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Thursday Mar 28, 2024

DVD STUDIO PRO

FAQS

The Lay Of The Land

Fast Track From Final Cut Pro to DVD SP

Quick Menu From Photoshop to DVD SP

Using VTS Views

Setting Build Folder

Quick Compressor Overview

Layered Menus

Transitions In Menus

Rotating Drop Zones

Quick Mapping (early verions)

More Mapping Examples

Using Motion to Create
Animated Backgrounds (FADE IN )

Using DVD SP Assets From Templates

Auto Assigning Buttons/
More Button Creation-Mapping

Semi/Pseudo Animated Rollovers Sort Of

Basic Return To Menu

Track Markers Jumps

Stories Details

Scriptless Play All/Scene Selection

Stories & Jumps

Random Return To Menus

Make A "Secret" Passcode

Using Scripts For Preferences (Audio Selection)

Random Fun (Making Random Jumps to Material)

Bit Shift Bingo

DVDSTEPBYSTEP.COM / FAQS / PLAYBACK ISSUES

QUESTION One of the most common issues is that a DVD will not compile with an error of "bit rate too high", or a DVD will stutter, skip or "look like it has blocks" in it

Answer:

Though there are many issues that can cause problems, the most common one is that a DVD is just putting out too much data for a machine to handle/playback.

Stepping back a second, and without getting into too much detail, DVDs are limited to the amount of data that they can put out for the machines to handle at one time. This limit is basically reached by combining the rate of the video and the rate of the audio for total data rate.

The easiest quick fix is to make sure that you A.Pack/Dolby your audio. (See Fast Track, point 4 in the narrative) If you just drag a self contained movie (.mov, .dv) into DVD SP, it does not make the audio A.Pack/Dolby. Same thing if you bring an .aif file in.

A second thing is that there is a limit on how much of the rate can be applied to the video. Though settings in DVD SP (and even Compressor) would seem to fall into acceptable ranges, there have been reports of spikes.

Also DVD-R, DVD+R etc. burned from computers also are more prone to having spike issues for various reasons, so even though you think that you can encode up to "X", if you can get acceptable results for less than X, probably wiser to do so.

So some basic steps to avoid "bit rate too high", or a DVD will stutter, skip or "look like it has blocks"

1.) Encode outside of DVD SP (it makes it easier to switch things later)

2.) Make sure you A.Pack/Dolby the audio

3.) Make sure you use decent media, there are a variety of brands people like and it fluctuates, but Taiyo Yuden is one that always seems to be on a majority of the "good" lists. Also use DVD+R for Dual Layers, better compatibility (Note that some older DVD players will not play DVD DL from your computer.)

 

DVD BANDWIDTH

The maximum rate that a DVD should output is 10.08 Mbps (Page 43 DVD SP 4.1.2 Pdf Manual) Of the 10.08, the maximum rate for the video stream is 9.8 Mbps. Video, audio and subtitle streams count to the max Mbps of 10.08 (Page 44 Pdf ) Note that some players do not handle the theoretical rates (meaning the rates they are suppossed to be able to handle) well, more so on discs burned from your computer. This rate is not related to how long or short a track is, it relates to how much data is being put out by the DVD.

 

UPDATE HD SD PROJECT CONFUSION

It seems that more people are having issues with playback due to the fact that they are making a project an HD project and not an SD Project . AN HD PROJECT will not play on SD DVD Players.

You need to set the project to SD in the preferences. A and start a new project. AN HD PROJECT CANNOT BE CONVERTED TO AN SD PROJECT.

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