Dear Steven,

The Problem: I have had exactly the same problem: when I click on the scene selection button on the DVD, I see the scene buttons for a second, then the DVD either begins to play from the beginning or go back to the menu.

I had made 2 previous videos with scene changes, one very complex one with 25 scene changes and 1 hour long, and the other comparable with the one I was now trying to make. I had been able to make DVDs with DVDArchitect Studio just fine. So why is this new video not working?

What I Tried: The video I wanted to burn was 17 minutes long with 9 scene changes.

I've spent 5 days continually working on this problem, and have found an answer for my situation. I hope the following helps you, too.

After reading a lot of posts on this forum, I began to experiment. I've systematically burned more than 40 disks, trying to get one to work.

I prepared the DVD on DVDAS, but burned it with Nero. Didn't work.

I tried different DVDs: a cheap one, ProDisk -R, Verbatim -R, Verbatim +R, Fuji -R. None worked.

I saw the posts about the DVD should be more than 1G. I didn't quite understand this–is the movie supposed to be more than 1G, or the final size of the DVD? I took my 900K video and stretched it to more than 1G, to make sure both criteria were covered. No luck. More bad disks.

I re-rendered my video in Movie Studio. No difference. I upgraded Movie Studio and re-rerendered. No difference. I reinstalled DVDAS and redid the project. No difference.

What was driving me mad was that previous projects with DVDAS had worked. Yes, my DVD player could have broken in the meantime, but I just didn't believe this.

I called Technical Support, one time incident. I was sent some dll files as an upgrade. I installed them– no difference. We verified that I was following the instructions on how to make scene changes exactly. My DVD burner was 4 months old, and I thought I had checked for a firmware upgrade. But I checked again, per TS, and there was no firmware update for my burner.

I installed DVDAS on another computer, a new one with few programs. The DVD did not work in my player. To me this meant that my DVD burner was not the problem.

I went back to one of the previous projects, the one that was comparable in size to the one I was trying to make and had about the same number of scene selections. I burned it again. IT WORKED! To me, this proved that the problem was not with Movie Studio, DVDAS, my DVD burner, my blank DVDs, my computer, or my DVD player. I believed there was a setting in DVDAS that was causing my problem.

I called Tech Support again, and was told by two people that the problem was not DVDAS, but that my DVD player was incompatible. I did try the DVD on another player, and it did work. But was the problem really my original DVD player? Until now, it had played any disk I tried. I just didn't believe this. How could I burn an earlier project that now worked?

I was dead in the water, unable to make DVDs for customers. It didn't seem right to burn DVDs for them that I couldn't play. It's one thing for Tech Support to tell me that my DVD player is incompatible, but it is not acceptable to me to tell my customers that the reason the DVDs they just paid for don't work is because their player is old.

So I had one project that worked in my player and one project that didn't, with exactly the same equipment. Now on Day 5, I began to compare the two projects, setting by setting, and render and burn test DVDs. Finally, I made a DVD with scene selections that worked in my DVD player!

The Solution: The difference was that when I burned a project with 9 scene changes with STILL PICTURES, it did not work. WHEN I MADE THE SCENE CHANGES WITH ANIMATIONS, IT WORKED!

Now, does this make any sense? When I make a more complicated DVD, it works in my player but a simpler one doesn't? Perhaps this is the 1G problem that I'm not understanding? Or is this a new bug I've discovered in DVDAS?

Can't tell you how relieved I am to be in business again! And there is nothing wrong with my player.

I am including below the files that DVDAS made for a DVD that worked and a DVD that didn't work. The DVD that worked used an mpg file around 900mg. The DVD that didn't work used an mpg file bigger than 1G. If anyone can explain why one DVD worked (is more compatible) than the other, I would appreciate it.

So, Steven, try what I did and I'd be interested to know if it works.
-Sandy
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DVD that didn't work (scene selections with still pics, mpg greater than 1G)
VIDEO_TS.BUP 14K
VIDEO_TS.IFO 14K
VTS_01_0.BUP 28K
VTS_01_0.IFO 28K
VIDEO_TS.VOB 744K
VTS_01_2.VOB 30,182K
VTS_01_1.VOB 1,048,576

DVD that did work (scene selections with animations, mpg around 900k)
VIDEO_TS.BUP 14K
VIDEO_TS.IFO 14K
VTS_01_0.BUP 22K
VTS_01_0.IFO 22K
VIDEO_TS.VOB 103,194
VIDEO_01_1.VOB 941,940K