We're starting a local access television station and would like to use TMPGEnc Xpress to break apart shows (to insert "commercials" and station information, etc). I don't actually need to insert the ads using Xpress, but rather, to simply break the show into multiple clips.

I've had no trouble doing this with smaller files, but some of the larger files prove difficult: When I load a 700MB file and begin to scroll through the show in the "cut-edit" window, the program becomes non-responsive and I have to kill it. Is there a solution to this?

I suspect it has something to do with rendering thumbnails in the timeline, but I'm probably totally wrong.

I'm on a Windows Vista Home Premium laptop with 2GB of RAM.

Incidentally, we plan also to use Xpress to reduce the size of very large (4GB) video files to something more manageable.... I hope this is the right tool!

Thanks for your help.

How fast is your processor?

For large/HD files, the faster your processor, the better. More RAM wouldn't hurt either.

Navigating clips that are large can be a bit slower. Sometimes you can fast-forward through clips faster than it can render the thumbnails and when that happens, it tends to slow things down. Just be patient and the program usually catches up.

Personally, I think 4.0 XPress is great for converting video to better compressed formats such as DivX and MPEG-4.

When I converted an AVI file to MPEG and burned it to a DVD using Windows DVD Maker, the sound and video get progressively out of sync. Any idea why this is? I was thinking that setting it to "MPEG for DVD" was wrong and that I should set it to "MPEG file".

Check to see if it is out of sync before you output the file. I think there is a bug where the audio can become out of sync when an imported file uses the DirectShow reader.

I am doing my first multi-track project on TMPGEnc. I have two, approx 2 hour AVI's thatI'm hoping somehow to get on the same disc. But how do I get them appear on the same page? Also, I only want to use one menu page, not two?

Use the "Top menu only" option and select a layout that has two thumbnails.

Ok I did that, but I don't want the thumbnails on the top menu, just text. How do I do that?

Select a layout that doesn't have thumbnails.

To make things easy, you can select how many thumbnails you want on a menu page and then it will only show layouts with that amount of thumbnails. Then just choose the one appropriate for you.
Layout "#02 4:3/16:9(D)" is text only. See pic:
http://i47.tinypic.com/vo1uuq.png

It would appear that the most basic an most used funtion, in my opinion, is completely missing. Where is "Copy and Paste?" Maybe, I'm having a really really bad morning and not awake yet, but I've spent like an hour searching for a way to copy text from one menu page to another. In this case I want the text on all of 50 pages. It looks like I have to "add text" to each page, copy it in the text editor, change the font, size,color and effect each time as it always resets to the default, and try to manually place it in the same position as the previous page. Please tell me I'm missing something! 'Cause that is just ridiculous work flow for a professional DVD authoring program at this point.

by the way...it's a very expected right mouse click function in just about all software! Where the heck is it in this one??? Additionally, there should be a "copy to ALL Menu Pages" funtion.

Hmm Maybe the coffee will take a partial blame. Found it..but it doesn't work. First, want to mention, sticking to my previous "right click" comments. The placement of this feature is less than intuitive. More importantly, I selected my text item, went to "Edit menu" selected "copy the menu item layout to another page" selected all the pages and....nothing. Doesn't appear on any of the pages. This is very annoying. A simple, basic 3 sec task appears to be impossible.

Apparently the copy layout option only applies to necessary menu items such as track/chapter thumbnails, track/chapter names, titles, buttons, etc.

I've never had to copy an optional menu item, but I agree that it would definitely be useful.

I have a DVD of a concert that is in mono.
I have the audio of the same show on my harddrive.This is a stereo soundboard recording in MP3 format.
Is it possible to replace the audio of the DVD with the audio of the stereo soundboard recording?
If so,can it be done with TMPGEnc Authoring Works 4?

In the Clip Editor window, go to the Clip Properties tab and you can change the audio source by selecting a different audio or video file. You can even select "Multi-audio" and have both mono and stereo audio tracks present which will allow viewers to switch between the two.

As for syncing your stereo track, there are some simple audio tools in the cut-editing window -- just click on the "Audio Filters" button in the lower left corner.

