Mydvd Hangs When Adding A Chapter Menu - Possible Work-Around

[Scott(GA)]

There have been reports on these forums of DVD projects hanging when a Chapter Menu page is added to a project. The same project without a Chapter Menu works OK.

 

I have spent quite a bit of time picking this issue apart. I noticed that the “loading circle” – or whatever it’s called: it used to be an hourglass in the old days - behaved in a certain way during the creation of a Chapter Menu. This behavior served as the basis for my approach to find a work-around for this issue. The goal is to get the Chapter Menu page to load. If you can do that – even if it’s only with a single chapter – you should be able to add chapters inside the Chapter Menu page and get it to work.

 

I have found a work-around that works for me. Hopefully it will work for others also. Even if it doesn’t work for everybody, perhaps it will provide some insight into what’s causing this issue.

 

Some of the following smacks of superstition but it’s my understanding that it’s only superstition if it doesn’t work. Ha!

Although I had this issue in Creator 2010, Creator 2011 & Creator 2012, I used Creator 2012 for the troubleshooting that led to this work-around.

 

The source materials are 1-hour long HD Tivo files. These files are transferred over my home network to my computer. I do a small amount of editing of the source material and usually wind up with a file that is around 53 minutes long. I place 3 markers spaced roughly 13 minutes – 15 seconds apart and then I click the “Send to myDVD button”.

 

When myDVD comes to life, I click on the “AVCHD” option. Once the project loads I change the menu style – I use “GreenFlow”.

Once the project loads the new menu style, I edit the Titles and such to my liking. I choose “8.5 GB” for the Disc Size.

In the Project View Pane, I click the Production. This will cause all the options in the Edit Pane to come alive

 

In the Edit Pane, I click on Edit Movie. I then change the markers I placed during the video editing to chapter markers and note each markers exact position on the time-line.

 

I click back to myDVD and, in the Project View, click the Production again.

 

In the Edit Pane, I click on Edit Chapters.

 

The “Edit Chapters” box opens and the Chapter Markers automatically populate the chapter pane with icons for each chapter. I click OK and the “Edit Chapters” box closes.

 

And now the fun begins…

 

In the Project View Pane there are now 4 icons, numbered 1-4, under the Chapter Menu. I recommend saving the project at this point as it will speed things up the next time when the project implodes.

 

On my computer clicking on the Chapter Menu in the Project View without a lengthy pause will cause the project to hang immediately. On my computer a wait of 30 seconds is usually enough but I wait 60 seconds just to be sure.

 

Once a suitable amount of time has passed, click on Chapter Menu in the Project View. At this point the little spinning “loading circle” will show up and disappear once for each chapter plus one additional “loading circle”. If things are working right the Chapter Menu will open for editing in the Preview Pane.

 

If things aren’t working right, the project hangs at this point.

 

Use the computer’s task manager to put myDVD out of its misery and restart myDVD. Since you saved the project just prior to the hang point, you can open the project and you should be right back where you were just a few minutes earlier.

 

In the Project View Pane, click on Production – the Edit Pane’s options are now all alive. In the Edit Pane, click on Edit Chapters then remove the last chapter and click OK.

 

The Chapter Menu in the Project View Pane now has 3 chapters beneath it.

 

After I wait 60 seconds, I click on Chapter Menu in the Project View and the Chapter Menu page – for these projects - will now load properly.

That’s great but I’m missing a chapter that I wanted to have. That’s OK. Once one gets the Chapter Menu page to load you can add chapters from inside the Chapter Menu page and – for my project – the project remains stable.

 

In the Chapter Menu page, right click on a Chapter button. A menu box will appear with a variety of options: click on “Edit Chapters”. Since I noted the times on the time-line for where I wanted each chapter to be, I select a point on the time-line that corresponds to that time and click “Add Chapter Here”. Then I click OK. The final chapter I wanted now populates the Chapter Menu page.

 

A little light editing work and the project is ready to burn.

 

I’ve been successful using this approach all but one time. In that instance I had to pick a new location for the last chapter before it would work.

 

Again, the goal is to get the Chapter Menu page to load. If you can do that – even if it’s only with a single chapter – you should be able to add chapters inside the Chapter Menu page and get it to work.

 

 

I hope this is helpful.

 

Best regards,

 

Scott

[Larry]

Try rebooting your computer.

