Links not linking correctly after burn

So I figured out what was going wrong. (I've only done a few DVDSP projects, so I'm still learning.)

The project I was working on had complicated motion menu's (made with Motion). As would be expected, once I finished a version, I would send to the client, and get feedback. Usually, the comments were about the menus, as the video had been approved long before I got involved. In hopes to save myself time, I would quit DVDSP 4, update the menus in Motion, encode them using Lacie's FasCoder, replacing the old files with the updated ones, and re-opening DVDSP 4 so that it would see these new files as the old ones. That way, I'm not constantly setting, unsetting, and resetting the menus. I thought this would be a good work flow, but it has turned out to be the cause of faulty burns. If any of the menus, when re-encoded, are slightly off (a frame extra, or one less) it will cause some kind of glitch where the burned DVD, will have buttons that link to the wrong menu, or the wrong video. Countless burns, and hours later, I removed the assets for the menus (both audio and video) saved, quit DVDSP, re-opened, and then re-imported the menu assets. I set menu assets, and burned. I got a burn that was flawless. This glitch can be very frustrating, as the Simulation function of DVDSP 4 does not reflect any flaw. The Simulator will play the buttons and menu's the way they should be, therefore making the only way to check the buttons, is to burn a DVD.

So hopefully, someone will get use out of this, and not face the nightmare I had.

Winston A. Cely
Editor
Envision Response
Seattle, WA