I ran into that problem as well. I solved it by placing a chapter mark at the end of each video's timeline.

I agree with Dan, DVD lab pro is great. (I have encore also and find it a pain and buggy). After going through architect 2, encore, ulead, various sonic products - I find the cheapest is also the most capable, intuitive and easiest to use (once you learn it-no problem) - DVD Lab Pro.
(I finally found an authoring program I like!- had to put in a good word for it)

Now encoding (.avi's to .mpeg for example) - this I do beforehand- you can do this with premiere (mainconcept).

I ran into that problem as well. I solved it by placing a chapter mark at the end of each video's timeline.


that allows you to go next chapter?

question is; if you have your nine clips, with end actions setup to play in order, with chapter markers at the end of each video clip. how do you go back a chapter?

that allows you to go next chapter?
Since the chapter marker is at the end of the current timeline, right before the end action kicks in to take you to the next clip, it effectively allows you to go to the next timeline in your sequence. The transition between the two is hidden since it is after the fade to black at the end of the first clip, so most people will probably think the next timeline is another chapter in one timeline. If you don't place a chapter marker at the end of the timeline viewers will be forced to watch the whole clip even if they want to skip to the next one.

question is; if you have your nine clips, with end actions setup to play in order, with chapter markers at the end of each video clip. how do you go back a chapter?
You hit the chapter back button on the remote. ;-P Seriously, it works. It just won't back up in the same order. While end actions choose which clip the DVD player will play next, they have no affect on the order in which you back up. That comes from the order the titles are numbered in (titles are what each individual clip/timeline on a DVD is called). If your end actions/playlist say to play titles 5, 3, 2, 7, and then 4 in that order, if you back up when you are on the last title in your list, 4, the DVD player will do it in this order: 4, 3, 2, 1, and then you won't be able to back up further.

As far as I know there is no way in Encore DVD to specify the title number each timeline becomes.

I've done a lot of DVD authoring and it's all been DVDSP/Mac based. I can't think of a good way in which to compare them, but if I'm looking for a PC based authoring program which would be best for me with regard to full control, full or nearly full ability to work with DVD interactive specs, etc?

I'm assuming these aren't gimmicky types of DVD programs - is that even a safe assumption to make? DVDSP is very robust and I'm not sure what the PC side has that's similar.


thx!

DVD Studio Pro on the Mac is by far the fullest and most advanced authoring
system in this list. It offers full access to scripting etc.

DVD Architect 3 supports the maximum amount of angles which Encore does
not support (I think it has no angle support).

The top-end product in the PC world is Scenarist. However it is expensive it
very complicated product. Their product below Scenarist is Producer, but I
don't think that supports either scripting or multiple angles either.

A pretty cheap application is called DVDLab Pro (http://www.mediachance.com/dvdlab/dvdlabpro.html) which seems to have
support for scripting, but no multiple angles either (although they claim this
will come in the feature).

So if you need access to scripting then your two choices are Scenarist and
DVDLab Pro I believe. If this is something you will not need I would go for
DVD Architect 3 (unfortunately you have to buy it with their editing package)
and get the most bang for the buck (feature wise).

Hey, I'll make it quick. I have used it for a while, no problems.

I am making a fairly compley menu and I have text from photoshop I want highlighted when the viewer selects it. I have all the buttons made and linked up (the text is buttons), and on MY pc the high lighting works after I burn the DVD, but when I try it on a DVD player and TV, the highlighting isnt there and you can't tell what you have selected.

Any Ideas? I need them done tonite (SUNDAY!)

Check out this thread on the same problem over on the Adobe forums: http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?128@590.ABPKeB0UB2M.8@.3bb5b038

I'm trying to figure out what the best settings are for encoding my footage into Encore. Has anyone has some outstanding success with this program? And if so, any setting reccomendations?

I prefer to leave it on auto transcode and hence Encore tends to fill up the disc with the best settings possible. Are there any specific problems that you are facing or is this a general question?

Depends on what NLE you are using or what compression software you are running your final footage through. For me, I spit everything out of my Avid setup as QT Ref movies. Fast. Next into either Procoder 2 or Sorenson. Always use elemental rather than program or streaming should those be options for you on encode. Elemental will give you video and audio files seperated out. You'll need seperate files for proper encoding in Encore. In fact if you do elemental MPEG-2, you will not have to further encode the video. Audio will likely have to be re-encoded from the resulting WAV file.

