11 replies to this topic

[THoff]

So I got a new version of DVDitPro HD (V6.4) in the hopes that the new version takes care of the problems I had with V6.3 such as frequent corruption of project files. I spent much of today trying to author a BD-R disk with it that I hoped to deliver today. In the end, I wasted hours of my time and some of my money burning a BD-R coaster.

I encode all of my video using Canopus' Procoder V3.05, which has presets for DVDitPro HD. I used those same presets in the past, but DVDitPro HD V6.4 crashes with a Runtime Error every time I try to drag a 96KHz PCM WAV audio file to one of the audio tracks. Mind you, the file is already in the format that the program wants for a Blu-Ray project.

Since this behavior was new and I really needed to deliver my project today, I decided to try something different. Instead of outputting separate .M2V and .WAV elementary files, I started over and had Procoder output a .M2P Program Stream file -- nothing about the audio format itself changed, just the container format. I brought the .M2P into DVDitPro HD, dragged the file from the Media list to a Title, and low and behold, the bloody thing didn't crash. The audio track shows up, the Properties confirm that it's 96KHz PCM audio, and everything seemed normal. I previewed the title, and the audio and video played fine.

The next step in my workflow would have been to output an disk image file, burn that to a BD-RE for testing, and if it played correctly and met my expectations, burn the same image to BD-R media. I tell DVDitPro HD to output a disk image, but when I'm done, I can't find the ISO file. I thought maybe it placed it in a weird location, so I use Windows' Search feature to look for ISO files created today. There are none? I go back into the program and start the process again, but this time I hit the Browse button to see what location the program defaults to, figuring I might find the ISO there. To my surprise I find that the program doesn't write ISO files anymore, instead it writes .GI (Global Image) files. Great. Something new and incompatible to disrupt my workflow. But this did clue me in to the fact that Burn -> Burn Disk (which defaults to looking for ISO files that the program no longer outputs), might actually be able to use the .GI files, and it can!

Of course now the problem is that the files it created are said to be incompatible with the BD-RE media that I want to use for testing.  I remembered having to choose between BD-R and BD-RE when I created the disk image, something that was new and unexpected. I selected BD-R because that's what I ultimately wanted to create, but now I can't use eraseable media for testing anymore? Lame!

At this stage I'm starting to run out of time, I want to have the disk burned and ready to show at 4PM, so I decide to bite the bullet and output on a Verbatim BD-R disk. After much disk activity and a roughly 20 minute wait, I get a dialog saying the disk was burned successfully!

I eject the disk, exit DVDitPro HD, and play the disk in CyberLink PowerDVD. The image looks great (Procoder produces wonderful output), but THERE IS NO SOUND! According to PowerDVD, the disk contains 2-channel stereo, but there is no freaking audio! Cranking up the volume just yields a constant hiss. At this point I've got about ten minutes before I need to head out, but I don't have a disk I can show, and I'm out of options to try anything else or even burn a simple DVD.

Today's fiasco was just the latest in a long series, this program has given me endless grief with both V6.3 and now V6.4. What was supposed to be an improvement over the previous version is utterly unusable. Unfortunately it is much too late for me to ask for my money back, but God knows that if I could charge Roxio for the time I wasted trying to get their software to work and recreating lost work, not only would I be getting my money back, they'd owe me money.

[SS Scott]

so a few things here.  

1) there is a bug with multi-channel or high bit rate WAV files in 6.4.  if you have the bit budget estimator set to BD-25 or BD-50 bringing a multi-channel WAV onto a timeline will crash the program.  the good news is that if you have the bit budget estimator st to DVD-5 or DVD-9 you can pass through that multi-channel WAV.  
2) only elementary stream multi-channel WAV will pass through, so when you create an .M2P that audio will be transcoded (I believe) and it sounds like we had a problem transcoding your audio
3) blame the Blu-ray disc association for the BD-R and BD-RE differences not us.  We are just adhering to the spec.  you can, however output a volume instead of an image and then view that volume in a software player (WinDVD, Arcsoft) and then burn that volume to BD-R or BD-RE with DVDit

[danny]

so a few things here.  