The problem is that this is a concert.The audio that I want to use for the creation of the DVD,are all MP3 files(1 song = 1 MP3).Instead of selecting all 20 or so songs/MP3s,It seems that TMPGENC will only let me use 1 song/MP3.
I want to make it so that the entire show is in stero,not only a few minutes.

Then you either have to:

A) split your video into separate clips so you have 1 mp3 file per clip, or'
B) combine your mp3's into one file and add it to your video.

There's no other way to do it in Authoring Works 4.

I've been using TDA3 and now TAW4 on my Windows XP PC (i7 860) without any issues. I have just upgraded to Windows 7 (32bit), re-installed TAW4 and all my video & audio codecs. I load in a file (ifo, avi, mpeg or mkv) and go to the Edit page, there is no Output Preview shown. In the strip at the bottom I have picture where the chapter markers go in, just nothing in the main Preview window. So I'm having trouble checking lip synce and general editing. When I finally start the project, I do get an Output Preview, but it can all be to late them.

Help please, what do I need to tick, un-tick or install to get some Output Preview during the Edit phase. Thanks.

Cheers,
CM

I thought I had gone through all the settings, but tried them again today and found I needed to un-tick "Display in a video overlay", what ever that means.

Cheers,
CM

Where did you find that option to un-tick?
I've been looking for it but i haven't found it yet.

Right-click on the preview area and the option is in the contextual menu.

thanks for the tip ive been pulling my hair out your a top man

I installed this version on Windows 7 (64bit) but when I import a clip and want to edit there is no video display in the edit window only the sound. I installed Version 3.1.02.176 and have the same problem. Anyone experience this problem and have a solution? Thanks in advance!!!

when i try to ouput to dvd disc at the end of conversion i get an error saying The Writing Drive is Stopped.. does anyone what would cause this problem.. it has worked in the past then all of a sudden it just stopped..

thanx for any help given.

When I import an H.264 source video (1080i) to convert it into a DVD video, the TAW4 put two small black bars on the left and right side of the video . There is any way to instruct the TAW4 to do a full screen rendering (16/9) filling the whole screen, as can be done in TMPGEnc Xpress 4?

Sounds like the source is 4:3, or TAW4 *thinks* the source is 4:3.
Try going to the Clip Properties window (Source Stage-->Clip Editor-->Clip Properties) and check the dimensions of the video and the aspect ratio setting.
If the video's dimensions are 16:9 such as 1920x1080, then a pixel aspect ratio of 1:1 should work. If the video's dimensions aren't at a 16:9 ratio, then you'll need to change the aspect ratio to something else.

Hi, I have a DVD with VRO file. When I try to load the video into TMGEnc authoring works 4 I get 2 titles but when I try to select a title, I get the following error
"this title is protected. You cannot select it".
Any idea what I need to do to make this work?
Thanks

Sounds like it's a commercial DVD and/or copy-protected DVD. TAW4 can't use such DVD's as a source.

A workaround is to use a program like DVD Shrink or DVD Decrypter to rip the DVD to your hard drive and then import those files into TAW4.

Thanks for the reply.
I found out that the DVD disc itself has CPRM protection. The label says
DVD-R DL with CPRM. The content of the DVD is a recorded tv show from Japanese TV.
DVD shrink and DVD dycrpter can't load the did and I get error.
I will see if I can get the contect of the DVD on a non CPRM disc

Hello forum,

I could use some help with Blu Ray files (.m2ts). I have been encoding .mkv files without any problems but now when I try to import a Blu Ray folder, I am only seeing a green screen? Do I need to have specific codecs installed to be able to view the .m2ts files? I can view my BluRay's fine in Total Media Theatre, just not in TMPGEnc Express 4.0 (4.7.3.292). I am also running Windows 7 64bit with a Intel E8400 3.0GHz processor and 4G of RAM. My video card is an ATI Radeon HD 4770. Thanks for the help.

its your codecs

Hi...

I need to multiplex 4 mpeg2 files and 1 audio file into a single MPEG2 Transport Stream. Is this possible? If not, can anyone recommend a software that can? I am using a Cineview Quad mpeg decoder card from Vela to playback the videos on 4 screens.

Thanks,
Jeff