Completed First DVD - Now Some Questions

Starbuck1975 wrote on 5/7/2012, 10:07 PM

Just completed and burned my first DVD using DVD Architect 5.0. I've been playing with the DVD Architect software for over a year, so I've somewhat learned my around the functionality, but I am sure there are a few things I am missing, especially given some unexpected results.

First my workflow process. I capture video using a Canon VIXIA HF200. I use the file transfer function under Vegas Movie Studio to get the files off my camcorder and onto my hard drive. My drop folder shows all the video files having a AVCHD Video (.mts) type.

For my first DVD, I created one parent menu, and several children menus. Each child menu has a few videos embedded within it as chapters.

If I look at the tree diagram on the left hand side of DVD Architect, I see one parent .dar file, one chapter menu with a star icon over it, and then a folder for each child menu. For each child menu, the included videos or chapters appear as a film strip icon.

To insert the video files, I simply pointed the Add feature from DVD Architect to my source .mts files.

I ran the preview feature on my PC, and everything worked flawlessy. The menus navigated as expected, and at the end of each chapter or video, the DVD returned back to its parent menu. It also played full screen.

I burned the DVD, which took nearly four hours.

I went to play the DVD on our Blu-Ray player and flat screen TV. A few unexpected outcomes:

1. Rather than play full screen, it appeared in letterbox mode. There is a black border around both the tops and sides of the video.

2. At the end of playing a chapter or video, the DVD does not automatically return to the parent menu. I have to select the menu button at the end of the video for it to do so.

I am very much a newbie at this, so I am not exactly sure what to ask. So I thought I would explain my workflow and what the results were, to see if one of the experts here perhaps identify a problem with how I am using the software.

Appreciate any and all feedback. Thank you.

Comments

PeterDuke wrote on 5/8/2012, 4:17 AM

First of all, you say you burnt a DVD and played it on your Blu-ray player. Did you use DVD or BD (Blu-ray Disc) media?

What are your source and output video formats? (How many pixels wide and high).

It is always best to avoid rendering in DVDA if possible. If your source is not compliant with the requirements for DVD or BD then you should preferably render in Vegas (or other suitable editor) first.

When you open DVDA, it defaults to certain properties that may not be what you want. Select File>New to set them broadly for a new project, or File>Properties for an existing project.

BDs burnt with DVDA have a few deficiencies compared to DVD. For instance, when I use the remote to interrupt play and return to the menu, with a BD it always returns to the main menu, whereas a DVD can return to the most recently accessed menu.

PeterDuke wrote on 5/8/2012, 4:37 AM

Another point. You mention .MTS AVCHD files. The raw .MTS files from a camera cannot be longer than 2GB or 4GB (depending on camera make), so long clips will be cut into chunks that size, or possibly smaller for the last chunk.

These chunks should be first concatenated into one long file for each scene, before loading into Vegas or DVDA (or using the special import feature in Vegas). If you don't, you will get a small glitch where the chunks are rejoined.

I use the software that came with my camera to do the transfer, and it knows which chunks to glue together into a single clip.

You can also do it by hand using the command:
COPY \B chunk1.MTS+chunk2.MTS+chunk3.MTS output.m2ts

Other software is also able to concatenate files.

The downside of doing it by hand is that you have to know which chunks belong to the same scene.

Starbuck1975 wrote on 5/8/2012, 7:11 AM

Thank you for the response.

I burnt to DVD media. I don't have a BD burner.

How do I check my source and output video formats? I was looking at the File Properties, but I am unsure what settings I would want to convert my existing project to. I went with the default settings.

In terms of how I want to use my DVD, I will be playing it on a Blu-Ray player and flat screen LCD.

I am very much new to rendering and encoding, so not sure what you mean by rendering in DVDA vs Sony Vegas? I've played with Vegas, and assumed the difference between the two applications is that DVDA is suitable for creating DVDs from raw video, with some menu functionality, where Vegas is for editing raw video that you can then incorporate into DVDA. I am not fluent enough with the suite to even know when or how I would want to edit raw video in Vegas.

PeterDuke wrote on 5/8/2012, 9:34 AM

Are you burning High Defintion video onto DVD media (sometimes called AVCHD disc if certain conditions are complied with or BD5)? It is best not to refer to such discs as DVDs due to the confusion it creates. They cannot be played in a normal DVD player, and in fact you may have difficulty ejecting the disc afterwards if you tried.

Such discs won't play on my Panasonic Blu-ray player unless patched with a small utility someone wrote, but I understand that they do play without modification on some others. I note that you are using DVDA 5.0, but you don't say whether it is Pro or Studio. Pro 5.2 has now lost the ability to create AVCHD disks/BD5.

A good free utility to check video files is Mediainfo. It looks like you are starting with AVCHD, but what are you creating? If you are creating an AVCHD disc (or close relative), there will be no video rendering and you won't need Vegas. But then the video quality should be unchanged.

Open DVDA and click on File>Properties and report what the following settings are:

Disc format
video format
bit rate
aspect ratio
resolution
frame rate

Is your source PAL (25 fps) or NTSC (29.97 fps)?

vkmast wrote on 5/8/2012, 10:05 AM

Regarding AVCHD discs and DVDA Studio, it's been the same as with DVDA Pro since autumn 2011. The last build in DVDA Studio for these was 5.0 build 128, as noted in a couple of threads at the time.

Starbuck1975 wrote on 5/8/2012, 6:44 PM

For media, I am using Memorex DVD-R.

