I am trying to add fade-out and dissolve transitions, but these are also added to the audio? Is it not possible to keep them video-only?

I don't think it's possible in TAW5 unfortunately.

Thanks for the reply. This is strange. Since there are audio fade-in/outs available, I wonder why they are forced with a video fade-in/out as well.

I am having a problem with the clarity of the word “Play” in the mneu title. I carefully chose the size and colors along with the effects, and it looks great. But in both the simulator and the finished file, the word “Play” is fuzzy and washed out, even when the Play command is slected. I’ve went into the “Video Global Menu Settings” and tried every option there, yet I still wind up with the washed out, fuzzy “Play” word. Anyone have experience in correcting this? If so, what was the solution. Thanks for any assistance.

Using the latest version of Authoring Works 5 and I am importing blu-ray ready titles, copied from the Stream folder of blu-ray discs I have previously made myself (no copy protection or regions). The files show up as blue SR for smart render, but when I go to author it still re-encodes them anyway, and I have the setting to "use smart render" in the options of each track.

So what is the reason for this ? Very frustrating as I have 12 discs to author all in HD content and was hoping it would SR the lot, but now it will take 4 hours per disc rather than minutes.

Anything I can do to find out why this is happening ?

Thanks.

Just an update, seems the clock and % was wrong, it said it will take 4 hours but took 50 minutes. What seems to be happening is it is re-encoding selected videos, not all of them, but I am unsure why. Each disc has 4 shows, so on both discs I have done so far it has re-encoded 1 show per disc. Very odd.

Are there any differences between the clips that are being re-encoded vs. the smart rendered ones? Are all your shows in the same track or separate tracks? If they are all in the same track, put them in separate tracks.

Is there any way to create a DVD in TAW5 which will display the subtitles by default?

I still want users to be able to disable the subtitles, but I'm worried that a lot of non-technical people will just put the DVD into the player and press Play, without going to the subtitles menu to activate the subtitles. (Most people watching this particular DVD will want to have subtitles enabled.)

You can set the default subtitle stream in the track settings.

From the Source stage, click on the "Settings" button for a track.
Click on the "Subtitle" tab.
Choose the subtitle stream you want to show by default or set to none.

You can still turn them off via the menu or subtitle button on your DVD remote.

Thanks again tkrave.

I have now spent several hours trying to get the "subtitles page item" (the link to the page where you select subtitle) to display on the top menu, but with no luck.

I have created a project with 6 tracks, and various number of chapters on each track. I have only been able to display the "subtitles page item" on the track menus, but that means you can't select subtitles if you want to just pop the DVD in and watch the entire film from start to end.

Am I missing something obvious? (Or have Pegasys?)

This is a limitation of the software. In TAW5, there isn't a "global" subtitle page. Since each track can have their own set of subtitles, I think they felt that each track should have their own subtitles menu page instead of a single one that sets the subtitle language for all tracks (like on commercial dvds).

Thanks tkrave.

Not sure if anyone at Pegasys will ever read this, but if you do please consider this a feature request. It would have been quite nice to have this option.

For this particular project I could work around it by re-authoring the project into not using tracks at all, instead using only chapters.

I want to have a short video clip loop when the menu is displayed - before a chapter is selected. What should I do (I now know what NOT to do!)

Thanks for any help

Do you mean you want the menu background to be a video and it loops? Or do you mean the chapter thumbnails are videos and they loop? Or do you mean there's just a video on the menu screen separate from the chapters that loops?

When the disk loads the menu page I would like a short video that I have that has a roll in effect for the title. I have made the video already, and am trying to understand how to display it as the background for the menu.. I would remove the "Title" label and the "Return" label that Authoring Works 5 normally inserts, only having the "Play" text available on top of the background.

Go to the Global Menu settings in the Menu stage and activate motion backgrounds in the Motion Menu tab. You should also set the duration of the motion menu as the same duration of your video and make sure the loop setting is checked.

Back in the main Menu stage window, select the menu you want to edit and double-click the background. This opens the background editor and you can now set a video as the background image.

I’ve done as you stated and in the Menu Item Edit the preview playback works perfectly; however, when I return to the main menu and use the Simulation tab I only receive the audio portion of the clip – no video. What am I missing?

Forgot to mention..the background displays the opening frame of the video, but the video does not play.

PROBLEM SOLVED!! Actually I had done it right all along. What I didn't see in the Help section was that for the Simulation to show the actual background video playing is that you have to click on the "Motion" tab in the control panel. Sorry for the bother.. Now I have a back ground that "unrolls" across the screen revealing the label as it unrolls, complete with the audio accentuating the effect. Looks great (of course I'm biased)..

The video play if in the BGM audioselection TAB is cecked "use audio from the background source"

I have bought both Mastering Works 5 and Authoring Works 5.

