27 replies to this topic

[Lucifer]

Hi all, just wondering if anyone has managed to output DvdIt Motion Menus on Blu-Ray?

Whenever I put an .mpg file into the Menu background, the menu's become unselectable after they are burnt onto a bd disc.
Everything works fine on the simuation mode. A DVD version of the same project also works perfectly.

I use cyberlink powerDVD 8 ultra for playback (latest)

The only way I can make a Blu-ray disc is NOT to uses Motion Menu's at the moment.

Any help appreciated!


Windows XP and Vista
Sony bwu 300s
MC3
DvdIt pro HD 6.3
Cyberlink powerDVD 8 ultra for playback

[BigMac]

I, also, am unable to build a bluray using motion menus.  In my case, I always get that meaningless message that the process had an error or was interrupted, Try again or Cancel.  (Sheees, who writes this stuff?)  All I've every done is replace the motion menu with a still background and the project burns.

Surely, some of you experts out there are getting motion menus to work on blurays??  Anybody??

By the way, I always burn a Volume first.  I never burn a disk directly, if that contributes to the problem?

John

[Lucifer]

Hi John,
Just a thought... that meaningless message could be a "file is in use error" (if you tried to replace a previously saved file to create an volume or .iso)
You may want to try again and save the volume/ .iso under a different name.
Also, I seem to remember a strange error like you mentioned whenever I was running low on disk space.

I've now found that bluray motion menus will work inside Frames, so I'm re-authoring the project using them instead of putting the movie into the background. Not as good, but it'll have to do for now...

Hope this helps  

Lucio

Edited by Lucifer, 07 January 2009 - 12:29 PM.

[danny]

hi folks,
I know that motionmenus are working fine with DVDitHD6.3 and 6.4.

but your right, DVDitHD 6.x is a mess of programm!


danny

[Lucifer]

hi folks,
I know that motionmenus are working fine with DVDitHD6.3 and 6.4.

but your right, DVDitHD 6.x is a mess of programm!


danny

Hi Danny,
Have you tried putting a hd .mpg file into the background and output'd to BLU-Ray?
DVD projects work correctly for me too!

Lucio

[danny]

Hi Danny,
Have you tried putting a hd .mpg file into the background and output'd to BLU-Ray?
DVD projects work correctly for me too!

Lucio

hi lucio,
yes, I have!

Very important for authoring-apps in gerneral is to have ELEMENTARY STREAMS and not programm-streams or transport-streams.

it was working fine.l

danny

[Lucifer]

hi lucio,
yes, I have!

Very important for authoring-apps in gerneral is to have ELEMENTARY STREAMS and not programm-streams or transport-streams.

it was working fine.l

danny

Hi Danny,
I am using Elementary streams directly from Media Composer3. Everything works perfectly unless I put a motion menu into the background, i can then not select the menus after the burn but can on the simulation.
What software are you using to play back the final BD disc?
Lucio

[mjolnarn]

hi lucio,
yes, I have!

Very important for authoring-apps in gerneral is to have ELEMENTARY STREAMS and not programm-streams or transport-streams.

it was working fine.l

danny

Works nice here too

[BigMac]

hmmm, so the menu background video has stricter requirements than the video used for titles...I see some more experimentation in my future.

John

[BigMac]

In the interest of thoroughness,  I'm reporting back the results of my experimentation on motion menus.  

I have concluded that background menu video must be "compliant" according to DVDit.  I had been using MPEG2 coded streams and would always get that non-compliant warning.  I told DVDit to convert 'em and it always worked and produced terrific results (with titles.)  Besides, I always thought that the non-compliant warning meant that some transcoding was necessary and that DVDit would make it work.  (Which appears to be true for titles, but not motion menus.)  

Now, I'm wrestling with the codec delimma.  I use Pinnacle Liquid to edit.  The "compliant" video is a MJPEG codec (Thanks to mjolnarn on the Liquid forum.)  My non-compliant video is an MPEG2 codec, but all of the knobs (variables) available to me to manipulate are all the same:  1902x1080, Top field first,  etc.  

Remember that class you had in High School, something about the "new" math...and it never made any sense to me.  I think that the people who passed that class, must have become codec builders when they grew up, 'cause next to nothing about codecs makes sense to me.  

Since I don't do this video stuff professionally,  I'm happy when things work.  I'd rather leave the technical stuff alone.

Regards,

John

[Lucifer]

In the interest of thoroughness,  I'm reporting back the results of my experimentation on motion menus.  

I have concluded that background menu video must be "compliant" according to DVDit.  I had been using MPEG2 coded streams and would always get that non-compliant warning.  I told DVDit to convert 'em and it always worked and produced terrific results (with titles.)  Besides, I always thought that the non-compliant warning meant that some transcoding was necessary and that DVDit would make it work.  (Which appears to be true for titles, but not motion menus.)  

