DVD plays too quickly???....

[seamus48]

Hi all, newbie to all this so please try to avoid technobabble and take pity on a luddite....

I have VS10+ (having previously dabbled with VS9) and have been pulling together my first project, a film about a recent diving expedition to Thailand. I captured all my DV footage (filmed in 16:9) and and that of my mate (in 4:3) pulled it all into the timeline as required, added audio, transitions, colour correction etc for the underwater stuff, thought about the difference in formats and followed this website's tutorials about changing 4:3 to widescreen and everything went well. Went to share, create video file, menus, burn and again all went well. However, when veiwing DVD I noticed that it ran a bit jerkily in places, particularly in fast pan, tilt sequences. Ok.. back to the drawing board....

Rememberered lots of posts about the problem so went exploring again. Aha!!! Maybe a settings / properties conflict... . Followed the step by step guide in Recommended by JC Hunter (very good piece by the wa... even I could follow it!)

Imported my MPEG-2 Vid File into a new project, cleared timeline, checked project properties etc, found some conflicts and corrected them.

Project:

PAL (25 fps)
MPEG files
24 bits, 720 x 576, 25 fps
Lower Field First
(DVD-PAL), 16:9

Followed JC's screenshots (adapting for PAL 16:9) etc, went to share, checked burn settings etc, created chapters and menus, and went to burn!! Wow, fantastic, new DVD has fluid motion throughout! YIPPEE!!... But...

Now the finished DVD seems to be playing ever so slightly quickly.. think vid and audio are in synch... just whole project seems to be playing too quickly... you notice it when the audio is off tempo having spent a bl**dy week listening to the tracks over and over while editing don't you!!). Also some parts show a little pixellation (like when viewing a DVD that need cleaning)

So I have done something right in correcting the jerky motion and something wrong to end up with the playback speed problem... Any ideas before I give my PC a Viking Burial in the nearby lake......

[Ken Berry]

I am a little concerned about this statement:

.... found some conflicts and corrected them.

What exactly were the conflicts and how exactly did you correct them?

Overall, up to that point, everything sounded OK. But at that point, I became lost. Your problem sounds as though you have burned at NTSC speed (29.97 fps) as opposed to standard PAL speed (25 fps) which would account for the slight speeding up you noticed.

When you produced your DVD-compatible mpeg-2 after editing everything, (Share > Create Video File > PAL DVD), that should have been enough. You close that project by opening another, have a clear timeline, then go to Share > Create Disc.

You then insert your new mpeg-2 in the burning timeline. At this point, the only thing you have to check is that 'Do not convert compliant mpeg files' is ticked in the second (Options) cogwheel icon in the bottom left of the burnign screen. You should not have to adjust anything at this stage as the mpeg-2 should already have been DVD compliant. You ignore whatever is in the properties box in that cogwheel icon.

Can you also confirm that your friend's video was in PAL format??

[seamus48]

Mmmm.... Now trying to remember exactly what I did... sorry... I'm a luddite like I said. I recall finding that there was a setting at NTSC (29fps) that I changed to PAL (25fps) before burning, but I don't remember where or when. Perhaps I should have another go at it (yet again) and write down everything I do bearing in mind the points you just made Ken.... Wait out.... Aaaarrrggghhh!!!

[seamus48]

Ok... so...

It's burning now... let's see what happens!

I opened a new project, clicked share - create disk.
Added mpeg-2 to burn timeline.

Media Clip properties were:

File name : Blah
File Format: PAL DVD
File Size; 2,815,202kb
Duration: 306,560 seconds

Video:
Type: MPEG-2 video, Lower field first
Total Frames: 76,739
Attributes: 24bits, 720 x 576, 16:9
Frame Rate: 25,000 fps
Data Rate: Variable bit rate (max 8000)

Audio:
Type: Dolby Digital Audio
Total Samples: 147,338,880 samples
Attributes: 48,000Hz
Layer: None
Bit Rate: 256 kbps


Create menus was already checked.
Clicked add edit chapters.
Used the jog / slide and added 9 chapters.
Clicked Next.
Clicked Gear Wheel.

MPEG Properties said that aspect ratio was 4:3 so I clicked edit MPEG and changed it to read 16:9.

Do not convert mpeg compliant files was already checked.

Clicked OK and Next.

Chose menu templates and created menus. Previewed them... all worked ok.

Clicked next.

Checked:

Create to disk.
Create DVD Folders.
Create Disk Image.
Normalize Audio.

