How to link video files

TGravlin wrote on 9/25/2007, 2:28 AM
My project is a rock concert. Shot with multicameras and edited in Vegas. So far so good.

I rendered an hour of it and it made three files. I import those files into DVDA. How do I get those files to play in sequence in DVDA? It stops mid song and I can't figure out how to make the next one pick up right on that frame.

Also, for whatever reason my markers that were created in Vegas only got transfered for the first file but not the next two.

Comments

bStro wrote on 9/25/2007, 7:16 AM
If it was me, I'd go back into Vegas and make one file. It would solve both problems you already have as well as one or two I suspect you're going to run into if you continue on with the three files. Is there a reason you want to use three files instead of one?

If you stick with three files, you have a couple options:

Option #1. Add the three files to your project. Navigate into the first one (so that you see its timeline), go to the End Action tab of the Properties window and change the Destination setting so that it points to the next file. Do the same for the second file. Check the third file and make sure that Destination points to wherever you want the DVD to go after all three files are done.

Main issue with option #1: This will add each video as its own title set. On most DVD players, this means the laser will pause for anywhere from half a second to a couple seconds as it figures out where to go next when it finishes one file before moviing to the next. Something you really wouldn't want in a concert video.

Second issue with option #1: Another problem with using separate titlesets is that behavior of the Next Chapter and Previous chapters on DVD players / remotes is not consistent from one player to the next. When someone presses one of those buttons near the "boundry" of two titlesets, some DVD players will jump to the next file. Some will jump to some other file. Some will just jump to a menu.

Option #2: Insert a Music Compilation and add your files to that instead. This creates a single titleset made up of all three files. Far as I recall, this solves all of the issues I mentioned for Option #1. However...

Main issue with Option #2: DVDA creates each file as a chapter within that compilation, and that's all you get. You cannot further divide those chapters into sub-chapters or anything like that. So if each of your files have multiple songs, you cannot assign a chapter to each song.

Rob
TGravlin wrote on 9/25/2007, 7:38 AM
I actually DID make it as one file in Vegas. It came out as three files after rendering. I'm not sure why. I'm guessing there's a limit to the size a file so it subdivided it somehow midsong.
bStro wrote on 9/25/2007, 7:57 AM
I'm guessing there's a limit to the size a file

Not one specific to Vegas, there isn't.

However, if your harddrive is formatted as FAT32, Windows itself will not allow files over 2GB. If you need to work with files larger than that (usually the case when working with video), your harddrive should be formated as NTFS. If this is the problem, I believe Windows has a tool for converting a drive to NTFS. It's usually a simple process, but you should probably back up important files first.

Rob
Chienworks wrote on 9/26/2007, 11:16 AM
Actually the FAT32 limit is 4GB, not 2.

For an hour long project the only way to really push past 4GB is to be rendering in DV instead of MPEG2. If you render from MPEG2 in Vegas then an hour project should fall way short of the 4GB limit.