Nero DVD burning

[HartsVideo]

Hi,

I have Nero StartSmart, Nero Express and NeroVision Express SE. I bought the program set about 2 years ago. I had a CD burner at the time but I just installed a DVD burner in my new computer. When I checked out the features in Nero StartSmart, Nero Express and NeroVision Express SE, I can copy a disk or make a vcd or svcd but there's no option to burn a DVD from an .avi file that I have in my computer.

Does anyone know if this is normal for the program? I've attached a screenshot of Nero Info Tool about my DVD burner.

[redwudz]

If you start up with Nero Wizard, then where it says 'CD' to the upper left; That's a pull down menu that will be activated when Nero finds you have a DVD burner. Click on the arrow and you should see 'DVD' Select that and you should be good to go.

If you do not have that option, then you may have a OEM version of Nero that doesn't include a DVD option. Though this is unlikely. Check your 'Recorder' tab and you should see your DVD RW. If so, select it then select 'New Compilation' if you are not using the Wizard and you should also see the DVD/CD selector there.



Nero has sort of 'hidden' the DVD selector.

[HartsVideo]

I couldn't find a Wizard but in Nero StartSmart, the top middle has a pulldown menu and one of the options is for DVD. The options for DVD burning are "Make a DVD from a file" > "Make WMA DVD" and "Burn DVD Video Files." I don't know what WMA stands for but hopefully one of them will burn a DVD of an .avi file that I have in my pc.

Thanks for your help

[redwudz]

With Nero, the best option is usually "Burn DVD Video Files". Nero is not a great encoder or very good for authoring a DVD. It does well with burning.

If you want to do a AVI>DVD conversion, I would look into ConvertXToDVD if you want a simple solution. It does a very good job of converting Xvids or Divx files off the net to DVD, even PAL>NTSC conversions. A earlier freeware version is DivxToDVD. But the payware version is well worth the small cost.

For best quality, depending on your source quality, is standalone encoders and authoring programs. I use TMPGEnc encoder and TMPGEnc DVD Author, but there are freeware alternatives that work well. HC and QuEnc encoder are freeware encoding programs and DVD Authorgui and GUI for dvdauthor are good freeware authoring programs.

But you have to read a little, and learn a fair amount to do all this. But 'It's a hobby'.

[HartsVideo]

Unfortunately, I have Windows XP Pro X64 and there's no X64 version of TMPGEnc, only 32-bit and they're not compatible. I tried to convert IFO files to .avi using AutoGK but it wouldn't work. I tried many fixes that are mentioined here and other places on the net, but AutoGK still can't do it. It stops at compressing files and I get an error -02 message.

I haven't tried burning a DVD with Nero yet but I'm going to try tomorrow. I'll let you know how things turn out.

Thanks for your advice

[HartsVideo]

By the way, what's the difference between DVD-R and DVD+R?

[redwudz]

That's beyond my capability of answering properly. No, it's just complex. Those are two comparable formats for DVD media. Which works best depends on your burner and your players. I favor DVD - media. But I use DVD + for dual layer discs.

DVD - is a little more common and slightly more compliant with most players. But there's a whole lot more to it than that.

What I would advise is to look to the left in 'DVD Writers' for your burner and see what most posters there use. Then look also to 'DVD Players' for your player and see what they use.

Beyond that, I use one of the best brands out there for single layer DVDs, Taiyo Yuden. The 8X is one of the most compatible DVD discs. For dual layer, the Verbatim +DVD discs work very well.

But many other brands work well most of the time. Many disc suppliers do not make their own discs. The few 'Made in Japan' discs are generally the best quality, but harder to find locally. Probably one of the best places I know for DVD disc information is lordsmurf's site. Lots of good info there. http://www.digitalfaq.com/media/

[HartsVideo]

Thanks for the info and link. I was particularly interested in the CD DVD quality grading. The only problem with the rating is that the given product id code, such as pvc001001, can't be found on the net in order to purchase them.

