DVD-Lab 1.1 Released

[Baldrick]

Thanks Baldrick is there a fix for this for DVD Lab?

Nope.

[mkelley]

DVDLab currently does not handle multiple audio streams, nor subtitles.

It's on the wish list and a high priority for the developer (obviously the more people that buy the product and need this the more likely it will happen, as he's been very responsive so far to the wishes of his customers).

[dvdnew]

I tried to put Vobs in DVDLab and it works but I put vobs with 2 AC3 audio and 2 subtitles and only one of each came out.
I set the "No demux" flag.
Anyone know hot to keep them ?

Thank
Riccardom

My guess is that the VOB created keeps the 2 audio and 2 subtitles but DVDlab do not create good IFO files for them. I read at mmbforums that someone found how to edit with Ifoedit to make audio work in his project, so maybe you need to change something to get it to work.

You can't create a menu to select the audio or subtitle because DVDlab can't handle that in this release.

[Rickster]

For me, DVDLab works great! I used Acid Pro 4.0 with the DD 5.1 surround pack to re-mix a client's dvd audio into DD 5.1 surround (.ac3 file). I had used TmpgEnc to encode the video to MPEG2 and dropped the video and the .ac3 file into DVDLab and it encoded the DD 5.1 audio perfectly in sync with the MPEG2 video. No worries here! I'm buying DVDLab!

[albert]

It looks to like just the programm I've been looking for. For the past few weeks I've been trying quite a few. And almost all authoring programms lack some feature and perform lousy on my old machine (amd duron 800).

This programm is really useable on my old PC. I do plan on upgrading my hardware (encoding my homevideo's using Tmpgenc is now done at night), but I will wait until the athlon 64 is widely available.

What I like:

- useable on older hardware. (the ulead, intervideo etc. tools are hardly responding during chapter selection. DVD lab has none of these problems)
- much more options, you can just stick any object in the menu and select what it is supposed to do. Whereas the other tools throw the buttons on the screen and do not offer options to change them.
- userinterface is nice, (ones you read the quick tutorial)

Less nice:
- 'compile' a DVD takes a long time (not too big a problem, I just do something else)
- DVD image have as an extension .img. That, in my view is somewhat lame. .iso is better IMO. I renamed an .img file to .iso, and DVDdecrypter burned it perfectly

But these negatives can be overcome

If I stay pleased , I'll probably buy it at the end of the trial period.

[mkelley]

Albert,

Visit the DVDLab forum and express any wishes or problems there. One of the really nice things about the product is the developer (Oscar) is reachable and responsive to messages (try and get Ulead to respond... absolutely impossible :>)

[citizen]

I'm confused as to why DVDLab (or any authoring tool) needs to mux/demux imported files. Can anyone explain?

If I encode using Tmpgenc with seperate video/audio (Mpeg not ACM) streams and import into DVDLab, does DVDLab still need to Mux/Demux to produce the VOB files.

Thanks in advance.

[housepig]

DVD Lab doesn't have to demux - you can turn off the demux function.

however, if your files aren't in compliance with the dvd spec, not de-muxing supresses the warnings about this, and when you compile, you will end up with an unusable output.

If you know that your files are dvd spec compliant, you can omit demuxing.

[dvdnew]

I'm confused as to why DVDLab (or any authoring tool) needs to mux/demux imported files. Can anyone explain?

If I encode using Tmpgenc with seperate video/audio (Mpeg not ACM) streams and import into DVDLab, does DVDLab still need to Mux/Demux to produce the VOB files.

Thanks in advance.

The demux part is because some features are better worked on if you have 1 file for video and 1 file for audio, and in the future DVDlab will handle more than 1 audio file, so you need each file separate for it to work. But now DVDlab doesn't need to demux.

The mux part is because the program needs to join the video and audio files if they are separate. If they are together (no demux option) then the software needs to change the mpg file into a vob file that have some other information than the good old plain mpg file.

Now DVDlab can handle VOB files directly without demuxing/remuxing them.

[EOrozco]

I've just made my first DVDr with DVD-lab exploring the benefits of easy converting SVCD movies... The final DVD plays very well on my home DVD player and on PC with PowerDVD, but Windows Media Player (ver.9) doesn't play the audio on the files compiled (just the audio on menus that I made on DVD-lab)...it seems that there is some kind of incompatibility on the 48khz "transcoded" files from the SVCDs with WMP.

Any advice or comment will be greatly appreciatted (WMP plays very well all my other DVD stuff...)

[wimpie_b]

Southside97 wrote:

been playing around with this for a while but need help. I tried importing vobs file directly and it takes it but the thing is, i want to import the whole folder. for instance, i have two small movies, about 2gigs each in its own video_ts folder and i want to import them into dvd-lab. but it only takes one vob file, like for "Movie 1". if i try to shift+select mulptiple vobs, it won't let me and if i try to add more than one vob file into the "Movie 1", it won't let me. should i join all the vobs using vobedit into one big file and then add it into dvdlab? or is there another way of doing this?

