DVDlab 1.1: Is it really working?!

[WARM3CH]

Hi,

I've tried DVDlab 1.1 and also before that, the beta versions released over past few months. My question is simple, has anybody really produced a single working DVD with it or people just like to praise its long feature list?!
I've tried all possible methods to import elementary streams (both MPEG1 and MPEG2) never could pass this stage! If the file was not demuxed before, the program starts to demux it but suddenly stops OR shows 100% but in fact only demuxes a few megabytes and stops. If I feed it separate audio and video files and it tries to resample the audio, it either crashes or stops in the middle of the file. And finally if use some other tool to resample the audio file to 48KHz and feed it audio and video in separate files, it ALWAYS crashes! The same files work flawlessly in other programs and play with no problem. I'm not the first one reporting this problem as it was reported from the early beta versions but never fixed. Maybe the author tragets the program for those who just like to spend money to be happy to HAVE the program but are not going to actually use it....

[xxBladExx]

Yes, I did yesterday night. With menu's and chapters. It worked fine for me....

[housepig]

I've done several projects with it, I haven't had a problem.

but I also make sure that my asset files are dvd compliant before I try to import them.

[cmangeot]

me too. I used it to do one thing I could not achieve with DVD Workshop.
take a video stream, a 5.1 ac3 sound and produce a 5.1 dvd.

[mkelley]

Hi,

I've tried DVDlab 1.1 and also before that, the beta versions released over past few months. My question is simple, has anybody really produced a single working DVD with it or people just like to praise its long feature list?!
I've tried all possible methods to import elementary streams (both MPEG1 and MPEG2) never could pass this stage! If the file was not demuxed before, the program starts to demux it but suddenly stops OR shows 100% but in fact only demuxes a few megabytes and stops. If I feed it separate audio and video files and it tries to resample the audio, it either crashes or stops in the middle of the file. And finally if use some other tool to resample the audio file to 48KHz and feed it audio and video in separate files, it ALWAYS crashes! The same files work flawlessly in other programs and play with no problem. I'm not the first one reporting this problem as it was reported from the early beta versions but never fixed. Maybe the author tragets the program for those who just like to spend money to be happy to HAVE the program but are not going to actually use it....

Hmmm -- I've only authored about 100 DVDs with it so far, so perhaps I'm not one to talk...

First of all, you need to understand what it isn't. It isn't a program that will reprocess your non-DVD compliant files. It won't reencode, it won't change your audio so it works, it just doesn't work that way. Saying your files work in other programs really doesn't mean a thing, as most other authoring programs *do* completely reencode everything.

It also isn't a particularly good program to use for MPEG1 streams -- I guess it can be done but that's not what it's designed for.

It also is a little touchy when it comes to mixing audio types -- you need to stick strictly to one type. I reencode everything to AC3 2.0 and have absolutely zero problems.

I've used it on a wide variety of things, everywhere from where I had created the content on DV-AVI myself all the way to taking ripped VOBs from my STTNG episode disks to create backups and it's always worked perfectly for me. I've also tested the finished DVDs on a wide variety of players with absolutely zero problems -- like I said, though, you need to be careful about your audio.

If it doesn't work for you don't worry about it -- there are lots of other choices out there and perhaps you'll find something better. Or if you like the way it works and still want to get it going, visit the DVDLab forum and pose your questions there (the author is generally very accessible, although right now he's in Europe).

[tharris]

I tried out DVD Lab 1.1 and ran into problems, some of which had work arounds. I really liked the overall application, espeically the menu transitions and the ability to have more "control" over menu selections, switched menus, and the interface is really nice.

These are the issues I ran into, some of which are show stoppers:

1) Importing MPEG2 program streams with PCM audio created by Videostudio 7 do not work - DVD Lab attempts to demux the audio to LPCM and fails with a ! next to the file name. It is possible to import the same file if MPEG audio is used. Videostudio 7 can not create elementary streams so this is not an option.

2) DVD burns fail (program actually crashes) every time and right at the end so it is necessary to create the directory structure/files on the hard drive and then burn them with another application such as Nero or Roxio. No big deal but it should work.

