I just purchased DVD Author and am having a problem importing a DVD I have copied to my harddisk using DVD XCOPY. It plays with no problem in my software DVD player (PowerDVD).

On the ''Source Setup'' screen, I click on ''Add DVD Video'' and point to the VIDEO_TS folder where the files are located. In the ''Select Title'' screen, it shows the title I want to import correctly. In this case, Title 4 which is 5hr20min13sec and 6477mb.

When I click NEXT, on the ''Options settings'' screen, I click ''Copy the clip video data to the HDD'' and point to a folder, however, there is a message in red below the ''destination folder'' box that says ''3453 mb of video data has been copied to this folder'', not 6477mb as shown in the previous screen. The endpoint in the imported clip is not the end of the movie, because it apparently didn't copy all the data.

Am I doing something wrong or is this a bug? Can it be fixed? I purchased this product because I liked the simple interface and it did exactly what I wanted, however, it is not much use to me if it doesn't copy the entire movie.

Thanks,

Mike Halvorsen

Hi! If you want to rip DVD movie, try to use DVD shrink. It's an excellent program to that purpose. Than you can author it using any program you like the most. Also you must specify a drive that can support a large amount of data. On the other hand, you HD has to have enough free space to handle it. The best way is to have one drive for all systems and one for only DVD transfer (ripping), I mean, 2 HDs.

Hi,
I tried to combine 10 mpeg-1 files into one DVD, after author conver all mpeg1 file, then it gave the error: "divided by 0". All mpeg1 files are stardard NTSC format. What does this error mean?

Thanks,

Jack

I had this problem using the ac-3 plug-in. You have to convert your mpg-audio to wav (PCM). Then the problem won't occour.

By the way: to author a dvd you have to use MPEG-2 video files. I don't think you can use mpeg-1 files!!

Having text in one color is often quite drab. Sometimes I want to apply a gradient, or shading, to the font I'm using.

TDA does not allow for this, and I assume it'd be quite a bit of coding to do so. Instead I would like the option to import a transparent GIF file (or somesuch) with a graphical display I've created AS the "title" or "chapter text." I know you guys have more pressing issues to deal with, but please bug a feature request for me.

TDA (v. 1.5.20.62) will start an encode to a given DVD-OUT folder without checking for free space on the drive, even though it knows how much space the DVD will take; it encodes blindly. So I come back to the PC to find find TDA 36% finished with an encode, but giving me an error (I'm REALLY sorry but I can't remember the error and I stupidly exited the window somehow).

Bottom line, TDA needs to check for free space before it begins an encode.

Also the authors need someone who knows proper English to write their error messages; I saw an error message that contained "loose the file?" when I cleared up some space on the hard drive and started the output again.

"Loose" and "lose" are two different words, and the latter should be used in this case. There are other examples I've just laughed at (in the spirit of engrish.com ) but since I'm posting a message right now, I may as well mention it.

Regardless of the explanations, elsewhere, of captured video and audio frame rate mismatch and which should be the "Standard" I believe that the methology used in TMPGEnc DVD Author is flawed. I captured 6 video tape segments using ADS Instant DVD 2.0 capture unit at 4000Kbs (Hardware compession/multipexing)creating 6 separate mpeg files. The total duration of these is 150 minutes. Each "clip" was added as a new track with main and track menus in DVD Author. After authoring there is an accumulated 1 second audio/video mismatch at the end of the last track. This tells me that there is a rate error, somewhere, of 1/9000, or .00011%! This is so close to perfection that nothing better should be expected in the real world and certainly not of my capture device! Since the original mpeg files are perfectly synchronized, and can be perfectly authored with programs from Ulead and Nero, there is pertinent audio/video synchronization information that is not being used by TMPGEnc DVD Author. It is also odd that the error accumulates over the total time of the 6 files and not each file individually?
Thanks Dieter

I tried an ADS USB capture box and it was rubbish. By capturing video through the box, and the sound through your sound card, you are absolutely asking for sync problems.

I sent mine back and got an ADS A/V Pyro that captures both sound and video locked together through one firewire connection without the sound card being involved at all. The result - it captures hour long (and more) files perfectly without a hint of any sync problems. The USB model couldn't even keep ten minute clips together. Utterly useless device, which ADS should drop from their product line and hang their head in shame over.

