DVD studio pro chapter calamity.
 

Hi folks,

Having a bit of wrestle with DVD SP (4) authoring, in what should really be a simple exercise.
I have to complete a DVD today having spent a good month or two working on this project.
This was essentially completed a couple of weeks back, but having the clients view it they were impressed enough to want more out of the project (this meant almost completely editing the whole DVD).
On the previous version the DVD authoring stage worked a treat...but I'm having a couple of gremlins climb inside this one making the 'final stage' a bit of a pain.

At home on another version at the moment (the project is being put together at work) and I've tried adding chapter markers within DVDSP onto the timeline (worked fine). However, when I try and drop these on a chapter button (creating chapter index - using index templates) I only find one chapter (chapter one) button has been created - the chapter markers have seemingly disappeared also. The main project already had chapter markers exported from the original FCP (FCP5) timeline so I'm hoping all will go well (the rest of the DVD - extra's etc works fine one simulation) so when I drop this onto a chapter index all should go well.

What I'm worried about is if I wish to add another chapter on top of the already created chapters and I lose this in my attempts to create a chapter index. I'm not receiving any error messages by the way.

I've come so far with this that to see it stall at the final stage is agonisng.

Hope somebody can shed some light on this for me.

Many thanks.

Usually, if I want to create additional Chapter Buttons on a Menu, I just Duplicate (CMD+D) the button, then right-click and Target it to the Chapter Marker I want.

If you've done a re-edit to the video on a Track, delete the V1 and A1, then try and place your new edited video (exported from Compressor with Chapter Markers), it can cause problems (like chapters disappearing, moving, or getting doubled up). Try deleting the track, creating a new Track with the same name, then placing your video onto the fresh track. Your Chapter Markers should all come back, although you may need to re-target your buttons.

I would save a copy of your DVDSP project file before making any huge changes, that way you can always go back to your original project.

Thanks Scott. In the past I've just dropped the video/audio track onto a 'chapters' button and that in turn has created the index menu's (if I've selected that option as you drop it in). Inexplicably this just wouldn't work this time!
I ended up creating new chapters within DVDSP (quite easy if you haven't exported them via FCP/Compressor) then targeting each button on a manually created chapters menu page.
I have another issue with DVDSP however...thread a comin up :)

Cheers Scott.