DVD Studio Pro, ready to cry in frustration

I ready to pop here fellas,

I wont lie, this is my first authored DVD, and its been a long and trying process of figuring it all out, but let me jump back a sec here,

I have a bunch of old Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat episodes on VHS ive extracted into MOV format
I thought it was a good idea at the time but i separated the Intro sequence from each episode.
My goal is simply to create a compilation DVD. Nothing too fancy. Just a PlayAll and an Episode Select.

Ive run the gamut here, ive figured out the Scripts, ive figured out the chapter selection, menu creation, etc etc. No problems in the authoring department.

When i "Build" the project however, this is where the proverbial matter hits the fan.
Everytime it "muxes" it gets about 2 or 3 episodes in before the whole thing just.. crashes. The application just dissapears with an "unexpected error". Being a troubleshooter i started eliminating or switching out the episodes that seem to cause issues, this pattern still continues so it cant be any individual episode causing problems.
Thinking it was the whole batch, i reconverted the whole lot to m2v using Compresor, and relinked everything. The same thing happened, and the quality of the video looks worse.

so what i did next was delete the MPEG folder which requires the whole lot to be "Re-Encoded" and this seems to get by, only after 3 days of figuring out whats the matter. Any subsequent attempts to build though still crash the application (and some google searching leads me to beleive im not alone in this one...)

SO with that background check out of the way, using the same method (delete MPEG folder) i clicked "Burn" which goes through the whole process. After SEVEN crashes, it finally went through and got to the Formatting part which finally burnt the disk.

I was overjoyed, i thought i had overcome the system. Until i tried the DVD.
Everything was fine till i tried watching an episode.
The intro plays, YES, victory!
The episode starts... no audio.
(remember i said i separated the intro video from the episode?)




Im at my wits end here. Ive done it all, short of RE-EXTRACTING everything but i dont feel i NEED to. I have this strong feeling that no matter what i do, the same things gonna happen anyways.

An application has never driven me to drink before. This is what it took.


Any advice? Help?

spinnerlys said:

I had the same problem a while ago (4 years), and I can't remember how I solved it.
But looking at your project might be a solution.
Is it possible for you to upload your project (http://www.yousendit.com maybe) somewhere, and I could take a look at it?

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The project was 259MB compressed into a BEST Rar, so i had to delete some files that werent exactly in "use" so if the project gives any giff, i had to take out two episodes that werent being used (didn't fit onto the DVD), all of the m2vs and AIFFs, and some render data to make it all less than 200MB to fit into RapidShare (yousendits max is 100MB)

ill edit when its done uploading

spinnerlys said:

Thank, I just meant the project data file, not the media, but when all the data is not that big and you can use Rapidhsare, it will be okay.

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I am slightly confused, wouldn't you need the media to figure out whats going on though?

http://rapidshare.com/files/244930711/FelixTheCat_DVD.rar.html

Here be the download link, each episode is roughly 16MB, they're HIGHLY compressed

treehorn said:

I've had problems like you mentioned. There was (and maybe still is) a bug in DVD Studio Pro where if you have imported a file into DVDSP and then decide you want to re-export it (as something was wrong and you need to re-do it), if you keep the same name when you re-export it, the program doesn't do a good job re-using it. It usually clears up when you delete the MPEG and PAR folders, thus forcing it to 'redo' those stages of file prep, but every now and then it still acts up, and either video or audio won't appear.

You may want to re-compress the files and call them something else (like 'originalfilename2' or something).

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Im not gonna lie here, but is it really responsible for Apple to be releasing software that just doesn't work as its supposed to be intended for? Especially something as integral as THIS step? Especially if tis an issue thats been around for "years"?

I gotta tell ya, im |---| this close to switching to Encore, that ones unstable, but at least itll tell you why in the error report :\

treehorn said:

One thing I noticed upon re-reading...

Looks like you're using AIF files for audio. That may be your problem right there. You should use Compressor to compress the audio into AC3/Dolby Digital files. Have them all at the same bit rate (if you don't, they won't all work on the same track).

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Actually, DVDSP is creating those AIFF files, its splitting the audio and video, into aiff and m2v files restively, and automatically.

I can try using Compressor to render into m2v files again, but they were always off synch with the audio and just horrible last time i tried it.

treehorn said:

One thing I noticed upon re-reading...

Looks like you're using AIF files for audio. That may be your problem right there. You should use Compressor to compress the audio into AC3/Dolby Digital files. Have them all at the same bit rate (if you don't, they won't all work on the same track).

Click to expand...

treehorn said:

Ah-ha! Here's the root of your problem (possibly)

It sounds like you are Importing movies and having DVDSP turn them into DVD compatible files.

Which you shouldn't be doing. You should be using Compressor to convert your movie to M2V and AC3 files.

Which begs the question...what are your source files exactly? When you captured the clips into your computer, how did you do it, and what did they end up being?

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blaaaah alright, ill come clean here, i did in fact hold some information in the conflict of interest here (i didn't want to stir up any debates and in the interest of wasting everyones time with needless information)

The source clips are from YouTube, i lack the equipment necessary to capture the VHS tapes, and the tapes themselves are also locked away in paid storage in Prince George, BC.
I wanted to learn how to make DVDs but i didn't have much in the way of interesting or abundant video footage to conduct this experiment.

