DVD video gets cut off, but preview...

Having a problem getting my video to output from dvd burning without getting cut off.



Computer is Win xp pro, 3gb ram, 2.33ghz cpu, 40gb free hd space



Using Adobe Premiere Elements 3.0.2.



I have video which I've recorded from my Sanyo xacti 720p avc camera, which records in mpeg4 format. I've converted the video(s) to mpeg 1,2 for dvd using my ''Need4 Video Converter 5.9''. At first I tried putting several mpeg1's into my premeire project, then I also merged all the video files into one, but still had the same problem.



I put the video(s) into my premiere project, added some titles on the other video track. Also added some music on another audio track. So, the total size of the videos is about 3.5gb. I preview my project it looks great, I added some dvd scenes and used a nice template with scene selection and captions..the works. Now I try to burn it several ways, to a dvd, to a file folder on high or low settings, but everytime I only end up with about 1.5gb of data, and 25 mins of video, so it is cut off. My original video is an hour and 50 mins.



The encoding takes about 3 hrs after I hit burn. No errors or anything.



So, I cannot understand what I need to do. I don't want to convert to a smaller or lower format, bcz I dont' want to lose quality. I'm at a loss bcz I've tried so many different formats and combinations, let this stuff run for so many hours this past weekend, and still can't get it to work. Is there some kind of setting I'm missing? Something in premiere?



I've read some best practices on the forum, and I understand to use bit rate of 7mbs or less, and to burn on slow speed. Is it at all bcz I'm burning it to my hard drive? but i don't think this is my issue. is it the old software? it came with my Sanyo camera, so I would think its good enough.



Please help if you can. I was thinking my next shot might be to convert it down to a much smaller size, and maybe it will fit(but quality may be an issue). Thanks in advance. -Ron
DVD video gets cut off, but preview...
Unfortunately, you can't edit AVCHD video in version 3, Ron. That capability wasn't added until version 7.



One of our regulars posted this link to the FAQs at the top of this forum though. It's software for converting AVCHD to more traditional HD.

http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.59b78d01?50@@



But it's also likely you'll need to upgrade your computer also to do so. A Pentium 4 processor running at 2.3 ghz and 40 gigs of free space really isn't enough to handle files that contain 4x the video data of standard DV. Sorry.
DVD video gets cut off, but preview...
Ron,



That 1.5GB limit makes me wonder if your hard drives are formatted to FAT-32, or NTFS. If the former, you can Convert (from the DOS Prompt in Windows) to NTFS.



That *might* help. Go to My Computer, and Rt-click on your hard drive, most probably C:\. Look in Properties, and tell us what format the HDD is. Also, how much free space is available (see Steve's comments above). Even if you have adequate free space, you will still benefit from defragging your HDD. Premiere needs much more space, than just the physical size of your Export file.



Also, tell us about your Project's Preset. What are the settings? Since you are outputting to DVD, you do not want your footage to be much larger. Not sure if you're working in one of the HD Presets, and then getting PE to scale it all down to SD, or if your conversion is to SD sizes. More info there might help too.



Good luck,



Hunt

Thanks Steve,

I'm not editing the mpeg4's, I'm converting them to mpeg1/2 for a DVD, as per my video converter software. So, it's just a normal .mpg.

A hi-def MPEG or a standard def MPEG?

Thanks Bill,

It's NTSF and there is 32gb free. Also, sorry, I should've said that I'm new to video editing and adobe PE, so I'm not sure what the preset is? I just started a new project and imported video and such. I found in project settings it is 'DV NTSC', timebase 29/97 fps, frame is 720x480, display format=30fps dropframe timecode, audio sample rate 48,000hz.



I'm somewhat overwhelmed by the mass of information about video editing, but I just want to edit my videos, as I don't work in this field...yet.



Please let me know if you have any suggestions for fixing.



I also think I need to start over with a fresh project, as I am learning as I stumble into this one, like I said, I first had about 6 different videos, but then merged them all together into one bcz i thought that might've been the problem. Any recommendations or start up guides you would suggest. I can handle the editing part in gui, but the technical aspects are overwhelming. A simpler guide would help.