[redwudz]

You are probably aware of this, but if you plug that media code into 'DVD Media>Search Media Code' to the left in 'DVD Media', it will give you a list of the discs brands that use that media manufacturer. But making sure that a seller really has the same media code on his discs is a little harder.

For online media orders, I use http://www.rima.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv for TY, but other popular media sellers are http://www.supermediastore.com/index.html , http://www.meritline.com/ , to list a few.

[HartsVideo]

Thanks again redwudz!

[MysticE]

NeroVision Express SE...

... can copy a disk or make a vcd or svcd but there's no option to burn a DVD

That sure sounds like the crippled OEM versions that come with burners.

Nero OEM Suite does not include the DVD Plug-In, which means that Showtime supports viewing of VCD movies but not SVCD or DVD video and Nero Vision Express supports burning of VCD but not SVCD or DVD Video.

[HartsVideo]

I have NeroVision Express 3 SE, Nero Express, Nero Vision and Nero StartSmart. Nero Express is OEM, but I paid for Nero StartSmart and Nero Vision Express SE 3. It has the option to "Burn DVD-video Files." But when I add an .avi file to Nero StartSmart or NeroVision Express 3 SE, it gives me the below message and will only accept vob, bup and ifo files and won't accept an .avi file. The message says that it's not a compatible file. I got part of Nero with my CD ROM drive but I paid for an upgrade to burn DVDs. I haven't been able to use it until I installed a DVD ROm drive, but now that I have one, the program is basically telling me that I need an additional program.

The following files may not reside in the VIDEO_TS directory of a DVD-Video compilation. Only compliant DVD-Video files
VIDEO_TS.IFO,
VIDEO_TS.VOB,
VIDEO_TS.BUP,
VTS_nn_0.IFO,
VTS_nn_0.VOB,
VTS_nn_0.BUP and
VTS_nn_m.VOB
can be added to the VIDEO_TS folder. Please add files from a completed DVD-Video title or use an authoring software like NeroVision Express to create DVD-Video files from standard video files such as *.avi and *.mpg.

So even though its directions say to use an authoring software like NeroVision Express to burn a DVD, it doesn't do it.

[MysticE]

I have NeroVision Express 3 SE, Nero Express, Nero Vision and Nero StartSmart. Nero Express is OEM, but I paid for Nero StartSmart and Nero Vision Express SE 3. It has the option to "Burn DVD-video Files." But when I add an .avi file to Nero StartSmart or NeroVision Express 3 SE, it gives me the below message and will only accept vob, bup and ifo files and won't accept an .avi file.

Nero Start Smart is some hokey convoluted front end... never have used it except to enter serials.

Your Nero Vision Express SE 3 (the authoring/converting part of Nero) is not the full working version, hence the SE designation and it's inability to handle DVD chores.

"Burn DVD-video Files" is done through Nero Burning Rom or Nero Express (not to be confused with NeroVision Express). These apps take already converted DVD compliant files (like those that a full retail version of NeroVision Express would produce) and burn them to disc, hence the message you get about IFOs, VOBs etc. Neither will convert or author, which is what you are trying to do with AVIs.

For fast quick painless conversions of many different types of vid files to DVD get this:

http://www.vso-software.fr/products/convert_x_to_dvd/

[ofbarea]

Unfortunately, I have Windows XP Pro X64 and there's no X64 version of TMPGEnc, only 32-bit and they're not compatible.

TMPGEnc 2.5 and 4.x are compatible with Vista x64. Tested this over the weekend.

[HartsVideo]

Thanks MysticE . . . At least I won't be banging my head against the wall trying to figure out why it won't work . . . sure leads you to believe that it will burn DVDs, the way they phrased it. So it's basically useless.

Thanks for the link.

[HartsVideo]

Hi ofbarea, I have XP Pro X64, not Vista and I have TMPGEnc 2.524.63.181-Free installed. I was able to convert to .avi yesterday. After I made the changes (above) AutoGK started to work again.