Version 4.1.2.19 & Windows 7 64bit. At completion of Authoring Works the DVD doesn't eject like it should from the DVD/Blu-Ray drive. Can manually eject, though. The created DVD will play ok in a computer with Windows Media, but won't play in any of my DVD or Blu-Ray players.
A DVD that does eject ok at Authoring Works completion, will play ok in all devices.

Uninstalled and reinstalled, checked all options, can't change this behaviour of created DVDs. All used to work fine, for many years...
Thanks. Wayne.

FWIW: I've had better success if I write to the DVD as a separate step rather than allowing the progrm to move directly to write the DVD after transcoding. My work flow is to write a DVD image file, and then as a separate step to write the DVD.

Is there a way to have more than 15 chapter thumbnails or text links on a menu page? 15 seems to be the highest number in the default template collection. Projects I work on sometimes have more than 15 chapters and it would be nice to have them all on one menu, albeit the font would have to be pretty small for them all to fit.

Use the custom menu option and you can select more than 15 thumbnails/text links per page. The max is 32 for DVD but it warns you that that might exceed the allowed number of links for the project type. I'm not sure if that means it's not compliant or what.

At 32 thumbnails, everything is pretty small though.

I could swear that the most I saw was 15 using the custom menu option but will check again when I get home tonight.

Hmmm...not seeing a 32 thumbnail(s) option in either the "Top Menu Layout List" or "Track menu layout List". How do I get it so that I can choose 32 thumbnails/text links?

This is interesting. It looks like with a 4:3 menu, you can have up to 32, but with a 16:9 menu, you can only have up to 15.

That is odd...you'd think it would be the other way around, being that 16:9 provides more screen area.

I have a project consisting of sixe pairs of clips. Each pair is in a separate track. Regardless of whether I opt to link or unlink the clips when the first is played, playback continues to the second. Is it possible to force the program to return to the Track menu at the end of each clip in the track?

Unfortunately, no. The only way to get it go back to the menu is to put your clips in separate tracks. That means you'll have 12 tracks in your case.

Clip linking isn't what you think it is.

Trying to get Pal export on mpeg-4 at 1280x720.
Question - Is their a way of setting up a custom templete for this.
I'm not in an ntsc Country and moving the video into other editing programs that need pal for the workflow.I know about my generic 720x576 pal,its the 720p for working in higher resolutions.My choices are mpeg-4 and avi for my programs.

I found the Avanced MPEG output button which is only to do with detail settings
for your current codec choice mpeg-4 720p where you can change it to pal.
The GUIs for various programs can be so different,that secondary box on the left was only a advanced settings output box.

I've always struggled with creating even a basic menu in TAW. Here is what I have and what kind of menu I would like using TAW4:

Project contents:

2 tracks, and each track contains several chapters

Menu desired:

The first menu displayed when the DVD is loaded would contain hyperlinks to each of the track menu pages.

Then, each track menu page would list the chapters contained in that track.

So, in the end, I have a total of 3 menu pages:

1. Top Menu which has hyperlinks to each track
2. Track 1 Menu containing track 1's chapter titles
3. Track 2 Menu containing track 2's chapter titles

So, the top menu would be like this:

Track 1 --> Track 1 page which shows each chapter in that track
Track 2 --> Track 2 page which shows each chapter in that track

Can you walk me thru the steps needed to create a menu system like this?

Thanks!

After many "trials and errors", I've finally got what I wanted. The menu creation process could use some improvement, that is for sure!

To my thinking AW4 menu creation works on a subtractive model, a somewhat different apprach than many other programs. You select a menu structure with all features you may need in any of the menus, then delete the parts you don't need. (Many other progam work by adding the thigs yo do need.) It works, but takes a but of adjustment tot eh thinkignprocess.

I am having pretty much the same problem that Bob had. I am simply trying to build a basic menu that you'd find on most retail DVDs. That would mean the disc loads and you are given the options of play, set-up (audio and/or subtitles), special features, and scene selections.

If I try to do it all on the track page (with no top menu), all of the chapters appear on the first page, which defeats the purpose of having a chapters page in the first place. I have tried workarounds including creating a bunch of phony chapters and then trying to make the thumbnails tiny and delete the chapter names, thereby making the second page the actual starting point. That way I can just change the button that says "next page" to "scene selections." Of course, that creates a problem if I'm using a 16x9 menu, as you are limited to 18 items on a page. But even if I were using a 4x3 menu, I'd still have a whole bunch of pointless, tiny blank buttons that I'd have to navigate around to get to the actual buttons I want to use.

