18 replies to this topic

[vtravis]

I want to add chapters to movies (so they don't play as one long DVD movie). Right now my program automatically assigns chapters at 5 minute intervals. How do I modify that to something less (every 2 or 3 minutes) or to my own intervals (chapter 1 is 3 minutes, chapter 2 is 2:30, etc)?

Just for clarification - I am talking about a way to add 'jumps' into the movie, so it's not one long movie. I'm not necessarily talking about making more chapter buttons on the menu screen. If there is just one button on the menu screen, but I could skip through the movie to different spots when it's playing in the DVD player, that would be fine.

Hope that's more clear.

[Larry]

Basics:

Open MyDVD (Create DVDs).

Add your movie to the menu.

Right click on the movie and select Edit Chapters.

Mark the Chapters using whichever method you want.

De-select (uncheck) the option to create chapter sub-menus.

Click OK

[vtravis]

Basics:

Open MyDVD (Create DVDs).

Add your movie to the menu.

Right click on the movie and select Edit Chapters.

Mark the Chapters using whichever method you want.

De-select (uncheck) the option to create chapter sub-menus.

Click OK

Thanks for the reply. You mentioned that I should open "My DVD". Is there an option to open my DVD within Toast 10?

[myguggi]

Thanks for the reply. You mentioned that I should open "My DVD". Is there an option to open my DVD within Toast 10?

You would have to ask that question in the Toast forums - this is the Windows products forum.

[Larry]

Thanks for the reply. You mentioned that I should open "My DVD". Is there an option to open my DVD within Toast 10?

Ah, a key piece of information you left out of your original post.

Taost 10 = Mac product. Creator 2010 (area you posted in) = Windows product.

Forget the suggestion posted as it is not relevant. we'll get your post moved to the Toast 10 area so someone who uses that product can help you.

[tsantee]

I want to add chapters to movies (so they don't play as one long DVD movie). Right now my program automatically assigns chapters at 5 minute intervals. How do I modify that to something less (every 2 or 3 minutes) or to my own intervals (chapter 1 is 3 minutes, chapter 2 is 2:30, etc)?

Just for clarification - I am talking about a way to add 'jumps' into the movie, so it's not one long movie. I'm not necessarily talking about making more chapter buttons on the menu screen. If there is just one button on the menu screen, but I could skip through the movie to different spots when it's playing in the DVD player, that would be fine.

Hope that's more clear.

What format is the source video? For most formats you can click the Edit button next to the video and you'll see an option to select the time interval for chapter markers. If the video is MPEG format then Toast will automatically create markers every five minutes if no marks are present in the source. If there are existing chapter markers in the source video then Toast uses those.

The only way to place markers in specific places is to do this in iMovie and then have Toast "automatically" use those markers in the video DVD.

[bdiament]

Hi tsantee,

What format is the source video? For most formats you can click the Edit button next to the video and you'll see an option to select the time interval for chapter markers. If the video is MPEG format then Toast will automatically create markers every five minutes if no marks are present in the source. If there are existing chapter markers in the source video then Toast uses those.

The only way to place markers in specific places is to do this in iMovie and then have Toast "automatically" use those markers in the video DVD.

I'm encountering a similar issue.
I purchased a DVD from Europe that is in PAL format.  While I can play it in my Mac, I can't play it in my DVD player to watch on my projector and hear through the "big" system.

I extracted the TS folder using another program I have and was able to use Toast to convert it to NTSC but the original chapter marks are not there; only one every 5 minutes that Toast put in.

(When I brought the TS folder into Toast, I did not see all the files contained in the TS folder but the image file I created does have all the main content.  It only lost the original menu page.)

Is there a way I can use the TS folder to convert to NTSC and burn a DVD with the original chapter markers intact?  (It would be nice to have the original menu page too but I'll take what I can get.)

Thanks for any light you can shed on this.

