I am planning to move from Liquid to Edius and although both NLEs offer authorting I still wish to author my DVDs and BDs in AW4. What is the ideal file format I should output from Edius so as to get the best quality from AW4? I'm originating 1920x1080i on EX1Rs at 35Mb/s.

Any Blu-ray compliant MPEG-2 stream should work well and smart render in TAW4. Audio should be AC-3 or LPCM.

I use Edius print to file in Canopus HQ format, and let AW4 do encoding for DVD and BD. I find the results meet my needs nicely

Some folks say using TVMW5 to convert the Canopus HQ to DVD and BD elemental streams can give a slightly better final result.

Check the Edius forums at GrassValley.com for more discussions on this topic.

tkrave,

I read numerous posts in this forum and many others about this that TMPGEnc Authoring Works 4 can only accept MPEG-4/.h264 input files but has to fully encode to MPEG-2 for Blu-ray (thus no Smart Rendering).

I read one user saying TMPEGEnc TAW 5 "sucks" and "should go back to the 1980s because they cannot output to MPEG-4 Blu-ray which almost every other software can do this easily."

While I wholeheartedly disagree with this user, I think that user does have a point and many other users are wondering the same thing.

Why can't TMPGEnc Authoring Works 4 output to MPEG-4 Blu-ray while other software including Sonic Scenarist can?

I also want to note I think TMPEGEnc TAW 4 is the best software in the world but with this glaring weakness.

What are your thoughts about this tkrave?

It would also be great if TMPEGEnc TAW 4 can author 3D Blu-ray like Scenarist can now too.

I'm a bit dumbfounded as well as to why they left out h.264 BD output. I'm pretty sure this was a highly requested feature before TAW4 came out, so why they decided not to put it in is beyond me. Not very forward-thinking on their part.

Their decision not to support DTS is a similar issue. If other consumer-level software supports it, they damn better support it too.

I was hoping they'd release an update with h.264 output, but I don't think that's going to happen now that they've switched from using Main Concept to x264 for their h.264 encoding (in TVMW5). I'm guessing they're reworking TAW to use x264 which will then become TAW5. This is all speculation on my part, but I think it makes sense.

tkrave,

I always thought you worked for them behind the scenes! So can't you put in some words to them?

I agree with with you. It is almost really DUMB on TMPGEnc part that they don't have h.264 BD output and DTS support while almost every other software has it.

How much better is the x264 vs the standard TMPGEnc encoder in terms of video image quality?
So is it just better compression for x264 and at the same bitrate, both encoders produce the same video image quality?

Do you think TAW4 will ever do 3D Blu-rays also?

There is, of course, a "slight" difference in price between AW4 and Scenarist.

No, I don't work for them, I just post here a lot. I set this page up as a default tab on my browser, so when I see a question I know the answer to, I typically answer it.
I have emailed them quite a bit over the years as well, so the info gleaned from those exchanges may also make it seem like I have some sort of connection.

It's safe to say that x264 is one of the best, if not the best, h.264 encoder. This is mostly based on what many people are saying about x264 and also independent studies like this one:
http://compression.ru/video/codec_comparison/h264_2011/

They rank x264 as the number 1 choice, with Main Concept's at number 4. So Pegasys' decision to switch was a good one in the big scheme of things since quality encoding is a big deal to them (and most people, I'd assume).

That report also shows some nice average bitrate/quality comparisons. If I'm reading it right, Main Concept would require about 31-55% more bitrate than x264 to obtain the equivalent quality level.

As for BD3D, I'm not sure. I have a feeling they won't be doing it for the next version, but I could be wrong. That's just my gut reaction though; I have not heard anything about it.

I have TAW4 and TVMW5 and would like to author some VCD Karaoke Discs containing approximately 15 videos each. Can I use TAW 4 to author a VCD Disk with a menu, or is TAW4 only for authoring DVD disks? If TAW4 won't work, then I will probably use Nero 11.

The program crashes when I:

Import some files (sometimes no issues)
Create chapters
Play the simulation (plays for 6 seconds and then freezes)
Try to output files

I'm using AVI files.

I've used TAW4 trial version before and haven't had any problems with anything. And then after I bought the full version, nothing works.

