Hi all, first time poster, long-time reader. Searched forums and couldn't find anything that matched my scenario.

(Alan Mills says details details details... here they are!)

Choppy Video:

I'm using Encore DVD 1.5 to make simple menu-and-movie dvds. because my mpeg2 files came from my old NLE (cyberlink powerdirector - ugh), encore dvd was giving me errors when i went to burn them. (i believe these errors were caused by the audio being longer, somehow, than the video for each file). i solved this problem by having encore transcode the files for me. encore doesn't force me to transcode these files, because they are already dvd compliant. once the files were transcoded and burned, most of my movie looked great. but a few of the chapters looked like garbage! specifically they looked back during some motion or action scenes, which i've heard can be caused by a low bitrate. i used 8mbs 1-pass transcoding.i don't know much about transcoding, and can't seem to find an accurate definition of what it does or exactly how to use it. any help with how to get rid of this choppy video or how to avoid having to transcode entirely would be much appreciated.

Strange Acting Menu:

i made a very simple menu in photoshop cs. i linked the buttons, and tested everything. there are 7 buttons arranged vertically. they all link to the correct items, etc.. when i put the dvd in my sony dvd player, using the up and down arrows on my remote does not highlight them in the order in which they appear. (for instance, if they were labeled 1-7 top to bottom, pressing down repeatedly would highlight 1,2,3,5,7, then 4, then 6). i used grids in photoshop to make sure they were vertically aligned. has anyone else ever had this problem?

thanks for such a great resource, and keep up the great work. thanks in advance for any help.

best regards,
chad

hi there! im also a first-time poster in encore, you can actually program the menu sequence. click on each menu and asign the sequence. photoshop doesn't have anything to do with the highlight sequence of your menus when played on a dvd player.

pigarotti - thanks for the tip. i'm sure i'll be able to get that running.

now - sounds like i'm going to have to educate myself a bit more on transcoding. thanks for the help!

nice to see details. much appreciated.

A good standard to get into with Encore is to NEVER trust the autorouting of buttons that Encore gives you.

Always turn on routing and go through it all very meticulously yourself.

As Corporol Hicks said in "Aliens" - "It's the only way to be sure!"

__________________
I'm not young enough to know everything!

Just a follow up for anyone else who may be having similar problems:
Encore will try to route the paths of the buttons for you - you can uncheck the "Automatically Route buttons" box to stop this. Then, open your menu and click the Show Button Routing button on the lower left. This allows you to properly edit what buttons (up, down, left, right) will do what in your menu.

What a relief to finally have my menu working properly! Thanks for the great advice and Aliens quotes. Both are greatly appreciated.