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I'm finally getting to conclusion of my first quick video project in Corel VideoStudio Pro X2 and I'm a little frustrated by the inadequacies of the User Guide. I had a tough time figuring out how to copy a small clip of sound from the video to place during the end titles. I ended up copying an entire video segment to a separate track & then doing a Split Audio & finally some trims (long way to capture a small segment of music). I've had nothing but problems trying to create the DVD Menu structure. To keep it simple, I chose a template. The template included a motion box but I couldn't easily figure how to tell it what part of the video to show in the motion box short of creating a new video segment. But enough of that....here's the one thing I can't find an answer to that is crucial:

I started to create the DVD menus, chapter points, etc. but can't find a way to save that partial progress. I just kept working along even though it was getting late in hopes it would eventually show me a save option. When I was done burning the DVD, I saved the "project". However, when I go back into the project , I can't find any saved DVD menu structure. There has to be a way to save DVD menu structure creation but can't find it in the User Guide. In Pinnacle Studio, it saves that Menu structure right in the project file. Can anyone help?

I also noted that when I burned the DVD, it said the file I was burning was only 3.48 (3.74) GB and I had 4.38 (4.70) GB on the blank DVD. I assume that meant no compression was required of the project. However, the total video time is 1 hr and 13 min so that would be surprising to have no compression required. Also, it looks compressed when I view it on the TV - quality is not great compared to what I got using Pinnacle Studio 12. I used DV (AVI) video captured direct from DV camcorder firewire & used Share-Create Disk (DVD NTSC (4:3) output. Any thoughts?

I bought this program after years of frustration with Pinnacle Studio versions and reviews of VideoStudio but I've already had 2 crashes with lost changes and can't find easy answers to basic questions. Is there a more comprehensive help file that covers all the settings/preferences not covered in the User Guide. I'm hoping it's just me this time and this program will come through in the end.

Thanks for any help,
Rick

Welcome to the forums , and sorry to hear about your problems!

Unfortunately, the Save aspect in the burning module has been a source of constant annoyance to many of us ever since we started video editing with earlier versions of the product (with me it was VS7). There is no separate Save function in the burning module. Worse, the automatic Save feature -- which I guess is what the program told you it was doing once you had completed everything -- is something of a fake, and very misleading. If it saves anything somewhere, we have never been able to find out what or where...

There is a very klutzy work-around which means you have to build your menu, then physically close down the burning module, and then physically save the project (File > Save). That should normally mean that when you re-open the project, the new menu should be there. If it is not, then you may need to go to the Microsoft Direct-X website and download the current update which fixes a number of problems caused in the menu-creation phase, apparently by recent Windows updates. (Note that Direct-X is not included in those automatic updates, so if you have not manually updated it, you probably still have the old original version which came with your computer.)

Unfortunately, the Help files and Manual are virtually identical. There are some How To files which are fairly detailed and written by some of our users, contained in the Tutorial section of this Board. They were written for earlier versions, but the workflow still largely applies.

That brings me neatly on to your other problem -- the size/compression question. The first basic lesson is that the size and quality of your final video depends on the compression i.e. the bitrate used. Essentially, the higher the bitrate, the higher the quality, but also the larger the final file size will be. Correspondingly, as you lower the bitrate, the quality will go down but so will the final size. So the trick is to find a good balance between size and quality -- and hence the bitrate you use.

The second lesson relates to workflow. I suspect -- though would be grateful for confirmation -- that you start off with your DV/AVI, you edit it, and then go straight to Share > Create Disc > DVD. This means that the conversion/compression process occurs as part of an already complex process of multiplexing the video and audio, converting the menu to video and the actual burning itself. Some (many?) users in the past have found they run into problems doing all this together with the original conversion compression. You see (if you don't already know), DV (which takes up around 13 GB per hour) has to be first converted to DVD-compatible mpeg-2 (which is much more compressed) before it can be burned to a video DVD. Mpeg-2 is the international standard for a DVD.

But the international standard also says that the combined video and audio bitrate of a DVD cannot exceed 10,000 kbps. In practice, however, many stand-alone DVD players cannot play DVDs which have a bitrate which exceeds 8000 kbps. They hop and skip and sometimes come to a complete halt if a DVD goes above 8000 kbps.

Now coincidentally, 8000 kbps when applied to mpeg-2 will allow about one hour of video, using LPCM audio (high quality but large files), to be burned to a single layer (4.3 GB) DVD. But the quality this gives should be high. Your project runs to 1 hour 13 minutes. So if you continue to use LPCM audio, you would need to drop the bitrate to, say, 7500 kbps to fit that project on a single layer DVD. Or, alternatively, you could use either Dolby or mpeg layer 2 audio (still very good quality but much more compressed) audio, and you would probably fit the whole thing on your DVD as is, using the 8000 kbps video bitrate. Indeed, some of our users always use a maximum bitrate of 7500 kbps, regardless of the audio they use, and still get excellent quality.

