Question for AtnyMD about ADS Instant DVD

[DUDIRENO]

I have seen you have many posts inregards to the ADS unit. I Also have the ADS unit except for the drop outs on recordings it works pretty well. If there are any drop outs it screws everything up and I get green dots all over the place. Anyway, my question is in regards to what software you use and the stages you use them in. I am a novice at this and am unable to spend the hours it deserves to learn all the programs and what everything can and cannot do. I saw on a previous post that you use ADS, then DVD studio Pro, Toast, and CAPTV. Can you explain this in more detail. I have all these programs.

This is what I am trying to do. I have a bunch of boxing recorded on VHS and after each event it there is a pause and it drops out. So I have captured each event by itself. I want to put these on DVDs with a simple menu that will give you the title of each fight. All I have done is the capturing so far and haven't even figured out how to do the cutting, autoring and whatever else there is.

1. Are you doing the cutting with DVDSP or are you using the the software that came with the unit?

2. You move the files over to DVDSP to make your menus and what else are you doing. I haven't even cracked the surface on this software yet.

3. I am assuming when you are done with DVDSP you take this to toast and burn it at what settings? Are you making your menus here?

Please give me as much detail as possible. Its sounds like you have figured out the process that works best and I would like to copy that process because time for me is the biggest issue. Thanks in advance! If you don't have the time to explain just say so I will understand.

[Frobozz]

While you await AntnyMD's reply (I agree he seems the most experienced with the ADS package) I'll toss in my half-cent's worth.

First, I recently was having difficulty getting good captures with PixeDV (it used to work fine). Green streaks and jumpy images would occur at random times. I tried everything I could think of to fix this problem. On a lark I decided to delete the application and reinstall from the CD. Problem gone!

Next, the easiest thing to do is use CaptyDVD for authoring. I say this because there sometimes are problems with the MPEG 2 files created by PixeDV that bothers everything but CaptyDVD. When you open CaptyDVD it asks you to make some audio settings: choose mpeg audio and 224 mbs. The other settings don't matter.

When the layout window opens you should see your album of PixeDV captures in the bottom window, ready to drag to the main window. If they aren't there, go to the File menu and choose Change Album Library and find the PixeDV.lib file on your hard drive.

You'll need to experiment a little to figure out how to change the text. If you have more than 6 movies you'll need to create additional title pages. Click on the title window, then choose select the Menu List tab on the right-side window and click the Add button at the bottom.

When you are done setting up your titles, go straight to the Compile window. Check the Save VIDEO_TS box. If you want the movie to start automatically when inserted and automatically continue playing from one title to the next, check those boxes. Click Run. When all is finished burn the VIDEO_TS folder to disc using Toast. In Toast 6 you use the Data tab, select DVD-Rom (UDF), click New Disc and then drag in the VIDEO_TS folder (which is inside another folder saved by CaptyDVD).

By the way, after CaptyDVD has created the VIDEO_TS folder and you are satisfied you don't want to make any more changes, trash the CaptyDVD project folder you created. It contains up to 4.4 GB of now-useless stuff.

[galactica]

personal questions should be PM'd to the user

[DUDIRENO]

Thats Great. Thanks!

However, why do you burn with Toast and not the software that it came with?

Also, after you reloaded the software you were able to capture breaks in the source video? Or did the green streaks only happen to you at random. I don't get jumpy or green streaks at random only when there is a blank spot on the VHS tape. I guess I will try either way.

[Frobozz]

However, why do you burn with Toast and not the software that it came with? .

My external DVD drive is not one that CaptyDVD recognizes, so I have to use Toast.

Also, after you reloaded the software you were able to capture breaks in the source video? Or did the green streaks only happen to you at random. I don't get jumpy or green streaks at random only when there is a blank spot on the VHS tape.

It seems my problem was different from yours. I've read on other posts here that it might work to have your VCR playing on a TV while doing the capturing. This supposedly helps when there is a break in the signal, but I don't know why. You can cut parts out of your captured MPEGs with PixeDV's MPEG cutter. Doing so saves a new MPEG file which, by the way, is more compatible with Toast 6 and DVDSP if you use them to author your DVD.

