I recently upgraded to TAW4 (from TAW3) and am really appreciating the new 'Transitions Editor' functionality.

Specifically, I have a very large clip of a live music concert which has minor edit points in between each song. I am using the Transition Editor to place a 1 or 2 second crossfade at those edit points. First though, I have to duplicate the original clip and then locate the starting and ending frame for each song and "cut edit" the clip so that the song becomes an individual clip. So, in the end, I have as many clips as there are songs and each clip has a 1-2 second crossfade transition into the next clip.

What would be nice is if there was a way to not have to duplicate the original clip for each song and instead be able to insert a transition between each song. Perhaps in a future release?

I wanted to add that I created the original clip using TMPGEnc Video Mastering Works 5 (converted from FLV format). I wonder if there is a way in it to create these crossfade transitions between each song rather than doing it in TAW4?

To make things easier, use the split clip function to split your clip into multiple clips. That way, you don't have to keep editing the original clip for each song.

TVMW5 can do transitions as well, so you could do it then if you wanted to. It works in the same manner as TAW4 if you are in Normal Mode.

Thanks! Sounds like the split clip function would be a lot easier than the way I do it now and will also insure that I don't cut out any frames, which I do not want to do because I am using a remastered WAV audio file extracted from the original clip using TVMW5 as the audio source.

No problem. I find myself using the split clip function more and more in lieu of cutting because it's easier to add back sections that were "deleted".

Only annoying thing is that it limits it to 30 splits per "session". What I mean is that once you hit 30 splits for a clip, you will have to confirm the splits, which takes you back to the Edit stage, then you can open up the clip again to continue splitting past 30 splits.

Got home and tried the split clip function.

I did not remove any frames from the original clip, I just set 22 different split points, one before each song start, basically speaking. Then I inserted a 2 second crossfade transition in between each clip and also a 2 second crossfade on the last clip.

What I noticed after doing all that is that now the total time of the track is 2h 31 min 37 s instead of the original (unsplit) clip time of 2h 32 min 19 s. That is a 42 second difference, which coincidentally is 21 x 2, so I got to wondering if perhaps the total time now does not include the transitions. So, I removed a transition and sure enough, the total time increased by 2 seconds. So, it appears the total time of the track does not include transition times.

Can you confirm this observation I made, tkrave? I'm only concerned because of the possibility that I may now lose synch with my alternate source WAV file, which is also 2 h 32 min 19 s.

Just another little detail...I also confirmed that the transition time on the last clip has no affect on the total track time.

You got it a little backwards, your total time DOES include transitions, it's just that transitions subtract from your total time because your videos are "overlapping" during the transition.

The transition on the last clip doesn't affect total time because there is nothing to transition to. Transitions are added at the end of the clip, and since there is no clip after the last one, there is no overlap and thus, no time loss.

As for your WAV file, I would make that the audio source before you split the clip into multiple clips. That way, the WAV file should be split along with your video and should stay in sync even with transitions.

Yes, I did get backwards...thanks for correcting me.

As for the audio, yes, my WAV audio source was attached to the track before I split it up. I burned a copy of my project where I put all this to use and it all seems good. I did notice a few very minor audio blips near the transition points that I want to check to see if they are in the WAV audio source, but other than that all was good.

I downloaded and installed free templates from the official site, and it seemed to be installed, but when I tried to upload them they don't appear. When I look at the folder, they are there, but won't appear to load them into the program. Is this a bug or do I need to change some setting?
Thanks in advanced for your help.

In the template selection window, make sure the correct template type is selected in the left column. Choose "All the templates" or "Additional templates" to view downloaded templates.

Thank you so much for reply tkrave. Yes, I "All the Templates" is selected. I have also tried uploading by "Other Templates" choice (I created a new folder and copied them into it), but it won't work, the original templates are loaded again. Is there something else I am missing?

What do you mean by "upload"? You shouldn't have to load the templates from within TAW4. When you install the template .exe file, it will put the files in the default template directory and they should appear automatically in the template list.

If you installed TAW4 in a directory other than the default (c:\Program Files\), then you will need to move/install the template files to that directory.

By default the template files should be located in C:\Program Files\Pegasys Inc\TMPGEnc Authoring Works 4\Template.

Yes, I have installed them and as I said it seemed to work, and I can also see the ".tda4mt files" installed in the directory you mention (C:\Program Files(x86)\Pegasys Inc\TMPGEnc Authoring Works 4\Template), but they don't appear automatically in the "All the templates" nor they appear (sorry for the word upload)by using "Other Templates" choice. Any other thing I need to check?

What language version of TAW4 are you using? Templates are language specific, so templates downloaded from the English site will only work on the English version of TAW4, for instance.

Ok, that could be the explanation, I downloaded and installed free templates in spanish. Last question, only out of curiosity, how can they be specific, being the file extension the same? I also tried to change the "_es" for "_en" in the file name but it won't work. Anyway thanks so much for your help.

I'm not sure how they work, i just know they won't. I've tried downloading the Japanese ones in the past and they never worked on my English version.