Any ideas on what to do or what I'm doing wrong? I understand enough about computers to use one, but when it comes to the technical aspects, you'll have to really dumb down your explanation/questions.

Thanks in advance if anyone can help.

Has anything on the PC changed (new programs, new hardware, etc.) since you used the trail version?

No new hardware but I did install updated version of Divx, and some PC games.

If it worked before, try a reinstall.

Also it migh be one of the new programs you added cause an issue and yo cou8ld try uninstall them.

The reinstall didn't seem to work...bummer.

I'll try uninstalling some of the new programs I installed.

thanks.

What is your OS? Windows 7, XP, Vista?
How much RAM do you have?
How fast is your CPU?

You can check these things by right-clicking the "Computer" or "My Computer" icon and selecting "Properties" in the menu.

Have you run Windows Update lately?

Windows Vista Home Premium
RAM = 4.00 GB
CPU = 2.00 GHz

Ran Windows Update last night.

Thanks for the help, I kind of resolved the issues by converting the files to mpeg and worked.

I also contacted their support people. Hopefully, I'll get an actual answer.

Interesting. Maybe it had to do with the codec for your AVI file.

Do you know the codec used?
You can use MediaInfo to get information about your video file.

Yup, it was a codec thing. Thanks for your help!

Hello,
I made my first BD with this prog. All looked nice, in simulation all the menus worked .However, the burned disc on insertion to the SA (Panasonic BD75)only lists all the menus and actual footage as seperate streams .So 00001 m2ts is menu 1 00002 m2ts is menu 2 . Any ideas what i did wrong? Made many dvds with no problem in the past but this is my first BD authoring...cheers
Gazza

From 200+ MPEG1, MPEG2 and MPEG4 karaoke video files I want to author karaoke DVD's containing approximately 30 songs each.

1. Will all of these file formats work with TAW4 or is conversion necessary?

2. Please describe with some detail how I can create a menu in TAW4 that will contain a listing of all 30 songs on one page.

Thank you.

TAW4 will be able to import your files. TAW4 will convert video that isn't DVD-Video compliant, so your MPEG-4 files will be converted to MPEG-2. If the resolution, framerate, or anything else is not DVD compliant, it will also be converted by TAW4.

In the Menu Wizard, there is an option to create a custom menu and set how many tracks are listed on a page. You can have up to 32 tracks per page displayed as thumbnails or text links. Just select the option for 30 thumbnails.

Thank you for your response tkrave. After making several unsuccessful attempts to author DVD's using TAW4, I realized that I had several questions and needed serious help. Therefore, I posted the following Support Request to Tmpgenc:

I recently purchased TAW4 and I am inexperienced in using this type of software. After consulting “Help” and the “Tutorials” numerous times without success, I am turning to you for support with this product.

I have approximately 400 MPEG1, MPEG2 and MPEG4 karaoke video files (songs) and I would like to author DVD’s containing between 25 and 50 songs per 4.7 GB NTSC DVD.

1. Do I need to create a clip proxy editing files? I don’t believe that any editing is necessary -- just menu creation.

2. Should I create a separate track for each song (50 tracks?), or if not, how many tracks and chapters/track should I create for a DVD with 50 songs?

3. Is MPEG4 compatible with TAW4 or is conversion necessary?

4. If I put 50 songs on a DVD, I need your help in explaining how to compress the files, if necessary, in order that they fit on the DVD.

5. I would like to fit the menu on one page or as few pages as possible. For a DVD with 50 songs, a paper hard copy will associate a number with each of the 50 song titles. The menu selection will contain the numbers 1 through 50 -- To choose a particular song title, select the number associated with the song title.

6. I get the message “Track 1 does not contain an audio stream that conforms to the DVD-Video standard requirements.” Since the DVD will be played on a variety of Karaoke DVD Players, I want to maximize the compatibility of the DVD. The Help instructions state the following: “When authoring a NTSC DVD-Video, each track should contain at least one Dolby Digital or Linear PCM audio stream.” The Stream Format of Track 1 is “MPEG-1 audio layer II” and it is greyed out (cannot change). How do I change it to Dolby Digital or Linear PCM, if necessary?

