DVD Video Menu Compression

Hello all. I am putting together my first video menu for my DVD and had a few questions on compression. I have a into movie, in which the last frame of the movie becomes the DVD menu (40 seconds in length). The other movie I have made is a simple transitions into the track selected (7 seconds). Would a MPEG2 setting of a one-pass set at 7mbps be ok or should I lower the bit rate? Should I go with a two pass VBR? I'm using DVD SP 4.03 and Compressor 2.01.
Thanks all

I just made my first test DVD and I see a slight shift in the gamma, but nothing too horrible. I can live with it. The button placement all seems fine, no huge jumps. So here's what I did:
I created the into in Motion 2.01 with a project size of 720x480. I exported and converted to MPEG2. For my still graphic menu, I went to the last frame of the Motion created intro project and exported that frame as an uncompressed TIFF. I then imported my stuff into DVD SP 3.02 and made a new track for the intro and set the end jump to my created menu from the TIFF.
It all seems to work quite well. The only thing that really bothers me is the slight hick-up from the intro to the menu, but I was expecting this from the start.
While doing this, I was rolling around the idea of making the entire menu a continuous movie, making the intro movie and menu all one longer movie. Obviously, the reason I didn't try this yet is because I have a full DVD already and space is an issue. But in future projects, would this be a wise choice to bypass the hick-ups and color shifts?

Similar Messages

Video Menu Compression

Hello all. I am putting together my first video menu for my DVD and had a few questions on compression. I have a into movie, in which the last frame of the movie becomes the DVD menu (40 seconds in length). The other movie I have made is a simple transitions into the track selected (7 seconds). Would a MPEG2 setting of a one-pass set at 7mbps be ok or should I lower the bit rate? Should I go with a two pass VBR? I'm using DVD SP 4.03 and Compressor 2.01.
Thanks all

That would fine, but you've stated what the overall length of the DVDs in minutes.
If it is under 60 minutes, you're good to go.

Why does DVD Studio Pro compress my 3GB video?

I thought since the original Quicktime movie I made with FCP was under the 4.7(?) capacity of a DVD, that Studio Pro wouldn't compress my 3GB movie. But after import to DVD Studio Pro the whole project only shows up as using 350MB of space. And when burned and played back the video looks horrible! Artifacting (?), etc.
Do I need to go into Compressor and select a setting there BEFORE bringing it into Studio Pro? What setting is recommended? (8 min, wide screen, HD).
Thanks!

>I thought since the original Quicktime movie I made with FCP was under the 4.7(?) capacity of a DVD, that Studio Pro wouldn't compress my 3GB movie.
Unfortunately, you thought wrong. The DVD video specification requires MPEG-2 video and either AC3 or PCM audio, specially multiplexed and formatted as VOB files. So the size of the source file doesn't really matter.
>Do I need to go into Compressor and select a setting there BEFORE bringing it into Studio Pro?
That would be preferable.
>What setting is recommended?
Duplicate one of the DVD presets and adjust the bit rate to increase the quality ... but do not exceed 8.0mbps or the disc may stutter in some players. Encode the audio as Dolby Digital (.ac3).
>8 min, wide screen, HD
You're out of luck there ... DVD is a standard definition format only. If you want to deliver HD content on an optical disc, it will have to be Blu-ray - not DVD.
-DH

After I burn my DVD Video comes up instead of Menu

After I burn my DVD Video comes up instead of Menu. How do I get rid of this?

Go into the Map mode of your iDVD project and make sure there is nothing listed in the Auto Play bin at the left.
If there is drag it out and try again.
Follow this workflow to help assure the best qualty video DVD:
Once you have the project as you want it save it as a disk image via the File ➙ Save as Disk Image menu option. This will separate the encoding process from the burn process.
To check the encoding mount the disk image, launch DVD Player and play it. If it plays OK with DVD Player the encoding is good.
Then burn to disk with Disk Utility or Toast at the slowest speed available (2x-4x) to assure the best burn quality. Always use top quality media: Verbatim, Maxell or Taiyo Yuden DVD-R are the most recommended in these forums.
OT

My project is set up with "rotation" menu intro, video, and then "rotation" on end, however, when you put DVD disc in DVD player, menu does not come up on front end, it goes straight to the video. Is there some step I am missing?

My project is set up with "rotation" menu intro, video, and then "rotation" on end, however, when you put DVD disc in DVD player, menu does not come up on front end, it goes straight to the video. Is there some step I am missing?

