i had a project where i had to do something similar...all i did was come up with a quick"chapter" of the motion that i wanted and have it run when the user selects an action (play movie, scene selection menu, etc) before it runs the actual action...

Use After Effects to made you motion transition. Create from the DVD Ecore MENU

Ive set up some basic cross disolves from one picture to the next in a slideshow on my DVD im working on.
It works fine through preview on Encore, but when I save to an ISO and burn to a disk it doesnt work. Instead it places a black screen between each picture where the fades should be.

I even checked the ISO using mounting software and it doesnt work.

Am I missing something in the building process because im stumped.


Thanks

DVD Encore may have problem making ISO and burn later. Try load back the save project and put a disc burn direct from CD or DVD. It should play good.

Thanks i'll try a direct burn, looks like it will take 9mins now so i'll see what happens.

tried it and it still didnt work. Ive got them to slowly zoom inwards which works fine, but when it goes to fade from one image to the next it cuts to a black screen and then the next image.

Alright I am not a dumb chick but I am totally frustrated!

Heres the deal:
I am using Encore CS3. I open a menu (provide with the software) but it doesnt full the entire screen. There are slight Gaps horizontally leaving black stripes down the right and left sides of the screen. This is not apparent in the menu window but when I hit Preview the black down the sides is clearly visible. When I edit a menu in photoshop it comes in the same way. Even worse sometimes from photoshop the menu looks letterboxed. I have tried both 720x480 and 720x540 (to see if it was a square pixel issue) and still the same thing.

The menus supplied with the program do it and this makes no sense to me! I have linked the main menu to an avi (to act as a transition). The transition AVI begins with the title menu, disolves and has a Digital Juice wipe (from an ETK) come up and then ends with a still of the next (sub) menu.

When i run the project it starts on the title screen with the thin (albeit present) black stripes on the left and right. Then when the "transition" video starts to play it appears that the menu "jumps" to full screen stretching slightly (but noticable) to display the way that the menu should to begin with.

Can anyone offer a solution to this menu problem??

There are slight Gaps horizontally leaving black stripes down the right and left sides of the screen.

This happend to me once when I accidentally used a 4:3 menu in a 16:9 project.
(I use Encore 2.0, which has separate menus for 4:3 and 16:9)

I suggest you check if the same thing is valid for Encore CS3.

Yes, your using the wrong format menu's. You need to use the "wide" menu's as those are for wide screen.

No, my project is standard ntsc 720 x 480

I cant imagine no body else can see this by loading a menu and selecting preview from here. If you take the photoshop file and put it at the beginning of a "transition" video and drop that in you will clearly see the jump discribed above.

Ok, and I understand the size of the project, but your issue is much deeper than you realize. The "jump" your speaking of, always happens. It may not be noticeable since your menu's don't have the type of transitions your trying to do this time, but it is always there. Basically your aspect ratios are off. Your going to have to either stretch one or shrink the other. Something is off. Off the top of my head, I would say if the one menu is causing the letterboxing(black bands on each side), that is your culprit. You need to take it into Photoshop and if you can, stretch it until it fits the frame you are attempting to transition from. What your trying to do is not hard, but it is a little involved and requires a little forethought.

Also, have you done transitions for menu's before in either After Effects or Premiere for Encore? I am thinking not because this is something covered in the discs that are included on the earlier versions tutorials. It is a simple fix, but involves using probably the easiest would be After Effects since it allows you unlimited flexibility with making your transition.

You first have to correct your menu(and for widescreen it is 720*576 and if you doubt me, simply import your menu into photoshop, then open a blank menu in NTSC widescreen, create a new layer with the old menu and you will see the difference in size left to right), then once you have the menu correct, you will need to create a transition. The key to this is making the last few seconds of your motion menu exactly replicate what your transitioning to. You do this by basically doing something like a dissolve between two identical photoshop files. You would then animate your assets to the beginning frame of your transition. This way, it will be pretty much seamless. Hopefully I explained this corretly. But the last frame of the "transition from" has to be exactly the same as the first frame of the "transition to" in order for the transition to be smooth.

