Manual Chapter Marks

[bvila]

I've added several manual chapter marks to a few DVD clips I'm combining in Toast, but when I play the finished DVD, the chapter marks are progressively off. That is to say, the farther into the DVD you get, the farther in the future the chapter marks are from where they are supposed to be. I have a Chapter 0 that starts at the beginning of the clip, and these DVD clips are not from iMovie or Final Cut. I don't have either. Other than the chapter marks being off, the resultant DVD works. Any thoughts on what could be wrong? How can I fix this?

 

Thanks!

[tsantee]

What are the audio and video specs of the source video?

[bvila]

I'm not quite sure the details, but the clips are from DVD videos in .vob file format, complete with VIDEO_TS folders. Does that help?

[tsantee]

I'm not quite sure the details, but the clips are from DVD videos in .vob file format, complete with VIDEO_TS folders. Does that help?

Toast typically doesn't like VOBs if they are added directly to the Toast window. The way to add those is to place the VIDEO_TS folder on the desktop (if it isn't on a a DVD disc) and choose DVD from the Video tab in the Toast Media Browser. Then select the title(s) you want that show up in the browser and drag them to the main Toast window.

 

I wasn't aware until you posted this that chapters can be added manually to an MPEG 2 video source. They certainly won't be precise because they only can be where there is a key frame that has all the video information. So it makes sense it is off a little, but I don't know why it would be an increasing amount with each added marker. If you didn't use the Media Browser to add the video then do that to see if that makes it better.

[Kujo72]

I've had exactly the same problem with .mp4 files. Toast lets me add the chapter markers in Edit mode but then upon burning the DVD they are erroneous, and progressively further off my manual markers.

Is this a problem with the MPEG 2 files? Will I ever be able to add chapters? For the moment I've abandoned chapters and I'm just burning DVD without chapters, but preferably I'd like the program functionality to be fully working.

I've also tried adding the files through the media browser and it makes no difference. Also turning on/off re-encoding under manual settings. That makes no difference either.

Is there any other workaround for this or have I exhausted all avenues?

My gripe is why does it let me add the chapters manually and then go ahead and put chapter markers wherever it wants them? Some of them are a few minutes off entirely. Frustrating to say the least.

[bvila]

I've had exactly the same problem with .mp4 files. Toast lets me add the chapter markers in Edit mode but then upon burning the DVD they are erroneous, and progressively further off my manual markers.

Is this a problem with the MPEG 2 files? Will I ever be able to add chapters? For the moment I've abandoned chapters and I'm just burning DVD without chapters, but preferably I'd like the program functionality to be fully working.

I've also tried adding the files through the media browser and it makes no difference. Also turning on/off re-encoding under manual settings. That makes no difference either.

Is there any other workaround for this or have I exhausted all avenues?

My gripe is why does it let me add the chapters manually and then go ahead and put chapter markers wherever it wants them? Some of them are a few minutes off entirely. Frustrating to say the least.

 

I did find a bit of a workaround. Let Toast process the file into a DVD image, then add the manual chapter marks to the resultant file, and let Toast create a DVD from that. Seems that certain file formats, or files created certain ways, give Toast issues. But if the file is created by Toast, the manual chapter marks work. At least they worked for me. Hopefully they work for others using this same workaround.

 

Incidentally, when I created the DVD image, I turned off all chapter marks. So the image had no chapter marks and I started with a blank slate when adding chapter marks.

[Pele Leung]

I've had exactly the same problem with .mp4 files. Toast lets me add the chapter markers in Edit mode but then upon burning the DVD they are erroneous, and progressively further off my manual markers.

Is this a problem with the MPEG 2 files? Will I ever be able to add chapters? For the moment I've abandoned chapters and I'm just burning DVD without chapters, but preferably I'd like the program functionality to be fully working.

I've also tried adding the files through the media browser and it makes no difference. Also turning on/off re-encoding under manual settings. That makes no difference either.

Is there any other workaround for this or have I exhausted all avenues?

My gripe is why does it let me add the chapters manually and then go ahead and put chapter markers wherever it wants them? Some of them are a few minutes off entirely. Frustrating to say the least.

 

 

Oops. I intend to do similar thing - bringing in a few MP4s to create a disc with each Mp4 video as an individual chapter. The only difference is that my target is HD MP4s on DVD to be played on Blu-ray players. If the chapter concept is not reliable, my disc output wouldn't be acceptable. For SD DVD, I think it would have been easier to use iMovie to add chapter markers and burn a DVD with iDVD.

 

Pele Leung

[tsantee]

Oops. I intend to do similar thing - bringing in a few MP4s to create a disc with each Mp4 video as an individual chapter. The only difference is that my target is HD MP4s on DVD to be played on Blu-ray players. If the chapter concept is not reliable, my disc output wouldn't be acceptable. For SD DVD, I think it would have been easier to use iMovie to add chapter markers and burn a DVD with iDVD.

 

Pele Leung

Toast is designed to automatically use a video's existing chapter markers or you can create chapters in time intervals or manually select locations for chapter markers. I know that chapters placed in iMovie are retained when the iMovie Project is added to Toast via the Toast Media Browser.