Open your iDVD project and go into the Map mode. Made sure the autostart bin on the left is empty.
Click to view full size
If you find a video in that bin remove it, save the project as a disk image and check the disk image with DVD Player. Then you can burn the disk image to disk with Disk Utilitiy at 4x for optimal burning.
OT

Bad quality in DVD studio menu page

Need some help I notice that my menus on DVD studio pro are very low quality my video itself quality is excellent while watching the DVD on my regular DVD player

For your Tracks you want MPEG-2 video. But if you use that identical video in a DropZone on your Menu, the quality will be awful. Why? Because on a DVD the Menu is one single video that fills the TV screen. It might look like 3 or 4, etc videos on a background, but it is really just one. Now since DVDs use MPEG-2 video only, and MPEG-2 is uneditable, what happens behinds the sceeen is that DVD SP takes all the MPEG-2 videos on your menu, converts them to QuickTime. Then it combines them all into one single video. Then it compresses it all back to MPEG-2. Compressing compressed video always results in a loss in quality.
So in order to get better video, in FCP you should make 30 second clips of video you want to use, and export out QuickTime movies. Do not compress to MPEG-2. Just bring them into DVD SP and put them in your DropZones.
If you want to get the best video you can, create the entire Menu in FCP (or Motion, or After Effects). Now you have the entire screen as one video, and DVD SP doesn't have to do anything with it.

Poor DVD Video Quality - Transcoding pain

Hello,
I am working on a video project with the NTSC DVD as the deliverable. The project is realtively simple. It contains one mpeg2 video file, an adio track and a few menues. It is all ok except for the horrible DVD quality I am getting from Encore SC4. The original mpeg2 video quality is very good. This mpeg2 video file was generated using the Proshow Producer program with NTSC DVD setting as output. Here is what mediainfo has to say about this file:
General
Complete name                            : C:\Local\Piotrek Local Documents on xps435\My Local Shows\2012\04 Pogrzeb Melanii Grobelnej\Pozegnanie Melanii Grobelnej_DVD.mpg
Format                                   : MPEG-PS
File size                                : 2.08 GiB
Duration                                 : 45mn 47s
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 6 518 Kbps
Video
ID                                       : 224 (0xE0)
Format                                   : MPEG Video
Format version                           : Version 2
Format profile                           : Main@Main
Format settings, BVOP                    : No
Format settings, Matrix                  : Default
Format settings, GOP                     : M=1, N=12
Duration                                 : 45mn 47s
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 6 164 Kbps
Width                                    : 720 pixels
Height                                   : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate                               : 29.970 fps
Standard                                 : NTSC
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Interlaced
Scan order                               : Bottom Field First
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.595
Stream size                              : 1.97 GiB (95%)
Audio
ID                                       : 192 (0xC0)
Format                                   : MPEG Audio
Format version                           : Version 1
Format profile                           : Layer 2
Duration                                 : 45mn 47s
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 224 Kbps
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 73.4 MiB (3%)
My first problem is why Encore insists on transcoding the video. I do not see any reason why not to use the video as is. The "Do not transcode" option is not available. Perhaps I have some settings in the project that may be incompatible with the DVD video but I realy do not know what they could be. Please help if you think you know what it could be.
With automatic transcoding the resulting video quality is plain horrible. I keep blinking my eyes because everything is so badly out of focus. I keep trying to specify the transcoding quality to as high as Encore allows me but the resulting video stays at very poor quality. I am not very expierence with the transcoding function of Encore but what I am getting "out of the box" is garbage so I hope you, more expierenced gentlemen, could help me squeese more from this S/W.
Thanks you in advance,
Peter

