OK, Now I'm Mad :(

[alanisfan]

OK, so I've had my DVDR drive for a couple of months now, but until yesterday, I had never really felt like trying the whole authoring thing.

Last night I converted an Xvid to MPG with TmpEng or whatever it's called, I dunno, following a tutorial on here, and making sure that it would fit on the destination DVDR, with a little extra room added.

So why is it that the project that I have in DVDit now amounts to 5.18Gig, even though I even took out the basic Root and Scene Selection Menus that I wanted to add.

This is really beginning to piss me off. Does anyone know of anything that I could try before I go back to the drawing board and convert the avi all over again ?

[FulciLives]

OK, so I've had my DVDR drive for a couple of months now, but until yesterday, I had never really felt like trying the whole authoring thing.

Last night I converted an Xvid to MPG with TmpEng or whatever it's called, I dunno, following a tutorial on here, and making sure that it would fit on the destination DVDR, with a little extra room added.

So why is it that the project that I have in DVDit now amounts to 5.18Gig, even though I even took out the basic Root and Scene Selection Menus that I wanted to add.

This is really beginning to piss me off. Does anyone know of anything that I could try before I go back to the drawing board and convert the avi all over again ?

When you used TMPGEnc you created a single MPEG file correct?
How big is this file? I mean when you look at it through Windows Explorer or My Computer. Not what DVDit tells you.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[alanisfan]

3.92 Gig

That's what I don't understand, that is what TMPEGnc suggested. Where is Sonic getting the other 1.5Gb from. I know that it would need a little space to add the root and scene selection and to create the VOB files, but that's a little much don't you think.

Thanks for helping me by the way, I really appreciate it.

[FulciLives]

3.92 Gig

That's what I don't understand, that is what TMPEGnc suggested. Where is Sonic getting the other 1.5Gb from. I know that it would need a little space to add the root and scene selection and to create the VOB files, but that's a little much don't you think.

Thanks for helping me by the way, I really appreciate it.

Well I have never used DVDit but it is possible that it is converting your audio (I'm guessing you used MP2 audio) to LPCM and LPCM takes up a LOT of space. That could account for the difference.

So I guess you need to check in the PROPERTIES and/or OPTIONS of DVDit to see if it is converting to LPCM audio and if so there might be a setting to make it NOT do that and keep your original MP2 audio.

At least that is my guess of what is going on.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[vega1970]

Anyway ... If you've got a working DVD structure (check it with a DVD
player) and if it's too big to fit into a DVDR ... and if you don't want
to restart from the .avi file ... your only option is to use DVD Shrink
to reduce the size.

It will recompress the video, but it'll be faster than recreating
an mpeg file from the .avi using TMPEGenc.

[alanisfan]

I converted the Audio through a seperate Stream from an extracted Wav File, as that is the reccomended method for Xvid. DVDit allows you to write the audio as either PCM or 2 Channel Dolby. I have even tried selecting Single Channel Audio, and lowering the video bitrate through DVDit, and it's not making any difference.

[alanisfan]

Anyway ... If you've got a working DVD structure (check it with a DVD
player) and if it's too big to fit into a DVDR ... and if you don't want
to restart from the .avi file ... your only option is to use DVD Shrink
to reduce the size.

It will recompress the video, but it'll be faster than recreating
an mpeg file from the .avi using TMPEGenc.

I already had that idea, as it would probably only take about 10% compression through DVDshrink to get this to work, but DVD shrink will only work with VOBs won't it, I don't think that I could directly shrink the MPEG2 file through DVDshrink. I even tried changing the ouput media values to a hypothetical dual layered size, so that I could master it to a folder which I could open through shrink and manipulate that way, but it won't let me do it.

This is shit

[FulciLives]

I converted the Audio through a seperate Stream from an extracted Wav File, as that is the reccomended method for Xvid. DVDit allows you to write the audio as either PCM or 2 Channel Dolby. I have even tried selecting Single Channel Audio, and lowering the video bitrate through DVDit, and it's not making any difference.

