Probs with DVD studio Pro

Let us know how it turns out.

Steve

Well Ive just transfered the MPEG-2 and AC3 file of my 27min film into DVDSP and the cursor has been swirling around for 3 hours and not letting me do anything to it... ??? WTF ??? is this normal ???

Dive safe

DeanB

Bugger its crashed... Try again later...

Well Ive just transfered the MPEG-2 and AC3 file of my 27min film into DVDSP and the cursor has been swirling around for 3 hours and not letting me do anything to it... ??? WTF ??? is this normal ???

 

Dive safe

 

DeanB

 

Bugger its crashed... Try again later...

Nah that is not normal at all. Once in awhile you may get strange behavior, but usually 27 minutes will come right in an parse within a minute or two. Sounds like something may be corrupted. Where is the footage? (External/Internal and how is it set up FW/USB/other?) A slow connection (meaning USB) can sometimes cause issues on a large file....

"How do you set it as first play???"

open the "help" option and then open up the user-guide and type in the keyword???????? In this situation - "first play"!

You crack me up Deano....

open the "help" option and then open up the user-guide and type in the keyword???????? In this situation - "first play"!

 

You crack me up Deano....

 

Tooooo easy ... Altho your the first person to actually suggested that option on 2 forums... Lol...

Started again from the FCPS2 timeline and thru compressor... tried uploading it to DVDSP and once again 'format not recognised' popped up... That was 11.45pm last night ... ... this is so shite its getting hilarious... Who suggested FCP and Apple ... Wheres my Adobe premier that was soooo easy...

Right lets try again...

Dive safe

Dean( is it just me)B

Tooooo easy ... Altho your the first person to actually suggested that option on 2 forums... Lol...

I was going to tell you to read the manual, use the search function and try a tutorial myself or my earlier post that I edited out (figured it would sound snarky and also figured you are too Alpha Male for that ) :)

Started again from the FCPS2 timeline and thru compressor... tried uploading it to DVDSP and once again 'format not recognised' popped up... That was 11.45pm last night ... ... this is so shite its getting hilarious... Who suggested FCP and Apple ... Wheres my Adobe premier that was soooo easy...

Meet us halfway

What was the source file, what was the settings in Final Cut, how did you export it, what were the settings in Compressor and what were the settings in the DVD SP project.

Often incompatible format means that you are bringing PAL into a NTSC project, HD assets or improperly encoded asets (meaning wrong Codec) into an SD project, etc.

I was going to tell you to read the manual, use the search function and try a tutorial myself or my earlier post that I edited out (figured it would sound snarky and also figured you are too Alpha Male for that ) :)

I've said a zillion times I'm rubbish with the techno side of this ... I'm happiest out and about with my camera

Meet us halfway

 

What was the source file, what was the settings in Final Cut, how did you export it, what were the settings in Compressor and what were the settings in the DVD SP project.

 

Often incompatible format means that you are bringing PAL into a NTSC project, HD assets or improperly encoded asets (meaning wrong Codec) into an SD project, etc.

I'm going through it now and looking at your suggestions.... If that fails I'll give you the details... I've be talking to a couple of people and apparently I'm doing everything right and its the laptops fault... ... Doubtful...

Dive safe

DeanB

I've said a zillion times I'm rubbish with the techno side of this ... I'm happiest out and about with my camera

 

 

 

 

I'm going through it now and looking at your suggestions.... If that fails I'll give you the details... I've be talking to a couple of people and apparently I'm doing everything right and its the laptops fault... ... Doubtful...

 

Dive safe

 

DeanB

Dean, if you like I can make you a droplet to use in Compressor with the settings you need, and also can set up a blank DVD SP template for you to make sure the settings are right in that also. I am assuming it is HD Pal to SD? Let me know.

EDIT: Put them up for you in a zip file ZIp File to start you off. Note the MPEG encoding settings are not fully tweaked, but want to see if you can get up and running.

Dean, if you like I can make you a droplet to use in Compressor with the settings you need, and also can set up a blank DVD SP template for you to make sure the settings are right in that also. I am assuming it is HD Pal to SD? Let me know.

 

EDIT: Put them up for you in a zip file ZIp File to start you off. Note the MPEG encoding settings are not fully tweaked, but want to see if you can get up and running.

Well its worked all of a sudden although it looks letterboxed and its very jittery ( maybe frame drops ) But at least I can get a see how it shouldn't look ...

Dive safe

DeanB

Well its worked all of a sudden although it looks letterboxed and its very jittery ( maybe frame drops ) But at least I can get a see how it shouldn't look ...

 

Dive safe

 

DeanB

If the footage was 16:9 and you are looking in simulator there are options to see how it looks, inccluding 4:3 letterbox, so if you switch to 16:9 you will see 16:9 (also make sure to chack the track to being 16:9) If you build to your hard drive and open up in Apple DVD Player the player should go 16:9 size w/o letterbox. As to the jitters, could be a few things, including simulator not being perfect. If you shot something like 24P you probably would need a couple of tweaks to get it better (if you used the droplet I posted, it was to see if things could get going on any level for you.)

