BR and DVD disks

erisajd@citlink.net wrote on 7/12/2014, 3:30 PM
I just spent a fair amount of time building a menu based Blu Ray disk using DVD Architect Studio V5. Most of the folks who want a copy of this project will want BR but at few will want a DVD.

Is there some "simple" way to burn a DVD from the BR project without rebuilding the who project over from the start? Basically, to convert the BR project to a DVD project "with the push of a button" or something like that?

If the answer is that I could have done a BR if I had started with DVD that won't help me this time but it might be useful next time around.

Comments

videoITguy wrote on 7/12/2014, 3:34 PM
Depends , depends, on a lot of things. This has been an endless topic covered in this forum for ages.
Generally you make a BLu-ray project with Blu-ray inputs and you can change the project to DVD type and create a DVD.Your DVD will look mediocre, and if you have created subtitles and used this workflow - don't expect very much at all.
Best -
Create a Blu-ray project with Blu-ray quality inputs
and
Create a DVD project with DVD quality and optimization practices with DVD quality inputs.
All of this done in VegasPro NLE
erisajd@citlink.net wrote on 7/12/2014, 4:45 PM
Thanks for the very prompt response. Not the answer I was hoping for but the answer was very clear. I do appreciate that.
musicvid10 wrote on 7/16/2014, 11:18 PM
"Is there some "simple" way to burn a DVD from the BR project without rebuilding the who project over from the start?"

Simple? No.
steveq wrote on 7/17/2014, 8:38 AM
Musicvid is right - there is no simple way.
However, Derek at Moviestudiozen (an excellent site for tutorials etc.) told me to do this (and it worked for me!) :-


Edit the project properties for the Blu-ray project and change to a DVD template.
Save as new version.
Close DVDA.
Temporarily remove ALL the Blu-ray video and audio files from the folder that you created using Movie Studio into a different folder.
Now boot up DVDA again and load the DVD version of the project.
You will be greeted with a window saying that the files are missing.
Select 2nd option - specify a new location or replacement file.
Navigate to the Movie Studio folder that contains the "DVD versions" of your videos.
Select first replacement video.
Repeat process until all videos have been swapped out.
Now re-save project again as the DVD version.
Check to see all thumbnails still look ok.
Make DVD.
When finished, turn DVDA off.
Now you can move all the Blu-ray videos back into the folder you removed them from.
The Blu-ray version should still look good if you open it back up.

The above procedure from Derek meant I only needed to create the DVDA menu once - Blu-Ray first, then DVD. If I understood you correctly, that's what you want.
Regards,
Steve.
videoITguy wrote on 7/17/2014, 11:02 AM
The post above by steveq is the complete sequence for managing a concurrent Blu-ray and DVD format title - thus you have the method to access a project with the same overall design - to write both Blu-ray and DVD.

The one single issue that I know for sure, is that when you have subtitles created within the project - you have to do as I indicate in the following...

From Thread Subject: RE: Subtitles not Playing Properly --- Reply by: videoITguy -- Date: 7/10/2014 3:20:59 PM



Subtitles generated in authoring packages such DVDAPro - have to be created differently for the type of project - be they Blu-ray or DVD. A shortcut in DVDAPro - is to create the titles in one single type of project instance - then save the subtitle file - and ,then, reimport that same file into the other project type.

The reason this is necessary other than repurposing the project itself - is.. because at the time of re-write to the project output - the text resolution has to correspond to the desired project type. This may also have someaffect on title spacing - but generally it is more about getting the font to correspond to the project rez.
Arthur.S wrote on 7/17/2014, 11:59 AM
I do this regularly with no problem.

"Edit the project properties for the Blu-ray project and change to a DVD template.
Save as new version." Yes, that's first step.

Last step is to 'replace' the HD files with an SD version. I create the SD file in Vegas If you don't want to do that, DVDA will recompress it for you...but Vegas is better at it. ;-)

To Replace a file, go to: Media properties (top right of screen) select track media, then click on the file to replace. You'll see a drop down box arrow appear. Select Replace, then browse to the replacement file.