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Hi CubbyHouseFilms,
I followed your advice and created it using H.264 encoding. I will test it once I get a Blu-ray player.
Thanks!
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I am creating a 2D Disc and have selected blu-ray for the Disc Format. I noticed that I can select either MPEG-2 or H.264 for the video endoding format; however, MPEG-2 creates a significantly larger disc (35063 MB) versus H.264 (21923 MB) for the same quality setting (HD 1920x1080).
I would prefer to select H.264 because it will fit on a single-layer disc (25 GB); whereas MPEG-2 will require a dual-layer disc (50 GB), but I am wondering what the tradeoffs are. Anyone?
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A TV will "stretch" a screen frame size to fit. If you've selected 16:9 then the frame size will be 4:3 but the project video is rendered in a squashed style (everyone is taller). To overcome this display 4;3 for a 16:9 "squashed" video adjusted your handset controls. The TV will then display the 16:9 as per your expectations.
Dafydd
I understand, but how do you explain the different behavior with and without a menu? And, actually, to be correct, I should have stated that with a menu, the picture has top and bottom bars and is not stretched; whereas without a menu, the picture has no bars, but is stretched -- everyone is tall and skinny.
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Whenever I create a DVD with no menu, the aspect ratio is 4:3. Simply adding a menu changes the aspect ratio to 16:9, which is actually what I prefer, since the original video is HD.
Anyone know what I'm doing wrong?
Note: the project aspect ratio is set to 16:9 and the 'Video and Audio Settings' in the '2D Disc' page are set to Widescreen (16:9) and HQ - Best Quality.
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I created a blu-ray video using PD10, but I cannot play it back on my PC (running Windows 7, 64-bit.) I've tried WMP and VLC media players. Obviously, if my drive can write a blu-ray disc, then it can play one back, right?
I know the disc is fine because I can play it back on my standalone blu-ray player. Also, I can browse the disc and play the m2ts files using VLC no problem. But when I try to play the disc normally, I get a VLC error, "Your input can't be opened: VLC is unable to open the MRL 'dvd://D:\'. Check the log for details". I don't know where VLC stores the log.
Anyone know the trick?
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Based on the lack of response, there is probably not much interest in this topic, but I thought I would add some recent findings anyway.
I tried the DVD on an XBox 360 and the difference was night-and-day. The video quality from the XBox 360 was very good -- exactly what I would expect from a DVD. Not sure why the video quality from the Panasonic DVD player was so poor, but at least I know it's not the DVD (or PD).
Of course, the TVs are different too, but they are both Pioneer plasmas, so I wouldn't expect too much difference there. Plus the XBox is connected to the older TV, so I would expect the newer TV to have better video quality and, yet, the Panasonic player connected to the newer TV was worse.
So it appears to be a problem with the Panasonic DVD player. Not sure what, though, because it plays movie DVDs quite nicely.
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The discussion here appears to be going around in circles and not getting anywhere fast!
I agree that the discussion went around in circles for a while, but I think we eventually got to a common understanding. Initially, I was concerned that maybe I was doing something wrong, but the discussion allowed me to realize the intent of the software -- even though I am not happy about. I will take your suggestion and request this for a future build.
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...Is this really THAT important an issue???
It is for someone like me who only creates a single disc upon request and who thinks it's ridiculous to have to use separate software to burn to disc. I mean, c'mon, if PD didn't want you to use it to create a disc, then why give you the option in the first place? I understand the performance issue, but for me, it's not an issue because, as I said, I only create a single disc at a time. The bigger issue for me is having to wait through the re-authoring phase.
By the way, don't misunderstand my reaction to all this. It's not like I am pulling my hair out. I am thankful for the discussion because, otherwise, I would have had no idea why PD works this way. I appreciate everybody's responses.
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Carl312, you are completely missing the point. I do not want to use separate software to do my disc burning. It doesn't matter how good it is or whether or not I get it for free. It is absolutely unacceptable that PD cannot burn a disc from the folder that it created. It's just plain stupid.
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You do not have to re-author, just burn the folder to a disk. Even Windows has disk burning capability. Not very good but you can burn a data DVD. Cyberlink is not overlooking the opportunity. Cyberlink sells Power2GO.
I disagree. If I want to use PD, then I have to re-author because PD will not use the folder that it created. Otherwise, my options are to use the admittedly "not very good" Windows software or pay $44.95 for Power2Go. You have to be joking.
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PD can use the video data, but not in folder form.
Nothing lost.
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The purpose of the Disk Folder to two fold, one, you can burn multiple disks from it with disk burning software.
