Authoring with DVDLAB 1.3 and chapters get out the farther I go!

[gwoiler]

I have re-authored a DVD. It was orriginally PAL and I converted with ConvertXdvd and then used DVDLab to re-author. All went OK until I set the chapters to the video where they are supposed to go, and at first the timing looks good. But, as I get farther and farther to the other end, they get farther and farther. For instance.... A chapter mark 60 minutes in to the program brings up video 5 seconds earlier than I want. I frame indexed the whole video.

One thing that I noticed is, as I set chapter points in the movie window, they turn green as they should. But when I go and click on one of them, it displays the timecode of that chapter, but in the viewing window where it also shows timecode, they are not the same. The offset seems to be what I see while playing the video on a DVD player. Shouldn't both timecodes be the same? Why am I getting an offset that gets bigger the farther I get down the timeline? Indexing is supposed to keep it all I frame accurate right? arrrrggg....!

Can anyone help?

[manono]

I don't use that program, but the problem is drop frame .vs non drop frame timing. Apparently you set it for 30fps timing, but because NTSC DVDs are 29.97fps you should have set it for that (which is drop frame). The upshot is that when using 30fps timing the chapter points will be about 7 seconds early by the end of a 2 hour movie.

Like I said, I don't use that program. If it is developed by a PAL person unaware of the problem, then maybe there's no fix. Otherwise, maybe look around for some way to make adjustments, either by FPS or by drop and non drop frame. Or make the adjustments yourself, delaying them from where they 'should' be more and more as the movie goes along. Or maybe consult the manual about the problem. Or use a different authoring program.

[gwoiler]

What program do you use? I have had this for years because I was frustrated that I could not find a program like DVD Studio Pro. I don't really know what a good authoring program is for the PC. This is Drop Frame. Maybe the software is seeing it 2 different ways? what to do...?

[manono]

Me, when I don't need menus I use Muxman (which uses 29.97fps frame numbers). When I want menus I use DVDAuthorGUI (which does it by drop frame timings).

You could always save what you have from DVDLab Pro, demux the movie with PGCDemux, adjust the celltimes.txt so the chapter points occur at the correct places, remux (Muxman), and finally stick the Muxman one with the correct chapter points back into the DVDLab one using the Replace button in VobBlanker. It'll save you recreating the menus all over again.

The way I figure it though, since DVDLab Pro is such a well though of program around here you most likely have something set up wrong to be getting the results you're getting. Maybe some NTSC person that's familiar with the program can help out.

[guns1inger]

Is this DVD Lab Pro, or just DVD Lab ? DVD Lab pro is up to version 2.5+, so 1.3 is very old.

[gwoiler]

Is this DVD Lab Pro, or just DVD Lab ? DVD Lab pro is up to version 2.5+, so 1.3 is very old.

DVD-Lab.... I have thought about getting the Pro version... funny... the last time I thought to buy it... it was only $199 Now I see it is up to $250