Multiplexing and burning error on iDVD

Hi

Yes - Multiplexing Error - is confusing and there are many various things that can trigger it.

A. Turn on - in iDVD - TV-Safe area and see if anything's goes outside this OR EVEN Touching it - Move all buttons etc. well inside this frame

B. Use of other letters than a to z and 0 to 9 in Titles and or Chapter names etc. can also trigger this most often symbols other than letters.

C. Use high quality brand of DVD - I only use Verbatim DVD-R (others may have luck by use of other DVDs)

Else read my long note of collected thoughts on this.

Multiplexing Error

PART One.

Use of strange video/audio material e.g. .avi, .wmv, .mp3 etc.

I only use.
Video - StreamingDV (miniDV tape via FireWire) and
Audio - .aiff (as on audio-CDs) (else converted to this .aiff 48KHz)
Photo - .jpg (.bmp known problematic)

Chapters !

A. Using strange letters in video project name e.g. +,/; etc. keep to a-z and 0-9 strange letters in project name e.g. +
as described by Donnyboy69. Does the title of your project have any symbols or decimal points in it. If so, that is why you are getting the error. I had a project that had a + sign which caused the same problem. I renamed it without the symbol and low and behold, it worked.

B. Location of Chapters
• Can’t be at start or end of movie (Skip first/start one - iDVD sets this by it self. At the End - no need)
• Not in a transition (or within 2-3 seconds from it)

Important when from iMovie HD6 or previous - Now also observed when using FCE 4

PART Two.

from Robert Modero.
"Multiplexing Error. Problem during initialization of tracks"
Simply remember to add subtitles to your Quicktime files and menu buttons.
Once I did that, I was back in business.

from Boise Jim
Do a safe reboot (by holding down the shift key until you see the spinning gear on gray background, then release, then restart when your start-up screen appears).

I always makes a DiskImage first and test this so that it runs OK

I use only - Verbatim DVDs

I use only - DVD-R

I burn at an as slow speed possibly e.g. x1

This gives good DVDs

PART Three.

Multiplex Error

Chuck, Chicago 2/7/2009.
Back again. Here is what I have found to work. I also have and use a LaCie DVD-R/RW DL external drive and a LaCie external hard drive as well. Since yesterday I have tried a few ways to burn a themed iDVD project having four 56 minute movies on it, amounting to 226 minutes onto a DVD DL disc, capacity 240 minutes. Apple tech support really didn't know what to do but gave me a very good tip. I had two options left. Apple tech support's tip was to try disc image. One of the replies on a thread with this subject said not to, but my experience today is good. Put your project onto "Burn to disc image," under "iDVD, file." Yesterday encoding took me 23 1/2 hours. Overnight for iDVD disc image, encoding took 21 1/2 hours (again) while I slept. This morning I tried to copy/burn disc image to a DVD with Roxio Toast 7, and it stopped near the end of the burn with some kind of "error" message. So then I tried Utilities> Disc Utility> Burn icon, and followed it through. Be sure to click the DVD DL drive in the window "Burn disc in.". I had one other problem though. At the end of a 46 minute copy, it started to verify, and at the end of verify it rejected the burn. So I tried again, and when "verify" appeared, I clicked on "Skip." The disc finished burning and is doing fine and well. A long and tortuous process, but at last something works. I made several additional copies using Disc Utility. Best wishes. Chuck, Chicago.

2. Disconnect any other external devices not absolutely needed.
e.g. external USB/USB2 hard disks, other FW hard disks etc.

3 Chapter marks in transitions - minimum 2 sec from

FROM Bev.

(Not a 'guy' but I will answer!)

First, I do not think that mixing wide-screen and standard makes a difference in iDVD.

Second, you should use a better brand of DVD disk. Also, many of us have experienced fewer problems on playback with DVD-R disks. Recommended brands here are Verbatim, Maxell and Taio Yuden. Memorex and TDK are not consistent and may not give you a correct burn. They apparently have fewer layers in the composition of the disk. I have always used Verbatim DVD-R disks and have not had any burn problems.
Also, choose a slower burn speed, 4x or less.

Third, to determine if the iDVD project will burn properly, create a disk image file (from within iDVD, go File->Save as Disk Image) and test it. Mount the disk image and then open DVD Player (in Applications) and view your project. If it plays correctly, you can then burn the actual DVD disk from the disk image file using Disk Utility.

From. Boise, Idaho
I did everything I've seen suggested, but a friend (who used to be an Apple Genius) suggested that I do a safe reboot (by holding down the shift key until you see the spinning gear on gray background, then release, then restart when your start-up screen appears).
It worked, and I got a clean burn from iDVD.

Hopefully this can help other people.

by dheb0422
Well, I finally got it, and it was odd enough to post here incase anyone looks this topic up again. Many things were tried, including burning the unedited film, the edited film without titles and chapter markers, abbreviating the chapter markers in case length was the issue (remember the old iMovie used to truncate them when moving to iDVD?). In the process, I noticed that one, and only one, chapter marker was on the same line as the title marker. All the others were on the line above. The only way I seemed able to change that was to clip a few seconds of film. After that last clip, the offending marker took a place on the line above, as were all the others. That run published, compiled completely and burned. That's one for the books.

