Solved DVD Architect Pro 6 - Audio Backround Media not playing

I just upgraded to Vegas Pro 13 from Movie Studio Platinum 13. The main reason why I upgraded was so that I can use DVD Architect Pro 6 so that I can produce Blue Ray Disc with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio.

I created a new project and after preparing the files which took over 10 hours I burn a Blue Ray Disc which took over 1 hour. I attached some background media to 3 menu pages. The format for this background audio media is wav 44.1 kHz 16 bit.

When I play the Blue Ray disc on the BD player everything works fine except that I the audio background media on the menu pages does not play.

I contacted Sony Support via email and let me tell you that they are not very helpful at all. In order to get telephone support you have to purchase a support plan.

I recreated the same project using DVD Architect 5 (which came bundled with Movie Studio Platinum 13) using exactly all of the same files and everything works fine including the audio background media on the 3 menu pages. Also it took only 22 minutes to complete the file preparation process and about 30 minutes to burn the Blue Ray Disc.

Not too sure what is happening with the Pro version and not very happy paying 275 (CDN) to upgrade to a product that does not work properly.

Hi there

Go to Options - Preferences - Video
Do you have GPU Acceleration turned ON or OFF in the Vegas Preferences ?
What do you have Dynamic RAM Preview Set to ?

What model GPU do you have ?
What model CPU do you have ?

Which exact Blu-ray Format did you render to ?
MPEG-2 or Sony AVC ?
Which template did you use ?
Did you render the Audio and Video files separately ?

I will have to get back to you about the Audio not playing in Menus.
Can you send me a copy of your DVD Architect Pro project file. End in .dar
This will show me what settings you are using. I will not be able to see your videos, because they are not in this tiny data file.

Regards
Derek.

Hi,

First of all thanks for responding so quickly. Considering we are in different time zones (Canada - Eastern) and you are in Australia.

I have attached a snapshot of my Vegas Pro 13 Video Settings (Vegas Pro 13 - Video Settings.JPG). But that's not where I have problems. It took over 10 hours in DVD Architect Pro 6 to prepare the files for BD burning and for the same project that was recreated using DVD Architect 5.0 it took 22 minutes. Both projects using exactly the same files.

I also have attached both the DVD Architect Pro 6 Project File (Greenfield's Pub - 2014-06-20.dar) and the DVD Architect 5 Project File (Greenfield's Pub - 2014-06-20 - V5.dar).

As for your other questions
Which exact Blu-ray Format did you render to ?
MPEG-2 or Sony AVC ? MPEG-2
Which template did you use ? See attached file (Vegas Pro 13 - Render As - Video Template.JPG)
Did you render the Audio and Video files separately ? Yes see attached file (Vegas Pro 13 - Render As Settings - Audio.JPG)

I have been back and forth with by email with Sony's Technical Support. Not too impressed with those guys at this time.

BTW your instructional videos are great, I have learn a lot from them. Keep them coming.

Thanks

Dan

Can you please re-upload the .dar DVDA project files, because they have not uploaded properly and are non-functional.
When you upload them, just press Add File and do not press Insert.

I cannot really comment any further until I see your Project Files.
You must definitely have a Setting wrong in DVDA - most likely your Project Properties are incorrect.
If you render your Video and Audio correctly in Vegas Pro first, DVDA should not be re-rendering anything.
10 hours in DVDA is indicating that your settings in DVDA are different to your Vegas Pro settings - which means DVDA is having to re-render every single video you imported.
When DVDA is set correctly, it should spend a few moments rendering your Menus and then go directly into burning the Blu-ray discs.

In your Vegas Pro settings I noticed that you do not have GPU Acceleration turned ON.
Do you have a dedicated Graphics Card installed ?
If so, what model is it ?

Sony Support is only there for technical problems, like bugs and activation problems.
They cannot help you for troubleshooting the construction of projects.
Using Forums like this is the best place to get accurate and usable information.
The two best Sony Forums on the web are here:
#1 Creative Cow Vegas Pro Forum
Professional Video Editors who use Vegas Pro answer the questions here. If they don't know the answer, no one does.

#2 Sony Creative Software Vegas Pro Forum
This has the largest amount of Vegas users.

Hi Derek,

Here are the files. Not too sure what happened, I even use the "Add File" option like you mentioned.

I just compared all of the Preference Settings and Projects Properties for both DVDA Pro 6 and DVDA 5 and they are pretty much all the same. The only difference I have is that the Audio Format is different. It's "PCM Stereo" for DVDA 5 and "AC-3 5.1 Surround) for DVDA Pro 6. The reason for this is that DVDA 5 does not support "AC-3 5.1 Surround" when authoring a Blu-Ray Disc. What I don't understand is that using exactly the same media files (both Audio, Video and images) I get such a difference in Prepare Time. Over 10 hours for DVDA Pro 6 and 22 minutest for DVDA 5. I also noticed that when rendering with Vegas Pro 13 it does takes longer than Movie Studio Platinum 13. I have seen complaints about this on the web.

I have the same "Project Properties" for both DVDA applications (except for the Audio like I mentioned above). Would it make sense that if DVDA Pro 6 has to re-render the same would apply for DVDA 5. That is not the case since it only took 22 minutes to render.

The computer I have is a Dell XPS 8500 with an Intel i7-3770 CPU @ 3.4 GHz. I have a Zoom Blaster Z Sound Card and AMD Radeon HD 7570 on board Graphic Card. No way it should take over 10 hours for the preparation process.

