Combining Two Videos On One Dvd

[Stevekir]

I have asked this question of Roxann on Roxio's site but all I get is a totally irrelevant answer, obviously from a computer. What a bad impression! Here is my question:

 

I have two videos made by me in Apple's DVD Studio Pro. Each is on its own separate DVD, (each with its own _TS folders.) I now need to combine the two videos on a single DVD, with two menus (titles) offering the two videos. Can Toast 9 do this?

 

Unfortunately, DVD Studio Pro will not allow the combination of two projects within DVD SP.

 

Can anyone here help please?

 

Is there a non-Toast solution?

 

Thanks

 

PowerMac G5 (2004), OS 10.5.4

 

PS: I actually have Toast 7. It would be great if someone could tell me of a way to get Toast 7 to do what I want, but I am prepared to upgrade to 9 if it will definately do what I want.

[tsantee]

Insert one of the DVDs. Choose DVD video as the format in the Toast Video window. Select DVD with the top button of the Toast Media Browser. Drag what appears in the browser window to the Video window. (You can also use the button below "DVD" to select individual titles or chapters from a DVD). Toast extracts the MPEG video from the DVD.

 

Now do the same with the other DVD.

 

You now have Toast ready to author a new video DVD with titles from your two DVDs. You can select the menu thumbnail image by clicking on the thumbnail and dragging the slider that appears below. Everything else is the same as if you were creating a new DVD from any other video files.

 

Toast will not re-encode the video so there's no change in quality.

[Stevekir]

Thanks. I have done that but no luck (but see below). One DVD file loads OK (it is of a single QT movie), but the troublesome one throws an error message about a file "....mpg is not a video file" and the data loaded into Toast (I have Toast 7) loads very quickly and is shown as being only 1 second long. Burning of the two videos to DVD stalls.

 

I have tried the method you listed with two other DVDs that I have made, each of which consists only of a QT movie, and they seem to load into Toast as expected, without any error message and with both files showing their correct length. So the method seems to work.

 

However, I have realised that the troublesome "video" file may not be a video file at all. It was produced as a DVD from a project in DVD Studio Pro (Apple's DVD authoring software). That project consists of a large number of Menus each with a still background graphic and buttons to go on to the next menu. It is really a slide show but for reasons not relevant here I chose to use a series of menus rather than the Slide Show approach which is offered by DVD SP.

 

When the project produced by DVD SP is burned to DVD from within DVD SP it works perfectly on my two DVD players. Each menu (its still graphic) remains on the screen until I press one of two buttons to go to the next or previous menu, (like a Power Point presentation or conventional slide show).

 

I conclude that the troublesome file works on a DVD player because a DVD player is designed to obey buttons and display still images for as long as desired, but for some reason perhaps Toast (7) is designed to handle video streams. In fact, this is the first time that I have tried to use Toast to handle a DVD with menus, all previous operations going back years have been confined to straight QT movies.

 

Any comments?

Edited December 11, 2008 by Stevekir

[tsantee]

Your DVD slide show is a series of still images that are each one chapter in a DVD title. Since it isn't a video stream then the Media Browser cannot extract it. I don't know how one would reauthor a VIDEO_TS folder to contain an existing DVD slide show along with an added movie or slide show. I think you'd need to rebuild the slide show in Toast at the time you are creating your new compilation DVD.

 

To make a DVD slide show in Toast just drag a group of photos to the Video window and Toast will place up to 99 images in each DVD title.

[Stevekir]

Thanks. I am glad to have got to the bottom of it.

 

[3lutz3toe]

Is this direction for Toast 9 or 7? Thanks.

[tsantee]

Is this direction for Toast 9 or 7? Thanks.

Should be the same with either.

[Stevekir]

Should be the same with either.

Yes, the procedure works on my Toast 7.

[3lutz3toe]

I’m still not able to do this in Toast 7.

OK, I insert the DVD. Select DVD-Video on the left side menu.

Then what? Drag the DVD to the Video window? I tried doing that but it says that the files are not supported.

Can someone give me more details?

 

[tsantee]

I’m still not able to do this in Toast 7.

OK, I insert the DVD. Select DVD-Video on the left side menu.

Then what? Drag the DVD to the Video window? I tried doing that but it says that the files are not supported.

Can someone give me more details?

I no longer have Toast 7 on my computers but I went back to my archives to look this up where the Media Browser is located on that version. It is the "Media" button at the top of the left-hand part of the Toast window.

1. Insert the source DVD.

2. Choose DVD video as the Format and then click the Media Button to enter the Media Browser.

3. Choose DVD with the top button of the Media Browser.

4. When something appears in the browser window click the button below "DVD" to access the titles level of the source DVD. When the list of titles appear, drag the ones you want to the main Toast window. This is the stage where Toast extracts the MPEG 2 video files from the DVD, writing them to the Roxio Converted Items folder.

5. Eject the first DVD and and repeat the above with the second DVD.

6. Click on Formats to return to the window where you can prepare your menu. You can change the menu button thumbnail image by clicking on the thumbnail and dragging the slider that appears beneath the thumbnail.

 

Something else that's important is that the Roxio Converted Items folder is automatically emptied when you quit Toast unless you change the default in Toast Preferences. So either change that or don't quit Toast before completing the process of burning your video DVD or creating your disc image.

Edited December 21, 2008 by tsantee

[Stevekir]

I can more-or-less confirm this procedure. Earlier in this thread I followed these steps in Toast 7 up to the point before actually burning to DVD and had two titles in the Toast window ready to burn, each taken from a separate DVD.

[3lutz3toe]

Yes, thank you very much. (I had no idea this was possible w/ Toast 7 before)

 

Everything works just great. Except for one thing.

 

I have a DVD that has Dual Audio. The main one is in Chinese and the other is in VN.

How can I select the VN audio?

I have tried it and it only keeps the main Audio in Chinese.

 

Thanks.

 

 

[tsantee]

Yes, thank you very much. (I had no idea this was possible w/ Toast 7 before)

 

Everything works just great. Except for one thing.

 

I have a DVD that has Dual Audio. The main one is in Chinese and the other is in VN.

How can I select the VN audio?

I have tried it and it only keeps the main Audio in Chinese.

 

Thanks.

I don't know if that is possible in Toast 7. In the later versions you can select a video after it is in the Toast window and then click the Edit button that appears. In the Edit window the audio description becomes a button when there are multiple audio tracks. That's where the specific track can be selected. If that option doesn't appear in Toast 7 then it isn't available.