Encore problem
 

I just ran into an issue that I have never shad before.
I made a DVD with 2 menus and 19 video clips, plus a playlist for a Play All button. Everything checked out in Encore and the preview, and the DVD plays the way it supposed to on my computer, but when I tried it in my DVD player only the menus show up. When I select a video I just get a blank screen with an error message that says No Signal Found (Samsung player and TV)

The DVD consists of menus created in Photoshop, and the videos are all MPEG-2 (720x420, 29.97 fps, progressive) Could it be the Progressive frame?

I've never done this type of workflow before (using MPEG-2 instead of AVI or direct to Encore via Dynamic Link) so I wonder if that was it.

I'm using Production Premium CS5 on Win7.

Thanks in advance.

Re: Encore problem
 

Is this an issue with only the Samsung, or have you tried another DVD player to verify this?
Do you output as a folder, or as an .ISO?

Re: Encore problem
 

I only have the Samsung to try it on. My neighbour has a portable DVD player that I might be able to use. And I use Encore to burn it, so I got the folders with the TS files etc.

Re: Encore problem
 

It might be obvious, but make sure you have the "first play" option set to the menu that you want to start with. I once forgot about it, and the project would play ok on the computer, but wouldn't on a stationary player.

Re: Encore problem
 

Thanks but that's not it. The menu is set to first play. When I play it on a DVD player, it displays the menu, but when I click a video I get the error message. When I click the menu button it will go back to the menu. It just won't play the videos.

Re: Encore problem
 

Six things I would check.

Number one: be sure you burned the disk at 8x or 12x, not 16x or "maximum." I have found that computer burned DVDs written at higher speeds can be problematic on some set-top players.

Number two: Be sure that the disk does not have a finger print or scratch near the inner ring.

Number three: If you have parental controls enabled on your player, try disabling them. I've found some of these can be weirdly hyperactive at screening out stuff on computer-burned disks.

Number four: check the project settings. Make sure you've burned a DVD rather than a Blu-Ray (a mistake I've made a couple of times).

Number 5: make sure your data rate is not too high. If you chose 8 mbps CBR, try burning a second disk at 7mbps high quality. (I've run into this with dance recital DVDs; some players just had difficulty with a high data rate on a computer burned DVD.) Also, when you used a progressive format was it transcoded from 720/30p? When you transcoded from PPro (export-video), did you transcode to "Mpeg-2" or "Mpeg -2 DVD"? (If the former, that could be your issue.)

Finally, as Pete mentioned, many of us "build" the Encore project to a folder or iso image files and use a third party app (such as Nero) to actually generate the DVD. If all else fails, look into that.

Re: Encore problem
 

Thanks Jay. Most of these I always do anyway or have checked. The only thing on your list that I have done differently this time than I normally do is the bitrate. I know not to set it too high, but I usually leave Encore at it's default settings and let it do the work. This time I transcoded it myself in AME. I used VBR 2 Pass: min. 3, target 6, max. 7.

Could this cause the problem?

My DVD player has always played my DVDs before.

Re: Encore problem
 

Are you actually using a 720x420 setting or was that a typo?

Can you try the project in Encore with a direct import of your PPro timelines (and just import the menus into the new project?)

Re: Encore problem
 

Yes, that was a typo.

The reason I didn't do the PPro project in Encore route was because I only wanted parts of the timeline. The client had a 90 minute video made years ago, but lately have just been showing parts of it and skipping over the rest, so they wanted me to cut it up and only include the parts they use, and wanted them as separate videos so if they only wanted to show a single clip they wouldn't have to skip through chapters to find it. I put the whole video in the timeline, and rather than actually cut it up, I only exported each clip as I needed it. That's why I chose to render out the MPEG-2 files instead.

I'm going to try a different DVD player tonight.

Re: Encore problem
 

This could be one of those mysterious system-specific glitches. If it were me, and I had any kind of deadline, I would go back to what I know works. Basically, I would copy each segment I wanted to use (Cntrl-C or Edit-->Copy) and paste each of those segments into a new timeline with chapter markings as per usual.