DVD Lab Pro trouble with background and importing

[stantheman1976]

Using DVD Lab Pro 2.3 on a Toshiba Satellite laptop with Vista Home Premium.

I created a video to use as a main menu. I used Vegas to make the video which contains a looping video clip in the bottom right corner and background music. I brought it into DVD Lab and inserted text and links appropriately. When I compile the DVD the finished product there is no text or video clip on the screen. There are colored links where I created them at but the buttons I used for the links do not appear. Any ideas why this might happen and a solution.

Also, I encoded 3 clips with TMPGEnc to use for the DVD. They were all encoded from DV AVI files and encoded using MPEG audio @ 7.4MBps CBR. The first clip when I imported it and tried to demux it like DVD Lab wants gets an error that the file is not accessible. I tried it on the laptop HD and an external HD and the same thing happened. I imported it without demuxing and it comes in fine. Then when I tried to import the other 2 clips and demux the first worked fine and the demux operation crashed during the second clip. So I imported those 2 clips one at a time and nothing crashed.

I like DVD Lab but everytime I use it I seem to have some troubles. Is DVD Architect as powerful? I'm going to try it when I get a chance after I finish this project.

[tinker]

You have to use "Render Motion" if you have any motion menu with buttons otherwise they will not appear after compile.
Check the manual for DVD Lab on that subject.
I do not think you will find any reasonably priced software with features DVD Lab has.

[guns1inger]

Personally, I create all motion menus in my editor (in my case, Vegas, but any will do), which includes any buttons etc that are needed. This way I can fade them in or out, have effects etc, and have all the control I want. Once done, I output and encode to mpeg-2, and import as an asset into DLP. Once dragged onto the menu as a motion background, I only need to add the sub-pictures for the selections, not the rest of the buttons. The quality is better than DLP can do.

Always work with elementary streams when using DLP. There is no reason not to, and everything works so much better when you do.

Would I swap DVDA for DLP - not for anything. DVD Architect is a clunky, ugly pain in the arse by comparison.

I have never had any problems with files crashing the program, or it producing odd results. However I am happy to work with it, which means encoding to elementary streams with good encoders (both audio and video). Most of the issues I have seen others have with it can usually be traced back to the quality of the assets they use.

[stantheman1976]

Thanks guys. So would by best bet from now on when I'm using DVD Lab be to render my video and audio separately from Vegas and encode the audio into AC3 or MP2 and import the separate streams into DVD Lab?

[tinker]

Since you have Vegas, go with what gons1inger tell you. You do not have to export elementary streams from Vegas, DVD Lab will demux Mpeg2 file on import. Just make sure that all your text for buttons is done in Vegas and highlighted after in DVD lab.

[stantheman1976]

In my original post I stated that DVD lab wouldn't demux a couple files. I ended up with 4 separate MPEG-2 files to make the DVD. They were all encoded the same method with the same settings on the same drive. For one DVD Lab gave it's own error message that it couldn't access the file. When I imported without demuxing it took the file ok. On the other file I got some generic Windoze error message. I also keep getting the message "demuxnewMFC Application has stopped responding" when DVD Lab is done demuxing a file. These could be errors because I'm using Vista.

I think from now on I will encode audio to AC3 anyway for quality and compatibility sake.

[tinker]

I am not 100% sure, but think DVD Lab was not updated for Vista.

[stantheman1976]

I'm not that impressed with Vista. I'm stuck with it though. I couldn't afford a laptop before Vista was released. Then when I found a good deal and could afford it Vista was standard. Toshiba doesn't even offer XP drivers for my model. I tried installing XP and there are a few devices with driver issues. So I just restored back to Vista and learned to get around most problems.

[guns1inger]

DVDLab Pro does run under Vista. A specific update was released because of registration issues under UAC, but other than that it should work fine. Worst case, update to the latest version anyway.

I never use DVD Lab to demux on the few occasions that I need to. PGCDemux or Rejig work for me.

[dadrab]

I think what you're seeing might be Vista related, but I can't be sure.

I use DVD Lab Pro under very similar conditions as you except I'm using 2000 Professional. I record television programs to my HDD, cut out commercials in VideoReDo and import those assets into DVDLab as muxed files. DVDLab has never failed to correctly import or demux a file - even with cartoon episodes when I loaded 20 at a time.

I did find, one time, that trying to import an asset from a folder separate from the one containing the remainer of the files failed. Once I copied and pasted that asset into the folder with the rest of the assets, it worked fine.

You might give that a whirl. Put all the assets you plan to work with in one file and import them all into DVDLab from there.

[stantheman1976]

That's a possibility. I think I had one or two files on my HD and the other main files on a portable HD. I'll keep that in mind next time.

[ihmcjacky]

Personally, I create all motion menus in my editor (in my case, Vegas, but any will do), which includes any buttons etc that are needed. This way I can fade them in or out, have effects etc, and have all the control I want. Once done, I output and encode to mpeg-2, and import as an asset into DLP. Once dragged onto the menu as a motion background, I only need to add the sub-pictures for the selections, not the rest of the buttons. The quality is better than DLP can do.

Always work with elementary streams when using DLP. There is no reason not to, and everything works so much better when you do.

Would I swap DVDA for DLP - not for anything. DVD Architect is a clunky, ugly pain in the arse by comparison.

I have never had any problems with files crashing the program, or it producing odd results. However I am happy to work with it, which means encoding to elementary streams with good encoders (both audio and video). Most of the issues I have seen others have with it can usually be traced back to the quality of the assets they use.

But I have a question:
If use vegas to create buttons, when imported to DLPto render motion, how does DLP recognize the button made from vegas are the thumbnails I want to create?
Say for example : if I want to create a motion menu with a rectangular box coming from the bottom first, rise to a specified position and then the buttons like the topic name, "scene selection", "Play All" will fade out on the rectangular box after the existence of the rectangular box, do my situation suitable to use your approach?
I try to use DLP, drag the motion menu and create all the buttons and topics and then render the motion, but the problem is that the buttons with links can do as I like but the topic (which does not contain any links) will appear instantly without any desired motion, why does such happens? (Actually I can't see the topic in the render motion feature box"
Can you elaborate more on how to create fade out buttons by using vegas? Or does any sites providing tutorial/discussions about how to use vegas associated with DLP?
again thx for answering my Q 8)

[guns1inger]

To do what you have described, I would have all the motion and text done in Vegas, with all the fades and timing set out before hand. Drag this onto the background of a motion menu in DLP, then use cells to control when the buttons become active. Usually only two or three cells are necessary. Cell one just has the video up until the appearance of the text. Cell two is where the buttons become active. The buttons can either be text buttons done in DLP (just position them over the text you did in Vegas), or even easier, an object or line to indicate the active choice.

I never, ever, ever use the Render Motion feature in DLP. Ever.

[ihmcjacky]

To do what you have described, I would have all the motion and text done in Vegas, with all the fades and timing set out before hand. Drag this onto the background of a motion menu in DLP, then use cells to control when the buttons become active. Usually only two or three cells are necessary. Cell one just has the video up until the appearance of the text. Cell two is where the buttons become active. The buttons can either be text buttons done in DLP (just position them over the text you did in Vegas), or even easier, an object or line to indicate the active choice.

I never, ever, ever use the Render Motion feature in DLP. Ever.

I think I have understood what you mean, thanks for your kind attention guns1inger
But when I try to put the text on the rectangular box, The effect does not satisfy me
as the rectangular box(color in grey) seems "make my text's color lighter" which is
difficult to see ( It seems the color of the rectangular box covers the text) . Is there
any solution? I wonder if I can set the opacity of the rectangular box to solve it