How to find layer break position

Hi Ruben.

This is honestly not as difficult as you might think, and the good news is that this can be done using easy tools as well.

I do need to know what your replicator wants you to deliver though - this is very important. Are you replicating or duplicating? (Replicating is getting the disc glass mastered and silver factory pressed discs out of the other end, and Duplicating is making DVD+R DL written discs) This matters because with replication you might be asked to supply a DDP image set instead of an ISO image.

If using an ISO image is allowed, then you can use IMGBurn's layer break setting to do the job. To use this method:

1. Create your output from Encore as a Folder, not a replication master.

2. Open IMGBurn and choose "create DVD Image from |Files/Folders" option and in the settings make certain that the resulting ISO image will also contain a checksum as well as a .dvd file (this will include the layer break info)

You also need to be sure that it is set up as in the following screenshots as well - They are all important but one of the most critical is the IFO/BUP padding as this can result in a factory image fail if not done.

When burning a test disc also see the following settings are applied:

So to try & answer more of the questions:

2. - You cannot check this by playing the disc unless you have one of those old players that hiccups momentarily at the layer break transition. With modern players, especially Universal ones that also play Blu-ray, you will often find that the mandatory buffering required by Blu-ray specs is carried over to the DVD playback as well where in DVD specs this is just not required. You can check where the break is by simply opening your compiled Video_TS in a superb little tool called PGCEdit. This is a wonderful little utility that nobody authoring DVD should be without and it is donationware, so please please do this (I recommend $25-50 for what it is capable of).

To check location of layer break in this could not really be easier - simply open the tool, and open the compiled Video_TS when in the "Open DVD" dialogue.

To see what is in each title just open it's content either by double clicking or from the drop-down menus but if you know where it has to be (for example if there is one long feature & a couple of short extras then you know it will be in the longest title - see example below:

You can only see the one title, VTS1, TTN1, so double click that to open it and the following pops up:

You can see the layer break location standing out like a sore thumb - it's the yellow square showing that it is not set as seamless playback and is the layer break.

PGCEdit can do lots more besides this and is capable of reworking the commands & navigation of any button in the title as well as the button colours etc as well as being able to tidy up behind abstraction layer tools - it is extremely powerful but the good news is that when you open a disc the first thing it does is makes safety copies of the critical BUP and IFO files.

Now - if you are needing to send a DDP set then you can also make this from Encore. I do not know what a DDL set is though - do you mean DDP?

The easiest way to check is to first compile the project and then open the Video_TS in PGCedit as above & see what it says is set. If it says nothing then you need to reopen the project in Encore & prepare your Replication Master to DDP image.

Hope this helps - I will check in tomorrow

Can't answer several of the questions.

There are many issues in replication, and it is my understanding that the replication facility checks your submission and reports errors.

One options is to export the Encore project as a folder (with no break set), and see what Imgburn says about that.