1st burn, need some pointers (big pointers) :D

[Jah]

Hi all,

I've just got a DVD burner and I'm ready to make up my first dvd, however I quickly realised that it's not quite as straight forward as it seemed.

I've made a 2h4m mpeg that i need to burn to a dvd, my main problem is that I have no idea what software i need to get this thing burnt, nor indeed how to burn it

I definitely want it in DVD format as the player i have does not support svcd or vcd

Ive been through almost all the guides on this site and frankly they are too jargon filled for me to understand, what do i do? I'm pulling my hair out here

[rvl123]

Hi,

What you need to do is author the MPEG so that it is DVD compatable.

You need to get an authoring program (a good newbie one is ULead DVD Movie Factory). If you search it on google, you should be able to get a full function demo to try it out.

And then all you gotta do is load the MPEG and let the program do it's thing.

Hope this helps ya.

[Jah]

thanks rvl,

tried Ulead DVD Moviefactory 2 Trial and after 3-4 hours of encoding it decided to tell me i didnt have enough disk space on the dvd. This was odd being as the movie size was 3.5gig (set at fair quality) and the dvd disk is 4.7gig. Is that a known problem with NEC ND1300A burners and this software?

so far i've spent about 72 hours trying to burn 2 hours of video.

any ideas?

[bugster]

1st, it sounds like you are letting DVD MF re-encode your video for you. If the mpeg-2 was DVD complinat, then this should be avoided. I don't use MF but I believe there is a switch for 'do not convert compliant files'

2nd, the space problem. This is most likley the audio settings in MF. It is probably set to use PCM (uncompressed audio) which takes up loads of space, hence the apparently big increase in file size. There should be a setting in MF to tell it use mp2 audio (as in the mpeg file). Be aware though, this is not standard in NTSC region players, though many do support it. If you are in a PAL region it is no problem.

[andkiich]

For authoring, you might want to give DVD-Lab a try. 30 day full function trial and very powerful for the price. If you're looking for something a little more user friendly, DVDComplete is competent(limited on menu functions and only supports full D1 res) but less full functioned.

For burning to DVD I use Nero.

[DeadLamb]

thanks rvl,
tried Ulead DVD Moviefactory 2 Trial and after 3-4 hours of encoding it decided to tell me I didnt have enough disk space on the dvd.

yeah some times it's best to have the output go to a folder (not just your burner), then burn it from that folder.. then, worst case (if your lazy) is that the disk turns out too big and you just DVDshrink it again or something .. Well I said it was the lazy way.. heh

As for DVD authoring and so on.. I'm just starting out with this too.. mostly just some music vids or tv eps I had in different formats.. I tested out Ulead Movie Factory also..

Ended up going with TMPGEnc DVD Author and TMPGEnc..
http://www.pegasys-inc.com/e_main.html (has demos there)

it pretty newbie friendly.. The DVD author system lets one do motion menus and so on and yeah one is limited to just a few templates but heck, baby steps.. I'm happy with that for now... Then for anything that the author system tells ya is not DVD compliant or whatever (say some AVI file)

one can fire up TMPGEnc and the project wizard starts up first and one can just click what they need (it's pretty clear and simple).. one just needs to watch the setting on the last screen being it will ask you for "Average video bitrate" and so on.. This tend to be set to really high being DVD's have so much room, but you can dial it down by video bitrate or just "Estimated file size"..

Those two programs had me up and burning my own authored DVD in next to no time. I don't think a system can be much more newbie freindly then those too.. I mean yeah the encoder has some more advance stuff and setting to mess with but one can get to those later.. the wizard will at least you get to burning (and learning) how to more advance stuff later..

good luck..

[Jah]

Right this is beginning to make sense now, thanks fellas!!!

I'm gonna see about using movie factory to create the files and then burn using nero (which I'm familiar with)

My only concern is that when i make up the files using DVDMF2 it would appear that no audio files are created... is that normal or expected?


The other thing that troubles me is this:- I also have some avis to burn, Would i be correct in assuming that these will need to be converted to a DVD compliant standard first? (mpeg?) If so which is the easiest bit of softawre to use fo this?

thanks for the tips (so far)

[housepig]

My only concern is that when i make up the files using DVDMF2 it would appear that no audio files are created... is that normal or expected?

If you mean that the AUDIO_TS folder is empty, yes, that's to be expected - I am not 100% sure (and if I'm not, someone will jump in and correct me) but I think that the AUDIO_TS folder is only utilized in dvd-audio discs.

So since you are making a dvd-video, all your material is in the VIDEO_TS folder (the audio streams are joined with the video streams in the .vob files)

But the AUDIO_TS folder needs to be there, even if it's empty.

[Jah]

excellent, that sets my mind at rest

Ok, time to get burning, if i have more questions I'll be back, but I think its making sense so far ,

Thanks to all that helped so far

[ZippyP.]

The other thing that troubles me is this:- I also have some avis to burn, Would i be correct in assuming that these will need to be converted to a DVD compliant standard first? (mpeg?) If so which is the easiest bit of softawre to use fo this?

If you want to play them on your DVD player, then yes, you will need to convert the avi's to compliant DVD-mpeg's and author them to disk. A good program that many people use is TMPGEnc (but there are others), you can find an AVI to DVD guide in the "Convert" section.

[Jah]

cheers man

[Jah]

LOL!

Finally i understood what i needed to do to make this dvd burning madness work and the blinkin' computer crashes while finalizing teh content

oh well, I think this heat is a bit too much for my poor old pc

now to try again...

[Bob W]

I recommend for new users NeoDVD Plus to do what you want. It's user friendly, doesn't crash, and is lighting fast. It will also do the burn for you.
http://www.mediostream.com/products/neodvdplus/index.html

[Jah]

For those that helped me out here, you may (or may not) be pleased to know that I've got my problems sorted now,

I ran the original mpeg through DVD Movie Factory to get the vob files etc, then i used DVD shrink to get the overall size down and then burnt using nero.

All is well except that the DVD will only play on teh DVD Recorder, however i assume i must have not checked finalize or something somewhere along the line.

All said and done I'm glad I'm finally seeing results and its all thanks to you good fellas have a beer on me!

[housepig]

have a beer on me!

sweet - where should I forward the tab?

two things - first, double check your player in the DVD Players section and make sure it will handle your media type.

second - your quality will probably be better served by dropping the bitrate a bit during the encode, and getting a smaller output, rather than authoring a big file and transcoding with DVD Shrink.

but whatever works for you, rock out.