Reply from another forum:  You can SAVE this Tour out CD-R.  Maybe because of file structure sizes you might want to save it to a larger disk format like a DVD.

OK now How does one make a TW2 Movie that looks and behaves like the one I placed out on a server - Skin, buttons and background picture etc.  Qustion: is there a special track to place the skin, button and mouse functionality into the movie?

Yes, I did read through the HELP file before getting into learning to make a movie today.  First item I did NOT find was what do all those VCD-PAL, VCD_NTSC  etc codec's mean to a novice.... which one would be recommended to play right out the box.

So far used  3 DVD disks.  See comments below

Equipment used to play back a TW2 generated movie.

1. Sony CD-DVD Player 720p 1080i DVD- VS70H

2. Panasonic VHS-DVD Recorder  DMR-ES 346V plays cd's dvd-ram, -rw +rw

3. Computer DVD recorder/player

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With TW2 Trial Version - Created a 6 panorama TW2 tour - no slides, no thumbnails, no maps.  Uploaded it to the server and plays well except the NAG screen keeps popuping up asking to register/buy.  Tour works fine.

clicked the MOVIE REC and it automatically loaded the project and placed an Easypano blue < > + - tool bar in lower right corner of the frame.  So far it looks just like the virtual tour on the server.

Frames ran out to around 543 frames  all on 1 track named Slideshow.

Clicked the red dot EXPORT Movie

First movie cut to DVD_NTSC  makes sense.. Its a recordable DVD and I am playing it back in the US NTSC standard video format.

Results shown on the TV screen or on the player LCD.

Machine 1 Err No video, No audio

Machine 2 Err Unsupported Port

Computer DVD player -played ok full size frame like shown on the server but.. no skin, no toolbar nobuttons or mouse control

2nd Movie VCD_NTSC

Machine 1 Err No video, No audio

Machine 2 Err Unsupported Port

Computer DVD player- played ok HALF size frame like shown on the server but.. no skin, no toolbar nobuttons or mouse control

Results:  Ok.. maybe my TV DVD players do not have the correct Codec's in their firmware.

Maybe someone can help me understand what to expect when playing back on a TV.

Movies were small 90mb or so.. so put 2 on 1 DVD  and played back on the computer DVD drive.  All mpegs seem to loadup and use Windows Media Player.  No skins, buttons or toolbars.. only the panoramas are being displayed on a black background

Movie #3 Mpeg2 (customized) 90.4mb Mpeg2 format is also 352x240 even though the [check mark was for use original document size larger.

Movie #4 Mpeg1 (customised) 90.4mb  Played it on Computer DVD drive.  Image was small like 352 x 240 and not the [checkmark] Use same size as document which was 875x620

Dave,

It's 3am here in Australia and I'm too tired to get in depth but here are some basics.

The DVD tour will NOT include any "Skins" it will ONLY show fullscreen panoramas. You have NO control manually to the panning whilst playing in the DVD. The DVD Panorama Movie is a copy of your Fullscreen panorama tour and it follows the "Movie Path" that you assign via the Movie Path options. These options can include pan rotation, zoom in, zoom out etc.

Basically you must set the movie path (Scripted Path) this might be as simple as 1 full rotation or as complex as panning from one point to another in one direction then zooming in on something of interest before zooming out again and panning in the opposite direction etc.

The stand alone DVD MUST support the DVD being written to as well as the Codec chosen to render the .mpg file.

My DVD players support DIVX and XVID along with regular DVD Mpeg2 format. All my testing has worked 100% in both PAL and NTSC formats. I will add that I made the Tourweaver .MPG DVD compliant using another video software editing program.

Regards, Smooth

Ok... thanks for staying up late to provide your comment.

I did notice that all the files on the dvd's were .mpeg file types even though I did record using VCD NTSC, DVD_NTSC and Mpeg1 and Mpeg2 TW2 selection options.

Your comment about DIVX [used on computer dvd drive as a player] was interesting.  I used a small free program called GSpotavi to check the flavor of the DVD mpegs.  For all 4 .mpeg files.. it just said.. yup ! its an .mpeg file but did not tell me what flavor 1 or 2.

I also turned to reading the owners manual for the two TV DVD  players. Both basically said the same thing

Disks that cannot be played.

2.6/5.2 GB DVD-Ram, 12cm (5")
3.95/4.7 GB DVD-R for Authoring
DVD-R recorded in DVD Video Recording format
DVD- (DVD-Video format) DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD-Video format), +R, +R DL recorded on another unit and not finalized
PAL discs (you can still play the audio on DVD-Audio) or SECAM
DVD-Video with a region number other than "1" or "ALL"
Blu-ray
o DVD-ROM, +R, cd-rom, CDV, CD-G, PhotoCD, CVD, SVCD, SACD, MV-Disc, PD, DivX Video Disc, etc

I remember few years ago, we made some SCUBA diving movies that I could play on our older DVD/Recorder machine which broke and is now trashed.  The file type was a .vob. 

We ripped it and made it into smaller more managable Scuba diving movies .mpeg.   You can see us scuba diving here

http://360texas.com/virtualtour/mexico/cancun/scuba/movies.htm

I guess I am at a home tv Tourweaver dvd player  loss. 

BUT I can still play them on my notebook or desktop dvd player... but then I really should be using the html version and IE 6/7 or Firefox.

MIGHT CONSIDER THIS.  Update the TW2 Help file with a special notice about codec's and dvd-TV-players as well as What you can expect to see example,  you will not see the background skin, buttons or have any control over the movie during playback.

Why would you want buttons and skins showing on a TV? It's a movie - simply as that!

Regards, Smooth

I would want the movie to look just like what you see on the html internet because... that was the way project color scheme was designed.    Might search for a screen capture to mpeg converter.  Its nice to have something like this built in to TW2.  Might try to find a way to put the movie onto another color background other than jet black.

Our SCUBA diving movies file format that seems to work on computers and STANDARD signal TV  on the DVD is in a folder called

\Video_TS
with the following files and sizes
video_TS.BUP 12kb
video_TS.IFO 12kb
videoTS.VOB 36kb
vts_01_0.BUP 20kb
vts_01_0.IFO 20kb
VTS_01_1.VOB  812mb (the real movie with matching music sound track

I now realize that there might be some other experimental freeware movie converters or 

Windows XP
free slideshow like Microsofts Moviemaker2 or PhotoStory3 that can at least already do this DVD slideshow and movie functionality.

Windows Vista
"Windows DVD Maker" does slides and video.

For future reference most folks already know that Analog TV in the US is being turned off Spring 2009 (in 2 years).  Not sure about Europe and the far east.  NTSC, PAL and SECAM TV tuners are analog signals being phased out.  And so it might be with older codec like VCD-PAL, NTSC, SVCD etc.

They are being replaced with the now world wide acceptance of tuners with new names like ATSC, ISDB-T, DBV-T (terrestrial - antennas) , and DVB-S (satellite).  No doubt this will bring new challenges when working with video capture and display conversions.

All this makes my head hurt.  Guess I will put this part of TW2 on hold for a while.