Watch out for variations in "interlace" options on compression. Make sure your frame rate is 29.97, etc.

Sean McHenry

I am trying to put a movie on DVD using Adobe Encore but as I go through the "Build DVD" process, it stops halfway saying, the bit rate at 34:45:23 or some time around there is too high. It says reduce the quality or remove content from the timeline. The clip is 1 hour 15 minutes long. I have put on disc longer clips with this program in the past and I am rendering them all the same way with Vegas 5. I do not understand what is going on. Did I change a setting on Adobe because I have now re-rendered and shortened this clip 4 times in Vegas. Any help would be great. Thanks

Mitch

Sounds like what is telling you is that the bit rate you are sitting at for encoding this clip is so high you will simply run out of room begore it finishes encoding the video. You simply need to tell Encore to use the best bit rate to make it fit the DVD itself. Encore should then select the correct bit rate that is the highest acceptable bit rate that will fit on the media you are using.

If it is in that mode and it is still running out of room, try checking the settings it is on right now, duplicat them in a manual mode and slowly reduce the bitrate each time you attempt to encode. At some point, probably near 6mb/sec it will fit. There is math available to do this calculation but it isn't something I keep in my head, or handy.

Sean

You can either try reducing the bitrate you are using when exporting the MPEG-2 file from Vegas until Encore says it's okay, or you could just export an avi from Vegas and import that into Encore. Encore will then choose the correct settings to fit the video on the DVD.

I'm working with Premiere 6, Encore 1.5, and Nero 6.

I exported my finalized video from Premiere as a 12 gig DV avi file. I built a new NTSC project in Encore, imported the avi file, set chapter marks and transcode the video in 8 CBR with a final size of 3.5 gigs approx.

I burn this to a DVD from within Encore with my Sony DRU-510A. The DVD appears to burn properly, but I am unable to view it on my PC with the latest WinDVD software. When I right click on my DVD drive, it shows that the disk is not recognized, unformatted or corrupt. But, it still plays just fine in my standalone DVD player.

Next I built a DVD folder to attempt to burn with NERO. So Encore output the VIDEO_TS folder which from the HD is watchable by my DVD software, but often starts from a chapter way down the line and not from chapter 1.

I tried 2 different ways with NERO. Built a Video DVD, which basically just automatically creates an AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS folder in your project, and I built a standard data DVD and copied over my 2 folders. Both of these burns had the same results. Standalone works, PC can't recognize it.

Hi Everyone...

i have a question about encore. I'm trying to make a simple dvd with encore, using some low quality avi.s, but when I import them, it says the resolution is too low. is there a way to force them from 320 x 280 to 720 x 480?

thanks
john

Unfortunately, I don't believe (but correct me if I'm wrong) that there's a way to do this in Adobe Encore. You will have to use another program like Premiere which can export a file at a custom resolution. That's the best advice I can give you.

Thanks Brent...

I think i figured out that if i convert the files to .vobs, encore will let me import them.

thanks for the help.

the thing that bugs me here is that the pc can't see the dvd... does that function work with any dvd's that you have, commercial or otherwise? can you view the file list of a cd?

After a little troubleshooting, I've determined that my DVD ROM is bad. I am able to read the disc in my burner, my laptop DVD ROM and my standalone. It's weird because it works with CDs but it apparently stopped working with burned DVDs. It still handles commercial DVDs just fine.

Hi:

I have Adobe Encore DVD 1.5 after previously owning 1.0 for 6 months. When I tried to render my thumbnail menus for motion, or my menu background, I get an error message. The message tells me that the I need to close the project and save.

I believe I'm following the correct steps to set up the motion menu, but I can't get it to render.

I have a Turnkey system 3.0G, with 1G memory, and the Matrox Rx100, and Adobe Premiere Pro.

Can someone point me in the right direction?

Thanks,

Clarence

Hi
Try disabling WYSIWYG to monitor, works for Me.


Regards



Peter

Peter:

Do I access (wysiwyg) through the "Control Panel/System" file?

If so, I'm going to attempt that tonight when I get home from work.

Thanks,

Clarence

Hi
On your desktop at the bottom right, on the taskbar should be an icon for WYSIWYG, right click & it should open a window where you can disable/renable WYSIWYG




Peter.

