DVDSP Authored DVD - Cleaning the Code for replication?

[Adam Bolt]

Hello everyone! I just joined because I couldn't get a great response on the DVDSP section of the LAFCPUG forum. Hoping I can find help here!

After having authored a great DVD menu on DVDSP, I was just about ready to send it out and get a glass master replication job done. However, on a few DVD players, I noticed that my animated menu transitions (a pretty common feature on DVDs surely), were stuttered by loading... they would blink before moving onto the next menu, pretty much nixing the point of smooth menu transitions. Some other smaller features weren't consistent as well, the most deadly being on rare players setting subtitles to "on" would make the DVD's selection stick, rendering it impossible to get out of the sub-menu...

I asked around, and the idea I came away with is that a DVDSP authored DVD is not up to snuff for professional needs. Different folks said that DVDSP programs its links with complicated work-arounds that don't necessarily translate on all players. I was also pointed to the program DVD AfterEdit to "clean up the code".

I was wondering if anyone here has had experience with this, and could point me to a way to standardize (yes, I know there is no such thing as a standard in this convoluted medium, so as close as possible would be great!) my authored DVD so I know I'm not throwing away over $1000 on something shoddy?

Is DVD AfterEdit a good direction? Is this a service Post Houses offer? Is my only solution to get it re-authored professionally, or in another program that isn't a hack?

While I'd love to learn a REAL DVD authoring program if I had the time, I'd be happy with just finding someone in the L.A. area who offers the friendly service of doctoring my poor, unreliable DVD.

Thanks for your help!

Sincerely,

Adam Bolt


P.S. On a tangent... maybe... I've noticed an audible difference in a professionally stamped DVD vs one I've burned in a DVD player, while comparing animated menus. On my burned DVDs, the player will whir and chug, then find the menu it's looking for. Pro stamped DVDs find their menus effortlessly and silently. Is this as a result of my backwards code, or is it a burned vs stamped issue?

[lordsmurf]

The subtitles issue might be the player. In fact, players are all over the place, you can't really make the kind of guarantees you're asking for. My cheap kitchen player, the $25 one from Walmart, ALWAYS turns on subtitles, even when set not to, regardless of disc.

This stutters on menus are usually because you have multiple menus loading back and forth. I've seen this before on DVDSP v1.x in OS9. I forget the workaround, it's been years. DVDSP lets you screw up a lot, because it's so advanced, not hard to pick the wrong settings.

Your problem may be your cheap media, for the DVD "whir and chug". Use good blanks. See www.nomorecoasters.com

By the way, DVD Studio Pro is professional software, especially the early versions.

[Adam Bolt]

Thanks for your help...

I'm not asking for guaranteed 100% compatibility... it's one of the first things I learned not to expect of DVDs... and why I loathe the medium. Good old VHS... crappy but predictable. Sigh.

I just want to be certain that what I've heard about DVDSP is (or isn't) true. Are you familiar with the underlying programming of DVDs and can attest to DVDSP's programming being equal to other high end professional authoring applications? I'd love for you to say yes, but I'm a skeptic by nature.

Regarding my specific problems, maybe if I get a little more detailed you can tell me if I've set myself up in an unsavory way... I'm by no means an expert of the software, but I think I'm doing pretty simple stuff here.

I'll start with the menu problem.

It has basically 3 menus which all are looping animated movies. The main menu has a choice of "extras" and "options" sub menus. For example, if you choose "extras", the code reads "Extras:Jump when activated -> 'Transition1-2'" "Transition 1-2" is a Track. The programming for the track is "End Jump -> Menu 2" Hopefully this is all done correctly... it's the most obvious way I can see. The loading blip happens just after you press the button, before playing the track (transition 1-2, etc). There is never a blip between the transition movie and the next looping menu movie.

On another forum someone suggested that the blip might be a particular DVD player's cache clearing before it could load the next imagery, and attributed this to DVDSP's workaround code taking longer for it to process in time. Is there any validity to that?

The subtitle problem, not really related to subtitles at all :

My "options" menu has choices for subtitles off / on and two audio streams. These are set by the default coding in the Advanced part of the Button menu. "Subtitles Off" has Subtitle 2 (Empty) selected in the streams section. "Subtitles On" has the first subtitle stream selected. The audio choices are set up similarly with those streams. The problem is that on some DVD players, selecting any of these options (doesn't matter which), will freeze the button in a highlighted state, and render the user immobile to navigate, aside from pressing a root menu button to get all the way back to the main menu or doing a hard reset. That's pretty scary to have landing on an agent's DVD player.

Regarding my media, I found the link you sent me a few years ago, and I use Maxell, which is listed as the second A Level media on that site, second only to one no longer in production. So I hope it's ok!

Saying DVDSP is professional, especially the early versions, certainly doesn't put my mind at ease... why would the early versions be especially professional, as opposed to the newer ones? (I'm using 3, by the way).

Thanks again for taking the time to give me a hand. Any other opinions out there would be great too... I just want to get this DVD right before I bite the bullet.