One user more writes
To add my experience with Multiplex Errors using iDVD (7.0.4), I recently created two iDVD projects

Video from both passed from FCE 4.01 with chapters

One project worked fine in creating disk image file

The other gave Multiplex Errors

I tried suggestions to remove special characters and no chapter marks at beginning, but nothing worked

Note that I've used iDVD for dozens of projects and this is first time I've run into Multiplex Errors

Anyway, for problem project, I tried an experiment where I removed all chapters in FCE and passed to new iDVD project

This time multiplex errors gone

So had something to do with chapters

So now I tried numerous experiments to remove individual chapters and try again creating disk image with new iDVD project

After numerous tries, I was able to narrow problem down to 1 "Bad" chapter mark

That is, when I left the "bad" chapter in my FCE project and passed to iDVD, iDVD gave multiplex error

When I removed "bad" chapter mark (and others in), no multiplex error

As a final experiment, I moved "bad" chapter mark about 5-10 sec's beyond original point and passed to iDVD, the multiplex errors now magically went away and I was able to finally create my disk image.

I have no idea why this worked, but thought I'd mention here in case someone else runs into similar problem.

Rich839
In addition to Bengt's fine advice, burning errors can occur if you have located any of your menu buttons wholly or partly outside of the safe TV viewing area. Go to your main project menu, then click on View/Show TV Safe Area, to check. Drag into the safe viewing area any buttons that are outside the safe viewing area.


Russ One - suggest this

Multiplex Error-There was an error during muxing preparation

One thing that worked for me was to export the video w/o chapter markers as a self contained movie (thereby not loosing the edits & etc). Then make a new FCE project and import that movie into a new sequence and add the chapter markers. I've used "-", "&" and "," with no problem in the chapter names. Removing the markers or exporting without them did solve the problem but renaming them with just numbers 1,2,3....5, did not solve the problem and since this problem seems to happen with with iMovie as well, it would suggest the problem is in the video or audio and in combination with the chapter markers iDVD just can't handle it. The only other possibility is that both iMovie and FCE share the same or similar chapter marker code that some how is corrupting the markers.

Summary - What to try

1. Chapters
• Only A to Z and 0 to 9 in chapter title
• No Chapter mark at very beginning of movie
• No Chapter mark in or within 2 seconds from any transition in movie

2. TV-safe area for buttons (no one outside this)

3. Safe re-boot

4. No other external devices connected - that are not needed

SDMacuser adds to this
• On #4 ... No ext. devices. Some think this applies mainly to ext. FW. Not the case. Also applies to ext. USB2 as well (not to mention flash drives too).
Do not leave 3rd party devices / camera / camcorder plugged in unless it is being used with iDvd's One Step process. Certain web cams can trigger this also (especially ones with added features like LED light/s that draw additional power from the FW or USB bus).

5. Minimum of 25Gb free space on Start-up hard disk

6. Make a DiskImage first - reduces where problem originates

7. Trash iDVD pref. file

8. Make a new iDVD project

9. Movies in project with same aspect ratio e.g. 4x3 or 16x9

10. No other programs/applications running during iDVD process. e.g. Internet, screen & energy savers

Yours Bengt W

Thanks Bengt and others,

All of what you wrote it very helpful, and I'll go through it carefully. However, my problem seems to be slightly different. I'd appreciate any additional thoughts.

I bought an external drive (Samsung) because my internal drive has never worked terribly well. It will only ever burn 60 minutes or less (on a 120 minute Verbatim -R disc). It also won't burn disc images for copying discs. Also I wanted to be able to burn dual-layer discs and was advised on this community to buy an external drive.

The new drive works to a point. I can now create disc images with it and burn copies of discs in my computer drive, and I can also use it to burn a disc of less than 120 minutes, but more than 60 minutes. The problem arises when I try to burn a disc longer than 120 minutes - that's when I get a multiplexing error, and this is what makes me think that renaming and so forth may not be my particular problem.

Many thanks

Sorry - meant to add - I've just upgraded to 4 gigs of RAM (the most my iMac can take). I read on line that RAM can affect multiplexing.

RAM - Might be of importance for the INTEL Mac people (meaning - out of my range error)

But on PowerPC Mac 3Gb RAM is much more than needed - BUT the free space on the Start-UP Hard disk is VITAL and that's why I never go under 25Gb free space for SD-Video material and this should be about 4 to 5 times more for HD-Video material. (althoug iDVD only can produce SD-Video DVDs - as all other DVD encoders)

Yours Bengt W

How do I make a disc image of an iDVD project? Once I've done that, do I burn the disc from that? How do I adjust the burn speed within iDVD? I normally just click on 'burn'. (I'm on an INTEL iMac running 10.6.8 and I have over 600 gigs for hard disc memory and 4 of RAM)

How do I make a disc image of an iDVD project?

When You are done in iDVD - Go up to the File Menu and down to "Save as a DiskImage"

Once I've done that, do I burn the disc from that?

First of all - I use it to test the in about to be DVD - by running DVD-tool and see that this image plays as I want the real one to do. BUT Yes You can burn a Video-DVD from this but You must go via a program - most often used is

• Apple Disk Util tool - as You all ready got it - I prefere Roxio Toast™ (cause I like it)

If You just copy the .img disk to a DVD on DeskTop/Finder - Then You get a Data-DVD and it will not play on any set-top DVD-Player at all.

How do I adjust the burn speed within iDVD?

• Under the iDVD menu (to the Left of File Menu and to the right of the Apple Menu) - Go down to iDVD Preferences and here after select Advance. Now at bottom You see - Set Burn Speed - I set it to x4

I normally just click on 'burn'. (I'm on an INTEL iMac running 10.6.8 and I have over 600 gigs for hard disc memory and 4 of RAM)

Yes and it is only in Apple Disk Util tool or Roxio Toast™ You can set burn speed here (at burn window), in iDVD You have to set this in iDVD preferences.

Yours Bengt W