Of course a lot of this could be solved if I could create my own links within a menu page. In other words, I'd like to have custom buttons that I can link to pages within the menu, instead of relying on the choices TDA4 has already made for me. That way I could just create a top menu and link to each page, with no workarounds needed. Is this possible? All I'd need is one button that I can name and add to the title page within my single track.

Or is there a way to simply delete the thumbnails on a page? I know I can delete the text, and have no thumbnails visible, but I'd still like to see the visuals of the chapters, not compromise because of finicky software.

I'm fine with keeping the special features in the same track as the feature film so I can have all the audio and subtitle options in the same track. Of course the only foolproof way to do that is to treat the special features like extra chapters, making sure that they get their own page by choosing the correct template that corresponds number-wise to your total chapters. But is there a way to access a second audio track from a non-audio page (other than while playing the actual movie and doing it on the fly), much as a you would if there was an audio commentary listed in the special features section?

I have taken some screenshots, which you can see below, of some rather basic attempts to almost remedy the situation, though as you can see, I am always one button short.



Track page 1 with no top menu or title page.

http://s10.postimage.org/lu2y4jvon/menudamage1.jpg


Title page with no top menu.

http://s16.postimage.org/eg1ho1bxv/menudamage2.jpg

Hi,

I am using DVD author 4 on a win XP (SP3) system with an assortment of AVI video clips. All the Author settings are as they come straight out of the box.

When I make a DVD I add the clips as individual tracks. On playback I find the skip forward button is inactivated (little red circle with the line through it), the skip back button brings me back to the beginning of the current track.

The previous generation of Author had no such issues with the chapter skip working as expected whenever I made up a DVD.

Did I miss something in the settings?

Thank you,
Steven

Sounds like you didn't create chapter marks.

You can add them manually or use the Chapter Tool to create them automatically.

You automatically get one chapter - at the start of the clip. Put a chapter point at the end of the clip to enable skipping to the end of the clip.

I recently upgraded to TAW4 (from TAW3) and am really appreciating the new 'Transitions Editor' functionality.

Specifically, I have a very large clip of a live music concert which has minor edit points in between each song. I am using the Transition Editor to place a 1 or 2 second crossfade at those edit points. First though, I have to duplicate the original clip and then locate the starting and ending frame for each song and "cut edit" the clip so that the song becomes an individual clip. So, in the end, I have as many clips as there are songs and each clip has a 1-2 second crossfade transition into the next clip.

What would be nice is if there was a way to not have to duplicate the original clip for each song and instead be able to insert a transition between each song. Perhaps in a future release?

I wanted to add that I created the original clip using TMPGEnc Video Mastering Works 5 (converted from FLV format). I wonder if there is a way in it to create these crossfade transitions between each song rather than doing it in TAW4?

To make things easier, use the split clip function to split your clip into multiple clips. That way, you don't have to keep editing the original clip for each song.

TVMW5 can do transitions as well, so you could do it then if you wanted to. It works in the same manner as TAW4 if you are in Normal Mode.

Thanks! Sounds like the split clip function would be a lot easier than the way I do it now and will also insure that I don't cut out any frames, which I do not want to do because I am using a remastered WAV audio file extracted from the original clip using TVMW5 as the audio source.

No problem. I find myself using the split clip function more and more in lieu of cutting because it's easier to add back sections that were "deleted".

Only annoying thing is that it limits it to 30 splits per "session". What I mean is that once you hit 30 splits for a clip, you will have to confirm the splits, which takes you back to the Edit stage, then you can open up the clip again to continue splitting past 30 splits.

Got home and tried the split clip function.

I did not remove any frames from the original clip, I just set 22 different split points, one before each song start, basically speaking. Then I inserted a 2 second crossfade transition in between each clip and also a 2 second crossfade on the last clip.

What I noticed after doing all that is that now the total time of the track is 2h 31 min 37 s instead of the original (unsplit) clip time of 2h 32 min 19 s. That is a 42 second difference, which coincidentally is 21 x 2, so I got to wondering if perhaps the total time now does not include the transitions. So, I removed a transition and sure enough, the total time increased by 2 seconds. So, it appears the total time of the track does not include transition times.

Can you confirm this observation I made, tkrave? I'm only concerned because of the possibility that I may now lose synch with my alternate source WAV file, which is also 2 h 32 min 19 s.

Just another little detail...I also confirmed that the transition time on the last clip has no affect on the total track time.

You got it a little backwards, your total time DOES include transitions, it's just that transitions subtract from your total time because your videos are "overlapping" during the transition.

The transition on the last clip doesn't affect total time because there is nothing to transition to. Transitions are added at the end of the clip, and since there is no clip after the last one, there is no overlap and thus, no time loss.

