Comments

vtxrocketeer wrote on 3/7/2011, 10:20 AM
DaveG, HOLY COW I have this exact problem and it was never present before I began to author in 5.2. I thought I was going nuts.

Symptoms: the BR project previews flawlessly with in DVDa. I burn a BR onto BR-RE media like I always do and play on a Samsung BDP-3600 set top BR player.

The BR discs' intro media plays fine, goes properly to Main Menu, audio begins to play (not necessarily at beginning -- strange), link is underlined, then after about 15 seconds the link disappears altogether and never reappears. Audio hiccups, screen goes black, and then audio loops fine while menu is totally frozen. The very strange part is that if I jump to my main movie BEFORE the menu freezes, then the movie plays perfectly. Once back to the menu, it's crashville.

OK: so I did a LOT of troubleshooting last night. My BR project has MPEG2 video, 30Mbps and audio in WAV (PCM) at 96kHz/24bit (or 48/24). These have been my problem-free settings for years. For troubleshooting, I just made two short menus, video stills and with music, that linked to each other. Then I began to adjust ONE VARIABLE AT A TIME: tweak in DVDa, burn, play. Freeze. Repeat.

For instance, I used layered PS files for my menu backgrounds. Changing these to plain colors or any other DVDa canned background had no change: menus still crashed (link disappears).

Changed a lot of the audio: 96/24, 96/16, 48/24, 48/16. Same.

Then I REMOVE audio altogether. Guess what? The menus work perfectly! Add audio back in --> crashville. So, I've isolated the problem to something about how DVDa handles audio in the menus. The video portion tweaks had absolutely no effect.

So, I rendered my menu audio in AC3-Pro format. NOW the menus work: the music plays, the links work, and no crashes. Yet, now the menu loops to the (proper) beginning before the audio finishes, resulting in a somewhat jarring aural experience. Example: menu is 30 seconds, but menu loops to beginning after only 25 seconds.

Sigh. BR discs that I authored in 5.1 in the same (original) way work flawlessly. So, I found a partial solution. Clearly, something must be wrong with the way that DVDa 5.2 compiles the menu, so far as the audio portion is concerned. I just can't figure out what it is; I can offer only a partial workaround: AC3-Pro.

Let me know if you have any different experiences. This was a REALLY frustrating bug to isolate. Seriously, could you please post back with any insights or further info? I just can't believe that I'm the only person (and now you) who has this problem.

Steve
vtxrocketeer wrote on 3/7/2011, 10:41 AM
This seems to be known problem and evidently Sony was alerted: http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/24/906144#911516

The OP of that thread described exactly what I'm seeing.

What I'd like to know (other than a solution) is why there isn't a chorus of protests. This is a showstopper for BR authoring. No music? Cut your music short? Seriously? Is no one authoring BR discs enough to notice this problem?

Rant over,
Steve
jimingo wrote on 3/7/2011, 6:37 PM
I have the same problem and that's actually why I was looking at the DVDA forums. I'm using 5.2 now but I was experiencing this issue with 5.0 as well.
I also have a Samsung Blu-ray player so I was wondering if this happens in other brands of players or is it just Samsung?
vtxrocketeer wrote on 3/7/2011, 8:30 PM
I found a fix.

After more testing, I discovered that DVDa mangles the menu structure if and only if I use a static background image, e.g.,a PSD or PNG file, as the menu background media.

In a test DVDa project, I replaced my static background media with stock footage (video) and the BR disc played flawlessly on my BR player. Inspired, I simply dropped my project PSD file (the one that I used directly in DVDa) into Vegas, rendered out 30s of MPEG-2 at 30mbps, and used the rendered video as the menu background. Worked perfectly in the burned BR disc!!

So, I think the lesson is do NOT use static media for BR menu backgrounds. This is inconsistent with Sony's DVDa manual that explains rather plainly that you CAN use PSD files as background media. <shrug>

Steve

UPDATE: for those following along, I've submitted a support request at SCS.
DaveG wrote on 3/14/2011, 5:49 PM
Steve,

Thanks for the work you've put into this problem - I will try what you suggested and report back.

I too have submitted a support request (over a week ago) but have recieved no reply - perhaps an update to 5.2 will result? (wishful thinking)

Dave G
vtxrocketeer wrote on 3/15/2011, 9:30 AM
I carried on a similar thread over at dvinfo dot net, where my observations were confirmed: static menu background media break Blu-ray menus, but video background media do not.

Looking forward to DVD Architect 5.3. :)

-Steve
DaveG wrote on 3/15/2011, 1:57 PM
The fix worked perfectly - thanks.

Dave G