DVD playlist chapter skip problem.

webmasterteen wrote on 8/31/2011, 9:46 AM
Hello,

I have been paid to shoot video of a 2 hour long play. I am going to be selling DVDs of the play. With this in mind, I am wanting to make my DVDs as professional as possible (as most of my work is free). This includes a scene selection.

The way I have things setup is every 5 or so minutes of video I split up in Vegas Movie Studios. I rendered each 5 or so minutes in DVD quality. I then created the DVD in the DVD architect software.

I setup a playlist with each 5 minute clip in correct order. I then setup a simple scene selection (ended up needing two 'pages' to fit all of them) and I had, of course, a play button.

I am not that experienced with making DVDs so I wasn't sure if it was going to work. It seems to be fine after rendering and burning a CD, however when testing on both a portable DVD player and a DVD connected to a TV with Blu-ray, I noticed both times that when I would hit 'play' and then 'skip' to the next chapter (in my mind it should go to the next clip in the playlist, right?) it instead goes to either an extra clip in my bonus feature section, or to the last scene. 'skip next' and 'skip previous' seems to do the opposite.

I figured I have some ordering problem or something with the list. Here is the screenshots. I have named each clip with a number and letter, to help keep track of them easier.

I use Windows 7 64 bit, although I don't know if that matters. It happens to have a Blu-ray capable drive.

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w88/writerrobert680/projectoverview.png - This is the project overview. As you can see, I have a menu, a scene selection, a second (Sub) scene selection, as well as a 'bonus feature' section.

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w88/writerrobert680/menu.png - This is the main menu, with some editing for privacy. This may help you to see the 'links' and how I'm envisioning it.

If there are any questions, feel free to ask.

Thanks in advance.

Comments

TOG62 wrote on 8/31/2011, 10:45 AM
I do this type of thing quite often, but do not do it that way. I put chapter points in the VMS project at scene breaks and then render as as single MPEG file and a single AC3 file.

The chapter points are then transferred to DVDA if you choose that option. On the main menu I put a Play All button and a Scene Selection button, the latter linking to its own menu page(s). Actually, as most productions have two or more acts, there may be more buttons on the main menu.

If you want to stick with your method you'll need a playlist for the main production as well as the 'bonus Feature' list. It's a limitation of the Studio version of DVDA that you can't guarantee the play order without either a playlist or a Music/video compilation. There will also be a slight delay when playing back items in a playlist while the player 'hunts' for the next item. Compiling as a single item overcomes these problems, although it does mean that if you spot an error you have to re-encode the whole project. A compromise would be to compile as two or more acts.
webmasterteen wrote on 8/31/2011, 12:32 PM
Thank you for your response.

I read about that Today, in fact. The idea of having chapter points in VMS and then having it 'work' on DVDA is great, however I noticed when rendering that it set the quality to Good instead of Best, and I have no ability to change that option. I am wanting the best, highest quality video possible for my customers. My TV plays it quite well but that's to be expected. The DVD player has a slight blur/lack of focus, nothing terrible by far, but I could sort of see it.

As far as my issue, the bonus feature is actually not part of the play list. It is in a separate menu, Is this still going to affect it? Also, I am fine with the slight delay, I just don't understand why my playlist, all in order, won't respond correctly when I 'skip' to the next video. Like I said, it goes in reverse or will even include the bonus feature clip, which isn't even on the playlist.

I am willing to re-render the VMS clip only as w hole with chapter/scene breaks, however I am concerned about the Good vs Best quality, which I have mentioned above.
TOG62 wrote on 8/31/2011, 1:30 PM
As I understand it, the clips will play in the order they are sequenced on the disc which, in DVDAS, you cannot change. Your main project items do not appear to be included in a playlist. If they were, they would play in that order.

The only version of VMS that I have used in 10HD. In that version you can choose any render quality. I know that earlier versions are much less configurable.
webmasterteen wrote on 8/31/2011, 2:01 PM
That's what's weird. I did a quick check and it seems that the set of videos are all in the playlist. The bonus video isn't, as I said. I checked and pressing play does indeed start the playlist. I am just puzzled as to why skipping forward or backward a 'chapter' doesn't just skip to the next item on the playlist in the correct order.

Yes, I will have to ask my customers if they are willing to sacrifice quality with convenience, or convenience for quality.