Tmpeg DVD Author motion menu taking a lot of disc space

[seb]

I'm using TMpegEnc Dvd Author and want to have a 60 second audio clip as background music on my main menu. From other threads I gathered that the way to achieve this is to use the motion menu feature.

I created a new 60 second mpg movie with a background image as a still frame throughout and the audio track in mp2 format. Encoded at low video bitrate and 224kbps audio - ended up with a mpg file of 6.7 mb. This plays fine.

In TDA I use the same 6.7mb mpg file as my background picture, and in the motion menu setup for the menu display settings I select "additional pictures for background etc" and "use audio of the background video as the menu BGM". I set the length of the motion menu to 60 seconds so that the clip will play all the way through before repeating.

For some reason, when I set the motion menu length to 60 seconds, TDA wants to use an additional 160 mb of disc space. Frustratingly, this takes me over the capacity of the disc. I don't want to have to re-encode all the main source video just to make room for the motion menu and don't understand why my tiny mpg video should be taking 20 times as much room when I use it as a menu background.

Can anyone shed any light on this - am I missing something obvious?

[johns0]

Could be you set all the chapters and extra`s to use motion and the audio is being set to pcm.

[seb]

Haven't got motion in other menus. I encoded the audio as mp2 - can't see anywhere to check if TDA converted it to PCM.

[johns0]

Just author and see how big the video vob is and see which file is using the added size.

[seb]

Will try that and feedback tomorrow! Thanks for replying.

[TBoneit]

And you could always use DVDShrink to make it fit if it is really to big.

Keeping in mind that 4483 will still fit onto a dvd blank even though DVD author says it is to big.

Good Luck

[seb]

Just author and see how big the video vob is and see which file is using the added size.

Ok. Authored 2 DVD folders with a single track containing a 321mb mpg video. Simple menu. Only difference between the 2 is that one had no motion menu, the other used my 1 minute 6.7mb mpg movie (see above) for background image and sound.

Here's the Video_TS from the one without motion menu...

16/03/2004  18:31    <DIR>          .
16/03/2004  18:31    <DIR>          ..
16/03/2004  18:26            14,336 VIDEO_TS.BUP
16/03/2004  18:26            14,336 VIDEO_TS.IFO
16/03/2004  18:26           471,040 VIDEO_TS.VOB
16/03/2004  18:26            24,576 VTS_01_0.BUP
16/03/2004  18:26            24,576 VTS_01_0.IFO
16/03/2004  18:26           466,944 VTS_01_0.VOB
16/03/2004  18:26       339,802,112 VTS_01_1.VOB
               7 File(s)    340,817,920 bytes

And here's the Video_TS from the one with everything identical apart from the motion menu.

16/03/2004  18:19    <DIR>          .
16/03/2004  18:19    <DIR>          ..
16/03/2004  18:19            14,336 VIDEO_TS.BUP
16/03/2004  18:19            14,336 VIDEO_TS.IFO
16/03/2004  18:19        59,709,440 VIDEO_TS.VOB
16/03/2004  18:19            24,576 VTS_01_0.BUP
16/03/2004  18:19            24,576 VTS_01_0.IFO
16/03/2004  18:19        59,803,648 VTS_01_0.VOB
16/03/2004  18:19       339,802,112 VTS_01_1.VOB
               7 File(s)    459,393,024 bytes

Looks like a 6.7mb mpg manages to add 59mb to VIDEO_TS.VOB and VTS_01_0.VOB. Even though a motion background is not selected in the Track1 chapter select menu. If I had more tracks I guess it would add 59mb to each of their VTS_0x_0.VOB's too.

Well at least I know where stuff is going now. I'm guessing that the 1 minute mpg is also getting re-encoded to end up taking so much more room. I notice that the whole authoring process was several minutes longer for the DVD with the motion menu. Perhaps this is why.

And you could always use DVDShrink to make it fit if it is really to big.

Keeping in mind that 4483 will still fit onto a dvd blank even though DVD author says it is to big.

Good Luck

Thanks for the tip. I'd thought about using shrink and might give it a try. Spent ages testing bitrates to get max quality and just fit on a disc though, so feel a bit loathe to subject them to the chopping out that a transcoder would entail!! I'm probably too fussy.