I have had problems getting your excellent program to encode PAL 720x352 Half D-1 (4-6hrs) recorded DVD-R+R the same as it does 720x576 Full D-1 kepping the letterbox format. The Xpress program will read all DVD but handles them differently when its time to Encode.

I know the bitrates are lower for Half D-1 typically 2,800 Mbps but can we have a standard filter that will resize and keep the letterbox format as my Philips DVDR 3380 records in both D-1 formats

I have found this workaround and saved as a filter is there another way?

1: Resize full (center) using lanscos3 to 720x432 (75% of 576)
2: Picture Crop tick left and right 8 pixels to give 704x576
3: Select PAL 720x576 DVD Video as you normally would for Full D-1 with 2,130 kb/s this means you can get about four 40 mins TV shows on one DVD with your own custom menu. Minus all those annoying adverts.


SpideRaY

Sorry Typo meant to say 352x576 for Half D-1

When creating a Slideshow Chapter, cannot multi-select the files as the documentation states. Have to select individually and set properties for each. Very time consuming with many photos. A working Multi-Select would be very useful if it worked. Anyone else notice this Defect?

I don't see this mentioned in the Help file. It does talk about selecting multiple files when you are importing the images (which does work), but I don't see where it says this in regards to the actual slides.

Would be a nice feature though.

Are there any chance for outputting to mkv? It would be much more valuable than the DivX support.

I read through the entire feature set , but not still sure about these couple of features come as part of the software.

Although basic features i still would need to confirm before i buy the software.


1. Will it be possible to mix audio from multiple audio sources with the video. ex 1st minute of the video with say audio stream 1 and 2nd minute of the video with audio stream 2.


2. is it possible to work with multiple video streams.

regards

bijoy

I think both are not possible yet, but may be some day they could add such features.
good luck

I've read enough here to know not to actually install an update from version 3.1.2.176 to version 4.anything. At least not since I don't wish to be a "beta testor in production mode."

Nevertheless, I'd like to get some thoughts/advice from those who have the products and/or have dealt with Pagasys in the past.

1. There is currently a good upgrade discount of 40.00 USD. Does anyone see a *total* waste of money by buying the update and just leaving the installation file(s) sitting on my disc for about 6 months? That is, I'm not going to actually apply the upgrade, just buy the files, and do the upgrade at some later date when the product is stable and reliable. I'd hate to miss out on a 40% discount six months from now.

2. Has anyone actually run the 4.x Trial side-by-side with the 3.1.2.176 production version? Does installing the Trial foul up the production version (e.g., does it overlay DLL files so the production version will no longer run?)

3. Can a version 3 Project File be imported into version 4? At any one moment I might have 2 to 4 projects going. As I close down one, I start another. Most of the time I'm waiting on feedback from the person who's hired me, so I leave their project alone while I go work on another. When I eventually do upgrade, I'm likely to have active project files that need to be readable by version 4. That is, I don't think I'll ever be at a point without even one Project File being "live."

4. Templates. OK, let's get real. Downloadable templates are absolute compromises for my clients. Clients have their own images and font preferences, they want this blurring effect or that outer shadow, etc., all on their own image backgrounds.

I've never found a way to fully build an entire menuing template in version 3. I know I can download more, but as I said, those are a total compromise and not of any interest to me. Can I build an entire menu template in version 4? By this, I mean I might like to place thumbnails in a diagonal from top/left to bottom/right, or arrange them in an oval on the screen. Apply my own button graphics. Apply my own default template background image. Apply my own font choices for various pieces (1 font for the title, another for the track list entries, etc.) Then save it all as a menu template, choose the wizard, apply my template and I'm mostly done.

I have 3 clients so far that routinely have me put their vacation videos onto DVD and apply a menu. They always want the menus to look and act the same. The theme more or less creates a suit of DVDs, all of them looking the same with the same colors, fonts, etc. Right now I have to build each one by hand. I'd like to create templates and name them for my clients.

Can I do this extensive work in version 4, or are templates still a deep, dark secret held by Pegasys who for some reason feels they can't put that power into the hands of their customers?

1. I don't think it's a total waste, but I also don't think you need to rush to make a decision since the upgrade price will probably be around for a while.

2. Installing the trial for Authoring Works 4 shouldn't affect your DVD Author 3 production version.

3. You can import version 2 and 3 files into version 4, provided that the source files are still in the same place. If you used templates that don't exist in version 4, then they'll probably be replaced with a different template.

4. You can save custom menus as templates in version 3 and 4. Once you've built your custom menu to your liking, click on the "Edit menu" button in the Menu stage and select "Save current menu as a new template". Once you do so, it will show up as a template in the template list. It'll save effects, backgrounds, fonts, etc.

Version 4 also lets you create your own button sets for custom menus.

I suggest you download the trial and try it out and see for yourself whether it will be worth the upgrade or not.

Thanks. I never knew about the template "save as" option. Looked at the help text (pretty much useless) and searched the forums but never found anything. A request for help from Pegasys several months ago only yielded advice that I could download the templates they made, but they circumvented my question about creating my own.

I'll download the demo and install it side-by-side with version 3, per your advice.

One thing about upgrading: I think that once you purchase the upgrade, your DVD Author 3 license becomes invalid, so you wouldn't be able to use version 3 and wait for version 4 to become better.

