Introduction Media Will Not Play

Mickey41 wrote on 4/21/2006, 5:00 AM
I tried not to have to ask for help but now I am at my witts end. I looked through over 400 questions and did find one question like this one This is only my 4th video so it is possible I am missing the obvious. Please...can someone help???

Last year I used DVDAS 2.0 and it worked fine. This year I am using Vegas Movie Studio Platnium 6.0 and DVDAS 3.0. It did play in my pc one time but now I cannot get it to play. I am using the same pc.

The intro media was made on a computer and saved as an avi file with the same specs as rendered. I did copy and paste to my hard drive. It was rendered in avi (320x233)15 frames per second with VMS. (There is no audio on this cd)

I can play the audio in the Introduction Media which is a separate avi file (720x480)... a 30 second segment from the main video. I have tried getting this to work over several days with rebooting as well. Do you have any suggestions???

Also, how do I get a full 30 seconds of audio to play??? I was very careful to make it exactly 30 seconds in Vegas but DVDAS keeps cutting off 2-3 seconds. What can I do?

Is there a maximum time for the introduction media?

Also, I burned one dvd (for the main video) knowing the intro would not play. It was successful but it would not play in my pc . But... it did play in a Pioneer DVD player.

I hope I've given all the info you need. Thank you so much for your help.

Comments

ScottW wrote on 4/21/2006, 10:56 AM
Why are you using 320x233 at 15fps? DVDAS is going to change this to 720x480 at 30fps, so there's nothing to be gained by rendering something like that from VMS and in fact, you'll probably lose quality.

In order for the DVD to play in your PC, you must have some DVD player software installed, such as WinDVD, PowerDVD or Interactual.

Make sure your audio and video length are the same in VMS - otherwise you'll have one or the other getting truncated.

--Scott
Mickey41 wrote on 4/21/2006, 1:49 PM
Thank you for your reply.

The file was on a cd and given to me to use. I will let the person know about the quality. I have PowerDVD and WindowsMedia.

I wonder if something is corrupted on my computer since I could previously play the cd and now I cannot. But, I can still click on files rendered through Vegas and they play fine.

Is it a unwritten rule to render audio and video seperately?? ?
If so, which is better quality avi or mpg??? If mpeg...then which one, 1 or 2??? I have not seen this except on some of the messages here at the forum.

There are a couple more questions....

How do I get a full 30 seconds of audio to play??? I was very careful to make it exactly 30 seconds in Vegas but DVDAS keeps cutting off 2-3 seconds. What can I do?

Is it okay for the 2.0 and 3.0 versions to be on on the same hard drive?

Thank you fso much or your help.

Is there a maximum time for the introduction media?
jrazz wrote on 4/21/2006, 3:19 PM
I am not completely sure about DVDAS as I have DVDA 3. As for rendering seperately the audio and vidoe- yes. Render the video as mpg2 with the DVDA NTSC or PAL video stream Template- depending on who your target audience is. As for the audio I render to AC3 but I do not think that DVDAS has this option so you are stuck with wav or pcm.

You should get the full 30 seconds. Make sure you do not have a loop point set or that in DVDAS zoom in and look at the end to make sure that the audio syncs up with the video. If not, re render and import it directly to DVDAS to see if a seperate render will get the full amount of time.

As for 2 & 3 on the same drive- should make no difference.

No max for intro time unless DVDAS does something different than DVDA (limited by disc space only).

j razz
Mickey41 wrote on 4/21/2006, 5:41 PM
Thank you for your reply.

"Depending on the audience"....what type of audience is for each of the mpg(s)???

I am editing/authoring a video of a music recital with a variety of instruments(played individually and as a group) and some voice of which will be played by the families in their different brands of dvd players.

Earlier today I did render the audio and the first choice was mpg1. When I did open the file, there was audio sound.
Is wav better? There is no choice of pcm in DVDAS.

I appreciate everyone's time and help. Thank you again.
Mickey41

ScottW wrote on 4/22/2006, 9:39 AM
PCM and WAV are basically the same thing - the first refers to the technology used to encode the data digitally, the second refers to a file format.