Thanks again, Peter.

I finally have motion menus!!!

Take care,

Clarence

Every time I try to burn on dvd with encore it gives mea dvd request time error. Its like its haveing trouble transcoding.

What type of file?
Is it already encoded MPEG-2 out of Premier, or are you having Encore do it?

No I saved it as a raw avi out of premiere. So encore is transcoding it to MPEG2. It saves quality that way.

When the DVD starts at some chapter down the disc a little, is that on the stand alone? This happens to me to sometimes also. Does anyone know why this happens. I also build a DVD folder and then burn it with nero.

It seems to be only on my WinDVD 6 that it does this. Standalone starts with the correct menu. Weird. I'll chalk it up to software stupidity and move on. :)

ARGH!!

Finally finished my first wedding project. It's taken some considerable time but i'm finally happy with it.
The problem is I left Adobe Encore Transcode settings to "Automatic" on the understanding that it would then compress all the footage etc to just the right size to fit on DVD. After a good few hours of transcoding, it now says "Contents too large to fit on media"!!!

Does that mean the automatic settings just don't work!?
Whats the best way to solve this?
Do i now have to go about reverting to original files and then transcoding them all over again? Should i trust the automatic files to give it another go or set my own settings?

ARGH! I want it to be finished!

How long is your project?

Full movie of about 70 mins. Highlight reel of about 10 mins. Vid clip for motion menu of about 1.5 mins

Well, that should work. Eighty minutes shouldn't be to long. Click on the "Disk" tab and check if you have any DVD-ROM content that could be putting you over the limit.

ARGH! I want it to be finished!
Believe me, I know the feeling!

I have an idea for a DVD menu to be made in Adobe Encore, but I'm not sure if the program can do it. The thing i want to do is, I have a strange-looking photoshop-made figure with a DV tape for a head on the left side of the screen, with a VX1000 in his hand. I want the menu to be animated so that when you have the cursor on a certain button, the camera in his hand will move to be "filming" the button you have selected. Is this do-able within Adobe Encore?

-Thanks,
JK

There are two ways you could approach this, one simple, and one complex. The simple method would be to use a series of menus, one for when each button is selected. You would have the buttons set so that when the viewer moves to each button it is auto activated to go to the appropriate menu, which would show the camera pointing at the selected button.

Of course with this method the camera would jump to pointing at the button, as it is a still menu; there would not be a smooth, animated tilt of the camera from one button to the next one. Creating such animated tilts would be a complex process, and I don’t know of a way to accomplish this in Encore DVD. I don’t know if any DVD authoring software under a $1000 can accomplish such a task (DVDLab ($100-$200) might be able to). Even with higher end software, while it may be feasible to accomplish such transitions seamlessly for navigating a series of buttons on a set-top DVD player where the viewer has to follow the buttons sequentially in one direction or another, I'm not sure it would work for viewing on a computer where the viewer can randomly jump from one menu button to any other menu button.

After putting some more thought into it, I think you could accomplish animated tilts of the camera from one button to another in Encore DVD.

You would have a somewhat similar setup to the simple method I described in my earlier post, but instead of still menus you would have to use motion menus. You would end up having to create more menus, however, as the animation would have to be different depending on which button the viewer is coming from.

Here is how you would set it up. Lets say you have a main menu with four buttons (A, B, C, and D). When the menu loads A is selected. From here viewers would have three possible button choices (B, C, and D). Thus, you would have to prepare three animations of the camera pointing from A button to each of the other buttons. You would duplicate your main menu three times and add the three animations as a video background, one to each menu. In the original menu, you would link the B, C, and D buttons each to the motion menu that would show the camera animated to the respective button.

You would then have to repeat the process you just did for the "A" button for each of the additional buttons. As you can see, you would quickly have quite a lot of menus (for this example you would end up with thirteen total for the main menu), and have a number of animations you would have to set up and render (twelve for this example).

Question1: Is it possible to put several video- or audioclips in one timeline?

I've made multiple animated written documents and want to add chapters so people will be able to leaf through the pages. I also want music to heard all the while this timeline is playing, but dont seem to be able to put more than one clip at a time in the timeline.

Is there anyway of fixing this that doesnt involve me having to render all of it into a giant file?

Question2: I've made an intromovie with music(added in encore), and want the music to continue into the first menuscreen. Is there an easy way to do this?

