Adding a Title screen before each clip?

[kelemvor]

Howdy,

I have a bunch of home video clips that I'm putting to DVD. I've got everything converted and am using TMPEG DVD Author 1.6 to make the DVD. I can setup the menus just fine but what I want to do is add a title screen to each clip that would have a description so when the clip starts, it'd show this screen with what the clip is and then start the clip playing.

So if the first clip is summer vacation and the second clip is Christmas, when the first clip starts I want a screen that says "Summer Vacation 1992" and then when it switches to clip 2 while playing I want to insert a screen that says "Christmas 1992". Does that make sense?

I'm not sure what I need to do this or what software can help me. Any suggestions on the easiest way to do this?

Thanks.

[guns1inger]

Are these currently one clip, or a series of small clips ?

If it is one clip, I would go back to the source and put the titles in with an editor, then re-encode. Or you could use a free mpeg editor to cut the clip up into segments, create new titles with something as simple as Microsoft Paint and virtualdub, and then author so each title (track, in TDA speak) starts with a title, then the clip.

[kelemvor]

Each clip is currently it's own clip. I have the original AVi files and I've encoded them to M2v/Wav files. Only programs I've used are WinDV to capture, VirtualDub to edit them and save them as AVI files and TMPEG Plus to encode them.

So do I have to create the "Title" page on my own in some sort of graphic program and then use something else to turn it into a video file of that image and then combine that with the video file?

How do I turn an image file into a Video file? I think I can do the rest but that's the part I'm stuck on.

[mk2006]

1. Create your title screen in whatever image program you like (Photoshop, etc). Make sure that the size of the image is consistent with your clip (720x480/576, etc). Save file as .bmp
2. In AviSynth use ImageReader to set the frame rate and length of the clip.
3. Use VirtualDub to create an AVI from the .avs script
4. Combine the two clips (title and movie) into one in VirutalDub by using AppendAVI...
5. Encode and author

Alternative method: steps 3, 4 and 5
3. Use an encoder that can read .avs file to encode to MPEG1/2.
4. Encode the movie to the same format
5. Combine the title screen with the movie in an authoring app.

[kelemvor]

Thanks for the info. That's exactly what I needed. And jsut in time since I need this done by Sunday.

Only question is, can you expand on the first Step 3? How do I use VDub with the script to make the image into the AVi file?

Maybe it's simple but I'm not at home so can't try it out.

Thanks!

[manono]

How do I turn an image file into a Video file? I think I can do the rest but that's the part I'm stuck on.

Muxman accepts DVD compliant BMPs (720x480 if for NTSC) as input. You can add some music in AC3 or WAV format if you like, and the "video" will last as long as does the music. Author your text screens to DVD using Muxman.

Then open your already existing DVD in PGCEdit, highlight each of the videos to which you wish to add an opening text screen, go Title->Import Title's Intro Clip, and follow the easy instructions from there. If you didn't add any music, you can choose how long the text screens will be displayed.

The result will be the text screens being played or displayed before each of the video titles. I'm assuming that each video is its own Title or PGC. If not, then you'll have to follow guns1inger's or mk2006's solutions.

If you decide to encode the pics individually as MPEG-2 videos, AviSynth's ImageSource command can easily frameserve them to your encoder:

http://avisynth.org/ImageSource

The pics can also be joined to your AVIs for encoding to MPEG-2. This is similar to mk2006's suggestion.

[manono]

Only question is, can you expand on the first Step 3? How do I use VDub with the script to make the image into the AVi file?

ImageSource("C:\Path\To\Text.jpg",fps=29.97,end=30 0)
Lanczos4Resize(720,480)

Say you have a 640x480 pic you want to make DVD compliant and encode eventually for 4:3. That script resizes it to 720x480, sets the framerate to 29.97fps, and has it last 300 frames, or about 10 seconds. It's all explained in the previous ImageSource link. Then set up VDub however you like for encoding to whatever AVI format (Lossless, DV, XviD, etc.). You can use pics in a number of different formats; BMP, JPG, and PNG among others, I think.

[Tom Saurus]

If you have Womble Video Wizard you can create a title in that program and add it to your clip. One can also use the Title Function in Pinacle Studio 8, that is included on the ATI Disc for some of their capture cards. I don't use it for much else, but the Title Function does come in handy at times. It can be exported as a .mpv file and then you can bring this file into Womble Mpeg Video Wizard and add some sound to it if you want to do that.