I have it set to ''mpeg1,2 (DVD, SVCD, VCD)''.



Set for ''Best Quality''. There are other options for DVD, VCD, SVCD, HD 1440x1088 and HD 1280x720. So, I think it is SD.



Also, it will create the video with titles and such included, but only up to 25 minutes. And I successfully burned this video to a dvd and it played.

Ron,



We have established that the format of your HDD should not be a problem. The amount of free space (unfragmented) could, but 32GB *ought* to get you by. I would make sure to defrag that HDD, however, without PE running.



As for your Project Preset, it sounds good with DV-NTSC for SD material, which you state your Assets are, after conversion.



One thing to look at would be to convert your original footage to DV-AVI, instead of any flavor of MPEG. That will usually speed things up a bit, and can eliminate problems, though not necessarily the problem that you are having.



Steve has published a couple of books on Premiere Elements. I recommend them both. The first was written for PE2, but most of the general info carries forward to later versions. The second is for PE7, but again, much of the info (some names have changed, and are placed differently in the program's Panels) carries backward to previous versions.



Both are available from www.muvipix.com. I also highly recommend that one looks around that site. The ''Communities'' are forums, just like this one, but there are probably more folk using PE there, and hence one can get a lot of diverse info. There are tutorials, and articles suggesting excellent workflows and tons of ''tips-n-tricks'' to get the most enjoyment out of the editing experience.



I'll keep thinking about your specific problem, but am kinda' out of ideas, at the moment. The answer is probably staring me right in the face.



Good luck,



Hunt

Thanks again,

A friend suggested that Premiere 'Elements' is like an abbreviated version of premiere, and it may only produce certain size videos. Does that make sense at all?



I will try defrag, and convert to another format. Will I lose quality going to avi? I'm not that concerned as its' not like I have a great eye, but on large televisions you know small differences can start to make digital video look bad.



Also, maybe I will try instead of converting to ''Best Quality'' (as I was talking about with Steve above), I will try 'DVD - NTSC'.

Thanks again for your help.

Ron,



Yes, PE is a scaled down version of P-Pro, but also has some additional features, plus an easier way of doing many things, that its ''big brother'' does not. As to the ability to Export/Share frame sizes, I think that most are included in PE (would have to open each and explore precisely to tell you if it's all there). I do not think that this is your issue.



As to the conversion, I'd step back to your original footage, Sanyo MP4, right? Unless Sanyo is using a proprietary CODEC to create the MP4's, you *should* be able to Open these files in QuickTime and play them. If you have QuickTime Pro (costs about US$30 to upgrade to ''Pro), you *should* be able to Export and choose DV-AVI as your Export setting. Note: the term ''.AVI'' can mean so very many things. What you want is DV-AVI. This is the ''native'' format for PE - what it converts all other file formats to, to edit. The quality loss going with this format can be measured in a lab, but is almost totally impossible to see on any TV with the human eye. Doing this will likely enhance your entire editing experience.



As for quality and conversions and compression, your camera has already done one conversion, when it wrote to MP4. You cannot get around that. Conversion to DV-AVI will be ''virtually'' lossless, though the file size WILL increase. The reason is that with MP4, not all ''frames'' exist with full content - part of its compression. With DV-AVI each ''frame'' will exist with full content. Be prepared for LARGE files, but files with all of the info.



Then, when you Burn to DVD, you WILL recompress your data to MPEG-2 format, the DVD standard. You will loose some quality there, but it cannot be avoided. It is how DVD's hold their Audio %26amp; Video data.



I still do not have any ideas that would directly affect your movie not burning completely. If the Duration of your movie has exceeded the capacity of a DVD-5, you would/should get an error message to that effect. You do not.