Glad to see things are progessing forward

another option for you to waste a few hours.... don't compress it. (huh????) Let DVDSP do it for you....

at the end of the day, QuickTime and it's encoding technologies are what is running behind the scenes of any Mac video software... So you can encode in lots of different ways... in Final Cut, in QuickTime, in Compressor and in DVDSP! (plus more....)

Anyways, back on track:

Export from FC as a linked (NOT STANDALONE) file.... this will be a little wee file that refers to your FC timeline.... it will play in QT (though defaults to opening with FCP)..... You could export as a standalone file but I don't think it's necessary.... Just make sure you don't then change your FC timeline expecting the linked QT file to work - it won;t because it is looking for a timeline that you've now adjusted.... (gettit?)

You can then import this "QT" file to DVDSP and (so long as you've programmed DVDSP to encode for you) then it will do the rest (confirm this with the USER GUIDE before attempting it, as it's been years since I did that so things MAY have changed somewhat....)

I said it before and I'll say it again - "never a problem, only a challenge!"

You could always come over to Thailand and we'll go through a full-on Mac training course.... (plus you'll get some nice colourful reef shots!)

was going to tell you to read the manual, use the search function and try a tutorial myself......... (figured it would sound snarky

I guess Apple are "snarky" to even consider bundling the user guides with their software - how dare they show such lack of patience and understanding of their customer's concerns - LOL LOL!!!!!

I have found over the years, that when one gathers info for themselves - they remember it. When spoon fed, they come back a week later asking the same question again.... without any increase in their levels of understanding of the topic....

I think that in order for Dean to get to the bottom of this - it is lovely that we are to help and advise but - it is on Dean's computer, in Dean's house / office and our advice can only be up to a point....

I think that with what has been repeated here, that Dean has enough info to garner that A. he is doing something wrong or B. that he needs to reinstall FCS...

Good luck with it Deano -

OOOOOOH - one more piece of "advice"..... hopefully this one won't be deemed too "sharply critical; cutting" by out Moderator.

1. Take your sequence that you're working on - duplicate it and rename the duplicate TEST EXPORT (or something similarly applicable)....

2. Now open the Test sequence (double click it) and delete pretty much all of the timeline - BUT LEAVE ABOUT 20 SECONDS OF CLIPS AND AUDIO.

3. Now export THAT file and try getting a DVD out of it.

The point here is that such a small file will take "no" time to go through your system - so by logging what you doing, you will find the correct workflow very quickly....

Presently you are waiting too long for a very large file to wind it's way through your computer... so by the time it comes out on a DVD, the chances are likely that you've forgotten what you did.... (I do!!) So by testing your workflow on a nice short sequence, you should have the answer to your questions within 5 minutes...... you SHOULD have!!!

I would advice that you use a "difficult" part of the sequence with lots of fast shifting pixel data - i.e. something hard for the computer to compress - i.e. u/w and with some cross dissolves if you are using any.... The reason being so that you can check whether your encoding is being respectful enough of all of your pixels....

Hope you get through it today! This is TOOO long for a Mac "problem" to be going on.....

good luck buddy

another option for you to waste a few hours.... don't compress it. (huh????) Let DVDSP do it for you....

 

at the end of the day, QuickTime and it's encoding technologies are what is running behind the scenes of any Mac video software... So you can encode in lots of different ways... in Final Cut, in QuickTime, in Compressor and in DVDSP! (plus more....)

Sort of. More control outside of DVD SP, plus with refresh issues if you need to change encoding settings or tweaking depending on results, usually easier because of refresh issues, things getting caught up in PAR/MPEG files etc. Of course a good export Codec also...

Export from FC as a linked (NOT STANDALONE) file.... this will be a little wee file that refers to your FC timeline.... it will play in QT (though defaults to opening with FCP)..... You could export as a standalone file but I don't think it's necessary.... Just make sure you don't then change your FC timeline expecting the linked QT file to work - it won;t because it is looking for a timeline that you've now adjusted.... (gettit?)

I am a self contained person myself. Way too often file missing messages when tweaking DVD SP projects down the road can lead to alot of frustration. Plus found Self contained more reliaible in general.

You can then import this "QT" file to DVDSP and (so long as you've programmed DVDSP to encode for you) then it will do the rest (confirm this with the USER GUIDE before attempting it, as it's been years since I did that so things MAY have changed somewhat....)

 

I said it before and I'll say it again - "never a problem, only a challenge!"

 

You could always come over to Thailand and we'll go through a full-on Mac training course.... (plus you'll get some nice colourful reef shots!)

Like I said, I am a self contained type, more so as hard drives cost nothing (well sort of ). Then I media manage the FCP project (yeah I know media manage has issues) and store everything just in case But if I agree to reference movies, can I come diving in Thailand?

 

I guess Apple are "snarky" to even consider bundling the user guides with their software - how dare they show such lack of patience and understanding of their customer's concerns - LOL LOL!!!!!

Well I wrote it before I had my morning coffee and I think they original version had something like STFM and a quote from Arthur (okay was not that bad, but wanted to make sure it was not taken the wrong way )

I have found over the years, that when one gathers info for themselves - they remember it. When spoon fed, they come back a week later asking the same question again.... without any increase in their levels of understanding of the topic....