TMPGenc DVD Author makes perfectly synched DVDs from my A/V Pyro captures, no matter how long, how short, or how many there are. But no matter what I tried I couldn't get sound and video to sync with the USB model, which had nothing to do with TMPGenc DVD Author and everything to do with the useless ADS USB box.

Regards

Mark

>I tried an ADS USB capture box and it was rubbish. By capturing video through the box, and the sound through your sound card, you are absolutely asking for sync problems.


I really don't think that's the issue; if it were the user would realize it from the source file (!). I use a PVR-250; if you're unfamiliar, it's a hardware MPEG-2 encoding card, which is supplied both audio and video in perfect sync (necessarily from a coax feed), and produces MPEG-2 output. However, sync issues still occur, but only with TDA; by the end of 1 hour and 45 continuous minutes from one source MPEG-2 file, the sync is around three to four seconds (estimation) off. TDA just doesn't pay attention to the timestamps, I guess; I can play the video I record with WMP (for example) and sync is perfect all the way to the end of the video even when I skip ahead. I burn the DVD with TDA and I've just created a coaster; the sync is gradually lost through playback until it's terribly off at the end of the file.

I will state the following:

TMPGEnc itself doesn't accept the file, else I'd try transcoding it. Can't remember the error, TMPGEnc's MPEG-2 support expired and I still have about two weeks' trial left with TDA.

The source file was encoded VBR 6mbps low to 9mbps high with a hardware MPEG-2 encoding tuner card, the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-250.

I used Nanocosmos' MPEG-2 editor to cut the commercials out.



But, again, WMP plays back the file perfectly; I have the Elecard MPEG-2 codec installed on this machine. As the only MPEG-2 codec installed, doubtless WMP is using this to decode the video.


And, again... Sync + TDA = suxx0rz! I just want a resolution.

Just to clarify and to add to "Nohbdy's" comments. I am using the ADS Instant DVD 2.0 capture unit that does not use the sound card for audio. It hardware multiplexes the audio/video to the USB2 (or 1) output. I can verify the manufacturers claim of "Perfect Lip Sync." even with very poor quality video input sources. In fact I, and at least one other user of this device, have never seen an audio/video mismatch in the resulting mpeg file. I also agree that the mpeg file must contain a continuous time stamp that "locks" the audio and video together. Otherwise we have a situation akin to projecting motion picture film with sound play-back from a reel-reel tape recorder and hoping, by some miracle, that the two will stay synchronized.

My apologies then. The model I tried used the sound card for sound and was dreadful at keeping sync.

Also, I use other programs to create the MPEG2 and WAV files from a DV source (the ADS Pyro A/V link in my case) such as TMPGenc or Procoder, and TDA seems to be able to keep these synced perfectly, even turning them into AC-3(2.0) whilst it does it, now that I have the AC-3 plug in. Never a hint of sync loss.

Perhaps feeding MPG files to TDA rather than MPEG2/WAV combos is the problem?
Though I'm sure I've tried a few experiments of reading DVDs and messing about with the files before re-authoring them and there was never any hint of sync loss there, either.

What hardware spec are you running? I'm using a 2.8 P4, 512Mb RAM, two 7200rpm
70Gb drives, Nvidia Ti4200 graphics card, Audigy 2 sound card, and a Sony 500 external firewire burner.

Regards

Mark

>Perhaps feeding MPG files to TDA rather than MPEG2/WAV combos is the problem?

This is how you attain perfect sync? To the best of my knowledge, TDA will only accept mpeg-2 files...

I'm using a Pinnacle PCTVSat card for capture of DVB-S streams. The captures are made with WinSTB in a very raw format (MPEG2 transport-stream) where sync is tracked every few frames (you may even cut out a piece of the file with a hex editor without loosing sync!) These files are demultiplexed with ProjectX which corrects eventual sync problems (i.e. caused by transmit errors) by adding or dropping audio 'frames'. The demultiplexed streams are then directly put into TDA which remultiplexes the video and audio streams to VOBs. The DVDs created this way had never any sync problems. Maybe you should try it with demultiplexed streams...

Since the new dual-layer burners are coming out, please update TMPGENC Plus and TMPGENC DVD Author to support the new 9.4 Gb SS/DL recordable media, including the -R and +R varieties. Thanks.

how fo you use the dvd writing software, without opening the project and having to rewrite it to the file. i just want to write the project and that is all

I have made several projects with Author but for some reason now when I go to edit a clip in a project I get an error message "cannot initialize DirectSound"
and when I click ok and go into the edit screen all the options are greyed out and I cannot do anything. I have never had any problem before, any ideas what could cause this?