[AntnyMD]

I have seen you have many posts inregards to the ADS unit. I Also have the ADS unit except for the drop outs on recordings it works pretty well. If there are any drop outs it screws everything up and I get green dots all over the place. Anyway, my question is in regards to what software you use and the stages you use them in. I am a novice at this and am unable to spend the hours it deserves to learn all the programs and what everything can and cannot do. I saw on a previous post that you use ADS, then DVD studio Pro, Toast, and CAPTV. Can you explain this in more detail. I have all these programs.

Frobozz is pretty experienced with this device also, and I think his post most directly addressed your problem. My other best guess would be to use some sort of time-base corrector on your VHS tapes during capturing. I only have one VHS tape that I would like to convert that has problems. Its just been abused so I'm saving it until I get better tools to help me convert it.

As for the software I use, I first capture with the ADS box using PixeDV. Once the capture is complete, I trim the files using the MPEG Cutter thats included in the PixeDV interface. Trimming seems to help Toast 6 accept the files for authoring, although lately my copy of Toast seems to dislike my internal burner, MPEG files from the ADS box, and all but TDK branded media.

After trimming, I decide how quickly I want to get this video onto disc. When I don't want to bother converting the audio to AC3, I author with CaptyDVD. You literally open the application, make the audio selection as Frobozz noted, and then drop your MPEG files onto the main window. It took me awhile to learn how to use this app because its not really intuitive. I just kept clicking on stuff until I learned what everything did. Often I run into the problem when I'm trying to make a 4.4gb DVD and CaptyDVD wants 20gb of space to work in. I dont know why, but it seems to want a lot of space to work with, which I think is complete crap. I too make the VIDEO_TS folder to burn in Toast. CaptyDVD seems to want even more blank space to burn directly to disc.

When I want a clean-looking menu, and especially when I want a long-playing disc (between three and four hours of content), I'll take the time to author in DVD Studio Pro. I make some menu slides in Microsoft PowerPoint, and save the slides as photographs. I import those photo files into DVD Studio Pro so I can make hotspots.

Before I import my MPEGs into DVDSP, I use the Export to MPEG function in PixeDV so that it demultiplexes the video from the audio, and converts the audio to AIFF. Once the AUDIO track is AIFF, I use A.Pack to convert to AC3. Import those audio and video files into DVD Studio Pro, lay out the videos into one or more tracks, and build the disc.

I think though that you should focus on getting all of the material captured, then based on the tools you have, approach the authoring slowly. I'd start out with one of the clips first rather than trying to make a whole disc at the start. If you're not already familiar with CaptyDVD, my guess is you'll have a bit of a learning curve there, just because the application gives you no real help itself. DVDSP2 also has a learning curve but theres lots of support in the Apple forums. Making a DVD in Toast is pretty simple, and automates the menu-making process. However just be aware that Toast may not like all of your clips (or maybe this is just a problem my particular copy of Toast is having).

[Frobozz]

However just be aware that Toast may not like all of your clips (or maybe this is just a problem my particular copy of Toast is having).

AntnyMD, I had a very frustrating time with Toast rejecting an increasing number of my PixeDV captures. I kept experimenting with different capture settings. Sometimes I'd have success, but most were rejected. Then I replaced the PixeDV application with a fresh copy from the disk and all is well again. Apparently the encoder became corrupted.

Still, Toast rejects the separate streams when I use Export to MPEG. Something gets messed up when those streams are being written. I want this to work because I now have the version of Toast that encodes ac3 from the aif track. I've developed a workaround involving CaptyDVD and Cinematize to get video and aif audio ready for Toast, but you can imagine how silly that is. I still can't use bbDemux to create streams from PixeDV because I end up with audio and video tracks of different lengths.

Incidentally, I like that Toast added autoplay. It allows me to build a single movie from two segments that play continously as one movie. This way I'm working with smaller pieces that are quicker to replace if one is rejected by Toast.

[AntnyMD]

I have some clips that I've demuxed using Gumby and I'm gonna play with them and Toast at lunch today. I want to see if Toast re-muxing the files will make Toast happy. I'll also take your recommendation to replace the PixeDV app, it couldnt hurt.

[mhar4]

My two cents worth on the ADS device are that for a Toast-free solution, I use the export function from the PixeDV capture program to output an m2v file and an aiff, which I then convert to AC3 using ffmpegX. I author with Sizzle, then burn the disk image with Apple disk burner. Simple except for the audio re-encode step and always works.