Disc Format: DVD
Target Media Size: 4.70

Video Format: MPEG-2
Bit Rate: 8.000
Aspect Ration 16:9 (please note I changed it to 16:9 after getting the letterbox effect on my first attempt. I believe it was originally set to 4:3)
Resolution: 720x480 (NTSC) - I noticed some pixelation when playing on my DVD player, so assume I would want to increase the resolution?
Fram Rate: 29.97
Progressive: No

PeterDuke wrote on 5/8/2012, 6:59 PM

So you are not making an AVCHD disc but a normal standard definition DVD. Is that what you wanted?

If you are starting with AVCHD, which is high definition, then the reduction in resolution means some reduction in sharpness compared to the original. It is important also that you set a deinterlace method in Vegas, as I mentioned earlier. I don't know what happens if you down-size with DVDA, but I recommend that you don't do that.

DVDs are only standard definition and the maximum resolution for NTSC is 720x480.

You still haven't said if you are shooting with NTSC or PAL frame rate.

PeterDuke wrote on 5/8/2012, 7:24 PM

I haven't responded to your implied question about the use of Vegas and DVD Architect.

Normally you would edit and render video to your target format using Vegas, and author (create menus etc.) for optical disc (DVD or BD) and burn using DVDA.

It is possible to create discs using Vegas, but without menus.

It is possible to render with DVDA but it doesn't have all the features you might want.

Starbuck1975 wrote on 5/8/2012, 7:32 PM

I assumed I needed to make a normal standard definition DVD. What is an AVCHD disc, and do I need a special burner or media to create one? Also, will an AVCHD disc play on a Blu-ray player?

Can you explain further what a deinterlace method is? Not sure I understood from your previous post.

I am burning for NTSC.

PeterDuke wrote on 5/8/2012, 7:55 PM

An AVCHD disc is a normal DVD optical disc with AVCHD video rather than SD MPEG2. Depending on the bit rate of your AVCHD, you can get between 20 to 40 minutes on a 4.7 GB DVD. You burn it using a normal DVD burner. It won't play in a normal DVD player and will only play in some Blu-ray players. There is a freeware program called MultiAVCHD for creating AVCHD discs. The discs from AVCHD cameras that write directly to DVDs (not common now) are AVCHD discs. DVDA pro used to be able put BD video on a DVD but SCS removed that option in the latest version "because it was non-standard". With the lower price of BDs these days, AVCHD discs are not so useful anymore.

Re deinterlace method, I am sorry, but I was getting confused with another thread. I suggest you look at what I said there.

POOR QUALITY OF DVD

Starbuck1975 wrote on 5/9/2012, 2:30 PM

Peter,

Appreciate all of your help. I think I will avoid going the AVCHD route for the time being. I much prefer the menu creation options under DVDA (DVDA only gives me two options: DVD or Blu-ray)

I am debating just upgrading my burner to a Blu-ray and creating Blu-ray discs instead of DVDs.

I changes my project properties to 16:9. Will burn another disc and see if it solves the letterbox issue.

The only thing I can't figure out is the command for what the chapter media does when it gets done playing? On my PC, in preview mode, the end of a clip results in the disc returning to the parent menu. On my Blu-ray, it freezes, and I need to hit the remote control menu button.

Not sure how to resolve this?

PeterDuke wrote on 5/9/2012, 7:20 PM

At the end of play, the default for a DVD is to return to the most recent menu.

You can change this. Double click on the video in the project overview panel to the left of the monitor, and it will open the media properties panel to the right of the monitor. Select "end action" and choose from the options.

It should not freeze. I don't know why that is happening.

Starbuck1975 wrote on 5/10/2012, 9:45 AM

Ok I finally figured out what I was doing wrong on the "end action". I was attempting to modify the "end action" from the menu view and not the media view. Once I opened the media view, it gave me the option of linking the "end action" to the parent menu. That should fix it.

Peter, one last question. If I go the Blu-Ray route, will it only increase my disc capacity, or will it also render at a higher resolution?

TOG62 wrote on 5/10/2012, 1:48 PM

Not Peter buy yes; on Blu-ray you can go up to 1920 x 1080 pixels. Obviously, though,there's no pointing in going higher than the resolution of your source material.

videoITguy wrote on 5/10/2012, 2:06 PM

If you have source material that is shot as source in standard definition and edit the project in standard definition, and burn in standard definition on a DVD, you will get better quality playback on a Blu-ray player that has enhancement circuitry for DVD disc media. THIS APPLIES to only set-top players connected to widescreen TV with HDMI. DOES NOT APPLY to PC or Media devices. ONLY a few BLU-RAY players set-top players will qualify as well because the enhancement circuitry varies in design.

If you have standard definition source, choose to incorporate into a high-definition project and burn as a Blu-Ray disc - your mileage will vary...depending on what mpeg encoder you use, scale of SD mask within the project, and more. The advantage to this method is that you can intercut with high-definition footage and keep the authoring at Blu-Ray level. The compromises you get for the SD sections will be upto your own evaluation.

If you have high-definition source, create and burn as Blu-ray - the output on the disc in a Blu-ray set-top player will be par excellent.

PeterDuke wrote on 5/10/2012, 7:48 PM

Many DVD players these days claim to have smart upscaling and progressive output for HD televisions, and I don't see why they couldn't be as good as Blu-ray players doing the same thing. Such players will use HDMI to connect to the TV. Upscaled SD will never be as good as true HD of course.