DVD burning questions

[AVITRY]

Well, for as long as I've been using PE2, tonight was the very first time I've tried the DVD burning module with menuing.

I was fully expecting trouble choosing the burn to disc option from all I read, but I was surprised that all went just fine.

I had 6 DVD markers on the timeline and when the submenus were created I thought it would make 3 and 3 on two submenus, but it made 4 and 2.

I got a message saying the buttons on the 4 button page were overlapping so I sized them smaller, which brings about my first question.

After resizing them, I found it difficult to make them all the same size. Is there a way to copy and paste size attributes to the other buttons?

Lastly, was there a way to make the sub menus 3 and 3 instead of 4 and 2?

Elementary I know, but I couldn't find a way to do it.

thanks,
joe

[Bobby]

Only by creating your own menu template.

I have to admit that after months of screwing around with that (it really isn't straightforward), I bought Sony DVD Architect Studio for all my menu work. If you do, you will have that control and much more.

[Bob]

I second Bobby on that.

[Peru]

I'm in agreement, too. It's very affordable.

[AVITRY]

Thanks guys, actually, I have DVD Arch. LOL ... also Encore, also just about every authoring program there is. In fact if memory serves, way back on the Adobe PE forum I found the Architect program when it first came out and posted its availability to the forum.

I've been battling a very strange problem with field order with the one authoring program I love, that being DVD Workshop2, so until I get it figured out, I just tried a quickie with the authoring module in PE2.

Long story short, I can't import an avi timeline render from PE2 into DVD Workshop without having a jittery field order type burn.

I can import an AVI from Premiere Pro to DVD Workshop, I can import an AVI capture directly from my Canopus 300 via WinDV into Workshop, but I can't import an AVI from PE2 into Workshop without issues.

I can import an AVI from PE2 into DVD Architect no problem, but Architect is lacking some features that I commonly use with Workshop.

So ... I've been encoding the timeline in PE2 to mpeg prior to import into Workshop and all is ok. I just don't like the hoops I have to jump through to figure out best bit rate using PE2.

Importing even a huge AVI into Workshop, the program guestimates the best bitrate with great quality. So I'm basically spoiled.

PE2 is definitely out of the question even for a quick menu now that I've tried it.

edit .. btw all the authoring programs hold a back seat to Workshop IMO. Best second place for my needs is DVDit but ...I'll figure this thing out.

[Bob]

I can't import an avi timeline render from PE2 into DVD Workshop without having a jittery field order type burn.

That is very odd. What does GSpot say about those problem files and how does that compare to what GSpot says about the avi files you can import from Premiere Pro?

I can import an AVI from PE2 into DVD Architect no problem, but Architect is lacking some features that I commonly use with Workshop.

I'm not that familiar with Workshop. What features would that be?

[Steve Grisetti]

What's your source video, Joe, for your original Premiere Elements project?

Was it maybe an MPEG or a DVD file?

In version 2, whenever you used an MPEG/DVD as your source video you had to reverse the field dominance in all of the clips or the interlacing would conflict. You wouldn't see it as jittery until you output the file from Premiere Elements.

[AVITRY]

Guys, my source video in all circumstances are AVI files converted from VHS via the Canopus 300.

I've tried so many things on this PC including uninstalling and re-installing both PE2 and DVDWS. Something changed somewhere because originally there was no issue with PE2 AVI renders.

It was SOOO frustrating that I actually walked away from accepting conversion projects from the company I was doing it for. A year later they asked if I'd do them again. I've just build another P4 system and installed PE2 and DVDWS. I honestly am too scared to try it again on this fresh PC ... LOL.

Anyway there is a ray of hope that it will work. Encoding the files to mpeg in PE2 isn't the end of the world, but I just wish I could get to the bottom of it.

If I recalled the Gspot results showed the same file properties all around.

DVD Workshop is the bomb for standard definition video. Aside for absolute simplicity of use ( which fits me fine) The two features I like most and use most are transparency settings (opacity) for any object, button, frame, text, anything. It also can capture a frame and save it as a jpeg for my background menu, which is a feature that I use all the time.

I can't for the life of me understand why Corel has forsaken it for the junk they are putting out now. Nor can the many lovers of the program at the Ulead forum.

I rarely have to use PE2 on these projects as they are already commercial VHS tapes that are merely converted to DVD. On occasion however, I do bring the AVI onto the PE2 timeline to include the companies contact information at the end of the clip, trim it a bit, and mix the audio to mono which is what the company also wants. I duplicate the audio timeline and then use Left fill and Right fill to accomplish that as suggested here on the forum at one point.

I can do those same things in PP2 with no problems, but not in PE2. If I bring the AVI from the Canopus directly into Workshop, it just fine also.

I experimented at one point by merely bringing a clip into the timeline and WITHOUT doing anything, exported it out as a Movie (avi) and it acted up in DVDWS. Confusing and frustrating, but maybe this new Box will be the solution if not the answer.

[AVITRY]

Ok, I got up enough courage to try to make a DVD using an AVI render from PE2 and encoding it in DVDWS. No good as usual. Jittery as hell.