Here's a challenging menu setup that I can't find a solution to. I have a project with 6 tracks.
I want a menu (preferably without a preceding title page so that it appears first) with a link to TWO of the tracks, then a link to a page which contains FOUR of the tracks.

I've tried different types of layouts but I don't see a way to have two links on the first page and four on the second. I've tried combining different clips into tracks (1 track with two clips, 1 track with four clips) but then I can't control the action when each clip ends.

Any ideas?

Do I understand correctly that you want a main menu with three buttons, two tht link to video clips/tracks, and one that takes you to a sub menu that has four buttons?

I have a DVD project that contains many (lets say 10) short clips. I've found that I can choose which of the clips to display in the menu by altering the chapter display settings, so I've got it where only only two clips show up in the menus (lets say the 1st clip and the 6th clip). During playback, when I hit skip forward, it currently goes to the next clip. Is there a way to make skip forward advance to my choosen chapters instead?

So you want it to only go to the 1st and 6th clip when you use the skip forward/back buttons?

Each clip in a track will contains one chapter mark by default, so you will have 10 chapter marks for 10 clips. The chapter display options will not affect whether chapters actually exist or not.

Thus, you need to delete the actual chapter marks in each clip you don't want to display/have a chapter mark in.

Go to the Edit Stage and double click a chapter you don't want a chapter mark for. This will open the clip editor window. Go to the "Cut-edit" tab if you're not there already and delete the chapter point that appears on the left column. Click OK to confirm. Repeat with the other clips you don't want a chapter mark for.

This will eliminate their appearance on the menus and the skip forward/back button should work as you want it to.

How do I add the subtitles(they have already been created and are an srt file)to a project?

Double click your clip in the Edit stage. This opens the clip editor window.

Select the Subtitles tab.

Activate a Subtitle stream by clicking on the checkbox in the left column.

Click on "Edit menu" button in bottom-right of the window.

Select "Import..." from the menu.

Select your .srt file.

I must have a setting wrong because I am trying to output a Blu-ray and although the two files I am using only total only 14 gig plus I have ticked "Do not encode these files" (or whatever the term is)the program is encoding again before burning the Blu-ray. Its playing through in less than realtime!

Q. If the files are smaller than 25GIG, there is no menus to encode and the flesare MPEG2's then shouldn't TAW4 just burn to disc in 20 mins or so @ 4 speed?

In the output stage the orange section has gone past the purple 25 gig limit and there is no menu.

mmm what am I doing wrong in the output stage?

Silly me was using "Blu-ray" files within Edius which TAW4 does not like.

Re - encoding now using the correct files!

I am still having issues with something blowing out and over the 25gig limit of a blu-ray disc.

I must be doing something fundermenatly wrong in TAW4.

I re converted my files overnight, hopped up in eager anticipation that my new elementary stream clips would be the answer and after checking their total size (audio and video was 22.8 gig) I set about making it happen in authoring.

NOTE: size of audio files alone is only 400meg.

But the dreaded orange line still appears.

This happens even with no menu.

What could be wrong this time?

What are your input file's characteristics? Use MediaInfo and post the details.

Is the Smart Rendering icon appearing in the edit stage?

Running Win 7 as single core and dual core ( x86 and x64 ) and Tmpgenc authoring 4 ran ok, with onboard graphics chip on the motherboard. Installed an Inno3D GeForce 9500GT DDR3 dual DVI graphics card, and the main editing screen is now blank. The timeline images below the main editing screen ( one second captures ) are shown, but as I cannot see frame by frame on the main screen, I cannot edit precisely. I've re-installed the O/S and then installed Tmpgenc, but it persists. Any ideas ? The graphics drivers are up-to-date. I can edit using other editing programs, but I like Tmpgenc.

This has to do with the video overlay mode. Right-click on the main screen and select/unselect the "Display in video overlay" option.

Input video
768x576 pix
PAR=1:1, DAR=4:3, SAR=4:3
progressive
PAL

Output video by program TMPGenc Authoring Works 4
720x576 pix
PAR=16:15, DAR=4:3, SAR=5:4
interlaced TFF
PAL

Do you know,
What are PAR, DAR, SAR mean ?


I am very, very wonder,
Why output video has black borders on left and right sides of output video 8 pix width each border ?
Really I have output video width 704 pix (video) + 8 pix * 2 (2-black borders) = 720 pix,

but

If you carry out minimum calculations, you wil see following:

768 pix (input video width) / PAR (output video PAR=16:15) = 768 * 15 / 16 = 720 pix.

Where are black borders here in video ? I don't understand !!! I have full 720 pix width output video (not 704 pix (output video) + 8 pix * 2 (2-black borders)) !!!

I know that Western People are not able to consider with fractions, I can help with fractions calculation !

Russian school education is the best in the world !!!

Is that using the encoder within TAW4.

Apparently you will not see the problem on a TV monitor only in playback via a computer screen.

I am using TMPGenc Authoring Works 4.0

I want full 720 pix width video without any black borders !
I want full 576 pix height video without any black borders !