My question first is regarding chapters in Authoring Works, I deal in authoring DVDs and blu-rays with lots of shows on each disc. I am a bit fed up with having to select each show and add chapters on each one individually. Sometimes I have 40+ shows per disc and when making a lot of them it soon adds up to a lot of time. In Ulead Movie Factory that allows you to add chapters on everything automatically at one click, you just select the duration gap between each chapter. Can you do this in Authoring Works ? I can make it automatic when I have clicked the chapter button, but I still have to do this on every video file, instead of all of them at once. Am I just missing the batch option somewhere for this ?

Secondly, I can't seem to encode xDVDs in AW and nor can I crop or use any filters/cropping. So to author a proper DVD I have to first encode and filter it in Mastering Works and then import in AW which is a 2 step process. Given Pegasys own both software, surely they could integrate this in Authoring Works too at an extra cost ? Or perhaps give extra features for those of us who have purchased both, like a plug-in or add on. Will this come on a future edition ?

Thanks everyone.

Did I understand correctly that TAW5 only imports .srt .subtitle and .xsubtitle files ?
I am on a project where a large volume of subtitles needs to be added from scratch (i.e. a translator is going to write the text, no existing OCR or .srt files). I need to give recommendations to the writer in order to minimize his work (and mine).
Is there a better method to input these subtitles into TAW5 than copy & paste line-by-line, from a simple text file ? Writing directly in .srt format is not easy for the person in charge of the translation ?

Sadly, no. There is nothing you can do. Have them write into .srt with substation alpha if must, but this program SUCKS for it's subtitle support. You be better off trying multiavchd. Freeware program with a heck of a lot better subtitle support. Pegasys has left us out to dry here with their complete lack of understanding in regards to how important subtitle support is. Or it could be the MPAA breathing down their neck as proper subtitle support would make bootleg blurays extremely easy to make.

You are correct about TAW5 lacking in subtitle support. However, it shouldn't be hard to convert most formats to .srt using the excellent, free Subtitle Edit and then import it over to ΤΑW5.

I am trying to create a slideshow with well over 200 photos (the limit for a slideshow). The problem isn't that it is over 200 photos the problem is that every 200 photos it the program creates a new "clip" within the track. Now I ended up with about 25 clips (some were very short) and I would like to add seamless music to the slideshow that consists of all 25 clips.

Are there ways to do this? Can I add an Audio Stream to a Track as I would for a clip? Is there a way to combine all 25 clips into one singular clip so I can add the Audio Stream to that?

Any help is appreciated

Unfortunately, there's no way to apply audio to span multiple clips. You'd have to output the file to get a single video track and then import that track back into the project, then you'd be able to add your audio. So it is possible with a bit of work.

I'm trying to connect the first play and the main menu,but in the final dvd big difference,switch from first play to main menu get bad,video is stretched to main menu and it turns out the big difference between the first play in main menu.both the video is made from a single shared file. why?? if you can tell me how can i solve this problem?

What's the aspect ratio of the video and what's the aspect ratio of the menu?

aspect ratio - 16:9 video and menu

How is the video getting stretched on the menu? Is it cutting off the sides? I'm still not sure what's happening.

in the finished project in simulation it shows all normal, but in ready dvd video in main menu stretched wide

its look as if the resolution is different but it done from one shared file

I have authored a BD-R disc with TAW5.
The client asks me now to produce a version with subtitles.
I no longer have the project files (TAW file, source video, etc...)
Is it possible (easy) to rip this BD, and re-author it in order to add subtitles (closed captioning), keeping the video & audio streams intact (no retranscoding) ?

It should be possible to import your BD and the video/audio should smart render. You will have to redo the menus though since you can't import menus.

Hello,
I just bought and installed TMPGEnc Authoring Works 5.
And installing, validated my key, program would start.
It would get almost all the way loaded trhen crashes everytime with these errors.

EAccessViolation occurred - module TMPGEncAuthoringWorks5.exe/6FA1B11B
At address 6FA1C11B , Write error occurred against address 6FA1C11B.

FastMM has detected a GetMem call after FastMM was uninstalled.

What does all this mean and why won't this run right?
I mean $100 is alot of money to spend on something that won't work!

Anybody have any ideas or help please.
Eric

Update:
All it needed was for Apple Quicktime to be installed doh!
>Hello,
>I just bought and installed TMPGEnc Authoring Works 5.
>And installing, validated my key, program would start.
>It would get almost all the way loaded trhen crashes everytime with these errors.
>
>EAccessViolation occurred - module TMPGEncAuthoringWorks5.exe/6FA1B11B
>At address 6FA1C11B , Write error occurred against address 6FA1C11B.
>
>FastMM has detected a GetMem call after FastMM was uninstalled.
>
>What does all this mean and why won't this run right?
>I mean $100 is alot of money to spend on something that won't work!
>
>Anybody have any ideas or help please.
>Eric

Hello Eric,

installing Quicktime helped me solving the problem, too!

Thx!