Hello, I am new to the world of dvd authoring but I have managed to successfully create episodic dvds with new menus using TMPGEnc Authoring program. My question is, what exactly is this plug-in used for? My free trial period is ending and I intend to purchase the authoring program but I have noticed a special price for buying both. In layman terms, can someone explain to me the benefit for the AC-3 plug-in. Thanks.

AC-3 sound is Dolby Digital 2.0 (stereo) and is the most universal sound system in use.

Alternatives are:

LPCM (Linear Pulse Code Modulation) which is also recognised by all players as part of the DVD standard, but not being compressed takes up a lot more space than an equivalent AC-3 file would.

MP2 (Mpeg layer 2) which is only standard on European players, though many US players can also handle it (not to be confused with MP3 files which are different again).

The reason it costs for an AC-3 plug in is that the authors have to pay Dolby Labs for a license to use their name and compression algorithm.

Finally, the reason you would want it, is that because you can derive sound files of the same quality, but much smaller in size, you can then devote more space on your target DVD to video, for example by increasing its sampling rate to get better quality.

Regards

Mark

I would like to be able to add a second audio track to my home vides. This way I could make commentary tracks that are included in my home videos that will expand on whatÃÔ going on in the videos I take at parks and parties. I would defiantly purchase a copy of TMPGEnc DVD if it supported a second audio track. Are there any plans to incorporate this feature anytime soon?

Thank You
Jim

Using tmpg (trail version), i've built the dvd video and menu. When i play the files (via laptop/powerDVD) the menu has large noisy horizontal stripes through it! I can still access/see the chapters and film ok, and they view/play cleanly as expected .... (The background has an image from the mpeg and has replaced the original on the template) ....any ideas anyone ??

Maybe your Background is from a interlaced Movie?

i have since found out thar the problem is also occuring with original menu templates....mmmmm

i was the powerDVD causing the problems, i solved it by changing one of the settings !

>Using tmpg (trail version), i've built the dvd video and menu. When i play the files (via laptop/powerDVD) the menu has large noisy horizontal stripes through it! I can still access/see the chapters and film ok, and they view/play cleanly as expected .... (The background has an image from the mpeg and has replaced the original on the template) ....any ideas anyone ??

I had this problem on the DVD I burned that had the sync issues, but it appeared during the video playback. See the recent "sync" thread for details about my setup and the source file.

A DVD Ram disk was made using a panasonic DMR-E100H recorder, of home movies from a SVHS Video recorder(sony HI8 Camera source)the resultant DVD_RTAV file is opened into the TMPGEnc Author program as to edit and encode to Mpeg2.
My problem is, TMPGEnc DVD has encountered a problem. The program is a mix of different video formats mpeg1-mpeg2, or 4:3-16:9, 704x576-352x576, ??
If I open the same VR Movie VRO file into Power DVD and play the video file, Power DVD video properties dislays a diferent story, All the video content is 720x576 Pal at 4:3 aspect ratio.??? My question is ,where is the problem? why does Power DVD see the file ok but TMPGEnc does not?? By creating 2 projects I was able to seperate some of the video 704x576 and 352x576. I can't understand where the change has come from? All my video was recorded with a Sony Hi8 Camera, to a JVC Super VHS Recorder the to the Panasonic recorder to it's Hard
drive then high speed dub to the Ram Disk.

I hope some one can help here as the program seems to work well, other than my problem.

Hans

> Sony Hi8 Camera, to a JVC Super VHS Recorder the to the Panasonic recorder

What a loss in quality. Why not directly from Hi8 to the DVD Recorder?

> My problem is, TMPGEnc DVD has encountered a problem. The program is a mix of different video formats mpeg1-mpeg2, or 4:3-16:9, 704x576-352x576

Looks like you used different Recording Modes on your DVD Recorder.

> Power DVD video properties dislays a diferent story

Never trust PowerDVD!

You can use Project X to separate the Sequences with different Resolutions, but it's hard to use.

Thanks for the reply.

The Hi8 Camera work was done a long time ago, the SVHS tapes I am using are Library tapes tha I want to transfer to DVD.
One other way is to Hook up the SVHS Recorder to my DV Camera via SVHS cable and then DV out of the Camera via firewire.
It would have been more convenient the other way.

Thanks again for the reply.
Hans