I'll add a third choice to jetdv's two:

Merge your files before bringing them into DVDA. TMPGEnc has a join capability, but it has always been a little flaky, especially with VBR MPEG2. Womble's MPEG VCR (now upgraded to MPEG Wizard) will do a very good job, and do it quickly, but it costs about $100.

(See: Womble.)

>Merge your files before bringing them into DVDA.

I've done this before. However, be forewarned there is a chance that your audio and video can become out of sync. You need to check the joined clip and see if its a problem.

John, do you know if Womble eliminates this entirely?

Not exactly a third choice.... just facilitates my #1

John, Jet, Thanks. I am inclined to invest in Womble, since I have seen various references to it in the forum and it seems to be a pretty useful utility.

Rich MacDonald is writing about audio/video sync problems in his post below. Does any of you know, whether Womble has that problem?

Jim

... be forewarned there is a chance that your audio and video can become out of sync. John, do you know if Womble eliminates this entirely?

The out of sync problem is usually happens when using TMPGEnc to join VBR files. If you encode with your MPEG2 files with CBR, TMPGEnc should join them without the audio sync problem.

I've never had audio sync problems joining VBR MPEG2 files when using either Womble product (MPEG VCR, or the newer MPEG Wizard).

From jetdv: Not exactly a third choice.... just facilitates my #1 (Give DVDA a SINGLE file and add chapter points).

You are absolutely correct. However, the usual conclusion from reading this is that you must encode the entire project into one MPEG file, all at once. As I've pointed out to Sony countless times (enough to finally get under their skin), it violates every premise of programming, video editing, or anything else having to do with computers, to have to create something in a large block. It is far easier to create individual pieces, and then assemble them at a later time. Very often I want to create half a dozen DVDs for different clients, each with a different mix of video. What I do is create the individual components and render each to MPEG once. I then join these and author with DVDA. What I would prefer to do, would be to put the individual files into DVDA, and then have IT do the join. This would give me seemless playing between each segment. The alternative is to put the individual files into DVDA and let it create seperate titlesets for each. I then patch the IFO files to create my own end actions, so that each titleset plays after the other is finished. However, because of how the DVD spec works, there is a pause between each titleset, and the navigation between titles cannot always be done with the chapter advance button (depending on how the player handles moving between titlesets).

Bottom line: any decent authoring program should permit seemless joining of individual MPEG files -- it is trivial to do this, given the technology already built into the product. Lacking this, the Womble product will do the trick.