But this first all hinges on you correcting your menu. If you don't do that, your transition will always show the jump and the bars on the left and right. This is only happening on the one menu and not the main movie of your project correct?

And no, the majority of people probably here wouldn't see that because after you run into this the first time like you are, you learn how to correct it and it's not an issue. But this to be honest is a more common thing you first notice when beginning working with Encore.

Thanks everyone -
Kisses Dawn

Okay this is alot but I REALLY NEED HELP! TOLD MY CLINET THIS WOULD BE DONE A WEEK AGO. I have worked with adobe products since premiere 4.2 and am proficient and learning software quickly. If encore didnt have so many errors I would have had this done already.

I am getting pretty familiar with encore (and its many bugs) and think I have figured out how to assemble a project that will actually burn. This has taken many days and alot of reading about various errors. I am however not fully understanding the Playlist & Chapter Playlist functions. Here is my delima:

I have a pretty beefy project. It needs to have the following:

1) a play all function that plays 18 3 min clips.
2) a scene selection menu that allows the viewer to watch thier choice of the individual clips and then return to the scene selection menu. (This will actually be 2 submenus each with 9 animated buttons.)
3) a bonus features menu that goes to 2 sub menues each with 4 3 min. clips on each.

My issue is with 1 & 2.
The "play all" will be a single 58 min. file exported from premiere with chapter points.
My questions are:

1) How can I structure the layout of the project so that the scene selection menu plays the sam video files as in the timeline for play all?

2) Is there a way to "Link" Together Individual timelines for the bonus clips to behave as a "Play All"?

3) Do I need a chapter point at the end of the 58 minute "play all" Video?

And lastly I seem to have random results with encoding in encore (it transcodes some files successfully while others (coded with the same codec, pcm audio settings, bit rate etc) produce the "PGC "<my media filename>" has an error <at near the end of the timeline>" I have done alot of reading on this and it seems to be audio related but I can not distinguish any distinct differences in the clips it will transcode and those it wont other than the overall length of the clip!

That said it will not take any dolby encoded clips! has anyone had success with exporting out of premiere with dolby and can you recomend the settings that work for you.

Please answer as much as you can and thank you in advance for the help.

Which version of Encore are you using? Encore 2+ has a play list feature. You right click in the asset space and create a new play list. from there you can drop in all the time lines in any order and then assign that playlist to a button which will result in it playing everything in order from the list.

If you have all your material broken into clips then it should be fairly easy to do what you want. The main play all would be a play list with all the shorter timelines dropped in it so it plays them all in order. The sub menu that plays clips and then goes back after being done is just the buttons linked to the single time lines instead of the playlist. In the older version of Encore you used the button override to change what happens at the end of the clip but I havent used it in a long time so I am a little unsure of it use these days. As for the encoder errors, I only had similar errors when I was using Premiere Pro and did not get the Encoder update. After getting the update things were much smoother. Make sure everything from adobe is up to date.

Hope this can help along your encore projects

http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressmaterials/pdfs/encore/encore_nfhs.pdf

Im trying to have some buttons on my menu that sprout leaves. Ive made the text and leaf animation in After effects and saves it as an avi but I cant find out how to add this avi as an actual button on my background.

Can anyone help?

also for some reason, the video I have playing as the background menu doesnt seem to want to play if there is any text over it.

In Encore 2 (not 100% on 3) I think the buttons can only have states: Not Selected - Selected - and activated. As well as only be one color. To trick the one color thing you actually make multiple menus with Auto select buttons so when you jump to the next button you actually goto a new menu. With the extra colors drawn in by photoshop or something.

So I do not think you can make a button out of your AVI if that is what you are trying to do. You would have to make a background for the menu that contains the sprouting and the buttons would lay on top of it. As for the background not playing if text is over it, have you rendered the background? Once you place elements over it make sure to goto File, Render -> Motion Menus which you have to do after changing things in order to see things move in the preview.

Hello, I started doing videography not too long ago and still a beginner so please bear with me. I've constructed a short video and slideshow in Premire Pro and now i need to turn it into DVD format to be played on any dvd player.
-So from premire I exported it as a video DV AVI file and then I opened the AVI file in Encore. After I was satisfied I stared to build the DVD and did the check for any problems and came back clean. So when I press burn DVD it starts the process but doesnt progress. I left it on for a few hours and it got nowhere...