Now, I took that same rendered AVI, put it on the timeline in WMM, trimmed a few minutes off and re-rendered it. I then created a DVD in Workshop using all the same settings. NO PROBLEM no jitters!!!!

Gspot says the PE2 avi is type 2 and the WMM avi was type 1. I never tried the WMM timeline re-render before. I'll try PP2 tomorrow using the same avi clip from the PE2 render and re-render it in PP2 then check Gspot again.

This is on the new build PC so my hopes are shot that it was some fluke pc thing.

This is so strange...

EDIT == Wow, I'm confused on a different level now. I wrote the above while I was watching the DVD playing smoothly, and realized something totally unrelated but IMO equally as strange.

When I first selected a portion of an AVI to render in PE2 I split a clip, put a transition in, and rendered the two clips with transition to an AVI file. The one that acted up in DVDWS.

When I brought that file into the timeline in WMM, it somehow split the file at the transition and made two thumbnail videos in WMM top area workspace. I only dragged the first one down to the timeline, not even thinking about what the heck that second clip was.

Now as the DVD finished, it played the PE2 transition, and went back to the start of the DVD. The second portion of the clip was not part of the timeline render.

Now, I always thought when you rendered any multiple clip avi it was once again a single avi clip. How the heck did WMM differentiate two clips at the transition.

This is why I gave this stuff up. It's gonna make me crazy again. I know it.

EDIT 2 == I just rendered that same PE2 Avi in PP2. I gotta stop now so I couldn't create a DVD, but Gspot says type2 avi. I'm betting it will transcode to mpeg just fine in DVDWS just as the WMM avi did. But .. I'll post back tomorrow.

Any help or suggestions are appreciated.

One thought I had was, what codec does PE2 call on to render the AVI as opposed to the other programs? Where physically on my computer does that codec live? Can I change it out for one from WMM or PP2 or any other source? BTW, way way back when I was doing this, I recall re-rendering these files in Cyberlink PD also, and it worked fine in DVDWS.

Does the fact that WMM saw the PE2 AVI as two clips, offer any kind of a clue as to whether or not PE2 does something funky when it creates an avi from the timeline? I don't understand how WMM could even know this AVI was two clips with a transition. Shouldn't WMM have seen it as simply one AVI file?

Well. It's the next morning and I burned another test DVD using the PPro2 rerender of the PE2 timeline render. The PPro2 resulting DVD using Workshop was jittery, just like its cousin PE2. Next I'm going to try another program.

Does anyone have a suggestion for perhaps a shareware program I can re-render an avi through? This is nuts ...

[Chuck Engels]

Windows Movie Maker?

[AVITRY]

Chuck, I tried it in WMM and the result was a smooth playing video. Now, I loaded Sony Vegas Pro on my pc and I re-rendered the PE2 AVI file using that program.

The resulting DVD made by DVDWorkshop played smoothly. This is crazy. I don't understand why Adobe and DVDWorkshop don't get along.

[Chuck Engels]

You might be better off exporting an MPEG file from Premiere Elements to use in DVDWorkshop, have you tried that?

[RJ Johnston]

Joe, why don't you try the DV Codec from Mainconcept (Demo version):

http://www.mainconcept.com/site/prosume ... n-775.html

When you go to export in pre 2, you don't select DV-AVI. First select Microsoft AVI, then Mainconcept DV codec 2.4.16, or something like that.

After exporting, try that in DVD Workshop 2. If that works, then I'm not exactly sure what that means other than the solution is to buy that codec, or do as Chuck suggests and just export to MPEG-2.

I saw that B&HPhoto has DVD Workshop 2 for $49.99 USD. I wonder if that is the upgrade version?

[AVITRY]

Joe, why don't you try the DV Codec from Mainconcept (Demo version):

http://www.mainconcept.com/site/prosume ... n-775.html

When you go to export in pre 2, you don't select DV-AVI. First select Microsoft AVI, then Mainconcept DV codec 2.4.16, or something like that.

After exporting, try that in DVD Workshop 2. If that works, then I'm not exactly sure what that means other than the solution is to buy that codec, or do as Chuck suggests and just export to MPEG-2.

I saw that B&HPhoto has DVD Workshop 2 for $49.99 USD. I wonder if that is the upgrade version?

Robert, I'm going to try that right now! That is the full DVD Workshop 2. I think that's a killer price. Wow, well, thats cause Ulead was sold to Corel and Corel dropped the program, but that doesn't mean it isn't still outstanding!

I'll post back with that other DV codec result. Thanks, I knew you would have some thought up your sleeve.

[AVITRY]

You might be better off exporting an MPEG file from Premiere Elements to use in DVDWorkshop, have you tried that?

Yes Chuck, that is the way I have been doing it regularly to sidestep this issue. But, I really don't like having to play with the bit rate thing if I don't have to, and DVD Workshop's calculator just seems so much easier to deal with. Moreover, I just want to figure out what the heck is going on here. A DV-AVI shouldn't be causing this issue.