As for your WAV file, I would make that the audio source before you split the clip into multiple clips. That way, the WAV file should be split along with your video and should stay in sync even with transitions.

Yes, I did get backwards...thanks for correcting me.

As for the audio, yes, my WAV audio source was attached to the track before I split it up. I burned a copy of my project where I put all this to use and it all seems good. I did notice a few very minor audio blips near the transition points that I want to check to see if they are in the WAV audio source, but other than that all was good.

I downloaded and installed free templates from the official site, and it seemed to be installed, but when I tried to upload them they don't appear. When I look at the folder, they are there, but won't appear to load them into the program. Is this a bug or do I need to change some setting?
Thanks in advanced for your help.

In the template selection window, make sure the correct template type is selected in the left column. Choose "All the templates" or "Additional templates" to view downloaded templates.

Thank you so much for reply tkrave. Yes, I "All the Templates" is selected. I have also tried uploading by "Other Templates" choice (I created a new folder and copied them into it), but it won't work, the original templates are loaded again. Is there something else I am missing?

What do you mean by "upload"? You shouldn't have to load the templates from within TAW4. When you install the template .exe file, it will put the files in the default template directory and they should appear automatically in the template list.

If you installed TAW4 in a directory other than the default (c:\Program Files\), then you will need to move/install the template files to that directory.

By default the template files should be located in C:\Program Files\Pegasys Inc\TMPGEnc Authoring Works 4\Template.

Yes, I have installed them and as I said it seemed to work, and I can also see the ".tda4mt files" installed in the directory you mention (C:\Program Files(x86)\Pegasys Inc\TMPGEnc Authoring Works 4\Template), but they don't appear automatically in the "All the templates" nor they appear (sorry for the word upload)by using "Other Templates" choice. Any other thing I need to check?

What language version of TAW4 are you using? Templates are language specific, so templates downloaded from the English site will only work on the English version of TAW4, for instance.

Ok, that could be the explanation, I downloaded and installed free templates in spanish. Last question, only out of curiosity, how can they be specific, being the file extension the same? I also tried to change the "_es" for "_en" in the file name but it won't work. Anyway thanks so much for your help.

I'm not sure how they work, i just know they won't. I've tried downloading the Japanese ones in the past and they never worked on my English version.

Is there a way to change the permanent filter list?
I mean every time you add a new subtitle to a file you need to edit the filter list so to add the subtitles filter. If you got many files this is getting annoying.

Thanks/

Yes. Create your filter list with your preferred filters. Save it as a filter template.

Then in the preferences-->Clip editing-->Clip default settings, you can select your filter template as the default filter list.

Note that any filters and settings active when you save the template will be active by default, so save the template before you make any changes to the filters.

Thank you.

Here's a challenging menu setup that I can't find a solution to. I have a project with 6 tracks.
I want a menu (preferably without a preceding title page so that it appears first) with a link to TWO of the tracks, then a link to a page which contains FOUR of the tracks.

I've tried different types of layouts but I don't see a way to have two links on the first page and four on the second. I've tried combining different clips into tracks (1 track with two clips, 1 track with four clips) but then I can't control the action when each clip ends.

Any ideas?

Do I understand correctly that you want a main menu with three buttons, two tht link to video clips/tracks, and one that takes you to a sub menu that has four buttons?

I have a DVD project that contains many (lets say 10) short clips. I've found that I can choose which of the clips to display in the menu by altering the chapter display settings, so I've got it where only only two clips show up in the menus (lets say the 1st clip and the 6th clip). During playback, when I hit skip forward, it currently goes to the next clip. Is there a way to make skip forward advance to my choosen chapters instead?

So you want it to only go to the 1st and 6th clip when you use the skip forward/back buttons?

Each clip in a track will contains one chapter mark by default, so you will have 10 chapter marks for 10 clips. The chapter display options will not affect whether chapters actually exist or not.

Thus, you need to delete the actual chapter marks in each clip you don't want to display/have a chapter mark in.

Go to the Edit Stage and double click a chapter you don't want a chapter mark for. This will open the clip editor window. Go to the "Cut-edit" tab if you're not there already and delete the chapter point that appears on the left column. Click OK to confirm. Repeat with the other clips you don't want a chapter mark for.

This will eliminate their appearance on the menus and the skip forward/back button should work as you want it to.

How do I add the subtitles(they have already been created and are an srt file)to a project?

Double click your clip in the Edit stage. This opens the clip editor window.

Select the Subtitles tab.

Activate a Subtitle stream by clicking on the checkbox in the left column.

Click on "Edit menu" button in bottom-right of the window.

Select "Import..." from the menu.

Select your .srt file.