good question about dvd chapters and workflow

[YOURCONNEXX]

ill make this short and sweet and hopefully everyone understands what im getting at here


i edit my videos in sony vegas, then i render them as mpeg2, then take them over to DvdLab Pro for authoring

is there anyway to insert chapter markers into the video before i render in vegas so that dvdlab pro will already have the chapter markers?? i read the help file in vegas. it said that dvd architect will assign chapter markers to any place you put a marker on the video file in vegas. but can dvd lab pro also read these markers and assign chapter points to them??

this would save light years in the type of dvds that im making

[hech54]

I'd check DVDLab's information to see what kind(if any) text file it can read to import chapters. I know DVDDecrypter can output several types of text(?) files to use to import to other programs....if I recall correctly.

[DB83]

DVDlab's docs mention 'frame-index' and the chapter points created
Vegas's docs describe the process required to store markers apparently within the mpeg2 file
What I would do is render a short (say 5 minute video) in Vegas with the markers at intervals that you can recognise
Import the clip into DVDlab and see if the markers (green IIRC) then appear.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained

[guns1inger]

The frameindex is an external file created by DLP - if you create one you will find it in the same folder as the video, with an extension .idx. I don't believe DLP will honour any markers Vegas puts in the file.

You cannot export markers as timecodes from the Vegas timeline either, which is annoying. Vegas does have an EDL of sorts, which is basically a text file with a description of the project structure in it. Try saving an edl (File -> save as, then select EDL from the type drop down list), then open that in notepad and see if the marker timecodes are there. You may be able to edit these into a format that DLP will import

[DB83]

Oh shucks !

I suppose it makes 'sense' NOT that Sony would restrict this feature to its own DVD authoring package.

But at the end of the day isn't it just as quick to do the chapter marks in DLP and not in Vegas and be certain that you did the encoding setting correctly ?

[guns1inger]

I think the issue is more that there is no standard to do this. Sony markers will be stored in the user data area of the mepg-2 file structure. Everyone could do this if they wanted to, but it would mean getting agreement on a standard format for the data, and a standard way of storing and retrieving it. If this was done, you could encode in any decent editor with your markers on the time line, then author with any decent authoring tool and have those chapters recognised. Great idea, but not something that has happened yet.

[YOURCONNEXX]

no such luck with the edl saving

im ready to move away from vegas. is there any other program that can export markers as a text file???

[Cornucopia]

You sound like Sony (Vegas) doesn't play nice with its sister app (DVD Architect), but it does. DVDA does automatically understand those markers. And while it isn't quite as powerful as DVDLab Pro, it's still quite capable. You don't expect Sony to play nice with a competitor, do you?

But seriously, how hard is it to open up Notepad while Vegas is running and jump from marker to marker, while jotting down the times in Notepad. Save as a .txt file (but with .idx as the extension), named the same thing as the MPEG export (and put in the same folder). DVDLP might recognize it now. There may be some difficulties with how it numbers the time, though...

Could be (as Absolute or Relative to some starting #):
1. Timecode (DF or NDF)
2. Frames count
3. Timecode w/ Milliseconds
4. Film "Foot" & Frames

You can always convert if it's not exactly the same as your desired input format (can use tools similar to what's used for subtitles, or create an Excel worksheet function which is what I've done before)

Scott