Yeah but you created a single MPEG file with TMPGEnc so you did use TMPGEnc to convert the audio right? and if so you must have used MP2 audio in TMPGEnc settings.

BUT from what you are saying DVDit is only allowing LPCM audio or AC-3 audio. My guess is that DVDit is converting your MP2 audio to LPCM and thus that is making the size so much more bigger.

If DVDit will allow you to convert the audio to AC-3 then you should be OK but my guess is although it will accept AC-3 it probably doesn't convert to AC-3

So you could use TMPGEnc to de-multiplex your MPEG into seperate files (you will get a video file called FILENAME.M2V and an audio file called FILENAME.MP2)

You can then use BeSweet to convert the MP2 to AC-3 audio using a bitrate of 192kbps or 224kbps. Some find that when using BeSweet you are better off using 224kbps.

Then see if DVDit will accept your seperate M2V and AC-3 audio files. If it doesn't then you can multiplex the M2V and AC-3 back into a single MPEG file (again using TMPGEnc).

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[alanisfan]

I'll give that a shot now

I'll let you know how it goes

[FulciLives]

I'll give that a shot now

I'll let you know how it goes

Actually if you extrated the audio from the original to a WAV then used that WAV an an input to TMPGEnc to get your MP2 audio then you are better off going back to the WAV file and creating your 2.0 AC-3 audio from the WAV rather than the MP2 audio.

This way you are only converting the audio once (WAV to AC-3) instead of twice (WAV to MP2 then MP2 to AC-3)

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[RabidDog]

you could try demuxing the audio and video in tmpgenc and check the sizes audio should be at most 20% of the file size (norMALLY 10%) then you can see where the file size increase is coming from.

[coyote]

I think the problem is with DVDit (I had this problem also when I first started making dvd's)......2 reasons:

1. DVDit only accepts pcm for audio....if you converted the audio to anything else (such as mp3) it will convert it back....and that makes the file bigger.

2. Also check the video quality option. By default DVDit automatically converts to 8 megabits.

You will definately have better video quality using any of the programs mentioned on this website that allow for compressed audio (that way the video can take more space on the disc)

[alanisfan]

What else would you reccomend ?

Please bear in mind that I'm really looking to keep this kind of simple, I don't really mess around with Video all that much. This actually started out as a simple project to replace a DVD which I purchased whilst on vacation this summer, only to find that it was faulty when I arrived home. Since I paid $20 for it and I couldn't exactly return it, I thought that something like this seemed like the most sensible option.

My DVD Burner is normally just used to copy a promotional disc of my band which we had professionally made a few months ago.

I think that with the right software, I could try my hand at this a little more often though.

[Viper10000]

alanisfan,

Since you're using TMPGEnc to create your 3.92GB Mpeg file, I suggest you use TMPGEnc DVD Author. It has a 30-day full feature try-out, and it's very easy to use. Even if your TMPGEnc's created Mpeg file has a 44.1KHz audio, TMPGEnc DVD Author will convert it to DVD-compliant 48KHz audio on the fly, and it will not create very little headroom. If your audio is already 48KHz, then to TMPGEnc DVD Author your file is still 3.92GB (which is way under 4.37GB), and it will author it fine.

BTW, as long as your created file has a DVD-compliant resolution (i.e. 720x480/576, 702x480/576, 352x480/576, or 352x240/288), I won't see any problem in TMPGEnc DVD Author.

Well give it a try, and I think you won't be sorry.

[overloaded_ide]

My suggestion would be get Tmpgenc DVD author! 30 day free fully working trial!

Since you have your mpeg 2 file already, just author the dvd this way.
If the file shows about 4 gigs on your hardrive, then it should be the same size after you create the DVD. Maybe add a few MB for menus and whatever.

Then you can also use the built in burner to burn to disk.

If by any chance you do actually need to make a DVD over 5gigs, that's not a problem, you can author a DVD9 with Tmpgenc DVD author. It will give you a warning if the DVD is too large, ingore it! Then shrink the created DVD with shrink to make it fit!

