VS 2018, What am I doing wrong?

[john4647]

Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere but I can't find a particular topic on this.

I upgrade to VS 2018 last week and it now appears to work fine until I come to rendering.

My VSP project is 36 minutes and 30 seconds and comprises of MP4's, JPG's, MTS, and MP3 sound files. There are a few transitions but no other special effects.

When trying to render to a DVD, I gave up at 2hrs and cancelled the operation. Only 12% had been completed and I did not want to wait the other 14hrs.

Is it something wrong with my setup or preferences?

I have enclosed some screen shots.

Thanks, John

[lata]

Hi

You are best to first render your project using Share Mpeg2
That will create a Mpeg2 file suitable to burn to disc.

If rendering is slow then it indicates the content of your project rather than the burning process.
Once you have created the new video file, play to check quality.
To burn a disc –start a new project – nothing in the timelines - share Disc DVD, opens the burner module, add video file (top left icon) , choosing the file created above. Convert Title should not be required speeding up the burn process time.

However I notice you choose Normalise Audio, that will cause Convert Title and impact on render time, although I suspect the timelines clip contents to be causing this slow render issue.
What type of clips are on the timeline upto 12%

[john4647]

Thanks (again) Trevor, I will try what you suggest and report back.

I didn't realise that 'Normalise Audio' would add a lot of time to rendering. I could use a 3rd part normalise programme prior to rendering, this only takes 30 seconds or so.

Does the 12% relate to time? In this case it was one mp4 file and twenty or so jpg files with transitions.

In any case, I will report back tomorrow as a large Scotch may impede my progress tonight.

Regards, John

[Davidk]

Normalise audio .. . supposedly will produce a result with a constant audio level, even tho the inputs (clips) may have loud or soft sound. But if you want sound to be a feature of a clip - for example, an explosion is supposed to be much louder that it's surrounding sound - then normalising it during render removes that intent. Ditto for a scene involving a whisper.

The one time I tried 'normalising' (some years ago now), the result was pretty much a disaster: some clips had sound and others had none. I never was able to figure out why, and eventually gave that approach up and focussed more on the sound levels I wanted in the individual clips of a project file, before rendering.

[lata]

Hi
Yes 12% would relate to time across the timeline,
Once you have rendered the project to a Mpeg2 file, that will be DVD compliant and burning a disc would not require further conversion, so Convert title would not be used, however selecting Normalise Audio would activate Convert Title, I do not really know what effect that would have on render time, certainly would not cause this problem, Types of clips and edits applied at 12% is probably the culprit.

As for normalise audio I have to admit never using that and to be honest don’t know how effective it is, I think it would work comparing different clips, so if you have added one file to the burner module I doubt it would have much effect.

We would always recommend rendering / converting the project to a compliant file, using that to burn a disc.
Have a read here
http://lata.me.uk/corel/all.htm

[john4647]

Hi

You are best to first render your project using Share Mpeg2
That will create a Mpeg2 file suitable to burn to disc.

If rendering is slow then it indicates the content of your project rather than the burning process.
Once you have created the new video file, play to check quality.
To burn a disc –start a new project – nothing in the timelines - share Disc DVD, opens the burner module, add video file (top left icon) , choosing the file created above. Convert Title should not be required speeding up the burn process time.

However I notice you choose Normalise Audio, that will cause Convert Title and impact on render time, although I suspect the timelines clip contents to be causing this slow render issue.
What type of clips are on the timeline up to 12%

Well, that worked fine.

Rendering to Mpeg took 1 hr and 2 mins. I can live with that.

Following your next step using New Project to burn the DVD took a very impressive 5 mins and 35 seconds.
I did not choose Normalise Audio.

Is the quality still as good, it looks o/k when I play the DVD.

Many Thanks.

[lata]

Hi

Glad to hear you managed to burn the disc.
Quality should be the same whether you render in burner module or from timelines, however we do recommend rendering to Mpeg2 first. Doing so we can easily control the settings to create the best results, for example creating a slide show may require the interlacing to use frame based.
Once rendered we can play to check quality.
Create an iso first will allow us to play again to check quality, then burn a disc from iso knowing we are not gonna make yet another coaster.

[john4647]

Hi

Glad to hear you managed to burn the disc.
Quality should be the same whether you render in burner module or from timelines, however we do recommend rendering to Mpeg2 first. Doing so we can easily control the settings to create the best results, for example creating a slide show may require the interlacing to use frame based.
Once rendered we can play to check quality.
Create an iso first will allow us to play again to check quality, then burn a disc from iso knowing we are not gonna make yet another coaster.

Thanks for your reply but being a Luddite, I don't understand the comments in bold italic.

Regards.

[john4647]

Being emboldened by my previous rendering success I decided to try to render directly to DVD. AVCHD was not an option being too large to fit on a standard disc.

So I requested a render to DVD (it's a 36 minute project) and up to now it has rendered 23% and taken 4 hours and 45 minutes.

I am now bored and going to bed.

Hopefully, it may be completed before tomorrow morning.

All of this time the CPU usage is around 2.5% and the GCPU usage is zero.

Surely I must have some settings wrong????

Regards.

[lata]

Hi
For DVD’s - reference to creating an iso is to allow us to play the final dvd before committing to disc. We play the iso using VLC Media Player, read the guide below.
http://lata.me.uk/corel/all.htm

You may have some settings that could be improved, but even so if the project renders ok and relatively quickly I don’t really understand why the burner Convert Title takes so long.

The files you have used in your project contain MP4, MTS, and mp3 audio, (probably using the Lame codec which is known to cause issues.)
These are then converted to Mpeg2, the burner module seems to be struggling doing that?
I can only advise that you always render the project to Mpeg2 prior to burning the disc, clearly it is much quicker doing that?

[john4647]

Hi
For DVD’s - reference to creating an iso is to allow us to play the final dvd before committing to disc. We play the iso using VLC Media Player, read the guide below.
http://lata.me.uk/corel/all.htm

You may have some settings that could be improved, but even so if the project renders ok and relatively quickly I don’t really understand why the burner Convert Title takes so long.

The files you have used in your project contain MP4, MTS, and mp3 audio, (probably using the Lame codec which is known to cause issues.)
These are then converted to Mpeg2, the burner module seems to be struggling doing that?
I can only advise that you always render the project to Mpeg2 prior to burning the disc, clearly it is much quicker doing that?

Hello,

The link does not appear to work, I receive this message "HTTP Error 503. The service is unavailable"

Also, is there anything I can do about using the Lame Codec?

Probably too many questions, sorry.

John

[lata]

Apologies for the bad link, will investigate that?

We recommend that to burn a disc we first convert the project to a compliant file, for DVD that is a mpeg2 file.
Then use that file to burn the disc, first by creating an ISO file, a disc image.
We can play the iso to check quality before committing to disc using Tools - Burn from Disc Image.
Certainly saves on making those coasters.
Basically my guide explains that process.

MP3 lame Codec can cause some problems but would show when inserting the files to the timeline or during the render stages.
The only option for MP3 lame codec is to use an audio editor to convert to Wav. But you do not seem to have a problem there it was just a possible cause.
As you have successfully burnt the disc by rendering first I can only recommend you use the same process in the future.
To be honest I have never burnt a disc from the project file, I have always rendered first.

All that does not explain why using the burner to Create Title takes so long

Some things you could try
Make sure your project properties are the same as the Mpeg2 files properties. Settings Project Properties DVD, I assume 16:9
If you do render first use Share Same as project properties
Using Share Disc DVD will use the same properties as your project to convert the title, whether that speeds up things is debatable.