Help making DVD with Toast 6

[alexjs77]

Hello! I have Toast 6 and a bunch of avi's totaling about 2.7GB. I want to burn these all to a dvd to watch on my dvd player. I'm new to the dvd recording thing and need some help. Thanks!

P.S. Sorry for the newb question, just as to not get flamed later

[galactica]

Open toast
Click VIDEO
Drop the .avi's in the order you want them to appear, and be as menu buttons

choose your options on the left, make sure you click DVD

off you go

i suggest you save as disk image to the desktop becaues i bet its going to be bigger than a single dvdr can handle

mount the image, use dvd2one to get it down to 4.4 and preview the dvd. if quality is acceptable, burn the dvd2one output

if not, there are other ways to go. but please read up on those, they involve .avi to mpeg2 and sizzle for authoring [i know my website has at least one way to do that )

enjoy

[alexjs77]

OK I need some more help. I put it through DVDBackup to get the Video_TS and Audio_TS folder and I need some help on what options to use in DVD2oneX. Thanks for the help.

P.S. I tired using that manual but for this case it doesnt really fit in and I'm not sure what to do.

[galactica]

im confused...
i thought you had .avi's here....

DVDBackup is to back up a dvd thats already authored!

Can you be more clear on what you have done.. and where you want to go please

[alexjs77]

OK, so I put all the avi's in toast. Then I saved it as a disk image and I mounted that. I followed a tutorial that said to use DVDbackup. What I am doing wrong and what do I need to do? Thanks!

[galactica]

which tutorial are you following??

You dont do dvdbackup on a dvd you are making, there is just no point
dvdbackup removes encryption codes from dvd's since you made this yourself with toast, there is no encryption, all you did was just duplicate what you already had

i would do this
1. throw away the backup video_ts folder you got from dvd backup
2. find the image file you made with toast.
3. mount the image file and preview its contents with apple dvd palyer. If you are satisfied with the way your dvd looks we can proceed

4. how big is the toast image that you made with the .avi's?
5. if its over 4.4 gigs, open dvd2one.
6. mount the image file [if you have not already] and in dvd2one use the ... button to locate the video_ts from the mounted image
7. you will see dvd2one recognize its a dvd. Set the size to user defined and type in 4444 then ensure its on disc copy and click start.

this will make it a 4.4 gig video_ts folder whihc you can burn to a single dvdr

make since?

[alexjs77]

Thanks! I'll try it out.

[alexjs77]

Should the rate be Constant or Variable?

[galactica]

how many min of video are we talking here??

for 2 hours I use variable
over 2 [closer to 3] i use constant

[alexjs77]

OK, so DVD2one finished. However, when I put the video_ts folder in Toast 6.0 it says the size is 5.7 GB. What did I do wrong? I know in dvd2one I said custom: 4444 MB. Thanks for the help.

[galactica]

how big was the disk image you got from making the dvd with the .avi's

ive had this problem but only when the resulting dvd image is HUGE, like close to 10 gigs.

if its too big you may consider using less .avi's in your segment, perhaps breaking it up over 2 dvds for example

[alexjs77]

Oh snap, the image IS 13.4 GB. Is there any other way I can do this without the use of 2 DVDS? Thanks.

[galactica]

whats the total size of the avi's
often toast encodes at settings that are extreme and as such you get huge file sizes!

you could convert each .avi to .mpeg using mpeg2works or ffmpegx, then author with sizzle. its easy to do, just a hastle becaue you have to convert each .avi

you have lots of options really

[alexjs77]

Well I have 14 .avi's. They are about 200MB each. I thought all those would be able to fit on one dvd. Do I really have to do them one by one in ffmpeegx... If it's my only option OK. It just seems sort of an annoyance. Or is there a way around the extreme toast settings. thanks.

[galactica]

aside from its highly advanced Standard vs High none that im aware of... and chances are you were using standard


If i were you i would join the .avi's together in the order you want them to appear.

then using this master .avi encode that over to mpeg with ffmpegx where you can choose a bitrate that will be satisfactory to a final file size and then author with sizzle.

[alexjs77]

OK, I can do that, but I just wanted like chapters and stuff for the episodes and stuff, but I guess since I'm joining the .avi's I can't. I was thinking about trying to compress the video_ts folder with DVD Remaster and see if this turns out and can fit on one dvd. I am guessing I should use PCM tracks for the audio because it was originally DIVX. If I am missing an easier way to do things, please tell me!. Thanks alot.

