Simulating Your Project
for
more information.
• Emulating your project: Emulating your project by playing it on a real DVD player is the
most sure test of it. To emulate your project with the Apple DVD Player, you must build
the VIDEO_TS or HVDVD_TS folder. To emulate your project using a standalone DVD
player, you must also format it and burn a disc that you can then play on any DVD
player. It’s important to test your project under varying conditions, especially if your
project relies heavily on scripts. See
Emulating Your Project Using DVD Player
for more
information.
Simulating Your Project
The DVD Studio Pro Simulator is a useful tool for verifying your project while you are still
creating it. There are a few things to be aware of before simulating your project:
• The Simulator behaves much as a standalone DVD player. This means you should have
the links set to allow you to navigate around the project. In particular, be sure to set
your First Play action to a suitable menu or track. If you do not yet have the assets that
will be the actual First Play element, you can temporarily link to an interim menu instead.
This ensures that an element is displayed if you start the Simulator by clicking Simulate
in the toolbar.
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Chapter 22
Finishing a Project
There are also a variety of ways you can force the Simulator to start at a specific element.
For example, you can Control-click the element in the Outline or Graphical tab, then
choose Simulate from the shortcut menu. This allows you to test parts of the project
without having all of the elements in place.
• DVD Studio Pro Preferences contains a number of settings in the Simulator pane that
allow you to configure the Simulator much like you would a DVD player. For example,
you can set the Simulator’s region code, aspect ratios, language preferences, and
playback output options to test for different situations. See
Simulator Preferences
for
more information.
• Because the project has not been built yet, the Simulator must use assets as and where
they are. This may lead to issues with playback, such as stuttering or pauses. The severity
of these issues depends on the assets and the computer you are authoring on.
• The Log tab contains a simulation log that provides information on a simulation while
it is in progress. This information can be useful when you are trying to work out issues
with your project.
• The Simulator processes Pause After VOBU settings on markers set at slides in a track.
The Simulator does not process Pause After VOBU settings on markers set on full-motion
video clips (which it is not recommended to do in any case). The track plays as if the
settings were not active. See
General Tab in the Marker Inspector
for more information
on VOBUs.