DVDA various topics
 

Does anybody know how I access the "frame start time" option? I want to slowly fade in the appearance of the frames in the opening menu, to start with, or shortly thereafter, the video fade-in, but the "frame start time" selection on the "Object Properties" sidebar is greyed out and I haven't been able to find a "how to" reference anywhere (though I could easily just be missing it).

If I'm understanding what you're looking at, that's not what that means.

It sounds like you are looking at the area that deals with a motion background or motion button. That "frame start option" would indicate where in the video to begin playing the motion background/button.

Hmm, ok... if I select an object/button, and click Object Properties on the right (versus the Page Properties tab), there are two start times I see. One is at the top in the "Thumbnail" section, beneath the file I have selected which will be used for the thumbnail/video for what I selected. And that first location is where I set its TC/start time to play its now associated video file. I then clicked animate under that and, voila, the object/button plays beautifully in preview from exactly the point. (Very neat.) The other start time listed on the Object Propeties page is located further down in the Object Frame section, under where I have enabled frames and selected the style I want to use. But it's greyed out. It says Frame start time. So I guess my question is really twofold:

a) What is that second, greyed out frame start time for, if it's not to set the TC for when the frame appears/starts? I've already set where the motion background/thumbnail video starts to play in the box above. What is it's function then? (The main background is animated/set under page properties.)

b) If that isn't the way to set the timing for when the buttons/objects appear onscreen in the opening menu, is there a way to do/set that?

Ah... that control. I was going from memory and forgot that one. I see the one you're referring to now. Suspect it may have been an idea that never reached fruition. However, the bottom line is that DVDA 1.0 does not do what you are asking.

Well, thanks for checking. As someone said on the SoCal group boards, there will no doubt be lots of changes in next version comes out. Maybe it will include that mystery button.

You're a great resourse, Edward, and your posts are always appreciated.

Preparing a Projec tin DVDA and DVDA2 and burning with nero
 

okies.. ive done everythng and now im left witha audioTS and video TS folder as they shoudl be...

i open up nero 5.119 or something and i attemtt to burn a dvd project b selelcting my DVD type and systematically draggin my files to their appropriate location..

No wnero wants to "reshuffle" the file..

and heres teh problem..
I get an error message tellin me that it cant..

now i havent had any issues burning any dvd projects apart from ones set up within DVDA or DVDA2 (in case u were wondering, im learning DVDA2, so i use both until im comfortable to ditch v1)

any ideas??

You are running an older version of Nero. Older versions tend to
have problems like these. What DVD type did you select in Nero?

Can DVDA also make an image instead of a VIDEO_TS dir?

no, it wont make an iso image or anything like that, it can only prepare the files using teh dvd file system..

Im going ot update nero when i get a dual layered burner.. but i just thought id see what i can do in the meantime..

What DVD type are you selecting in Nero and what is the EXACT
message Nero is giving you?

DVDA 4b Titles look bad and I may know why
 

Hello,

I did a test with the same video with titles. I used it twice on a single DVD. I used the video as backround for the menu and as a video to be played off of the DVD. The same exact video looks much better when it is not USED as the backround. The letters are smooth and good looking. However, when the same video is used as the backround the letters are jagged.

This leads me to believe that DVDA makes a video with titles look worse than if that same video is just played not as the backround.

Has anyone noticed this too? What gives?

It is my understanding that DVD Architect will rerender(or render) everything on your menu,so it would be best to pull an avi file for your background video menu.Where DVDA will render it to an mpeg-2.If you had tried to use an Mpeg-2 for your Menu video background DVDA will still render it,so it would rerender your mpeg-2.So starting with the AVI will give better results,although if you are using a custom bitrate in Vegas to render your actual main movie file ,i don't think you'll achieve the same result by letting DVDA render your AVI to mpeg-2 for your MENU file as you( as far as i know) can not control the bitrate.

I see. Thanks for the help. I adjusted my workflow so everything looks great.

Whether DVDA4.x will re-render your menus will depend on how you setup your button highlights. So it is possible to use a pre-rendered menu "asis" without always re-rendering...

Regards,
George

background audio in DVDA
 

Is it possible to somehow have a continuous background audio track playing over a series of menus?
I have 4 or 5 scene selection menus and am wanting to have a seamless audio track playing over all of them.

not so that it would not have a slight pause at the start of the menu screen. When you hit the button to change menus the music would not play through continously. There would be a slight lag. Nature of the beast.

Don