But that is exactly the opportunity that is lost in PD. The developers give you the ability to store the data, but they don't take advantage of it by allowing you to come in later and use this data to create more discs. I understand that you can use separate burning software to create discs, but what an opportunity lost -- the opportunity to make it easier on the user to create discs without re-authoring each time -- without the need for separate burning software! This is basic funtionality in Pinnacle Studio.
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I am familiar with the files that are created in the folder, but I think it is a significant shortcoming of PD that it does not take advantage of this data. What an opportunity lost.
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In the Final Output dialog when burning a DVD, there is an option called 'Create a folder'. Does anyone know what the purpose of this option is?
It seems logical to expect that the purpose is to store off the DVD image so that if you later want to create another DVD, you can speed up the process by avoiding the authoring step and go right to the burning step. However, I have tried creating another DVD of the same image, and I do not see a way to use the pre-authored image stored in the folder. It always performs the lengthy authoring step!
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It took me awhile, but I finally figured it out -- no thanks to online help!
In Menu Designer, when you click on an object, a slider control appears. The slider control is color coded orange and blue. As you move the slider button left to right, the object fades in, appears fully, then fades out. Where the color is orange is where the object fades in or fades out. Where the color is blue is where the object appears fully. When you hover over the control where orange and blue meet, the cursor changes to indicate that you can move the colors.
So, the trick is to make the color blue span the entire length of the control. First, drag the left side of the blue color all the way to the left. Second, drag the right side of the blue color all the way to the right. Now the control should be totally blue.
To test, drag the slider button the length of the control and verify that the object does not fade in or out. Save the template and apply it to your pages.
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In my DVD menu, I inserted an image that I want to appear in the background. When previewing the menu, the image appears fine; however, I noticed that the image fades-in rather than appears right away like the other objects in the menu. I have been unsuccessful in trying to change this.
There is a setting in the Menu Designer dialog called, "Fade-in object during menu opening"; however, I have this disabled; i.e., unchecked, so I would not expect the object to fade-in.
Any ideas?
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The video quality of my produced DVDs is very poor when compared to DVDs created using Pinnacle Studio. For example, the court lines of a basketball game are jagged; whereas in PS, the court lines are smooth. Also, the aspect ratio looks off - like the players are too tall and skinny.
My source video is H.264 (.mts) imported from a Canon Vixia HFS100.
There are only two settings in the PowerDirector 2D Disc page, so not much to get wrong. I have the video recording format set to "Widescreen (16:9)" and the encoding format and quality set to "HQ - Best Quality".
I doubt that this matters, but in the drive settings, the recording speed is set to 48.0, which is the maximum.
One strange thing is that on my DVD player menu, the aspect ratio says 4:3. But it won't let me change it. It's as if the setting is read-only and it's just reporting what it sees. I don't know why this is, but even when I play the DVD back on my computer using the VLC player, the quality is poor.
Any ideas?
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Subtitles are text that appears at the bottom of the screen as your video plays. They're not the same as closed captioning; they are like the translation that might appear on a foreign-language movie.
I understand subtitles as text, but I assumed they took on a new meaning relative to menus. Are subtitle as text the same as subtitles used by menus? If so, then I'm really confused. I understand the need for menu buttons for chapters and titles, but why would I want a menu button for subtitles? When the button is clicked, the movie goes to the location where the subtitle exists? Strange.
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Item 3 on the main menu is reserved for a link to the Subtitles menu.
Please help me understand. What exactly are Subtitles and how do I create them? I assume they are not chapters. So what are they exactly?
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It seems no matter what template I use, I always get two items on my main menu: "Play" and "Scenes". (Kind of strange, since the template has 3 main-menu items: "Item 1", "Item 2", and "Item 3". So what happened to "Item 3"?)
When I click "Play", it launches the movie; and when I click "Scenes" it navigates to a submenu with multiple buttons for each chapter in the movie. I was also able to create a structure where when I click "Scenes" it navigates to a submenu with multiple buttons to launch a different movie.
What I really want is a main menu with multiple buttons to navigate to a different submenu. Then each submenu with multiple buttons to launch a different movie. (I don't really have a need for chapters in each movie.) The idea is that from the main menu you select a category menu and within the category menu you select a movie.
Anyone know how to create a menu structure like this?
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So the answer to the question, "Doesn't only one video track appear at a time?" is no, you can have multiple tracks all appear at once. I wasn't thinking about overlay effects, such as subtitles, where the overlay background is transparent such that the main background shows through. I think I understand now. Thanks for responding to my newbie question.
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