Posted by Ken Maltby on 11/18/05 20:30

"Bob" <spam@uce.gov> wrote in message
news:437df453.230137390@news-server.houston.rr.com...
> On Fri, 18 Nov 2005 06:10:55 -0600, "Ken Maltby"
> <kmaltby@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
>> Well, if you mean the first clip plays, then the menu comes up that's
>>pretty easy.
> [snip]
>> Of course, to do this you will have to have made your own menu
>>theme. You can't edit the supplied ones like that.
>
> Awesome - it actually works as advertised.
>
> I really like TDA thus far. But I am not going to be surprised if I
> run into a major bug somewhere.
>
> What will surprise me is if I don't run into any major bugs. As I
> mentioned I have run into a major bug in VRD which is unfortunate
> because it otherwise seems to work, albeit a bit clunky.
>

Bugs you say, well at least it's not pink elephants.

>>There is no rendering going on with TDA,
>
> Then what you are saying is that the pre-rendering I had to do in MF4
> is not necessary in TDA and the only thing happening when I do the
> final composition in TDA it is the essentially the same as doing the
> final composition in MF4 with pre-rendered clips.
>

I can't speak to how MF4 works, but TDA has no video
encoder. It was developed by the maker of a very good and
well known MPEG Encoder. In those days anyone who
might want the DVD Authoring program would already have
an Encoder. This separation of functions, the encoding and
the authoring, has, for the most part, been beneficial to the
development of both. Until very recently, it has kept TDA
a lean and smooth operating piece of software.

One thing TDA has been good at is "working well with others".
It is designed to allow the importation of graphic elements, made
with other programs. The menu can be visually just about
anything your ingenuity and/or creative ability can provide. TDA
can even do some of the work for you, for instance it will apply
a highlight layer to a graphic without one, when you replace an
existing "button" with your own graphic.

Replacing the background image or clip with one of your own
and using appropriate, interesting fonts can make a real impact.

Where TDA is less helpful, is in the amount of control it
provides for menu responses. Some other authoring programs,
like DVD Lab Pro, make it easier to create unusual menu actions.
To get the same or a greater level of control and use TDA, you
need something like the free PGCedit to modify TDA's output.
TDA provides for the common, and a number of less common,
menu responses (and can be tricked into even more) but not
all the possibilities available through the VM command set.

>>except the audio in certain circumstances.
>
> What are those certain circumstances? Dolby stuff?
>
It will convert the sample rate to the DVD standard, and
can encode the audio to DVD requirements for LPCM, MP2
(MPEG 1 layer 2), or two channel AC3 ( Dolby stuff). It
will allow the pass through of multi-channel (e.g. 5.1) audio,
but you won't hear the audio in TDA, the audio will be fine in
the resulting DVD though.

> What is left for me to learn? Up to this point I am pretty much able
> to do everything I did in MF4, at a considerably easier effort. I used
> to cringe every time I opened MF4 knowing it was going to hassle me in
> some time-consuming manner.
>

Oh, there is still plenty to learn, but much of that will depend on
what directions you want to go. There are plenty of shortcuts and
alternate ways of doing things. There are tricks and techniques that
can take TDA even farther. Mark Burns, has some great tricks,
and I've posted a few I've found. There are plenty of guides and
resources to aid working with TDA, on the net.

> This morning I plan to conduct those tests I mentioned earlier with
> the two clips that crippled MF4. I will import them to VRD to get them
> conditioned for DVD use and take them from there into TDA. I will
> report on what I find in detail.
>

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