Two relatively easy questions...I hope

[SEALs1230]

One: When making a little introduction to a movie...putting a few clips together and then playing that first when the DVD goes into the player... is there anyway to not have this show up on the main menu? I made one of these for a movie that I authored with TDA. There was a button to click just to play the intro on the main menu. And when I selected play all, it would play the intro again. I would rather have this play all button go into the movie, not the openning. Plus there was a track menu for the opening scene which I felt there was no need for. Its not a crucial thing, just something that I would prefer not to have. All I want the intro for is to play before the menu, and thats it, I have no need for a track menu or for it to even be on the main menu.

Second: Is there a way to put background music that plays the entire song, even if the button animation lasts for only 30 sec or so? For the same movie, I had the button animations running for about 30 sec, and I also had a song playing on the menu. Everytime the button animation restarted, the song restarted as well. I would like it to play the entire song before restarting the song but not having the buttons animated for 4 min of the movie. This again, isnt a crucial thing, just something I would prefer. And if either of these are possible, please let me know. Thanks

[daamon]

Hi SEALs1230,

Q1: There is a way of hiding the option to replay just the intro: make the text and the button really small, move right into any corner (covered by overscan) and, to be safe, change the font colour to match the colour behind it.

In TDA, there is (to my knowledge) no way to skip the "first play item" when "Play All" is selected. You'll need something like DVDLab (there are others) which allows you to decide what's on the meu, and to set up what plays when, based on what's selected from the menu.

Q2: Not sure on this one, never needed to do it. Hope you get it sorted - post back if you do, i'm sure others would like to know how to do this.

Hope that helps. Good luck...

[jimmalenko]

I'm with Daamon - I think you'll need dvdlab for what you want to do, because TMPGEnc DVD Author, while being nice and user-friendly, lacks advanced custom options because of it.

[SEALs1230]

Is DVD-Lab compatible with what comes out of TMPEnc Plus??

[daamon]

Should be - having not used it, I can't say 100%. But I'd be really really surprised if it wasn't.

If DVDLab requires "Elementary Sreams" (video.m2v, audio.ac3/mp2/wav) then that's easily done in TMPGEnc.

If it accepts "System Streams" (footage.mpg - video and auio in one file) then TMPGEnc does that too.

In terms of validity of its output - I see no reason why TMPGEnc shouldn't be OK.

[northcat_8]

Is DVD-Lab compatible with what comes out of TMPEnc Plus??

No it is not. DVD-Lab Pro will take the .m2v video but not the .wav audio. It will show up in your assets, and you can drop it on the timeline but the authored DVD will not have audio.

I've only started playing with DVD-Lab Pro, but someone on here suggested I convert the .wav to AC-3 before taking it into DLP.

Personally...so far...if I am going to author with DLP, I encode the video to MPEG-2 and let DLP handle everything from there. If I am going to use TDA, I use TMPGenc Plus to convert.

As per your question, In TDA there is no way to get around the "First Play" menu. You can deselect the "show thumb" check box in the menu options, but the menu will still be there.

I would imagine one way to get around it would be to author the DVD with the menu...then use something like IFOedit to remove that menu...but that's a whole lot of work when I'm sure DLP can do what you want.

Heck, with DLP, you set all the shortcuts, so that makes it easy to add things, to omit things, to hide easter eggs...DLP is a very cool program...can't wait until I have more time to mess with it.

[daamon]

DVD-Lab Pro will take the .m2v video but not the .wav audio.

So, let me get this straight - DVDLab (and / or Pro) doesn't accept WAV as an audio format for authoring? Or is it just the WAV from TMPGEnc?

But PCM (uncompressed = WAV I believe) is part of the DVD specs...



As a new user northcat_8 - How have you found the learning curve for DLP? I'm looking at going down that route... Cheers.

[SEALs1230]

Most of my avi files have ac3 audio anyways which I usually extract w/ Virtualdubmod before I encode with TMPGEnc. And then when I do use TMPGEnc, I only do the video. I follow this guide: https://www.videohelp.com/forum/userguides/186739.php
This means that for the most part, I should be fine with DLP right?

