The VH Trade Site Forums Archives

[liquid_steel_az]

Give me short intros, basic and easy to navigate menus with chapter points and I'm fine. :thumb:

[radikal]

liquid_steel_az wrote: Give me short intros, basic and easy to navigate menus with chapter points and I'm fine. :thumb:

A WES intro is always cool :cool:

[guitard]

frankm wrote: The other thing about the audio during the menu is that it drives me insane when the audio during the menu is so loud and then when the actual content is started the audio is very, very low or the reverse. I try to use some of the audio of the actual show during the menu so it is consistent.
I would imagine this is something that not many people are aware of because only a handful here author DVDs.

But depending on the program you use to create the separate mpegs for the menu(s) and main feature, as well as the authoring program you use to put it all together - even if you use audio from the show - you can still end up with a disk where the menu and main feature audio levels are way off.

The bottom line: create all of the audio files in the same program, and use the same format for all of them. In other words, don't use LPCM audio for the main feature and .ac3 for the menus - and don't encode the audio for the menus in Womble, and the audio for the main feature in Vegas.

As a very general rule, I like to use LPCM audio because it's easy to use and it tends not to come out a different volume level from what went into the encoding/authoring program. Having said that, some programs (DVDA for example) will re-encode the audio for the menus regardless of what you drop into it - but it tends not to (greatly) alter the volume level of LPCM while it's re-encoding it to .ac3.

It's easy to crank out a DVD once you get the basics down, but there are several little twists and turns to overcome to get it just right.

[schwartzy98]

Decatone wrote: Just a nice clean start to the disc, maybe a menu still, chapter points to each song and little white paper sleeve with band name and show date... that's a boot :D

I don't mind authored discs as long as there intro's are short and sweet, but I do dislike official soundtracks playing away in the background, always makes the actual show soundtrack sound inferior. That said I'm NOT knocking all the great authors that do their stuff... but it's easy to over do the razzle.

Agreed on all your points. It is jarring when there is this super high-quality menu/picture/song intro that is leading into a fuzzy pictured, muddy sounding boot.

[Muroh73]

I like it when it's authored and chaptered out but it really doesnt matter to me. I dont know how to author DVD's so I dont get too choosy with it. Like someone said before, it's all about the boot you're watching.

[vanj]

I like authored looks more profesional

[unchainedoh]

I appreciate those who author the shows. It brings a professional touch...