Barb, what I was doing wasn't exactly the same as you are doing.

In my source material, there was no real break between scenes. It was more like a ballet than a recital. I couldn't split it into discrete projects; the best I could do was put chapter markers at the start of each segment. This was purely for navigation. I had a bazillion chapters, so the menus were nasty.

A hierarchical menu system would be a big improvement, but CyberLink has heard that before.

If I were doing what you are doing, I would load both video feeds into one project just as you thought. I can't imagine trying to synchronize the two otherwise.

At this point, you run into another "wouldn't it be nice" feature. If you could split a project into pieces, so that you could work on each sub-project separately, that would be great; but so far as I know, you can't. Either you work on the project as one big chunk, or you have use a sequence of split, delete, save, and undo over and over again.

I'm sure somebody else has a better workflow for this. Jerry Schwartz

Tony & Jerry, thanks for your speedy reply. I know it takes time to walk someone thru a series of steps and I know you've saved me Hours up front with sharing your experiences. Tony, you are right, I probably ought to just do this recital with my old system and I might for some of it but I have 2 nights of recital, 2 halfs each night so basically I 'll have 4 separate recital DVDs with 22to26 different dances on each. I figured I would try to sync up on the fly and a/b roll straight into my PC.
Making any corrections I may have to mKe and at least try to Produce my disc in PD. If it does get to cumbersome, I'll just switch back to the old Kron to get the job complete. Think I may have to try both ways to see what works best, fastest for me. Might have to import both, sync up And a/b ???? Jerry, Im wondering how those Menus would look if you could just write dance # and name, 6 to 8 to a page and on the root menu they could choose PLAY or Scenes????? I still havent figured out how to have the written chapter titles without the pic too. Thanks again you guys. Not working today but will be at it first thing in am. Thanks again, you guys are Great!!! Barb Barb

HP h8-1080t i7CPU 950@3.07 GHZ
10GB Ram, Nvidia Geforce-550Ti
1.5 T & 500GB HD
Windows 7 Pro 64-bit
Power Director 10 Deluxe

Just an update(for those who have walked me thru the recital editing process) and a couple of questions. I decided to go ahead and edit the first half of night 1 on my old equipment and plan to import the edited footage into my PC and then into Power Director for menu authoring and burning. I'll probably try both methods suggested. I do have a few more questions though.....

1. Is there a menu template or way to have chapter titles only without the thumbnail images?
2. Tony...If I use your method can you still choose to "play all" or "scenes" on the root menu page? Do you have a
menu template suggest or share?
3. I have altered one template I downloaded which works pretty well for some of my projects but it has cheesy looking numbers (1,2,3) in addition to the thumbnail and chapter title and the numbers aren't even close to the image and I can't seem to move them. ?????

As always, many thanks!
Barb Barb

HP h8-1080t i7CPU 950@3.07 GHZ
10GB Ram, Nvidia Geforce-550Ti
1.5 T & 500GB HD
Windows 7 Pro 64-bit
Power Director 10 Deluxe

The trick to getting rid of the thumbnails is to make them transparent. Jerry Schwartz

Oh boy, I get to learn something else new. Thanks Jerry for pointing me in the right direction. Barb Barb

HP h8-1080t i7CPU 950@3.07 GHZ
10GB Ram, Nvidia Geforce-550Ti
1.5 T & 500GB HD
Windows 7 Pro 64-bit
Power Director 10 Deluxe

Sheesh -- I can't seem to remember how I made the thumbnails disappear. I think my custom menu must be damaged.

One thing I can tell you is that it's the thumbnails that get highlighted when you select them, not the text; so that means you'll lose that highlighting. Jerry Schwartz

This time I have a Problem I really need help with. ..(Was debating about starting a new topic on this "dance recital" topic but wasn't sure if I should or not)

I decided to go ahead and Import dance recital footage and try to produce dvd without reinstalling my PD and actually it seems to be working ok right now. BUT, I have more data than can fit on a DVD and not sure what to do. I've tried this in both HQ quality and in SD quality but just too much data for the disc by the time I add thumbnail buttons. My total video footage time is about 70 minutes. This first try, I just made chapters of the different dances (22 dances) which means I have thumbnail button of the dance team and a dance title. Do this 22 times and you can see why even in SD it won't fit on a disc. Jerry, you mentioned making thumbnails transparent so I'll work in that direction too but when I started researching I realized that the "still frame" shot of the dance team I grabbed from the video is a .jpg and not in .png format. If I were to go back and change all that would that help with the size? Is there a way to look at the downloadable Templates and determine if they use thumbnails or chapter text links? Is there anyone out that who uses Just Chapter Text Links on their DVD. I think that's what I need to be doing. Tony, before I try your method, I'm just wondering if I'm going to run into the same thing with having too much data on the disc? Anyone else care to share how they're handling putting their dance recitals onto a single layer dvd? Many Thanks Barb Barb

HP h8-1080t i7CPU 950@3.07 GHZ
10GB Ram, Nvidia Geforce-550Ti
1.5 T & 500GB HD
Windows 7 Pro 64-bit
Power Director 10 Deluxe

Hi,
If you have access to Double layer burner that would be my choice or a Blue Ray burner. But it you don't then I would make it a two disk set. splitting your project into two and burning each separately.
Jim Intel i7-2600@3.4Gz Geforce 560ti-1GB Graphic accelerator, windows 7 Premium 12GB memory

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Hey Jim, I don't have a double layer burner and I already have it a two-disc set because the total dances for the night were 40. In past years, I just split it up and didn't have a problem burning 20-25 dances on a disc in Standard Quality but all I did was have text titles for the menu and that program (dvd workshop) doesn't work with my new Windows 7 PC.
Thus....why I'm trying to just work with text titles. Someone told me that dvd architect did really well with authoring but I hate to learn another program too. Any other suggestions to get this burned??

