Scenarist: Multiple pieces of video in track editor single, following, possible, another, problem

andy

Hi guys,

I'm pretty new to Scenarist, but I know this is possible in Maestro.  Basically I want to drop several pieces of video into a single timeline in the track editor.

I've used a Philips DVD-Recorder to capture a TV program with Adverts and I have ripped the files without most of the adverts - the rest I can trim back by adjusting the start and end times of the streams.

The problem is when I try to drop another piece of video onto the timeline I get the following error.

quot;Cannot add data outside the valid video duration.quot;

I have tried adjusting the video duration in the properties box but it just snaps back to it's original length when I press enter.

Is this something I have to change in the actual M2V file, as I've come across some inconsistencies with mpegs creative with the philips (352x576 PAL video which smartripper sees as 720x480 NTSC).

Is this anything to do with the story option in Scenarist?  The option appears greyed out and I can't find a reference to it in the manual.

Many Thanks for your help.

I'm using Scenarist 2.5.0 BTW

What you're wanting to do (AFAIK) is not possible in Scenarist.  It's just a matter of functionality of one piece of software as compared to another.  Not that you won't get the same end result.

What you should try doing is making each of the given tracks you want out of the assets you have.  Put them together when working in the quot;Scenario Editorquot;.  For instance, just make one PGC and drop each quot;trackquot; you made onto that PGC.  This will make one Program Chain (PGC).  Now whether or not Scenarist will allow you to make this quot;seamlessquot;, I don't know.  I would imagine it would not.  At any rate, there would only be a slight pause as it continues to the next section (not unlike the small pause you see during a DVD layer change).  Since this would occur at a natural break anyway (where a commercial would be), I doubt this anomaly would be much of an annoyance.  Good luck with your project!  Hope this helps.

Hi dvdboy,

According to the manual, you can concatente video files i.e. joining small files (in my case M2V files) into a larger file. In the Data Editor, click New gt; Multi-File Data gt; Add.. and then select all the video files in sequence and finally click OK. In the Track Editor, drag the newly created file from Data panel to the video track and drag audio files (in my case AC3 files) from Windows Explorer to the audio track.
It is pretty simple and you should have a trial.

I should actually read my damn manual sometime. LMAO!!

Thanks guys,

I think my first reaction was shock, because I consider software like Maestro and Sonic Creator to be pretty high end - obviously I hadn't taken into account how much of an abstraction layer these pieces of software have!

Trilight: I actually manage to get seamless play with this, by dropping the subsequent tracks on the 'primary' pgc for lack of a better term - it didn't help having NOP cell commands that prevented seamless play the first time I tried it!

Alblai: Thanks for the suggestion, unfortunately I have a single pice of audio and a single piece of video.  As such I can't concatenate the files.  If I was able to trim out the audio and video I don't want this would be fantastic!

THe current plan is to pull back the duration on the files to where the first add break begins, then in a second track start the same video file where the ad break ends and so forth.  Then I should be able to drop all these tracks onto a seamless pgc.  If that fails or Scenarist then insists of holding multiple copies of the file (I can always rip the vob to the nearest chapter point).  My othr thought was to simply set cell commands to 'jump' over the chapter points, although I think on some players you might be able to fast forward or skip over the cell command.

I'll let you know how it all gets on.

DVD-Boy

Thanks guys,

I think my first reaction was shock, because I consider software like Maestro and Sonic Creator to be pretty high end - obviously I hadn't taken into account how much of an abstraction layer these pieces of software have!

Trilight: I actually manage to get seamless play with this, by dropping the subsequent tracks on the 'primary' pgc for lack of a better term - it didn't help having NOP cell commands that prevented seamless play the first time I tried it!

Alblai: Thanks for the suggestion, unfortunately I have a single pice of audio and a single piece of video.  As such I can't concatenate the files.  If I was able to trim out the audio and video I don't want this would be fantastic!

THe current plan is to pull back the duration on the files to where the first add break begins, then in a second track start the same video file where the ad break ends and so forth.  Then I should be able to drop all these tracks onto a seamless pgc.  If that fails or Scenarist then insists of holding multiple copies of the file (I can always rip the vob to the nearest chapter point).  My othr thought was to simply set cell commands to 'jump' over the chapter points, although I think on some players you might be able to fast forward or skip over the cell command.

I'll let you know how it all gets on.

DVD-Boy

PS - Of course I've quickly realised that I have to multiplex the VOBs to get a decent idea on the sync etc!  Realtime simulation on my PC gets ropey very quickly!