One thing to go back and look for in your original Project's Timeline would be ''gaps'' in the Video. These can cause problems (or sometimes not). I zoom my Timeline way up, and use the PageUp %26amp; PageDn keys to ''step'' through the various Clips. The CTI (Current Time Indicator - that little doobie that marks where you are on the Timeline) should move in a linear fashion from Clip to Clip. If you see it pause, or hiccup, then zoom WAY in to the max and study the Timeline there. Are all Clips butted up to each other? Now, you can have Clips on Video Tracks above #1, that would allow you to have ''gaps'' in the Video on VT 1. That is OK, but if you have any spots on the Timeline, where there is NO Video, you'll likely want to fix these. You can close up the gaps by moving the Clips, so that they do butt up, or if you want ''black'' there, just go to the New icon and choose Black Video. Size it to fit the gap, and you will be fine. You can also extend the Clip before the gap, or after the gap, if that does not mess up your editing. Several choices and each should be based on what you want to have happen. If you find a bunch of gaps (even one can be deadly) try to Export/Burn again. Note: I've seen one 1-frame gap cause problems, but just had to re-edit a Project where I fixed 900+ gaps, and that Project had already Burned 4 DVD's. Go figure.



Last thing to look at would be to hit the ''\'' key in Timeline mode. This will zoom out to show the full Timeline. Do you have anything stuck out by itself, past where you thought the end was? This should yield other problems, but not the one you are experiencing. Still, who knows? It's also a good thing to do, when you believe you are done, just to check that something didn't get ''orphaned'' out beyond where one normally looks on the Timeline.



Good luck,



Hunt



[Edit] 01:50 is longish for a DVD-5. You will not be able to set a very high bit-rate (Quality slider), but you should still get the full Timeline, or an error message.

Thanks Bill,

This is very educational.



I did what you said, defraged my drive, converted my video to avi, but the type in my converter was ''Mpeg4 - compatible''. anyway, I started with a fresh project too, and now I got it to create the movie correctly...I think.



Now I'm having burning problems. Before I blow through too many of these $2 Verbatim DL dvds, I'd like to get some info. I had created the dvd to my hard drive. Then i used Sonic RecordNow to burn it to dvd. I had an error, don't remember exactly what it was, but it was cryptic. The size of my file is 6.5gb, bcz of several files I describe in next paragraph.



In the VIDEO_TS there are several files, also several of what seem to be the same .vob file. 5 exactly. same size, and all seem to play the same thing in WMP. only difference is the name has _2, _3, _4, etc. Why are there so many of these? I was thinking to use just one, and try burning. Will that cause a problem?



Should I try letting PE do the whole encoding and burn straight to dvd instead?



Should I do the video conversion with PE? I didn't really look at that functionality, as I had bought this converter program(Need4 video converter).



Man, I'm so frustrated with this. I will cherish the day I get this to work. Thanks so much for your help. -Ron

Ron,



It would be common to have .VOB's with the same size (right a 1GB, I'll bet). Depending on the breakdown of your Project, if you have 5 .VOB's four will be very, very similar in size, and one a bit smaller than the other four. The size limit on a .VOB (by the DVD-specs) is 1GB.



Now, you have a VIDEO_TS folder with a couple of .BUP, IFO and .VOB files. Do you have a DVD software player, like Nero Vison, CyberVision, or similar? If so, you can point it to your hard drive and locate your VIDEO_TS folder. Does it play fine? Note: when using software players on the computer, some Menu navigation might behave in a different manner, than with a set-top player's remote. Not a lot, but some things, like auto-activating Buttons, just do not translate to software players.



If it plays, as it should, then I'd go download ImgBurn (http://www.imgburn.com/). Watch out for Google Ads, as you only want the ImgBurn program. It's a freeware program that just flat works. Install it, and let it survey your system for all CD/DVD burners. Then, use it to Burn your DVD. Provided that your Burner supports DL (DVD-9) media, all you'll have to do is point it to your VIDEO_TS folder (same as above), name your disc, and Burn. Note: if you make any mistakes, be sure to read the error messages fully. They are seriously humorous. I sometimes do things that I know are wrong, just to see what sort of message the programers put in - just flat funny, and a bit less cryptic than most other buring software. While we are on the subject of error messages, pay special attention to each and every one. Write them down word for word and even make sure to get the capitalization correct. These can tell us a lot about what might be wrong - maybe.



Good luck,



Hunt

I'm trying to get nero vision to test what you're saying. one other thing, beside the video_ts, it creates an 'open dvd' folder, which I think contains the dvd menus and stuff. Maybe I'm mistaken. This folder and the video_ts was on my first attempt where my video got cut off, and at that time my dvd player didn't load any menus, it just played the movie. But that was the somewhat messed up project.