[pixeljammedia]

Making chapters isn't that difficult. Just convert each avi separately in FFMPEG and then select them sequentially in Sizzle. You will be able to FFWD to chapters this way. FFMPEG will pop up a progress window when you start your first MPEG, you can then select the second MPEG and they will be processed one after the other. Just add up the total time of all the avis to find a suitable bitrate with the bitrate calculator.

[alexjs77]

OK, so I just used Dvd Remaster to shrink my disk image and it worked swell. The quality is just horrible so I'm going to re-encode it in a higher quality. Does it matter if my original toast rip from avi's to .toast is high or standard? Will this affect the final quality. Thanks!

[galactica]

the quality is horribel because you are going from 10 gigs to 4.4
you will HAVE to go the other way to get any sort of good product.

[pixeljammedia]

You are very enthusiastic and willing to experiment. That will take you very far and you'll learn a lot through trial and error. At greater than 10 GB, shrinking down the mpeg by more than half its size will produce horrible results. There is nothing you can do about it, and the Toast method lacks control and precision. USE SOMETHING THAT CAN ENCODE MPEGS AT A SPECIFIC LOWER BITRATE. FFMPEG X will allow you to find out what bitrate will fit a specific length of movie in a 4GB DVD. You could possibly use the Low Bitrate (Half D1 resolution) DVD setting and encode each AVI at the bitrate you need. You can queue up each avi one after the other in FFMPEGX. Since you'll have a single bitrate, that just means setting it up 14 times and then letting it encode. Each avi will be processed one after the other until they are all done. To steal a line from Ron Popei;, set it and forget it. You could then author the DVD in Sizzle.

• Don't use the Toast MPEGs
• Neither DVD2OneX nor DVDRemaster will give you acceptable results
• Use something that will give you a controllable bitrate for your MPEGs.
• Make sure you calculate the proper bitrate based on the length in time of your movies and the MPEG standard you are using
• Before you go rushing headlong into your encode ask some more questions

[galactica]

I second pixeljammedia's response
its the only way you can get the highest of quality response on a dvd given your circumstance.

if you are not that familar with ffmepgx just use one of the avi's and play around with it, you could even break it up into smaller pieces so your "tests" wouldnt take very long

best of luck, its not hard once you do it a few times

[alexjs77]

OK, I'm using FFmpegX for it. I used the Lo-Bitrate DVD preset and the bitrate calculator, as far as putting in what chapter it is, is this neccesary or should I just not do it because Sizzle will. Thanks.


Edit: When I got the bitrate calcualtor right, I put in the avi and then the video bitrate changed, should I keep it as it is or go back to what I originally found it as?

Edit 2: When I just tried it anyway, I got this error:
/bin/sh: -c: line 1: unexpected EOF while looking for matching `''
/bin/sh: -c: line 2: syntax error: unexpected end of file

I am quite perplexed. Sorry about all the questions.

[galactica]

OK, I'm using FFmpegX for it. I used the Lo-Bitrate DVD preset and the bitrate calculator, as far as putting in what chapter it is, is this neccesary or should I just not do it because Sizzle will. Thanks.

I would just put them in via sizzle, its really easy

Edit: When I got the bitrate calcualtor right, I put in the avi and then the video bitrate changed, should I keep it as it is or go back to what I originally found it as?

Always use the calculator based on what input you set. If you for example say this is a 90 min .avi and you want it to be 700 megs then click RATE to get the new bitrate for that particular movie.
Right now you are perhaps just testing one .avi to ensure your settings do not result in sync errors. If it all works, you will have to choose a bittrate based on how many min the TOTAL SUM of each .avi is

Edit 2: When I just tried it anyway, I got this error:
/bin/sh: -c: line 1: unexpected EOF while looking for matching `''
/bin/sh: -c: line 2: syntax error: unexpected end of file

I am quite perplexed. Sorry about all the questions.

looks like you have a ' in a file path somewhere. remove all illegal characters, spaces etc in any and all file paths associated with the project

[alexjs77]

Sorry for the long break, but I'm back. i used ffmpegx to change all the avi's. Now, I need help with sizzle. I am pretty much lost as what to do. Thanks for the help!

[galactica]

what do you have thus far? all .mpeg files now>

[alexjs77]

For each of the 14 avi's, I got a .mpg, a .m2v, a .mp2, and a dvd folder with the audio_ts and video_ts files in them. Because I authored them as I dvd. Did I do something wrong? Thanks for the help!

