which DMF files to correct audio/video sync problem

[DawnP]

Hi guys,

Incredibly stupid question. Which files should I run through VideoReDo to correct the audio/video sync problems I have been getting with DVD Movie Factory?

Is it the converted files? VOB files? Video_TS files? The original captured MPEG2 files work fine - the audio/video is in sync. It appears that DMF alters the sync in the audio/video multiplexing process.

Once I have corrected these files how do I burn these files to DVD?

I noticed I am able to create disc image files (.ISO) but these cannot be edited by VideoReDo.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

[Peter]

Hi Dawn,

Just a quick reply...
the MPG (mpeg2 file) is the one that you run, chop out commercials etc. through VRD. It will actually correct any audio/video sync issues it finds with the file.

After that, you use something like DVDMF to author (create the VOB's) to make your DVD's.

The problem here, is that authoring may re-introduce sync errors.
There are some discussions here about it, and we go into details about making sure you have the latest patches etc. for whatever version you are using.

There are a LOT of different patches for that program, so be sure to get everything you need.

Here is of the threads: http://www.videoredo.net/msgBoard/viewtopic.php?t=268

[DawnP]

Peter,

Thanks for the help. I did find that thread earlier, it was helpful.

So it appears that VideoReDo is only helpful for correcting video/audio sync problems with the original captured MPEG file. In my case, the captured file is fine - audio/video are perfectly in sync.

It's when DMF converts them during audio/video multiplexing where the audio/video gets out of sync. I've been told that apparently the multiplexing process is so CPU-intensive that DMF has a tendency to drop video frames - hence the audio is out of sync with the final video.

So there's no way to actually run VideoReDo on the converted/multiplexed files? I guess this would be the VOB files...

[Peter]

No you can't edit VOB's with VRD. (Well, actually you can edit them, but you can only save as MPG's, so it doesn't do you any good!)

Why would DMF be multiplexing your files? Are you actually editing the files using this program? Or are you just adding chapters etc. for creating the VOB's?

[phd]

Hi Dawn,

Are you the same person that posted "The everything A/V Sync thread" on the Ulead forum today?

That was a great post and very comprehensive! If you wouldn't mind, repost it here. It is a fairly comprehensive list and could be very useful to the people here who have DMF and don't use the Ulead forum. You reminded me of a bunch of stuff that I did but had forgotten about to relieve A/V sync.

Additions for me are:
WinTV 250 PVR computer. Clean windows install. Install Hauppauge software and drivers and nothing else. Installed VRD to preview files on the machine.

Edit machine:
Installed DMF 1,2, and 3DC patches in chronological order according to Ulead's FTP site. Oldest patches first. Rebooted after each patch was installed and ran the program once to make sure the patches were installed in the running program. Did not do any authoring during this process, so no MPEG files were loaded. Follow the Ulead instructions for the burning patch exactly. Do not overwrite newer files if they are installed.

Be careful what other programs and hardware you install on your machine. Some of them cause bizarre conflicts. 3 that I personally had a problem with are Arcsoft Showbiz, Creative Labs Soundblaster Extigy and the Dazzle DCS200. All 3 forced me to remove them and perform a complete uninstall and reinstall of Ulead products that conflicted.

Created a custom profile in DMF that matched exactly the PVR MPG profiles as listed in DMF when you right click properties with one exception. Add 500 to the video. e.g., if your video is listed at 2000, make it 2500.

Check the "do not convert compliant files" box.

I do not do anything else in DMF except create chapter points and text for menus. DO NOT EDIT. If you do, you will destroy the sync because DMF will reencode.

Author and burn in separate steps. Authoring process for me is about 20-30 minutes on a P4 1.6. If it is taking longer, it is reencoding. Look at the disk space that will be used. If it is double what the finished DVD will be, it is reencoding. Burn process for me with a 4X burner is about 15 minutes. If it takes longer, it is having troubles with the data transfer or the media. Either way it will mean troubles. While it is authoring and burning, I do not touch the computer. No flipping windows, no nothing!

Media and burner are very important. Its a delicate balance between the 2 and finding the right match. Preview the created DVD folder on your hard drive. If its in sync there, then you have a problem burning and need to change your burner, media or both. Sometimes, the problem can also be your set top DVD player. If its in-sync on the computer but not on your DVD player take the DVD to a store and try it on various brands and models to see if it works. I have had issues with a recorded DVD not playing well in my player. I was able to fix it by switching blank media. You may not be so lucky.

