One thing I have noticed after working with TDA3 for a while now is that you don't seem to have any way of knowing the path/filename of your source video clips once you have set up and saved a project. Nor do you have the ability to see the path/filename of menu page objects such as the menu background picture and menu background audio. Being able to see where these sources are located on your computer can be very helpful and should be incorporated into a near future release. If the program can read and display the properties of an object, I would not think it would be that hard to show the source's path and filename.

I should clarify...

When I cannot see the source path/filename of the source video clip is when I am using a DVD-Video folder as a track source. If I use a single file (eg. MPEG, the source path information for it shows under "Clip properties". I realize that a DVD-video folder may consist of many VOB files that TDA3 assembles into one track, but it would still be nice to be able to see the path of the root folder of those VOB files.

My comments about not being able to see the source of menu objects remains.

how is a fade out created at completion of an authoring job using tmpgenc 3

I was not specific. I want to create an audio/video fade out to black at the end of the project using TMPGEnc DVD Author 3. How do you do that?

There is an option in DVD Author 3 for audio fade in/out, but not for video fade in/out. IMHO, I think this is something that it should include, but I'm guessing they want you to buy another one of their products which includes this ability, such as DVD Source Creator 4.

I tried the audio fade out at the end of my project and it converted the 5.1 ex soundtrack to 2.0 DD!!! A simple thing like a audio fadeout screwed up the entire project. I removed fadeout on the last track and the audio went back to 5.1 DD. a poor design in a good product that really should be looked addressed.

> a poor design in a good product that really should be looked addressed.

I agree with you...TDA 3 seems to be a good product overall but there are some obvious shortcomings in it.

Yes, unfortunately, TDA3 only has 5.1 audio passthrough, so if you edit the audio in any way, it will be encoded to 2.0 stereo.

Hi!
I am getting an error message when I try to start a new project in DVD Author 3. The message tells that "project instance not found", all of the buttons stay grey and I'm not able to load files or anything else.

What's happening? Why this happens? How do I fix this?
I know there are a lot of questions, but I love to "know". ^_^

I am having the same problem. Anyone have a solution?

I got the same problem too, please help!!!

Hello,

I'm converting a bunch of .wmv files to DVD format using TMPGAuthor 3. What happens is I get the message: "Stream reading error (error code: 0x80068001)". The error message appears at different times whenever I try to run the output, so it doesn't seem to be a problem with reading any specific .wmv file. I'm converting everything over to 352x240 with VBR avg bitrate of 1500 kb/s and 8000 kb/s max. I am encoding 6 hours worth of video over 2 titles. There are 99 chapters in the first title and 85 chapters in the second title. What I've found on the net for this error (which wasn't much) is that it appears TMPGAuthor version 3 seems to have an issue with encoding multiple-title DVDs. If this is truly the case, then I find this to be unfortunate, as I've made lots of these kind of DVDs using the older version 1.5 with no issues. Unfortunately, if I want to go back to 1.5 I'll have to convert all the .wmv files to .mpg first (since 1.5 doesn't accept .wmv files), as well as reauthor the entire DVD.

I've also tried running this conversion on my laptop, but I get the same error message; once again in a random spot. This eliminates any potential hardware issues on my desktop PC. Disk space is also not a problem, but if that were the case then I'd be getting a "Stream [b]writing[/b] error" message. ;)

Has anybody else had this error? I'm using the latest version of TMPGAuthor 3 but I don't see anything in the release notes indicating that this bug was found and/or fixed.

Thanks,
Visor

Are you doing 2 pass VBR encoding? I have found that every time I do 2 pass VBR encoding of a .ASF file, I get a similar error to this (don't have the exact error now) but if I switch to 1 pass VBR, the same .ASF file encodes fine.

Ah-ha! I set it to 1-pass CBR and it worked! (I can't do 1-pass VBR because the automatic settings make you encode at 704x480, and I need 352x240.)

Thanks a bunch!
Visor

How do I open TMPGEncDVD Author 1.6 files with TMPGEncDVD Author 3 with DIVX Authoring? I keep getting a "not supported" message.

You can't. They aren't supported. Only 2.0 and above are supported.

Hello!

Is it possible to start playing movie from divx menu with PLAY button? I only manage to do that with OK button on the remote control. For some reason I would realy like to have that.

Thanks for helping me :)

I discovered something about using a 2nd audio source on a clip which you edit that is quite surprising.

What I discovered is that if you add a 2nd audio source that is, say, 5 minutes long to a 15 minute clip, then you edit that clip (eg. you edit out the first 10 minutes out of it leaving a 5 minute clip), that 2nd audio source will not be included in the output (nor can you hear it during simulation). If I remove all edits, then you can hear the 2nd audio source. I tried adding the 2nd audio source AFTER I had edited the clip and got the same results.