The size limit is actually DVD9 aprox. Over DVD9 and it will try to make the DVD files when you ignore the error message, but stops with a fatal error at the end of DVD9! SO 12gigs does not work, but 8 gigs does

[alanisfan]

Well I would, but DVDit just had a problem, so it went, and took my MPG file with it. I now have a delightful little file registering as being 0Kb, which basically means that my time has been wasted and I'll have to convert the bastard file overnight again.

It's a real good job I'm going out tonight, otherwise this computer would be taking a dive.

[alanisfan]

OK This is shit

I just spent a couple of hours re-doing the project in DVD-Lab, only for the result to be a 9.8Gb folder with just VOB files in it and no IFO, so I can't even open it in Shrink or attempt to burn the thing.

[overloaded_ide]

If your not gonna try the suggestions you get, why ask?

I just spent a couple of hours re-doing the project in DVD-Lab, only for the result to be a 9.8Gb folder with just VOB files in it and no IFO, so I can't even open it in Shrink or attempt to burn the thing.

Did I hear some-one mention Tmpgenc DVD author ?

Perhaps convert your file to Mpeg2, and use that! If dvd is too large, use shrink!

[FulciLives]

OK This is shit

I just spent a couple of hours re-doing the project in DVD-Lab, only for the result to be a 9.8Gb folder with just VOB files in it and no IFO, so I can't even open it in Shrink or attempt to burn the thing.

OK well how the hell did you get 9.8GB this time around?
Did you encode at the correct bitrate?
How big is your TMPGEnc produced MPEG file this time?
I'm assuming you re-did it in TMPGEnc since you said the file somehow got "blown out" before.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[Viper10000]

alanisfan,

Again, same as "overloaded_ide", my strongest suggestion is you should try TMPGEnc DVD Author. Remember just use your original 3.92 GB to author in TMPGEnc DVD Author.

Good luck,

[psx_pirate]

If you now have vob files then why not author them with ifoedit (freeware).Just open ifoedit and click create new ifo's then select the first vob file, set the destination directory and let ifoedit do its stuff (takes about half an hour). when its done you will have the required ifo files and you can open the folder with dvd shrink and reduce the size to fit a dvdr.

[trossin]

I ran into the same crap when using the software that came with my HP DVD drive. I got a copy of Ulead's DVD MovieFactory with my WinTV PVR-250 capture card and it will eat MPEG Layer 2 audio and not convert it. Thus, If you have a 4 Gbyte input file it will fit on a DVD after you author it. DVD MovieFactory will not touch your file if it is compliant so the authoring step takes about 30 minutes from input to a disk you can stick in your player.

It is a way of life:

Capture directly to DVD compliant MPEG2 file
Author in Ulead
Burn to disk.

No waiting on conversions.

[alanisfan]

If your not gonna try the suggestions you get, why ask?

I just spent a couple of hours re-doing the project in DVD-Lab, only for the result to be a 9.8Gb folder with just VOB files in it and no IFO, so I can't even open it in Shrink or attempt to burn the thing.

Did I hear some-one mention Tmpgenc DVD author ?

Perhaps convert your file to Mpeg2, and use that! If dvd is too large, use shrink!

Sorry guys, it wasn't anything like that, it's just that my friend is into this stuff, and he uses DVDLab, and since he spent a large part of last night telling me how amazing it was, I'd thought I'd give it a shot........ my mistake I know 8)

I really do appreciate your help though, I downloaded TMPGenc Author this afternoon, so I'm gonna look at that in a little while, but I'll also try that IFO Edit thing first, as that seems like a slightly faster method, and I really have spent long enough on this thing as it is.

[rhegedus]

Have you tried de-multiplexing the original mpeg from TMPGEnc? (In TMPGEnc, go to File > MPEG Tools > De-multiplex). Then use IfoEdit to author the separate streams - there is a guide here.