DVDA - Help, Dumbfounded - Where do I start ?

[Ron Cooper]

I have rendered a PAL Project in Veg 8 using Main Concept MPEG-2 & DVD PAL separate streams, settings. yet when I import it into DVDA - 5 (.m2v) by going to "Insert Media" it won't play or if I try to just preview it in DVDA's explorer window, it says not a valid project. I have not attempted to put any menus or buttons in yet , I just want to see that my file plays first.

Is there any tutorials or notes that lead beginners by the hand. I found the manual quite useless as it assumes you must be familiar with it.

I just cannot get a hand on this thing.

RonC.

[Mark Stavar]

Ron,

Which template did you select for the render? I would strongly suggest you use "DVD Architect video stream" (widescreen if appropriate, and PAL for the Great Southern Land . Remember that you will have to separately render the audio stream, preferable .AC3 format.

This will leave you with two (2) files : vid.mpg and vid.ac3.

Do "Insert media", select the .mpg file, and DVDA will automatically find and insert the corresponding .ac3 audio file.

Preview should then work fine for your project.

DVDA is kind of frustrating, but it can be learned.

Good luck,

marks

[Ron Cooper]

Many thanks Mark. I selected "Main Concept MPEG-2", with "DVD PAL Separate Streams" Template. But I am confused as to what the final file extensions are, but I would expect one to be .m2v.

However, when I look in explorer I see an mpeg Movie file - 88,610KB, and a VLC media file -2,330,161 KB (.m2v). Will this work or should I now re-render to your suggested AC3, but which one, Pro or Studio ?

Also, does this mean that I have to render twice, once for video & once for audio ?

RonC.

[Ron Cooper]

Mark, as this is a 4x3 project for DVD, should I render the video as interlaced or progressive or doesn't it matter ?

RonC.

[Mark Stavar]

Originally Posted by Ron Cooper

Mark, as this is a 4x3 project for DVD, should I render the video as interlaced or progressive or doesn't it matter ?

RonC.

Hey Ron,

i haven't played with the template you mentioned, so i can't comment on what it produces.

Rendering using the "DVD Architect PAL video stream" template will produce a .mpg file.

Yes, you have to render twice, the second being for the audio output (.ac3). For this purpose, either Studio or Pro is fine (I used to know the difference; i think it relates to one being more flexible than the other for further audio post-production, but don't bet your house on it.)

I usually set a region with in and out markers on the timeline in the project and then check "Render loop region only" in the render dialog. Just make sure they are the same (at least the start point) between rendering the video and rendering the audio.

Don't be too concerned about the second render, audio renders will typically go through in a fraction of the time of your video render. e.g. I just did a large HDV project (18 nested sub-projects, up to 6 video tracks each, plus audio, colour correction, etc). 5 hours to render. audio went through in well under 30 minutes. Typically i would expect better than that.

I would leave DVD projects as interlaced unless it is not intended for display on a television -- that is the simplest approach. (BTW, 4x3 is not related to interlace vs. progressive, rather a question of the aspect ratio, which other people can explain better than i).

Hope this is helpful; you *will* work it out.

Ciao,

marks

[Ron Cooper]

Thanks again Mark, I have now at last, after rendering for the third time, been able to open the files in DVDA, thanks to you, so at least I'm on my way.

All I have to do now is figure out how to put in the chapter points from the original Veg 8 project and select them with buttons.

RonC.

[Mark Stavar]

Originally Posted by Ron Cooper

Thanks again Mark, I have now at last, after rendering for the third time, been able to open the files in DVDA, thanks to you, so at least I'm on my way.

All I have to do now is figure out how to put in the chapter points from the original Veg 8 project and select them with buttons.

RonC.

Well done, getting there.

If you chose "Save markers with media" or something in the the render dialog then you should be able to just click the "load markers" button in DVDA (if you are not sure where that is i'm pretty sure searching the help index will bring it up. Alternately, if there are not too many you can just insert them directly within DVDA. Point to note here: if your marker has an exclamation point on it, it means it is not on an I-frame (thing that is the correct term) and DVDA won't allow you to create the project. To correct this, simply zoom into the time-line a little, left-click and drag the marker -- valid frames either side of the current point will appear. Just move to one of those, the exclamation point should be gone, and Bob's your uncle.

Re: chapter menus, if you right click on the the media file in the project view you should get a menu option that says something like "Insert scene selection menu". Follow the prompts and it will create chapter selection menu options for you. You have some scope to experiment with this, such as how many buttons on a page: if you don't like the how the menu looks, just delete the generated pages and try again. Can save quite a bit of work this way.

Ciao,

marks

[Ron Cooper]

Thanks again Mark, - much appreciated. I'm sure when I get going it will be OK but it all seems very confusing at the moment, and, as usual with me, I'm always fighting time. I'm actually doing this for a wonderful elderly friend & mentor whose birthday is tomorrow and some of the footage of his lectures go back over 15 yrs.

Thanks for the tips on chapter markers, that (!), would have flawed me! It was easy to load the markers (thanks to you), & all is well, no ! marks. I notice that the "JKL" keys (Which I really like), don't work in DVDA - seems odd.
Regarding play menus etc. I haven't made any specific files or clips for these but can you copy a small section from the DVDA timeline & use these for play menus?

However, in view of my time pressure I have a plan B where I can simply burn a DVD from the V8 timeline directly to a stand alone hardware recorder in case I don't get this "proper" DVD done today. I will keep working on it anyhow as I am determined to learn this thing.

Now another question arises, - can I feed a firewire output directly from the V8 timeline without having to produce an AVI file first? I used to do this in Premiere and it was excellent as whatever you saw from the timeline was outputted to the firewire and fed directly into the recorder without having to make a large AVI file first .

RonC.

[Seth Bloombaum]

Originally Posted by Ron Cooper

...Now another question arises, - can I feed a firewire output directly from the V8 timeline without having to produce an AVI file first? I used to do this in Premiere and it was excellent as whatever you saw from the timeline was outputted to the firewire and fed directly into the recorder without having to make a large AVI file first .

Video only on the live firewire preview output. Preview audio goes out through the PC's sound card. This is probably a no-go.

Hopefully a menu-based disc from DVDA is going to work for you. If you need to take a step back, try looking at Volume 1 #7 & 8 of Edward Troxel's excellent newsletters. Good basics on DVDA there...

[Edward Troxel]

Do a Print To Tape. Only the changed portions will need to be rendered (depending on the original format of the video). So if you started with DV and do a cuts only edit with no effects, the Print To Tape will be very quick.

[Ron Cooper]

Thanks Edward & Seth, yes, the print-to-tape seemed to be the best way to go.

RonC.