Can't burn a dvd-a properly anymore!

Ok, this is holding up all future releases, so I'm hoping for a fast fix. I've not changed anything in my setup, so I'm not sure why this problem has come out of nowhere, but it's killing me here.

When I try to burn a dvd-a in chrome with my imported video_ts folder created in dvd lab pro 2, I now get an error:

A VTS with pre commands is not legal for VIDEO_TS import (VTS_PRE_CMD_Ns)
A VTS with more than one post command is not legal for VIDEO_TS import. (VTS_POST_CMD_Ns).

It does give me an option to continue, although I tried that and it failed and gave me a coaster. I don't know if that was because of this, because it isn't unusual for chrome to screw up and give me a coaster from time to time. But, even if it completes successfully, I don't know what this error means, and what problems it can mean for my disc.

I've not done anything different in dvd lab pro 2. Just my simple disc, 2 menus, one for stream selection, one with track selection, one movie with the mpeg-2 created in magix from slides, dolby digital audio, and dts 9624 audio. I don't know what it's talking about with pre commands or post commands, and I've not added anything or changed any settings, this just came out of nowhere, and I have things building up that I can't finish now.

Hopefully someone can point me in the right direction of figuring out what is going wrong here. Maybe Neil can shed some light on these error messages and what they mean.

In addition to this issue, when clicking continue, twice now I've gotten this error after my computer freezes up for a while

Recorder Error:
SDK error - Drive operation was not successful.
Selection timeout occurred.
Check cables and power.
(0x4000091) (4000)
6

I highly doubt there's any problem with my hardware, it's the same drives and cables I've always used, and I don't run into these issues with any other software.

Would creating a "disc image" in Chrome from the files, then burning from that file work rather than burning directly to disc? Or do you get the same errors?

Trying to do the useless chrome specific format for creating an image does give me the same error message about the video_ts.

This may sound stupid, but did you try going to device manager, deleting the DVD-ROM drive, rebooting and having Windows re-find it and reinstall the drivers?

I haven't tried that, but I found that one of my hard drives has been acting funny lately, so I disconnected it and burned a disc successfully. i don't know if the errors will cause any issues, but now I'm finding my track layout to be off on the dvd-v side. I blame Magix, I recently converted some VHS tapes to dvd, and found Magix to be a steaming pile of garbage! The timings that magix gives me almost never matches up to the timing of the files it produces. But, for the slide shows in past conversions, usually it has been accurate enough to get by, but not today, something is seriously off with magix lately, so now I need to find a new method of creating slides and getting track timings. Plus, I still have to figure out if the video_ts errors are going to cause issues.

Edit: The timing I got seems to be fine on the dvd-a side, and I used the same times on the dvd-v side, so it just may be VLC doing a bad job at going to the start point. So magix may still be adequate for creating an mpeg-2 slide show for these projects. But, if anyone ever decides to get into some real video editing, stay far away from it, it caused me nothing but headaches, I lost a lot of hours of time and had to redo a lot of stuff due to magix screwing with the timing of the video.

Ok, I am getting really pissed off at whatever idiots are programming this "professional" software. I would like to take up a few issues if I ever met these people.

So, I have the same audio that is the same time. And I found the timing of the start of each track. And I used these exact same timings exactly on the dvd-v side and dvd-a side.

The dvd-a side is perfect.

The dvd-v side gets more and more off as it plays. And it isn't an issue with it snapping it to the nearest I frame, I leave at least a half second of silence before a track when picking the track point to avoid problems.

This past week I've lost a lot of time due to screwy things in the world of video. I feel like every piece of software has it's own unique definition of what a second is. Someone is screwing with timing, everything just picks it's own way of defining time. I don't get how I can lay out the same chapters with the same audio in 2 different formats, and get 2 different results. Something is screwing with me.

For example, the last track is supposed to start at 00:56:08:00. This is where it starts in the audio when it was laid out in magix. This is where I started the slide in magix. This is the timing I used in chrome, and it times out right. The dvd-v is a few seconds into the track when I skip to it. I checked the project in dvd lab pro 2, and find that the slide change takes place at 56:05, 3 seconds early. When I listen to the dvd, the music does line up right to the slide change at 56:05. Magix says this point is 56:08, chrome says this point is 56:08, dvd lab pro 2 says this point is 56:05.

Where did my 3 seconds go?

Meanwhile.....I decide, ok, if dvd lab pro 2 can't figure out the length of a second, maybe dvd architect can figure it out.
So I open up dvd architect.
First of all, I can't figure out how to make a damn menu. But, that doesn't matter.
Because dvd architect thinks that a 781 MB mpeg file needs to take up 3.6 GB of a dvd.
In what universe does a dvd that only contains a 781 MB mpeg need to take up 3.6 GB of space?

I'm about ready to throw in the towel, never in my life has making conversions been so much aggravation. I love having the full package, but I hate dealing with artwork, menus, authoring, and screwy software that fights me every step of the way and makes more and more work for me.

Ok, here's the score.

Magix, and Chrome and Vegas believe that the last track of the disc starts at 56:08.
Dvd lap pro, dvd architect, and sound forge believe that the last track starts at 56:05

Are there two different methods of measuring time? Did I miss this memo? What in the heck?

I give up, nothing is getting finished this weekend. Everything is on hold for now.

ArmyOfQuad said:

Ok, here's the score.

Magix, and Chrome believe that the last track of the disc starts at 56:08.
Dvd lap pro, dvd architect, and sound forge believe that the last track starts at 56:05

Are there two different methods of measuring time? Did I miss this memo? What in the heck?

