ms

Hi,

I'm doing a DVD backup using DVD Author and adding my own basic menu
screen (just title no chapters). The DVD has 2 audio tracks in the VOB
files, the normal one and a director's commentary.

The total size of the DVD files is 4.2 before I start using DVD Author. In
DVD Author I use 'Add DVD Video' to load the appropriate title, no problem
the 'capacity bar' shows 4214MB. But when I look at the settings, the
dialog says 'monolingual' (one audio track). Because the VOB files contain
2 audio tracks, it will allow me to change 'monolingual' to 'bilingual'
(two audio tracks) but as soon as I do this the 'capacity bar' shows
4601MB tipping the resulting size over the capacity of a '4.7' GB DVD.
This means if I want to re-author the DVD I can only retain one audio
track and I'm forced to lose the directors commentary.

I don't understand why this is the case or how I can get around it. Both
audio tracks are in the original VOB files at 4.2 GB in size, I don't want
to do anything to the audio or the video -- just leave them as-is and add
a simple menu screen with the name of the movie and a screenshot to start
the movie rolling. Why does DVD Author inflate the size with the 2nd audio
track? I'm not re-encoding any sound, in fact I don't even have the Dolby
Digital plug-in.

Any advice and explanation on this and how to get around this problem
would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

MS

ken maltby

It may just be how it is reading the .mpg files it made when
you used the "Add DVD video" process.

By the way, how did you select the audio in the "Add DVD
video"process? It normally asks for a track to associate with
your title. Is it during this process that you made it bilingual?

Why not just go ahead and make one, to your hard drive,
with the two tracks and see if your player can switch between
them? If it works and is still too big then use DVDShrink on
it.

Luck;
Ken

ms

Ken Maltby emailed this:


Ken,

I didn't add .mpg files at all, I used the 'add dvd video' button which
allows you to add 'titles' from a DVD VIDEO_TS folder, this is different
from 'add file' which allows you to add .mpg files. When you use 'add dvd
video' the audio is automatically the audio contained in the VOB files of
the 'title' you selected. If there are more than one audio tracks in the
'title', you can select which one to add. I am now fairly sure what I wish
to do is not possible using DVD Author. :-( Unless anyone knows different?

Cheers,

MS

ken maltby

You didn't read my post either, I guess. Did you notice two
times I quoted the term "Add DVD video"? Did you try just
going ahead and authoring it to your hard drive as bilingual and
seeing if your PC DVD player can switch the audio? It may
work like the way 5.1 audio is preserved if you author the DVD
with out the plugin. But I guess we'll never know since you can't
be bothered to try any suggestions.

Luck;
Ken

ken maltby

Another thing you could try is to go to the "Destination"
folder that TDA made when you used the "Add DVD video"
process and play one of the .mpg files there. You could see
if that has both audio tracks, using your PC DVD player also.

Luck;
Ken

ivan iv

Last time I checked TDA could work only with a single audio track.
What you want to do cannot be done with TDA. Why don't you use DVD
Shrink instead of DVD Author? You could keep the whole DVD structure,
including menus, extras, subtitles, etc... If you insist on
re-authoring, you need some other program. Unfortunatelly, I know only
Sonic Scenarist, which is a Rolls-Royce among DVD authoring programs,
you probably would not want to use it.