The reason why I turned off GPU Acceleration is because I do not have a compatible Video Card and also I was told by the Sony Technical Support Team to turn it off because Vegas Pro 13 was crashing all the time. It has not crashed since.

Thanks

Dan

Have you looked/reviewed the message you just sent to me ?
There are no file attachments here !
I don't know what the problem is. My guess is that you have a banned character in the name of file. I see below in another message you have ' in the name. Remove the '
I did a test myself and was able to attach .dar files to a message. So I am not sure why it is not working for you, unless the file type you are trying to upload is NOT a ".dar" file. The forum has a file filter and will only accept file extensions I have pre-approved.

Please send your .dar files to me in an email instead.
help@moviestudiozen.com

I cannot comment on your problems until I see your project files.
Then I can replicate exactly what you are doing and see what is going on.
I am not experiencing all the problems you are reporting with the exact same programs.
I do see in your screen shot for Rendering Settings, that you have turned ON "two pass" renders. Do you realize that doing this is going the DOUBLE your rendering times ?

Don't get confused by me posting under a different user name - Doctor Zen and Derek = same person.

I have spent a bit of time looking at settings, since I sent my last reply back you.
I just noticed that you have actually changed TWO of the default settings inside the MPEG-2 Render As Video profile.
You have set the Video Quality slider to 31 and have Two Pass Rendering turned ON - doing this is going to increase your render times to the maximum time possible.
I do not profess to be an expert in everything, far from it.
When I don't know the answer to something, I will ask the expert.
I checked the Vegas Help files and it actually says that Video Quality slider only needs to be set to 31 if you are rendering for a DVD.
The Blu-ray profile has it set to 15.
In my experience, I have found that most default settings in the Render As custom settings windows, are already set to optimal settings.
So I think it might be worth while if you do an experiment and re-render with the slider set to 15.

I would also like to see your Vegas Pro Project Property settings.
If you could upload a screen shot of that, I would appreciate it.

One final question.
What is the total length in time for your Blu-ray project ?
Once I have this new information, I intend to replicate all your settings and in Vegas Pro and DVD Architect Pro and then report back to you.

Regards
Derek.

Hi Derek,

Not too sure what happened but I did add the file attachments. I simplified the file names and sent them to the email address you requested. I understand that by having 2 passes as an option will take longer to render but would this affect the way the prepare process will be done in DVD Architect Pro 6. Like I mentioned before I used the same files in DVDA 5 and it took 22 minutes. DVDA Pro 6 is the application I have issues with not Vegas Pro 13. Two issues the amount of prepare time compared to DVDA 5 and the Audio Background Media on Menu Page not playing.

Blu-Ray Project Time Length - 1 Hour and 44 minutes (rounded off)
1 - Intro Menu File with audio - 4:26:25
1 - Set 1 Music Video - 54:12:23
1 - Set 2 Music Video - 45:12:28

Most of my Video Projects are Music related.

For future projects I will change the slider to 15 for BD Projects like you suggested.

I have attached the Vegas Pro 13 Video and Audio Setting Snapshot files as you requested. Let me know if you do not receive them. No funny characters in the file names.

Thanks

Dan

OK
Now we are getting somewhere.
I have not forgotten about your problem with the Audio in DVDA.
I will get to that, but need time to analyse your project file properly.

The reason why I am concentrating on Vegas Pro first, is because that is were the first problem is coming from.
You have mis-matched frame rate settings in Vegas.
This is going to slow down your render times.
You have your Project Properties set to HD 1080-50i PAL Settings, yet are rendering to HD 1080-60i NTSC settings.
So what type of video is your source video ?
Are you using 1080-25p, 1080-30p, 1080-50p or 1080-60p ?

In all my tutorials, I show that it is best to use the Match Media button in the Project Property window.
That way you will never make a mistake and get the best performance out of Vegas.
Once you know what you original video is using, set the Project Properties the same (using Match Media) and render to the same.

At a glance, your Project Property settings look correct in DVDA.
However, I did find one setting which which may actually be the cause of re-rendering in DVDA.
You have "Reduce Interlace Flicker" turned ON.
I never use this setting myself, so I am not familiar 100%.
However, I have a sneaky suspicion that turning this ON is going to force DVDA to re-render ALL your video and thus un-do ALL your good work from Vegas Pro.
I stress this is just a hunch.
So maybe you can do the test for me, turn it OFF and re-do the project.
You can create a copy of your main project to do the test and just do the prepare stage.

I will get back to you about the Audio problem.
I have some of my own work to do, before spending more time on this now.
:silly:

Ignore what I said about the "Reduce Interlace Flicker" setting - you already had it rendered inside the original video.
I just realized I was looking at the wrong data in your project file.

There is something you should do differently.
The way you have imported the two videos is not a good way to do it.
You should always Import your videos into DVDA at the Root level in the Left side column - not attached to a Menu.
Never Import videos on top of the Menu Screen.
Import them by doing a right-click on the Disc Root and then drag the video onto the Menu Screen, if that is where you want it.
You also have some Menu naming problems - different Menus with the same name.
I have taken a screen shot showing what it should look like.
I suggest you should partly re-do your project.
Maybe fixing this will make the Audio work.
The Audio is working for me when I use the Preview Function.
If all else fails, sometimes it is a good idea to start a fresh project.
You can have two instances of DVDA open and copy from one project into the other.