Chapters in Sonic MyDV

toon717 wrote on 12/2/2003, 7:41 PM

Any help would be greatly appricated:

I am using screenblast 3.0 (and am very happy with it) and sonic mydvd (not so happy). I fully edit and render my video in screenblast. I then click on "make movie" and export it to sonic mydvd. When it is loaded into sonic mydvd, the enitre movie consists of ONE chapter with ONE dvd menu icon.

I want my movie to consist of more than just one chapter, but I can't figure out how to do so. Can some kind of "chapter markers" be put in using screenblast and picked up by sonic mydvd? or can something be done in sonic mydvd?

Please Help
Thanks!!

Comments

JohnnyRoy wrote on 12/3/2003, 4:00 AM

> I want my movie to consist of more than just one chapter

So do we all. Then you need software that will author a DVD and let you set the chapter points, which MyDVD will not do. I suggest downloading the free trial of Ulead DVD MovieFactory 2. It’s only $45 and does a great job for the price. You have nothing to loose and chapters to gain. ;-)

> Can some kind of "chapter markers" be put in using screenblast and picked up by sonic mydvd?

No. You can do this with Vegas 4 and DVD Architect but you cannot with Screenblast and MyDVD.

> or can something be done in sonic mydvd?

No. Sonic MyDVD only allows chapter points to be set if you capture your source in MyDVD. (but then you can’t use Screenblast to edit it so what’s the point?)

Like I said, get a copy of Ulead DVD MovieFactory 2 and give it a try.

~jr

merkelck wrote on 12/3/2003, 4:33 AM

There is one way to do it if you plan during the edit phase while in MF3. Create short segments and render them to individual .avi files. Then bring them into MyDVD in the exact order that you want them
in the finished product. MyDVD can then be used to produce the menus/buttons including motion menus. Not very elegant but it does work. The suggestion about the Ulead product is an excellent one as it does allow rearraning clips after they have been loaded into the program.
Kent

ChristerTX wrote on 12/3/2003, 3:04 PM

I suggest Ulead that JonnyRoy also suggested.
I have used it with great satisfaction.
The only complaint I might have is that I can not edit the template layouts more than changing background and fonts, and that the chapter thumbnails are not moving.

JohnnyRoy wrote on 12/3/2003, 5:23 PM

Actually you can edit the templates but you need to use Ulead PhotoImpact. I downloaded a trial version and changed a few templates before the 30-day trial expired. PhotoImpact is actually a nice graphics editor but I already have Paint Shop Pro so I couldn’t justify buying it. I don’t like the fact that you can’t just use PSD files (which most editors will read and write and still maintain the layers) but that was Ulead’s choice.

~jr

toon717 wrote on 12/3/2003, 5:34 PM

Thanks for that idea. But it leaves me with a couple of questions if you don't mind.

1. After I have finished editing say a 60 min. movie, and click on "make movie" it dose not have an option to pick out various clip lenghts. It is all or nothing. How do I render out and save to disk various length clips?

2. Dose saving to disk and rendering to avi sacriface any video quality? I want my final burn to be at best quality possible.

vwcrusher wrote on 12/4/2003, 4:30 AM

Isn't there another option? I am told that TMPGenc Author can add chapter points to the movie produced by MF3.....

JohnnyRoy wrote on 12/4/2003, 4:46 AM

> 1. After I have finished editing say a 60 min. movie, and click on "make movie" it dose not have an option to pick out various clip lenghts. It is all or nothing. How do I render out and save to disk various length clips?

When you select Make Movie and then "Save it to your hard drive" there is a checkbox option on the save dialog labeled: Render loop region only. This is how you control the render length. Just make a loop selection on the timeline and then render only that selection. Repeat for each selection.

2. Dose saving to disk and rendering to avi sacriface any video quality? I want my final burn to be at best quality possible.

No. You can re-render an AVI file using the Sony DV codec up to 50 times without seeing any loss of quality. This is not true for all codecs, just the Sony DV codec (the Microsoft DV codec degrades after only a few renders). The Sony DV codec is very high quality and you shouldn’t need to worry about the quality of a few re-renders.

~jr

SonicJane wrote on 12/4/2003, 11:10 AM

There is also a tutorial in our Knowledge Base which descibes how to do this - Answer ID 907 at www.custcenter.com

-Jane

Chienworks wrote on 12/4/2003, 12:01 PM

I tried re-rendering 99 generations and the final output was still indistinguishable from the first.

http://www.vegasusers.com/testbench/files/generations/

Also, if you bring the new DV file onto the timeline and don't do any editing except cutting, splitting, and joining (no effects, crossfades, titles, etc.) then the video won't be rendered again. The frames will be copied bit-for-bit and you'll have an exact copy.

toon717 wrote on 12/4/2003, 5:38 PM

Thanks for all the great help. Esp to JohnnyRoy, merkelck, and SonicJane for that great tutorial.