When you render the audio from VMS, choose the WAV format. DVD compliant video is MPEG-2, so don't worry about MPEG-1.
Mickey41 wrote on 4/22/2006, 3:24 PM
Okay...Thank you.....

I did render with WAV. (I did notice the WAV file is louder versus the rendering the audio and video together which is 4.7GB). When I imported the WAV file into DVDAS, it increased the file size to 8.6GB. I have not had a chance to render the video in MPEG-2. This brings up another question:

In the optimize window,.... to make the 8.6GB fit on disc, the bitrate would be less than 2. The (!) message does state that the video tracks cannot be recompressed because the bitrate is too low.

Will the MPEG-2 and WAV file together decrease enough in size to get a decent bitrate???

The original rendering of audio and video together was 4.7GB. (To fit on disc, the bitrate is 3.345)

NOTE: You may wonder why we don't use two discs for this video. ...This is a two day recital with two separate videos. One for the instrumental one for the vocal competition. There would be four discs total. The the cost would be very expensive. Especially since almost all the the time, supplies, etc. are donated.

If the MPEG-2 does not decrease enough, is there another option to render the audio and video separately and still have a decent bitrate???

Once again thank you so much for your help. It gives me more confident in what I am doing.
Mickey41

ScottW wrote on 4/22/2006, 3:31 PM
How much material do you have in terms of total time? If it's more than 2 hours, then you may have trouble fitting it on the disk with a decent level of quality (actually, 2 hours is still pushing it for quality - i'd aim for 1.5 hours or less).

With 2 hours of material (and assuming no fancy menus or other things) and PCM audio (which is your only option with the studio versio of DVDA), you'll need to lower your video bitrate to 3,500 kbps (which is pretty low).

--Scott
Mickey41 wrote on 4/22/2006, 6:50 PM
Thank you for your reply. I really appreciate your input. I believe I made an error in the disc space. I listed disc space as 4.5GB. That is after being optimized. The original footage for the longest video is 1 hour 58 minutes. See below for actual sizes.

The following is a list of detail:

Day 1 (7.3GB optimized to fit disc @ 4.5GB which is 3.345 bitrate)
1 hour 38 minutes and 30 second intro
28 chapters
53 text media
24 close up shots on a second track (@ 30-45 SECONDS EACH)
1 Menu with 6 animated links PLUS background is animated
5 Selection pages with 31 links of which 23 are animated and background for each page is a still photo
Transitions are crossfade except 2-3 are similar to barndoor and page peel

Day 2 (Disc space 8.7 optimized @ 4.5GB which is 3.345 bitrate)
1 hour 49 minutes and 30 second intro
Similar to above but a few less text media and NO closeups.

NOTE: I'm very new at editing/authoring and I get the impression that the above is way too much for one disc. However, last year I did it this way which is what they wanted and it was approved. They were happy with the resolution as it played on tv.

To increase the bitrate, what do you suggest eliminating???

Thank you again for your help. Thank you....Thank you...Thank you!!!
Mickey41



jrazz wrote on 4/22/2006, 9:11 PM
To increase the bitrate, what do you suggest eliminating?

I would suggest eliminating the idea that all of this has to fit on one disc per day. I would buy some cases that have an insert for a second DVD ( I have a ton that I use to include picture cd's with my DVD's). You can't be getting good picture at around a 3 bitrate. It really does not cost that much more for another DVD to be made- instead of 2 you will have 4 that will fit in 2 cases with the same DVD case inserts that you would have used before- the only addition will be 2 more discs and print on the discs. I think it is a lot more feasible than you think it is, especially when the people who will receive it see the vast quality improvement from last years DVDs.

That is my 2 cents and if I were in your shoes, that is what I would do.

j razz
Mickey41 wrote on 4/23/2006, 5:23 PM
Thank you for your "2 cents". I appreciate your help. I will pass on your suggestions as well as the suggestions from Scott.
Mickey41