What could that mean? I also have no menus so I dont know if there might be something I'm missing?

If anyone ever had the same situation or has a clue... please help. I'll be needing it really soon for my wedding videos that I'm finishing up.

Thanks

Which encore you are using CS or CS3? It need to build after than burn. Not sure if you are saying "So when I press burn DVD" Have you check using the preview button to view all your menu and video clips before build?

it mentions how Encore can "act up" if you left any empty space between clips or stills in the Premier Pro timeline.

I ran into that problem myself recently. Mine happened with video, not stills, but to solve it, I used either fades or dissolves between each clip and butted each clip right next to the subsequent clips. I used 2 video tracks in some sequences and I did not "snap" clips as I moved them during editing. At a couple of points between clips in the same sequence, I had a few blank spots that were only about 1 or 2 frames in length, but that was enough to cause the problem.

Unfortunately, at the moment, I don't recall exactly what I saw in Encore that led me to realize the empty space was the cause of the problem, but once I returned to PPro 2 and closed all the gaps, the DVD burned fine.

That may or may not be your specific problem, but it's worth checking.

Good luck.

Thank you guys I will give that a shot.

Hi there,

For several years now, my workflow for making DVDs has been:

1) Edit in Premiere Pro. Then render as MPEG2 from the timeline(s)
2) Import MPEG2 files into Encore, make menus etc and then create a DVD image file
3) Burn the image file to disk using Nero

I have never had any problems with this workflow. I've been using Verbatim DVD+R disks for years with no problems (except a few reports of non-readable disks).

I recently did some research on DVD compatibility and concluded that instead of using Verbatim DVD+R I should be using Taiyo Yuden DVD-R disks to maximise compatibility with older DVD players.

This is where it starts to get wierd.

If I author a DVD of around 3GB in size or less then my workflow works fine. However, if I author a DVD of around 3.5GB then Nero reports a verification failure when burning to DVD-R disks (but it burns the same image fine to DVD+R disks). The result of this failure to burn to DVD-R seems to be that the last video burnt to the disk isn't readable (i.e. the file on the outer-most track fails). HOWEVER, if I burn the 3.5GB project to DVD-R directly from Encore then it burns fine.

Why does Nero fail to write to DVD-R when using large images produced by Encore?

My current work-around is to burn a DVD-R from Encore and then use "DVD copy" in Nero to create an image from the disk. I can then use Nero to duplicate that image (I like using Nero for long DVD production runs because it can use multiple burners and because it does automated data verification).

Any hints?!? Is this a bug in Nero? I'm using version 7.7.5.1

Many thanks,
Jack

It looks like my problems were caused by Nero. ImgBurn burns Encore's images without problem.

OK, problem fixed. I've updated Nero to version 7.10.1.0 and it's burning the image produced by Encore to TY DVD-R just fine.

Jack, what is the advantage of your convoluted DVD creation process? As far as I know, Encore will also report problems if they occure during burning...

Hi Ervin,

Which part of the workflow do you find to be particularly "convoluted"? I assume you're happy with the first part of my workflow where I export as MPEG2 directly from the PPro timeline.

I like to export an image file from Encore and burn my DVDs using Nero for several reasons:

1) As far as I know, Encore won't verify the disk after burning (verify = read the entire disk and compare it bit-for-bit with the image file on the hard disk)

2) Encore can't output to multiple DVD drives at once.

3) I have three networked PCs that I use to burn disks when I'm producing at full-pelt (most of my clients require at least 20 disks, some require up to 500). It's far easier to copy an image file onto each PC rather than to put Encore onto each PC.

4) Say a client calls me up and asks me to do another 30 copies of a project we finished a year ago. Using my workflow, I just have to extract 2 files from my LTO2 archive (the DVD image and the Illustrator document of the face-printing). Even if I haven't archived the project yet, it's much faster to burn more copies from an image rather than getting Encore to re-build the project for every new batch of disks.

5) I just don't trust Encore to burn DVDs as reliably as Nero!