Personally I use a Pioneer burner and Princo DVD-R or HP burner and HP, Phillips or Khypermedia DVD+RW. This is what works for me in my DVD players and is a personal opinion. You'll find other people who have had success with other combinations. I tried another (cheaper) burner once and regretted the decision. I got 100% coasters!

One last note: Between reading the SHSPVR and Ulead forums for several years, I have noticed one thing in a mental tally of the success rates. PAL users seem to be less successful with fixing the audio sync problems than NTSC users. Don't know why but it just seem to go that way.

Remember, when all else fails with DMF, get a different program! I like Ulead products because they work for me. I have tried some real stinkers over the years and when I found Ulead and had moderate success (or better than with anything else I had tried) I stuck with it and now with VRD I have 100% success rate (actually about 99.9%. There are some bum disks or problems with the burn that have me reboot my computer.) When you look at the time, aggravation and money invested into coasters, its sometimes better to move on.

Pat

[Peter]

Great post again Pat!
Can you link the forum thread you referred to at Ulead?

One interesting thing...
Someone at work read somewhere (probably on the net, so you know it's got to be true!) that burners will actually 'learn' about the media, as they burn discs and make adjustments, tweaks to their processes!

Interesting huh?

Peter

[phd]

Hi Peter,

Here is the link.
http://news.ulead.com:8080/~Webutilities/read?91994,73

Interesting about that "learning" option. Sasquatch may have been the author on that! I know the original burning software would "learn" a burning profile regarding optimal read and write speed, etc. to use for the computer.

Regarding media, CD/DVD RW manufacturers now have firmware updates to recognize extra brands of media as well as updating the DOS (disk operating system) of the drive. By DOS in this case I mean the low level operating features of the I/O of the drive rather than anything to do with windows. For example, increasing write speed, adding dual layer support, etc. like that.

BTW, how is your success rate with all the patches and burning patches with creating DVDs? Any more coasters? (I hope not!)

Pat

[Peter]

Just the one coaster with my process out of about 12, so not bad!
My rewriteables are doing good, and 'seem' to be reliable.
'night!

[bitter_old_man]

Someone at work read somewhere (probably on the net, so you know it's got to be true!) that burners will actually 'learn' about the media, as they burn discs and make adjustments, tweaks to their processes!
Most modern burners have what is usually called OPC (Optimum Power Control) or some similar name. At different points during the burn, the laser's power is recalibrated to match the media being burned.

Take a look at the graphs on this page: http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Reviews/Specific.aspx?ArticleId=10711&PageId=10
These tests were done using Nero CD-DVD Speed's "Create Data Disc" test. The green line is the current writing speed and the yellow line is the drive's rotational speed. At several points during the burn, both lines drop quickly and then rise quickly. At these points the laser power is recalibrated. It's possible that the drive's buring speed may drop at one of these recalibration points if the drive "thinks" that the quality of the burn will suffer. This may be seen at the end of the burn titled "DVD+R media @ 12X ZCLV". The drive decides that quality would suffer if the burn continued at 12x, so the burning speed is dropped to 10x.

Barry

[phd]

Thanks for the info Barry.

Does it remember the new brand of media for future reference or its just making that adjustment on a per disk basis?

Pat

[bitter_old_man]

I've heard that some drives have a "learning" approach, but I've not seen any proof. The adjustment is made on a disc-by-disc basis, and that's a good thing as disc quality can vary, even among the best discs.

Barry

[DawnP]

Hello all, thanks for the responses.

Pat, that *was* me compiling all the myths & suggestions regarding audio/video sync with DMF on the Ulead forum :o I'm hoping folks find it useful. I spent too much time searching threads... I have this optimistic hope that Ulead Customer Service could someday respond to such a compilation and correct any misinformation (yeah right).

I hope I'm not being too simplistic but I have some more questions.

When you say "do not do anything else in DMF except create chapter points and text for menus. DO NOT EDIT. If you do, you will destroy the sync because DMF will reencode." This I believe! When you say 'don't edit' would that include do NOT put any mark-ins or mark-outs (which hack off the beginning or end of the captured video)? Also does that mean no splitting videos?

If (for example) I'm capturing two videos I will capture them separately (click Capture Video, capture one video, then click OK and re-click Capture Video to capture the second film strip) so thse are separate MPEGs in the same DMF project. This way they appear as separate main menu thumbnails. Should I capture them on the same Capture screen instead?

