Gui dvdauthor disc plays on pc but freezes on normal dvdplayer?

[extent]

I am using gui for dvd author. When the disc is inserted into a standard living room dvd player, its main menus sound and movie preview freeze after a few seconds. It contains one music Mp2 track with the preview box of the movie above the 'play' button. The music and preview play for 10 seconds, but then stop. Despite this I can still use the menu and click on the play button to play the movie, or on the chapters button. The chapters menu works fine. Strangely the discs main menu works when the dvd is inserted into any pc. Is it a bitrate problem? Ive tried lowering the bitrate for the audio but it doesnt help. Gui for dvdauthor is set to the correct length of the audio track in the menu properties (it adds it automatically). Bitrate is set to 4000 for the menu in general, although 'menu encoding for still picture and sound only' is set to '1 frame' instead of 'full length'. Im not sure how any settings could be incorrect as the dvd works fine on my pc. I have tried other dvd players but they all freeze. Any ideas? thanks for any help
Ps this freezing main menu only contains one single image as wallpaper, the Mp2 audio, and thumbnail sized movie preview. No animations.

[freebird73717]

What is the audio track of your main movie? The reason I ask is that mp2 is not part of ntsc dvd specs (assuming you are in ntsc territory). If your menu contains mp2 while your main movie contains ac3 that would seem to be the likely answer. While most dvd players don't have a problem with mp2 audio your player may be more picky about the audio it requires.

This may not be the problem at all but it does seem a likely place to start looking.

[extent]

Ive tried 2 living room dvd players now, and they both have the same problem with the menus Mp2 audio and menu movie preview stopping, despite the menu still being selectable. The main movie video and audio are part of one single vob file. this is prob not the advised way to go about it when creating a dvdauthored disc (i should probably seperate audio and video as seperate tracks), i have not had any trouble using this same method before. Even on the dvd players in which the menus audio and movie preview suddenly stop working, the movie itself plays ok with no problems, it is in synch with the audio and plays till the end. The first main menu on the disc is the only thing having any problems. in comparison, the chapters menu on the same disc (which shows 8 chapters and their own small movie previews-the chapter menu also has its own mp2 audio) works fine on all players, pc or not. It is very odd that just the first menu from the disc is having problems, but there are no differences in settings between either menu that i can see. Perhaps i should cut the main menu into smaller files to use for a preview of the movie on the main menu? thanks for the reply

[freebird73717]

in comparison the second menu (which shows previews of the movies 8 chapters and also has mp2 audio) works fine on all players

Okay well then it's not an audio compatibility problem.

Is this a motion menu? Perhaps it needs to be re-rendered? I'm really not very sure and won't be much more help to you as I use dvdlab primarily for my dvdauthoring.

Hopefully someone more experienced with gfd will chime in with more useful suggestions.

Good luck.

[extent]

the only motion on the main menu is the one box above the play button which shows a few minutes of the movie. This preview video is the movie vob file. this movie preview should only play for 4 minutes, which is the length of the Mp2 music. there surely cant be that many reasons as to why my finished dvd should work great on a pc but freeze on a normal dvd player. I think ill try and remove the movie preview thats above the play button on the main menu to see if the audio plays all the way through on its own. that way i can be fairly sure its not the audio alone causing everything to hault. Its still odd that even if its the freezing video preview box above the play button causing everything to freeze, how it would also stop the audio playing, since the menu still works fine with the play and chapters buttons still being selectable. If its the preview with the problems, surely the main video would not work, as its the same file.. very odd! I need to get some rewritable discs to test everything out on my normal dvd player i think. thanks

[olyteddy]

I hate to ask the obvious, but what media are you using? A lot of times 'It plays on the PC but not the StandAlone' is due to poor media.

[extent]

thanks for the reply- I thought if it was bad media, then mayb my pc would also be having problems running the burnt disc, but its ok with them, no freezing. I try and use good media, Verbatim dvd-r or +r is what i have at the moment. The only other thing i can think of is perhaps there is a limit on the length dvd preview/animation boxes within a dvd author created menu can be? above the play button to my video is my small preview, which links to the complete video file. I have done this before to other videos that were around 30 mins in length with no problems, after the audio plays through in the menu, the preview would simply start again with the menu music, in a constant loop (not continuing to 30 mins on its own, if the video is supposed to be 30 in total). this time however, the video my preview box is linking to is around 1hr 30 in length, perhaps thats why standard players cant handle it, some sort of memory issue, since my pc can play the same burnt dvd ok? I would try and only use a much smaller file for the play buttons movie preview box, but i dont know of any good vob or other video editor that i could use to make these small previews. Having said that, this may still not be the cause of my problems, but i have just created a menu excluding any preview video box, and the sound has played through in the finished file on my without stopping

[borax]

Hi extent,

Ps this freezing main menu only contains one single image as wallpaper, the Mp2 audio, and thumbnail sized movie preview. No animations.

