Working Backwards

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Well, it’s been an uphill battle getting these DVD’s to work properly. I have 3 software solutions to create M2V files from AVI, and each one has it’s quirks. The 3 are Discreet’s Cleaner XL, Canopus’ ProCoder 2, and Apple’s Compressor 3. I guess this post could pose as a continuation of my June 11 blog. The long and short of it? I didn’t have it figured out then!

—First, Cleaner didn’t keep Closed Captioning Data. So I used ProCoder 2.
—With more DVD’s coming out, and Subtitles and Closed Captioning going on, TimeCode issues began to arrive. I found out that the files coming out of ProCoder2 were all non-drop frame, so if I make my captions / subtitles with non-drop frame rates, and Author the DVD in non-drop, everything works just fine.
—So, I went and changed all my caption and subtitle files to non-drop, exported and got things set. (Over 300 files here.)
—Then, after building my 6 DVD set (and selling close to 5,000 copies) I’ve noticed that it doesn’t play back smoothly on the Mac. Hmph. So, I started using Compressor on the Mac and things were fine again.
—Until I started in on Captions and Subtitles. Now, we are all Drop Frame. Ok, well, at least I know where I am. I’m pretty sure that Compressor offered non-drop frame timecode, but it’s standard practice to use drop frame for long-format video, so I thought it best to stick (or go back to) drop frame.
—Went and changed things back again - another 300 file excursion.
—Things were well. Until I started working the Slide Shows from The Lamb.
—Both Cleaner and Compressor did a poor job squeezing the ‘slideshow’ AVI’s down to M2V, but ProCoder did just fine.
—So, looking at ProCoder again, I noticed that there isn’t a place to change the TimeCode, but rather reads what the source AVI file is, and I assume keeps it. (A $200 upgrade might fix this…)
—But for now that takes me back to Adobe Premiere. From what all I can see, I’m in Drop Frame format, but the output AVI file isn’t. Something I need to investigate a little more I reckon.
—But the ‘good’ news here is that this last ‘reversal’ only applies to one product - The Lamb DVD - and only has 16 video clips (32 caption/subtitle files), as compared to the Interactive DVD, which has 110 video and 220 caption/subtitle files on the one DVD.

Now, if I hadn’t put captions nor subtitles on these projects, almost all of this ‘learning experience’ would not have taken place. To do this effectively, we needed Scenarist - a $5,000 software package to author DVD’s, but also gives you 100% control of the DVD, which is quite fun to learn and build (once everything is ready to go!)

It all goes to show, that things aren’t as easy and neat as they appear. And, if you don’t want to make mistakes, it takes experience. And if you want experience, you need to make mistakes!

Any questions?