[pixeljammedia]

No, you just had the author as DVD and keep elementary streams check boxes selected. Toss all the video_ts folders and the m2v and mp2 files. You can then select all the muxed mpegs one-by-one in sizzle.

[alexjs77]

Ok, so lemme get this right before I burn... I name the output and disc label what I want. The aspect ratio is 4:3, its NTSC, and the format is 720x480. (I'm not sure if this should be 352x480 because I used the lo-bitrate DVD pre-set in ffmpegx. Help?) What should the input format be? m2v or VOB? And then I choose my .mpg. It should come up in video track. My audio track is empty though.... is this right? Anyway, then I add the rest of them. Under the audio track tab at the top its (en) for language and MP2 format with nothing else checked. There is also nothing under Subtitles or Other. Sorry for the long post. Just need to make sure I'm doing this right. Thanks for the help!

[pixeljammedia]

Ok, so lemme get this right before I burn... I name the output and disc label what I want. The aspect ratio is 4:3, its NTSC, and the format is 720x480. (I'm not sure if this should be 352x480 because I used the lo-bitrate DVD pre-set in ffmpegx. Help?)

Assuming you are using Sizzle 0.1, select the 352x480 resolution. Under Video Format select the dropdown menu and choose 352x480 (NTSC D2)

What should the input format be? m2v or VOB?

Since I told you to throw away the m2vs you should choose vob and select the mpegs. They contain both audio & video so don't worry about the audio tab. Now hit Add chapter then select the next mpeg. You don't have to worry about the other tabs, the audio is set and you shouldn't have any sub files, extra audio tracks etc.. Save the disc image and mount it, then try it out in Apple DVD Player. Done. Now was that so bad?

[galactica]

personally, I would take a differnet route. In 10.3 i noticed that sizzle gives sync and playback errors when importing muxed files.

As such I would used the individual .m2v and .mp2 files for importing into sizzle
Assuming you rename you files to part1.m2v part1.mp2 and so on you can use this tutorial i have typed up


Building A DVD Image Using Sizzle

Open Sizzle 0.5

You Will start with the Table Of Contents Screen. This will be the screen that appears as soon as the DVD loads.* It’s a little different than Commercial DVD’s.* It more resembles Episode DVD’s if you are familiar with them.* This is the ROOT menu, buttons from here will bring you to Menu’s where you can affect playback

If you want to add a picture to this portion of the DVD just drag the image to the Boxed area that says DROP MENU BACKGROUND IMAGE

If you want audio to play during the presentation of this TOC menu, drop the audio file to the box that says DROP MENU BACKGROUND AUDIO (has to be .ac3 audio files)

Click ADD TITLE (far left of window) and choose the PART1.m2v file.* You may get a message saying this isn’t dvd spec but just push OK. The added movie file now shows up in the ITEM listing on the bottom right of the window.

Click once on TITLE 1 and then click the AUDIO tab

Click the + button to choose the audio file for this particular Title.* The audio file you want to choose is PART1_48Khz.mp2)

Click ADD TITLE to add the 2nd movie file (PART2.m2v) and repeat the process of adding audio for this title.

Add each additional title (and its audio) as just done until you have them all added.

Click on the TOC Menu 1 as seen in the ITEM listing on the bottom right.* You will see a button that says RESUME MOVIE. Click once to highlight, then click EDIT BUTTON

Set the ACTION to JUMP TO TITLE and choose Title 1 from the pull down menu.** Rename the button to PLAY TITLE 1 and click OK

Click ADD BUTTON and repeat the process for each TITLE you added, renaming to PLAY TITLE 2 and so on.

NOW, click on TITLE 1 from the ITEM LISTING (you can also add pictures and audio to the menu’s for each title if you like, as seen above)

You will see a button there.* Edit that button setting AUCTION to JUMP TO CHAPTER, and choose the only option available from the pull down menu. Rename to PLAY and click OK

Add a new button, edit it and set its action to JUMP TO TABLE OF CONTENTS MENU.* Rename to BACK TO TOC and click ok

Repeat for each title

Go to where it says DISC LABEL and set that to the name of your dvd.* Use ALL CAPITALS and _ for spaces.* Example: MY_DVD

Click SAVE DISC IMAGE from the top right of the screen and set the save location to your desktop.* Name the disk image whatever you want.

Once the demuxing/remixing/authoring is complete you will have a disk image on your desktop that represents your dvd.

Mount the image, open DVD player and choose the VIDEO_TS folder from the image to play.** Ensure everything looks ok and that all the buttons work

If you are satisfied, unmount the image