DVD Image - convert step problem

[Davidk]

I've been absent from the boards for a few weeks trying to recover from a massive hardware failure on my main media machine . . but I think its under control.

This Help! topic is about a problem when trying to create an iso image of a DVD project (on an alternative laptop, in case anyone wonders). The message I get pretty much as soon as I click the "burn" button is shown on the image following:

and the message is delightfully vague. By a process of elimination, I've isolated the cause to the 1st clip in DVD assembly: deleting that clip from the montage for the disk, the create image process begins as normal (no convert error box). I cancelled out of that and opening the related clip project file, I re-rendered it completely with project settings without a problem to get a new .mpg file. In project status it is fairly simple - a clip composed mainly of photos but with about a dozen .avi files. There's no apparent problem playing it, either the project file or the rendered mpg result. But when I insert the new mpg file into the DVD assembly, do the menu and then try to burn an image, I get the result shown again.

So, can anyone suggest what is causing this?

Davidk

[BrianCee]

We have found many times that when you get odd errors in the 'Create Disc' module a great number of them can be eliminated by creating a DVD compliant mpeg-2 video first and then when you open the Create Disc module you delete every thing in there and then import the brand new and known trouble free video and creating the iso from that.

so first try going to Share and rendering a video and use that to create the iso.

[Ken Berry]

At first glance, it looks as though you have already done what Brian suggests. However, you said:

I re-rendered it completely with project settings without a problem to get a new .mpg file.

That makes me wonder precisely what those "project settings" were... Were they, for instance, completely DVD compliant?

[Davidk]

Brian,
Firstly, what I am looking to create is a DVD with 1) a group introduction, 2) 3 contributions to it, and 3) a menu, which configured to return to the menu after each item is played. The group introduction has been used for project disks like this for several years without a problem. Snapshots of the author panels involved are:
1. The montage of components in the add media part

The clip which seems to be the problem is the Beautiful North Queensland item, 1st after the intro clip. And when I said I re-rendered it, I meant only this clip (out of the 4 in the montage assembly).
(NB. I only use fully and individually rendered mpg files for clip components when authoring a DVD like this. I've found that using a vsp in the component montage is a good way for the author module to crash when running. Reason unknown but it's happened often enough I have developed a habit not to use vsp's here).

2. The menu I want the disk to have is shown in this view of the menu and preview part

and the menu itself has inserted music, a 20sec extract of Memories from Cats.

The render to file image was done with the show highlight button ticked. And I use the file image result to create distribution copies of the disk, 1 for each contributor to the result.

As I understand your suggestion, I should assemble all 4 video clips into one VSP and then render to a single mpg file. Certainly doable, but then the menu and menu music is not in the end result, which sort of spoils the intended effect. Am I wrong?

Ken,
I loaded up the BNQ mpg clip separately and snapshotted its properties, as follows:

On the face of it, the output video fits the mpeg2 required. But a good look at the data suggests that the source file format of NTSC DVD is different from all the others, which are PAL DVD. Altho, having individually rendered them to the mpeg2 output format, I don't understand why that should have an effect.

I've used video clips from the same student source rendered to mpg format in prior disks without this sort of rendering issue, so I am at a loss to understand why it has just appeared now.

??

Davidk

[Davidk]

I've been waiting for Brian and Ken to reply to the queries I posed in my prior post.

I tried Brian's suggestion of combining all the clips in a single rendered file and then using that file to create the disk, by:
- adding chapter points for the start of each of the clip components in the single file. That worked OK
- creating a menu with those items on it. The menu creation process seemed to work as normal
- adding background music for the menu
- and previewed.
the preview was a mild disaster. The menu title I specified in creating it would not persist - instead to the words the project short name was persistently shown, as was the second menu page. First menu page did not get a look in.

So just for interest I created a disk image (an .iso file) and it did run without error. Then opened that .iso file with VLC. The VLC play back was even more of a disaster. The menu music I specified - did not happen. The default was the only one played. The image playback was not smooth, horrible in fact. I would NOT recommend this approach to anyone wnating the create a disk with a professional looking menu.

I am at a loss to understand why a source file marked as mpeg should have NTSC-DVD properties. Could Ken or someone clarify that?

