MyDVD wont transfer sound

hmartine_67 wrote on 9/12/2003, 12:14 AM
Well, I got my ScreenBlast 3.0 last week, and so far it work fine... until I got to use MyDVD! To make a long story short, when I burned my dvd using MyDVD, only the footage showed... I had added sound, but no songs were playing. It sould be simple to create a dvd using MyDVD, isn't?
Does anyone have any idea what could had happened; can some recomed other dvd authoring applications.
Thank you

Comments

IanG wrote on 9/12/2003, 2:54 AM
>Does anyone have any idea what could had happened;
Unfortunately I haven't been able to get hold of a usable copy of Screenblast yet, so I don't know how the authoring process works. Have you tried rendering a movie to your hd and seeing if the sound works in that? It would help if we could get some idea of what does work as well as what doesn't.

>can some recomed other dvd authoring applications.
Ulead's MovieStudio is popular, and I've made some nice (s)vcds with it. More recently I've been playing with DVDLab. It's got a steeper learning curve, but once you get past that it's very impressive.

Ian G.
hmartine_67 wrote on 9/12/2003, 1:18 PM
I did render the movie to the HD, and it had sound. I really dont know why it does it. I wasted a whole dvd+r for nothing. Oh well, that's the price of learning by trial.

Ian, I visited the website of those other two dvd authoring apps you mentioned. Ulead looks pretty simple to use, but the other one seems more capable of doing more stuff, although it looks tougher to use. What's your opinion on DVDLab?
IanG wrote on 9/12/2003, 6:26 PM
>What's your opinion on DVDLab?
OK, there's a large element of boys 'n' toys here! I like playing with software to see how outrageous I can be before it turns its toes up. The other thing I have to admit is that I haven't burned any DVDs yet - I'm still learning what I can do and viewing the results using PowerDVD.

So, that aside, I'm very impressed with it! The main problem for a newcomer is that it insists on all video and audio "assets" being DVD compliant before it will allow you to use them. At first sight this looks like a huge inconvenience, but it's really a good idea as you can make major changes (or very small ones!) and recompile in minutes or seconds, rather than waiting for hours while everything gets rerendered or transcoded. The good news is that VF with the MPEG2 plugin produces compliant video and audio, so no problems there!

Right now I'm making DVDs (albeit only on the HD) using the fonts, sizes, colours and positions I've defined. I'm using the backgrounds, including video, and thumbnails I've selected. I've got transitions between some menus and movie clips between others - I'm having a great time! You can also export menus as avis. This means you can go full circle and begin and end your movies with transitions from and to the menus!

I'm not suggesting that these things are essential, or even desireable, but they're quick and easy to do - if you want to do something you probably can! It's available as a 30 day free trial, so you've nothing to lose by trying it.

Ian G.
hmartine_67 wrote on 9/14/2003, 4:18 PM
>I'm still learning what I can do and viewing the results using PowerDVD<
PowerDVD is a software dvd player, isn't it? Does this player pretty much tell you if you got a good quality home-made dvd?

>insists on all video and audio "assets" being DVD compliant before it will allow you to use them<
What does make a video be comliant; Uncompressed AVI format is not enough?

From what you described, it looks like the use of this app is a bit complex to understand.
By the way, what MPG2 plugin or application that has this plug in could give you excellent out put? I mean what can you use to get the best video quality out of your dvd project?

Thanks

IanG wrote on 9/15/2003, 4:47 AM
PowerDVD is a software dvd player, isn't it? Does this player pretty much tell you if you got a good quality home-made dvd?

Yes, it seems to be a popular choice.

What does make a video be comliant; Uncompressed AVI format is not enough? [snip]
By the way, what MPG2 plugin or application that has this plug in could give you excellent out put? I mean what can you use to get the best video quality out of your dvd project?

DVDs are in MPEG-2 format. No matter what you start with, at some point you have to render to MPEG-2. Some authoring programs allow you to add your audio and video in any format and then they do the rendering themselves. Some insist on doing that rendering even if your assets are in the right format to start with! This means that you can end up paying for more than one codec to do exactly the same job. It also means you can make a trivial change like increasing a font size and then have to wait for hours while the project's rerendered.

I just use the DVD template in VF and everything works fine!

From what you described, it looks like the use of this app is a bit complex to understand.

It's not complex, but it is very flexible - much like VF.

Ian G.
JohnnyRoy wrote on 9/15/2003, 6:06 AM
Heber,

It is unfortunate that Sony selected MyDVD to bundle with Screenblast MovieStudio 3. It would not have been my choice. I would suggest you download the 30-day trial of Ulead MovieFactory 2 ($45 to purchase) and see if you like that. Render your final project as an MPEG-2 DVD compliant file from Screenblast and then use that in Ulead MovieFactory. It will not re-render your file and will let you set chapter points and create thumbnail style menus. This will give you the best possible quality.

Ulead MovieFactory 2 is what I used to make DVD’s when I used VideoFactory. (I now use Vegas 4+DVD) DVDLab is not really for beginners. Hope this helps,

~jr