Stuttering after DVDLAB PRO, on PC too

[flodisar]

Hi,
I have used DVD-lab pro to make 1 dvd before, and that time everything went good.
Now I wanted to author a second dvd, but this are the circumstances and this is what happens:

1. I have a movie split into two parts (lets call them cd1 and cd2)
2. I decompressed and ripped the audio from the two AVI's in virtualdub into two wav files
3. I encoded the files with TMPGenc 2.5.
4. In TMPGenc I used the "MPEG tools" too merge the two .mpg videos into one continuous video file. (Note that the file created works perfectly with audio and video in sync and NO stuttering).
5. I import the mpg file into DVDLAB PRO (demuxing it), and make a menu. I use two subtitle files and one audio (the audio that was demuxed from the video by DVDlab pro)
6. I compile the DVD and play in WMP on the PC and this is what happens: It plays perfectly to EXACTLY the point where cd1 ends and cd2 begins, as soon as it has passed the beginning of where cd2 starts the video STUTTERS and it seems to go in half speed also. As a result of this the video lacks behind of the audio, because the audio plays fine with NO stuttering. ONLY the video stutters as soon as it begins to play where the cd2 starts.

So to sum it up: the audio continues fine and correctly through the whole movie consisting of two joined files (cd1 and cd2), while the video starts stuttering at the point at which the contents of cd2 begins. Because the video stutters, but not the audio with it, the audio goes forward while the video is stuttering at half speed and everything gets out of sync. I tried to burn it all to a DVDR and everything is exactly the same as on the PC, but with the exception that when the stuttering starts at the point of cd2, instead of stuttering I get regular pauses of video (not audio) which last for bout half a second, and then continuing for one or two seconds and then pausing again. SAME symptoms on BOTH my Standalone DVD players.

Now to the INTERESTING part:
I tried to author the dvd in "TMPGenc DVD author 1.6" instead, and when I tried to play the movie on my PC, and everything is FINE:

NO Stutter
ALL is in sync

I tried to use the vorking VOBs that TMPGenc DVD author created in dvd lab pro, but when I try to play after compilation in DVDLAB pro, the same things happens as mentioned above.

So to sum it all up: The problem only occurs in DVDLAB PRO, and not in TMPGenc DVD author 1.6.
the thing is that I can not add the menu I want in TMGENC DVD author, neither can I add selectable subtitles. And I really need selectable substitles and the menu that took me lots of time to create in DVDlab PRO.

Anyone who knows anything in this matter? Why do I only get this problem in DVDLAB PRO and not in TMPGENC DVD author?
And the most inportant: What can I do to make it work?
I am getting desperate, I have read the whole Internet without finding a solution.
Please help!

[Nelson37]

Suggestion 1 - investigate other authoring progs, DVDlab seems to have a lot of various types of buggy behavior.

Suggestion 2 - do not split the video. Encode each half seperately and add as two seperate movies to DVD lab.

Suggestion 3 - demux the video using TMPGenc, (which did the merging). Add the seperate M2V and audio files to DVD lab.

[Shadowmistress]

I endorse suggestion 3.

Suggestion 4 - In dvdlab under Tools, try "Fix Stream Headers".

Suggestion 5 - In dvdlab under Tools, try "Rewrite GOP Timecode".


Another thing, are you authoring using the wavs? Do your CD1 and CD2 videos have the same bitrate? Could CD2 have a higher bitrate perhaps which combined with the wav bitrate might be pushing things past the maximum playable for most dvd players? (around 9000kbps total for both audio and video.)

[guns1inger]

For what it is worth, DVD Lab generally seems to exhibit odd behaviour only when using material created from what I would call dubious sources, compiled in ways that to me are less than ideal. I have done quite a few of these tyeps of conversions using DVD Lab Pro and have never seen this type of behaviour from it.

One thing that TDA does seem to do better than DLP is joining two part material, because it can put them into one title. DLPs method of doing this does seem clunky and restrictive by comparison.

In just about every case where problems like this have arisen, the cause has been tracked to problems in the source material, either in how it was prepared, or how it was imported in DVD Lab Pro.

Another point - WMP is probably the worst player to use to try to see if a DVD is working properly. Use PowerDVD or WinDVD if you want a true representation of how a DVD my play in a player.

IF it were me, I'd be looking at my source material first.