Would it be possible to implement a black box background to subtitles as a new layout? It would a great help to hide burned-in subtitles or just subtitles that are scrolling up or down.

I am trying to create a menu system, where the first page has the choices "Play All" and "Episodes", and then ONE page with 5 episodes. No matter what I try, I always get 5 pages. Both pages will be text choices.

thank you,

MovieMaven

In the Menu stage, click on the "Launch the Menu Wizard" button.
Choose "Create a custom menu by choosing layout and items." Click "Next..."
Checkmark the box next to "Create a Title page in the Top menu." Click "Next..."
For your Top menu, select a layout with 5 choices (choose the one without thumbnails if you just want text).
Select your other layouts, buttons, etc. Click "Next..."
For the DVD menu structure, you can select "Top menu only." This will produce a menu with two pages only.
If you want chapter pages for each episode, then choose "Top and track menu."
When you're finished, you can edit the text to your liking.

That should be it!

hi! do i need a player that support divx-ultra so that srt subtitle can be display?
i have a player that indicate divx support, and sadly subtitle doesnt appear.

Yes, I believe you need a DivX Ultra certified player for subtitle support.

then what subtitle format i need for divx?

How to I add a batch list of clips. I have a load of mpeg2 files I want to author to dvd. I want to do them as all seperate dvds.

When I add them and go to output it tells me target size is too large which tells me the software is trying to merge all the clips together.

I just want to add the 25 mpeg2 videos and let the software author them into 25 separate standard dvds.

You have to create each DVD separately. So if you want 25 DVDs, you're going to have to make 25 DVD project files.

When you start a project, that is a single DVD. So if you put 25 clips into it, it will put them all on one DVD (if they can fit).

There's no batch tool, so you have to just create each DVD separately.

What is correct Letterbox/pan and scan setting when authoring a 16:9 format DVD. I have been using the letterbox/pan and scan setting and at playback on some tv's there are bars on either side. It works fine on my sets with the DVD's set to 16:9. My sister called and said it did now work on her 16:9 set. It was corrected by setting the dvd player to 4:3. I am confused

The letterbox/pan & scan setting allows your 16:9 footage to be either letterboxed or full-screen (with the sides chopped off) when displayed on a 4:3 tv/monitor. How they display on a 4:3 tv is dependent on your DVD player settings (most DVD players let you choose 4:3 letterbox, 4:3 pan & scan, and 16:9). This setting in DVD Author 3 simply tags the video so your player will know how to display it depending on its settings.

If have 16:9 footage, a 16:9 tv, and your DVD player's video settings are set to 16:9, then everything should look normal.

It sounds like you have 4:3 footage since you say that bars appear on either side on certain tv's. Do you have 4:3 footage and 16:9 footage on your DVD?
It's best to separate your footage so that all of your 4:3 footage is in one track, and all of your 16:9 footage is in another. You can then set the 4:3 track to display at 4:3, and the 16:9 track to display at 16:9 letterbox/pan&scan.

If you can give me more info about your footage aspect ratios, and what type of tv's you plan on viewing this DVD on (16:9, 4:3, both?) then I can give you a better answer on what's going on and what you should do.

The original footage is TS (transport stream) files in 16:9 format pal to be played on both 4:3 and 16:9 in both PAL and NTSC versions.

this is what message I received regarding the dvd I created with the setting at letterbox/pan and scan. there are a couple users who made coments

-Can't seem to produce a pan-'n-scan image. When I tried, I just got a distorted 16:9.

-Plays perfectly on my upconverting 1080i dvd player

-My DVD player normally reads the ratio of the content by default but it didn't in this case. plus If I set it to 16:9 I just get stretched 4:3. I could only set as letterbox 4:3 for the complete image.

something weird - widecreen on PC but only comes out 4:3 on TV, even if I set the TV to 16:9!

>The original footage is TS (transport stream) files in 16:9 format pal to be played on both 4:3 and 16:9 in both PAL and NTSC versions.
>

I see. If all of your footage is in 16:9, then setting it to letterbox/pan&scan should work.

>this is what message I received regarding the dvd I created with the setting at letterbox/pan and scan. there are a couple users who made coments
>
>-Can't seem to produce a pan-'n-scan image. When I tried, I just got a distorted 16:9.

