Gaps between media

TQgrump wrote on 11/8/2007, 10:28 AM

Using DVDA I have created a dvd comprising lots of different video (mpg) files constructed wih Serif MoviePlus5..

I have menu pages allowing me to select each video individually but I also have menu options to play the complete series sequentially or to play selected video sequences.

I do this by calling up playlists and this all works very well except for the fact that there is a pause of several seconds between videos during which time there is a blank screen.

Is there a way to shorten the delay, or can I have a message displayed saying "please wait for the next video" ?

(I think there might be a way to solve this by importing all the videos into one big video and then use Chapters to elect individual videos, but can I make Playlists from this? I want to maintain the ability to edit each video separately outside of DVDA. )

Comments

bStro wrote on 11/8/2007, 10:54 AM

Use music compilation instead of playlist.

Rob

TOG62 wrote on 11/8/2007, 11:55 AM

The disadvantage with using a music compilation is that it inserts an additional copy of each clip into the project, therefore taking up extra space on the disc.

The alternative would be to compile the individual clips as DVD-compatible MPEGs or AVIs in MoviePlus and then use a utility to join them together. Some such programs do this without re-rendering and therefore maintain quality.

The combined MPEG could then be imported into DVDA once for each clip adjusting the start and end points of each instance to coincide with those of the contributing clips. The advantage of this method is that there will be no blank screens and only one copy of the source material will end up on the finished DVD.

Mike

TQgrump wrote on 11/8/2007, 12:49 PM

Thanks Rob, compilations was the path I trod at first, but I soon ran out of disc space. All my videos add up over 4GB without making compilations..

Mike (R?), I've got 29 separate videos. If I import 29 copies of a joined-up video and adjust all the start & finish points I think I can see how this would save disc space but I can't see how I would simulate the playlists.
Also, if I changed the length just one of the videos that would mean starting from scratch again, wouldn't it?
Tony

TOG62 wrote on 11/8/2007, 1:47 PM

One copy of the joined-up video would be set to play in its entirety, so the effect would be the same as a playlist, except there would be no gaps. This method would not allow different sequences, though.

Yes, if you change one section of video you would have to repeat the joining process, and adjust the start and end points of subsequent clips in the DVDA project.

For maximum flexibility you're probably stuck with playlists, together with consequent pauses.

Mike(R)

TQgrump wrote on 11/8/2007, 2:42 PM

Thanks Mike, I guess I'll stick with it as it is.

I'm producing a video for our Walking Group and I'll be giving away about twenty copies before Christmas.
Now is not a good time to be starting from scratch.

Tony

MPM wrote on 11/9/2007, 12:50 PM

In case it helps, Tony -- just in more detail...

"this all works very well except for the fact that there is a pause of several seconds between videos during which time there is a blank screen."

Generally the delay between titles with a playlist isn't that bad... There may be other problems with your DVD. That said:

"menu pages allowing me to select each video individually but I also have menu options to play the complete series sequentially or to play selected video sequences"

On a retail movie DVD chances are you'd see one long video file with several *titles*, each of which would have it's own list of cells to play. To get there using DVDA sometimes you have to edit the rendered DVD on hdd [please see see prior posts for how-to]. However if the titles are sequential, & if you're not skipping over any cells (chapters), DVDA will do the job very well on it's own.

"I have created a dvd comprising lots of different video (mpg) files"

On a step-by-step basis, you could demux your mpg files into m2v & audio so that you could use Cuttermaran for assembling 1 long clip (or 2 longer clips etc). OPTIONALLY you could use DGIndex & VFAPI to put a proxy of your completed m2v on the Vegas timeline (or any NLE), to allow you to tweak the audio joins on separate tracks, rendering a single audio track preferably in ac3. Also OPTIONAL, you could convert your m2v to video-only mpg using TMPGEnc's MPEG Tools for easier use in DVDA. Import the video and audio into DVDA - preferably at project root level. You can then set your chapter markers for the video file, at 1st only setting a marker for the start of each sequence you want to access separately.

DVDA will create a title each time you drag you video on a menu page, and each title will be a list of cells, *referencing* that single video so it's only included in your DVD once. You can repeat this Drag-&-Drop as many times as needed, on as many menu pages as needed, until you have a button for every playback option you want to include. Each button will link to the compete video -- you can set the target start chapter for each button in properties, and the end point using the timeline.

Since each sequence is a chapter/cell in a longer video, there should be no delay from one to the next. bStro's suggestion of using a comp I think creates one longer video file using DVDA itself, rather than Cuttermaran as I've outlined.