Creating Chapters every few minutes

[Subhash]

Hi everyone,

I have been trying to remember what DVD Authoring Software allows you the option of creating chapters every "n" minutes or so where "n" is the number of minutes you specify. I am pretty sure I have that program somewhere but I can't seem to remember the name of the program.

If someone can help me here with my memory, I will really appreciate it. I must have uninstalled it from my HD but now I need it badly but don't know which one. I have tried Pinnacle Studio 9 and DVD Lab Pro 2.15 but none of them has that option.

It will save me lot of time rather that having to install every one of them and trying it out.

Thanks in advance for the help......

Subhash.

[AlanHK]

GfD

[LJB]

Ulead DVDMovieFactory will do that.

[MOVIEGEEK]

DVDFlick

[TJohns]

TMPGEnc DVD Author

[johns0]

TMPGEnc DVD Author

Easiest one to use to make chapters by the minutes.

[El Heggunte]

DVD Santa ?

Seriously, I do not see the point of inserting chapter points @ every N minutes.
Either I myself decide when and where the chapters will start and end,
or the DVD title(s) will have no chapters at all. As everybody should know,
a movie or a documentary is not "naturally divided" in 5-minute chapters...

[AlanHK]

Seriously, I do not see the point of inserting chapter points @ every N minutes.

I do it to make it easier to skip back and forward, rather than having to fast forward/rewind.

I usually run GfD's chapter editor, make equally spaced chapters (enough so they are about 3-5 minutes apart) and add one (the first) at the end of the opening credits, and the last at the beginning of the end credits.
You really have to watch it all the way through before you can work out "natural" break points, so that's very rarely something I do. If I'm redoing a movie from a DVD, I usually duplicate the original chapter points (eg, with ChapterXtractor, PGCDemux), can just paste in the list of times.

[johns0]

DVD Santa ?

Seriously, I do not see the point of inserting chapter points @ every N minutes.
Either I myself decide when and where the chapters will start and end,
or the DVD title(s) will have no chapters at all. As everybody should know,
a movie or a documentary is not "naturally divided" in 5-minute chapters...

Chapters are meant to skip quickly to a spot in a movie,having 5 minute chapters lets me click 6 times to get 30 minutes into a movie,much easier setting auto chapters than manually setting markers that take too much time to place.

Having no chapters in a 3 hour movie would be gruesome,as to a film not "naturally being" divided into 5 minute chapters makes as much sense as a book not needing chapters.

[ZQX]

I do it to make it easier to skip back and forward, rather than having to fast forward/rewind.

Exactly. Most DVD authoring apps (free or otherwise) allow you to set chapter points every 5mins or whatever interval you decide. I actually use VideoRedo with which you can set chapter points at regular intervals or wherever you decide, and it will spew out a chapter list which you can then feed nicely into Muxman for authoring. (You can author also with VideoRedo, but out of habit I tend to go for Muxman, which has never let me down re authoring).

The new Womble EasyDVD also does chapter points very nicely/smoothly. I'm still testing this one out, and although it seems a bit limited at this moment in time it seems a rock solid performer and will no doubt improve it's abilities. I'm definitely keeping my eye on this one (bought it cheap in fact, being a registered Womble user. In fact, 10th Nov is last day to get it cheap!!!)

[Subhash]

I do it to make it easier to skip back and forward, rather than having to fast forward/rewind.

Exactly. Most DVD authoring apps (free or otherwise) allow you to set chapter points every 5mins or whatever interval you decide. I actually use VideoRedo with which you can set chapter points at regular intervals or wherever you decide, and it will spew out a chapter list which you can then feed nicely into Muxman for authoring. (You can author also with VideoRedo, but out of habit I tend to go for Muxman, which has never let me down re authoring).