I will really appreciate your help in providing step-by-step instructions to author a 4.7 GB NTSC DVD based on the above listed criteria.

>Thank you for your response tkrave. After making several unsuccessful attempts to author DVD's using TAW4, I realized that I had several questions and needed serious help. Therefore, I posted the following Support Request to Tmpgenc:
>
>I recently purchased TAW4 and I am inexperienced in using this type of software. After consulting “Help” and the “Tutorials” numerous times without success, I am turning to you for support with this product.
>
>I have approximately 400 MPEG1, MPEG2 and MPEG4 karaoke video files (songs) and I would like to author DVD’s containing between 25 and 50 songs per 4.7 GB NTSC DVD.
>
>1. Do I need to create a clip proxy editing files? I don’t believe that any editing is necessary -- just menu creation.

No, proxy files are more for HD video, but even then it's not necessary to create them, especially if you have a fast computer.

>
>2. Should I create a separate track for each song (50 tracks?), or if not, how many tracks and chapters/track should I create for a DVD with 50 songs?

Yes. Put each song in its own track. If they are in the same track, they will play one after the other as if they were one long movie.
How many tracks you should have is up to you, but there is a limit of 99 tracks per DVD. You'd also want to consider the quality of the video. The more tracks you have, the more you might need to compress the video to make them all fit on one disc. You can see how much room you have on the disc by looking at the remaining space display at the bottom of the window. Once you go over, you'll have to reduce the quality to get it all to fit. This can be done easily with the transcoding settings in the Output stage. More on that below.

>
>3. Is MPEG4 compatible with TAW4 or is conversion necessary?

MPEG4 can be imported by TAW4, but MPEG-4 is not a DVD compliant file type, so TAW4 will re-encode it as MPEG-2 when you output your DVD. So yes, conversion is necessary, but TAW4 will take care of that for you.

>
>4. If I put 50 songs on a DVD, I need your help in explaining how to compress the files, if necessary, in order that they fit on the DVD.

There are two ways to do this.
The easiest way is to use the Transcoding settings in the Output Stage. Simply select the size of your target media (4.7 DVD in your case) and TAW4 will adjust the quality of your videos so it will all fit on the disc.

The other, and more time-consuming method is to lower the bitrate for each track via the track settings. If you have 50 tracks, that will take a while.

>
>5. I would like to fit the menu on one page or as few pages as possible. For a DVD with 50 songs, a paper hard copy will associate a number with each of the 50 song titles. The menu selection will contain the numbers 1 through 50 -- To choose a particular song title, select the number associated with the song title.

I made a mistake telling you that 32 tracks can be displayed per page; that's only true for Blu-ray menus. For DVD menus, up to 15 tracks can be displayed per page, so you'll have to have multiple pages if you have 50 tracks. The track names are editable so you can number them.

>
>6. I get the message “Track 1 does not contain an audio stream that conforms to the DVD-Video standard requirements.” Since the DVD will be played on a variety of Karaoke DVD Players, I want to maximize the compatibility of the DVD. The Help instructions state the following: “When authoring a NTSC DVD-Video, each track should contain at least one Dolby Digital or Linear PCM audio stream.” The Stream Format of Track 1 is “MPEG-1 audio layer II” and it is greyed out (cannot change). How do I change it to Dolby Digital or Linear PCM, if necessary?

In the Source Stage, click on the "Settings" button for the track. A tracks settings window will open.
Click on the "Audio" tab to see the audio output settings.
Here, you can change the output audio to Dolby Digital. I don't suggest using Linear PCM since that will require more disc space.

Fantastic response -- Thanks

tkrave -- thanks for your previous detailed help, everything is fine now except that I am still having a problem with menus, and I am not sure what I am doing wrong.

To keep it simple, let's say that I am authoring a DVD with 14 videos, which are MPEG Karaoke songs (files). When I insert the completed DVD into the DVD Player, the first thing I want to see is a menu with 14 song selections on ONE page. I can't seem to make this happen. Instead, I get a menu page with ONE song.

