I have been tryin to make a dvd with 5 hours of avi clips, 13 in total. I managed to convert the clips into avi format. I deleted all the files except for the vob ones. I then inmported the 13 vob files and added them to to my project as seperate movies. When making menus i dragged a pic from the preview screen and dropped it onto the menu for each movie to act as a tumbnail and linked it to that particular movie. When i went to compile the dvd project it said it would totoal 4.13gb, which sounds right. So when i compile it, it turns out to be only 400mb and is not complete. All the menus are there but ony 1 250mb vob file which is 10 mins of the last clip. Can anyone help please! Am I doing something wrong???
I do not know what your problem is, but I will go through the DVD authoring process for you, so then you can figure out what it wrong: First make sure you import all your media assets. This will be your .vob files. When you do this, you will be prompted whether or not you want to demux. Choose the one that does Demux. You should then have .mpv & .ac3 files in your media assets. Next create one movie for each clip that you added. For 13 clips you will have 13 movies. Add the clip & the associated sound to a movie. For episode 1, use movie 1 and for episode 2 you movie 2 and so on. Next figure out your chapter points if you want any. After this you will create your menu. If you are doing a normal DVD you will generally not need a VMG menu. A good way to work one in is to have an episode select menu (Root Menu) and a Main Menu (VMG). If you want a motion menu, you will have to have the video clip you want to use for the motion. Import it. Then drag it into your menu. You will now want to create your sub image. Create a title for your menu and add your buttons. Create a "Play All" button and an "Episode Select" button. Point the play all to movie 1 start and and Episode select to VTS1 (Root) [your chapter select menu]. Next edit your Chapter Select menu (Root Menu). Add your chapter selection links. I use text but you can use thumbnails. Link all your chapters correctly. If you are finished with all your menus, you will want to render the motion so your text will be visible in your final product. After this is done, drag it over your previous background and you will not have to change anything because all your links will be the same. Now you are pretty much finished. All you have to do is make all of your movies link to each other. Go to "connecions". Click on the tool right under the pointer tool. This is to manually draw connections. Now click on movie 1 and drag the line over to movie 2. Next click movie 2 and drag the line to movie 3. Do the same until the last one. The last you will want to end by going to the Root Menu. Click on it, and then make sure the end link is set to Root Menu. If you have your movies in different VTS, you will want your VMG menu to point to each different VTS. No double check everything to make sure every link is pointing somewhere and when you are done, compile your DVD. After compiling, do not burn. Test your DVD by using a program like IFOEdit. Open your video_TS.ifo and then click "DVD Play". This will simulae actual play on a DVD player and tell you if anything is wrong. If is says something about a label, ignore this because you can add one before you burn. If everything checks out, then burn your movie.
Hi there, i followed your steps and created a project from a DVD, importing VOB files. My problem is that i want to change the original's DVD menu and create more links and different motion. So i create a new project as you mentioned and imported all the VOB files except the VIDEO_TS.VOB file. I created my new motion menu and links and everything. But the compilation fails and the reason is that there is VIDEO_TS.VOB created for my new project. Is there something i am forgetting to do? Thanx in advance
You want DVDlab to create video_ts.vob. That should not be the reason the compilation fails. Do you get any warnings or messages when you initiate the compilation? What exactly do you mean by your compilation failing? Is it like what you said before, 4.13 gigs turns to 400mb? Now for your menu, DVDlab, does not automatically create motion menus with thumbnails when you drag and drop. You have to render the motion. Select menu=>render motion. Select the objects you want to render and then set the legnth and start points. Then render it to mpeg-2. Do this after you are finished with everything else though, because you will have to render the motion everytime you make a change to the menu layout.
You are correct. I typed it wrong, compilation doesn't fail, it is successfully completed but no VIDEO_TS.VOB is created so i wouldn't write the DVD, since it's not valid. Neither IFOs and stuff. I found the problem yesterday. If you import .VOB files into your project you must let it separate the streams (video and audio) and create the .m2v file. This one you must import and also it's .AC3. I think it's the first choice when you import the file into the assets. I was picking the 2nd one which only performed and a fast DVD-compatibility check of the .VOB files, so it treated them like .VOB files. Also, i didn't have a problem with the menu, i just wanted to create a new DVD from an existing one and only change its menu, not its VOB files and chapters. Anyway, you have been helpful though Thanx.