In Proshow Producer there are two ways (two different menue options) to generated an mpeg2 DVD quality file. One of them gave me a file described by mediainfo in my original email - encore insisted on transcoding it.
The other way of generaring a DVD mpeg2 file renders a file as below:
General
Complete name                            : C:\Local\Piotrek Local Documents on xps435\My Local Shows\2012\04 Pogrzeb Melanii Grobelnej\amanda_customDVD_2.mpg
Format                                   : MPEG-PS
File size                                : 34.4 MiB
Duration                                 : 30s 63ms
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 9 585 Kbps
Writing library                          : Photodex mpeg encoder
Video
ID                                       : 224 (0xE0)
Format                                   : MPEG Video
Format version                           : Version 2
Format profile                           : Main@Main
Format settings, BVOP                    : Yes
Format settings, Matrix                  : Default
Format settings, GOP                     : M=3, N=18
Duration                                 : 30s 63ms
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 9 200 Kbps
Width                                    : 720 pixels
Height                                   : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate                               : 29.970 fps
Standard                                 : NTSC
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Interlaced
Scan order                               : Bottom Field First
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.888
Stream size                              : 32.9 MiB (96%)
Writing library                          : Photodex mpeg encoder
Color primaries                          : BT.601 NTSC
Transfer characteristics                 : BT.601
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.601
Audio
ID                                       : 192 (0xC0)
Format                                   : MPEG Audio
Format version                           : Version 1
Format profile                           : Layer 2
Duration                                 : 30s 24ms
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 224 Kbps
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Delay relative to video                  : -33ms
Stream size                              : 821 KiB (2%)
The problem is that Proshow Producer crashes (runs out of memory) while generating this file - this is why it is only 30 seconds long. Now this file does not require transcoding in Encore CS4 and, if it did not crash, would be of acceptable quality.
I do not know what the M/N settings describe but the M/N settings are different in the second file. Some other settings are different as well, e.g., Bit/(Pixel*Frame).
From what I know and from what Photodex support person told me they do not have a way to generate an .m2v file. I can generate an mpeg2 with no audio from Producer but the video encoding would be as it is now I would think so I am not sure what difference (if any) this would make.
Thanks,
Peter

How do I edit a DVD video in Final Cup Pro

Hey all,
I'm working on a project and I need to take the video on a DVD, bring it in to Final Cut Pro, add titles to it (text) and then output it to be burned back to a DVD.
I can't loose any quality either, so it has to look the same as it does on the original DVD, just now with text.
I've already looked around at other programs but none seem to work.
HanDbreak: This program takes FOREVER to encode the DVD. It said it was going to take 5 hours to rip a 90 min movie. Unacceptable.
ffXMpegX: This program simply doesn't work. When I attempt to press the "encode" button after picking my settings, it tells me to find a specific file before it can continue (?!)
MPEG Streamclip: This is being touted as the best by people on forums, but I find it to be the worst. The GUI is downright confusing as there isn't one! There aren't any options, buttons, settings, drop down menu's, fields or ANYTHING. In fact, this thing looks just like a bad video player. I dragged on dropped a .VOB file in there, it took it and the video appeared but there aren't ANY OPTIONS after that. Am I missing something?
MactheRipper: Okay, so this is alright for ripping the VIDEO_TS folder and that's about it. More or less pointless for what I want to do I guess.
So can anyone please help me? I really need to get this done.
Thanks

I can't loose any quality either, so it has to look the same as it does on the original DVD, just now with text
Not possible. FCP cannot edit DVD video, it needs to be converted. Conversion means quality loss. Then you edit, and convert AGAIN to DVD...more quality loss.
Want zero quality loss? You need to get a hold of the original material that was used to make the DVD.
MPEG STREAMCLIP...drop the clip in the box...the look in the FILE menu under EXPORT...There are your options. But this won't be zero quality loss. Again, that is not possible.
Shane

Exporting 4:3 video without compression

Hi, I'm working with 16:9 HD footage, and I need to create a 4:3 PAL DVD for my client. I'm having problems exporting a video from my 4:3 sequence- the quicktime looks blocky and compressed, even when I use a high quality compression setting on my sequence settings. What am I doing wrong?
My workflow :
1. Rushes are 16:9 HD originally from a Canon 7D, converted to XDCAM EX 108025P
2. Edit in 16:9 sequence and add titles (sequence settings XDCAM EX 108025P 35mbs)
3. Export movie at sequence settings
4. Setup new 4:3 sequence (settings- Frame Size 768x576; Aspect Ratio: CCIR 601 PAL Sq. (4:3); Pixel Aspect Ratio: Square; Quicktime Video Settings: XDCAM EX 108025P 35mbs; Quality: 100%) and import previously exported 16:9 movie
5. Export Quicktime movie at sequence settings
The final 4:3 video looks compressed, compared to the original 16:9 rushes. What can I do?
Thanks for any help in advance, this is bugging me!
Oliver

