"Try Before you buy" re-authoring problem

[am_dew]

I downloaded the trial version of DVD Movie Factory 5 Plus last night. I am looking for a program that I can use to author/re-author MPG and/or VOB files I have aquired from various sources and are on my hard drive, and then burn the results to a DVD for viewing in standalone DVD players.

I have a DVD which I burned using Nero Express, which plays back fine on multiple DVD players I own. The DVD does not contain any chapters; just a menu and one title that is 75 minutes long, and I would like to add chapters to the project and then burn it to DVD.

So, using MovieFactory, I imported the contents of the DVD, then created chapters in the resultant 75 minute clip it imported , created a menu, and then previewed it and all was fine. I then proceeded to try and burn the project to DVD however about 2/3 of the way through the burning process, everything came to a halt...no hard disc activity and no activity on my DVD burner and I had to do a forced shutdown of my PC. I rebooted and decided to try and burn the files in the VIDEO_TS folder within the Ulead temp folder using Nero Express and got the same result...the burning stopped about 2/3 of the way through. This tells me that there is something wrong with the contents of the VIDEO_TS folder DVD MOvie Factory created.

Any ideas what might be wrong?

Also, can MovieFactory use existing VOB files on a hard drive to create a project? It seems not since when I try to add them using "Add Video Files" it tells me they are not accessible.

Thanks!

[DVDDoug]

Your DVD has a defect or you have a corrupt original MPEG file. There might be a tiny bit of bad data that you don't even notice when you watch the video, but it confuses the heck out of the encoder/multiplexer. Also, DVD players have error correction, but the software does not. I call it "sneaky corruption"... All of my bad MPEGs have played-back fine before attempting to make a DVD... Sometimes, Movie Factory will "fix" the corruption, but create a DVD with "lip sync" problems.

Can you re-create the MPEG file on your hard drive with Nero?

Also, can MovieFactory use existing VOB files on a hard drive to create a project?

Sometimes... And, sometimes you can get away with renaming the files to .MPG.

Even when this works, it doesn't work well if you try to import the whole movie/program. You will get a glitch where you re-splice the VOB files together.

MPEG EDITING CAN BE DIFFICULT - This may not apply to you, as you didn't edit with Ulead, but sometimes simply editing an MPEG can cause corruption! (Adding chapters & menus is not editing.) It doesn't happen every time, or to everyone, but it has happened to me a few times. (I don't know if Nero has this problem too.) These problems are difficult to diagnose, because the corrupt file usually plays OK before making the DVD.

Good luck. I know this can be frustrating...

You might also try Womble ($35 - $100 USD). Womble does a better job of editing MPEGs, but its DVD authoring is not as advanced as Movie Factory.

[am_dew]

Thanks very much DVDDoug.

Can you re-create the MPEG file on your hard drive with Nero?

Not sure I understand your question. I would be using Nero to do all of this but when I add chapters to the original program, the audio and video are not synchronized on the burned DVD as well as an export of the program to a VIDEO_TS folder.

Also, can MovieFactory use existing VOB files on a hard drive to create a project?

Sometimes... And, sometimes you can get away with renaming the files to .MPG.

Even when this works, it doesn't work well if you try to import the whole program. You will get a glitch where you re-splice the VOB files together.

Wow, this video stuff is a lot more buggy than I expected it to be. Admittedly, I am new to it, but I am an IT professioonal with lots of experience with complex software, hardware, etc. and usually am not too challenged by new ventures such as this, but I've wasted a lot of time on bad burns, unsynched audio/video, etc. when doing seemingly simple things that one would reasonably expect to work correctly.

[DVDDoug]

Not sure I understand your question. I would be using Nero to do all of this...

I was suggesting that you create an MPEG file on your hard drive, instead of making a DVD. But, that's not going to work... You will get the same sync problems that you had when you tried using Nero alone.

The sync problems and the crashing are both caused by a corrupt video file. What we don't know, is if one or more of the original files are corrupted, or if they were corrupted by the editing process. If all your source files are MPEG, try Womble. It won't corrupt a good file.

If your source files are different formats, you can try converting them all to AVI/DV with Nero before joining /editing them. Make sure to use DV format. This is the low-compression 13GB per hour format that you get from a DV camera. (AVI is a "container" format, and it can contain video with any encoding format.)

Wow, this video stuff is a lot more buggy than I expected it to be. Admittedly, I am new to it, but I am an IT professioonal with lots of experience with complex software, hardware, etc. and usually am not too challenged by new ventures such as this, but I've wasted a lot of time on bad burns, unsynched audio/video, etc. when doing seemingly simple things that one would reasonably expect to work correctly.

DITTO! (Except, I'm not an IT guy.)

[htchien]

Hi am_dew,

Since you said the DVD folder is been created successfully by DVD MF and it hangs when burning the DVD folder in the 2/3 way, I would think this is not the problem of DVD MF but a problem of your burner/disc because you also get the same burning result from Nero. Please check your burner/disc for compatibility issues.

You can check http://www.videohelp.com/dvdwriters for the compatibility list for your burner.

Regards,
H.T.