Sounds like this guy has a 4:3 tv but his DVD player is set to 16:9. If he sets his DVD player to 4:3 pan&scan mode, then it should produce the pan & scan image.

>
>-Plays perfectly on my upconverting 1080i dvd player

This player might simply be "smarter" and be able to detect what aspect ratio it should use. It could also just be set to 16:9 by default since it's a 1080i upconverting DVD player.

>
>-My DVD player normally reads the ratio of the content by default but it didn't in this case. plus If I set it to 16:9 I just get stretched 4:3. I could only set as letterbox 4:3 for the complete image.

This person must have 4:3 tv, which is why setting his DVD player to 4:3 letterbox worked. If you have a 4:3 tv and set your DVD player to 16:9, then the DVD player automatically thinks you have a 16:9 tv and fills the entire screen. Thus, it would look normal on a 16:9 screen, but on a 4:3 screen the image would appear stretched (vertically).

>
>something weird - widecreen on PC but only comes out 4:3 on TV, even if I set the TV to 16:9!

I use PowerDVD on my comp and I've found that it just doesn't work the same way a physical DVD player does. It's much smarter and will not pan & scan even if that's what you set in DVD Author 3.
It's strange that it would appear 4:3 on a 16:9 tv. If you have a 16:9 tv, then you should keep the TV's settings at 16:9. The only thing I can think of is that the DVD player is set to 4:3 letterbox mode. This would produce normal 16:9 video but shrunk down with black bars on all sides. I don't have a 16:9 TV where I am right now, so I can't do full tests at the moment.

Your sister's situation is the most puzzling though. If the footage is 16:9 and her tv is 16:9 then it should display correctly when the DVD player is set to 16:9. It's possible that she switched the DVD player to 4:3 pan&scan mode and since her tv is 16:9, it is simply showing what would normally be cut off on a 4:3 tv.
It's also possible that she set the DVD player to 4:3 letterbox mode, and her tv can automatically crop the black bars and stretch the image for a full screen 16:9 effect.

In any case, there are three things we need to pay attention to:
1) The aspect ratio of the DVD footage
2) The aspect ratio setting of the DVD Player (this is probably the most important thing)
3) The aspect ratio of the TV and any pan&scan or fitting settings it may have.

The DVD player should simply be set to whatever aspect ratio your TV is. As long as you set the track settings to "letterbox/pan & scan" in DVD Author 3, the DVD should display correctly depending on what setting is chosen in your DVD player in terms of 4:3 tv's.
If there is any distortion, then the DVD player is probably not set to the right aspect ratio.

I'll see if I can test this out more when I get home.

Can I create a standalone DivX menu for a data DVD that calls DivX files from the disc? I would like to play the movies from the menu on my DivX ULTRA Philips DVD player, but then be able to copy individual titles back off the DVD to my computer, and not have multiple titles tied up in a single ".divx" container file.

Unfortunately this isn't possible due to the way the DivX Ultra format works. Your best bet is to just create a data dvd with all of your separate DivX files. You won't have the fancy menus but you should still be able to play the videos on your DivX DVD player.

hi! im just wondering about importing subtitle, it does not all appear. i mean, i checked it to subtitle creator and it has up to 626 number ( up to 51 mins) but when i import it it only appears to 130 number (it ended in 11 min).
thanks

DVD Author 3 is quite strict with .srt files. Make sure they're in ASCII or UTF-8 encoding.

You may also want to get rid of any html that might be in the srt file.

Lastly, DVD Author 3 will stop importing when it encounters an error, so since you only got to number 130, you should check your srt file and see if there is something wrong at that point.

thanks!
is there a possibility that i convert .srt file to ASCII?
and how to work with UTF-8 encoding?

You can change the encoding with a text editor. A nice one I like using is called EmEditor. You can download a free trial of it here: http://www.emeditor.com/

Once it's installed, you can open the .srt file with EmEditor, then select "Save As..." in the File menu. In the Save As window, there is a drop-down menu where you can select UTF-8 encoding.

How change audio stream mode multiple clips Or All project?

