I have Ulead Movie Factory 3 and Nero for making my DVDs. Problem is, the DV that I have captured is one continuous 1hr, 6min of nonstop video. I directed MF3 to make chapters at 5 minute intervals and it did so... but when I get to the title page, there is only one button for starting the movie and I cannot find a way to add the extra buttons. I expected 12 more, one per 5 minute chapter.

I see no way to accompllish this and when I tried to use Nero to make the DVD, it offered nothing.

What program can I use to do this, without breaking the bank. As a bonus, it would be nice to have the program capture some video stills that I could gang up to print on the DVD's case cover. Any suggestions?

DVDLab Pro has the ability to add scene selection menues , based on chapter points. Will that do it for you?
It's also has loads of other nice features.

Thank you Tim, I just downloaded the program for a trial. It looks like it will do everything I want. Now, if it's just not too complicated I'll be fine.

update: The software works perfectly and the price is right for what this stuff does. Thanks, Tim!

You're welcome.

I like it, I've just been playing around with subtitles for "The hunt for red october". There's a couple of minutes of Russian for which there are subtitles which must be on & cannot be turned off. Took a while working out how to do it but it works great.

Tim, I've ran into a stumbling block. The software works great, but in order to burn it to a final disc, I can't seem to use anything other than the CopyDVD software that is marketed with it. The final result is a very, very low quality product. Pixelization is rampant and quick jumpy action is extreme. The video I'm making is from a camera mounted on a motorcyclist's helmet so to begin with, footage is jumpy enough but this final footage looks like half the frames were cut out.

I checked and the original footage was captured at top quality settings in Ulead's capture. And I see no way to control CopyDVD for a quality level. Is this an Mpeg 1 maker? The quality looks like it.

What do you think? The process of burning took only about 7 minutes for 1 hour of footage! That is a big red flag to me.

Don't burn from DVDLab, just let it create the VIDEO_TS folder & files.
Use Nero (either burning rom or express) to burn the DVD.
In express it's DVD Video Files/add (find the VIDEO_TS folder , click on that then add & finished) & then next.
In Burning Rom it's DVD Video etc.

Okay Tim, I'll do that, but do you know anything about the burner called copyDVD that is on the project menu of DVDlab? Their info in the help section says it is a good burner. It's at an additional cost but has a trial run also.

Do you think it's just does mpeg1? Is it no good? Any insight?

CopytoDVd is a VSO product. It's OK but tends to burn a little slower than Nero. It's the only one that is available from within DVDLab though.

I only compile the DVD within DVDlab & then use Nero to burn it.

As you've got Nero stick with it.

Well, I did use Nero to do the burn and for the 1 hour and 6 minute video, it only took about 7 minutes. That seems really fast and very impressive!

The results are much, much better, however, although the pixelization is gone, the jumpiness is not. It still looks like sharp movement is cut out. The nature of this video is a helmet mounted camera and the rider is on a rural and rugged trail ride on his motorcycle, so there is an extreme amount of movement to begin with. Do you think this is the reason for the jumpiness? It is NOT there in the playing of the AVI and that being the case, I would expect it maintain the fluidity of the original after burning. Is there something I'm missing?

Tim, I forgot one thing... When I play this finished DVD the menus work great, except when you push stop while viewing the show, the menu doesn't return to the screen... even after pushing the MENU button on my DVD remote. Is this something that is controlable or is it just a condition of the particular player I'm using?

I'm a bit out of my depth here with menues in DVDLab but I suspect it's something to do with the connections you've set. You've probably got to loop the movie back to some menu upon completion or a stop. There are guides around somewhere for this I would guess. On the mediachance website there are tip & tricks.

What are you using to create the mpg file that goes into DVDlab? I would try playing that through on your computer first. If it's as you want it then it would be down to the DVD writer & media combination. What DVD writer do you have & what media are you using? Nero's cd/dvd speed can read of the media ID.

The other thing is are you using the Pro version?

I got my cleanest capture using Adobe Premiere and for the first time, discovered that it had Adobe encoder on the menu. Assuming that it would be a good marrage of products, I used it instead of my tried and trusty TMGEnc encoder. Right now, that is the only thing I cannot play to test it's quality and it is the only variable left. The burning was done with Nero as you suggested. It is very quick and I like that.

Last night I went back to the captured AVI and started the encoding using the TMGEnc encoder and left it working at the office when I left for home. I'm going to see if there is a difference after burning with Nero again.

The media I'm using is Ridata 8x. I've used this media for thousands of burns without incident and clients have reported only 7 bad discs this year. I think it is the making of the mpeg. Since it was the first time I ever used Adobe and I've had no problems in the past with TMGEnc, I think I will see things go back to normal when I get to the office tomorrow.

Well Tim, my problem is solved. The encoding by TMGEnc was flawless with no jumpiness or pixelization whatsoever. I will never be using Adobe's again.

Thanks for your help. I'm buying DVDLab today... That's an impressive program to me!

Larry Thompson

Larry

You're welcome. It's quite a package really isn't it. It's relatively simple to use to do simple things as I do, yet has a lot of powerful features.

Tim