Davidk

[BrianCee]

To be honest I dropped out because I lost the plot somewhere along the line.

lets try again - - because I don't understand this statement

Firstly, what I am looking to create is a DVD with 1) a group introduction, 2) 3 contributions to it, and 3) a menu, which configured to return to the menu after each item is played. The group introduction has been used for project disks like this for several years without a problem.

it sounds as if you want the menu to appear AFTER the group introduction and 3 contributions to it - now VideoStudio will allow you to play one video before the menu appears but I don't know about 4

so do I understand correctly that you really want to do is make a standard DVD which when placed in a DVD player connected to a TV will automatically start and play the group introduction and THEN display a menu from which you can select the contributions ?

now where does your problem occur - you put the disc in - and ?? is it the group introduction which does not play ? - why are you talking about a second menu page if you only have 3 contributions to choose from then that menu will contain all three on one page

Have you used the preview option in the create disc window of Videostudio does everything work there - before you burn a DVD

is the group introduction a standard PAL DVD compliant mpeg-2 - some how you seem to have introduced an NTSC video - did you get this from an American DVD

There is no reason at all why an mpeg-2 file should not have NTSC properties if it came from an NTSC country - mpeg is not PAL specific

I would love to sort out your problem - but I don't understand what you are doing - or what the problem is - is it in playing the group introduction - or in playing the menu - or what

[Davidk]

Problem fixed.

After some thought about PAL vs NTSC results, I opened VS and loaded the problem project file, and checked it's project preferences, as supplied by the author. The default (previous setting) item at the top of the profile list was in fact NTSC-DVD. Changed it to one of the other 16:9 PAL-DVD settings, Ok'd. Got the warning message about changing properties, and continued. Then re-rendered the vsp to a video mpeg file. Result OK (but it was for the other attempts too) so far.

Opened the disk author vsp, Share and Disk/DVD selected, and the main author panel opens. Substituted the new mpg file for the old one, and checked that the properties of all the clips were PAL (select the clip icon in stage 1, and click on the I button at the left and view the properties panel; repeat for each clip). Then created the menu, provided the menu music (annoying to have to do this step for every single iteration . . . ) and then went to then last step: create a disk image. This was where it broke with the convert step error previously. This time however, all was well and the when the image iso file was created, viewed it with VLC: looked OK, then burned disks from it and tested. All good.

So my conclusion is that the author panel just doesn't like items with"allegedly" different screen formats. I say allegedly because even tho the source files may have started out differently, rendering them all to the same form before trying the make the disk should - but in this case, clearly it didn't - have eliminated those variations. This sort of thing may account for the "odd errors" reported by Brian.

My piggy bank of burned finger experiences grows . . . .

Davidk

[Davidk]

Brian,

Posts crossed. . .

The contents of the disk were to be
1. a group logo, a bit like the MGM lion or the Columbia lady of light, film maker symbols of past years. This item is first in the list and ticked as being the intro item, meaning it plays once only at disk start.
2. 3 clips from separate people which are the items listed in the menu.
3. The menu set so a viewer could play them all, or just the one he/she fancied. Specific background music relevant to the topic setup in the menu configuration. One of the 3 clips in the montage was the problem child insofar as the create disk module was concerned.

I've found a solution, as outlined. But I am still trying to establish just how that NTSC item came to be set in the first place - was it a camera setting just not changed on purchase that got embedded in any recordings, or was it the default setting of country (US, and NTSC follows) in Video Studio just clicked thru when the program was installed.

Davidk

[BrianCee]

This was why right back at the beginning I said that the best thing to do first was to render the components as DVD compliant videos first - I did not necessarily mean as one great long video but definitely each individual component on the final DVD to make sure there are no conversion problems when creating the disc.

It should not be necessary to redo the music each time - when you close the Create disc/burn Module you should get a prompt to save - save there and again when you close the whole project and all menu settings should be retained next time you open the project and disc creation.

[Davidk]

Ah. But as I said originally, I always use mpg files when doing the disk. Using vsp's or a mix of mpg's and vsp's has always seemed to crash the creation.

And the clips are student submissions which either they, or I, render from a packaged set of data. Ordinarily that's all been checked and viewed many times before getting to the finished product production. I've not had cause to check on the monitor format of files from that student before either: this case was a first-off from many perspectives.

Davidk