I want import karaoke to project and setting audio stream mode=bilinqual.
Karaoke have about70 clip.
Can you change audio stream mode=bilinqual all clip quickly?
Help Me Please.

I'm afraid you'll have to go through them one by one. At least, I haven't been able to change settings to multiple clips and I don't know if it's possible.

Is it possible to import an .SRT file completely into DVD Author 3? If so how?
TIA
Paul

In the Source Stage, click on "edit" for the clip you want to add subtitles to.

In the Clip Editing window, select the "Subtitles" tab at the top of the window.

Activate a subtitle stream in the left-hand column (Subtitles List). This should activate the options on the lower half of the window.

Click on "Edit menu" and select "Import Subtitles". You should be able to select your .srt file from there.

great one mate !
i was looking for that one aswell and was so simple ...
in the "edit menu" button at the bottom
in plain sight and missed it totally

didnt wanna add each sub manually ... this one saves humongous time for me
tx !

I have also been trying to import a srt file in a project using the same method. But it doesn't seem to work. When I click the import subtitles button and choose a file to import, nothing happens.
Can you please help?

Hi guys, I have a question.

When creating a DVD, I only want to burn it to a disc, not output the entire file to my hard drive. Is there any way to do this?

Thanks,
Mike

Sorry, this isn't possible. It needs to render and build the DVD files before it can burn them.

I've never seen a program that can render and burn DVD-Video simultaneously.

Is it possible to output VOB files to 1280x720 or any other high def? Thanks!

This is not possible.
DVD Author 3 only outputs DVD compliant video, so the max is 720x480.

You can output HD DivX in 1280x720 though.

Can I change the audio track on video that was imported from a DV camera into TMPGEnc DVD Author 3? I have a separate audio recording that is better quality and I would like to swap it with what the camera recorded inthe audio track. If so, how would I sync the audio and video?

thanks

Yes, you can use a different audio track than the one with the video.

In the Source Stage, click on the "Edit" button for the clip you'd like to change. The clip editing window should appear.
Click on the "Clip Properties" tab at the top.
In the Audio section, you can select an audio file under "Audio Input 1."
The audio for the video will now be this audio track.

To sync it, go to the Cut-edit tab (still in the Clip Editing window) and click on the Audio Filters button (the button with the musical note).
A new window should pop up and the first tab, "Audio gap", is what you can use to properly sync the audio.
You can "move" the audio track forward or backward up to a minute ahead or behind the video track.
So if your audio is behind the video by 10 seconds, you'd put in 10000 (ms) in the box.
If your audio is ahead of the video by 10 seconds, you'd put in -10000.

If your audio is ahead or behind the video by more than a minute, then you'll need to edit the audio file before you input it into DVD Author 3.
A free program I mentioned in another post called Audacity can do this (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/).

Thank you.

Now, how do I work with the clips created off my DV recording? Is there a way to combine the clips so I can edit as a whole and add the audio track as a whole too?

I have and work with audacity (great program). Do I have to split my audio file to match the created clips, or can it be combined and avoid this extra step?

You can't actually combine the clips, but when you put multiple clips in a single track, they will act like one long clip when you play it back on your DVD player.

If you have TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress, that will allow you to turn multiple clips into one single video clip upon output.

If you don't have 4.0 XPress, then yes, you will have to split up your audio so each video clip can have it's own audio clip.

When I follow instructions provided here I lose the whole beginning of my audio for some reason. I'm only in edit mode at this point but audio doesn't come in at the beginning, then starts anywhere from 10 to 20 seconds later in the middle. The beginning is not playing along with the video and I didn't cut any audio out, just adjusted for sync.

I haven't tried to output so far but maybe this is automatically fixed upon output?

Okay, I took it through the output and discovered that it does get the audio fromthe beginning. However, even though I was able to sync the audio and video perfectly at the beginning, it soon gets out of sync and gets way off. It gets worse the further through the video I watch.

Anyone know why this is happening and what I can do about it?

Did a quick search for audio sync problems at videohelp and this thread looks like it could help you.

http://forum.videohelp.com/topic262015.html?&sid=328c841246689210ad6d72fbbbba71e0

It's a bit old and they're using an older version of DVD Author, but I think the methods used could still be applied to your situation. Hope this helps!