Creating DVD's via 4000pro

[dixons]

Help needed please for this 'rookie' Casablanca owner/user. Since I started using my new unit last week I have managed to do some basic titling/sound level adjustment/music to half a dozen 10/15 minute films. Each of these has rendered/burned to Ridisk 8XDVD-R (120 minutes) disc successfully.

Becoming ambitious, I then edited a 42 minutes film and, using the same procedure as before, attempted to create a DVD. Render Film (1of1) appeared to complete but stalled at this point for several hours. A second attempt also stalled and was left for much longer with the same result. On both occasions I was forced to close down unit by disconnectingthe power source because neither l/clicking on Cancel or r/clicking on roller ball to get back to base had the desired effect. I was, of course, reluctant to shut down by this method but had no other apparent option.

Also, when I tried to back up the storyboard it advised me that there was not enough space on the (new) DVD to do this.

I would be extremely grateful for any advice as to how I might overcome this problem.

Overall I am greatly impressed with the 4000 but very disappointed that neither user manual (Bogart & Arabesk) has a basic index to quickly guide the user to appropriate page(s) in manual.

regards,

dixons

[chetdavis]

Welcome to the Casablanca 'family' !

The issue you experienced (having a DVD 'stall' in the render process) sounds to me like the issue that is now cured with the latest update of DVD Arabesk 4 -- please ensure you have Arabesk 4.1e ('E' as in excellent). This provides a remedy of this issue experienced only by customers using the new S4000/PRO products.

Hope that helps!

Regards,
Chet

[TimKennelly]

That it is freezing up multiple times seems likely to be a corrupt frame or transition issue.

You can "fix" this by using the NOP with audio procedure which I will add to the end of this post.

Regarding backing up to DVD, when using back up for this it is at the native DV compression level and not the highly compressed and lossy MPEG-2 compression level and so you can only fit approximately twenty minutes of footage onto a DVD.

You can use the Scene funtion to Create a Scene of the Storyboard and then Clipboard that to another Project and Split it into twenty minutes or less footage segments, Add one of them to the Storyboard and then use the Backup to DVD function and repeat until all segments are backed up to DVD.

External hard drive is much more efficient for this as you eliminate the capacity issue and it's faster both in Backup and Restore.

Even just using this Scene, Clipboard procedure might "fix" the freeze issue, but as following the NOP with audio step by step with the S4P will take consideably less time than another try and fail, freeze I would just use the NOP with audio process and get on with life.

Two other pieces of information, if you place your cursor over the progress bar when you are wondering if it has frozen will tell you for sure or not as it will flicker several times a minute if working, but will remain stone solid during the entire minute if frozen.

Do not leave the cursor over the progress bar for the entire Add process as it has reported to actually cause freeezes itself occasionally when left for a prolonged time period over the progress bar, go figure.

Also, it sounds like you do not have the most up to date OS version as this bug is reportedly "fixed" with the latest and greatest.

My experience so far has been it still will lock up the first time, but work successfully the second with the newest OS version.

Now for the NOP with audio step by step procedure:

Find your longest original, single scene in the Scene bin and highlight it.

This is normally an original raw input scene, but not a section that includes the direct problem footage Scene.
You want to use a segment of source video that did NOT give you any problems.
IE: A segment you know does NOT have corrupted frames in it.

Go to Special, use Scene->Sample, Ok.

Switch to the Audio Mix menu, highlight (left click on) an empty audio channel, Add, Scroll to the newly created longest audio sample, Ok.

Slide the large Volume slider all the way to the left to Mute this track.

If this audio sample is not as large as your entire Storyboard use Add again, Mute that segment as well.

Do this until you have filled this track the entire length of your Storyboard with all these segments Muted.

Switch back to the main Edit Menu, Go to the beginning of the Storyboard.

Got to IP Effects menu, scroll to NOP, Add.
Left click on the duration window, Range, Ok, Make sure the Band button is in Trim, not Position mode, then choose OUT, scroll the bar all the way to the right(this should now be the duration of the entire Storyboard), left click to come out of the duration bar, Ok.

Left click the Scene button, Range, OUT, scroll the bar all the way to the right(this should now be the duration of the entire Storyboard), left click to come out of the duration bar, Ok.

It will now render the entire Storyboard and create a Scene of it.

This will take some time,but consideraby less than the out to tape and back in method and has been found to be more effective.

When the Scene in created switch to an empty Project.

Go into the Edit menu, Special, Clipboard, Scene from project->Clipboard, select the Project that the newly created Scene is in.

This should bring up that Project's Scene bin at the newly created Scene, select Ok, Clipboard->Project, scroll to the newly created Scene (if you have other stuff in Clipboard), Ok, Ok.

Now you should have the newly created Scene in the Project.

If you want Chapters go into Split and split the Scene at the desired Chapter points, selecting Use for all.

Then put all those Chapter Scenes onto the Storyboard in order.

Switch to Arabesk, Film and remove the problem Project.

Then Add Film selecting the Project where you have the newly created and Split Scene/Storyboard and proceed as normal.

This is far harder to describe than do.

Let me know how it goes.
PS - I believe Control Image could be successfully substituted for NOP if you had a Storyboard that you wanted to tweak in it's entirety, aka: change the brightness, contrast and/or saturation of the entire project.
This alternative does not take any longer (or less) than using NOP, but just remember it will effect the entire Storyboard and not just a few Scenes if done in this procedure to fix a failing Storyboard.
You could alternatively use this procedure on a specific Scene if you know which Scene is causing your problems

[PaulBusta]

Also, if you have a problem where the machine locks up you should "force" a power down by holding the power button and the "OK" button down at the same time till the macine powers down, which will take about 7 or 8 seconds.

[dixons]

Tim/Paul,

Many thanks for your helpful suggestions. It is nice to know that there are people willing to give of their time and talents to help myself and others master this unit.

I have printed off the suggested 'guidelines' and will endeavour to put them into practice. As you would expect, they are a wee bit daunting for a rookie to follow but I'll do my best. What I am struggling to comprehend is why such an expensive piece of stand alone editing equipment should need all this 'tweaking' to make it render/burn a simple, short piece of film.

Thanks also to Chet for his warm welcome to the family but, to him, I would query why a brand new machine does not have the most recent version of Arabesk 4.1E and, if so, where and when can I obtain it?

kind regards,

dixons

[PaulBusta]

dixons, the final version of Bogart 2.0c just came out and you just havn't gotten your email with all the information yet, I got mine the day after Thanksgiving. Arabesk 4.1e will be included with your 2.0c software at no charge. I would think you should have it in a few days, if not contact your dealer.

[TimKennelly]

I certainly would not call it the final version of Bogart SE2 Paul as there is much left to get right and they are working on it as we speak.

Call it the current version.

And Dixons, you don't have a brand new machine, it's days old now.

With cutting edge technology you are yesterday's news tomorrow.

Stay tuned for further software updates.

[PaulBusta]

Picky....picky....picky