I turned to video sharing sites (like youtube), which is the HUGE controversy that people have already waved fingers at me for. I already own the tapes, and im already sacrificing visual quality (quite a bit) in the interest of time and cash, quite honestly i don't see the overall problem here, but some people have already taken offense to it (seriously, its just Felix the Cat)

Please understand i said what i did, honestly, because i didn't think anyone would take my plead for help seriously.

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With the disclaimer out of the way, here was the process:

I first used VIXY.net (application and web service) to create AVIs, MOVs, MP4s, and even separate MP3s, but DVD Studio wouldn't have any of it.
Using those files i used Compressor to transform them into m2v files in the Apple/DVD presets. What i got was audioless video overall no matter what i did.
I then turned to grabbing the FLVs themselves and working with them. I got both Video and Audio, nice and synched up in QuickTime Pro, so i used Quicktime Pro to save them as MOV files, which even to DVD Studio also carried over the audio with a usable format.
This still didn't give me audio when i used the Simulator, so i reused Compressor to re-create the MOVs (a more standard format), which DVDStudio didn't import, calling it an unrecognized file.
I then used compressor to make them MP4s with no alterations at all to the video file itsellf (straight transcoding), this gave me the m4v files with synched audio and video.
These m4v files would not import into DVDStudio Pro, but the m4v's worked on every player i had across multiple machines. Having faith i could still use the m4v files, i transcoded them BACK into MOV files using QuickTime Pro which provided me a consistant Video+Audio capability within DVD Studio Pro and other applications.
All tests proved successful until the burn process.



Can i REALLY blame DVD Studio Pro for this? Probably not, but what i can blame it for is "crashing" with no proper error report, when the Build Log doesn't say anything went wrong, and the application just disappears.
Would have it been too much to ask for DVDSP to just simply tell me "Cannot Continue due to Unexpected Format Collision" or something of that matter? I mean im just shooting in the dark here, i honestly have no idea whats really going "wrong" and thats why ive turned to you guys, for some light on the situation.
Before it gave me the error of a Muxing issue with one of the episodes, and i was able to correct that issue on my own. Past that, nothing else.

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Yes it was wrong of me to figure that by all the transcoding weirdness that went on to expect that the root of the cause could have simply been it just stemmed from an FLV file. And this IS my first attempt at creating an actual authored DVD, instead of Nero or iDVD holding my hand the entire way.
So i expected and was prepared for errors id have to Hard Knox my way through. But this one just STUMPS me, because it really shouldn't matter either way.



But i will most certainly try your suggestion at trying to use Compressor to make the m2v files again. As that does 'contain' the audio id presume?



i know im new here and this isn't the greatest first impression but im hoping you guys wont think any less of me for this.

treehorn said:

You won't get finger waving from me over Youtube.

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Thank you

treehorn said:

But that does open a whole new kettle of fish and does explain a lot of your problems, as to be honest the movies uploaded to Youtube are (until very recently) not at a quality level appropriate for DVD.

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yep! I was never looking for quality to be honest, ill make it a point to make sure as pure a possible source when looking for that. Just looking at the process of creating a "compialtion" DVD, instead of a Movie

treehorn said:

And depending on how they were uploaded, what they were when they were uploaded, how you downloaded them, converted them into Quicktime (if they were FLV), etc....you've just introduced so many variables that it's not astonishing that you are having problems. You are attempting a perfect storm of possible malfunctions here on your first attempt at authoring a DVD.

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Throughout the lifespan of this thread alone, has made me realize all those little variables and i actually feel like quite the bashful fool here.
As for the last sentence, beleive me im used to that situation, as its what i do to learn the fastest way possible, a piece of software. Everything past this situation will be gravy in comparison.

treehorn said:

So please keep that in mind while you rail against DVDSP...

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And i do apologize, i can usually blame myself for these situations and work past them, this is only the second time ive ever had to resort to a Forum, the first being when Maya kept crashing during an SWF render. Turned out it was indeed the application. In fact, Maya has ALOT of deep rooted bugs that cause it to flip out for being told to do exactly what the function was intended for.
So in a way, i guess i was just placing that and DVDSP right beside eachother, except in this case i wasn't considering PEBKAC

treehorn said:

My advice holds - use Compressor. Drag your movies into Compressor and use the 'Best Quality 90 minute' DVD Preset. Should work. But be prepared for a world of hurt in terms of quality, as you are basically taking compressed footage and re-compressing it.

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Seems no matter what i try, with the raw FLV download or my current MOVs, they come out audioless when i use compressor to transcode them into m2v's.

So im assuming this is just an overall, Lost cause? theres gotta be a way?

Alrighty guys, i have a few processes to crack out now and im going to try them all.
I will let you know if i run into anymore complications or if it worked or not

Ive boiled down the actual crashing incident to simply remove the MPEG folder (after closing the app of course) and let it re-encode everything.
But yeah thats generally the result i get too.


I want to replace the background San-Renard did (the episode select screen) with an animated background with the 3d mesh wireframe walking, looping for a while before resetting, it would be badass and mostly black like the main menu screen.


I got called away to a LAN before i had a chance to try out what the aftermath of squared5s transcoding process did.
Gotta batch compressor, the DV files into m2vs i presume?

EDIT: note: FLV > DV > M2V != Audio
the DV file still has audio, its only when being transcoded into m2v.
Im not support to ALSO do the Dolby encode in the same folder am I?

EDIT 2: i never noticed that that preset was JUST a video encoder. No wonder ive not been getting any sound. Also batching the audio now