Export your file from Final Cut Pro using Current Settings & Self Contained
Also, export a short 10 sec segment of the clip using Current Settings & Self Contained
Open up compressor
Drag in the 10 sec clip to the Batch window
Go to the presets area and find one that transcodes the file to the output format you want.
Copy the preset
Click on the copy of the preset to open it in the Inspector window
Go to the Geometry Tab
Set your image sizes under "dimensions"
Set your padding to "preserve source aspect ratio".
Save the preset and try it on your clip.
If it doesn't work, keep playing.
Once it works, drag in your long clip, apply the preset and away you go.
x

Getting Ripped DVD Video and Audio Into Encore

Do you have previously authored DVDs that need rework? Do you want to add menus with greater impact and functionality? Do you want to add some additional program or supplemental material? Does a client want their product demo DVD to be updated to reflect the capabilities of the new and improved version, but the source files no longer exist? Using Adobe Encore DVD and a freeware utility called DVD Decrypter (DVDD), you can accomplish this quickly and easily.
Disclaimer: I do not support the illegal copying and/or distribution of copyrighted works. The authors and distributors of the software I use have made it clear that they do not support illegal copying. This guide is intended solely to assist you in ripping and copying DVD video to which you have the legal rights. Any use of this guide to infringe the copyright of someone else’s intellectual property is prohibited.
This guide is based on Adobe Encore DVD 1.5.1 and DVD Decrypter version 3.5.4.0. Let’s Begin!
Place the DVD to be ripped in your DVD drive and launch DVDD. If you have more than one drive (e.g., a DVD-ROM and a DVD burner) make sure the one with the disc is selected in the Source dropdown list in the main program window. Now we need to set up DVDD to extract video in a way that is “Encore friendly”. This is the toughest part of the whole exercise. Click on the Tools menu item and choose “Settings…”.
Settings
General Tab: You can leave these set at their defaults if you like. Personally, I specify a custom Default Destination. I put my ripped video assets all in one place anyway, and having a default destination means I have one less thing to do when I rip a DVD.
IFO Mode Tab: Make sure that “Select Main Movie PGC” and “Enable Stream Processing” are checked. “Uncheck Suspect Cells” is probably a good default safety check. If your hard disks are formatted as NTFS, set File Splitting to “None”. I leave “Copy IFO File” checked with the default sub-items checked. Make sure that “Patch M2V Timecode” is unchecked. The items in the Create Additional Files section are purely optional. The author of DVDD has been kind enough to list which programs need which files; notice that Encore DVD isn’t listed as needing any of these extra files. I do keep the “Stream Information” box checked. DVDD generates very informative file names, but I like to keep “Include PGC Number” under File Names checked. Be advised you will get some lengthy file names after DVDD is finished ripping.
Stream Processing Tab: Since we enabled stream processing in the IFO Mode tab, we need to tell DVDD how to process those streams. To save yourself time and confusion later, check the “Convert PCM to WAV” box. Earlier versions of Encore required a Demuxed audio stream and a Raw video stream. Encore 1.5.1 can accept either type of video stream (Raw or Demuxed) but it does still require a Demuxed audio stream. However, I still recommend using Raw video and Demuxed audio, if only because it seems to be somewhat faster to process in DVDD. This workflow is also backward-compatible with earlier versions of Encore.
So let’s set up the Stream Processing tab now. In the Demux box, enter “0x8? 0xA? 0xC?”. This ensures that all audio streams in the selected PGC, whether AC3, PCM or MPEG will be set to Demux. In the Raw box, enter “0xE0”. This ensures that the video from the selected PGC will be set to Raw.
Additional Notes about the Stream Processing Tab:
1. For those of you asking the question, “What the heck is a PGC?” it’s just DVD-speak for the titles in a DVD project. And I’m not talking about the opening or end credits, either; I’m talking about the titles that result, for example, from the timelines you create in an Encore DVD project. There is a subtle difference between a PGC and a VTS (title set), but that's not important right now.
2. Happily, recent versions of DVDD create a WAV file after ripping that will import directly into Encore. Versions prior to 3.2.0.0 would create a WAV file that had to be imported to, and exported from, a sound editing program like Adobe Audition, Goldwave or SoundForge before Encore would recognize it.
Events Tab: For convenience sake, I recommend setting “Set Program Mode” in the Startup section to “IFO”. That way, whenever you launch DVDD, it will look familiar to you. You may safely ignore all of the other tabs in the Settings dialog.
Ripping
1.Under the Input Tab of the main program window, select the PGC you want to rip. You can only do one at a time.
2.Switch to the Stream Processing Tab. Verify that Enable Stream Processing is checked.
3.Check or uncheck any or all of the video and audio streams that are listed. Highlight each one to verify that all audio streams are set to Demux and the video stream is set to Raw.
4.If you didn’t select Default Destination in the General Settings Tab, then you need to tell DVDD where to put the ripped files now.
5.Click on the big DVD-to-Disk icon.
6.DVDD will announce, quite loudly, when it has finished. At that point you can rename the files or import them as is into Encore.
I hope you find this guide useful and that it helps you get the most out of your investment in Adobe Encore DVD.
Guide © Jeff Bellune 2005

