What might be causing the audio to drop out
at about 11.5 minutes into a program
after encoding from .mov to .mpg
as an MPEG-2 file?

I've been looking for an editor for game videos taken with Fraps, and this is the best one I've found so far. However, the price is high for my modest needs. Are there any plans in the works for a cheaper version?

I would like to request playlist functionality in AW5. So far I am very impressed with the program. many of my projects will require opening video files merging seamlessly into the main video file (see my query post below).

Many thanks

Dwight

can you tell me is it possible to make buttons,frames from pictures? and how?

I would like to setup a disc which has one film with 3 seperate audio tracks. I also need to have 3 different videos for the start of the film to accomodate the 3 different narrators' credits. In the menu I need to be able to select 1 of the 3 start sequences which will then merge with the main film which has the three audio tracks embedded (to mimimize disc usage the main film is identical only with the three audio tracks differing).

So it would be like this on the main menu:
Audio/film 1 (using one audio track) -> Main film Body playing track 1 of the 3 emdedded tracks.
Audio/film 2 (using one audio track) -> Main film Body playing track 2 of the 3 embedded tracks.
Audio/film 3 (using one audio track) -> Main film Body playing track 3 of the 3 emdedded tracks.

How can I set this up so that the 3 seperate openers merge seamlessly with the main film. Is it possible to create a playlist seuence that will do this?

Regards
Dwight

I shoot live music performances. Audio track is produced separately after multi-track live recording and mixing etc. Then I use that audio track and sync it with video. Only the start and end of the video are clipped to match the length with the audio track. Rest of the video remains untouched.
I do not like the video to be rendered again. Is it possible to smart render the video with new audio? Is any other TMPGEnc product capable of doing that?
Thanks!

I don't think so, because what you are doing does normally require re-encoding, even in other video editors.

It would be nice if Mastering Works also had the Smart rendering feature. Whenever possible, the option to Smart Render could appear at the Encode step. A situation where one clips only the beginning and the end, or clips some portion of the video, the rest of the video could be Smart rendered barring the transitions. Or, in my case where I have to replace the audio also needs just Smart rendering of the video.
Thanks.

First time using TAW5 but used Author 3 quite a bit.

Taking same files I edited using MPEG Editor 3 and authored with Author 3 a few years back but now going from SL to DL output. Opened my old Author 3 project, it converted it for TAW5, added additional files, and everything appears fine. But when I go to output it insists on re-encoding parts of the video when it should out put lossless.

Some parts do and some parts don't. I'm not doing any HD work but just standard MPEG2 files for a DVD. There is no reason for a re-encode. Author 3 never did. Please help.

I have the same problem as you, the video files are different but from the same source DVD, when i place the 2 in 1 track it Re-Encodes the first file but the second is not re-encoded. Does TAW5 re-encodes all your files?

I cant speak for DVD creation, but when i create Blu-ray's out of HDTV recorded TS files, then they all get re-encoded, even though bit rates are low enough, that they easily could fit with out re-encoding them.
Only twice i have experienced no re-encoding, that was with M2TS files who had standard Dolby Digital audio.

I've had AW4 on my computer for ages, but have just started using it. I have 2 videos set as tracks. What I'd like is a top menu with 2 buttons and to link directly to 2 'scene/chapter' menus. What I get is a top menu, which links to another menu which in turn has links to the 2 scene/chapter menus. How can I link directly from the top menu to the scene/chapter menus?

Surprised this is that difficult. This software seems to be ridiculously inflexible. For instance; you can't use elements of a theme. Has to be the whole thing or nothing. Crazy. DVD Workshop-2 was a LOT more capable - and that's stone-age software now! Now I know why I've left it on the shelf for so long.

Yeah, that's one of the things that bothers me about TAW; they haven't really improved the menu making process since version 2 or so. Maybe they don't want to make it too complicated, but I feel they are seriously behind the times compared to other software.
If they want to keep it dumbed down, that's fine, but at least include an "advanced mode" or something for people who expect to do more.

Hello,

I plan to buy this SW but I have read that there will be a periodic license activation. Unfortunately I did not find much about this.
I plan to use it on my Notebook where I do not have always an internet connection since I'm travelling and work on different places.
Could it be happen that I want to start the program and it refuses to work since I just have no internet connection? If so then this would make it unusable. Or is there something like a counter where I can see when it will do next activation or even force it? I need to know it in advance to make a decision if I will buy it.

Yes, the software could ask to validate when you are on the road, so be aware of that risk. It requires an internet connection to validate maybe once or twice a month...not too sure since I don't keep track though so it could be more or less than that.

There is no counter so you won't know when it will ask to validate and I haven't taken the time to figure out if there is a pattern. There is no built-in way to force a validation, but I think if you rename the license file it will bring up the validation window.

We upgraded to Smart Renderer 4 after many successful years with version 3. I noticed that you can no longer output to a standard DVD in V4, only to blue ray. We are a community tv station, still broadcasting in standard def and all our programs are stored on DVD. Will you be adding this back into the program or do you have any recommendations to get finished mpgs on to DVD-R's after you have trimmed them using V4? Our V3 version is no longer active.

Hello,
I returned the DVD authoring with reason:
Video Manager IFO and BUP files in Same ECC block.
I scouted the internet and found a solution with PgcEdit. But I wonder whether it has already set TMPG to work correctly.
My original workflow: TMPG authoring, Nero Burning ISO image sent to FTP.
William

Im using Taw5 in Windows 7 64 bits, I have been using it for a while without problems but now the options button on the top right of the program is not responding, it simply does nothing when I press it. What can I do? I have to close the program to get a Save option cause I cant manually save from the options menu...

This happened to me when using Video Mastering Works 5 on Win7 64-bit. I can't remember what worked, but closing and re-opening the program or restarting my system fixed things.

All keyboard shortcuts should still work if it happens again, so just hit ctrl+s to get the save dialog.

Thanks - restarting the system restored the option button.