Barb Barb

HP h8-1080t i7CPU 950@3.07 GHZ
10GB Ram, Nvidia Geforce-550Ti
1.5 T & 500GB HD
Windows 7 Pro 64-bit
Power Director 10 Deluxe

Hi Barb,
Well I am outta options for you. I would have assumed being in the recording business that you have devices in your system to burn the videos you create.
Jim Intel i7-2600@3.4Gz Geforce 560ti-1GB Graphic accelerator, windows 7 Premium 12GB memory

Visit GranPapa64's channel for your YouTube experience of the day!

Barb -

This thing is giving you some grief!

Here's a menu I used on a similar project. It has no thumbnails. I don't know that using a menu without thumbnails will make such a huge difference in your case. http://directorzone.cyberlink.com/detail/118380053

I'm not sure how the other software works, or fits that much information onto one DVD, but (using PD) I generally only put 13-15 dances on each disc. For my purposes, that has resulted in a 2-disc set... with about 45-50 minutes of video (+ menu) on each.

There's no way I'd be decreasing the quality to squeeze more on! DVD is already a compromise. Using lower quality settings decreases the video bitrate - which can really mess up high movement sequences (it's a dance video!). In your position, I'd be making it a 3-disc project.

Cheers - Tony


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Jim, you are right......... being in business as long as I have you would THINK I'd have equipment for about anything and plenty of workarounds which I do and have been at it all day long. I'm from the "old school" and if I can't pay cash I don't buy (which is probably why I'm still in business)so I don't have all the toys, bells & whistles and just upgrad when I have too....like again now with this new PC and software. LIke many of you, I started years ago insert editing analog footage with my S-VHS & Hi-8 cameras and my panasonic 1980's and MX30. Anyway, for whatever reason the program on my laptop won't recognize my dvd burner so couldn't burn disc there but did transfer the .iso into the authoring program on my old desktop. I actually have burned a sample disc with 2 chapter pages so now I'll go back and see if I can get that third page on there. Thanks for your help Jim and sorry if I'm a bother. Barb Barb

HP h8-1080t i7CPU 950@3.07 GHZ
10GB Ram, Nvidia Geforce-550Ti
1.5 T & 500GB HD
Windows 7 Pro 64-bit
Power Director 10 Deluxe

Boy Tony, you got that right! Thanks for forwarding the menu. I'll take a look. As I mentioned to Jim in earlier post after troubleshooting all day, I actually do think I've got something that will work for me. I still want to see if I can get the end result I'm looking for in Power Director using a menu without thumbnails...I'll let you know.(After this disc I have 3 more recital discs to go) Worse case scenero, I will again scan the program and just use the skip points between each dance as I did last year. I know I've taken alot of your time these last weeks and I'm greatful you're so willing to help. Once I can get a handle on this project maybe I can slow down and digest some of these things I'm trying to learn in such a crunch....and I promise I'll be quite. Thanks again! This forum REALLY IS GREAT!!
Barb Barb

HP h8-1080t i7CPU 950@3.07 GHZ
10GB Ram, Nvidia Geforce-550Ti
1.5 T & 500GB HD
Windows 7 Pro 64-bit
Power Director 10 Deluxe

Hi,
I not sure I follow your post as to which computer (laptop or Desktop) you have succeeded in the project. If you successfully get what you are after you could burn to a folder, using the final finished project, then just copy that folder to the device which recognizes the DL burner and use 3rd Party software (imgburn free) to burn that folder to your Double layer burner. The quality does not change from the folder to the burner.
Jim Intel i7-2600@3.4Gz Geforce 560ti-1GB Graphic accelerator, windows 7 Premium 12GB memory

Visit GranPapa64's channel for your YouTube experience of the day!

Im having a hard time burning a dvd of a video I made,, went on facebook with no problems,,but when I burn it and play it on dvd,,it comes out choppy,,, I have tried the SP LP,, and wide screen,,regular screen.. I know my disc is 4.7 GB so I left it at that and also use best quality ,,high quality and the MPEG-2..
Please someone help? frustrated.. Hello !
ok,,using trial version of powerdirector ultimate 11
I like using my own music,,but how do sync? if you pick their music it sync beautifully,,,but would like my own music,, anyone know how ?

Im an old adobe user which has that :0(

Hi,
Burning to a DVD for video should use Mpeg-2 format, and depending what format you used to produce the project, and the format of the video was created. You tube will take almost anything as people use it for smartphones, iPads etc and You tube renders accordingly.
JIm
p.s. No mention of what formmat your original video was imported at.
Intel i7-2600@3.4Gz Geforce 560ti-1GB Graphic accelerator, windows 7 Premium 12GB memory

Visit GranPapa64's channel for your YouTube experience of the day!