However, you should be able to use both versions 3 and 4 if you purchase version 4 with the user discount which is a $20 savings.

Hello everyone,

I need a little help with authoring my first family movies with TMPGEnc Autoring Works 4. I created some mpg-files and wanted to bring them on DVD. Everything works just fine, the only problem is, that only 40-50 minutes fit on one DVD which seems much too little for me. The files are standard resolution 720x576 PAL, so it should be possible to bring 2 hours of film onto one single DVD or not? It is possible to make it fit on one 4,7 disc, but I think it implicates quality loss this way. Do you have any ideas?

It would be great if you had any suggestion, thank you in advance!
StarFishes

I'll take a stab at some suggestions for you, bearing in mind I have version 3, not 4.

In version 3, you can assign defaults for all new projects and override those settings on a case-by-case basis. The defaults are found under Options.Preferences.

Take a look at your audio settings. Did you record the Berlin Philharmonic, or did you record your children playing soccer? Do you need super, high quality sound? Now, I'm an audiophile and I can hear the difference if I'm listening on good headphones, but for everyday stuff over external speakers, I find a sampling rate of 48000Hz, 16 bits and 192 Kb/s bitrate is just fine for spoken sound, and 96000Hz for music. My point here is, the higher quality you use, the more space on the disc it takes to record it. Back off on the audio settings if you don't have movies that demand impeccable sound.


Are your menus animated? That is, do you have thumbnails to select scenes and those thumbnails themselves are small, short, movie clips? Try making single-frame thumbnails.

Just some ideas.

Richard

Besides the excellent suggestions by Richard, your only other choices are lowering the video bitrate (which it sounds like you don't want to do) or use a dual layer DVD.

Hi Richard and tkrave,

thank you for your suggestions! I did some experiments in changing the video and audio bitrate which has been very high set by my video capture card. I found out that a constant video bitrate of 4000 seems to be acceptable, the audio I set to 168 and now everything works just fine.

The only question I have now is what the application does with the setting Fit on DVD 4.7. It doesn't ask me anything about compression.

Greetz,
StarFishes

When I want convert any video to QuickTime MOV, TMPGE show me error message:
An error occured during the file output inicialization. (-50)

Others video conversions working.

Sorry for my english.

Do you have the latest version of Quicktime?

Yes, I have

I have Vista OS 64-bit , QuickTime 7.5.5(990.7).

I'm using a Sony Vaio Z Laptop with a GeForce 9300M GS running XP doing a lot of video editing work with TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress. I bought this machine because of its small size and because its takes advantage of the GeForce 9300M GS and CUDA Technology for faster renders.

However, the latest version of TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress shows a grayed out area on the Preferences tab under options when i try to activate CUDA.

I confirmed with Nvidia that for sure the GeForce 9300M GS supports CUDA and I tried both Sony official Nvidia drivers for the Z (which include the CUDA.dll files) and also the latest Official Nvidia Drivers with CUDA support.

No luck with any drivers. I was under the assumption only the GeForce8800 GTX/GTS video card using the G80 core were not supported! :( As a $100 piece of software with basically no support, Im extremelly upset.

Contact support, it's possible that it's a known issue and they may have a temporary solution.

Hi

I have just finished my first dvd and used some pans with the videocamera, but they appear pretty bad on the dvd. They are uneven and that don´t look good. What can I do to solve the problem?

What are the details of your source video (framerate, file format, resolution, NTSC/PAL)?
What are your output settings?

When I convert DVD-Video to MPEG-4 AVC format (Main profile, Level 4, 720x480, Display 16:9, 29.97fps, 2-pass CBR, 4500 kbps, motion search 256, NTSC), the video has a bit of stuttering (the original is fine and smooth with no stuttering at all). It is quite small, but definitely present, especially when the camera pans. The resulting video actually hurts my eyes and gives me a headache over a period of time!

Wondering if I can tweak any conversion setting to make the video stutter-free, or reduce it significantly?!

Thanks!

Try again but this time shut off antivirus and firewall, disconnect from Internet to be safe, and check your processes for any antispyware programs that may interfere with the transcoding. I stop processes like Windows Update checker, Java, and some HP stuff for my scanner.

Another thing, it helps if you don't use your computer when it's converting.

I encoded 720x480p MP4 files and it works in my psp2000,but I found two problem,
first,the source file is 25 fps,then change to 23.976fps,when it done,it is pausal when playing,when i change fps 25 or higher,then it's perfect.
the second,the sound part is aac 192k,but it display 128k in my psp,I try to change
160k or 92k,but it's still display 128k,i play on my computer it display the ture number.why?

I guess the psp can't handle 720x480p video with a framerate lower than 25 fps? I'm not completely familiar with the limitations of 480p video on the psp, but if you found that 25 fps or higher works, then you should use those settings.

As for the AAC 192k issue, I'd be inclined to believe the computer over the psp. Maybe the psp has problems reading the header file and obtaining the correct file data.

A psp forum might be a better place to get answers for these questions.

Is there anyway of deleting the source files after conversion automatically?

I'm pretty sure this is not possible.

In my opinion, that's a good thing. If the original files were deleted and you weren't happy with the encode, you'd be screwed.

Well, I do identical encodes on a daily basis so my encoding settings are finely tuned. This would be very valuable doing a large amount of encoding; I.E. I have 400 GBs to encode on a 500 GB hard drive.