Having 1 million problems burning DVD (1 Viewer)

[Ken Chan]

I'm guessing I should go back and re-encode all my video files without AC-3?

Are you using separate "elementary streams", video and audio? I've always seen AC-3 in a separate audio file and the video in its own .m2v or .mpv file. If you got your encoder to mux them together, you should be able to use a demux tool to separate them so you don't have to re-encode.

Too bad you put in all that time already. I would recommend DVD-lab. 30-day free trial, $79. Doesn't have any pretense of encoding, so you just have to feed it compliant files, and it doesn't monkey with them.

//Ken

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

I had the streams sep initially, when I was using TMPGENC- and ever single editor for dvd layout I used COULDNT deal with them that way (DVD workshop included).

I just wanted something simple to do basic menus and stuff with- and I'mm still looking, lol.

-Vince

 

[Ken Chan]

Well, you may have come full circle, because DVD-lab only deals with separate elementary streams. You can feed it a system MPEG, but it will demux it for you. Worth a shot....

//Ken

 

[Rob Gillespie]

I would recommend DVD-lab. 30-day free trial, $79

DVD-Lab is great and nothing in that price range touches it for range of features. I've used it for several projects now, mainly TMPGEnc-encoded DVD conversions from LaserDisc. It's menu creating facilities - while not amazing - are really nice.
It also works quite happily with AC-3 files encoded with BeSweet.

 

[Dave F]

DVD-lab is pretty forgiving on the files that it will import. It's a fantastic progrm, and I can't recommend it highly enough.

-Dave

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

Does DVD Lab, or any cosumer oriented program at this point, offer the ability to authoer with multiple soundtracks?

-Vince

 

[John_Berger]

Does DVD Lab, or any cosumer oriented program at this point, offer the ability to authoer with multiple soundtracks?

Pinnacle DVD-Impression Pro will do multiple audio. I just converted my "1776" laserdisc with both the standard and commentary tracks to DVD-R. The program, however, is excruciatingly user-UNfriendly. Making menus requires Photoshop (!!!) with a specific palette, and the program barfed (as in General Protection Fault!) on just about all AC-3 files that I created with BeSweet, regardless of how many times I reencoded and regardless of the bitrate. It did handle MPEG audio beautifully, though.

Supposedly, ReelDVD works the same way - it's just a muxing utility more than anything else.

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

ULead DVD workshop 2 is supposedly coming in Jan with multiple soundtracks, and I know DVD Studio Pro on Mac does support multiple soundtracks-- I just can't find a decent current PC app that does it.

Maybe if my finished clips are small enough I'll just author with 2 titles, one for each soundtrack...

As far as using Photoshop for menus, I noticed that Scenarist did the same thing (you created the selection area as an overlay version of the menu)-- something I will probably have to do- break down and learn scenarist.

BY the way- i found an INI hack which enabled AC-3 support in DVD workshop-- so I'm burning my first disc now. The ini hack opened up a seriously in depth advanced menu system, not all of which do I understand- but makes the prgram considerably more useful. Im wondering what else is hidden in here...

-Vince

 

[John_Berger]

Yeah, that Advanced=1 is cool. What completely boggles my mind is why that has to be "hacked". They play that stupid game in Media Studio Pro, too. If the functionality is there, ENABLE IT FROM THE BEGINNING! Boneheads.

Anyway, that hack still doesn't allow encoding to AC-3 (you'd need the AC-3 Add-On PowerPack for that), but that hack should at least allow it to accept AC-3 and not try to re-encode it to MPEG or PCM as long as the "Do Not Convert Compliant Files" is checked.

Multiple soundtracks in v2.0? Very sweet! Ulead is starting to give the other DVD authoring big boys a serious run for ther money.

 

[Ken Chan]

If the functionality is there, ENABLE IT FROM THE BEGINNING!

It's quite possible that the functionality is unfinished, unstable and/or not completely tested. It is almost certainly not documented. So instead of getting a bunch of complaints and support calls from bonehead users why such and such crashes or just doesn't work, they wisely turn it off.

There's also the notion of not confusing most of the bonehead users with advanced features they'll never use. (They know their userbase better than I.) It's also possible that they have a higher-end product for which they charge more (or lots more) and they don't want to step on their toes. They might even build it off the same codebase, and the secret switch was supposed to be, well, secret.

I would not characterize either ReelDVD or DVD Studio Pro as consumer products, although thankfully the price for both has dropped considerably. DVD Studio Pro is definitely the friendlier of the two and actually has menu editing capabilities (which are quite good). In fact, I'd say that it outclasses ReelDVD in almost every respect, and it's the less expensive of the two.

According to their web page, DVD-lab only supports one audio stream, which actually kind of surprises me. I don't have it installed here, but I can confirm this later on the latest 1.3 release candidate.

//Ken

 

[Ken Chan]

OK, verified that DVD-lab only supports one audio stream, although it can be AC-3 or (supposedly) even DTS.

//Ke

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

2.0 claims it will offer:
"Deliver sophisticated DVDs with multiple audio (8) and subtitle tracks, Dolby®Digital AC-3 audio and copy protection."
"Move up to the next generation of commercial DVD production with dual-layer DVD-9 and DLT support."
"Ulead experience in the DVD field brings you superb MPEG.Now™ video quality, a capture utility
with automatic scene detection, 16:9 widescreen support, and finally, a video tutorial on the disc to help you get productive even sooner."

http://www.ulead.com/dws/dws2/DVD_Workshop_FB.pdf

 

[John_Berger]

2.0 claims it will offer:

Excellent. I hope their upgrade price isn't cost-prohibitive, though. Lately, their upgrade prices are up to $200 more than previous upgrade prices.