It seems rather surprising that the 2nd audio would not be applied to the beginning of the final, edited clip. I got around this by first creating output of the final 5 minutes (with no audio) then using that output as the clip source for another project which I then added the 2nd audio source to. A long way around it seems.

Am I doing something wrong?

I think that's just how the cut-editing works.

Since the cut-edits don't actually happen until output, it will put the audio at the beginning of the video as if there were no cuts. In other words, the cut-edits aren't final until you output.

So yeah, you'll have to cut-edit, output, then bring it back in just as you did.

OK, I can live with this, but it does seem reasonable to assume that the 2nd audio source would be applied after the video edits are taken into account.

I think it's more of a technical issue. If you think about it, when the file is being outputted it is encoding the audio and video together so it would have to start both the audio and video at the same time, and thus it would make the edits in the order they appear. For it to apply the audio track after the edits, it would essentially have to do 2 passes where it would edit the video on the first pass and apply the audio on the second pass. This would be further complicated by having two audio tracks where the first is being edited normally along with the video but the second is supposed to be applied after the edits.

And what if you made cuts, then added a second audio source, then made more cuts? Should the audio start after the first set of cuts and then be affected by the second set of cuts? The program just has no way of knowing.

In the end, even if they were to program the software that way, it would still take twice as long or about the same time as encoding the edits and then bringing it back in to add the audio.

To me, it's more logical the way it's set up now. It's like adding a musical score to a movie--you do it after you've edited the film.

Yea, that makes sense. I used to use Nero for DVD authoring and you could make your video edits and then apply a 2nd audio source to the pre-encoded edited video and then you would encode it (just once) to get your desired output. But as I recall, Nero took longer too so perhaps it was doing it in two steps.

Hi!
Error are in the slideshow making when put the audio file (mp3).
When i simulate it, the audio is wrong, the playback start in the middle of the song or similar.
I need help Please!
Thanks.

Mariano

I'm running TMPGEnc DVD Author 3 with DivX Authoring (v. 3.1.2.176) and have some video files with a black bar above and below the picture (videos were originally 16:9 aspect but have been reprocessed by Tunebite software into 4:3 aspect - hence the lines). Is TMPGEnc DVD Author 3 able to crop these lines out to restore 16:9 aspect, and if so how is this done? If not, is there any other TMPGEnc software that will do this?

DVD Author 3 won't be able to crop the picture.
TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress has a crop picture filter that should do the job.

I really like TDA3 so far but I would like to see the ability to add simple transitions such as fades between clips added to the program. I know MPEG Editor allows you to add transitions but I don't see that it supports ASF files, which is my primary source format.

I understand that TMPGEnc DVD Author 3 with DivX Authoring includes a Dolby Digital/AC3-Plugin for but only two stereo channels.
How can I upgrade to a 5.1-DD-decoder?
Thank you.

There is no upgrade to a 5.1 decoder.

However, I believe DVD Author 3 has 5.1 AC3 passthrough, meaning that if you don't re-encode the audio, it will remain 5.1.

tkrave, thanks for your response from 2008/09/08.

You are right, DVD Author 3 handles video files exactly as you mentioned - problem resolved.

I observe a follow-up problem, however:
When I record a pure DD 5.1 audio file in .ts format, which is identified as a52 by VLC-Player, and offer it to DVD Author 3, the program responds, that it 'Could not open the video part of the file . . .ts. Only the audio part can be opened.'
That's exactly what I expected, but in fact it does not open the audio part of my file. How can I convince Author to accept it as being a clip?

Do you have another good idea? I would gratefully acknowledge.
Thank you.

So you want to add the separate audio file to an existing clip?

Add your video clip first, then in the Clip Properties window, you can select a different file as the audio input for the clip. I don't have an audio DD5.1 audio .ts file to test this with, but it might work.

Hello, maybe somebody can help me.

Was athoring a DVD with two tracks (In one of them, a concert with 26 songs/chapters, in the other, a "bonus" with 2 songs), and after checking all is ok in the simulation, I started the output. At 97% an error mesage pops up, reading something about a Stream Error, and in the output screen, another one telling me that the output had to be stopped due to an error.
Googling about that I read that it could be due to a lack of disk space, but it's not my case.
In the output folder, checking the final .VOBs, I see that the concert (track 1) was succesfully finished, but there's nothing about track 2 (apparently there was when output stopped, I think) and menus...

Well, if someone can help me, I'll be very grateful. Please give me ideas to solve this. I'll post screen caps of all the settings for the videos and the properties of the video sources too, if needed.

Thanks in advance!

"Stream Error" means that the TDA3 couldn't read(decode) the file
correctly.
> with the preview near or at the end of the first track
Do you know which source movie file was in process?
Could you create a DVD with that source file or it becomes also problem
even without that specific source file?.
Seek and wipe out clips which are making errors in the output process.

good luck