Commentary, Audio & Burning Issues with DVD-9

Question

Hi. I have a collection of problems here that sprouted up when building and formatting a dual-layer disc. I have a feature film with two commentaries on top of the normal audio track. If you hit play on the main menu, I specified A1 (which is the normal track) and it goes to two .jpegs (FBI Warning & Interviews/Commentaries Disclaimer) and then plays the movie.
If you go to the Special Features menu, you can hit two play buttons with each commentary specified to them (A2 & A3) the two .jpegs appear and then the movie plays.
This works fine in the simulator but when I build the disc and play the VIDEO_TS & AUDIO_TS folder in Apple's DVD Player, this doesn't work. A1 is what is heard (I have to manually select the commentary audio tracks in DVD Player). I tried bypassing the .jpegs and have the commentary buttons go straight to the movie and this works when I build and play in DVD Player. I wouldn't prefer to do it that way. So if there's a solution it would be appreciated.
My second issue is more related to audio encoding. But I'm not sure if this is a Compressor issue or DVD SP4 issue. I encode the audio from .AIFFs or audio from .MOVs into Dolby .AC3 files. The settings in Compressor is:
http://www.underlibertymovie.com/Compressor_Settings.png
The audio sounds fine in the simulator, however when I build the disc and open in DVD Player, the audio levels are all over the map. Whenever something is bassy (low frequency) happens, the audio levels are dropped and then gradually raises to normal level. So whenever the bass drum hits in the soundtrack or explosions, this sounds really strange. I'm sorry if this is solely a Compressor issue but I thought I'd give it a shot.
And thirdly, this is a dual layer DVD-9 at 6.6 GBs of data. I've set a valid layer break point as far as I know and have tried to burn several times. First I had Memorex DVD+R DL media and it would write the lead-in, start the first bit of the image, then abort and say "The device reported an error: Unknown device" and then there was an error code that I can't recall (something like 00x 04x)
After finding out that Memorex is not a reputable brand, I had my partner drive quite a ways to find DVD+R DL Verbatim discs (which is what people were consistently recommending) and the same problem occurred. I also noticed afterward that both brands are ReWritable discs. The Memorex discs didn't specify this but my Mac said it was. I can burn another DVD and get the exact error message if that helps.
Sorry for such a long post, but I'm at a loss with these issues. Thanks.

Answer 1

Hi Logimec,
If your playback requirements are as simple as you say, here is an option
that will work with no scripts.
Have your FBI and commentaries as one short vid track and create 3 stories
name the 1st "... A1", the next story as "...A2" then another for A3.
in the story inspector,general tab, DISABLE all other audio options except
the one which coresponds with the desired audio content, you must do this
even if they have no audio to go with them.
then create 3 stories for your feature track named "...A1,2,3 (same as earlier)
and again, enable ONLY the audio track you wish presented.
select the buttons, one at a time for each option and look to the "Button inspector, advanced tab, streams option"
and select the audio stream you wish presented.
Needless to say you must also RE-target your buttons to the desired story
line and not the main tracks.
you must be sure that the end jump from the warning to the feature goes to
the coresponding story/audio option, A1 to A1, A2 to A2, etc.
I also recommend you look in the help manual under "Setting the dual layer direction" "OTP & ATP" it may help you improve the delay at your "Break Point"
Hope this helps,
J>H<L
Message was edited by: KADVD