Older machine/dvd burn problem.

[Hal05154]

Hi folks,

Hoping someone can give me some advice.

I've various avi, mov, etc files that I want to make into movies and burn to a Sony dvd burner.

Here's the problem. I've got an audio/video synch problem. Happens rather quickly into the movies. I THINK the machine is too slow for the dvd/movie editing program (I'm using Ulead MovieFactory 5). It runs slow as hell too. Took FOREVER to burn the last movie.

Can anyone suggest another program I can use, or where I can find an older version of some program that will run on my machine and still make playable dvd's for me?

Thank you for your help.

Hal

[redwudz]

The speed of a computer has little bearing on the results, only on the time it takes. There are members out there that are doing the same sort of conversions on 400 Celeron computers. Just slower. Burning speed is a little different, depending on the definition. Many people 'Burn' with Nero, but they are often really re-encoding the file, which takes time. Unless your hard drive is very slow, your DVD burner should burn at the same speed as most any other computer.

DVD drives are very slow compared to most any hard drive.

One program you might try is ConvertXToDVD or the older freeware version DivxToDVD. They should work fine with older computers.

Editing can be influenced by CPU speed, or hard drive speed. Having more than one hard drive helps. If all your programs are on your boot drive, that can slow down editing and transfers.

You are running enough memory for W2000, but more can probably help. If you double it to 512MB, that's more than enough for W2000.

I would recommend the freeware ImgBurn for the burning process also.

With a slower computer, you might consider running your conversion programs overnight.

And take a look in our 'Tools' section. There are freeware editors, encoders, authoring programs and burning programs. They all take a bit of study compared to some of the payware programs, but the finished product looks just the same.

And welcome to our forums.

[Hal05154]

Thanks a lot for the reply. It's good to know that I CAN do what I want with the machine I have.

One last question. I have an AVI file I'd like to convert to dvd AND and simple chapter to the disc so I can jump around. What would you suggest?

THANK YOU!

Hal

[Hal05154]

Oops....

The ConvertXToDVD (or the older freeware version DivxToDVD) does exactly what I asked you about in the previous reply, doesn't it?

[redwudz]

Yes, it handles several formats. If you have the $ for ConvertX (Not very much), it's a good option. Otherwise, you can use DivxToDVD. ConvertX does a better job with format conversions like PAL>NTSC that you may run into. Or look to the freeware programs.

[classfour]

Hal05154 - If I were to critique your machine, I'd say add more RAM if possible. It will get the job done. You could improve the speed greatly with a newer CPU Mobo (which takes new RAM, too), but for the cost of those anymore - it's easier and cheaper to buy online at Dell HP Gateway etc.. I started on a 550mhz with 256 - took forever.

The shortage of RAM may be throwing off your A/V synch, especially if the Mobo has onboard video and uses the RAM for it. Adding more may help that.

Burn one of the offending videos to DVD and play it on a standalone player: In synch - it's your machine.

Out of synch: Video problems, will have to reauthor.

[Hal05154]

Classfour,

Sorry, but your explination at the end confused me. My dvd with the problem had the sound go out of sync about 5 minutes in. How do I figure out where the problem rise from again?

Thanks for your patience.

Oh, btw, my memory bays are full. Can someone tell me how to check my memory to raise it?

Yes, I've become stupid in my old age and forgotten all this stuff....

[redwudz]

Usually the easiest way to check memory is to unplug the computer and pull out one of the RAM modules and see what it says. It may be PC100 RAM, which is a little harder to find these days. Most of the time PC133 will work as a substitute, depending on the motherboard. Some motherboards are restricted as to size or speed of memory modules.

A few machines, like Dell, may use a somewhat proprietary memory type. But most of the larger memory manufacturers have a 'finder' page that will tell you what type of memory your motherboard uses and what they have available for it. Do Google search for 'Mushkin' or 'Crucial' or 'Corsair' or others.

With that said, I don't think only 256MB RAM on a W2000 machine is really a problem. More may help, but I wouldn't expect it to cure any problems, just improve the speed of some processes in your computer.

I rehabbed three W2000 computers a short time ago. They came with 128MB RAM, a 5GB hard drive and just a CD ROM and floppy drive. I replaced the HD with a 80GB unit, and the CD with a CD burner and added a 56K modem and another 128MB of RAM for a total of 256MB. These computers are not going to used for video, just business applications.

The small amount of RAM, the CD ROM and small HD are typical of older office computers that are connected to a server for storage, etc. These computers cost about $100 each for the rehab, barely cost effective, but there was no option to replace them.

But check your memory options. If you can upgrade to 512MB for a economic price, do it, as it may improve performance somewhat. One way to check to see if your computer is in need of memory is to watch the hard drive indicator light. If it flickers continually during encoding, it may be using the hard drive instead of RAM for temporary storage. The key is 'continually'. It will flash every 2-3 seconds normally during a encode, more rapidly or persistently may mean it's using the hard drive more that it should for RAM operations and then more RAM would spare your hard drive and speed up your encode.

[tphaggerty]

Check if your DVD drive has reverted to PIO mode before doing anything else! This still happens on XP SP2 (less often, but it still does). Actually, its the IDE driver that gets reset to PIO mode by XP when errors occur during burning.

If the IDE is running in PIO, the best way I have found to get it corrected is to delete the hardware and let XP redetect at next startup. It will then come up as UDMA and your burning speed (and read speeds) will increase dramtically AND your CPU usage will go way down.

[Hal05154]

It's not an XP machine. It's an old Win2000.

[Hal05154]

Hey there,

Sorry to bother you, but I messing up my dvd's using Imgburn. All I am getting is the Video_ts file on my dvd's, about a megs worth, rather than a playable movie.

Is there a chance you could give me the "readers digest" on how to use the program, or if you know, where a tutorial may be?

Thanks!

Hal

[redwudz]

There are several guides available on the ImgBurn site: http://forum.imgburn.com/index.php?showforum=4