Does TAW 4 support projects created with DVD Author 3?

Thanks!

Yes, it can read DVD Author 2 and DVD Author 3 project files. However, there's no guarantee that the menus will behave exactly the same.
If you used pre-installed templates or menu items from TDA2 or TDA3, it will try to use the same templates/items if it exists in TAW4. If you used a template that doesn't exist in TAW4, I think it will convert it to a different template.

Thanks tkrave. One more question...if I install the free trial of TAW4 will it render my TDA3 useless? I would not think so but want to be sure.

Thanks.

No, the trial will not do anything to TDA3.

If you choose to buy TAW4 and use the upgrade option, then it will render your TDA3 license useless. However, using the User Discount option will let you keep your TDA3 license.

Hello, I've recently upgraded my CPU from Intel C2D E6420 to C2Q Q8400 and the problem that I experience is that with the old CPU TAW4 utilized 100% CPU and with the new one it utilizes only 40-50%. I checked my program preferences and everything looks correct - one physical cpu with 4 cores...all instructions checked. I have no idea what would have caused the problem...

My computer specifications are:
Asus P5K Deluxe
Intel C2Q E8400
4GB DDR2 800MHz
ATI Radeon HD4870
RAID0
Win7 x64

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

A couple of weeks ago I posted a question about mp4 files - how to avoid that TMPEGEnc Authoring Works (TAW) turns pitch black color into white. No one has answered. But now I've learned that TAW is inferior when it comes to handling mp4 files, and I've learned how to do it: First convert the mp4 to mpeg or VOB with Free Video Converter (FVC), and then import the mpeg or VOB file into TAW. (Either ignore the VOB warning in TAW, or rename the VOB to mpg first.) Added bonus: It took 16-17 hours (!) for TAW to convert a 5 GB mp4 file to DVD output. FVC converted it to VOB in just 2 hours, and after that it took only 1 hour for TAW to convert it to DVD.

I used to create hardsubbed dvds using vobsub with tmpgenc.
I now have Windows 7 with tmpgenc authoring works 4 and it is
not automatically pulling in Vobsub. Is this because ffdshow is
not being used (older versions of tmpgenc let you increase the priority
of ffdshow)? The subtitle functionality in tmpgenc doesn't fit my
needs so I really hope someone can tell me how to make vobsub
work again. Thanks.

I have been converting some wmv files to MPEG-1 and resulting file is always much smaller than the original and of a lower quality.

Is there any setting in TMPEG that allows the quality to remain the same?

No, that's not possible, because it's a completely different format.
But of course you can change the resolution and raise the bitrate for better quality.

You're converting to MPEG 1 (VCD quality). It is a format with restrictions of of 352 x 240 using mp2 sound at 44 hz. If you want to save them in MPEG 2 (DVD quality) you might be happier but then they will be 720 x 480 with MP2 sound at 48hz. These restrictions are because there are standards to make DVD & VCD quality video. WMV has many more options and less standards.

>You're converting to MPEG 1 (VCD quality). It is a format with restrictions of of 352 x 240 using mp2 sound at 44 hz. If you want to save them in MPEG 2 (DVD quality) you might be happier but then they will be 720 x 480 with MP2 sound at 48hz. These restrictions are because there are standards to make DVD & VCD quality video. WMV has many more options and less standards.

Use Windows Movie Maker to convert from (windows) .wmv into DV/AVI (= .avi) .. then use TMPGENC to do the MPEG conversion (and select something better than the low resolution VCD profile :-) )

I have put 4 avi file into a DVD. By using TMPGEnc Authoring Work 4, everything seems OK. However, when I play the DVD, one of the file got only 'beep' sound. The other 3 is OK with sound. Anyone has any idea about that?

It sounds like an audio codec problem. The audio codec for that vid may have crashed during output. Try outputting that file by itself without the other 3 avi's and see if it the problem still occurs.

I have already tried to encode just that chip but the sound is OK. Is there any setting may affect this. I just choose the auto. Pls help

Is there a way through the color settings to convert a color video to black and white.

It is a black and white show with some minor tinting I would like to remove but mostly it has a channel "bug" that is in color that I would like to see as black and white.

Go to the filters tab in the clip editor and activate the Color Correction filter. Under the "Simple" tab, drag the "Chroma" slider all the way to the left to get rid of any color.

I've never seen an AVI like this before. On the beginning of it were all sorts of warnings about copy protection etc. It went on a long time! Anyway TMPGEnc burned the movie and it played back fine, but there was no sound, and there was sound in the raw file. Did TMPGEnc pick up on the copyright protection and that's what caused the completed burn to not have sound? CopyXtoDVD recorded it and it played back just fine!

I like the ease of use of moviestyle over express. Any chance we will ever see 5.1 audio output supported?

I use TMPGEnc Authoring Works 4.0.5.27. I put 4 clip into a DVD. I enable the motion menu and set for 30 sec. In the top menu, each clip play its own motion. However, is it possible to set the motion menu start in different time frame in each clip. As they all start at the beginning but I would like to start at the middle for some clip. Pls help.