Clicked Gear wheel to confirm burn settings:

Project Settings were:

MPEG Files
24bit, 720 x 576, 24 fps
Frame based
(DVD PAL) 16:9
Vid Data Rate: Var Max 7000 kbps.
Audio Date Rate: 256 kbps
Dolby digital audio 48KHz 2/0 (L,R)

Note that this says 7000 kbps yet earlier clip properties were 8000kbps. Lat time I did this I changed the 7000 to 8000. This time I have left it alone.

Then went to check MPEG Settings, Compression, and pushed slider up from 90% to 100%. Clicked ok.

Additional burn settings info said that underwrite protection was on.

Clicked Burn.

Got a box saying "This action will take some time to complete" Clicked ok and burn commenced with Converting Menu and progress bars.

Now 27 mins into the burn and it tells me that it is still converting the menu (27% done and building the motion background of the menu page.

Now 29 mins and is building the menu transitions....

Now 32 mins and is preparing output content.

at 35 mins it is video/audio multiplexing... If I hadn't been through all this a dozen times and come close to committing computercide I would be quite excited by now....

38 mins... finalizing VOB... whatever the fruit that is!!!

40 mins... writing image....

51 mins... recording disk 2.0x (2770 kbps)

1.11... finalizing disk... damn this is gonna be such a disappointment if it doesn't work this time...

HA hA!! 1.11.15... Completed... now to check if it worked....

Mmmmmm.... No jerkyness in the vid while panning etc but it still seems a little bit quick and I get periodic pixelation in some parts which spoils the whole damned thing............... AAAARRRGGGHHH!!!! [/i]

[GeorgeW]

File name : Blah
File Format: PAL DVD
File Size; 2,815,202kb
Duration: 306,560 seconds

What's the running time of that source video

[seamus48]

George, if you mean what is the running time of the project (original AVI plus transitions, audio and titles) before rendering it to MPEG-2 format it is 306540 seconds.

[GeorgeW]

George, if you mean what is the running time of the project (original AVI plus transitions, audio and titles) before rendering it to MPEG-2 format it is 306540 seconds.

So your finished video is 306,540 seconds long

[seamus48]

When I launch VS10+ and open project, the project duration box says 51.09.14 which is 306,540 seconds.

[seamus48]

After creating video file and saving as MPEG-2 it is 306,560 seconds long.

[etech6355]

Could be a slight problem with the burn that causing data errors (pixelation).

How does the file play on the computer. The mpeg2 video your burning to the dvd. Does it playback the correct speed and no pixelation?

[seamus48]

Yes. When I play the MPEG file on Windows media player on the PC it plays perfectly.... it's SOOOOO frustrating!!!!!!

[Ken Berry]

FYI, a duration of '51:9:14' is in fact 51 minutes 9 seconds and 14 frames (a little over half a second for PAL) -- so the total is approx. 3069.6 seconds.

I remain concerned that you mentioned changing one property from NTSC to PAL. This again raises my question which you did not answer: was any of your friend's video shot in NTSC format?

If so, and if it was then converted (sort of) to PAL, that would account for the strange speed in part of your video, and is also likely to be responsible for the pixellation too. Converting NTSC video to PAL is not as straightforward as simply changing the setting...

[seamus48]

No, we both shot in PAL. Is it worth going back to the original project files, recreating the MPEG and trying (yet another) burn or would that be a waste of time?

I dont remember exactly what I changed or when but I remember one properties box saying NTSC and I thought hang on... that should be PAL...

[seamus48]

oh... and it wasn't a strange speed in part of the video... it was all playing too fast. Yet when I first burned from the mpeg without all the other stuff (open new project, not using add project etc) it played at the right speed, without pixellation but was jerky during motion sequences such as pans and tilts.

[Ken Berry]

I notice you checked not only 'Burn disc' but also create the create DVD folder (which creates a Video_TS folder in your working folder) AND create an image file (which is an .ISO file in the same folder).

Both these can be used to burn a copy of your DVD in third party software, such as Nero or Roxy. Do you have such software on your computer? If so, you might want to find either the Video_TS folder or ISO file and burn it to another disc (an RW disc would mean you would not be creating another drinks coaster...)

Or, if you have other DVD player software such as WinDVD or PowerDVD, play your Video_TS folder in that and see if there is still a problem with speed and pixellation.

By the way, once you have produced your single final DVD-compatible mpeg-2 of the entire project (Share > Create Video File > DVD), when you go to the burning module and manually insert the mpeg-2 there, if the 'do not convert compliant mpeg files' box is ticked (as you say it is) you don't have to make any other adjustment to Properties (such as 16:9 or bitrate) in the burniing module. Just leave them alone. The mpeg-2 is already fully DVD compliant and has the properties you want and need. If the ' do not convert' box is ticked, then the program burns using the existing properties of the mpeg-2 and not as adjusted by you in the burning module. Capisce?