Christmas Medley by JohnWE

Been using the new Encore CS4 for a DVD the last few weeks, and just when I finished the editing and was ready to burn, the program returned an error claiming there was an invalid MPEG.  This happens during the build process (creating the DVD).  Took several days and many wasted discs for me to figure this out so I thought I might share.

Things to check for:

- Red frames in MPEG video.  Even those exported from Premiere can end up with problems.  Sometimes you just end up with a bad file and need to re-render the file.

- Bad Import.  Very sneaky but if you right-click your MPEG file in the project folder and choose Interpret Footage, make sure the settings are correct.  You would assume Encore could determine the correct settings but it claimed my MPEG video had a 1.0 ratio (square pixels) when it was widescreen and had 1.2 ratio.  Hard part figuring thsi out was the timeline and monitor all showed the correct 16:9 widescreen ratio, so really it was just this one setting that affected nothing else but the build process.

One of the more frustrating things is that you cannot refresh or reimport footage.  Remember to rename your clip and then use replace asset.  Usually replacing a bad file will cause Encore to refresh but not always.

  This has been a problem for as long as I remember (even in Premiere 6.5), but it’s only beginning to bug me again after CS3.  Not sure if it’s because of the version or if I’m starting to use audio effects more often.  In any case, I’m finding that exporting video with even slight audio enhancements (highpass, pitch, etc) often causes crackling.  It doesn’t happen all the time; usually it occurs with more complicated timelines (nested sequences).

  Although it may help to lower volume or lessen the effects, an easier method I’ve found is to export the audio by itself first (Export > Audio).  You’ll end up with a wav file (uncompressed I believe) which you can re-import into your timeline and use.  You’ll notice your wav file has no crackling; this you can use to replace your video’s audio.

  It’s a bit of a hassle, but at least you don’t have to get rid of your effects or lower the volume of your video.  Bit strange that it exports audio just fine but messes up when exporting through Media Encoder.  Makes me worry if it degrades audio in some way every time you export through there.

  Been noticing an increase in phishing/scam emails the past few days (5 in last 3 days..).  Thing that bothers me is they have my real email address, so not sure what that would signify.  It’s also coming from a lot of major sites, so that’s something to be aware of - including hotscripts.com, cnet, amazon, ebay.  Makes me worry if they have my real email - why they bother to send fake ones.

  Quick way to check is to see who it’s from - the name right before .com or .net or anything like that should be the actual site.  Many times, if it’s fake, it won’t be correct (though some go as far as to spoof that as well).

  Another way to tell it’s a scam email is to hover your mouse over the links (don’t click though).  Pretty darn obvious if the links don’t go back to the website (cnet, ebay, etc).  It’s also obvious when all the links are the same - which has happened on most scam emails I get.

  So I was reading about this Delta Shield in the news the other day.  Supposedly, cellphones emit harmful EMF radiation that can cause cancer and otherwise.  That I have heard often enough, but the article here claims that the Delta Shield, a small sticker placed on the back of the phone, can reduce harmful EMF by 93%.

  Makes me wonder what would have to be in that sticker to cause such an effect and whether or not it would mess with your cell phone connection (otherwise, most phones would already have this sticker attached no?).  I’ve tried looking this product up on several sites already.  Google doesn’t bring up any reviews or information other than the main site and some duplicate news articles.

  Has anyone actually tried this item before? Scam yes, no?

  I’m starting to play Canasta again lately.  For those who do not know, it is a card game - some say it’s similar to Rummy or Jin.  It’s one of the few card games out there that require skill and is still fun to play… I guess you could say it’s like a Real-Time-Strategy version of a card game.  Coincidentally, my test scores went up when I started playing again. :O

  I mainly play on Yahoo Games right now: 2 card draw and 2 canasta-out.  It’s funny how hard it is to start playing again.  Just loss 4 games in a row and pretty much crashed my rating (used to be above 1900).  I’ll get there eventually though. ^_^

  If anyone wants to play a match, let me know.  I always welcome a challenge.

  Yay, I’ve gone from game design, to programming, to video editing, and now finally playing a few things.  Nothing big yet, but it’s not bad.  Added a new Music section to the site gallery.  Let me know what you guys think and how I can improve.  I’m not doing any sound editing yet, just plain keyboard piano, but maybe later I’ll look into it.  Some guides would be nice if you guys have any.

pftq Music