merging or combining projects

[djblackburn]

I am using VideoStudio 10, and want to combine four separate 12-minute projects into one 48-minute program without losing a generation. Possible?

Dan Blackburn

[Ron P.]

Yes it is...
Start new project. Set the project properties to match those of the projects that you are going to be adding. Also all the projects should have the same properties. Then right-click or choose File>Insert Media File to Timeline>Insert Video. Now navigate to the VSP (project files) that you want to combine. Once they are inserted, save this project under a new name. Now your projects are combined into one. However I would not delete the other project files, because those project files are what VS is using in this new project file..

[djblackburn]

When I import video from my camcorder to my VS, the video is great. When it goes into the timeline -- often after "save video clip" procedure -- it sometimes is jerky. But I note the jerkiness is different viewing-to-viewing.

Is this jerkiness really in the project? Will it remain in final DVD rendering?

[Ron P.]

I think your talking about the jerkiness being in the Preview window, when previewing your project in the timeline. That is very common. VS is giving you a general idea of what your project will look like. It is trying very hard to throw everything together "on the fly". This is very demanding on a system.

Is this jerkiness really in the project? Will it remain in final DVD rendering?

Yes it is in the project. No if you follow the recommended procedures, layed out in the sticky at the top of this forum, then it should not be there in your finished DVD product.

[lakewud]

What makes me sit up and take notice in this thread is...the comment about losing a generation..added to another thread i read regarding losing quality the more times you render?

Concerned at this..thought the whole benefit computer packages have is the ability to go over and over re-edit etc as many times without any loss.

Could someone please explain..i plan to add a couple of finished VS9 projects into the same timeline and then burn to disk...the more times you burn a disk does it effect the quality then?

And, whats this ive been reading about never burn a disk when a program is in the timeline? why? and how do you not keep it in the timeline..surely it automatically goes in there?

[sjj1805]

This has been dealt with in considerable depth
Here
and also
Here

A quick recap.
Every time you render a video you lose some quality.
Edit a DV (avi) file and it takes several generations before you notice degradation.
Edit MPEG files and the degradation comes along much more quickly and many users have experienced audio/video synchronisation issues.

Therefore you aim to render the least number of times possible, preferably once. You do this by placing your original file onto the timeline, marking out all your cuts, joins, titles and so forth and then at the end of it creating a DVD compliant MPEG2 file.

You can split a large project up by preparing more than one project file, saving it and then sticking all of those project files together as one combined project and then rendering.

Examples

Authoring.
Think of creating a DVD as a 3 part process.
Stage 1 - Capture. Getting it onto your hard drive.
Stage 2 - Editing - explained above.
Stage 3 - Authoring. - making the actual DVD complete with Menus.

Whilst it is technically possible to use your project file from step 2 above in the step 3 the authoring stage, experience has shown that it is less prone to error if you treat stage 2 and stage 3 as completely separate steps.

Please view:
Authoring a DVD and pay particular attention to the views expressed by Ken Berry.

the more times you burn a disk does it effect the quality then?

No. Once a DVD has been completed and burned to a hard drive folder (or image file dependant upon personal choice) you could burn of a few thousand copies and they will all be identical.

[lakewud]

Thanks for the prompt reply. Breathed a little sign of relief regarding the copy a 1000 times - once burned to a hard drive folder....However what is a hard drive folder?

Ive sat here and looked at the topics youve mentioned..but am still in the dark regarding this rendering lark!

Ive been editing my movie for a couple of months here and there..trying out various things...editing and deleting..saving constantly to about 4 files...the latestest being cornwall4 for example....i have occassionaly burned to disk ( using share, create disk ) to see what the titles etc look like on the big screen so to speak...so

....can i continue to edit my movie this way.. i still dont understand the importance of creating a video file and never burning from share/while in timeline?..esp. when so far..the results seem ok to me...but am i missing something here?

[sjj1805]

You can author a DVD using a project in the VideoStudio Editor Timeline.
We just don't recommend it due to various users reporting problems when they do so. It does not mean that ALL users suffer those problems.

Personally I think the argument about using a VideoStudio Project or not is simply a big white elephant. Use either method and you still have to render the edited video. You can either do it yourself by selecting "Create Video File" and this then gives you the opportunity to give it that final check with your favourite video player - PowerDVD, Windows Media Player, or one of several other similar programs. don't like what you see - go back to the editing stage and tweak it a bit more.

On the other hand you can let VideoStudio render the video during the authoring stage. Now when you see that nicely finished DVD you realise you missed out a few edits so not only do you have to render the video again, chances are it will have also messed up that nice DVD Menu Structure with various chapters and thumbnails.

You bake a cake, let it cool and then you put the icing on.

Hard Drive folders are things like
C:\program files\This program name
C:\windows\System
C:\mydocuments
C:\this video\These VOB files

[lakewud]

Again, thanks..dont want to sound like a stuck record here...did notice that one of my projerct files now has c:cornwall4 next to it..and dont remember saving it that way..however...whenever i want to make improvements have been avoiding that one ( perhaps i shouldnt from now on seeing as you say this is the one which i can make a 1000 dvds from..)

In a nutshell...can i continue to use the share / create disk...complete with the hassel! of making a dvd menu...and burn to disk..a half dozen times..without there being any deteration in quality...only the hassel of redoing the dvd menu?

