DVD Studio Pro - Markers and burning DVD questions

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Level 1

9 points

DVD Studio Pro - Markers and burning DVD questions

Hi everybody... I'm not very experienced in DVDSP, actually this is my first professional project with DVD Studio.

I have three issues I don't know how to solve:

1. I have 4 differents video tracks in my DVD. Each track has some Chapter markers. When I use the simulator to test the NEXT/PREVIOUS Chapter everything is ok and when the last Chapter of the current video is reached, if I press again "Next Chapter" nothing happens and that's ok. The problem is that when I test the DVD in my DVD reader, pressing "Next Chapter" when the last chapter of a video is reached goes into the following track. I do not want this to happen, I just want to limit the chapter next/prev on the current track. Is it possible?

2. I set precise chapter markers for the beginning of a new section. On Mac Simulator and Apple DVD Player everything ok, but on the actual standalone DVD player the audio of the next marker is cut for about 2 sec... So the chapter is not exactly as design, first moments of the audio cannot be heard and that's very bad because this is a video lecture... Anyone has experienced that or has an idea on how to solve?

3. I read in the forum that to burn the actual DVD many suggests to use Toast instead. When I create the build and import in Toast the VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS files, I see that DVD Studio creates some layout non DVD standard files in the VIDEO_TS folder. Some suggests to remove these two files. It is safe? Why DVD Studio includes them in the build if they are NOT according to DVD standards??

Thank you so much for anyone who can help!!

Andrea

Posted on Jan 30, 2014 9:19 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

RatVega™

Level 4

2,005 points

Jan 30, 2014 3:11 PM in response to Merlino

1. You may have a corrupt project file; the behavior you describe is not default behavior.

You should of course check the track end jumps to make sure they are correct, but they probably are...

I took one of my old projects which used default behaviors and tried to alter it perform as you describe without luck, so if it's not a bad project file I'm at a loss.

2. I've seen this kind of thing before and decided that a work-around of adding 1-2 seconds of black to the clip and re-encoding was the fastest and most positive fix. At about the same time I adopted a workflow that included outputting long timelines in shorter segments that facilitated rework like this. 🙂

3. The layout files are to allow quick changes and re-builds. When tweaking your project to final form, you frequently get an option to overwrite just the changes for a build instead of re-starting from scratch. Layout files are benign but are removed by DVDSP during the Format (burn) procedure just for good form. If you want to use Toast you should remove the files manually.

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Answer 2

Merlino Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 31, 2014 1:19 AM in response to RatVega™

Thank you for your helpful answer.

1. For the first point the project file and tracks are 100% fine. I've actually found out a note from Apple user manual saying that DVD players behaviour may vary, some of them allows skipping to markers throughout all the DVD, and probably mine is like that. But I've found a workaround by disabling "next program" user action in the last marker of the track and "previous program" in the first marker. I still have to test this but I hope it will work.

2. That's probably what I should have done in the editing phase...if only I had knew this before encoding 10 hrs of materials :-) Thanks

3. OK so if it's safe to remove the files from the build manually no problem. I've found only two files one .LAY and one .layout. Are there any other files that need to be removed?

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Answer 3

RatVega™

Level 4

2,005 points

Jan 31, 2014 8:17 AM in response to Merlino

Merlino wrote:

3. OK so if it's safe to remove the files from the build manually no problem. I've found only two files one .LAY and one .layout. Are there any other files that need to be removed?

No, those are the only ones. One other item that you've probably already figured out: The Orange Book ("the DVD Bible") is very specific about content and very limited in what it allows. I believe the reason for this is that the specs were decided almost 20 years ago and as compared to current electronic devices, the players are dumb as a rock. While we're all willing to deal with this, it leaves one significant pitfall: If you are not careful with the naming of your "Build" folders you'll quickly have dozens of identical folders with contents that appear identical except for how many identically named files they contain.

I've adopted a policy of religiously naming my build folders with descriptive and explicit names ("Wash D-I Recital 2013 Build 1") and stayed away from anything that requires me to remove the .layout file. It is the only actual identifier 'til you open the VIDEO_TS folder in a player. DVDSP doesn't actually remove the layout files, it just discards them from the data stream as it burns the files.

That said, thanks for the work-around idea you came up with; you're going to be a really good author with that kind of savvy.

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Answer 4

Jan 31, 2014 9:02 AM in response to RatVega™

Toast removes them automatically when you use the video: videots folder workflow to build the dvd. if you use the data: dvdrom (udf) option it does not. I prefer using toast to burn dvd's as it has the option of doing a verify after the burn.

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