OK, I can't tell you what we are doing, you'll have to trust me that it's for a very good cause. I'll simplify the use case as an example. If I can do the following we'll be OK:
1) Read video/audo files from a DVD that we created
2) Open these files with the QuickTime Player, click on Export to Apple TV to create an output file.
I'd rather not do an interim conversion of the video data (like use a 3rd party app to convert to mp4 first and then read into QT, but I'm considering a conversion to DV) because that could seriously hurt the apps effectiveness. I also can't use another app (MPEG Streamclip, HandBrake, VisualHub, etc.) to do the conversion.

From DVD-Video to FCP

I'm trying to get uncopyrighted video from DVD to Final Cut. I've found some ways to do it, but they seem a little sloppy and I want to make sure I convert things the best way.
I've used "MPEG Streamclip" with some success - but the audio always needs rendering in FCP. I was exporting as DV and resampling audio to 48k. It created files with ".dv" extensions - I'm not familiar with that. Should I export as Quicktime files?
I've also tried dragging the VOB files onto the computer, then encoding with Compressor. I can't get the audio to show up at all this way.
Help?

Your actually doing the right way, as far as having a file that will be editable in FCP. There are other shareware softwares that convert DVD content to DV format, that are bound for FCP editing.
Anyway you do it, your going to loose quality due to the source content on the DVD already being compressed. That being said, let's address your audio. Your audio content must be 48Khz to be compatible with FCP and in AIFF format, or it will require rendering.
Being that the source video/audio is coming from a DVD and I just want to get the source converted with a fairly clear codec, I use the shareware Visual Hub, it does both the video/audio conversion in one shot, without allot of hassle.
If you want to do the conversion, using the current software you have like MpegStream Clip, (which does a very good job by the way) then you will have to deal with the audio by rendering it in FCP or converting it in Quicktime Pro to 48Khz AIFF, prior to bringing it into FCP.
If you convert to DV, and the audio is not 48Khz, FCP will render it.

DVD Studio Pro: The directory is not a DVD-Video directory...?

DVD Studio Pro is saying "Note: The directory ‘/Users/viviennesmith/Desktop/FLIGHT_INSTRUCTOR DVD/PAR’ is not a DVD-Video directory and will not be included in the final disc or DLT."
There are a are few other notes along the same theme!
The entire log reads:
Starting DVD Build THE_FLIGHT_INSTRUCTOR...
Compiler Initializing...
Precompiling Project THE_FLIGHT_INSTRUCTOR
Compiling VMG Information...
Created 6 PGCs in VTSM1
Created 8 PGCs in VMG.
0 Menu(s) will be created...
Compiling Menu PGCs...
Writing VTS_01_0.VOB
Writing VIDEO_TS.VOB
1 VTSs and 1 Titles will be created...
Compiling VTS#1 (The Flight Instructor_SD-MPEG-2 6.2Mbps 2-pass)...
Writing VTS_01_0.VOB
Muxing VTS_01_1.VOB
Done.
Linking VMG...
Linking VTS#1...
Writing VTS#1...
Writing VMG...
Writing Layout Info...
Compile Completed Successfully
Note: The directory ‘/Users/viviennesmith/Desktop/FLIGHT_INSTRUCTOR DVD/PAR’ is not a DVD-Video directory and will not be included in the final disc or DLT.
Note: The directory ‘/Users/viviennesmith/Desktop/FLIGHT_INSTRUCTOR DVD/The Flight Instructor.dspproj’ is not a DVD-Video directory and will not be included in the final disc or DLT.
Note: The file ‘The Flight Instructor_SD-Dolby Digital Professional 2.0.ac3’ found in the ‘FLIGHT_INSTRUCTOR DVD’ folder is not a DVD-Video file and will not be included in the final disc or DLT.
Note: The file ‘The Flight Instructor_SD-MPEG-2 6.2Mbps 2-pass.m2v’ found in the ‘FLIGHT_INSTRUCTOR DVD’ folder is not a DVD-Video file and will not be included in the final disc or DLT.
Note: The file ‘The Flight Instructor_SD.mp4’ found in the ‘FLIGHT_INSTRUCTOR DVD’ folder is not a DVD-Video file and will not be included in the final disc or DLT.
Note: The file ‘THE_FLIGHT_INSTRUCTOR.layout’ found in the ‘VIDEO_TS’ folder is not a DVD-Video file and will not be included in the final disc or DLT.
Note: The file ‘VOB_DATA.LAY’ found in the ‘VIDEO_TS’ folder is not a DVD-Video file and will not be included in the final disc or DLT.
Start formatting
Formatting as Standard DVD
Simulation mode is off
Lossless linking is on
Number of layers is 1
Doing side 1 of 1
Playable in region 1,2,3,4,5,6,8
Disc size is 12 cm
Disc has no copyright material
Writing ISO 9660 directories
Writing UDF 1.02 structures
Writing files
The recording device reported the media error: Unknown device error. (0x73, 0x03.)
How do I solve this to burn a simple dvd?! The mp4 file I want to burn is sitting in a folder on my desk top. I have made sure it's PAL. Does it need to be in the same folder as the edit project for example?!
Cheers
OnnySmith