Next project ill think about saving it in a different way..but seeing as this ones complete ..almost...would like to know if i can continue with what ive been doing in the past...seeing as im rendering the same project, cornwall4 time and again from source ( as it were ) that wont? lose quality will it?

[sjj1805]

You are doing it the long winded way. Every copy you make possibly takes between 5-30 minutes to create a DVD ready for burning (lets say it takes 10 minutes) and then you spend possibly 15 minutes burning it at 4x.

So 6 discs would take
6 x 10 minutes to create = 1 hour
6 x 15 minutes to burn = 1 hour 30 minutes
Total = 2 hour 30 minutes for your 6 discs.

Instead you burn to a hard drive folder once = 10 minutes.
now you burn 6 discs at 15 minutes each = 1 hour 30 minutes
Total = 1 hour 40 minutes for those same 6 discs all the same quality as doing it the other way.

[pedro26]

My current project has 95% miniDVD and 5% mini DVtape.

(Ulead VideoStudio 10 plus)

The project turned out to be quite onerous because somehow the Sony (or panasonic) miniDVD camcorder had managed (to allow the inexperienced operator) on two of the input discs to record over itself.

On one disc when you previewed the captured clip going forward, one saw the best man's speech to the end, then the UVS's clock timer went weird, sort of stopped, and the image froze for while, and then it jumped to a point at the evening do. But driving the clip in reverse, one passed the time codes where the best man's speech was still going on, i.e. when driving the clip forward (trying to capture said clip to Windows Movie Maker caused it to display really stange unheard of behaviour with respect to the capture progress monitor and the reported clip length,. The final disc was also afflicted, it had the newly wed couple having the first dance, whilst the audio was the bride and groom looking over the presents and speculating on their contents. The audio of someone singing then carried on when the video is people dancing at the disco.

Anyway I managed eventually to get videostudio to get three decent mpeg files without exhibiting these problems. So I have three separate *.VSP files, but I rendered each one to a separate mpeg file, i.e to see if |I had got rid of the problem.

Whilst I am using this new computer to write this the old computer is trying to render the three project to a single (at least that is what I think it is doing !) MPEG file

I started a new project, set its properties to match those of the three project files and used the add media to timeline to put them in order in the timeline.

When I move on to the DVD authoring stage is this single file going to be superior to the three separate mpeg files (and can UVS 10+ use those three separate files directly to author a DVD) ?

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

I know it will have to crsuh them down to 4.7 Gb if they are longer (I ought to check that). Mini DV (avi) eventually gets a lot of compression, as its maybe 10x longer than a mini DVD (correct ?)

[Ken Berry]

the old computer is trying to render the three project to a single

What do you mean by 'project' here? In the line above you say you had three VSP (i.e. project) files, but that you rendered each to an mpeg. Then you say:

I started a new project, set its properties to match those of the three project files and used the add media to timeline to put them in order in the timeline.

And again I have to ask, what do you mean by 'them' -- the VSP files or the mpegs made from them?

I ask because mpeg is a lossy format. Each re-render lessens the quality a little. So if you use the three individual mpegs, and then re-render them into a single mpeg, some quality will be lost. But if you put the three VSP files into the (editing) timeline and produce a single DVD-compliant mpeg-2, then insert that new file into the burning timeline, and make sure the 'Do not convert compliant mpeg files' box is ticked in the Options cogwheel icon, then no further rendering will occur and the original quality will be retained.

Clear as mud??

[pedro26]

Ken,

Sorry I'm calling the task of creating a DVD of this wedding a project.

I have three separate projects A,B, C as VSP project files. On each of these I had already done Share - create video, so for each one I have an edited MPEG file.

[The reason for A,B and C, for what should have been one project, is that editing the whole thing caused problems due to the state of the captured miniDVD MPEG files. It was like trying to place trims/cuts when the timeline was moving arbitrarily.]

I saw the old discussions about only rendering once, and I stumbled on this thread.

Here I was at point of decision do I try to author a DVD using these 3 newly rendered files, or is there a way that avoids a re-rendered file or an extra rendering stage.

So I followed the advice above, by Ron P. Although in April of 2006 Steve had aserted that this was not possible.

Created a new project employing the same settings as the three projects (I re-saved A as A_v2.VSP, as for some reason that had Dolby as its audio type, whilst the other two were MPEG audio and they could not be changed (greyed out), so these project files all have the same settings.

Then I used the file insert media into timeline and chose these three projects in turn. On this new combined project I then used Share create video file. This will create a new A+B+C Mpeg file, from the original input files (hopefully without the overdub glitches or whatever they were)

I'm assuming this is superior to any method which combines either the three separate MPEGs (assuming that 's possible) or tries to combine A.vsp B.vsp and B.vsp at the authoring stage ?

[Ken Berry]

I thought I had answered that in the affirmative, when I said:

But if you put the three VSP files into the (editing) timeline and produce a single DVD-compliant mpeg-2, then insert that new file into the burning timeline, and make sure the 'Do not convert compliant mpeg files' box is ticked in the Options cogwheel icon, then no further rendering will occur and the original quality will be retained.

[pedro26]

You did indeed Ken now I have read the last lines properly.

Thanks for the tip re the compliant files.

Its 47% through rendering them