3) Audio issues (audio briefly stops/stutters) on my Philips set top DVD player if non-AC3 audio is used to create the DVD. So, it is necessary to create an MPEG2 with MPEG audio from issue #1, allow DVD Lab to demux the audio, then use BeSweet to convert the audio to AC3, then burn the disk. The audio stop/stutter then goes away only when the DVD player is set to RAW mode; if the player is set to PCM mode then there was only 1 audio stop/stutter using my test video file and AC3 audio.

The audio issues are the biggest problem for me as I have VCDs and some DVDs that are encoded with MPEG audio so I don't want to have to reconfigure the DVD player between RAW and PCM mode every time the kids want to watch a disk encoded one way or the other.

I tested the same MPEG2 video file with PCM, MPEG, and AC3 audio with DVD Workshop 1.3 and had no problems with play back on the DVD player so DVD Lab has some kind of issue.

Other posters indicate that there is audio drift over videos that are long (1.5-2 hours) but I haven't tried a project that is that long.

So, there are some problems to fix....

[WARM3CH]

One of things that is advertised for the program is that you can easily use SVCD sources to produce DVD-SVCD and everybody knows that SVCD files are NOT DVD complient. What I've done is to select SVCD mpeg files and try import it in a DVD project. The program CRASHES. And yes, I've already reported that problem (and others have done the same) in the DVDlab offical forum but there was not any workaround, answer or bugfix. Yet, you can see that claims about SVCD are bold it the site.
About the Audio, the program again claims to support sampling rate conversion but everytime I tried, it failed to finish the file.
Yes, I can do all such things with other programs as I already do but my point is that while the program has many attractive features and good price, yet it has MANY obvious bugs that practically renders it useless for someone like me.

[Doggiedaddy]

WARM3CH
[DVD COMPLIANT] files you must have the proper input or the authoring program will not operate correctly. This is the most difficult part, preparing your assets properly. Most authoring programs are very picky about what will or will not work. They only put the parts together they do not encode or re-encode the assets.

? NOTE ?: DVD Lab will also accept VOB files, so one thing you might try if you have DVD2one [because of speed for a trial], that might be easier for you. Try reducing VOB file size with DVD2one and import the VOBS into DVD Lab. Make sure you demux them and this may help you if you are having a problem understand and producing DVD Compliant files with you chosen encoder. The demux function will also check the files or compliance.
I finished a project just prior to reading this post and all worked as expected. To me program operates much like DVD Maestro but more stable and flexible.

Good Luck
Hope this helps

Dd

[Timoleon]

Prep your files with DVD2DVD-R before you use DVDLab and you won't regret it! I haven't had a single DVD coaster since I started using this combo There's a guide somewhere on the site here... I think the latest version of DVD2DVD-2 is 1.4.9 --- use that. The quality of the end product is absolutely top notch.

Good Luck

[andkiich]

I just started using this because DVDComplete does not support Half D1. I have to say that so far it has worked very well for me. My sources that I have been encoding have not been in anything other than standard stereo/MPEG1 Layer 2 audio, so I cannot say anything in regards to any audio problems. My capture sources have been home videos and items off VHS.

I don't burn the disc with this either. My process is Capture with VirtualDub, encode to MPEG2-DVD Compliant with TMPGENc, author with DVD-LAB, then burn with NERO.

The other thing, they have just recently released an update, I believe 1.15. I didn't look at all that went into it, but it might address some issues that you speak of.

[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

[ZenZen]

WARM3CH wrote
"One of things that is advertised for the program is that you can easily use SVCD sources to produce DVD-SVCD and everybody knows that SVCD files are NOT DVD complient. What I've done is to select SVCD mpeg files and try import it in a DVD project. The program CRASHES"

I'm not sure what you're doing wrong, but using DVD Lab I have created over 30 DVD-Rs from my vast collection of SVCDs. I usually fit around 5 SVCDs on a blank DVD, and those 5 SVCDs (mostly doccos from cable TV) are accessable from a real cool menu, complete with my own choice of background jpeg picture and menu music. Every single one of them has been faultless. I could not be happier with DVD Lab