Encore help please

[Jascha]

Hi, I have been succesfully been making dvds capturing via my Canopus advc 100 with vegas 4 and converting the avi files with the mainconcept plug in in vegas 4. I then make the dvd files with Encore dvd.
I tend to make up a dvd with more than one mpeg 2 file, hence when i import into encore i have more than one timeline.
I then connect all my mpeg file timelines together by linking them together via the end action function for each file and also make chapter points in each timeline.

When i have prepared my encore project and come to preview in encore dvd, when i start going through the different chapters, i found out that i can only preview the chapters of the first timeline. To go through the other timelines i have to press the end action button on the remote of the preview function.
Let's say that the 1st mpeg timeline has 4 chapters and the 2nd timeline has 3 chapters and the 1st timeline has an end action set to link to the 1st chapter of the 2nd timeline, whne i start checking all my chapter points of my project, i cannot go beyond the last chapter of the 1st timeline (unless i press the end action button).
I made a dvd infact and i could not see beyond the 1st timeline, unless i waited for the very end of the 1st timeline.
What am i doing wrong? Surely if i want i can chose to skip to the 2nd timeline without waiting to finish watching the 1st!!!!
I tend to make my dvds without any Menus, so just video footage basically.
I hope i made myself understood and i appreciate if someone can assist me in what could be a simple task.
Many thanks
P.s: The only solution to my problem so far was to use Mpeg2VCR and join all my mpeg files together so when i create my dvd with encore i only have one timeline with all my chapter points on the same timeline.
Thanks very much

[Sugar]

Not sure I understand your problem.

I made a dvd infact and i could not see beyond the 1st timeline, unless i waited for the very end of the 1st timeline

Chapters will play fully one after the other. To jump to the next chapter, you have to press the corresponding "next chapter" button of your remote...just like any plain DVD.

[Jascha]

The probem is when making up a dvd with encore and i use more than one chunk of video footage. If i just use one mpeg file and have lots of chapters on it.... no problem. But if say i have 2 mpeg files with 10 chapters on each file, when i come to preview i can only see up to the first 10 (just the first mpeg file!!!). To be able to watch the 11th chapter (which is the first chapter of the 2nd movie file) i would have to first press the end action button, then it obviously jumps to the 2nd mpeg file because i link them together.
But if i start from the begining and go through the chapters one by one, 1, 2, 3 etc etc ... when i get to 10 and press the next chapter button..... it won't go to 11 and beyond. I would have to first either watch all of chapter 10 which at the end of it will gop to the 2nd mpeg file or press the end action button.
Now i am wondering whether there is a way around this or whether i am doing something wrong.
Many thanks for helping me

[Sugar]

I have never done chapters in more than 1 timeline but I guess it would seem to me that you have to decide whether you are creating your chapters through 1 timeline or through multiple timelines. I am not sure you can mix both modes.

You could also search this website that has a lot of good tips for adobe products.

http://www.creativecow.net/index.php?forumid=145

[guns1inger]

I haven't used Encore, so I may be way off beam here, but what the hell. My reading of your problem suggests that by using multiple video files, and therefore having multiple timelines, you have ended up with multiple titles on the DVD. You are able to move from chapter to chapter within each title, but you would have to jump titles before being able to move through the chapters of the next clip.

It may be something to do with the way you are linking the clips in Encore. You may have to join them all together if you want to move chapter to chapter.

[vodkafish]

While I'm not one for bring back old posts, I thought this was recent enough to re-do as I'm having the same problem and haven't found a resolution yet.

I'm using multiple mpegs for my dvd. Each one seems to be it's own timeline, and even though I have the end actions linking them, the skip feature simply doesn't work (I tried an override on a couple of them and that seemed to have no effect either). Has anyone accomplished this?

Also, I my button that links to a second menu seems to appear, but is not selectable by a dvd player (however, it is when played on a computer).

[Sugar]

From my practice of Encore, this is normal. Basically, the software goes through each timeline and the next chapter button applies only to the timeline being played. Only when the player commes to the end of the timeline (end action) will it shift to the 2nd timeline that has its own chapters.

What I suggest you do is to merge your mpegs into 1 file. You can do this either:
- in the editing stage, but putting each.avi file 1 after the other, with Premiere Pro for instance, before you convert to mpeg (if your source is avi files), or
- with TMPGEnc. This software offers, as a free function, the possibility to merge mpegs into 1 large mpeg file.

On the button problem, just check that the button is in the TV safe area. If it is too much on the screen border, it may not play correctly.

[vodkafish]

Thanks for the advice. I guess I'll try merging and then adding my own chapters. Going to be a hell of a merge (clips are generally 2 minutes). I think I'll try TMPGEnc I clip, and then keep everything as mpg2 (I do this over time, so saving the raw avis just isn't economical on my drives). As for the other menu button, it is in the lower right. Easily fully visible, but perhaps I did just put it too close, I'll give it another shot.

[gjvdwiel]

Hello,

another idea has crossed my mind, but I haven't found the time yet to try it out:
Add a chapter at the end of the timeline. When the timeline plays and you press the 'next chapter' button the movie will skip to the next chapter, won't it?
I figure that if that next chapter is at the end of the timeline, and the END-ACTION of the timeline is to skip to ch1 of the next timeline, the net result will be a skip to the next timeline.

Greetz,