I give up, nothing is getting finished this weekend. Everything is on hold for now.

Click to expand...

Don't know if this will help, but I use ImgBurn(freeware) to both create my ISO images from VTS files and to burn to DVD. Very stable - NEVER had a problem. Might mean a few extra steps but it works fine for me,

Something is up with the darn encoding to mpeg-2. Both mpegs I created, one in magix, one in vegas, come out short. The length of my audio files is 57:49. I laid them out in magix and vegas, so the final result from those should be EXACTLY the same, there is just no reason it shouldn't line up. Yet, the mpeg from magix is 57:46, from vegas 57:45. The magix is 3 seconds short, there are my 3 seconds that are missing. Yet...no, this still all doesn't make sense, because sound forge says that the last track should start 3 seconds earlier from where magix and vegas tell me.

This is all screwy.

Nothing will time out right, there is no consistency.

I cannot do a damn thing until I get consistent software. My whole process is off, not one more damn disc can leave my computer until someone programs something that works.

Shop is closed.

Damn it, now I find out this problem goes back further. At some point I stopped closely inspecting the dvd-v portion, I would check the beginning of the first few songs and call it good. It looks like many of my past conversions have chapter issues on the dvd-v portion.

Just lovely.....

It just pisses me off that I work so hard, and take pride in my work, and some lousy programmer somewhere along the way has made software that isn't working properly that has ruined my work. I have a lot of work to redo, I will never get caught up...

I just checked back further. I used to get my chapter timings from sound forge, which resulted in chapters and slides not lining up. Which is why at some point I switched to getting my chapter timings from magix, so that chapters and slides would line up. I don't remember details, but I guess when I made this discovery, I had left enough silence that the tracks I noticed this on were still lining up well enough to the slides.

Now I went back and checked my Jefferson Starship conversion, which I know I did a while back. The audio lines up with the chapters fine, but the slides lag slightly, the song starts, then the chapter changes.

It seems I may have always had timing discrepencies, and I don't know what's what anymore. I don't know why there are 2 different definitions of a second, but apparently I've stumbled onto something horrible that needs to be sorted out.

Hopefully I can get to the bottom of this and get back to releasing things, but I'm not sure what is what now.

It's those damned metric seconds.

ArmyOfQuad said:

I don't know why there are 2 different definitions of a second

Click to expand...

I know in some programs (like audio editors) the last (second) of the time indicator can be decimal or frames. For example one second on a CD has 75 frames (sectors).
For Video however there are different timecodes (and drop/non drop variants) which makes it more messy to deal with. Maybe some of those differences has bitten you.

BTW if the DVD-A portions on your release were OK, isn't that what counts?

PS PS Yes Chrome is buggy and no chance it will ever be fixed. The "useless" image can be burned with ImgBurn (as has been mentioned). That avoids most of those coaster situations.

I posted this over to videohelp.com, and I got this answer:

You're checking the timings using 2 different methods. One (the one that says 56:08) is using drop-frame timing (29.97fps), and the other (56:05, accurate for the audio but not for the video) is using non-drop-frame timing (30fps). You're already aware of the problem and how to fix it, so adjust the chapter points accordingly. I don't use any of the programs mentioned, so I can't help there.


I suppose this is how things are done in the world of video. But I have to say, in what world is it ok to take a standard unit of measurement, and tweak it a bit to fit your need, and call it and treat it as if it's the same standard unit of measurement? Absolutely ludicrous if you ask me. Although this still doesn't explain why my dvd-a portions were correct though. Chrome should be using actual time, not this drop frame bullshit, and the timings I got out of magix are drop frame, so by this theory the dvd-a and dvd-v portions of the disc should be identically wrong. I'm gonna have to go back and do some checking now.

ArmyOfQuad said:

I posted this over to videohelp.com, and I got this answer:

You're checking the timings using 2 different methods. One (the one that says 56:08) is using drop-frame timing (29.97fps), and the other (56:05, accurate for the audio but not for the video) is using non-drop-frame timing (30fps). You're already aware of the problem and how to fix it, so adjust the chapter points accordingly. I don't use any of the programs mentioned, so I can't help there.


I suppose this is how things are done in the world of video. But I have to say, in what world is it ok to take a standard unit of measurement, and tweak it a bit to fit your need, and call it and treat it as if it's the same standard unit of measurement? Absolutely ludicrous if you ask me. Although this still doesn't explain why my dvd-a portions were correct though. Chrome should be using actual time, not this drop frame bullshit, and the timings I got out of magix are drop frame, so by this theory the dvd-a and dvd-v portions of the disc should be identically wrong. I'm gonna have to go back and do some checking now.

Click to expand...

It's been that way since television needed accurate time-coding and there was a difference in timing between 24fps film w/3:2 pull-down and color video at 29.97fps which is slightly slower than B/W television timing. Same thing happened in the 70's/early 80's with digital sampling at 44.1 when used with video equipment - it was slowed down a bit.

Yeah, I get it. But, to me the bottom line is:

A second is the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium 133 atom.

Anything that is using a time code in which a second is anything different from above, should not call it a second.

But, that's just me, I get nitpicky when these things come up that I should know about and don't know about and result in me making mistakes.

So would this work instead? More work, but create an MPEG for each slide (making the MPEG slightly longer than the music) for the DVD-V side and slide the "length" of the video to match the length of the music for each song.

What is the math to correct the slides to the proper audio timing? Would a 29.97 fps to non-drop-frame timing 30 fps converter be of help?