I'm trying to fix audio sync on some old vhs rips.

The audio waveform is displayed in 5 alternately dark and gray boxes in the clip editor.

I'm trying to understand Which box represents the current frame being displayed so I can adjust the audio gap. Is it the middle one?

Thanks for any help

I have a few portable media players that are very specific to the video format they will play.I used the mediainfo software to check the videos and the only ones that will play are the ones who show the following:

Video
ID : 1
Format : MPEG-4 Visual
Format profile : Advanced Simple@L3

the only way i can get a video with this format is if i use your quicktime .mov profile then change the .mov extension to .mp4 then the video will play and shows the same format as above. But this profile has no options for res. or bitrate.
If I use your .mp4 profiles the video is as follows:

Video
ID : 2
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : Baseline@L2.0

and this will not play in my players. Is there a profile that will get me the mp4 visual style video.

Besides the format and profile, what are the other limitations? Resolution, framerate, etc.??

Try using the "Mobile and Portable Device MPEG file" template.
Maybe use the iPad settings as a starting point.

Well as long as I stay under 800X600 and 29fps the videos seem to be ok as long as there MPEG-4 Visual. I have tried all the iphone formats changing all the settings possible. If I use Handbrake and select the classic format the videos come out perfect. But I bought this software to cut out commercials and Handbrake does not do this. I did notice that the "MPEG-4 Visual" and Handbrake files that work are H.263.

If you have the Xvid codec, you can use the AVI output format and the Xvid MPEG-4 codec to create a H.263 ASP@L3 video. The output file will have an .avi extension though.
The Xvid settings will let you set the number of passes, bitrates, and more.

Thanks tkrave, this is exactly what I needed, my sony portable dvd player will play .avi files encoded with .mp4 files. I made a couple test videos and they played perfectly. Thanks again for you help, You are awesome.

Is it possible to concatenate in a single MP4 file several "segments" that have been encoded with different H.264 parameters ? I know how to do this with MPEG-2, but don't know which tool to use for H.264/MP4 files ?

(example: you may want part of a movie encoded in CBR, and another in VBR; or a different encoding "strategy" for parts of a movie like: smaller GOP, better control of banding in the shades of extremely dark scenes, etc.)

It's not possible with TVMW5, but it's possible with professional encoding software/hardware.

Now that TAW5 allows the duration of the highlight to be delayed, I am hoping that an update will enable highlights to be faded in, as well. This feature would add a more professional look to the finished menu.

how to combine several videos??

Add all of your videos as clips in the Source stage, in the order you want them from top to bottom. In the Format stage, make sure to select to output all videos as one file (there should be a drop down menu for this option towards the top of the window.

thano you like them
it is good
ok

Hi,
I have a DVD that was created from an old 4:3 source (video tape). When I import into VMW5 I can see that the black bars at the sides are actually a part of the video, so the software correctly identifies it as 16:9 (interlaced) video.

I would like to encode this as a 4:3 (progressive) video file, and minimize any loss of quality since being from video it is already not great.

What is the best way to remove the black bars? Do I use the "Crop" filter function?
Any tips for keeping the final video as true to the original as possible?

Yes, you'll need to use the crop function to crop out the black bars.

For maintaining quality, I like outputting as MPEG-4 AVC and using the VBR constant quality settings. You can set quality to 100 (the max). Since your source was DVD and you've cropped it, you can probably get away with a pretty low bitrate and still maintain the source's details.

I just bought this sofware. I'm new to video editing. What is the best method (YouTube video's, doumentation, other) to learn how to use it?

They have some videos that might be helpful:
http://tmpgenc.pegasys-inc.com/en/product/tvmw5_media.html#videos

I found to the Video Help site to be a good resource.
http://www.videohelp.com

BATCH authoring is very good but After finish can not shutdown.
Please add t next update

The option is there. In the Batch Authoring window, click on Options-->Finishing Task-->Shutdown.

THANK

I save in last file to batch finish to shutdown but not.

OK thank again for suggest.

I have two tracks on a custom menu and I'd like to have the option of having links to audio tracks and subtitles on the top menu. I've tried doing it with no top menu, but then there is no way to get from one track to the other. I even tried creating some custom buttons (it wouldn't let me hit ok, no matter what I did), thinking I could tell a picture or text to link to a certain page.

