HomeMovie.Com: Technical Tips

Browser Setup for Director's DVD

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The Director's DVD is a powerful tool for authoring your DVDs and Streaming DVDs. However, as like with other software applications, there are some simple configuration settings that you may need to change to ensure a smooth authoring process. Read this section to learn more.

Director's Help

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Need help creating your Director's DVD online? Here are some of the common problems other people have experienced.

MPEG2 vs. Digital Video Tapes

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Many people think that the digital video stored on their DV, DVCAM, or DVCPRO is the same as the digital video stored on a DVD. This is not true.

Unlocked audio?

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Locked audio is best described as audio done correctly, where the relationship of audio and video are precise in the respect that they have the exact number of audio samples to coincide with the number of video frames.

Timecode Issues

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Since the introduction of the DV and digital formats, timecode has become a crucial means of referencing and indexing our digital video.

LP mode vs. SP mode

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If you're thinking about putting that long movie onto a Mini-DV tape in LP mode maybe you should think again.

Frame Accurate Chapter Points

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Did you know that due to DVD specifications we can't place your chapters on the exact frames you specify when building your Enhanced DVD. MPEG2 compression limits the accessible frames to only 2 frames per second. Click the "Read" link above to learn more.

4-Channel Audio

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Do your create your master digital tapes with 4 channels of audio? Read on to see how we mix your 4-channels down to 2 separate channels for your DVD.

Dolby Digital AC-3 Audio

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Don't accept PCM audio on your DVDs. Dolby Digital AC-3 audio sounds just as great as PCM, but takes up only 1/8th of the space on a 2-hour movie.

Custom Menu Images

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Did you know that you could send us your own image to be used as the backgrounds of your menus?

Internet Explorer on Apple Computers

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HomeMovie.Com is continuously trying to improve the performance of our advanced DVD creation tools on the Internet for Apple Computer users.

What is the proper movie length?

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At some point you will be the victim of DVD hype. The hype of DVD is focused almost exclusively on Hollywood Movies which have many benefits over productions you will do (mainly multi-million dollar budgets).

How is your encoding equipment different
than my NLE?

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Your new NLE may have the ability to capture, edit, or output MPEG2 files. While the files technically are MPEG2, they aren't the same MPEG2 files that meet the DVD specifications. Usually you will have to output video from your NLE to a DVD authoring program which transcodes the files into DVD compliance.