Any help will be deeply appreciated,

Eirik

Question1: Is it possible to put several video- or audioclips in one timeline?
No, there is no way to do this.

Question2: I've made an intromovie with music(added in encore), and want the music to continue into the first menuscreen. Is there an easy way to do this?
Check out the section titled "Controlling menu display time and looping" in the Encore DVD 1.5 program help file or User Guide (it is on page 109 in the Encore DVD 1.5 User Guide). In the Encore DVD 1.0 help file see "Understanding menu display time and looping" (page 126 in the User Guide). What you need to do is set your intro movie and music as background video/audio for your first menu, and then set the point that you want your menu buttons to appear/become active (called the menu Loop Point, as the menu will loop back to that point once the end of the menu video/audio background is reached).

In the help menu, look for "Playlist". It's a way to string assets together. I think you still have to create seperate timelines for each clip but using playlists, you can string multiple timelines together.

Imagine this, you are doing a DVD of a rock band. You have 5 songs with interviews between them. Using Playlist functions, you can create a button to play a playlist with everything, 1 song, one interview, one song, etc. You can also create another playlist that plays only the interviews. You can create another one that plays only the music. Without playlist functions, you need to make several full versions to do this. A version of the full video, rendered and taking up DVD space for the full version, a full rendered version for the interviews and yet a third rendered version for the music only.

Playlists save tons of space giving more flexability.

Hope that helps.

Sean McHenry

In the help menu, look for "Playlist".
That would work, but it sounded like he wanted a music clip to play continuously as viewers looked at the clips and moved between them ("I also want music to heard all the while this timeline is playing"). You can't do that with playlists.

Big thanks to you both. I'll check out both solutions and get back to you, might be helpful others. Great website btw.

Eirik

if you output all your video files as mpeg2's for dvd you will save a ton of room and you wont have to transcode... you could test that and see how it looks after you burn a test copy.

Heh Guys,

I have tried outputing my menu in encore to dv camcorder and tv but no luck. I tried preferences video out and it just says offline. I click on buttons search etc, no go. I use tv output in premiere 1.5 all the time.
Preview menus on a DV device (Adobe Encore DVD 1.5)


Adobe Encore DVD opens the Menu Editor window when you create a new menu, import a menu you created in Adobe Photoshop, or open an existing menu.

I have copied this from adobe and have tried this-

To preview a menu in the Menu Editor window on a DV (IEEE 1394) device, set the Video Out preference:

1. Choose Edit > Preferences > Video Out.

2. Choose Show Menu Editor On DV Hardware.

3. Choose the DV device from the Device menu. (If the device isn't listed in the Device menu, make sure that the device is attached to your computer and turned on, and then click Search to refresh the Device menu list.)

4. Click OK.

Please help me solve this as it would save me lots of time in burning.
Regards, Rob

Sorry if you know this already but,
Your camera needs to be in VCR mode and your camera has to be able to accept incoming DV and send it out to the analog outputs. Not all DV camcorders will do this.

On my camera I have a menu that allows me to turn that off and on. Look in your menus for a function that allows DV In/Analog out or something like that. Hit the manual for the camera and make sure it can do that to.

If you are sure that is all OK, I can only tell you the output to DV function in Encore 1.5.1, at least for me is a by odd. Works on some things, not others.

Last, I seem to recall it only really works for me if I use "Preview" to watch the preview of the DVD. That means you have to render everything including your menus. If it isn't rendered, it won't play out to the monitor.

Sean McHenry

Thanks Sean. Yes I use this method in Premiere all the time. Seems encore are lacking control over the outputs for dv though. I output through a canopus storm bay but can not seem to get a signal in encore. I have everything rendered as you suggested and when I check the video out in preferences its all blank, how do I get it to talk to the camera. I have version 1.5.1 also. I will keep trying until another suggestion hopefully comes along.
Thank you.

Any other ideas please as I would like to find solution

Have you tried reading the Adobe forums? You probably have. Just wondering if this is something that never really worked right or if it's just us that have had issues.

Sean

Yes, I checked the adobe forums. They did not seem to know of any issues.
I will keep investigating though. Thanks for your help from Ohio, long way from Ohio America to Gold Coast Australia.

I'm also an Amateur Radio Operator. I'm used to the distances.

Sean McHenry (KB8JNE)