None of the DvD Authoring programs are working for me.

[Raen]

I got the Pioneer a04 a few weeks ago. And I have yet to find a program that allows me to use multiple mpegs without some sort of error.

The first program I tried was MyDvD. It came with my DvD-r. It worked ok except for the fact it doesn't allow ac3 files and you are forced to use extremely large audio files that take a toll on the quality of the video.
And the fact that you couldnt use custom made menus and background.

Then I tried DvDit.. it seemed perfect. It did everything I wanted, except everytime I went to try to make the DvD I got a 'GOP Header' error, an error that has been posted here at least 10 times that I saw and no one has ever had a solution for it(there were zero replies to other people askign about this error or telling them to use DvD standard template)--newsflash.. I was using the TmpgEc standard DvD template, unchanged. I tried a dozen different files and variations, I couldnt get it to work once, not once. Its a pity because I could build some nice looking menus with it

Then I tried Ulead workshop. I tried installing this 5 different times from 5 difference sources and every single time it would shut down while in the beginning of something with an illegal operation.

Then tried Movie factory.. this works great with ONE movie set as first play. Trying to add menu's was a nightmare for me. The program would freeze up or backtrack or not allow me to set certain areas as chapters. Like sometimes if I wnated to create a chapter at the very beggining of a scene and clicked add, it'd reset it to the beggining then add the beggining as another chapter.. Took awhile and some tweaking(like setting the chapters a few mins before or after wyhat I really wanted) but finally made my first dvd with chapters and worked well on my player.

Then I tried adding more than one vid clip. I was trying to make a Farscape DvD of Liars, Guns and Money, part 1, 2 and 3. I personally captured these and encoded them with TMPGENC with standard DvD settings. Using the EXACT same settings on all 3 clips. They ended up being about 1.2 gigs each. I can use ULEAD movie factory to put each one, individually, onto a DvD with no problems. But when I tried to put all 3 onto one DvD I got the following error "MPEG Program stream is not compable with DvD Engine." Yet they all worked seperatly.. why?

I tried using spruce up but it hosed my system twice. It freezes at 99% and then from there on after installing/removing in program got stuck for 40 mins at 0% initializing install--I had to reinstall windows XP twice and refuse to give Spruce up a 3rd chance.

Can someone out there tell me a good, stable, friendly DvD authoring program that will actually work? Or did I just spend 300 bucks on a dvd-r that it useless to me. I got better results with CD-R's/SVCD's

[ahfairley]

I'm not sure what format your source files are? It sounds like you're encoding with TMPGenc before authoring with DVDit. Some posters have said that DVDit will re-encode your file even if you feed it a mpeg that matches the output parameters. Have you tried letting DVDit do the encoding?

Sorry if I misunderstood what you're doing.

Alan

[Raen]

My source files are AVI files captured with Vdub and huffy(very large, quality files) from digital cable.

And ya, I convert before adding to DvDit..

I might try not converting them and see how it works--but what I've read on the forums here is that the DvDit encoder takes about twice as long as Tmpgenc does.. thats a long time

But it can't hurt to try it that way once

[bartman]

WOW....sounds like you've tried them all What is your OS?

I have XP on an athlon 1200 and 1600+ and I've only ever had one problem with DVDit PE...loading more than one mpeg crashed the software (system is untouched).

I have used DVDit PE, Ulead DVD Workshop, DVD Movie factory and SpruceUP and all in all I've found it to ba a mixed bunch. Some will allow motion menus but not accept 5.1 AC3 (DVDit)...some will accept 5.1 AC3 but not allow motion menus(SpruceUP)...some will re-encode my source files regardless if they are DVD standard or not (DVD Workshop).

Without going to pro level apps like Reel DVD or Scenerist, I would say Spruce Up is the best.....if you don't mind the lack of motion menus....and it doesn't crash when loading more than one video (BTW, you need to have audio and video streams seperate as Spruce Up likes to do it's own muxing)

[Raen]

I'm using WinXP Pro. And for some reason when I load Spruce up and try to load a file(loaded the m2v files) it stops at 99% or at 100% and just sits there forever and ever and ever. Cancel does nothing and waiting half a day does nothing either. Only thing to do is ctrl-alt-del end the program and there after all my installs and uninstalls are hosed to a point where I have to reinstall windows.

First time I thought it was me doing something wrong
Second time, on a fresh install of win XP with minimal things loaded, I relize it was Spruce up doing it.

I'm afriad to give it a 3rd shot.
Maybe its my version of windows XP... .I work from home alot thus was able to install a work version of Win XP pro.. the corperate version that doesn't require activation. I was under the impression its the same as winXP pro normal addition, just no activation code needed. Anyways I'm at my wits end. I got a dvd-r so I wouldnt have to put movies on multiple cd's like I had been doing with VCD's and SVCD's. Now it seems it wont let me put more than one movie/episode on a single DVD without errors

[Anonymous65]

You migth be better off resinstalling the OS and then pick your favorite programs and not install anything else. Ulead will often not work correctly if you have already installed other video authoring and editing software. I had tons of problems with Ulead DVD movie factory untill I reinstalled it on a freshly installed OS. But then again, I install the OS every few months anyway to keeps things running smooth...

[asifanwar]

I use SpruceUp on the Corp Edition of WinXP Pro on my dual AMD AthlonXP 1600+ system with no problems, so I can tell you it DOES work fine in those conditions.
SpruceUp is a bit buggy, so try running it in Windows2000 compatibility mode to see if that helps.

[Koops]

raen: Have you tried creating a single dvd file from all you different episodes in tmpgenc? (mpeg tools, merge and cut)

Then you can add the single mpeg2 system file to the authoring prog of your choice. Then add menu items to take you to the start of each one. The only problem is that at the end of each episode it wont take you back to the menu as per a standard dvd.

I am only a noob at this dvd stuff but I have just finished making a complilation of a few videos to dvd with an intro video using no editing tools except tmpgenc (source range cutting and then mpeg tools to merge them togther). I used DVD movie factory to create the .iso file for burning.

Koops

[bartman]

With Spruce UP the audio file needs to be the same name as the video file

i.e. if your source is called movie.m2v Spruce will look for movie.wav (or any other valid audio file....including 5.1 *.ac3 files) straight after importing the movie. Maybe that's why it sits at 99%....it's looking for the audio file (I'll have to test this out and check)

[eazeaz]

Spruce up is the only program so far that lets me do what I need to do.

But fully stable? It has some wierd shit from time to time. Nothing ending the task and re-opening it doesnt fix.

[Raen]

I decided to give Spruce Up one more try.. seems to work fine this time. Question is.. how do I get by the defunked registration since its not being sold anymore? Do I have to reinstall every other time I wanna do a dvd?

[bartman]

http://astalavista.box.sk/

If you don't mind the banners