Also when you suggest authoring and burning in separate steps, do you mean that in one session you insert chapter points & menu text, then close out DMF. Then restart, select/edit the existing project and go all the way to the final step and burn the DVD? Should I consider burning an image file and using a different DVD burning program like Nero, RecordNow, etc?

I certainly believe your war stories about media and burners being sensitive. I have always tried the burned DVDs in several DVD players to confirm the video/audio sync issue - before I throw them away :roll: It's funny because before I loaded all the upgrade patches for DMF 2 I used to have about an 80% success rate (final DVD has video/audio in sync). Now I get about 25%. And I've upgraded to version 3 (3.5 with upgrades) and am working with new problems (it doesn't recognize the ADS Instant DVD 2.0 analog capture device AT ALL!!)...

Assuming that VRD is VideoReDo, am I correct in assuming that it CANNOT be used to correct video/audio sync issues in the final DVD? Assuming the audio/video is in sync in the captured MPEG, one cannot use VRD to correct the disc image file .ISO, etc. Correct?

I appreciate all of the help.

[phd]

Hi Dawn,

I'm going to handle your questions by numbering the paragraphs. Hope it makes it easier to follow for everyone.

1. That was a great post gathering a lot of useful info. Some that I had implemented and forgotten about. Ulead does not respond on the forum. They seem to hire someone to monitor the forum on an annual basis. Last year it was Jerry Jones. This year its H T Cien it seems. Jerry's suggestions while sometimes good, also included a lot of "it doesn't happen for me" or "please uninstall and reinstall." Hey, I've already done that. It doesn't help. He did have some other suggestions that did help. Also, be aware, Ulead wipes out the older posts on their forums. What I started doing was creating a massive text file on my computer by copying from the forum and pasting into this text document on my computer with the suggestions and instructions for future reference on things I though were useful and might be potentially useful so I don't lose them when they roll off the bottom. I've emailed tech support and didn't hear back from them for several months and all they did was ask for more info (the same info I had already sent them.) By then I had solved the problems either by myself or based upon posts at the forum.

2. Yes. This is based upon my personal experience. DMF1 had a separate capture function called "Video Toolbox." When I started using DMF2, I noticed it no longer had this feature. DMF1 was more limited in the spectrum of MPEGs it could read but for simple cuts and trims, it could save segments without a reencode problem. However, it could not necessarily rejoin them without a problem. Success rate would drop on joined segments. I tried the trim and split functions in DMF2 and noticed even with simple trimming of the peginning and end or splitting the file, it would reencode so I stopped that. So, bottom line, no mark-in, mark-out or split.

3. I never use DMF to capture. I always use the native software for capture or software whose main function is capture and editing for firewire devices. If DMF has the function for capture, try this. Save each capture file separately to the hard drive. Then edit in VRD (VideoReDo.) Then restart DMF and create a DVD using the VRD edited video. For the raw capture files in Ulead products, check your program and project preferences for the location of the raw capture directory. Usually it is a folder within "My Documents" Also change that location to a separate hard drive folder (not the "C" drive.) That will also improve your success rate.


4. When I say author and burn in separate steps, this is the process that works for me. I load the VRD edited files. I add chapter points and text. I then burn the completed DVD to a folder on the hard drive. I don't create an ISO image, I create the folder. Once the folder is created, I exit DMF. The purpose of this is 2 fold: 1. To separate physically the DVD creation and the burning process. I had a much lower success rate burning the DVD immediately. and 2. I can then load a DVD Player program on my computer, play the folder and confirm whether the sync is bad or not. Before VRD, viewing the DVD folder was a mandatory step.

5. If the update is giving you a lower success rate, uninstall the program and don't install the update patches. Install the burning patch according to the instructions about not overwriting newer date files. I believe there are about 15 and, for me, about 5 were newer files that I had installed already. USB devices require a special version to work with DMF. My suggestion is that you use the native program for Ads Instant DVD capture. Also, search the web for a special capture utility that is made by the manufacturer. Usually its a very simple interface with a lot more power than Ulead can give you. Also search for other Ads forums where there may be a user written capture utility. I also have a Dazzle DCS200 capture device. Very little success with the standard capture software but a special "bare bones" utlity called DVXCELtest was included which had a lot more power. DMF may be performing a software encode on the fly which may be hurting the A/V sync. Also try different capture parameters to find the one with the highest success rate.

