Video Studio 10 - Chapter marks moving....

Ynot · Post by **Ynot** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 10:56 pm

Hi, all.
I have just upgraded my old Video Studio 7 to the current ver 10, and immediately hit on some problems.
Not used VS that often, and not at all in the last 12 months, so a little rusty on what I gleaned last year, so please bear with me.

I've happily created my movies by capturing individual scenes from my Mini DV camera, trimmed them to size, added effects, titles, audio etc. Saved it all in the relevant file format, but when it comes to burning to the DVD it gets through 99% of the action, (anywhere between 1 and 3 hours, which also seems a long time) then stops, giving me an error as below.
Now, I've actually managed to get past this one by stripping off any active programs, disabling the AV and disconnecting from the 'net. At least now I can successfully burn the discs.(Still takes an age, however).

BUT - then came across a new problem...
First DVD went fine - no hiccups at all.
The second disc, however, for some reason will not retain the chapters I've set. I've set them in the timeline then gone to the 'share/make disc' section, only to find that the marks have somehow moved - in some cases several minutes from my starting point!

So, my plea is simple..... HELP!!
I'm VERY close to throwing something out of the window here (esp in this heat!!)

The hardware I'm using is as per the profile, but to clarify here:

Athlon XP 2600+ processor
512MB RAM (could be bigger, I know!)
LiteOn SOHW-1673S DVD/RW writer (also tried Hitachi DVD/RW as well)
DV capture via Firewire card
SoundMax digital audio card
Legacy Video capture devices
V-Stream TV7134 WDM Video Capture (though this not used for capture here)
Asus V305 3D Video card
HDD - Main drive 120GB (61GB spare)
HDD - Files drive 230GB (118GB spare)

Post by **Ken Berry** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 11:05 pm

If your burning is taking between 1 and 3 hours, then it seems to me you are not following our recommended procedure. the key sentence in your post in this regard is "Saved it all in the relevant file format". Exactly what format was that?

When in doubt, read the top sticky post containing Recommended Procedures. Essentially, though, it advises you to

1) Capture in DV/AVI format where possible -- you don't say what format you captured in, just that you have a mini DV camera.

2) Do all of your editing as far as possible in that format (i.e. DV).

3) Once you are finished editing, go to Share > Create Video File > DVD to produce a DVD-compatible mpeg-2.

4) During this step, make sure you select appropriate project properties including Field Order (essentially, if you captured from a digital video source, use Lower Field First; but if you captured from an analogue source, use Upper Field First).

5) The other important quality factor is bitrate: for highest quality DVDs, use 8000 kbps. This will allow you to burn about 1 hour of video to a single layer (4.3 GB) DVD. 6000 kbps will allow around 90 minutes of video in good quality; and 4000 kbps will allow 2 hours of reasonable quality video.

6) The final factor here is the audio codec you use. LPCM will give excellent quality but creates large files, so you will fit less video on a disc if you use this audio format. Dolby gives a very much smaller audio file, so you can fit up to 10 or 15 minutes more of video per disc if you use Dolby. Mpeg layer 2 audio gives similar small sizes to Dolby, but is not part of the NTSC DVD standard, so will not necessarily work on all NTSC DVD players.

7) Once you have produced this mpeg-2 file, and ONLY then, go to Share > Create Disc > DVD, and in the burning module, insert the mpeg-2 file(s), create your menus and burn. Make sure the burning properties are exactly the same as those in your mpeg-2. Otherwise, the program will try to render the file again, as well as all the multiplexing of video and audio, creation of menus etc, all on the fly, which is a big ask for any computer. This is very likely to cause some loss in quality and also open the possibility of problems such as those you appear to be suffering.

When burning, only use a maximum burn speed of 4x, regardless of the rated speeds of both your burner and the discs you are using.

Ynot · Post by **Ynot** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 11:34 pm

Many thanks for the speedy respones, Ken.

Ken Berry wrote:If your burning is taking between 1 and 3 hours, then it seems to me you are not following our recommended procedure. the key sentence in your post in this regard is "Saved it all in the relevant file format". Exactly what format was that?

Sorry - should have said - AVI, all the time.

When in doubt, read the top sticky post containing Recommended Procedures.

Actually caught sight of that after I'd posted and had started to read it!

1) Capture in DV/AVI format where possible

Yup - as above.

2) Do all of your editing as far as possible in that format (i.e. DV).

As far as I know I've done this too. Just edited straight from the program....