Best regards,
Barry
www.soundkeeperrecordings.com
www.barrydiamentaudio.com

[tsantee]

Hi tsantee,
Is there a way I can use the TS folder to convert to NTSC and burn a DVD with the original chapter markers intact?  (It would be nice to have the original menu page too but I'll take what I can get.)

Thanks for any light you can shed on this.

Best regards,
Barry
www.soundkeeperrecordings.com
www.barrydiamentaudio.com

I'm not aware of any way to have Toast retain the existing chapter markers when transcoding MPEG 2 video from PAL to NTSC or vice versa.

[bdiament]

Hi tsantee,

I'm not aware of any way to have Toast retain the existing chapter markers when transcoding MPEG 2 video from PAL to NTSC or vice versa.

Thank you for your reply.
Looks like I have to live with the every-5-minutes chapters, unless there's another way.
iDVD won't open the Toast image files I create when converting to NTSC.

Best regards,
Barry
www.soundkeeperrecordings.com
www.barrydiamentaudio.com

[tsantee]

Hi tsantee,



Thank you for your reply.
Looks like I have to live with the every-5-minutes chapters, unless there's another way.
iDVD won't open the Toast image files I create when converting to NTSC.

Best regards,
Barry
www.soundkeeperrecordings.com
www.barrydiamentaudio.com

The only way I can think of is to convert the video to DV, import to iMovie, add markers there and then add the iMovie project to Toast using the Media Browser.

[bdiament]

Hi tsantee,

The only way I can think of is to convert the video to DV, import to iMovie, add markers there and then add the iMovie project to Toast using the Media Browser.

Thanks.
I might give this a try.

Best regards,
Barry
www.soundkeeperrecordings.com
www.barrydiamentaudio.com

[bdiament]

Hi tsantee,

The only way I can think of is to convert the video to DV, import to iMovie, add markers there and then add the iMovie project to Toast using the Media Browser.

Can Toast 10 convert TS to DV?
If so, how do I go about this?

Thanks in advance.

Best regards,
Barry
www.soundkeeperrecordings.com
www.barrydiamentaudio.com

[tsantee]

Hi tsantee,



Can Toast 10 convert TS to DV?
If so, how do I go about this?

Thanks in advance.

Best regards,
Barry
www.soundkeeperrecordings.com
www.barrydiamentaudio.com

The settings are in the Convert window. Select the VIDEO_TS folders setting in the Convert window. Select what you want to convert and click the red button. In the window that appears click the Device button and choose Digital Video (DV) as the export format.

[bdiament]

Hi tsantee,

The settings are in the Convert window. Select the VIDEO_TS folders setting in the Convert window. Select what you want to convert and click the red button. In the window that appears click the Device button and choose Digital Video (DV) as the export format.

Thanks for your much appreciated help with this.

Best regards,
Barry
www.soundkeeperrecordings.com
www.barrydiamentaudio.com

[bdiament]

Well, I tried taking the disk image I created with Toast (when I converted from PAL to NTSC) and converting it to DV.  Then I imported the DV into iMovie (took several hours).  Before proceeding, I just watched some of it in iMovie and felt it had lost too much "crispness" in the conversion.  

Now it looked so soft, I decided I prefer the first conversion (to NTSC), even though it has chapter markers arbitrarily placed every five minutes.  At least the video still looks good when projected on the large screen.  The DV conversion looked too "soft" even on the laptop.

I haven't done this before so don't know for sure if it is expectable in a conversion to DV.  Perhaps I missed something.  ?  In any event, unless I learn a better way, I'll be happy with the chapters every 5 minutes.

Thanks again.

Best regards,
Barry
www.soundkeeperrecordings.com
www.barrydiamentaudio.com

[tsantee]

Well, I tried taking the disk image I created with Toast (when I converted from PAL to NTSC) and converting it to DV.  Then I imported the DV into iMovie (took several hours).  Before proceeding, I just watched some of it in iMovie and felt it had lost too much "crispness" in the conversion.  