Thank you very much for the help jaguargod. Basically my prblem was that after compiling a project with 13 20min avi files it produced only a single vob file that was 200mb or so, rather than several vob files that were 0.99gb each. What the probloem was that I did not link the movies together via the connections tab as you mentioned. I have compiled the dvd and works fine with all the episodes there. However there is one more tiny problem. When I play the dvd from the first episode by selecting the 1st thumbnail it plays but to get to the next one I have to wait until the episode finishes. I cant skip to the next one episode via the skip button on my remote. I have to forward to the end of the episode and then the next episode starts, or back up to the root menu and select the next episode via its thumbnail. I did not put any chapters in each episode. I have 13 episodes but thought I could skip to the next one via the skip to next chapter button on my remote. Is this possible. I hope this makes sense.
If you import each Episode as a seperate Movie then you can Not Just jump to the next one useing the Skip chapter Buttons....If you want to be able to Jump from one Eppisode to the Next you should Join all of the Episodes into a Single File and Import all of them as a Single Movie and then Put a Chapter Point at the Beginning of each Episode and Link each episode to the Main Menu this way you Can Skip Episodes useing the Chapter Buttons and useing the menu"s and it also makes createing the DVD easier.... Cheers
Actually, you can import them as different movies and still skip to the next one with your remote skip button. You have to make sure in your connections that the end action is pointing to the next episode (defualt jumps to the Root menu). Also, they have to be in the same VTS. Putting them all in one file makes things easier and you can then have DVDlab create a scene selection menu for you. I am too lazy to combine my files though, so I just use separate movies. I do not have problems with skipping episodes. Before you compile your movie, click on the "Connections" tab. You will se a bunch of thumbnails representing your movies and menus. Now if you look to the left, there will be a toolbar. Select the second tool. This will allow you to manually draw connections. Click on your first episode and then drag it to episode 2. You will now see an arrow pointing from episode 1 to 2. Next click on episode 2 and drag it to 3. Do it for all the episodes. For the final episode, you do not have to do anything since there is nothing you want to play after it.
I did the connections as you mentioned...movie 1 to 2, 2 to 3...but i connected the last movie 13 to the root menu. But it still does not allow me to skip to the nest movie. Also, how can I delete a connection if i made one in error thanks
Doing it that way will not allow you to Jump to the Next movie useing the Chapter Skip Buttons all it will do is when One Movie gets to the end the next movie will start Playing.... If you Join all of the Mpeg files together into one File and Put a Chapter Point at the Beginning of each episode and Link them to your Main Menu then you will be able skip to each episode useing the Chapter Skip Buttons.... You can use any Editor like Mpeg2VCR or even a Freeware one Like "Cuttermaran" or the "Merge & Cut" in tmpgenc..... Cheers
The chapter skip works for me. I just tested it out and I always separate my episodes. I have also authored movies with DVD Maestro and DVD Architect using the same method and the skip works. Just with those two programs, each movie becomes a different VTS. There is a chance my DVD player interprets the authored dvd differently. The movies authored in dvdlab differ slightly when the episode goes from one to the other, it happens instantly, whereas in the other programs, there is about a 1 to 2 second delay. If it does not work, try VOBedit to merge your m2v & ac3 streams (from the original VOB files) or one of the programs mentioned by Minion. As for deleting connections, there are always connections in DVDlab, so there is no way to delete them. Maybe if you use the more advanced commands, but I have not tried those yet. To reset the link, drag the command to an empty space in the connections window. It will point to Root.
Thank you very much for the help guys, much appreciated. I tested out the iso with power dvd before burning but wouldnt allow me to skip episodes. However after burning it onto dvd via nero i could skip chapters fine. Thanks again
