HomePage 3 of 7: Load the input files, editing and chapter creation
Step 2: Load the input files, editing and chapter creation
Stil on the "Content" screen, you will note the options available to you on your right to load the input video. For the purpose of this guide, it is assumed you already have some video files, so click on the "Add Video Files" option and load in your video files. Please note that while Nero Vision can accept a wide range of file inputs (AVI, DivX, DV, DAT, DVR-MS, MPG, MP4, VOB, WMV ...), it is best to ensure your input video is in a common video format like DivX/XviD. For MP4 files, Nero will of course support files in the Nero Digital format, but other H.264 formats (eg. encoded using x264) might not be fully compatible.
If you have a series/title of VOB files (eg. VTS_01_1.VOB, VTS_01_2.VOB, VTS_01_3.VOB ...), then you can load the first in the series (eg. VTS_01_1.VOB) and you will be asked if you wish to automatically load the other files in the series and for Nero Vision to treat it as a single file - normally, you would select "Yes".
Nero Vision will analyze the input files. The details of each input file will be displayed. In DVD terms, each of the individual loaded video will be a "Title" set. You can right click on each input file and rename it so that it will be easier to identify. You can also select the video and press the "Up" or "Down" buttons on the left to change the sequence of the video files.
If you wish to edit your video, right click on the listed video and select "Edit".
This should open up the video editing screen. If you are familiar with video editing, all the options here should be fairly straight forward. The video preview windows is on the left with the usual options - you can also take a snapshot from the video or record parts of the audio to be used elsewhere or looped into the current video. Please note that you may need to left click on the "Video Track" section of the timeline below to select the video track in order to activate the video split/cut options.
As mentioned already, the bottom part of the screen is the time line, where any loaded text, special effects and audio tracks are displayed and positioned.
To the top right is 4 tabs. The first tab allows you to load in media files to the project to use here and also later on in menu creation. Loaded files can be dragged onto the timeline (audio or additional video files). The second tab is for video effects, which you can select and drag into the "effects" bar of the time line - there are some pretty cool effects (eg. the "Inside the Matrix" effect), and you can preview the effects using the preview windows.The third tab is for inserting text into the video, again lots of effects for the fonts and a property window will open allowing you to edit the text, fonts, colors ...
The last tab is for transitional effects, which can be applied to the beginning and end of videos. Again, select, drag and position. With any of these effects, you can double click on them on the timeline to open up their properties. Select/highlight these and press the "delete" key on your keyboard to delete them, or use the same option when you right click on the effect. Press the "Next" button when you are finished, and you will be returned to the "Content" screen.
Now we can create chapters for these video files. Right click on any of the loaded video files and select "Create Chapters". This opens up the chapter creation screen.
Creating chapters can be a little tricky sometimes, so follow these instructions to avoid confusion. There is a "Auto Detect Chapters" button that will automatically add in chapters based on scene change, but this can be inaccurate. To manually add in chapters, first press play or drag the position slider to where you want the first chapter to be (you can also input the time of where the chapter should be). Press the "Add Chapter" button (the right most button) to add in a chapter marker - the marker will be shown on the position slider, as well as to the list on the right hand side (complete with snapshot) - the names of these chapters will be shown on the chapter select screen of your DVD menu (or just the number of the chapter is you don't name them). You can right click on the chapter listings on the right hand side (the ones with the snapshots) to rename or delete the chapter markers. Please note that chapters have to be at least one second apart from each other, so if the "Add Chapter" button is grayed out, this is probably the reason.
To create the next chapter, don't use the slider again or change the time code because that will only modify the current chapter marker. Instead, click play, and after the "Add Chapter" button becomes ungrayed or until you've reach the position of the next chapter, click it again to add the chapter. You can now use the slider or change the time for this newly added chapter marker. Repeat until you've added in all your chapters. When you're done, press "Next" to be returned to the "Content" screen. Press "Next" again to leave the "Content" screen and to open the "Select Menu" screen.