The new Womble EasyDVD also does chapter points very nicely/smoothly. I'm still testing this one out, and although it seems a bit limited at this moment in time it seems a rock solid performer and will no doubt improve it's abilities. I'm definitely keeping my eye on this one (bought it cheap in fact, being a registered Womble user. In fact, 10th Nov is last day to get it cheap!!!)

Thank you all for the input.

I totally agree. For the kind of movie I want to make DVD of, I really don't care at what point the chapters are marked. I just need to skip quickly through the movie. If I want to go to a particular point then I will skip to an approximate chapter and FF or REW from there to the exact location I want rather than to create chapters at the DVD Authoring time.

I don't have any of the other programs mentioned here except Ulead DVD Studio. It must have been that one. I am going reinstall that and see how it goes.

[olyteddy]

Many, if not most DVD players have some form of 'Skip to Time', too. At least the ones I have do.

[johns0]

Many, if not most DVD players have some form of 'Skip to Time', too. At least the ones I have do.

Thats a real pain to bring up the time and then input the the numbers and then go to that spot,much easier to skip chapters.

[MOVIEGEEK]

Many, if not most DVD players have some form of 'Skip to Time', too. At least the ones I have do.

Most BD players don't have this feature, I also prefer using chapters.

[guns1inger]

FWIW, DVD Lab Pro does this as well.

[Subhash]

I finally discovered the exact software I was trying to remember and that was Cyberlink Power Director. For some reasons I had uninstalled it from my comp and I recently installed it again and voilla, it had the feature I was desperately looking for.

Just for the benefit of those who might be trying to do the same thing as I want to do.

@guns1inger: Thanks for the tip on DVD Lab Pro but the DLP takes only m2v files as input (I think). That is an extra step for me and also the risk of compromising quality during conversion back and forth.

[zenzen1]

Hi ZQX
Quote actually use VideoRedo with which you can set chapter points at regular intervals
Can you please explain how you do this with VideoRedo ??
I cannot see any option for Chapter creation or changing

[Jim44]

Hi ZQX
Quote actually use VideoRedo with which you can set chapter points at regular intervals
Can you please explain how you do this with VideoRedo ??
I cannot see any option for Chapter creation or changing

Online manual:
http://www.videoredo.net/helpdocs/en/plus/html/source/PageParamChapterMarks.htm

There should also be a copy of it with the program on your computer. And it has a search function, which is how I found that page.

[zenzen1]

Jim44 Thanks for that. Much appreciated.

[zenzen1]

Back again !! OK I've got VideoReDo to save a Chapter text file.
Now I wish to import the video file and Chapter text file into Handbrake to create an MKV.
But Handbrake will only import CSV Chapter files. Another brick wall (

1) Is there a program that will convert Chapter text files to Handbrake's CSV files ?
2) Is there an MKV creator that will accept VideoReDo's Chapter text files ??

Thanks in advance
Baron

[AlanHK]

Is there a program that will convert Chapter text files to Handbrake's CSV files ?

Both formats are plain text files.
Open in a text editor and you should be able to work out a search-and-replace or macro to convert between them.
Or you could use Excel.

Or post a sample of each format here and somene may be able to help you.

[zenzen1]

This is the text file that VideoReDo outputs
00:00:20:00
00:00:40:00
00:01:00:00
00:01:20:00
00:01:40:00
00:02:00:00
00:02:20:00
00:02:40:00
00:03:00:00
00:03:20:00
00:03:40:00
(Chapters every 20 seconds for brevity)

But how do I convert these to a CSV file that Handbrake will read ??

[AlanHK]

But how do I convert these to a CSV file that Handbrake will read ??

Example of this kind of file?

CSV = Comma Separated Variables. But we need to know just which "variables" it wants, and in what units, etc.

[norz]

Afaik Handbrake doesn't allow you to *create* chapters, but only to names chapters it has detected on a DVD.
The .csv file that you can import in handbrake is in this form:

1,Chapter One
2,Chapter Two
3,Chapter Three

More info here: http://trac.handbrake.fr/wiki/CLIGuide