Authoring a DVD with many small clips

[AlexV]

Hi,

I'd like to author a DVD that contains many short (under 1 minute) clips. I have all these clips in MPEG2 format. I'd like to have these clips to be individual chapters so I can use NEXT to move from one clip to another. By the way is there a limitation on the number of chapters allowed? Can these be individual "movies" rather than chapters so I have a name for each of the clips and select the desired one from the man menu? Is there a limit on the number of menus? These do seem like noob's questions, but I never authored a DVD before.

Having looked at the list of DVD authoring tools, I see quite a few of them there. Does anyone have any personal experience with the tasks I'm trying to accomplish, and suggest which tools worked well.

Thanks,

-- Alex

[johnkd]

Does anyone have any personal experience with the tasks I'm trying to accomplish

Yep..Use TMPGEnc DVD Author..

I'd like to have these clips to be individual chapters so I can use NEXT to move from one clip to another

Add all files to a single track.. TMPG will automatically insert chapter points at the beginning of each clip.. I guess there is no limitation on the number of chapters a track can have..

Can these be individual "movies" rather than chapters so I have a name for each of the clips

Add each file to a separate track .. eg, add clip1 to Track1, clip2 to track2 etc..

[borax]

How 'many'?

On DVDs you can have 99 'titles' (each one within an own titleset='Track' in TDA, or all in one titleset, or in any combination). Each title may consist of several clips, but these must have the same 'properties' (like resolution, aspect ratio, type and number of audio channels...). Titles with different properties must be put in different titlesets. For each title you can have up to 99 chapters (it is possible to use more, but I would not recommend it).

[Bjs]

Not a real problem , but borax has shown the complexities you should be aware of to do with file attribute's being the same .

As for the rest :

Dvdauthogui - basic dvd layout and creation
Gimp - menu creation
Pgcedit - editing dvd navigational command's , and more
Vobedit - splitting / joining vob's
Ifoedit - re-generation of ifo's , basic title authoring , best at ifo correction's
Rejig - better at some thing's ifoedit may choke on
Quenc - for quick and easy re-encoding of video stream's to m2v source ... basic avisynth scipting required .
Bbmpeg - accept's frameserved file's from vdub / mod ... encode to any mpeg2 resolution as acceptable by ifoedit .
Besweet - audio conversion

More than 99 title's :

This require's knowledge of cell nav command usage in pgcedit ...

Beyond this ... menu's go beyond this limit ... dose work ... menu item's can be made using some of your title's ... which is a shortcut to 99 title limit .

[AlexV]

Thanks for evereyone's input.

I going to have 64 tracks/chapters (will have to figure which one to make). So, there should be no issue with the max number of titles allowed.

All the clips should have the same properties as they are coming from the same source.

I'll give TMPGEnc DVD Author a try first since I believe it's got a trial period so I can experiment.

-- Alex

[thecoalman]

but borax has shown the complexities you should be aware of to do with file attribute's being the same .

DVD workshop will author videos with different resolutions, bitrates, aspects etc. Slap them on the timeline and select "do not convert compliant video" when you go to burn. any video that meets the specs will be left as is, video that are not will be reencoded to whatever template or settings you have made.

You can also do this with DVD Lab Pro but I'm unfamiliar with that product.