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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 / CONTENT

Often people will get compile errors or will not be able to fit content on a DVD-5 (or DVD-9). Another thing to keep in mind is if you fill a disc up close to its limit, it can cause playback problems. Another thing to bear in mind is that DVD Players error correction can often work more efficiently on streams that take up less bandwidth.

One of the easiest ways to remedy the above is to make sure to make your audio AC3 format, and not AIF files. If you bring a movie file right into DVD SP it will not create an AC3 file, but uses the uncompressed audio. This will (a) take up more room than necessary and (b) can cause building problems if the combined rate of the audio stream and the video extreme exceed the DVD Maximum rate. If you go show you how to encode files to AC3

The seond thing to do is check you video bitrates. Make sure to encode outside of DVD SP, it makes it easier to change assets, and simply changing DVD SP preferences is not 100% reliable for making changes to existing projects. Name the files with distinct names so you know you are using the prope version, and to make sure DVD SP "knows" it is a different asset - i.e. if I create a movie on Feb 07, 2006 I will name it like 20060207_MyMovie_V1.m2v

Take a look here for a video rate calculator

Keep in mind that Compressor presets may not be 100% accurate and may produce files that are larger that what is labelled, i.e., the preset for 2 hour best rate for a DVD-5 may make files that are a bit too large (and also may have spikes over the "Max" rate in the settings.)

Usually I tweak a bit lower than the calulator. For instance if it says an average rate of 5.2, set you average to 5, chances are you will not see the differene between 5 and 5.2 and can save you reencoding heartache/headache down the road. Max rates really should not be higher than 7.2 or so. In theory you can go higher, in practice can cause playback issues, particularly on DVDs from your computer or on "borderline" players.

All material ©2006 Drew13 and the respective owners of materials