 

I think that in order for Dean to get to the bottom of this - it is lovely that we are to help and advise but - it is on Dean's computer, in Dean's house / office and our advice can only be up to a point....

 

Good luck with it Deano -

Lead a horse to water, teach a man to fish. I agree in general. And if anyone who can drink or find fish, Dean is the one

I think that with what has been repeated here, that Dean has enough info to garner that A. he is doing something wrong or B. that he needs to reinstall FCS...

Sounds like the former rather than the later, and before the reinstall, usually deleting prefs and/or new user would be the things to try, before getting into deleting receipts etc.

Presently you are waiting too long for a very large file to wind it's way through your computer... so by the time it comes out on a DVD, the chances are likely that you've forgotten what you did.... (I do!!) So by testing your workflow on a nice short sequence, you should have the answer to your questions within 5 minutes...... you SHOULD have!!!

Amen

I would advice that you use a "difficult" part of the sequence with lots of fast shifting pixel data - i.e. something hard for the computer to compress - i.e. u/w and with some cross dissolves if you are using any.... The reason being so that you can check whether your encoding is being respectful enough of all of your pixels....

Don't forget Compression markers if needed.

Hope you get through it today! This is TOOO long for a Mac "problem" to be going on.....

 

good luck buddy

Oh I have seen alot worse. And usually when the specifics are mentioned, then the issue clears right up.

 

I guess Apple are "snarky" to even consider bundling the user guides with their software - how dare they show such lack of patience and understanding of their customer's concerns - LOL LOL!!!!!

 

I have found over the years, that when one gathers info for themselves - they remember it. When spoon fed, they come back a week later asking the same question again.... without any increase in their levels of understanding of the topic....

 

I think that in order for Dean to get to the bottom of this - it is lovely that we are to help and advise but - it is on Dean's computer, in Dean's house / office and our advice can only be up to a point....

 

I think that with what has been repeated here, that Dean has enough info to garner that A. he is doing something wrong or B. that he needs to reinstall FCS...

 

Good luck with it Deano -

 

OOOOOOH - one more piece of "advice"..... hopefully this one won't be deemed too "sharply critical; cutting" by out Moderator.

 

1. Take your sequence that you're working on - duplicate it and rename the duplicate TEST EXPORT (or something similarly applicable)....

 

2. Now open the Test sequence (double click it) and delete pretty much all of the timeline - BUT LEAVE ABOUT 20 SECONDS OF CLIPS AND AUDIO.

 

3. Now export THAT file and try getting a DVD out of it.

 

The point here is that such a small file will take "no" time to go through your system - so by logging what you doing, you will find the correct workflow very quickly....

 

Presently you are waiting too long for a very large file to wind it's way through your computer... so by the time it comes out on a DVD, the chances are likely that you've forgotten what you did.... (I do!!) So by testing your workflow on a nice short sequence, you should have the answer to your questions within 5 minutes...... you SHOULD have!!!

 

I would advice that you use a "difficult" part of the sequence with lots of fast shifting pixel data - i.e. something hard for the computer to compress - i.e. u/w and with some cross dissolves if you are using any.... The reason being so that you can check whether your encoding is being respectful enough of all of your pixels....

 

Hope you get through it today! This is TOOO long for a Mac "problem" to be going on.....

 

good luck buddy

Is that all the help you can offer me...

I'm giving it a rest for a day or so otherwise its 'flying laptop' time... I just made a dvd of my 'trailer' for my film and its fine ( 40 secs long) all off the same bins, settings, same footage blah blah blah... Plays correctly and 'full screen'... So pretty weird why the actual film plays in a little window in the middle of the screen ... Off the dvd that did burn ive also noticed that one of the frames is not 16:9 but all others are??? I'm going to start from Final cut and check through the lot methodically ...

Another thing I did notice is that in compressor it seems to render/compress it twice... all 40,000ish frames ... Is this normal....??? Anyway my fellow users its time to ponder why I'm even trying this shite over a beer.... Laters

Dive safe

Dean( Its not me its the shite software)B

You could always come over to Thailand and we'll go through a full-on Mac training course.... (plus you'll get some nice colourful reef shots!)

Now that sounds like an Idea ...

Dive safe

DeanB

mate - only one quick answer to your question about the "double compression"...

when compressing using H264 (and other codecs sometimes, maybe? I haven't really noticed) you can instruct it to pass over your entire project once or twice - of course, the second option takes twice as long but it should iron out any compression "errors" that may have come out in the original scan....

you'll see the setting in there somewhere:

"Best Quality (Multi-Pass)

Faster Encode (Single Pass)"

hope that explains that one.... (you booked your ticket yet? )

Poor Deno

If it fits on a disk just go single Pass CBR 8.5mbps, better than any multipass VBR setting.

Poor Deno

 

If it fits on a disk just go single Pass CBR 8.5mbps, better than any multipass VBR setting.

or just to muddy things even more then he could go for a single pass VBR