DVD Lab Pro compilation problem

[JohnCPun]

The last two days I've been having some really weird problems when compiling a project I made in DVD Lab Pro. It is the DVD that I made of my band's first show, together with a bunch of extra's from rehearsal, etc, etc. The DVD is stuffed (4.66 GB of 4.7 GB useD).
When I tried compiling it before it was finished, to see if all buttons were working properly, etc. everything went as it should, I got a nice set of files, with IFO, BUP & VOB included. However now the DVD is finished and I've tried compiling it multiple times. I even ran a test compile, so that it didn't include the actual video. But all the files I get now are:
_menu.vob
VTS_01.VOB
VTS_01_0.VOB
VTS_01_1.VOB
VTS_01_2.VOB
VTS_01_3.VOB
VTS_01_4.VOB

None of the files really play, and when I did get one to play, it was showing the menu, but you couldn't click on the buttons, and it had audio from the main video behind it :S
So this isn't working at all. Does anybody know what is going wrong here, and how to fix it? I can't remember switching over some setting, etc. It doesn't have the "compile without abstraction layer" switched on, so that can' be it. I really need to get this DVD compiled properly, as there are several people who want to watch it because they were too late for our show (stupid, stupid ), and we want to have some sort of sticker action surrounding it, not to mention that we also want to add it to the stuff we sell.

So yeah, any help with this would be very much appreciated.

[mats.hogberg]

One thing is that a DVD-5 only holds 4.37 GB (in computer terms). The 4.7 GB is marketing spin, where Giga=1000*1000*1000 (but in the computer world it's 1024*1024*1024)

/Mats

[JohnCPun]

Thanks for the reply.
I already knew that, but that's ok

DVD Lab Pro reports the real GB (thus using the 1024) and the so-called "DVD GB" (thus using the 1000). On the DVD GB it is 4.66 of 4.7 GB used.


Also some more info: I just compiled a new project, which I just quickly put together of 1 little movie and a simple menu with only a play button, and that went as it should.

[aedipuss]

without having been there watching over your shoulder there isn't enough info to even make guess about what you've done wrong. dlp is an expert type program and a stray click anywhere could muck it up.

start over is about all i can suggest. chalk it up to a learning experience.

[guns1inger]

Generally, compilation problems comes from bad source. The only way to find out what, if DLP doesn't report it, is to start taking things out until it does work, then determine why that asset is an issue.

[JohnCPun]

I started doing that. And I noticed that if I take any 3 menu pages out, it will work.
Problem is, I would really like to include those three pages.
Maybe I will rebuild it from scracth again, but I'm worried it will end up the same as before.
And it isn't even that I have that many menu pages, about 12, or so. I've made DVD's before that had a lot more pages, that didn't have any problems.

[guns1inger]

Are you using audio on the menu pages ? If so, try putting the menus pages back, but without the audio. Perhaps oyu have a bad audio file.

The only other thing I can suggest is turn the project into a mega-project and try compiling again.

[tinker]

4.66 GB file is quite large. When you make your project, below preview window is setting for DVD5 or DVD9. If it is DVD5, is the bar all green?
If it is red I would set it to DVD9 and compress the compilation in other software, like DVD Rebuilder, to fit DVD5.

[JohnCPun]

@tinker: It is set to DVD5, and the bar is still green, so it should fit (and it does fit, when I burn the compiled files to a DVD-RW).

@guns1inger: All (but 3) menu pages have got audio underneith it. 4 Of them are MP2 compressed, the other 5 are LPCM.
I deleted the three pages that didn't have audio and replaced them with a 1 picture slide-show. Which isn't exactly as I would like to have it, but it works now. It gives me the IFO, BUP & VOB files correctly now.
However now I have another problem, the audio on the menus it the MP2 compression isn't playing right when I play them on my standalone DVD player. On the PC it plays fine (using PowerDVD), however on one of my standalones the audio just doesn't play, and on the other it plays a loud hiss.
Guess I'll try to compress them to AC3, to see if that works. Off to download the Cool Edit Pro plugin.

Guess this project is really messed up :S
I've made a couple of DVDs before, and have never ran into any kind of problems like this.

[tinker]

MP2 Audio is standard only for PAL players by DVD standard. LPCM and AC3 is for both, AC3 is a common one.
You should not mix audio standard in one VTS.

[JohnCPun]

Thanks for hte info

It figures it indeed were the mp2 files that were messing it up, as now that I am using AC3 files I was actually able to add the 3 menu pages again.

Do you suggest moving the AC3 pages to another VTS?

[guns1inger]

Do you suggest moving the AC3 pages to another VTS?

Correctly encoded mpeg1 layer2 audio should compile in any disc, NTSC or not.

Strictly speaking, assets in a single VTS should share all key parameters, including aspect ratio, framerate and audio format. DLP should warn you of potential playback issues if you mix them. Some players won't care, and will play them regardless. Others, however, will have issues. I still have the first disc I created, way back when, using an early version of DVD Lab (before the Pro version existed) which mixed AC3 audio on the menus with mpeg1 layer2 audio on the videos. The menus play fine on all players, but on several brand name players, the videos play silent. This is because the players select the audio format used by the menu for the VTS, and assume (because the spec says it can) that the audio for the assets will match (at least in format - you can have 2.0 AC3 on the menu and 5.1 Ac3 on the asset and it will work).