Please HELP!! Stop the insanity!!

[ResDog]

I throw mwself to the mercy of the Forum Gods on this one....

OK, here is my dillema... Is there an authoring program that will allow me to use the files i created with TMPGEnc WITHOUT re touching them?

I have several short films at about 12 minutes each. When I encode them with TMPGEnc, I get a nice compression where the quality does not suffer, and I keep them in MPEG 2 with MPEG Layer II audio of 96kbps stereo. When TMPGenc works the file, it tells me it will take up roughly 3% of a DVD media.

The only two authoring programs I have are MyDVD (came with the drive) and the trial od DVD Workshop. MyDVD is VERY PICKY, to say the least, about what it will and will not accept. In fact, I have YET to find ANY format which MyDVD says it can work with!! DVD Workshop is a little more accepting, but is very limited on it's finalizing aspects. There are only 4 resolutions to select from and only two audio types. No matter what I select trying to be near the original medias parameters, DVD WS ALWAYS must re-encode things. This took about 20 hours (20 HOURS!!) to re-encode my last attempt and the final quality was HORRIBLE!!!

PLEASE!!! If ANYONE has any help on this matter, PLEASE LET ME KNOW!!!! I'm pulling out my hair because of all of this...

Isn't there some program where you can Author a DVD with nice menus and graphics yet still be friendly on the video it accepts?!!?!

Any information or suggestions are GREATLY appreciated!!!

[snowmoon]

You're not the only one. DVD authoring packages are annoying as all hell. They are either too inflexable to be of any worth or too expensive or complicated to understand.

I trial version of spruceup has come to my rescue, but it's only a trial. It was able to take a number of pre-encoded mpg files and author a title set. I then used DVD workshop ( trial ) to burn them to disc.

[ResDog]

Thanks for the info snowmoon!

Unfortunately, I've tried SpruceUp, but not a big fan of the idea of having the Spruce Up Trial message sitting on all my menus!

I also get an "invalid Bitrate" message when importing the movie assets, which worries me. TMPGenc was set at 96Kbps 41000 Stereo for the encoding. I think it may need to be 48000.

[BJ_M]

it HAS to be 48khz

[ResDog]

Grrr... was afraid of that...

Well, back to encoding 32 files I go!!

Actually, I will probably hold off on that, as the damn trial watermarking pisses me off. SpruceUp looks pretty impressive, though... why the hell did they stop making it? Apple is insane for not continueing the product...

Oh well....

[ResDog]

Damn... NOW after re-encoding to 48000 it tells me that I have a bad file parameter....

Dammit....

[EddyH]

a tangent...

where in heck did you get an encoder that will do 96k, mp2 stereo, without the output sounding utterly horrific? i've tried a few and they usually bottom out at around 112, 128k before some kind of hidden switch goes off and the file either snaps to 1/ mono in a so-called stereo file, 2/ telephone-level bandwidth! 3/ awful distortion 4/ all of the above.

(and 2 & 3 for mono files below 64, 56k... don't ever, ever try to make a 32k mp2 if you have sensitive ears, the world of 32k mp2 and 32k mp3 (22/mono) are light years difference).
Would have been nice to be able to get usable 96k on some VCDs I've made... (well, except nausicaa... cuz that was mono & low freq resp - 80k! wh00.. need more mono films )
(some way to strip all pro-logic encoding except for the bass channel would be nice, too)

[mcmacky]

I use ulead movie factory it accepts (dvd) complient files from tmpge with no problem.You could also demultiplex the tmpge file and use ifoedit to author your files into vobs and burn with nero or whatever. UMF only costs $45 and iFO edit is free. You must use 48Kz and I would never go any lower than 128kbs for audio.hope this helps good luck....... :P