6. Yes, VRD is VideoReDo. It cannot correct the A/V sync in a final DVD. (Or at least not yet!) Good suggestion for the feature request page. If you have created the DVD folder already, you may want to try this. Rip your DVD using DVD Decrypter. Assuming you are using and NTFS OS, rip it as one big VOB. There are instructions at the main VRD site on how to accomplish this. Split the VOBs using VRD as you would like to see them as separate files on the reauthored DVDs and manually readjust the sync as necessary in the various segments. Save as MPEGs and reauthor.

Capturing outside of DMF, editing with VRD, then authoring with DMF as separate steps should relieve your sync problems.

This is my understanding of what VRD did for me. I mainly use the Hauppauge WinTV PVR250. It is an analog TV capture device. It drops various video and audio frames as it captures. It also created some bogus timestamps. When the file is loaded and authored in DMF, it did 2 things. 1 - Every time it found a blank frame in the audio or video it "shifted up" the other to fill in the blank spot, creating an audio OOS (out of sync) frame. After enough of these it becomes noticeable. What VRD does is it will drop the corresponding "full" frame of audio if there is a "blank" video frame. One frame removed here and there is not really noticeable to the human eye. 2 - The other error I used to get all the time in DMF is the dreaded "Some chapter entry points exceed the total number of frames." VRD straightens out the PTS in the file so it looks like a contiguous file again. Apparently DMF would look at the last frame number and see a time stamp on one of the chapter points which was higher. No more of these errors either.

And as they say on the Ulead site "Hope this helps"
:)
Pat

Hello all, thanks for the responses.

1. Pat, that *was* me compiling all the myths & suggestions regarding audio/video sync with DMF on the Ulead forum :o I'm hoping folks find it useful. I spent too much time searching threads... I have this optimistic hope that Ulead Customer Service could someday respond to such a compilation and correct any misinformation (yeah right).

I hope I'm not being too simplistic but I have some more questions.

2. When you say "do not do anything else in DMF except create chapter points and text for menus. DO NOT EDIT. If you do, you will destroy the sync because DMF will reencode." This I believe! When you say 'don't edit' would that include do NOT put any mark-ins or mark-outs (which hack off the beginning or end of the captured video)? Also does that mean no splitting videos?

3. If (for example) I'm capturing two videos I will capture them separately (click Capture Video, capture one video, then click OK and re-click Capture Video to capture the second film strip) so thse are separate MPEGs in the same DMF project. This way they appear as separate main menu thumbnails. Should I capture them on the same Capture screen instead?

4. Also when you suggest authoring and burning in separate steps, do you mean that in one session you insert chapter points & menu text, then close out DMF. Then restart, select/edit the existing project and go all the way to the final step and burn the DVD? Should I consider burning an image file and using a different DVD burning program like Nero, RecordNow, etc?

5. I certainly believe your war stories about media and burners being sensitive. I have always tried the burned DVDs in several DVD players to confirm the video/audio sync issue - before I throw them away :roll: It's funny because before I loaded all the upgrade patches for DMF 2 I used to have about an 80% success rate (final DVD has video/audio in sync). Now I get about 25%. And I've upgraded to version 3 (3.5 with upgrades) and am working with new problems (it doesn't recognize the ADS Instant DVD 2.0 analog capture device AT ALL!!)...

6. Assuming that VRD is VideoReDo, am I correct in assuming that it CANNOT be used to correct video/audio sync issues in the final DVD? Assuming the audio/video is in sync in the captured MPEG, one cannot use VRD to correct the disc image file .ISO, etc. Correct?

I appreciate all of the help.

[DawnP]

Pat,

Thanks for the extremely useful advice. I appreciate how you didn't talk down when it's obvious I'm not an experienced video hacker :D

I will try your suggestions this week.

2) I am especially suspicious of #2, it's possible I began doing more mark-ins & outs once I got more experienced with DMF and inadvertently made my audio/video sync problems & burn success rate worse.

3) I am also going to try your suggestion to capture using another program because hey, now that I've upgraded to DMF 3 I can't get it to work with my analog adapter so I'll HAVE to capture another way. It's funny, I emailed customer service at Ulead & got nothing, but ADS responded and said I needed to install DMF 3.0 overtop of 2.0 to use the same codec files. And I read other's suggestions here to *not* install the DMF 3 patches. Before I waste a lot of time trying these out I'm going to capture using CapWiz, another program that came with my ADS. I tested it when I first got ADS and it worked fine. Those were the days.

4) Good idea to build the file folders FIRST before burning the final DVD - I checked everywhere and could not find any info on what 'creating file folders' actually did! I gathered that the file folders were useful for something... instead I created the ISO files, downloaded WinISO and extracted the files and viewed them. Besides being incredibly time-consuming that was also not very useful because once I viewed the extracted ISO files it was obvious the audio/video sync was off... well, there's nothing you can do about it then!