[daamon]

As long as TMPGEnc is set to spit out video.m2v files - I'd say it sounds like you'll be OK.

[guns1inger]

Your second question doesn't appear to have been answered, and will cause you the same problem in DVD Lab. The length of the audio is set by the length of the video. 30 seconds of video gets you 30 seconds of audio. If you need longer, you will have to join multiple copies of your video in sequence until they are as long as the audio. You need to do this outside DVD Lab/TDA, just like any other asset.

[northcat_8]

DVD-Lab Pro will take the .m2v video but not the .wav audio.

So, let me get this straight - DVDLab (and / or Pro) doesn't accept WAV as an audio format for authoring? Or is it just the WAV from TMPGEnc?

But PCM (uncompressed = WAV I believe) is part of the DVD specs...



As a new user northcat_8 - How have you found the learning curve for DLP? I'm looking at going down that route... Cheers.

I love DLP. It is awesome if you ask me. But the first couple of DVDs I tried to make were DV-AVI files, I ran them through TMPGenc Plus 2.5 just like I normally do. Brought them in as assets into DLP, dropped them on the timeline, created the DVD...played it using WinDVD and no sound.

I went back and used my video editing app to output to MPEG-2 directly...then when I opened those files in DLP, DVD-Lab was doing some stuff (demuxing I think)...but in the end, I ended up with .mpa and .mpg(?) files. Dropped both of those on the timeline and waaaa-la, my authored DVD had sound.

I'm really not sure why or what just yet. Reboot told me to convert the .wav audio to AC-3 and life would be good again.

The thing I like most about DVD-Lab Pro is the menu options. It gets a little repititious setting every path for every button...like the "return" button back to the main menu but it's not difficult.

I don't think the learning curve is too bad, I'm figuring most of it out on my own. It is definitely not a "complete noobie" program but if you have some idea of a DVD, menus and what you want, it's not a problem. I'm getting ready to make a DVD and have a menu that is a .psd with multiple layers and use different layers as menu buttons.

Just a few DVDs in, I would have to say it's the best authoring app on the market right now for someone wanting advanced control and unlimited options.

[bugster]

I have been using DVD-Lab pro for a while now and think it is excellent. Even for a quick and dirty authoring job it is easy, and for the more complex stuff it is very powerful.

I have never tried using it with wav audio but am surprised you had difficulty there northcat, assuming the wav was DVD compliant!

If you import a program stream, it offers you the option of de-multiplexing or not. I always do so as otherwise it has to de-multiplex before re-multiplexing into vob format anyway, so mught as well get it over and done with!

[northcat_8]

I have been using DVD-Lab pro for a while now and think it is excellent. Even for a quick and dirty authoring job it is easy, and for the more complex stuff it is very powerful.

I have never tried using it with wav audio but am surprised you had difficulty there northcat, assuming the wav was DVD compliant!

If you import a program stream, it offers you the option of de-multiplexing or not. I always do so as otherwise it has to de-multiplex before re-multiplexing into vob format anyway, so mught as well get it over and done with!

Like I said, I don't really know, I just imported the .wav file created in TMPGenc Plus 2.5

TDA authored DVDs have sound but not DLP authored.

I'm sure I am just missing something in the process, I'll figure it out when I have more time to mess with it.

[p_l]

Ulead DVD Workshop 2 has that "firstplay video" feature you're looking for built-in, and it will accept your TMPGEnc DVD files as are. As for your second request, it allows you to choose a set time, to match audio length or to match video length, your choice.

You could easily do everything you say you want.

[lordsmurf]

Not a fan of DVD-LAB.

Both DVDit! and DVDWS will do firstplays.

[GeorgeW]

I've used pcm .wav files from TMPGenc 2.5 in DLP projects without any issues. DLP also has a FirstPlay function...

[daamon]

@ northcat_8[/b] & bugster - Thanks for the feedback. Oh, and lordsmurf too, I know you're a fan of Ulead DVD Workshop.