See correct calculations at (1) first post.

PAR = Pixel Aspect Ratio. 1:1 means that your pixels are not being stretched; they are square.

DAR = Display Aspect Ratio. The ratio the video should be displayed at.

SAR = Storage Aspect Ratio. The ratio of pixel dimensions. SAR x PAR = DAR, or PAR = DAR/SAR. Since your PAR is 1:1, SAR and DAR are equal (for your input file).

PAL 4:3 can get pretty complicated. Check out this article on Wikipedia for why it wants to set a 704 pixel width for the actual image.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_aspect_ratio#Digital_video_processing

Also, see this article showing TAW4's output settings as a standard:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_aspect_ratio#Pixel_aspect_ratios_of_common_video_formats

It states: "Note that sources differ on PARs for common formats – for example, 576 lines (PAL) displayed at 4:3 (DAR) corresponds to either PAR of 12:11 (if 704×576, SAR = 11:9), or a PAR of 16:15 (if 720×576, SAR = 5:4)."

To avoid the black borders on the side, you'll need to switch the resolution to 704 x 576.

Do this by going to the Edit stage, click on the "Settings" button for your track(s). This opens the track settings window.

Go to the Video tab. For the Encoder Mode, select "Re-encode all videos as below".
This allows you to change the output resolution.

Select 704 x 576 as the size.

No more black bars!

Additional reading in case you want to learn more and do some calculations for yourself. Skip down to Section 3 to see a calculation table and see why TAW4 pads the video with the black borders/why you need to change the resolution width to 704.

http://lipas.uwasa.fi/~f76998/video/conversion/

Hi all

I have a problem with making motion menues stay activated.

You press "motion" and it renders, you then see all the chapter playing as you would expect in motion. You flick to another menu and come back and all the motions have disabled itself!

"motion menu" under the motion menu tab within 'Global menu settings" is ticked.

I followed some suggested settings as seen via this link. http://www.videoproductions.com.au/TAW4/TAW4-motion-menu-settings.png

I have opened up a new project and still no go.

Any tips.

Is this while you're in the Simulation stage?

If so, it is only for preview purposes, so it probably doesn't retain the motion render when you leave the page. When you author the project it will work properly.

Thanks i will try that and see if motion menues work.

Do you have to manually make each page within a clip(title) render or do you just do this on the main menu page and it rendwr for all pages?

If you have say 60 chaptets and 8 chapters pet page then thats alot of manual work waiting for renders.

Question is do you need to individually render each page within a track.

So if you had a track that had 32 chapter points and you had 8 chapters per page does that mean you have to do 4 different renders?

If you had 3 tracks within a project will the same amount of chapter points you would then be having to render 12 times.

Is there not a "render all pages" button?

No, you don't have to render in simulation mode in order for it to output. The rendering in Simulation is for preview only. You can skip the simulation altogether if you want and when you output your files, it will render motion menus correctly.

Hello,

I import a TV programme from a DVD-RAM. I would like to take out the audio from a certain point in the video. An example would be to delete the audio from say, 10:00 to 10:15. Can this be done with this application?

If so, could someone tell me how please?

Thanks for any reply.

So you want to keep the video for that section but have no audio, correct?

You can do by splitting your clip into multiple clips to isolate the section you don't want audio in.

So in the clip editor window, move the playhead to the beginning of the section where you want the audio to stop and click the split-clip button. The thumbnail navigator should change color.
Then move the playhead to where you want audio to start again and set another split marker.
Click "OK". It will ask you which sections you want to keep; keep both blue and orange sections.

After confirming, it will turn your clip into 3 separate clips and you'll be back in the Edit Stage. Double-click the clip that should not have audio to open the clip editor window again. Go to the Clip Properties tab. For the Audio Stream mode, select "None". Click OK to finalize the change.

Thanks for your reply.

That's it. I've tried your suggestion and it works perfectly. Thanks very much for your help.

Regards,
Steve

I am reviewing TAW4 trial version and noticed the following. On a chapter menu page that has 4 chapter text boxes and uses one thumbnail that changes to show the motion video loop of the currently selected chapter, I noticed that upon selecting each chapter, the audio loop restarts, even though there is only a single audio file assigned to that menu page. Is there a way to keep the audio loop from restarting so that it just keeps playing until another menu page is selected?

Not possible. Animated DVD menus are basically just interactive video files. So when you highlight a thumbnail and it begins to animate, it is actually starting to play a new video file which is why the audio restarts.

I want to produce a PAL encoded DVD with a Dolby Digital Soundtrack from a PAL 25fps MPEG2 file but after Authoring Works has generated the DVD it has a MPEG1 soundtrack.

I've tried to set the audio preferences to Dolby Digital but it always reverts to a MPEG soundtrack. Is there a way to produce a PAL DVD with a Dolby Digital soundtrack or does AW always revert to a MPEG1 soundtrack for a PAL DVD.

How are you setting the output audio?

Go to the Edit Stage, then click on the "Settings" button for your tracks. From their you can set the audio output settings.