Help...nothing seems to be working?

[Hacker_Girl]

OK.....
I'm trying to burn some dvd's
I have tried using NeroExpress, but it will only read certain files...I tried converting to MPEG-2 using a bitrate as low as 1000 but it is still saying the file is larger than 2GB??

I've tried using NeroVision...but whilst calculating disc space it crashes?

I converted my files using TMPGEnc.

I downloaded VOB Instant cd/dvd which so far seems to be straight forward, I just click the film and add them, but does this atomatically convert avi's, mpegs and divx to be playable on a dvd player and can I fit more onto the dvd-r disc using this program?

Any help would be much appriaciated
Thank You

[bugster]

Lets get this straight, you have some movies in .avi format that you want to watch on your DVD player and TV. Is that right?

If so this is what you do.

1) Convert. Encode the avi's to DVD compliant mpeg-2. There are several encoders capable of doing this but I would reccomend Tmpgenc. Use a bitrate calculator (the java one in the tool section will do nicley) to determine what max bitrate is needed to fit the movie on the disk.

2) Author. This is the process of taking your DVD complaint mpeg-2 files and preparing them for writing to DVD. You can also add menus and chapters here. One thing to be careful of is the audio. Some authoring programs insist on converting all audio to uncompressed PCM. This takes up loads of disc space and often means the mpeg-2 you so carfully calculated the bitrate for will not fit on the disc. Use one that will allow mp2 audio or will convert to Ac3. Another warning w.r.t audio, some NTSC region DVD players do not support mp2. You will probably have to find the settings to tell the authoring program what audio format you want. Also, ensure it does not re-encode. The Ulead products will do this if you don't tell it not to.

3) Burn. Often you can do this with the authoring program. If not, the authoring program will have given you either a disc image (.iso normally) or a VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS directory. The VIDEO_TS director will contain severl large .vob files and several smaller .ifo and .bup files. These are what you burn. I use Nero (not Nero express) in DVD-Video mode and it gives me no problems, though other people do report issues with it.

Anyway, hope this helps.

[Hacker_Girl]

ok...i must be really dim cause it's still too big...how do I know what audio bitrate to enter?

[bugster]

ok...i must be really dim cause it's still too big...how do I know what audio bitrate to enter?

the bitrate calculator should show that as well.

As I said, make sure your authoring program is set up to use mp2 audio. Also, if using TmpGenc, make sure you select system (Video+Audio) as the output type.

[andkiich]

Also, how long is the video in question you are trying to convert?

[Hacker_Girl]

it a 1h48.51secs film...originally an xvid