5) I will likely re-install DMF 3 without the patches. I did install the burning engine patches retaining back-ups of the original files, I'll repeat that after re-installing. I'll check the ADS software disk to see what files it has for capturing, outside of DMF and the aforementioned CapWiz. It also came with Ulead Video Studio 7 (what a nightmare) and something called MuVee. It might also have some output drivers, I should check that too.

6) On your suggestion to rip my DVD using DVD Decrypter into one big VOB and then "Split the VOBs using VRD as you would like to see them as separate files on the reauthored DVDs and manually readjust the sync as necessary in the various segments. " Does that mean that VRD could be used to adjust audio on VOBs?

I sure appreciate the time you've taken to respond to my specific questions. I have to say that in the long run I had hoped to find a quick way to back-up VHS onto DVD and this turned out to be a huge project requiring more technical expertise and time than I really wanted to invest.

In the long run I also would love to record broadcast TV programs onto DVD so when I mentioned to my hubby that you can do both with a $400 DVD recorder he ordered me the Toshiba RD-XS32 for Christmas! So I will be on some new support forums after the holidays :) I do understand tthe limitations (won't be able to make nice menus as with a DVD authoring program) but how nice to spend 3 hrs creating a DVD and not throw it out when I'm done.

I wonder if I should take advantage of Ulead's return policy (lose 15% restocking fee) and get a refund on DMF 3 since (a) I likely won't use it in the long run - I'll have the DVD recorder for VHS conversion & TV capture. I'm currently using Roxio DVD Creator to capture my newer digital videos onto DVDs and (b) Ulead really hasn't done anything for me. I mean really, they provided no support, I am wasting tons of media, time & effort, and the audio/video sync issue appears to be a huge issue that they do not directly address ANYWHERE. It would have been useful to be described as an issue in their FAQ for example. In turn I could donate the refunded $50 to forums such as this one instead :)

Thanks again.

[phd]

Dawn,

You're very welcome. I am not an expert but have been through the pain and suffering you are going through so I understand. Its very frustrating.

Capwiz sounded familiar so I did a quick search on the web. Following are a few quotes which may be of interest to you. They are from a few reviews regarding the Ads.

A. Cons: USB interrupts noted when using other USB devices. Requires hands on monitoring while capturing.

B. One strong exception to the above comments (written/revised after having now used this for about a month), is that I have been unsuccessful in capturing and transferring VHS cassettes from my VCR to DVD. It consistently freezes and stops the capture midway through the capture phase... I need to stop and reboot to clear it. I have only been able to capture one VHS cassetted from my VCR using this device. I have tried two VCRs and have had the same result with both.

C. Audio and Video synchronization is perfect with this product whe captured in Capwiz. (I have had some synchronization problems capturing in Movie Factory).

D. When you are capturing your video, you should remember that this device is not able to capture sound in any other type apart from MPEG1 Layer II, so you will need to re-encode it to PCM (or AC3) if you need to create DVD disc that should be compatible with DVD players.

E. If your computer is not equipped with USB 2.0 ports, you may use USB 1.1 connection although you capture ability will be then limited to 4Mbps, which is not enough for quality video. As third-party USB 2.0 cards cost about 7 GBP today, it is strongly recommended by us for you to buy such a card.

What this means to me:
A USB interrupts mean you are getting hiccups in your captured video
B. The reviewer was unsuccessful capturing VHS tapes. This is your main purpose for having it!
C. DMF stinks for for A/V sync when capturing with Ads. Capwiz should be used. Would be nice if someone had told you that initially?
D. What is the audio on your captured files? If it is PCM and not MPEG audio. DMF has been converting audio on the fly and potentially creating a worse audio OOS for you.
E. If you are using USB 1.1 and not 2.0, the data transfer rate will be much less efficient and based upon your capture bit rate may be contributing to the problem.

Regarding:
4. Burning to a hard drive folder first and checking A/V sync will save you tons of money on coasters.
5. Muvee - one of the reviews mentioned it was includied and all it did was crash for him.
6. You can use VRD to manually resync the audio. It will output the files as MPEGs so you would be forced to reauthor the files. If the audio OOS is uniform throughout the file it will require just one adjustment. If not split the files with VRD at the appropriate points. Adjust the audio sync separately for each segment and save. Rejoin the new segments with the VRD Joiner function and output one contiguous in-sync MPEG file and reauthor.

