So, what have you been doing???

Ok, I have been trying to work on some DVD's for the last 2 months.

I got the original footage in December. The person and I agreed it would take a while and they were willing to wait for life to settle in January.

Ok, so January comes and I load all the footage for one person. (There is footage of three different people and I'm making seperate DVD's for each one.)

I edit and get it all done and think - WOW this is great. New version of my software and everything is totally cool. THEN I think - hey I should stick this in the DVD player before I mail it. AAAAAAHHHHHHHH
Ok, it looks GREAT - but there is no AUDIO.

So I try to reburn the DVD's like 5 times to get audio on them. I just kept making lovely coasters for the furniture. AHHHH. I finally get on the internet and go to the posts for the software I use.
GEE, it seems I'm not the only one with this problem.

I figure, go back and use the old version of the software and just get through this stuff. Ok, try to reload stuff, and unload stuff from the machine. Ummm, didn't work right.
So, I decide to reinstall the whole machine. If you know anything about computers - a FIREWIRE input is not how you connect to the internet, someone needed to Tell WINDOWS XP professional this. I finally find the driver for the motherboard internet connection (after 3 hours of screaming and crying.) and get it up and running again. (This was Friday um 2 weeks ago?)

Ok, so I RELOAD the footage, cause the stuff I loaded before does not work with the old version.
I chug through the musical stuff and really feel like I'm getting stuff done. Two DVD's down and mailed. Now time for the gymnastics stuff.
Ok, FOUND way more footage this time and need to get it in there. Tell the people, this may take a little longer.
Last THURSDAY - yeah the 15th. I get all the footage loaded, and edited so that it looks decent and before I went to bed I told the machine - be nice and render all this so I can make DVD's tomorrow morning.

HA - the computer hates me. I tried 3 or 4 times to get it to render. It would just HANG UP in the middle. Just decide - opps not gonna finish.

I think about crying on Saturday. Sunday I go the desperate route. I start chopping big time and tell the machine to make little AVI files that I will peice together to make the final over an hour DVD with all the cool menus.

By Sunday night at 11:30 pm, I finally had all the AVI files of what was left of the footage. Some of it I just could not use.
This morning I asked the computer politely to use the OTHER harddrive and make me a DVD.
I got home from work to find - LOW AND BEHOLD a finished Render of the DVD with Menu's.

5:30pm - threw in a DVD and burned a final copy. 6:30pm - checked it on the DVD player attatched to the TV. Picture and SOUND....

7:30 pm - 2 more copies of the DVD spit out of the machine - now I have to print the labels on the DVD. (I now have a printer JUST for this job.)

So, to recap. The studio 10 software does not make the audio available for a regular DVD player to play it.
The computer thinks that a firewire plug is used for internet connections.
My second hard drive is probably failing and putting more footage on it is a bad idea.
And I have TWO more people worth of VIDEO to load, edit and burn DVD's for.......

And what have you been up to lately..?.....

(Tomorrow I may review Music and Lyrics.)