Isn't the 'thumbnail sized movie preview' an animation? Or is it just an image from the movie?
Still menus with sound causes sometimes problems.
See also GfD FAQ: http://download.videohelp.com/gfd/Help/GfdFAQ.html
(Prelast point)

But from your last post, it seems the be exactly the 'reverse': You have an animated menu (the preview video box is an animation), but you still have problems with the sound.

...the video my preview box is linking to is around 1hr 30 in length

This has nothing to do with each other. The main menu is a 'video' by itself (it if the file VIDEO_TS.VOB actually). In order to check if anything 'obvious' is wrong with your setup, I would need some more info... Could you send me the log file (GUIAuthor.log) and the saved project file (.gfd) as zip, rar or any other archive format? My email address can be found in the log file.

[Nelson37]

Just a note on the use of the PC for testing. The PC is MUCH, MUCH more tolerant of what it will play, it pretty much ignores standards or limitations enforced on DVD players.

Just because the PC plays it does not mean a standalone should, or could.

[extent]

I figured that as much with the pc being able to play my disc. I am only on a mobile phone so i cannot send any files over a couple of meg in size, which is a pain if you were going to check my dvdauthor files! The preview box is animated, it is the movie itself. Instead of creating a shorter clip, i linked to the actual full movie vob, but it is set to only play for the length of the audio, then the menu should repeat. When the normal dvd player plays the disc, the menu appears, the music and preview play at the same time. The preview box stops very briefly after a few seconds, starts again, then freezes completely. It is at that last moment that the audio also stops. the music kept going with the first pause, so that was why i thought it must have been solely the movie animation box possibly causing trouble with the whole menu, since it was the first to show signs of giving up. I have just burnt a new disc with a much shorter preview (the main menus movie preview is now using the much shorter chapter 1 animation instead of the movie.vob file).. AND ITS WORKING it seems to have been the size (or length?) of the preview causing the problem after all. I know the final menu is one big video, but perhaps the problems with the length or size when linking to the full movie for a preview box, are created when dvdauthor tries to create the final menu and cut my linked preview to the length of the menu music. my video preview length being longer than the music (since the video preview links to the full movie)-thanks, at least i know how i can stop the problem by trying to only add previews shorter than my added menu audio!

[borax]

1. I'm glad that it works (at least with the shorter menu).
2.

...send any files over a couple of meg in size

I don't need the mpeg files, just the log file and the project file (which should be smaller than 100kB when compressed as a zip or rar archive).
3. How did you 'create' the preview? The 'normal' way in GfD is to activate animated menus and in this case GfD automatically creates a movie preview with the given duration of the menu (GfD automatically uses only a part of the movie to fasten encoding). If you have added an 'external' animation (using Insert -> Animation), and then selected the full movie, there is no automatic trim for the movie. In this case it is possible that the algorithm fails.

[extent]

I think it was added as an animation on its own (insert animation), either that or it automatically appeared when i added the movie- then i would have changed it so it was not clickable. Should i only add a preview by using insert animation and keeping the length shorter than the menu audio? Is there a recommended size or length for a preview? Im not sure how this could effect the menu audio and cause it to stop after a few seconds, its very strange, as the menu still works and i can change to any other menu screen, eg chapters, which works ok. thanks for your help

[borax]

Is there a recommended size or length for a preview?

No. Only the file size of the final menu-video (<1GB). If you want an animated menu with a movie preview and 'background' sound, IMHO the best (and easiest) way is to start with the audio file. Then set the duration of the menu to match the duration of the audio. Them add the movie(s) and the duration(s) of the automatically created preview video(s) should be ok.

its very strange

Yes, I don't understand it either. Normally the duration of an animated menu should be completely independent from the functionality!?

[extent]

Ive just tried to create a completely new unrelated menu from scratch with a randomly chosen image and video, to test. If i have the music and video of exactly the same length, the sound in the final disc on a standard dvd player still cuts out. if i do it again, but this time have the video a couple of seconds shorter than the menu audio, then it seems to work no problem. I should probably try a different video type other than vob to see if its a vob only problem