Help with DVD Lab Pro

[blacksheepdownunder]

Hi, I am new to this software. Till recent i have used Ulead DVDWorkshop. I wanna make my dvds more pro.

I am needing help with
1: the transition video clips between menus and movies. For some reason the audio cuts out half way through the clip. They also leave a pause/blank screen for a few secs

2: the audio setup so the viewer can select 2.0 stereo or 5.1 audio before the movie starts.

Can anyone talk me through on msn or something PLEASE


Blacksheep

[guns1inger]

1. How are you creating the transitions, especially the audio ?

DLP is pretty fussy about the quality of the audio encoding. Also, are the video and audio the same length ? You will find that there will be a short gap between the transition and the menu and the title. This is a DVD spec issue, and the length of the gap will vary form player to player. You can remove some of these gaps by using cells in menus, but you will still get a short gap between the menu and the title.

2. Menus for setting audio can be very simple or very complex.

A more complex design is here : http://www.mediachance.com/dvdlab/tutorial/amanager.html

A simpler option is to create a button for 2.0 and a button for 5.1, then link them to the correct audio track. Add a Play Movie button under these. User chooses an audio track, then selects the play button.

[blacksheepdownunder]

for transitions i am making an mpeg2 snippit in TMPGEnc Xpress then using SONY SoundForge to create a AC3 file. Should i try doing it all in TMPGEnc?

the simple option you mention is exactly what im looking for. How do i find the right audio track to link it to as DLP doesnt give audio playback.

[blacksheepdownunder]

i want to link the play movie to a menu that selects 2.0 or 5.1
from that go to a transition clip then play the movie with audio selected.. if possible or have the audio select on main menu. either is cool.

[blacksheepdownunder]

does dvdlab fade audio automaticaly, I tried creating the AC3 files in TMPGEnc and get same problem

[aedipuss]

1)did you try playing the transition clip with the audio to make sure they play together correctly before importing? try muxing them together to check.

2)with multiple audio make sure the total bitrate including video, audios and subs doesn't exceed 10.08 Mbps.

[blacksheepdownunder]

1) yes if i play the video with audio another programe ie Sony Vegas, They match up. The audio is encoded from the MPeg2 file. I only ripped it as AC3 because it wouldnt play at all is i left it as the aduio from the mpeg2 because im using AC3 for the main film and making off feature.

2) can you please explane this more, as i mentioned i am new to this.

Thanks

[guns1inger]

No, DLP does not auto fade audio.

The simplest method is as follows;

Add your video to your movie. Add the 5.1 audio as the first audio track, and the 2.0 as the second audio track.

Create a new menu called Audio Selection.

Add a button marked 5.1 Surround. Right-click on this button and select Link -> Set Audio -> Audio Stream 1

Add a button marked 2.0 Stereo. Right-click on this button and select Link -> Set Audio -> Audio Stream 2

Add a button marked Play Movie. Right-click on this button and select Link -> {movie that is your transition}

On the connections window, draw a link from your transition movie to your main movie.

Compile and test.

You cannot easily create a button that sets audio and goes straight to the movie without getting into the code at the back. If you want to do that, have a look at the demo I linked to previously, or spend some time in the Mediachange forums, where there are plenty of examples.

[blacksheepdownunder]

Sweet that sorts my audio settings menu... Now to sort the transition issue

[guns1inger]

Sweet that sorts my audio settings menu... Now to sort the transition issue

Your transition problems are mostly likely related to the files themselves - either how you encoded them or cut them.

How long are they ?
What are the encoding settings ?
What is the combined bitrate of the video and audio streams ?

[blacksheepdownunder]

another legend has helped me out BIGTIME (aedipuss) www.minidv2dvd.com
Check him out. He told me to change files from AC3 to PCM and it works a dream. Convinced me to ditch the fake 5.1 audio and go PCM instead.

I would still like to go back to AC3 if possible as it uses less space on the disc. The transitions clips are about 5 seconds each

[guns1inger]

A couple of things to understand about DVD authoring;

1. The audio in the transitions must match the audio format of the menu. So if you have PCM audio on the menu, you must have PCM audio on the transition. If you have 2.0 AC3 on the menu, you must have 2.0 AC3 on the transition.

2. There is a lead time with moving from title to title, and for the digital signal to get picked up by the decoder. This can mean that the audio does not begin immediately that a button is pressed.

3. DVD Lab Pro is picky about the quality of AC3 encoding. If switching to PCM works, it implies very strongly that there is something wrong with the AC3 audio tracks you are using, and you should look into this to solve your problem. There is no such thing as a 'fake 5.1' AC3 audio track. It is either 5.1 channels, or it isn't. You may have created the channels from stereo and therefore faked the surround effect, but if you encoded 6 streams into a 5.1 AC3 encoded stream, you have a 5.1 audio track. This is not your problem.

PCM is high quality, at a cost. It requires a huge bitrate and provides only stereo audio (yes, in theory it can do surround, and on Bluray it does - DVD does not have the bitrate to allow it). The high bitrate also means you have to use a lower bitrate on the video, and unless the original audio was mastering quality, you are throwing away bitrate using PCM.

Sort out your AC3 encoding problems.

[blacksheepdownunder]

i have tried AC3 encoding in Sony soundforge and TMPGEnc with same issue