3) Once you are finished editing, go to Share > Create Video File > DVD to produce a DVD-compatible mpeg-2.

This I did try once, before I managed to get by the failed burn issue - didn't make a difference then, but admit I've not tried that since - will do so. However, why is this preferable to just going straight to 'make disc'?

4) During this step, make sure you select appropriate project properties including Field Order

Will do.

5) The other important quality factor is bitrate: for highest quality DVDs, use 8000 kbps. This will allow you to burn about 1 hour of video to a single layer (4.3 GB) DVD. 6000 kbps will allow around 90 minutes of video in good quality; and 4000 kbps will allow 2 hours of reasonable quality video.

Ooookay... I'm burning just under 60 minutes onto a 4.7GB (2 hr) DVD - might try using the mid-range bitrate and asses the quality, then.

6) The final factor here is the audio codec you use. LPCM will give excellent quality but creates large files, so you will fit less video on a disc if you use this audio format. Dolby gives a very much smaller audio file, so you can fit up to 10 or 15 minutes more of video per disc if you use Dolby. Mpeg layer 2 audio gives similar small sizes to Dolby, but is not part of the NTSC DVD standard, so will not necessarily work on all NTSC DVD players.

Interesting. I'm not after hi-fi audio, as the recording was made using just the camera on-board mic (thus not top notch itself!) I guess I'll go with Dolby.

7) Once you have produced this mpeg-2 file, and ONLY then, go to Share > Create Disc > DVD, and in the burning module, insert the mpeg-2 file(s), create your menus and burn.

OK - sounds like a plan!

When burning, only use a maximum burn speed of 4x.

Now that is something I picked up reading some of the threads here, so had done just that.

So - thanks again for the very informative response. I'll let you know how it goes!

Ynot · Post by **Ynot** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 11:44 pm

3) Once you are finished editing, go to Share > Create Video File > DVD to produce a DVD-compatible mpeg-2.
4) During this step, make sure you select appropriate project properties including Field Order

Humm... Next dumb question...
When selecting 'create video file' I get a long menu of options, and take the MPEG 2 route - that starts the rendering straight away, and I don't get a choice of anything else at this stage - does that come after the initial render has completed?

Post by **Ken Berry** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 12:30 am

First, do NOT select mpeg-2 in Share > Create Video File. You must select 'DVD' as the 'mpeg-2' format default is for other purposes and not necessarily consistent with DVD format.

That being said, the DVD default is usually for high quality output of one hour to a disc. To change the settings, you can do this in a couple of ways. If you think you will want to use another format of the DVD template for future projects, you go to Tools > Make Movie Manager. Then select New and then select MPEG as the format you want to base it on. Give it a name (I make this fairly descriptive e.g. PAL DVD 4:3 7000kbps.

Anyway, after you give it a name, select OK and a new screen will appear with three tabs labelled 'Ulead Video Studio' (ignore this), 'General' and 'Compression'. On the General page, make sure you have a frame size you want and the right format (4:3 or widescreen 16:9). Then on the Compression tab, you select the bitrate as I described it above, and the audio format you want. Then close out of all that. Then, when you go to Share > Create Video File, your new template will be there, down towards the bottom of the drop-down menu.

The other method, once only, is to go to Share > Create Video File, and select 'Custom' at the very bottom. Then you will be presented with a series of screens similar to those I just described, except for being asked to give a name to a template. You will, however, be asked to give a name to the new file. The Custom template you create on this occasion can only be used for that particular project. That is why it is probably a better idea to actually make a new template which can be re-used, in Make Movie Manager.

Ynot · Post by **Ynot** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 4:43 pm

OK
Followed the instructions, I thought, pretty well, but STILL having problems.
I'm now back at the 99% completed burn to disc, but at the 11th hour (well, just uner tenth minute) it kicks up that same old "Failed to burn data onto the disc' error. http://s76.photobucket.com/albums/j40/Y ... h=imgAnch1.
the only thing I can think of now is that I haven't re-captured the original files.... However, as I don't think I changed much, I was hoping I didn't need to do so... Here's the properties of one clip. http://s76.photobucket.com/albums/j40/Y ... h=imgAnch1

Ynot · Post by **Ynot** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 12:01 am

Hold the phone!!
Looks like I got it sussed finally, earlier today.
Noticed that on my last attempt, the ONLY option for burn speed was MAX (which after checking the spec of the drive was 16X) so re-submitted the file and looked again, finding the options now increased, so chose 4X as suggested and all went fine.

Thanks for the help.

Tony