Can you please walk me through the menu creation process one more time, so that the first thing I see when I load the DVD into the DVD Player is a menu listing the 14 songs that I can select from on one page. If I happen to author a DVD with more songs than will fit on the first page displayed, then I want to be able to click an arrow that will take me to the next page, which will provide me with more song selections.

While I am waiting for your response, I will keep trying to figure out what I am doing wrong. Thanks

tkrave -- I got it working! The solution for me was to put all of the files in one clip. Thanks.

I should have said that the solution for me was to put all of the clips in one track.

Does the next song play when the selected song is finished in your current setup (all in one track)?

I was going to suggest keeping them in separate tracks; that way it can go back to the top menu once a song is finished.
Then, for the menu, I would choose the "Top menu only" option and select a layout for the top menu that has 14 thumbnails.

am making a DVD from various AVI files with a menu and the finished video plays back all stretched,anybody help me out with this? Thanks in advance

This is usually the result of the setting son the DVD player and/or the TV used to view the completed DVD. It can vary from one player/TV combination to another.

Is your source material 4x3 or 16x9 or a mix?

I have changed my computer and I have removed a hard disk so I don't have anymore the partition G where I had put the projects that now I have moved in F.
Now I have anymore the partitions C, D, E and F so TMPGEnc Authoring Works 4 doesn't open the projects created before.
Solutions?

Thanks

Maybe use the windows Administative Tools -> Computer Management -> Disk Management utility to rename the drive partition (e.g., F) to match the old names for the project in questions (G).

You can check where files should be with the Project file check tool. Go to the Start stage-->Advanced Tools-->Project file check tool, and select your project file. It will show the path of the items in your project and whether or not it is present (+ means present, - means not present).

Also, I believe if you try to open a project file and one of the source files are missing, an error window will appear for each missing file. In this window, you can click on the "Browse..." button and reassign the source file if it is in a different location. You will be able to do this for each missing file.

I use AVCHD which is basically a Blu Ray wrapper and the files are m2ts.
When I'm using these files in Adobe encore they don't get transcoded when burning to Blu Ray. Is this the same with TMPG Auh Works 4?

Unfortunately, no. Since AVCHD video is encoded as H.264, it will be re-encoded in TAW4 since TAW4 cannot encode anything as H.264. All output in TAW4 is MPEG-2 or DivX.

Is there a feature to check your project like in Adobe Encore where it checks for overlapping buttons, button links not set etc?

I found this feature crucial in Encore and it saved me a lot of coasters.

There is a button in the Menu Stage which will show overlapping buttons. See pic for example. Overlapping buttons will be marked as shown.

http://i53.tinypic.com/2s9slmc.jpg

You can also check your links if you activate the third button from the left (the one with the arrows <->), or go into the link editor tab in the Menu stage.

Run the Simulation to also check for errors; if there are any overlapping buttons or unlinked items, an error will show up and tell you what page the error appears on.

I'm testing TMPGEnc Authoring Works trial version.
How long may it last to import a hd video with a file size of 33 GB? I'm just waiting for one hour.

Are you creating a proxy editing file? If so, that will increase the import time. If not, it shouldn't take that long.

One hour after my mail the import was ready, but working with the file is very, very slow.
So I started an import with proxy file yesterday evening. Now, 13 hours later the messagebox says 'Proxy file will be checked' (translated from German version) and 0%. In the directory, where the proxy file should be saved, there is until now no file.
Is that correct?

File import time will depend in part on the speed of the source media/drive, the speed of the drive to which you are writing the information, the interface to the drives and such other processes as may be running on the computer that eat into available drive and clock time. Running AV tools can really slow down read times, USB-1 is slower than USB-2, and so on.

Tell us a bit more about your source, destinations, interfaces, and what else is runing on the PC in quesiton.

In a quick test on my system it took about 7 minutes to import a 4.2 GB DVD reading the DVD with the internal DB/DVD writer drive. If this scales linearly, it would take about an hour to import 33 GB.

software refuses to work in any mode. will not render with or without proxy. no virus software or other problem wares installed. has never made a single movie since buying. using win7 64bit

Can you explain what you are doing in more detail? Creating or not creating a proxy file should not affect output.
Can you make a menu? Can you edit your video? What happens when you try to output?