Now it looked so soft, I decided I prefer the first conversion (to NTSC), even though it has chapter markers arbitrarily placed every five minutes.  At least the video still looks good when projected on the large screen.  The DV conversion looked too "soft" even on the laptop.

I haven't done this before so don't know for sure if it is expectable in a conversion to DV.  Perhaps I missed something.  ?  In any event, unless I learn a better way, I'll be happy with the chapters every 5 minutes.

Thanks again.

Best regards,
Barry
www.soundkeeperrecordings.com
www.barrydiamentaudio.com

Apparently the multiple conversions caused the video to lose sharpness. I have a different application in which I can mark specific chapter points on MPEG 2 video files but it is expensive and a pain to use so I won't recommend it. You might do some searching to see if you can find something. If it is essential that scenes be accessed by their original chapter marks then you could do the following steps:

1. Select DVD video as the format in the Video window.
2. Choose DVD with the top button of the Media Browser. Use the browser to locate your VIDEO_TS folder or the original unencrypted DVD disc. Use the browser button below "DVD" to access the chapter level of the  source video. Select all the chapters and add them to the main Video window.
3. When Toast completes copying the chapters to the main window you will see that each chapter now becomes a title. Check the box next to play all items continuously. You also may want to check the box to auto-play the disc on insert so the viewer doesn't have to see the menu before the movie starts playing.
4. Name the titles the way you want and proceed to have Toast create the NTSC version of the disc. Each former chapter now can be accessed via the menu. There may be a slight playback freeze at the point where one title ends and the next begins, which is the nature of DVD players.

[bdiament]

Hi tsantee,

Apparently the multiple conversions caused the video to lose sharpness. I have a different application in which I can mark specific chapter points on MPEG 2 video files but it is expensive and a pain to use so I won't recommend it. You might do some searching to see if you can find something. If it is essential that scenes be accessed by their original chapter marks then you could do the following steps:

1. Select DVD video as the format in the Video window.
2. Choose DVD with the top button of the Media Browser. Use the browser to locate your VIDEO_TS folder or the original unencrypted DVD disc. Use the browser button below "DVD" to access the chapter level of the  source video. Select all the chapters and add them to the main Video window.
3. When Toast completes copying the chapters to the main window you will see that each chapter now becomes a title. Check the box next to play all items continuously. You also may want to check the box to auto-play the disc on insert so the viewer doesn't have to see the menu before the movie starts playing.
4. Name the titles the way you want and proceed to have Toast create the NTSC version of the disc. Each former chapter now can be accessed via the menu. There may be a slight playback freeze at the point where one title ends and the next begins, which is the nature of DVD players.

Thank you for your much appreciated help.
I started to follow the steps but don't see the browser button below "DVD" (to access the chapter level).  
I don't even see "DVD".  (I'm running Toast 10.0.2 on a PowerBook G4 with OS 10.5.8.)

What am I missing?
Here's a screenshot of the point where I got stuck:


Thanks again.

Best regards,
Barry
www.soundkeeperrecordings.com
www.barrydiamentaudio.com

[tsantee]

Hi tsantee,



Thank you for your much appreciated help.
I started to follow the steps but don't see the browser button below "DVD" (to access the chapter level).  
I don't even see "DVD".  (I'm running Toast 10.0.2 on a PowerBook G4 with OS 10.5.8.)

What am I missing?

Thanks again.

Best regards,
Barry
www.soundkeeperrecordings.com
www.barrydiamentaudio.com

The Media Browser is a separate window. Go to the Windows menu and select Show Media Browser.

Edited by tsantee, 18 March 2010 - 07:29 AM.

[bdiament]

Hi tsantee,

The Media Browser is a separate window. Go to the Windows menu and select Show Media Browser.

Doh!    
;-}

Thank you.

Best regards,
Barry
www.soundkeeperrecordings.com
www.barrydiamentaudio.com

Edited by bdiament, 18 March 2010 - 11:54 AM.