrPro, and how you intend to take your data between the two. PrPro 2.0 can open PrEl projects, but that’s about the extent of it. PrEl doesn’t do EDL or AAF, much less MXF or other formats. Maybe if you’re just using it for rough cutting and will deal with the data in a different way at a later time…

[Tim Kurkoski]

Yes, ImageReady can do button rollovers. (You can also do it directly in Photoshop CS2 now.)

What it sounds like you want to do is when you save from ImageReady, make sure to use the Save Optimized As option and set it to save images and HTML. You can then open the HTML file in Dreamweaver and either use it as the template for your page, or cut and paste the HTML to another document.

[Tim Kurkoski]

Try turning color management off altogether. You may also want to go into your Windows Display properties (via Control Panel) and turn off any color management happening there, and/or stopping it from using any color profiles for the monitor.

This is most definitely something related to color management. I’ll give you an example:

Last year I installed a new pair of Dell flatscreen monitors. I installed the color profile that came on the disc. In Photoshop, all of my blacks were slightly brown. I fixed it by removing the color profile for the monitor. Eventually I got a color profiling device and created a custom profile, and Photoshop was fine with that.

Lessons learned from this were that color management happens in more than one place, and just because the manufacturer provided the profile doesn’t mean it’s right (or compatible with your video card).

[Tim Kurkoski]

I’m pretty sure this is a Production Studio only feature, like Dynamic Link. Anyone out there who upgraded the single products want to test it for us?

[Tim Kurkoski]

Yes, Elements captures timecode data just like Premiere Pro. They use the same capture engine. (Most of the differences between the programs are in the interface and the features. Very little of what makes the programs tick is different.)

[Tim Kurkoski]

Here’s what you do:

1. Set an end point for each chapter in your timeline to return to the menu (or do whatever it is you want it to do).
2. Create a chapter playlist that has all the chapters in sequence.

What happens with a chapter point end action is that any time you enter that chapter, whether from a button or from a previous point in the timeline, it will execute the end action at the end; it’s just as if it were it’s own timeline. As always, overrides can also apply to the end action.

Using the chapter playlist function lets you assemble chapters in any order, it handles the end action routing automatically.

[Tim Kurkoski]

When I burn a DVD from my PC (with Encore or any other app), the first device I test it on is my G5, and I’ve never had a problem there, or with any of the older Macs I’ve used (going back to Encore 1.0).

How old is the Mac you’re using? What does it do when you try to use the DVD player app?

[Tim Kurkoski]

I just tried it (caveat: I’m still running beta of PP), and it works. It forces you to convert the Elements project to a Pro project, but it does work.

[Tim Kurkoski]

I don’t use TMG, and I’ve never had personally had a problem with the encoding quality with the MainConcept encoder.

If the TMG encoder has a way of allowing you to set I-frames at specific frames, then you’re golden. If not, I don’t know of any way for you to do it. The chapter marker solution is something built into Premiere, and Encore knows to look for the .XMPSES file that is created. (You can embed the same markers in an AVI file from Premiere as well, but TMG would still have to know that an I-frame is required at those points.)

The solution you’ve mentioned for a “Play All” workflow is the normal one (I wrote a tutorial on this for the Cow). Your concerns are valid, though in practice not monumental. Most DVD players these days only suffer slight lag when switching video streams. It shouldn’t be any worse than when a dual-layer DVD switches layers- a momentary blip or less. As for the “next chapter” problem, yes, that exists, but different players handle it differently. See a thread one or two above this one about this exact topic. The good news is that you can easily get around this problem by putting a chapter point just before (< 1 sec.) the end of each timeline, so when the user actually presses the next chapter button that chapter is reached and there's only a short delay before the end action is executed. It's also worth mentioning that with Encore 2.0, you don't even need to resort to breaking up your video into separate timelines. Encore 2.0 has chapter point end actions and chapter playlists. Which means you can put your video in a single timeline and set each chapter to play individually. To play all, you simply construct a chapter playlist that plays the chapters in order. No lag between them since they're all in one timeline. And for bonus points (as Joe B. points out in that other thread), pressing the next chapter button should now be more consistent across different players.