[Tim Kurkoski]

Phil-

Much of what you’re trying to do would be better accomplished in a video editing program, like Premiere Pro.

To be specific, the second question you asked about fading a video out, isn’t possible in Encore. (It helps to remember that Encore’s sole purpose is to author DVD’s, not to edit video.)

Regarding the first question, you could create a new timeline in Encore and populate it with a simple still image (such as all black, or a picture of your choosing). Point the buttons on your menu to that timeline, and then set the action of that timeline to the timeline that contains the movie.

I assume you probably also want to trim off the Turner logo- Encore will let you do that (you might already know how, but I’ll cover it anyway). Put your cursor over the start of the movie in the timeline, and the cursor should turn to a bracket icon. Click and drag to trim frames off the beginning. Unfortunately, it’s not very accurate. See my earlier statement about using a video editor.

[Tim Kurkoski]

No, the plug-ins should install regardless of what card you have. Premiere Pro should load them or not, each time you launch the program, based on what features it detects on the video card.

If you want to double-check me, anyone reading this can check the following directory for the GPU plug-ins (GPUPageCurl.AEX, etc.), and then see whether or not they load. And for kicks you could also post which video card you have. I’m running an Nvidia Quadro 1300.
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Premiere Pro 1.5\Plug-ins\en_US
(en_US will probably vary if you’re in a different country)

[Tim Kurkoski]

You’re overcomplicating things. Just drag the audio file over the menu editor window when you have the menu open. Or use the pickwhip method as I described. Putting the audio in a timeline is not required.

There are looping options in the Properties palette when you have the menu open.

[Tim Kurkoski]

In order for Premiere Pro to show you the GPU effects, your video card must support Vertex Shader 2.0 and Pixel Shader 2.0. I don’t know if the GeForce 4000 MX does, but being an older, cheaper card I doubt that it does. At the very least, make sure you’re running the latest (or a reasonably recent) version of the Nvidia drivers.

[Tim Kurkoski]

Simply drag the audio file on top of your menu, and Encore will associate it as a background audio file.

To be more specific, if you select your menu and then look in the Properties palette, you’ll see a field called “Audio”. When you drag and drop the audio file, this field should be populated with the name of the file. You can also use the pickwhip from this field to choose the file.

Technically, audio backgrounds are classified as part of a “motion” menu, so that’s why you probably haven’t run into the exact instructions yet.

An MP3 file should work fine, but if you have the original source as a WAV file I’d recommend that instead.

[Tim Kurkoski]

There’s nothing different you need to do to import assets from a different encoder. As long as they are DVD spec MPEG-2 files, just bring them in, drop them on the timeline, and away you go.

[Tim Kurkoski]

There are a couple of ways to do this:

1. Encore allows you to specify a folder of DVD-ROM (data) content. It’s an option under the Disc tab. Simply put all of your content in one folder, and point Encore at it, and it will burn it to disc (or include it when you export to a disc image).

2. Export from Encore as a DVD folder. With Nero, burn that content (the VIDEO_TS folder) to the root of the DVD, and put on whatever other content you want on the disc.

[Tim Kurkoski]

Have you tried different brands or types (-R vs +R) of media? Some DVD players can be picky about the type of media they’ll read. You could also try burning at a lower speed.

[Tim Kurkoski]

Old adage of unannounced/unreleased software:
Those who know do not talk.
Those who talk do not know.

[Tim Kurkoski]

While I would love to be able to force people to just leave their DVD players at the default settings, most of them just don’t understand. They’ll likely ignore what you say.

The best I think you could do would be to put a friendly warning on the package (not in the DVD, as they’ll probably feel it intrusive). Possibly as an insert in the case. Something like, “This film was composed to be viewed on a widescreen display. If you have a standard television display, please turn off any zooming or cropping features on your DVD player and turn on the letterboxing feature so that you may experience the full breadth of the . Thank you.”