All the comments about files that are not of the DVD-Video are normal. Those are files that DVDSP creates and are simply ignored in the burning.
The last line is the key one. It seems either your disc was bad or your recording device is having problems.
Try with a another new disc.
fwiw - certain brands were known to have issues. It's been a while since I've built a DVD but I remember always using Taiyo Yuden and had very few coasters from bad discs.
x

Imposible to open DVD video discs

After downloading Mountain lion update 10.8.3 on my MacBook Pro 5.1 my DVD player can open CD music discs but automatically ejects my DVD video discs. Does anyone know how to sove this problem ?

Check System Preferences (in the dock, or under the Apple logo on the menu bar) > CDs & DVDs > When You Insert a Video DVD -- and make sure it's set correctly.

-- newb.. dvd video size?

i have a 3d demo reel i wanna show to potential employers
640 by 480 DV .....3.5 mins....quicktime h.264....29.97...size 550 mb
problem 1: I thought about simply adding the video file itself to a DVD
but when on other computers ( two differint laptops ) the video skips around
when using both Quicktime pro and Windows media player. ( it doesnt skip on my pc ).
problem 2: So i authored/burned a DVD with the file encoded in MPEG2 format of course
and when it plays it goes to full screen not the native 640 by 480 size i want thus pixelizing the
video.
Question?? I want to mail these out ....so i want a person to insert the DVD into a computer
and from the dvd menu click play and the video plays in 640 by 480 ( not full screen )
--anyone knowhow is this possible? or
--how could i get the DVD data disc with the video file to play and not skip in every other computer than
my desktop?

Personally, I would put your Assets into a DV Project. Yes, I know that this not the normal workflow. Do not scale anywhere, and you will have your original Assets in a 720x480 Frame, with black around it, unscaled anywhere. Then, just author a DVD for playback on any computer equipped with a DVD software player. Using this method, I think, will not trigger the DVD player to up-rez the footage. I also do not think that the black border will be as apparant, as they would be on a TV. Now, you still have the potential issue of one playing a DVD-Video on a high-rez computer screen and hitting Full Screen.
Playing AV files from a DVD-Data can be problematic, due to the differences in systems and throughput. However, this can also happen if the system is quite old and even the DVD software player could have issues.
Good luck, and don't be surprised if there are some different ideas out there,
Hunt

Can a button be placed and selected on a video menu?

I'd like to create a main menu from a short video loop and place one or two buttons at certain locations. Can this be done? The video would stop and then connect to the button's track, right? Would I be able to have sound attached to the button's click? Should I make a duplicate video menu with the (linked-to) sound?

You can set up a motion menu and set a loop point (or you can add buttons to movie tracks) and the buttons can be placed on the menu. When the video reaches the end of the motion it will jump back to the loop point.
Usually a button being pressed will pause a motion menu (sometimes more obivious than others based on the player) and then jumps to the track. You can find a workaround to fake a button click sound via transitions (but most do not use that in DVDs) but if you are thinking something akin to mouseDown events in Director or Flash, that is not available as a command

DVD Video Menu Compression

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