I ran into the same error message today, on a standard DVD project I'm working on in Creator 2012, when I tried to 'burn' to a folder set, which is unusual.

I rebooted the PC and it's rendering fine now.

[d_deweywright]

Congrats. Yes, sometimes it seems like the code is somewhat capricious in what it likes and doesn't like.

[Rob D.]

I was finally able to encode and burn the disc with the wedding reception movie. I deleted the chapters on the second menu page, then recreated them, this time adding one more chapter and changing the time on another by a second or two. Apparently the MyDVD gods deemed this acceptable, because I was able to rename the chapters, generate a folder set with no encoding issues, and burn the disc.

[Rob D.]

I cannot do a BD project, because my copy of Creator 2012 doesn't include the Blu-ray plug-in. I can start an AVCHD project, but Blu-ray is grayed out.

 

In any case, I was finally able to burn a DVD project of the wedding ceremony. I went into Project Settings on the File menu, and changed the menu format from 4:3 to 16:9. For some reason, this allowed me to encode the chapter menus. I was able to generate a folder set, then burn a data disc from it that plays nicely and has fully functioning menus.

 

I hoped that the second disc with the reception movie would work out as well. Unfortunately, it's locking up when editing chapter menus again. I've rendered the movie as an mpeg file, just like I did with the ceremony movie. I loaded it into a new MyDVD project, and set the menu format to 16:9. After manually setting the chapter locations, I was able to edit the names on the first chapter menu. When I try to edit or preview the second page of chapter names, MyDVD locks up. Deleting and recreating the second page of chapters doesn't help. MyDVD simply doesn't like that second chapter menu. If I do manage to edit it, I'll probably still have problems encoding it.

[d_deweywright]

But... the key to what was said, was to change your project to a BD project instead of an AVCHD project. That's the important part. Did you do that?

[Rob D.]

I tried creating a folder set instead of an ISO file, and got the same "8876021c Error while Encoding Menu" error. It seemed to handle the main menu, with just the movie and slideshow titles okay, but crapped out when it tried to encode the chapter menus. MyDVD will also preview the main menu, but not the chapter menus. So even though editing the chapter menus is no longer causing it to lock up, they're still causing problems.

[Jim_Hardin]

Great!

 

If the folder trick works you need only delete the unneeded folders as Dave said.

 

An example of that is in this Topic: HERE

[d_deweywright]

Rob D., I had an AVCHD project I was working on once that also bombed out when encoding the menu while creating the .ISO file. I found that if I changed my project to be a BR project, and encoded that to a Folder set, it worked fine. The difference between an AVCHD project, and a BR project, is that there are some extra folders in the BR project. So, I deleted the extra folders, wrote the folder set to DVD, and it played fine in a BR player.

 

Not sure if that will help you or not, I hope it does.

[Rob D.]

The SSD has 55.9 GB of free space. It's almost exactly half full. I'm storing the ISO file on the terabyte hard drive, in the same folder as the .dmsm and mpeg files that I'm creating the project from. That drive has 683 GB of free space.

 

The movie I'm trying to burn is about an hour and 10 minutes (DVD quality mpeg), and the slideshow is a little over 5 minutes. Since I'm trying to encode a 8.5 GB dual-layer disc, there's plenty of free space at HQ quality with no compression.

 

I could generate a new project with a shorter movie, but even if it works, I don't have much leeway to edit the wedding video to make it shorter.

[bimicher]

I checked the Catalyst Control Center software and video driver for updates, and both are the latest version. Windows is installed on an SSD, but the programs and video data files are on a 1-terabyte hard drive. Windows reports 0% fragmentation, and it automatically checks and defrags it weekly.

 

I'm aware that AVCHD discs will only play on a Blu-ray player, which was my intention.

 

My PC actually has a Blu-ray burner, which included one BD-R disc. Unfortunately, my version of Creator 2012 doesn't include the module for burning Blu-ray discs. When MyDVD starts up, the button for selecting a Blu-ray project is grayed out.

 

Video Wave seems to have no problem rendering MPEG and MP4 files from my edited movie productions, but MyDVD can't seem to handle encoding the ISO files.

How much free space on that SSD drive? Where are you storing the iso file?

 

Have you tried to create an iso file from your project if the time length is less then 60 minutes at HQ quality?

[Rob D.]