FYI, regarding the Toshiba DVD recorder. I have a Panasonic recorder and am very happy with it. Panasonic and Toshiba are from the same manufacturer Matshita. I can edit the VOBs RAM disks with VRD to remove the commercials and output a new edited DVD with DMF without problems. (Use quick stream fix first!) So theoretically, based upon my experience you shouldn't have a problem. I have not tried capturing home VHS tapes into the Panasonic though so I can't speak about that part.

Regarding the return of DMF. Do you have DMF3 or DMF3 Disk Creator? The difference is that Disk Creator can create DVDs with AC3 while the standard version cannot. If it is the standard and you would want to recreate DVDs from VOBs with AC3 from the Toshiba, you may need to upgrade anyway.

Regarding Roxio. Which version do you have or it is a contemplated purchase? I have seen it in a limited manner (a friend has it) and had 2 major concerns for me. 1 It would only create chapter points at imported segments. There did not seem to be a way to create a chapter within a contiguous MPEG file. 2. It always wanted to reencode so the DVD creation process was a long one. Don't take my word on this though because I have very limited exposure to the program but check it out first before purchase.

[DawnP]

OK, thanks to Pat et al I've had some recent success burning DVDs using DMF 3 where the audio & video are in sync (yeah!). I think the keys were using a different program to capture my MPEGs, updating DMF 3 & Ulead's burning engine updated with all patches & not editing the MPEGs at all.

Here's what I did:
1) I upgraded to DMF 3 and downloaded all of the patches. I downloaded the DVD burning common engine patch per the instructions on Ulead's website.

2) I uninstalled ArcSoft software that was on my PC. (How did that one get by me? Had no idea that was even there!)

3) I captured MPEGs using CapWiz, the program that came with my analog capture device, ADS Instant DVD 2.0.

4) After I had captured my MPEGs I imported them into DMF. To do this, in DMF I clicked the "Add Project" main menu selection. Then I clicked the second icon, "Add Video" and browsed to the MPEG location on my hard drive.

5) When chaptering the DVD and making the menus I did *NOT* edit the MPEGs in any way. No splitting of the video clip, no mark-in or mark-out to shorten the clip.

6) I added chapters and picked formats for the menus. I did not change the thumbnails on any of the menus (DMF 3 has motion menus and the thumbnails are all actively scrolling through film anyway).

7) I saved the project file before burning the DVD. I decided to try this first before going to Pat's suggestion to "create DVD folders" and output, then exit the program completely and finally restart DMF and burn the DVD.

So far (fingers crossed) I've been able to burn two different DVDs with audio/video completely in sync. Hurray!

Hope this helps someone else who finds themself in the same bind as me. Thanks Pat for your help.

Regarding Roxio, I am using an older version (Roxio DVD Creator 6) and I have been able to add chapters within an MPEG and create a submenu with chapter thumbnails. To make the chapters appear on the main menu you do have to create separate MPEGs or split the video into separate MPEGs. But I've seen this limitation with DMF as well. Is this what you were looking for?

[phd]

Hi Dawn,

I'm glad its working so far.

2 Just curious. Was it the Arcsoft Showbiz? (Since I had problems with it. Don't know if they have other products as well.)

4. FYI. There is a shortcut where you can drag and drop onto the DMF timeline as a way to import clips. You can also drag files within the timeline to rearrange them as well.

5. Have you tried editing with VRD before importing into DMF? You shouldn't have any sync problems. If you have a problem with unedited files' importation into DMF that didn't need editing remember to try a reencode (Ctrl+S) and\or Quick Stream Fix within VRD as well (Dan can explain that part better than me.) If you see an audio OOS or the "Some chapter points exceed..." error in DMF.

6. If you don't like the motion menus, just turn them off. (Checkbox on lower left of the wondow.) Motion menus will add to the time it takes to author the DVD to a folder.

7. After rendering to the folder, you also have an option to preview it on your hard drive to check for audio OOS depending on the DVD player program(s) on your computer.

I'm glad Roxio allows for chapter point creation within a file as well. I wasn't familiar enough with it to say too much. At least you have another option for authoring and burning.

I like to create a little notepad file on my desktop where I keep track of all programs and update/patches installed. Also, I make notes of problems I have and the steps I took to fix it. This way if I "suddenly" see a problem, I can refer back chronologically to any changes I might have made that could affect whatever problem I have and solutions in the past that may help.

Wishing you continued success.

Pat