lifeson99
15th June 2006, 12:54
I had previously posted that with TMPGenc DVD Author - the structure is very limited. You can only have one level of sub-menus (called "Track Menus") and each of these "Track Menus are limited, because they can contain a maximum of one track !! That is it - no other structures are allowed. So I could not make a basic DVD with an "Extras" page, because the Extras page must be a sub-menu with multiple, separate Tracks. But submenus in DVD Author can only have one Track. You can have multiple video clips, but they are automatically concatenated into one Track, and referenced by the DVD menu as "Chapters". This means you cannot go back to the menu after playing a single clip - the clip will automatically go to the next "Chapter". I you have 7 clips in a sub-menu (track menu), they will be referenced as one Track with 7 Chapters. Then for example, if you select to play clip 4, then clips 4 through 7 will play before you come back to the sub-menu. So if you make an "Extras" sub-menu on your DVD, and the user clicks on "Deleted Scenes", he will then have to watch all the deleted scenes, one after the other instead of a sub-menu with a list of deleted scenes (you cannot have a sub-menu of a sub-menu), and then the clip in the "Trailer" will automatically play, and then the "Credits" will play before he is returned to the Extras page.
So I went back to those other programs which I had previously thought were "too difficult to use" and did not like the fact that they insisted on using "elemental streams" (Sonic Reel DVD and MediaChance DVD-Lab Pro).
I still have too much trouble with DVD Reel - but I finally figured out how to use DVD-Lab Pro, and it was well worth the time to figure it out. It has so much more power than DVD Author that there really is no comparison. I now realize, is that I was wrong about the elemental streams taking forever. I had been using TMPGenc Plus to demux, and it does take a long time - but somehow DVD-Lab does it in a fraction of the time. It demuxes a 5-minute video clip in about 30 seconds. It does require twice as much drive space because it keeps the original mpg file and create one mpv and one mpa file. But with today's monster drives, even that is not a problem. Plus when finished - after testing the DVD you can delete the files.
The DVD-Lab "connections" page is extremely helpful to understand and see what is going on. It shows the complete DVD layout, along with lines and arrows that show how everything is connected. And you can change the structure byt simply drawing in your own lines. Awesome. I can link to any menu from any menu and then back again. I can play single clips and return to the menu even in "sub menus" (which DVD Author cannot do). And I can also create "Playlists", which allows the user to play any single clip and return, or click "Play All".
I am sure there are many other high-end DVD Authoring programs that can also do these things, but DVD-Lab is very cheap, considering all that it can do.
So I went back to those other programs which I had previously thought were "too difficult to use" and did not like the fact that they insisted on using "elemental streams" (Sonic Reel DVD and MediaChance DVD-Lab Pro).
I still have too much trouble with DVD Reel - but I finally figured out how to use DVD-Lab Pro, and it was well worth the time to figure it out. It has so much more power than DVD Author that there really is no comparison. I now realize, is that I was wrong about the elemental streams taking forever. I had been using TMPGenc Plus to demux, and it does take a long time - but somehow DVD-Lab does it in a fraction of the time. It demuxes a 5-minute video clip in about 30 seconds. It does require twice as much drive space because it keeps the original mpg file and create one mpv and one mpa file. But with today's monster drives, even that is not a problem. Plus when finished - after testing the DVD you can delete the files.
The DVD-Lab "connections" page is extremely helpful to understand and see what is going on. It shows the complete DVD layout, along with lines and arrows that show how everything is connected. And you can change the structure byt simply drawing in your own lines. Awesome. I can link to any menu from any menu and then back again. I can play single clips and return to the menu even in "sub menus" (which DVD Author cannot do). And I can also create "Playlists", which allows the user to play any single clip and return, or click "Play All".
I am sure there are many other high-end DVD Authoring programs that can also do these things, but DVD-Lab is very cheap, considering all that it can do.