Adventures In Mighty B Land...
A couple weeks ago, I put together a DVD of several episodes of the Mighty B TV series. Fresh off my adventures in authoring a two and a half minute DVD, I decided to try my hand at remastering the episodes of the Mighty B, I had on hand.
By the way, for those who don't know the Mighty B...
I noticed that the app would occasionally complain that my video drivers might not be up to date. So, I decided to check the NVidia website to see if there was an updated video driver and there was. It took about four hours to get the new driver installed. Fortunately, that seemed to fix the issue with previewing the content.
The next issue involved editing the content -- removing commercials. The editor would freeze when attempting to edit the content. Eventually, after several hours worth of effort and many many saves, I was able to get the content edited -- more or less. There was one episode that gave me a lot of problems. The editor, for some unknown reason, refused to show the end of the episode. So, I couldn't tell where the episode actually ended and where the commercials started.
After a day and a half of work, I managed to get the content ready for burning. I started the burning sequence and discovered that the app would have to process the content before actually burning the DVD. The processing would take about two and a half hours. About half way through the process, the app froze and nothing was burned to DVD. At least the app didn't kill a DVD, but, after rebooting, I found that the app could not pick up processing where it left off -- it had to start from the beginning. I tried a couple of times to get the app to complete processing and it refused. So after two days of effort, I've got nothing to show for my work, but, a two and a half minute DVD and a $90 hole in my wallet. I checked the web for advice on the app and discovered that there's a lot of pain out there. My next step will be to try a different software package.
By the way, for those who don't know the Mighty B...
My new and improved DVD authoring software turned out to be, not so new and improved. It was relatively painless to set up a project file and add a menu, but, things started to go downhill from there. I had a lot of problems adding the content. The files could be added in bulk, but, when previewing the material to identify which episodes were which, the app would freeze and I would have to reboot. I went through a number of rounds of trying to identify my content and get the menu in order. It took several hours just to get the menu in order.The Mighty B! is a Nickelodeon show created by Erik Wiese, Cynthia True and Amy Poehler. Poehler also provides the voice of the title character, Bessie Higgenbottom. Its first episode premiered on April 26, 2008. The series was developed under the working title of "Super Scout" before adopting its current name...
Bessie Higgenbottom is a Honeybee scout (this series' portrayal of the Girl Scouts of the USA) who is determined to collect every single badge in Honeybee history. Honeybee folklore implies that in doing so, she’ll become a superhero called the Mighty B. Bessie often enlists the help of her dog Happy, her brother Ben, and her best friend Penny.
I noticed that the app would occasionally complain that my video drivers might not be up to date. So, I decided to check the NVidia website to see if there was an updated video driver and there was. It took about four hours to get the new driver installed. Fortunately, that seemed to fix the issue with previewing the content.
The next issue involved editing the content -- removing commercials. The editor would freeze when attempting to edit the content. Eventually, after several hours worth of effort and many many saves, I was able to get the content edited -- more or less. There was one episode that gave me a lot of problems. The editor, for some unknown reason, refused to show the end of the episode. So, I couldn't tell where the episode actually ended and where the commercials started.
After a day and a half of work, I managed to get the content ready for burning. I started the burning sequence and discovered that the app would have to process the content before actually burning the DVD. The processing would take about two and a half hours. About half way through the process, the app froze and nothing was burned to DVD. At least the app didn't kill a DVD, but, after rebooting, I found that the app could not pick up processing where it left off -- it had to start from the beginning. I tried a couple of times to get the app to complete processing and it refused. So after two days of effort, I've got nothing to show for my work, but, a two and a half minute DVD and a $90 hole in my wallet. I checked the web for advice on the app and discovered that there's a lot of pain out there. My next step will be to try a different software package.
March 18, 2009
Update
I picked up some new software and tried, yet again, to remaster the episodes of Mighty B that I had on hand. The effort was successful, but, altogether underwhelming. The quality suffered greatly during the transfer and mastering phases. But, all of my efforts were not in vain. I did figure out a process for burning web-quality content to a DVD and as long as I don't ask too much of my humble DVD authoring software, it actually works fairly well.
April 25, 2010
