Making one Movie from 4 separate files

Slim5819 wrote on 2/6/2007, 11:08 AM
I’ve done several DVD’s using Vegas Movie Studio and DVDA. I’ve run into trouble with my most recent project.

I was doing an approximately 70 minute movie and by the time VMS had reached the 40 minute mark the program was crashing and freezing on me. This had not ever happened before but I was combining video, stills, and graphics, and perhaps that had something to do with the problem. I decided I would split up the project into 4 separate files of about 20 minutes, 22 minutes, 17 minutes, and 12 minutes to keep some of the strain off the computer’s resources. That worked No more crashes.

I saved the four files as AVI files and imported them into DVDA, prepared a project and burned the DVD. I thought I knew what I was doing but apparently not. While the project was being prepared the message DVDA was giving me was that the disk would contain approximately 4.5 GB optimized to fit. That was fine with me. I wanted to be able to click on play and see the entire movie.

However, when I went to play the movie what I got was four separate movies. Going to “My Computer” and looking at the files on the disk I see there are four titles listed. (I haven’t tried playing it on a DVD player, just my computer.) It’s Title 1, Chapter 1, Title 2, Chapter 1; Title 3, chapter 1 and Title 4, chapter 1. They play separately as clicked but somehow the avi files were rendered as separate files, not as one movie.

A thread from more than two years ago here on this board mentioned using the music compilation feature to link or chain separate video files as one movie.

When I dragged and dropped the four AVI files into a Music compilation and clicked “Prepare project” I got these two blue “I” messages.

1. The end of music compilation 2 (my project name) uses the most recent menu command before a menu is reached. It will link to the top menu or stop if no menus.

2. The remote button action of “Music Compilation 2" uses the most recent menu command before a menu is reached. It will link to the top menu or stop if no menus.”

I don’t really don’t know what these messages mean but I know that I didn’t want to spend two and a half to three hours waiting for DVDA to re-render the avi files and then burn a new disk only to find that I’ve still got a problem seeing the project as one movie rather than 4 movies.

Frankly I find VMS fairly easy to follow and comprehend, but not DVDA. Could someone tell me how I would go about taking the four AVI files and preparing a project and burning a disk so that I will have the one movie? Or pointing me to a thread which will give those directions?

Thanks

Jim

Comments

bStro wrote on 2/6/2007, 1:16 PM
However, when I went to play the movie what I got was four separate movies. Going to “My Computer” and looking at the files on the disk I see there are four titles listed.

You don't mention what method you used to add the files when you got this result, but yeah, that's generally what's going to happen when you add four files to a project -- you get four titles. Even if you "join" them together using end actions, they're still seperate media items. Personally, my suggestion would be to take those four AVIs, put them on a Vegas timeline, and render that project out to a single AVI. It's much less work than if you were working with a long unrendered project, so I think it's less likely VMS will crash.

Or you can do what you were doing, and put them in a music compilation. Either way.

When I dragged and dropped the four AVI files into a Music compilation and clicked “Prepare project” I got these two blue “I” messages.

Those are normal. Nothing to worry about.

Rob
Slim5819 wrote on 2/6/2007, 4:34 PM
Bstro

Thanks, I did the Music Compilation thing and just got the finished DVD burned and it works fine.

When you mention the other approach and putting them on a Vegas timeline, are you referring to Vegas or Vegas Movie Studio? It's VMS which I have.

Jim
MPM wrote on 2/6/2007, 5:14 PM
Disclaimer: I'm not familiar at all with VMS...

If you can string avi files on the timeline, or import in sequence into V/Dub or similar, rendering one big avi basically just amounts to re-writing the file -- no re-encoding needed -- so it goes quite fast. Believe that was what Bstro was referring to.

Also in general if/when possible, import encoded mpg2 into your DVD authoring app. Usually DVD apps have fewer controls &/or fine tuning over the encoding process.
bStro wrote on 2/6/2007, 6:37 PM
are you referring to Vegas or Vegas Movie Studio?

Either one. In that respect (putting multiples AVIs on the timeline and rendering them out to a new one), they're pretty much identical.

Rob
Slim5819 wrote on 2/7/2007, 8:53 AM
OK, I think I can see now what both you and Rob are saying. Putting the four AVI's together on a VMS timeline should be no different than adding four video clips from a camcorder or other digital source and saving the project. And from what I've read here and elsewhere, in general, doing the coding before you get to DVDA would probably be better. I will try that. Even though the work around using Music Compilation is a good feature in VMS it should be simpler to do a DVD using one file.

Appreciate the helpful comments.

Jim