So the workflow we suggest is that you edit your DV, but then first convert it to DVD-compatible mpeg-2 by using Share > Create Video File. If your project was under 1 hour, then you could safely choose Share > Create Video File > DVD as this would produce a fully compatible mpeg-2 file of high quality which would easily fit on your DVD, including a menu.

However, since you are going to have to adjust the properties a little to fit everything on, you would have to use Share > Create Video File > Custom. Then, in the dialogue box which appears, you give your new file a name. Then click the Options button. Then on the new dialogue box, click the Compression tab. Here you can lower the bitrate, say, from 8000 to 7500, and/or change the Audio compression from the default LPCM to either Dolby or mpeg layer 2. Then, on the General tab, you need to make sure it says Lower Field First (since that is the Field Order of your DV original, and that must be maintained throughout a project, up to and including, the burning). Also make sure that it says 16:9 if you have widescreen video or 4:3 if it is not widescreen. Then you OK yourself out of all that and let the conversion take place. Depending on your computer, this could take anywhere between real time (i.e. over an hour) to two or three times that amount.

Note that if you are going to be using these properties quite a lot, you could create a permanent template for the DVD (I am talking about the conversion here, and not a menu template). To do so, choose Tools > Make Movie Template Manager. You will get much the same series of dialogue boxes, and you use the above properties. But when you finally save it, it should appear down at the bottom of the drop-down menu when you next choose Share > Create Video File.

Note also that after you produce your new mpeg-2, you go to File > New Project. Don't worry about giving your new project a name. The objective is just to clear the timeline of your current project.

Once that is done, you select Share > Create Disc > DVD. The burning module will open. Use the Add Media button at the top to insert your new mpeg-2 in the burning timeline. Then go to the middle of the three icons in the bottom left of the burning screen. There is a little box beside the words 'Do not convert compliant mpeg files'. Make sure that box is ticked (it usually is by default). That way, your already compliant mpeg file will not be re-encoded. Then build your menus and burn.

Thanks very much for your extensive suggestions....very helpful and I appreciate your time.

I'll try the workflow you propose. How will I know if the changes made in Custom will optimize the output on a single DVD? It seems like guesswork to set rates at 7500, change the audio, change the output %, etc. To check it out, I am creating an MPEG out of the project using custom video settings. I wasn't sure if I should change the Output Quality slider from 70%. I moved it up to 90% just to see the effect on size. I bumped 8000 down to 7500 and made sound 2 channel vs. 5.1. It seems like a real guessing game trying to figure how to optimize visual quality in the end product. I wonder if I should just output into DVD folder structure larger than single disk and then use DVD shrink on the whole DVD file structure to optimize it onto one disk....?

This Bitrate Calculator will help you determine the correct settings.

Yes, you can use the DVD Shrink method. I have, as I am sure have others. But there is no real need if your projects are around the length of the current one and you use those sorts of figures. The quality will still be very good to excellent. But the Bitrate calculator that Black Lab supplied the link for will give you greater accuracy if you want it.

As for the quality slider, I tend to leave it alone. It is not exactly a measure of quality as such, but represents more a balance between a reasonable time to produce what is a very good result. 70% is, if I recall correctly, the default, and I leave it at that. If you move it up, then you might get some (to me very marginal) improvement in quality (though it may be difficult to detect with the human eye). But the time it takes to get it goes up exponentially. Some users, however, use it all the time.

Be aware, though, that some users have found that it causes the program to hang if you push it too high (for example to 100%). If you find this starts to happen, even at 90%, then simply reduce it till the problem goes away.

Another good reason for producing a DVD Folder of your project (which I do all the time -- though still keeping it within the 4.3 GB limit) is that you can play back such a folder on a software DVD player like WinDVD, Power DVD or Nero ShowTime, and see if everything is okay. And if so, you can then burn it to an actual DVD (I use Nero Burning ROM for this).

I spent a few days trying to optimize the video on the DVD. I never got exactly where I wanted but time was up. I tried a number of ways of creating the DVD from the VSP file but none seemed to optimize the final product.

1. I was going to try to let it create a DVD for dual layer size & then use DVD shrink to fit it to a standard disk. At the end of the "Create Video" cycle, Video Studio actually prompted "Too large - do you want to try to fit?". I thought "great, the program will now optimize it to fit". But the software compressed it far too much leaving lots of blank space on the final disk.

2. I then tried to optimize it myself by first doing an MPEG conversion. In this case, I set the video data rate to 7700kbps and audio to Dolby Digital, 2 channel, 256 kbps, 48hz. I also set it to two-pass conversion , do not convert compliant MPEG, compression quality to 100%, and normalize audio. The resulting MPEG had video/audio sync problems.

3. I then tried another set of instructions to create an MPEG file (trevor andrews guide). I set video data rate to 7700 & audio to 2-channel. I left most other settings the same. I then created the DVD menu structure on this MPEG file without doing another compression. This worked but the file size was 3.85; still leaving room on the blank DVD making me wonder how much more quality I could have squeezed out of the video (especially when viewed on my 60" set). I just wish the software would do a better job automatically optimizing the compression onto single DVD disks. I spent way more time burning the DVD than editing the video.