Break Main Title into smaller files?

Andy_L wrote on 12/9/2010, 10:22 AM

Apologies if this is a really simple question, but I'd like to break up my main title into smaller files. Afraid the project is too long to render as one file.

Is there a way to get DVDA to recognize a group of files as one title, and play them continuously? Ie, treat them all as a single file?

Comments

Steve Grisetti wrote on 12/9/2010, 11:20 AM

When you say "title" do you mean a video clip?

Or do you mean menu page or do you mean a title, as in a block of text at the top of a menu page?

I'm also not clear on why you want to break a file into smaller files? I've never heard of a video being too long to render -- unless you mean it's too long a video to fit on a single disc.

Andy_L wrote on 12/9/2010, 12:36 PM

DVDA calls video media media "titles," so yeah, a title would be an mpeg or avc render.

There are lots of advantages to breaking up a long render, but my primary reasons would be to (a) not crash vegas with a single giant project and (b) save time on inevitable re-renders.

Steve Mann wrote on 12/9/2010, 1:12 PM

The DVD spec calls the media "titles". More specifically, the basic unit of playback of video and audio data is called a cell. Each cell is uniquely identified by its starting and ending sector address on the disc. A Program Chain (PGC) defines the order in which cells are played back and how they are played back depending upon the current settings of the DVD player. One or more PGCs are linked together to form a video title.

Confused? Try reading the whole spec....
The Blu-Ray spec (a work still in-progress) is an order of magnitude more complex.

But, on to the OP question.
What do you call a "giant project"?
"Inevitible rerenders" sounds like you should probably fix your PC first. I have projects that take 10- to 20-hours to encode all of the Mpeg and AC3 elements, and I cannot remember the last time that Vegas "crashed" on me, and DVDA has never choked. So, if crashes are predictable, then fix your computer.

Steve

Andy_L wrote on 12/10/2010, 8:01 AM

The music/video compilation feature appears to do what I'm looking for...

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/news/article.asp?articleid=50

bStro wrote on 12/10/2010, 9:46 AM

Yes, a music / video compilation is a good way to go.

Another way is to render individual files, but then combine them using a tool like Womble MPEG-VCR ($), Womble MPEG Video Wizard ($$) or VOBMerge (free). These will join MPEGs quickly without having to re-encode the whole thing. Then if you have to re-do any of those individual files, just use that tool again with the new file(s). I've regularly joined several 5-8 minute files into hour-long files in about three minutes using MPEG Video Wizard.

Rob

Andy_L wrote on 12/10/2010, 8:11 PM

thanks! didn't know you could merge mpegs. Will that work for avc as well?

Chienworks wrote on 12/11/2010, 5:49 AM

Have you had problems rendering large files?

I regularly create DVDs that are anywhere from 60 to 200 minutes and i always render as one single 4.2GB MPEG2 file. Often these come from one single DV .AVI file as the source, though sometimes they are dozens of smaller source files. I can't remember the last time Vegas crashed on me.