Now, I'm wrestling with the codec delimma.  I use Pinnacle Liquid to edit.  The "compliant" video is a MJPEG codec (Thanks to mjolnarn on the Liquid forum.)  My non-compliant video is an MPEG2 codec, but all of the knobs (variables) available to me to manipulate are all the same:  1902x1080, Top field first,  etc.  

Remember that class you had in High School, something about the "new" math...and it never made any sense to me.  I think that the people who passed that class, must have become codec builders when they grew up, 'cause next to nothing about codecs makes sense to me.  

Since I don't do this video stuff professionally,  I'm happy when things work.  I'd rather leave the technical stuff alone.

Regards,

John

Hi John,
Thanks for sharing your findings. I too have concluded that the file has to be compliant with Dvdit.

I use media composer 3 to edit HDV, I then export the material as a Hdv .mpeg file.  The critical intermediate step was to transcode the HDV long gop file to another (in this case Avid dnx-hd) within the Avid editor; it then becomes a more compliant sort of mpeg that Dvdit can handle.

I don't ever remember having to do this with earlier versions of Avid and I'm not sure how much quality I'm losing but the blu-ray version looks really good.

Finally, I can get back to editing!

Regards
Lucio

[mjolnarn]

Now, I'm wrestling with the codec delimma.  I use Pinnacle Liquid to edit.  The "compliant" video is a MJPEG codec (Thanks to mjolnarn on the Liquid forum.)  My non-compliant video is an MPEG2 codec, but all of the knobs (variables) available to me to manipulate are all the same:  1902x1080, Top field first,  etc.  

Remember that class you had in High School, something about the "new" math...and it never made any sense to me.  I think that the people who passed that class, must have become codec builders when they grew up, 'cause next to nothing about codecs makes sense to me.

Very good that it works well for both of you, I am creating bluray´s from both Liquid and MC now and all works well.

And, I think I was the one in the class that the others used to ask during the math lessons ...

and Lucio, from media Composer, try with doing a full transcode of your ready edited hd sequense in Media Composer to a 120 DnxHd codec, be sure to include the audio, drag that sequense to any of the viewers and do an export from that window as a quick time ref file colour 609 instead, a much easier workflow

Edited by mjolnarn, 13 January 2009 - 02:03 AM.

[Lucifer]

Very good that it works well for both of you, I am creating bluray´s from both Liquid and MC now and all works well.

And, I think I was the one in the class that the others used to ask during the math lessons ...

and Lucio, from media Composer, try with doing a full transcode of your ready edited hd sequense in Media Composer to a 120 DnxHd codec, be sure to include the audio, drag that sequense to any of the viewers and do an export from that window as a quick time ref file colour 609 instead, a much easier workflow

Hi mjolnarn and Bigmac,

I have always exported my sequences from Avid to Qt Ref after transcoding to a 120 DnxHd codec and then used Sorenson to make the .mpg files in the past.
Exporting an .mpg directly from the Avid and let Dvdit do the transcoding seemed to be far simpler and more productive.

After more experimenting, I found that the motion-menu does not work if you try to insert a 1440x1080 (hdv) dvdit compliant file into the Background, however if the file is 1920x1080 (same as the menu resolution) it will work without probs.
(I am only talking about blu-ray here, I have not had any issues with normal DVD's)

Can anyone confirm this?

[mjolnarn]

A standard 1440 x 1080 export out of Liquid works well for me as a motion background in the menu

[Lucifer]

Just thought I would update this issue for the common good.

This problem ceased to be an issue with the montecarlo ps3 fix on version 6.3

Version 6.4 is even better. ie: The disc plays correctly on a sony s350 and for the first time a bwu-300 writer and cyberlink software.

[ciscoheat]

I might be having the same problem (see previous post - http://forums.suppor....p;#entry269407).  I evidently have non compliant videos and they are the motion menu too.  I've always had some difficulties burning Blu-rays (never DVDs), but have managed to create three projects prior...I just don't know what I did to get them to work.  I know one of them didn't have any motion menus at all (it was a export test...by the way, DVDit Pro can take streams up to 80 mbps...just seemingly knocks it down to something lower, but man...I wish it could take 4:2:2 color!).  I think the other two were successful after I simply recreated the entire project.  That kind of sounds similar to what an earlier post said about having the same name.  I also know the very first project created kept the "extra files" in the folder (which I thought would make the files a stream instead of elemetry from Liquid, but that didn't appear to be the case).  Anyway...I keep getting the generic error and this time can't figure it out.  I'm going to check the version I'm using again (thought it was the latest).  I also just recently downloaded the PS3 patch...so I hope that didn't do something negative (just doesn't seem like the likely culprit).  

Anyway...I have a lot of projects to create on Blu-ray...so I should have a fairly good test bed.  I'll try to keep the group informed on what I'm doing and what I'm finding, but any suggestions and inputs would be appreciated.  

SB

[ciscoheat]

Wanted to give the group an update.

