Fustrations with Screenblast & Sonic My DVD

[Cammstein]

I'm pretty new to this (hence why i'm posting in this folder) so I don't quite understand much of the technical terms used on these boards.

Basically I've been trying to make a DVD for a friend's band. Making this has caused a number of headaches....

1. For some reason, one of the mini-videos I made (they only last 1:30), causes my program to crash every single time I try to render it. I make "graphics" that appear in between each clip (which is to make a tv snow effect using text blacks and film effects from the program). When ever I click on "make movie" and render, the program crashes and forces me to close out no matter what I do. I even erased the movie and re-started from scratch, yet I still got the same results.

2. Oddly enough, one day I tried the render again and it actually worked. I tried to find out what I did differently and it turns out I was online. Excited, I tried to burn it and the MyDVD decides to tell me at the very last second at the burn and said " could not complete last command becuase video picture size is larger than the buffer" and itrejected my cd. I went back and made a whole new version of this video yet again and I got the same problems as I did from problem 1.

3. This is somthing I'm probably gonna have to worry about in the future, but I want to make the DVD as much as two hours long, yet I heard a number of complaints that it does not work. What is the reason and is it possible?

I have absolutley no idea what I'm doing wrong here. I've been able to make several mini-videos with no problem in the past and even while I was having problems with my current project. Sony's customer service is awful. In order for you to call them, you gotta pay 14.99 or somthing like that. Crap. I E-mailed them and I didn't get a reply until a week and half later. The best part is, they didn't even address my problem. They wanted to confirm my registry, so it looks like I gotta wait another week from them.
I tried using their message board and with my luck, I got no replies. As you can probably tell, I'm getting very fustrated with all this. I would appreciate any and all assistance. If sombody could reply to this or talk to me over IM, that would make my day. Thanks

[jdizzy40]

If you are getting frustrated this soon you might be in the wrong hobby. What is your source file? Was it captured from a DV Camera and how was it captured or transferred to your computer. Thats a starting point. Download TMPGEnc DVD Author (Trial Version) after letting us know the above two questions.

[Cammstein]

I've actually been working with a similar program on my friend's mac before I got my own. I am confident that I am in the right hobby. My fustration simply comes to the fact that i was supposed to show one of these videos at a local concert and wasn't able to do so.


The footage does come from a DV camera and transfered through firewire.

[Cammstein]

Alright, I dled the program. I tried working with it, but it does not accept any of my screenblast files. It says that mpeg2 is an illegal format. Screenblast automatically renders into mpeg2.

[jtoolman2000]

Umm,, That's very strange. Is the resolution and audio format correct?? AC3 for audio and MPG-2 720x480 NTSC if you are in the US. PAL of course, if you are elsewhere.
Check the advanced features in the Make Movie command just to see if the output parameters are correct. You could always output back to AVI and use an encoder like TMPGEnc to make your DVD conpliant MPG-2 files. Then you author them in TMPGEnc DVD Author. It should accept them. Those DVD parameters have to be right on the button or yoou likely encounter problems down the road, or worst yet after you think everything is fine and at the last minute, WHAMMM! NOT!!!

[Cammstein]

Alrighty, I was able to sucessfully able to render and burn with mpeg1 on MyDVD. However, it was pretty poor quality in terms of the video.


What do I do with an encoder? Do I render it with avi and get it switched to mpeg2 with it?

[Cammstein]

I tried rendering under your settingsthat you suggested and the render just magically stops and a button appears saying the there is an unknown error.

[tmh]

OK, take a deep breath, you're likely not to farfrom getting what you need to get this done. It ges easier once you've actually finished one.

You need to know the steps needed to go from DV to a finished DVD. Then you need to figure out how/if you're doing each one.

1. Transfer to computer via firewire as a DV-AVI file. many call this step "CAPTURE", with DV to PC many also say "Transfer".

Sounds like you've done this OK, but what is the file type you captured? Still AVI ?

2. You then edit/create your project. Sounds like you use Sony Screenblast for this step.

3. Next, you ENCODE from avi to mpeg2 (video) format and one of several audio formats. Some seperate the audio out prior to this and use different programs. In your case, I assume you are using Screenblast (if it has an mpeg2 encoder in your version). Are you given the option to encode to mpeg2 video? When you do this, does it create an mpeg file? Many will use "encode" and "render" interchangably so don't get confused.

4. Next, you AUTHOR which takes the mpeg2 video and the audio and creates .VOB file(s) inside a Video_TS and Audio_TS folders - actually, the Audio_TS is usually empty because the Vdeo and Audio were merged into the .vob files.

It is likely you're trying to have Screenblast do 3 and 4 together. Some have success doing this, some like seperate programs. TMPGenc plus/express is a popular EDCODER while TMPGenc DVD Author handles the authoring step. So far as I know, the encoder in Screenblast may be just fine for you to use. Otherwise, you'd have to save the project as an AVI file then use a seperat encoder.

5. Burn the Video_TS and Audio_TS files to your DVD as DVD video files. I use NERO to do this, but many other programs can do it also, I'd assume this is what Sonic My DVD is for (also may do the authoring). I haven't read too many good things about Sonic My DVD, but I have no personal experience with it.

OK. That's it. Now, you need to figure out which step is the problem. In order: capture,edit,encode to mpeg2, author, burn to DVD.

Let us know what you find out.

[Cammstein]

Okay, so now I can only render with .avi format without problems. I'm still having the problem with the buffer size thing. Basically I'll render the video completley and begin buring but the disc is rejected last minute saying the "video picture size is larger than the buffer". What exactly does this mean?