Just for the heck of it, I tried writing an ISO file again using the DVD project created from the MPEG files. The only thing different was that I selected "DVD +DL" instead of "DVD -DL." The "+" is the correct format for the discs I have, so it's what I should have used the first time. This time, instead of getting an error encoding the movie, I got error "8876021c Error while Encoding Menu."

 

On another note, I got a response back from Corel/Roxio tech support. They suggested upgrading to NXT 4, or checking out this forum.

[Rob D.]

I checked the Catalyst Control Center software and video driver for updates, and both are the latest version. Windows is installed on an SSD, but the programs and video data files are on a 1-terabyte hard drive. Windows reports 0% fragmentation, and it automatically checks and defrags it weekly.

 

I'm aware that AVCHD discs will only play on a Blu-ray player, which was my intention.

 

My PC actually has a Blu-ray burner, which included one BD-R disc. Unfortunately, my version of Creator 2012 doesn't include the module for burning Blu-ray discs. When MyDVD starts up, the button for selecting a Blu-ray project is grayed out.

 

Video Wave seems to have no problem rendering MPEG and MP4 files from my edited movie productions, but MyDVD can't seem to handle encoding the ISO files.

[Jim_Hardin]

According to Roxio, 8004520c is related to your video card compatibility OR a fragmented HDD Sooooo make sure you have the latest update to your Video Card Software as well as drivers.

And assuming you are not using an SDD drive, defragment you HDD even when it tells you it doesn't need it.

Reboot and give it a try

You know that an AVCHD disc will only play on a Blu-ray Player?
Movie capacity to disc for AVCHD is only:

AVCHD on 8.5 DVD

• HQ – 1:13
• SP – 1:24
• LP – 1:39
• EP – 2:15

So if you want Quality you have to limit it to 1:13. Most folks can tell the difference of SP from HQ - i can and you only gain about 10 minutes.

 

If you bump it up to a 25 GB BD you can get 3:29 at HQ and almost 7 hours with a 50 GB.

 

Of course if you can't burn it really doesn't matter

[Rob D.]

The wedding ceremony movie is about an hour and 10 minutes, and the reception movie is an hour and 50 minutes. My original plan was to put the ceremony and slideshow on one dual-layer disc in AVCHD format, and the reception on a second DL disc, also in AVCHD. When I had trouble editing the chapters, I tried putting both on one DL disc in standard definition with Fit-to-disc giving me SP quality. In either case, I kept running into MyDVD locking up every time I tried to edit chapter menus.

 

On another thread, I saw advice about exporting an MPEG file from Video Wave, and using the MPEG file to create the MyDVD project so that the rendering is done separately from the burning. I created a project with just the ceremony and slideshow on a DL disc, so there is plenty of room to spare with no compression. Amazingly, I could create and edit chapters in this project with no problem. However, when I tried to create the ISO file, I got the same "8004520c Error while encoding Movie 1" error again. So somehow pre-rendering the video fixed the chapter editing problem, but not the encoding problem.

 

In the past, I've successfully burned DVD+R, DVD-R, and DVD DL discs with no problem, using Creator versions 7 and 9. I bought Creator 2012 to handle AVCHD content from my HD camcorder, but I haven't really used it much until now. Now that I have this wedding video to burn to disc, I'm finding version 2012 to be less reliable than its predecessors.

[bimicher]

How long in time is your movie? What output setting are you using? A standard 4.7GB DVD can only hold 60 minutes of HQ video (a DL DVD only about 100 minutes). By using a lower quality setting, you can squeeze on more video but get reduced quality of course. If you used "Fit-to-disc" then you usually get a defect DVD if your total video exceeds the DVD size or the program may crash with that error.

Are you merging all movies and the slideshow into one movie (A Title) and then dividing that single movie into your 9 chapters?

 

As I said in an earlier post, I have never had any problem making chapters for a DVD movie. I never used DL DVDs since they are more trouble then they are worth. They are also disappearing from stores rapidly since they never caught on.

 

BTW, NXT 4 no longer has the previous myDVD version. It has a completely new version which most of us find useless and very limited in its functions.

[Rob D.]

I'm experiencing the same problem with MyDVD in Creator 2012. I used VideoWave to create movies of a wedding ceremony and reception, and a slideshow of photos. The movies use the "dissolve" transition between panels, and were edited from AVCHD video recorded on a Sony HandyCam.