Is there a way to add my own link within the menu structure, or am I limited to the material in the various tracks? In case my explanation isn't clear, here's an image of the top menu I'm working on, where I'd like to add a subtitle/audio link to the page that has both of them on it.

http://postimage.org/image/4hou7uowx/

I'm just trying to create a menu in the way that most retail DVD menus are designed, where the main page has a link to all of the options that the disc offers, like special features, audio and subtitles, and chapter selections, along with a play movie option. Authoring Works seems to offer all of these options, but not necessarily all at the same time on the same page. Am I missing something?

Thanks for your help.

TAW4 won't let you have audio/subtitle links on the top menu. I think it's because each track can have it's own set of audio and subtitle tracks, which is why they can only appear on track menus.

If I want to switch my license from one computer to another that I own, what are my limitations here? I don't want to use the software on more than one computer at a time, but from time to time I would probably need to switch between two machines. How is this handled?

Also, one of the computers has internet access very infrequently... I am a little worried about constant validation... What is the time period between verifications? If its like once every six months, it might be ok... but if not, that isn't really acceptable to me.

I was going to place my order today, but this validation stuff has me a little worried. I really like your product, but if I can't use it the way I want, it would be foolish for me to buy it.

They would tell you that you have to uninstall the software on the old computer before installing it on a new computer. As long as you don't use it on two computers at once or install it on multiple computers within a short timeframe, you should be okay.

Validation happens maybe once every two weeks. Haven't really kept track though, so it might be more or less.

Thanks for the reply.

I really have to say the 1-2 weeks reactivation bothers me. This would mean I'd have to drudge one of my desktops up 2 flights of stairs (no wifi reception in the basement) to reactivate. It seems a little draconian considering I'm willing to spend $100 to legitimately buy the software.

Its a shame because this is the easiest to use software I've found. Its very well made...

1) If you're creating VERY large slideshows, create each topic as a seperate sub-project. Complete each with music and subtitles (eg Holidays 2001, 2002, 2003 etc) and output as a DVD to your hard disk.

Once you have created all the sub-projects, create a new master project and import each sub-project, selecting the subtitles you want to import. Repeat for each slideshow sub-project. Once all are imported, build the menus then output the entire master project and burn to DVD.

Doing this TAW5 is a lot more responsive and stable than one very large project. If make a mistake, just edit and re-render the sub-project. You should delete the old sub-project from the master project, then re-import to problems - particularly if the new version of teh sub-project is of different length. This way it only takes minutes to correct a mistake and re-render to DVD - instead of hours if it was one large project.

2) Slideshows only need a low bitrate. Slideshows with animation work fine at 2500 kbps, or lower if no animation. This way you can get 6 or 7 hours of slideshow on one dual-layer DVD.

3) It's not everyone's taste, but I think transistions and animations are good. Don't overdo transitions - it can get irritating - usually best to stick to the same simple transistion for each photo - eg dissolve. If zooming in, select local setting for each picture, and select the subject by clicking on it (eg click on the face of a person) - that way TAW5 zooms into the subject (where the eye naturally focuses), rather than zooming off to some random point in the distance.

4) Subtitles are terrific for slideshows. I use three - picture description, the music currently playing and the picture filename. Decide on the duration of each picture before adding subtitles - otherwise you'll have to spend ages changing the subtitle timings (The default of 5s for each seems to work well). I set the picture description as the default (ie it always displays unless turned off or changed to a different subtitle). Each subtitle type (or individual subtitle) can be a different colour - I use a different colour for each of the three.

1) Currently only 200 pictures per slideshow are allowed - although multiple slideshows can be added to one track. I am unaware of any technical reason (ie DVD standards) why this is restricted to 200. This causes difficulties for soundtracks and subtitles. Can this be increased to at least 1000?

2) Currently only one audio file can be selected. This causes problems especially for background music for slideshows, where you have to edit multiple files into a single file before use. It would be great if more than one file could be selected that would then play sequentially.

3) The ability to change the duration of multiple subtitles. For example - in a slideshow if you want to change the display duration of all pictures from say 5s to 6s, all subtitles timings need to be manually adjusted.

4) The ability to import a subtitle file to the end of an existing subtitle file. For example if you combine all the pictures from two slideshows into one, there is no easy way to append the subtitles of the second slideshow at the end of the first.

5) I've noticed a new issue in TAW5 I didn't notice in TAW4. When you are in the pictures tab reviewing pictures, it is very easy to accidentally move the position of a picture (try clicking on each picture on the left in turn - you will find it impossible to do without changing the order of the pictures.

6) Zoom in to a rectangle doesn't zoom in to the selected area. This also didn't work on TAW4.

Other than that and that TAW5 is not quite as stable as TAW4, this is the best slideshow software on the market.

Regards Brian