1) I deleted all my videos but some really really short avi that have our company logo.
2) I tried to burn a volume with no menu - SUCCESS
3) I tried to burn a volume with a still menu - SUCCESS
4) I tried to burn a volume with my motion menu - FAILURE
5) I tried outputting several different types of menus - MIXED (this is the odd part, sometimes one might work, another time it might not, with nothing changing inbetween).
6) Tried to burn a volume with all my video except the motion menu - SUCCESS

So...why the motion menu?  I came across another forum topic talking about defragmenting...well...lets just say to protect my integrety...I'm not going to report how many fragments some of these files were in.  Anyway, I don't know if this is the common thread or not, but I can say that either way (the video files were in more fragments than the menu), motion menus appear to be delicate.  Once I defrag, I'm going to see if the last menu I created that worked will work again with the entire project.  It is my speculation that the only reason people are getting good results some times and bad others is due to this reason.  We might be tricking ourselves into believing its for other reasons...but right now, I'm trying everything (including creating my menu with a lower CBR and 1920 x 1080i).

I'll keep you all posted.

SB

[ciscoheat]

Have another update:

I have burned 5 total blu-ray projects.  3 had motion menus, 2 did not.  Now, all of a sudden, I'm trying to burn my 4th blu-ray project with a motion menu...no luck.  

Anyway, I finally figured out what was different with the motion menu projects.  In the previous 3, the source files were all on a different drive than the project and the output files.  So, I tried this, and it actually worked.  I was able to write the volume!  

With all this said...due to chaning so many things and still having some hiccups, I'm not in the process of re-installing windows and all my programs from the ground up.  Hopefully that alone will help, but the above might get someone a little further if they have to get something out in a hurry!

SB

[planetweckesser]

Have another update:

I have burned 5 total blu-ray projects.  3 had motion menus, 2 did not.  Now, all of a sudden, I'm trying to burn my 4th blu-ray project with a motion menu...no luck.  

Anyway, I finally figured out what was different with the motion menu projects.  In the previous 3, the source files were all on a different drive than the project and the output files.  So, I tried this, and it actually worked.  I was able to write the volume!  

With all this said...due to chaning so many things and still having some hiccups, I'm not in the process of re-installing windows and all my programs from the ground up.  Hopefully that alone will help, but the above might get someone a little further if they have to get something out in a hurry!

SB

I am not certain why all the problems with motion menu backgrounds. When I edit a project (I use Edius 5.0) I will edit the entire movie - output it to the appropriate blu-ray format and then add on a 30-40 second clip (just the video usually) at the end of the timeline and output that with the same parameters as the original movie and save it for later use. Of course, elementary stream is of utmost importance. I have made over 30 blu-ray projects in the last couple of years and they all had motion menu backgrounds and motion chapter buttons and not a single problem. I have all my movies, project files and source files on the same RAID 0 drive. Be sure, though, that there is not heavy fragmentation of your source files - even on a RAID 0 drive this can cause problems and not allow the volume to be written.

[ciscoheat]

Let me elaborate a little more.  Lucio, I would also like to know some details about what you are using as we are seemingly having the same problems...maybe we can find a common thread.

To test this, I've been using 2 files (m2v files created from Avid Liquid 7.2).  I'll create a simple menu linking to one of the files and use the other file as the background to the menu (making it a motion menu).  Both of these files are short (less than 30 seconds) and encoded the same (m2v @ 25 mbps - 1440 X 1080 - Top Field First).  By the way...yes...I realized that this isn't a compliant format, but nothing from Avid Liquid is!  It doesn't appear to matter what I do though.  I've used all kinds of formats (including a method from mjolnarn).  I've used Smetware's 35 mbps m2v files with no luck either.  All of these files are elementry too.  Obviously, since this whole project is less than a GB, I don't think defragmentation is my issue...however, the drive I'm working on (C Drive - remember, just reformatted) is completely clean of major fragmentation.

Now, with that said, this is what I can do:

With the motion menu, I can create a volume and create an image but I can not burn from either nor from the project.

With a still menu (only using one video file then), I can create a volume, image, burn from both and burn from the project.

SD has no problem at all, it can burn all the above.  I even tried making a motion menu with just a button annimation - no luck!

So, I'm using Avid Liquid 7.2 outputting in the standard m2v 25mbps setting.  I do have smetware's m2v codecs.  
I have an LG Blu-ray player with cyberlink burning software.  

I'm pretty sure its not the burner, but would need a software tool that can burn gi files to prove that.  I also think the files I'm creating from Avid Liquid are ok (they work without a motion menu).  The only way I can test that though is to either use a different file for the motion menu (might try downloading random SD files for that - oh...I did try an old SD DV file too - no luck).  That or if someone could test one of my files.  None the less, this seems to point to a specific problem with software right around burning time with DVDit Pro HD (may not be its fault - but something is preventing me from burning!).  Any help anyone could offer would be greatly appreciated...this is driving me nuts!!

SB

Edited by ciscoheat, 17 May 2009 - 11:29 AM.