I'm certainly not saying that my workflow is what everyone should be using - but it works well for my setup.

Yeah, OK, it makes sense in your particular situation.

However, exporting MPEG2 directly from Premiere is the weak link in your workflow, Adobe is not particularly famous about their MPEG2 encoding capabilities...

Even a $100 software like TMPG Enc does a much, much better job - not just my opinion.

Thanks for the heads-up about Adobe Media Encoder's MPEG2 quality. I'll look into the alternatives.

I have been putting together a large project and all is well. It fit perfectly onto the DVD with 180mb spare.
Since then I have changed the video which is only about 20secs longer. I have also changed some of the menus, removed some moving backgrounds and so on.

Now the problem, I am well over 4.7gb.
I cant find out why. I have even started a new project and placed the old footage and audio on the timeline and this also does not fit on a disk it now says its 5.83gb without and menus. The total rendered file size of the movie im importing (which is already m2v) is only 3.6gb.

Can someone please help me as it needs to be finished tomorow and suddenly this has happened.

An extra note, my m2v footage is 3.6gb my audio is 500mb When I goto build it says that it 5.86gb this is with no menus just a timeline.

Is this the size after transcoding? IF the original files are avi they will take more space than files converted to mpeg2 and dolby ac3.

Are any assets duplicated in the project?

If you still can not manipulate the finsihed size to less than 4.7GB this solution has worked well for me-

Change the project to 8.54GB dual layer.
Build the project to a folder on the hard drive.
Open the folder in dvd shrink.
Use dvdshrink to backup the folder to 4.3GB.
Burn the 4.3GB folder to a blank disc.

Hope this helps.

for some strange reason I ignored the size issue and rendered an iso of the previous version, it said it would be 6gb, the final image was in fact 4.1gb

After messing around I have found that if I split the audio into 3 parts like I did for the original it reduces the size.

I have a motion menu that starts black, I want to buttons to start movie, chapters ect to appear after a few seconds, how can I do this?

Make the motion menu into an actual video in a time line. Set this as the first play, then at the end of that time line, link to the real menu. To help the transition at the end of the video time line, fade in the buttons, these will not be clickable but as soon as they are almost faded in, end the video and switch to the menu.

fade in the buttons?

excuse the poor grammer in my last message...
What I have is a main menu screen for a DVD, It starts black, fades in etc plays some background stuff then fades out. The trouble is that I cant have the play menu, chapters text appear at the start since its black. Also at the end.
If there is a way to fade them in using encore and then back out that would be great.

I also have aftereffects.

Have the buttons be part of the menu video (and make them fade in), but the overlays will only be "active" at your specified "Loop Point" (under the Motion Tab for the menu).

Regards,
George

Hello,

I use Adobe Encore and have a client that wants to take their project to the replicator with CSS.

I spoke to the replicator and they need a disc image with DDP 2.0 intructions.

Well, Encore does not do this. Nor do I have a DLT drive.

The replicator said most people burn the DDP stuff to DVD nowdays.

So, does anybody know of a software that I can upgrade to from Encore that works well as an authoring porgram, offers DDP 2.0 and does not cost as much as Scenarist?

Thanks

Hi,

Usually when creating DVDs with Encore I have a First Play video which has an 'end action' linked to the DVD menu.

The problem is that there is always a pause (1, 2 seconds) with a blank screen inbetween. It's not the end of the world but when the first play video is crafted to animate into the menu the blank screen and pause destroys the illusion some what.

I have a feeling there is not much I can do about this but any suggestions appreciated.

Thanks

How long is the first-play, and what type of menu does it lead into (still or motion)?

To "hide" the transition, you could try making the video part of the menu, and only show the button highlights at the start of the "menu" section -- perhaps end-action jumps to a duplicate menu where the viewer doesn't have to see that first-play again...

Regards,
George

I believe DVD Architect Pro (bundled with Vegas Pro) can do what you want.

There's also Gear Pro Mastering Edition that can take an authored volume and create images (not sure how it handles CSS)

NOTE: I have not submitted a DDP image to a replicator, so I have not used these packages first hand (someone who has experience with them might be able to tell us if they actually work).