 

First I tried to create an AVCHD disc on an 8.5 GB dual-layer DVD, using just the wedding ceremony movie and slideshow. I manually set the locations of chapters in the "Edit Chapters" panel. As soon as I tried to interact with the chapter menus in any way, either to rename the chapters or preview the menu, MyDVD would freeze, and I would have to use Task Manager to close it.

 

I tried creating chapters without renaming them, and then creating an ISO file of the project. The encoding process went to 100%, but displayed the error message "8876021c Error while Importing Media" and no ISO file was saved. I then tried recreating the project with no chapters, and the ISO encoding stalled at 43%.

 

I then tried creating a standard definition DVD, again on a dual-layer DVD, this time including both movies and the slideshow. This time, when I created the chapters, I was able to edit the chapter names on the first chapter menu, but MyDVD would freeze when I tried to edit the other two chapter menus (I had 9 chapters, 4 on the first two menu pages, and 1 on the last page).

 

I recreated the project without chapters, and tried writing an ISO file. The encoding process reached 100%, but generated the error message "8004520c Error while Encoding Movie 1." It did save an ISO file, but the file size was only 2.8 GB, while the project was enough to fill a 8.5 GB DL disc.

 

I also ran the Repair process on the Creator 2012 installation, with no change in results.

 

I've submitted the issue to Corel/Roxio tech support, but I'm not confident they're going to be helpful.

 

I'm considering upgrading to Creator NXT 4, but I have little confidence that it with perform any better, since this issue seems to occur across versions of Creator both before and after 2012. Even if I can manage to encode an error-free ISO file, I don't like having a disc with hours of video with no chapters. Adding chapters in MyDVD seems to make the project highly unstable.

 

 

 

[bimicher]

So what Roxio program are you using?

Scott was talking about C2012 and for that program his long-winded workaround is not needed.

[frankv41]

Scott!

 

I just came across this topic while trying to solve this exact problem... I've been tearing out what little hair I left for six months over just this issue... Just followed your workaround and it worked like a charm!!!

 

The best help I've ever gotten on this forum...

 

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!

 

Best,

 

Frank

[klmfin]

Scott,

Unfortunately, in Creator NXT Pro, when I successfully get to the Chapter Menu with only one chaper and attempt to add a chapter, I get the Generating Chapters and chapter menu pop up with the orange progress bar...that keeps going and going and starting over and over again...until I stop it with task manager.

 

I was so hoping this would work for me!

[Jim_Hardin]

Never had this issue with Chapters

[Scott(GA)]

I had to go to meet a friend for dinner so I had to cut my first post a little short.

 

I'm going to add a bit of amplifying information that may be useful to others that encounter this problem.

 

As I mentioned, my 53 minute long file had 3 chapters. These chapters were located at roughly the 1/4, 1/2 & 3/4 points of the video.

 

Attempting to render the Chapter Menu page with this arrangement caused myDVD to hang.

 

Restarting the project and removing the 3/4 point chapter allowed me to render the Chapter Menu page.

 

Removing only the 1/4 point chapter and attempting to render the Chapter Menu caused the program to hang again.

 

I made several trials with adding and removing chapters; some changes caused hanging when a render attempt was made and other changes worked OK.

 

As a result of my trials, it appears that in my case the Chapter Menu problem is caused by chapter location. A chapter late in the video caused the rendering of the Chapter Menu to hang.

 

With the 3/4 point chapter removed I added 4 chapters between the start chapter and the 1/2 point chapter. myDVD successfully rendered 6 icons on the Chapter Menu page.

 

Again, once I got the Chapter Menu page to render, I could add additional chapters late in the video and this would work around the problem I was having.

 

Best regards,

 

Scott

[bimicher]

There have been reports on these forums of DVD projects hanging when a Chapter Menu page is added to a project. The same project without a Chapter Menu works OK.

.

.

.

 

Again, the goal is to get the Chapter Menu page to load. If you can do that – even if it's only with a single chapter – you should be able to add chapters inside the Chapter Menu page and get it to work.

 

 

I hope this is helpful.

 

Best regards,

 

Scott

 

I have never had any problem with creating chapters in C2012 but then I don't do it your cumbersome way.

 

Don't waste your time setting chapters point in Videowave. Do it in myDVD.

 

 

I just tried a project following your workaround by first setting chapter points in VW, etc.

Then when I click on Chapter Menu in the Project view there is no or very little delay before the Chapter Menu page appears with the chapters. I see no "loading circle" at all and there is no hangup. Everything is as it should be and none of of your extra chapter work is required.