Compile with DVD-Lab leaves me with incomplete film

[sNoWy1998]

I am still trying to work out what is going on.. I have a film 1:59:00 length taken from XviD, stripped .ac3 and transcoded video to m2v with TMPGenc. .m2v plays fine, but when compiled as a basic movie project the VOBs it outputs seem to just cut off the last 12 mins or so of the film. I cant seem to work out the prob. I have checked the .ac3 file with ac3fix, that is ok, I have checked the m2v file with VirtualDub, and that reports no bad frames either. I am stuck... anyone know why this may be happening?

[Baldrick]

tried any other authoring tool? dvd-lab can be a bit buggy.

[Mikhail]

I had a similar problem with DVD-Lab.
As it turned out the reason was pretty simple. During the compilation of a DVD DVD-Lab tried to create a single large temporary file that was larger than 4GB in my case. And I specified 'Temp' folder on a FAT32 partition. Of course, DVD-Lab couldn't write more than 4GB into that temporary file and the end of the movie was cut off.
So it was simply needed to specify 'Temp' folder on a NTFS partition.

[sNoWy1998]

thx mikhail, that is most likely the problem, I am running it on a '98 system..

Anyone know of something that does the same thing (.m2v + .ac3 >> VOBs) without building the 4gb + tempfile??

[Mikhail]

If you don't need menus - simply use IFOEdit.
It's a nice tool to multiplex video, audio and subtitles.

[rfielder]

As it turned out the reason was pretty simple. During the compilation of a DVD DVD-Lab tried to create a single large temporary file that was larger than 4GB in my case. And I specified 'Temp' folder on a FAT32 partition. Of course, DVD-Lab couldn't write more than 4GB into that temporary file and the end of the movie was cut off.
So it was simply needed to specify 'Temp' folder on a NTFS partition.

That sucks!

If an application is writing to disk, and the write fails, you should be presented with an error message, not with a damaged file!!

Has anyone documented this and presented it to Oscar?

[Roderz]

Yea, I don't like the way dvdlab does this either - I'm strugling with hd space all the time.

Anyone know of something that does the same thing (.m2v + .ac3 >> VOBs) without building the 4gb + tempfile??

TMPGEncDVDAuthor doesn't use temp files (not that I can find anyway) and splits the vobs at 1Gig chunks

[sNoWy1998]

Yea Roderz, DVD Author would have been my first choice, but to use ac3 streams you need the ac3 plug-in which i do not have.

ahem *cough* *nudge* *nudge* *wink* *wink*

[codecpage]

TMPGEnc DVD Athor will take streams with AC3 if they are already multiplexed, even without the AC3 plugin.
You won't be able to hear the audio while editing, but editing and cutting works, and the DVD will contain the AC3 as well.
So the problem may be reduced to multiplex m2v and ac3. I'm not presently sure what to use for that, maybe sombody else can tell you.

Cheers

[Roderz]

you need the ac3 plug-in which i do not have

No, you only need the plug in if you want to MAKE a ac3 file,
If you already have the audio in ac3 (e.g. lots of downloaded divx have)
simply point TDA to the seperate video + ac3 audio and TDA will do the multiplex for you.
As codecpage stated you won't hear anything in preview but it DOES work (well it does 4 me - and I havent got the ac3 plugin - ahem *cough* *nudge* *nudge* *wink* *wink* )