Anyone here use Ulead DVD Factory? (1 Viewer)

[Jesse Skeen]

This is sort of a shot in the dark, as I'll admit I don't normally check this section and am mostly computer-illiterate, but here goes: I've been archiving old videotapes (over 25 years old) onto my DVD recorder, but as the recorder has had a number of problems placing chapters as well as having a limit of how many you can put in (it will usually refuse to put any more than 50, even though you can have up to 99), I've been putting the DVD recordings onto the computer and using Ulead to place the chapters and make the final disc.
The problem is, on some of these the audio goes out of sync after Ulead makes the disc- it will be fine on the disc that came straight from the DVD recorder, and when I check it on the Ulead program before saving it as a reauthored disc, but after it actually authors the disc that's where the problem will come up.
Having checked further I've found that the points where the sound goes out of sync is when there's a dropout on the tape (again, these are very old tapes)- on my Philips recorder, if the dropout is bad enough it will simply not record that section and resume when the video signal is good again. Somehow, the Ulead program is cutting a few seconds of audio where this happens, so the sound will be at least a half-second ahead of the video after that point. If there are any more dropouts, by the end of the disc the sound will be even more out of sync.
Again, I'm not too computer-literate but I'm trying to learn now that I've got one that can make DVDs. Stuff like this frustrates the hell out of me though. Is there any way to fix this problem? Is there a better DVD authoring program I should get instead?

 

[Steve Berger]

Not so much better authoring but better editing will help. This is a common problem with mpeg captures and Ulead has it's own issues as well. I use VideoReDo as an editor and the old Ulead MovieFactory SE that came with my Hauppauge tuner/capture cards for authoring. A time base corrector would help too. Sony DVD recorders have one built in, possibly your Phillips left it out or didn't use a very good one.

I think you'll find that there is no "turn-key" solution and people use different tools for the multiple parts of the process (capture - editing - authoring - burning). A computer is a powerfull tool but there is a steep learning curve. videohelp.com would be a good starting point and each "tool" usually has it's own forum. While you might not be interested in the Hauppauge "unofficial" forum shspvr.com there is a wealth of info on audio and authoring problems and potential solutions if you search there. VideoReDo has a great forum (http://www.videoredo.net/msgBoard/index.php) and it might be able to clean up your captures so that Ulead would author correctly (I'm sure there are others that I'm not aware of or don't use myself).

I would start reading and following links. At this point you won't be asking specific questions on the various forums but searching and reading to learn about the process and other's solutions to their (hopefully similar) problems.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

I'm not editing anything though- I'm just taking what's already on the DVD that came out of the recorder (which has no sync issues) and using Ulead to place chapters. When I play the file taken off the original DVD and play it in the ULead program, it's also fine there. The problem ONLY comes up on the new disc when ULead is done with it. I could probably use an editing program to cut some frames out from where the dropouts occur, but I don't want to take out more than I have to, plus it would take a long time to locate every one. (One of the things I'm trying to do is a certain TV special that George Lucas would like to take a hammer to every copy of )