Ready to go from VF to Authoring program. Help.

barbnewbie wrote on 1/22/2003, 8:21 AM
I have now created an MPG-2 file in Video Factory. I just downloaded the trial version of Ulead DVD Movie Factory. Several people liked Movie Factory. But this is version 2 (the new release). I don't know about this. I saw Version 1 on a web page where they showed a tutorial. I liked it. But version 2 is a little different. It seems like they make you do a "main menu" and then you can do a "sub menu".

Here's my take: the main menu would be fine if you had more than one video on the tape. But it doesn't look good if you have only one video: the only thing on the main menu for me is then one clip representing the one video. Then the sub menue shows, in my case, the three clips that I set up as chapters. All I want is one menu page -- not the "main" and the "sub".

Any other ideas for authoring programs?

Barb

Comments

ralphied wrote on 1/22/2003, 11:50 AM
My initial impression of the trial version is that Movie Factory Version 2 is A LOT better than Version 1 (which I have, and which does a good job of basic DVD authoring).

If you want the three clips on the main menu instead of on the sub-main as chapter points, then you should render the three clips separately in VF so as to create three separate MPEG files. At the MF2 main menu, add in the 3 MPEG files, then proceed to DVD burning. I'm pretty sure this will get you what you want. Any time you add chapter points, you're going to create a sub-menu off of the main video file.

Good luck.
barbnewbie wrote on 1/22/2003, 12:26 PM
Thank you. That clarifies a lot. I was getting a little concerned because it seemed everywhere I turned, I read that someone liked Movie Factory and that Movie Factory fit well with Video Factory.

So, I will try your way!!

Two general authoring questions:
If you add a menu, can you jump to that section by using the forward button when viewing or does that just work with a chapter?

Is "clip" another name for video mpeg file?
ralphied wrote on 1/22/2003, 9:15 PM
A DVD consists of "titles" which appear on the main menu. Each title can be further divided up into "chapters", which appear on sub-menus to the titles from which they were created.

If you've ever rented a commercial DVD of a movie, titles generally consist of the main movie itself, out-takes, commentary by the director, etc. These are separate videos (i.e., separate MPEG files) contained on the main menu.

With a given title (MPEG file), chapter points can be defined. Typical chapter points are the various scenes of the main movie. You can use the forward and backward buttons to quickly move to the next and previous chapter points (scenes), but you can't use them to quickly move between titles. Chapter points can be thought of as being similar to 'bookmarks' in a word processing document.

Typically, a DVD remote has a "Title" button, which when press takes you to the main menu. From there, cursor keys are used to select a given title. On my DVD player, the remote also has a "display" key, which when pressed, brings up an on-screen side menu from which I can fairly quickly change to different titles.

When I use the term 'clip', I used it as a generic term for a piece of continuous video footage more so than a specific reference to a MPEG file. VF uses the term 'event' when you work with pieces of video footage on the timeline. The terms 'event' and 'clip' to me are interchangeable. For example, if I want to make a highlight tape of say my son's football game, I'll take individual 'clips' of his best plays and piece them together to make a single highlight video.

Something nice that has been added to Movie Factory 2 is that you can specify playback to automatically continue from one title to the next. In Version 1, the DVD player would always go back to the main menu after a given title was finished.

Since you're just starting, you really need to experiment to find out what works best for you. That's what's nice with RW DVD's, if you don't like it, just re-burn it a different way.

Good luck.
JohnnyRoy wrote on 1/23/2003, 7:13 AM
> If you add a menu, can you jump to that section by using the forward button when
> viewing or does that just work with a chapter?

Barb, Yes you can jump between clips (i.e., MPEG files). As Ralph pointed out, DVD MF2 allows you to determine what happens at the end of a clip. The default is to keep going so pressing the forward button would forward to the next clip. You can change the default to make it return to the menu and then pressing the forward button would return to the menu. Generally the forward button will advance to the next chapter point and if there are no more chapter points, it will do whatever the “end of clip” action is (i.e., continue to return to menu)

One of the big complaints DVD MF1 customers have with MF2 is that it now insists on having a main menu even when there is only one video with just chapter points. DVD MF1 did not require this and would have done what you want. There are so many improvements in MF2 that this is a minor thing. I think Ralph’s workaround is a good one.

~jr
barbnewbie wrote on 1/23/2003, 12:27 PM
ralphied and JohhnRoy,

Thank you. It helps. I think now that I have ALL the hardware installed, have learned a little about VF, and am learning more and more each day about the process of creating DVD's, I am now ready to move on to Movie Factory and do some work with menus and chapters. Thanks.
Barb