After you've activated motion menus, double-click on the thumbnails that you want to change. The menu item editor window should appear and you can set the start and end points of the thumbnail.

Thanks for your reply


>After you've activated motion menus, double-click on the thumbnails that you want to change. The menu item editor window should appear and you can set the start and end points of the thumbnail.

I'm still using the trial version of AW4 - deciding whether to buy (I already own DVD Author 1.6 which does nearly all I need except the slideshow editor).

In the slideshow editor, using "Local transition and resize" on a picture, you can drag to select a red rectangle. I was execting it to zoom in to the selected area, but all it does is vaguely zoom in a little bit roughly towards where I selected. Am I expecting too much or is this broken?

AW4 seems to be a much more capable and better user interface than Instant show - which seems a bit strange (eg no proper subtitle feature and unable to control video encoding in Instant Show)

SUGGESTIONS TO MAKE AW4 THE BEST SLIDESHOW SOFTWARE AVAILABLE:
- More than one sound file per channel per slideshow track
- Read image EXIF data for subtitles
- Easier subtitle editing for slideshows - it's hard work manually selecting the start and end point for each picture's subtitle, and a nightmare if you re-order your images
- Increase the maximum image count per title (why only 200?)
- Get the zooming working properly for Ken Burns effects.

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT AW4
- True subtitles
- Able to control video encoding. When you don't use zoom or transitions you only need the minimum bitrate of 1520 - letting you add thousands of images (most slideshow software will only give you a two hour slideshow on a 4.7GB DVD).
- Dolby Digital
- Good user interface
- No useless gimmicks

I've now bought the full version of TAW4 and because I've been so impressed I'm going to update my earlier message.

Authoring Works 4 is the most capable slideshow software I've ever tried. Sure some others do "Ken Burns" effects or read EXIF data, but no others come close for ease of use, the subtitles and the ability to add many thousands of photos to one DVD. Subtitle editing - although a bit basic - does have enough functionality to do whatever you want. For example - to insert some slides you can shift the start time of all subsequent photos. You can also export you subtitles to a text file where if necessary you can cut and paste in entries from other subtitle stream if you need to combine to slideshows and subtitle streams. Say you want to combine slideshows A & B. Shift the start time of all the slideshow B subtitles to the time Slideshow A finishes. Export the subtitle files and cut and paste the entries into the slideshow A subtitle files. Works fine.

The 200 limit for maximum number of images I commented on earlier is no problem either. AW4 will split a large slideshow into a number of 200 photo chapters that can be played as if they were all one slideshow. In fact it's probably best to add ALL your slideshows into one Title - that way you can have one menu screen to turn subtitles on or off for all your slideshows and your DVD "Menu" button responds as expected (if you add clips as separate Titles, strictly speaking you need to press the "Top Menu" button on your player - if you have one (many don't).

My only complaints are

1)Only being able to add one audio track (although outside of AW4 you can of course edit multiple tracks together into one WAV or MP3 file first).

2)Frequent "Invalid Sample Format" errors - which 4.0.9.37 was supposed to fix but hasn't. It doesn't seem to like images with large numbers of pixcels. I found anything above 8000 x 6000 or so WILL fail and many 7000 x 5000 images will occassionally cause it to fail (if a specific image failed EVERY time it would actually be easier to locate and reduce the resolution of the offending images, however it's just flakey). OK these images sound unusually large, but are quite normal if you are scanning large format negatives at 3000 DPI.

3) Being able to automatically create subtitles from EXIF image descriptions and filenames would save a lot of time. I find adding the image description to one subtitle and the filename to the other subtitle is quite a useful thing to do - but sadly I you have to manually do this one photo at a time.

What I love:

1) One of the best and well-thought out interfaces I have had the pleasure to use. Well done!

2) Reducing the bit rate to the minimum of 1520 still produces PERFECT slideshows (surprisingly even if transitions are used). This allows you to add slideshows with thousands of photos to one DVD.

3) Great because it's ready for High Definition using Blu Ray. Now if only you could buy writeable Blu Rays at sensible prices. I don't really fancy making coasters costing 20 pounds each!

4) There is actually lots of well thought-out functionality not mentioned in the sales blurb. For example being able to add or remove chapter marks, fade in or out music, loop music, set defaults for which subtitle or no subtitles to show by default, soom in your menu thumbnails etc etc.

Dear Community, Develeopers,

I use the latest TMPGEnc to convert DV videos to MPEG-2, but it seems for me that TMPGEnc generates a nonstandard stream (according to MPEGValidator 1.4). Being nonstandard caused by field order (Bottom field first) that is standard at DV. This means a problem when importing these clips into video editors like Adobe Premiere CS2. TMPGEnc only offers the setting of field order of input videos. Could you implement a feature enabling users to swap fields or change OUTPUT field order separately from INPUT field order?

Thanks
str4ngS

You can't just swap/change the field order of DV. You have to shift all the fields up a line and reverse them. The trouble with DV its not professional. Its consumer. Hence it has a different field order to every other professional pal format.

the simple answer is don't shoot on dv.