dvd architect 4.0 chapters freeze.

[rb_jr]

Hi,
just hoping to get some help from something that's been causing me trouble for a long time.

First off, I work for an audio visual company as the lead audio engineer. Video is still something I'm learning, so hopefully I wont ask something terribly dumb.

I have a movie of a show that we filmed. It was a five camera shoot. All cameras were broadcast cameras so video quality is quite good. The video filmed at the show was recorded to a sony hard drive to dvd burner. I imported the video from the dvd using a program called vob2mpeg. The reason for taking only video is that I have a 24 track audio recording of the show that I've mixed down to a dolby 5.1 surround mix. The show was a concert. I used sony vegas 5 to make the few necessary edits required, then rendered the video to mpeg 2 format. I rendered each song seperately because I have been told that smaller renders give much better video quality. The show was about 90 minutes long, so doing it in a single render is quite a long process. I've tried it a couple of times, but the results gave me not as good video quality, and also some spuratic glitches in video. The single chapter per song method has given very good video quality.

Now , I have the video and audio files rendered and have put them in a compilation in DVD Architect 4.0. After making the dvd, the video/audio quality is pleasantly acceptable, however at every chapter marker the video freezes for about a half second before moving to the next chapter. This freeze affects video and audio for that half second. Since it's a live show, I didn't fade to black in between each song. This makes this freeze very noticeable and annoying. If I import the entire rendered show, then add chapters markers in with dvd arch 4.0, there are no freezes, but video quality suffers due to rendering the 90 min show as a whole. When rendering in vegas 5 I'm using a max bitrate of 8,000,000 bits, average bitrate of 7,200,000 bits, and minimum of 9,200 bits. I'm really hoping anybody here can help. I've been trying to figure this out for quite some time.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions,
Ron

[GeorgeW]

Hi,

To get smooth playback between songs, you will have to go with one long video. Using separate clips (one persong) will produce that slight pause between videos (as you have already seen).

I'm not sure why you get different quality doing separate songs vs. one long concert -- if you are using the same encoding settings, then it should be about the same.

You might have lost some quality in the step where you recorded the original to DVD, then imported the mpegs. Can you get a hold of the original video?

How long is the entire show, and what bitrate are you using for audio? Also, are you adding any extras to the DVD -- such as multiple audio tracks, multiple video angles, dvd-rom data, etc...?

Regards,
George

[rb_jr]

Thanks for replying George,
Answering your first question, I do have the original.The show was recorded straight to a sony hard drive to dvd recorder. I do have the master dvd. When it comes to getting that vob file into mpeg so that I can use it in vegas, what do you recommend to reduce loss of quality? The entire show is just over 90 minutes. Audio bitrate is 16 bit. There are no additional video angles. The only audio track is the one that's rendered in dolby 5.1. The only thing on the disk is the 5.1 audio and the rendered mpeg 2, along with the dvd navigation data. (i.e.- chapter selection menus and photos for background media.)

If it helps,

My System:
Dell inspiron E1705 Laptop
Windows XP Pro Media Center
Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 @ 2.0 Gig
160 gig internal , 750 external hard drive
2 Gig Ram @ 667 Mhz
ATI Mobilty Radeon x1400 256 MB Video card
Sigmatel Internal HD Audio, &
Sound Blaster Live 24 Bit External Audio


Thanks, Ron

[guns1inger]

VOB2MPG will give you an mpg file with no loss of quality. Or you could try using DVD Decrypter to demux the original back to elementary streams directly from the disc.

If you are not doing any editing, then you don't need to go through Vegas. You can use the streams directly in DVD Architect if all you are doing is adding menus and chapters. If you do have to edit - to remove or shorten the period between tracks, for example - consider a dedicated mpeg editor rather than Vegas. Vegas will force a complete re-encode if you make changes, whereas a dedicated editor, such as womble, wont.

[dadrab]

For editing MPEG files, try VideoRedo. You can make your edits and save the finished long file without reencoding. Then, in your authoring sofware, add chapter marks.

That should get rid of your pauses.