Regards,
George

Thanks.

I can't seem find DVDAP as a stand alone. It is always bundled with Vegas.

Nor can I find and documentation listing DDP output to disc.

I will keep on searching.

I can't seem find DVDAP as a stand alone. It is always bundled with Vegas.


Correct -- I believe the PRO version is only bundled with Vegas Pro at this time.

But you can buy the full package (Vegas Pro + DVDA Pro) for a fraction of the cost of Scenarist :) Bonus -- you get a pretty darn good editing package (imho)

Regards,
George

Hello everyone,

I am starting to wonder whether there is really a good dvd authoring program out there other then encore.

What i was looking to do is having an animation first play then it conclude to the menu without any black/blank screens appearing. Is there a way to transition from first play to menu without minor pauses or black screens inbetween?

I am using windows.

thanks

encore is an excellent dvd authoring program it's ability is most utilized as part of the adobe cs3 production suite. if you create your intro in after efffects it will seamlessly integrate into encore and will not have any delay.

however you should be able to create your intro in encore. have the opening sequence end with the very last frame(s) the same as your menu selection.

the end action of you intro will be the main menu. since the last frame of the intro is the same as the main menu it should be seamless. this is somewhat
dependent on the dvd player, some handle the transition better than others, most recent plyaers will work fine.

note: when previewing the intro/menu transition in encore it will always have a delay, the delay will not be in the final disc.

you can always build your project to a folder on your hard drive and then view the dvd in a software program such as nero showtime or powerdvd
to verify the project is correct before burning to a dvd.

hope this helps

Kalulu,

If your animation and the menu are two separate items, then there will always be some sort of pause as the player changes to the menu. The length of this pause will vary depending on the player.

What you might consider for the first play, is to have your animation continue on to the menu. That is, to include the menu screen in your animation. Then when you have had the menu screen up for 30 seconds, or whatever, that you then transition to a different asset that is just the menu screen itself. Set that asset up to be the main menu that you would come back to after playing video clips. The animation would truly remain a "first play" item only.

Hope this helps. Have fun!

Rob

I've shot and edited a 2:15 car racing project. It was shot HDV 30i and I want to output the video in SD at 30i because the action looks better, to my eyes at least, with interlaced footage rather than progressive.

What would be the correct Encore settings to output SD 30i? I've tried setting the fields option to lower to conform to SD and the fields come out reversed yielding jittery video especially on source footage slowed by 50%. Since it takes 8 hours to render the project, I thought I'd ask if upper fields first would work.

Also, I left the "deinterlace" box on the output tab un-ticked. Anyone know how that may or may not help me preserve the interlacing on the footage?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

I'm afraid no setting will give you the desired results; read around this forum, importing HDV directly into Encore for the purpose of burning an SD DVD is the best thing you can do for a low quality, full of artifacts video.

Try resizing to DV in Virtualdub, or create a new SD project in Premiere (I assume that's what you use for editing) and import your HDV footage into that. Export as mpeg2 and import that into Encore (no more encoding in Encore).

There are other alternative workflows.

Ervin... I'm wondering if this is more a PP question than an Encore question.

I guess I didn't make myself clear on my workflow, which is not unusual. Edit in HD. Export from PP using the "Export to Encore" function which yields an mpeg2 video file which Encore doesn't need to transcode and a wav file that it does.

I have to edit in an HDV project as portions need to be output in HD.

My problem is that I don't want a progressive DVD. Interlaced should give me better slow motion sequences, of which there are a few. However, I don't know how or where to make the conversion from HDV with upper fields first to SD which needs lower first. PP or Encore? A little in both? It's a black art I don't quite grok.

Both Premiere and Encore use the same transcoding engine, so it should not make a difference - and both should change the field order automatically for you. But do not be surprised if the quality of your DVD will be unsatisfactory... read around this forum.

You need a different workflow.

Ervin... I appreciate the comments but some direction would help. I can't edit in SD/DV as I also need to output to HD. Would outputting to DV from the HDV timeline work better? It might be worth the extra 6-8 hours of rendering time for the quality.

I'll be glad to adopt a different workflow. Any suggestions?