Not familiar with the Open_DVD folder, though I do recall hearing of it. Is this a Nero thing? Usually, the first VOB has most of the Menu detail/Render.



Let us know how your tests go. Maybe someone else knows about the Open_DVD folder.



Hunt

The Open_DVD folder is a left over from the original software that the DVD authoring software was based on. It was used for re-authoring burnt DVDs. You can ignore it.

Thanks guys,

Oh, i just opened the vob's with wmp and realized I can hit that DVD button and it takes me to the main menu. Ok, so I only need to burn the video_ts folder. I guess I just need to try again. i will try with imgburn as you suggested Bill. Thanks again!

Paul LS,



Thanks. I just could not recall the details on that, but knew that someone would know and could furnish details.



Ron,



Good luck, and please report back - with your success!



Hunt

Ok, so I tried burning to the dual layer dvd's, and at some point it got an error:

I/O Error!

Device: D:dvdrom...blah

Scsi: Status: 0x02

Interpret: Check Condition

CDB 2A 00 00 18 6C A0 00 00 20 00

Interpret: Write(10) - Sectors: 1600672-1600703

Sense Area: 70 00 04 00 00 00 10 35 00 04 3E 44 90 00

Interpret: Unknown(internal target failure)(0x44, 0x90)



But it copied most of the stuff to the dvd. I had specified a break when it asked me, at 50 minutes I think, as it gave me about 4 options, or that I could ignore it. I guess that means where it breaks on the layers.



So, the dvd played, and the menu comes up and stuff, but there is a problem at minute 42:30, and it freezes, so none of the dvd menu scenes after that will load. It won't play through.



So, I tried removing some of those vob's, specifically, the middle 4, VTS_01_2.VOB through VTS_01_5.VOB. This way it all fit on one layer. I burned it, no errors, but it has the same problem, it's on there, but freezes at 17 minutes this time.



Thanks for your help. I'm on vaca next week and am getting a new hard drive put in this laptop, so maybe that will help. I guess I'll have to try again after that, and maybe it will work. -Ron

The first burn seemed to be the right size, the disc had 6.5x gb of data on it, despite that error.



Also, right before I did the last burn(where i deleted vob's), imgburn tells me the specs for what it is doing. Please let me know if you think I should change any of this:



9 files, 2 folders

FS ISO9660, UDF(1.02)

IFO/BUP 32K Padding: Enabled

size 2.8gb

Sectors: 1,347,415

Imagesize: 2.8gb

Sectors: 1,347,415



Thanks.

Ron,



That looks good, as far as the specs of the Project. I'd be concerned with the error on your SCSI chain. It sounds like your burner is loosing contact with your I/O system. What controller are you using for your SCSI chain? How is termination set? Have you had any other I/O errors? Can you borrow either a USB, or better yet, FireWire multi-drive to try? It could be that the SCSI controller and your SCSI burner are having a problem at the Layer Break.



It also could be that you are getting hung at the Layer Break in you playback drive. Are you playing back on the computer, using the same drive used to burn, or are you looking on a set-top player hooked to a TV. Normally the Layer Break is set to a Chapter, so the pause for the laser to refocus to the other Layer is not noticable. The exact specs. and desired placement of the Layer Break can also change, depending on whether one is using a DVD-9 +R, or -R.



I use Encore to burn all of my DVD-9's and the Auto Layer Break has always worked perfectly for me. I use ImgBurn for doing DVD-5 dupes, primarily from ISO images, but will poke around it a bit, looking for some DVD-9 settings that might help you.



Sounds like you are almost there, with perhaps one hurdle to get over. As soon as I have my workstation back up, later today, if things go well with a new PS, I'll see what I can find for you.



Good luck,



Hunt

By chance do you have a STOP marker anywhere on your timeline? It looks like a tiny red house and would be just below the time scale. If you have one, PE will play through it when you are editing but a DVD player will actually stop playing. If you happen to have one at 25 minutes into your project that could explain it.



Also, I would suggest getting a few DVD-RW's - you can practice burning them over and over.



Good luck!



Bob