1) there is a bug with multi-channel or high bit rate WAV files in 6.4.  if you have the bit budget estimator set to BD-25 or BD-50 bringing a multi-channel WAV onto a timeline will crash the program.  the good news is that if you have the bit budget estimator st to DVD-5 or DVD-9 you can pass through that multi-channel WAV.

aaaah, good to know!

good point for asking another audio-question:
how could it be possible to create a BD with PCM audio AND AC-3 on it? as far as I can see, one will be trancode. all you can do is to choose wheater it will be PCM or AC3!

is there any workarround for this?

THX

danny

[THoff]

I haven't tried burning that project yet to see if the audio is kept, but at least the program doesn't crash anymore.

I just tried burning a BD-RE, and I guess I have my answer -- I get a dialog that says "Requested functionality not yet implemented   -19010". Wonderful. And if I try to change the bit budget estimator type back to a BD format after successfully placing the WAV file in the timeline, the program crashes as soon as I change the type.

SS Scott, I really do appreciate your efforts in trying to offer support here, but your engineering departments are asking you to do the impossible. For a moment I thought there was hope for this program, but I don't see how anyone can actually author a Blu-Ray disk with V6.4.

Edited by THoff, 04 August 2008 - 08:38 PM.

[SS Scott]

Where is your audio from?  What is the bit depth of your audio?  If you look in the user guide it says that the program supports up to 96K 16bit.  are you using 24 bit audio?  If not, please get me a sample of your audio and I will have the engineers check it out.

[THoff]

It's a 96KHz, 16-bit stereo WAV file created using Canopus Procoder V3.05 and the DVDit Pro HD Blu-Ray templates that ship with it. The same templates worked with DVDit Pro HD V6.3, and the settings in Procoder are reflected correctly when displaying the properties in DVDit Pro HD:



The file plays in Windows Media Player, and indeed inside DVDit Pro HD when previewing the title that the audio is part of.

I also tried outputting a disk image, but a dialog pops up displaying that the bitrate is too high to fit on a DVD -- this is obviously based on the setting of the bit budget estimator which I can't change because it results in a crash. The dialog asks if I want to ignore the problem and continue with the generation of the disk image, but if I do, I get the same "Requested functionality not yet implemented -19010" message.

[lmk0118]

How ask me to be supposed dvdit pro hd from 6.3 promotion to 6.4? thanks

[THoff]

Here's an update on my problem: based on SS Scott's information in his initial reply, I converted my 96KHz audio file to 48KHz, which is no longer Blu-Ray compliant but doesn't cause DVDit Pro HD to choke when I add it to the timeline. I can now leave the bitrate budget estimator set to BD and avoid the error message I was getting. The downside is that the program needs to convert the non-compliant sampling rate back to 96KHz, but at least I can burn BD disks again.

Given that this is a known problem, is there a fix in the works?

[SS Scott]

we'll check into this, but FYI - 48k audio is indeed Blu-ray compliant.

[THoff]

For AC-3, yes. But for PCM, DVDit Pro HD wants 96KHz, at least according to page 66 of the manual. That's also how you would arrive at a bitrate of ~1.5Mbps as used by the "Superior Quality" project settings.

[SS Scott]

so the user guide is misleading.  the 96k is "up to" not "must use" (though you have identified a bug wherein 96k support may be broken).  48k 16bit DVD legal PCM is perfectly legal for Blu-ray.  1536kbs is the typical rate for DVD.

[SS Scott]

FYI - the 96k pass through problem has been staring us in the face this whole time.  If you look at the image you posted earlier in this thread you will see that DVDit Pro HD sees the audio as "unknown" rather than seeing it as a WAV file.  The program can't pass through an "unknown" audio file so it transcodes it every time.  the bit budget estimator bug is still there, but you should be able to pass through multi-channel WAV audio if you leave the estimator at DVD-5 or DVD-9 and if the program recognizes it as WAV audio.  I have forwarded the file off to engineering to see whether the inability to recognize it as WAV audio is a DVDit issue or a Procoder issue.