Maestro is acting strange..timeline wrong!!

[benf2]

The movie is Bandits: When i import the m2v file that i created with smartripper...shows the video length to be appx 1:38min and the audio to be 2:02 min...i played the video without the audio in PowerDVD and the complete video is there...my question is why it doesnt show in Maestro....

I have done many movies and never experienced this before...any ideas?

Thanks...oh yeah...i also played the audio track and it is correct as well.

[TRILIGHT]

The times will not always line up. The timecodes in the AC3 file will sync it. I did Bandits and didn't have any problems.

[benf2]

i understand that the time codes wont always align, but not 30mins. And when i went to the end of the video on the time line...it was missing the ending yet when i play the same m2v in powerdvd it is fine. Does Maestro only import up to a certain file size? This is appx 3.8g.

thanks

[TRILIGHT]

I haven't run into a filesize problem in Maestro yet. You might want to try creating a project file with DVD2AVI and then frameserve to an encoder for your final file. There are probably other video parts that are screwing things up for you. I honestly don't remember since it's been a while. I didn't do any menus or anything with this particular title. I just did the main movie and reauthored the entire thing in Maestro.

You might also want to check whether it is showing as "DROP" in Maestro. You can change the drop-frame flag using pulldown.exe and the "-drop_frame" switch.

[benf2]

My streams are a result of smartripper...i demuxed them straight from the disc..I never had this happen. I guess i will try either use an encoder or try different software to compile it.
WHY ME :confused:

[benf2]

Weired..still would not import to Maestro properly, so i reencoded the video with cce and the whole 2hrs shows up...So why does the original m2v file only import 1hr38min ?

[TRILIGHT]

Don't know what to tell ya. Did you try changing the drop-frame flag? It will report different times with/without the flag set.

[benf2]

I am not familiar with the drop frame flag....is this in Maestro?

[TRILIGHT]

(See above) You can set the drop-frame flag with pulldown.exe...

pulldown [inputfilename] [outputfilename] -nopulldown -drop_frame [true or false]

[benf2]

one more favor please !! (You might also want to check whether it is showing as "DROP" in Maestro.)
Where in Maestro would it say if its a drop?

[benf2]

i am guessing i just right click on the m2v in maestro and after the numbers 29.97fps it says drop. Is this what u mean? I tried using pulldown for the first time...if i did it right then when it finished the file was almost 2g smaller than the original...is this normal?

[benf2]

Nothing seems to work.....What are some other reasons Maestro wont import the whole video file?

[mikeathome]

Hi,

my guess:

The video was encoded in two (or more) sessions, each starting at timecode 00:00:00:00 and then not authored as two (or more) titles but linked together in one (main) title on the timeline (as Maestro e.g. can do).
This will lead to correct length when muxed / compiled to a DVD since the resulting timecodes resists in the VOB headers while preserving all MPEG video stream headers.
As soon as you demux the video and audio from the VOB the individual flags from the streams reapear. This e.g. is as well the fact for aspect ratio flag.
I found DVDs where the individual video stream was marked 4:3 (wrong) and the DVD was playing back in 16:9 anamorph mode just fine.

I think there's nothing to worry about as long as the video and audio show the same length on the timeline of Maestro. If that's not the fact, then obviously Maestro did NOT import the complete stream. In this case your reencoding way may solve it, as you describe.

mike

[benf2]

Last night i tried using DVD Quickbuilder for the same 2 files and i was successful in getting the complete movie. So, my conclusion is Maestro must be causing the problem. Just cant figure out why it wont import the whole video file, but will import the whole audio file.

Tonight i am going to try Spruce up and see if that works. Even though i was able to author the complete file in Quickbuilder, when i tried to play it on my stand alone dvd player i got audio problems with it cutting in and out.

If Spruce up works, i am going to try reinstalling Maestro and see if that fixes it unless someone else has an idea!!

[benf2]

HERE WE GO AGAIN I TRIED SPRUCE UP AND IT ACTUALLY IMPORTED THE WHOLE 2HR2MIN VIDEO FILE, BUT THE OUTPUT AFTER COMPLILING WAS ONLY 1.5HRS....WHAT THE H... IS GOING ON HERE??

ANYONE GOT BANDITS DONE?

[TRILIGHT]

Like I mentioned before, I did Bandits and did not have the problems you are having. I did not do any menus or extras. I used DVD2AVI to create a .d2v project file and extract the main audio track. I frameserved to CCE (via Avisynth) for encoding. I re-authored the whole thing in DVD Maestro, compiled, and burned. Best I can do is advise you follow the guides here at the site. I did and didn't have any trouble. I personally think your problem stems from stripping to a .m2v from SmartRipper. Try doing it a different way.

[tom para]

I run into this problem all the times.

Might be this: maestro v. 2.9x imposes some limitation on video bitrate (which I find very annoying) to make it "legal" and more "compatible" (probably for lousy, under-spec'd players). This is supposed to be 8 mbits/s.

The damn app, however, is not very consistent. Some video that bitrate viewer says to be 7.5 won't go in maestro, while another one at 9.0 gets thru ! Go figure.

Possible solution: try the earlier maestro !

pls report your results, am interested.

[TRILIGHT]

I personally use 2915a and have never had a problem. The only problem I've ever seen is trying to import chapters on a video asset that is drop-frame. I have to import them onto a video asset that is non-drop then remove it and replace it with the drop-frame version so the subtitles are synched correctly. It's never complained or displayed times off more than just a few minutes (which the timecode takes care of anyway).

[lakini18]

Just wondering if anybody found a way arround this, I have the same problem using spuceup. I import the .m2v, it says its all there, but then it only recognizes the first 1.5 hrs of the movie. I tried pulldown.exe but that didn't work either. If anybody can help please do so, thanks.

[benf2]

i never did get it to import, so i used cce and took the smaller size which did import.

The answer is out there!