I don't know if this is possible with VobEdit, but you can join vobs using
IfoEdit.

I use IfoEdit(ver. 0.95) as follows:
- start ifoedit
- open VTS_01_0.IFO
- from the menu at the top, choose VOB Extras and Remux .m2v
- in the window that pops up:
- uncheck Correct original IFO files (you won't need them anyway)
- enter a new Destination directory
- enter the path and name of your original *.m2v-file
- choose No split for VOB Size
- Hit OK
IfoEdit will now make 1 big VOB-file that you can use in DVDLab !

Hope this helps.

Willy.

[JamesB69]

I'll continue using Maestro until they get more features and bugs straightened out. But it is lookign very promising. If your reading this Oscar keep up the good work

[binks120]

is it me i have an mpeg2 on my hd that plays perfect its a ntsc 3-2 pulldown movie the audio is fine but after dvdlab creates the video_ts the audio goes upto 1.5 secs out ?? help plz im desparate

[mkelley]

binks,

If you're desperate try posting this problem on the DVDLab forum -- you're in a much better position to get answers since not only a lot of knowledgable users frequent it, but Oscar himself reads the threads.

I'm sure they can help you there.

[Jolard]

So far I am really impressed. I have used nearly everything, Maestro, DVDit, SpruceUp, the Ulead line, and only Maestro is better. But even that is a tossup, since DVD lab makes a lot of tasks easier than Maestro, while maestro can do more.

The only features I have noticed so far that maestro can do that DVD lab can't, are things like mulitple audio and subtitles (both supposed to be coming) as well as highly complex tools such as playlists and command strings. However I rarely use those, and obviously I am "demoing" Maestro since no-one can afford or even buy it anymore. DVD-Lab is actually incredibly reasonable for the price.

Using the demo version, I created a DVD for a friend, two movies (reunion and wedding), captured them in VirtualDub, transcoded in TMPGEnc, created Menu backgrounds in Photoshop, and then pulled everything together in DVDLab. I like the simple and powerful menu tools, as well as the fact I can do menus like Maestro (background + Subpicture etc) if I like. Had all the tools I wanted for creating the menus without a lot of hassle. I liked the quick screenshot grab for chapter buttons, and the auto chapter button option was nice. Used one of the menu transitions, kind of fun and easy to use.

I liked the way you can set the "process flows" graphically, makes it easy to set up end of movie behaviors etc. Other things are easier than Maestro, movement behavior from button to button on a menu for example. It is easily enough done in Maestro, but in DVDLab I can see this graphically on the screen. So it is much faster and right the first time.

Only wishes? I wish it had an expanded menu preview. Right now you can enter preview mode and test one menu screen, but if you click a link to another menu, it doesn't take you there. Not overly important, but on complex menu processes, it would be nice. Also, I wanted to set a Play All option as well as playing the individual clips, but without playlists or commands that is not possible. However that is a minor issue, and something I can live without.

Very impressed, will be buying before my trial period is up.

[joepic]

DVDLAB 1.15

Here is the update info:

Version 1.15 BETA (June 7th 2003) update download here (1.8 MB), you need to have installed 1.1 before applying update.

- fix for 256kbps AC3 streams and some wav files
- fix for Activated colors not showing in menu
- full Adobe Photoshop support: now you can export the whole menu to layered PSD and also import a Photoshop made menu.
- Added Reduce Jitter option - it will smooth the edges of objects which prevents from jitter of the menu on TV
- Added Add to Project button - you can add video and audio to Movie or Connection without dragging.
- synchronization between Project tree and Connection view.
- support for drop frame videos and recalculation of chapter points from DF to NDF.
- Joining VOB files option
- added *.m2p as possible input
- Color Map control and Link Control fix
- Tools- IFO Editor Audio settings- you can now easily change the audio settings in DVD-lab generated IFO's which for example enables using vobs with multiple audio streams
- Post-Compile Option: Force Audio for all Movies. This will check the compilation and eventually force audio for all PGC's where the compiler failed locate audio stream. (This is the case where VOB plays fine with audio, but the whole DVD claims no audio)
- Demuxer fix for some not correctly cut streams where the demux will loop at the end adding dummy data to mpv or mpa untill the disc is full.

Get the update here:
http://www.mediachance.com/dvdlab/history.html

[dvdnew]

Only wishes? I wish it had an expanded menu preview. Right now you can enter preview mode and test one menu screen, but if you click a link to another menu, it doesn't take you there. Not overly important, but on complex menu processes, it would be nice.

In Compile DVD check "Test Compile (replace all movies with dummy)" option and in a moment you will end with a DVD structure with small dummy files where you can tests your menus with PowerDVD.