Help with Sonic MyDVD

[AirborneSilva]

I have the version of sonic mydvd that came with my burner, Pioneer A05. Anyway when I import a movie that is larger the about 2.7 gig I can not burn it, anything below that I can. I have tried to find a setting to change but can find none. I have made sure that it is on DVD 4.7gig but that makes no diffrence. Now I'm wondering if it isn't because it is the software that was bundled with my burner (you know how they give you cheap crap!)

Thanks for any help,
Aloha

[furball6969]

what is the length of the movie? Does the program say what the audio format output will be? it is possible that the program is set to use PCM audio so if the movie is long enough the audio will make the end result too large.

[AirborneSilva]

I am using the MPEG2 that I encoded from TMPGEnc, which encodes the audio into the file. I have tried to burn three files that were just over 1 gig each (again they were MPEG2's encoded from TMPGEnc), all was well until I loaded the third file then It shows it as being over my 4.7gig (and I know damn well it is not), and the "burn" button gets greyed (spelling ) out!?!?!?

[dilligaf]

furball6969 is right about the PCM audio, Mydvd uses this exclusively. Once I realised this, I started using Spruceup.

[AirborneSilva]

Ok, that shows how much I know about the whole thing.... Little to none!
Thanks for the help and reply....

[donpedro]

Yes, MyDVD will expand file becaouse it converts audio to PCM. So you will have your original size plus extra PCM sound.

[AirborneSilva]

Thanks, guess I'm getting an education here - which is kind of what the forumis for I guess so keep the info and sugestions coming!!!

[AirborneSilva]

So then I guess I should be asking what's the largest MPEG2 I should try to work with in mydvd and or what other format shoud I try in mydvd? any good tutors to follow?

[donpedro]

Encode you MPEG2 file with PCM sound and it should not change it after that. Or use different tool to author your DVD's. How did you get your file originaly ?

[AirborneSilva]

I ripped it with DVD2SVCD then encoded it with TMPGEnc

[donpedro]

If you are making backup of DVD I would recomend you to use somthing else for re-authoring and not MyDVD. Don't aks me what since I don't re-author DVD's, but you can try to see some products on my web.

[AirborneSilva]

That is exactly what I am using it for, or at least was trying to use it for. I have been using Ulead DVD Factory but thought it would be nice to used MYdvd for the cutsie extras it has... I am in the middle of trying it a diffrent way. If I didn't mess it up I will use this method from now on....

[furball6969]

AirborneSilva:

You can use a bitrate calculator to figure out how much (length) you can fit on a media.

I would recommend finding a program that transcodes audio to AC3 for maximum space saving.

You can find my bitrate calculator here:

http://divxx.freeyellow.com/dvdstuff/

or
http://divxx.freeyellow.com/dvdstuff/fdbcalclatest.rar

Be sure to select PCM audio option if you are still going to use MyDVD.

[AirborneSilva]

Furball6969,

Thanks for the help. I will give the bitrate clac a try. I do have another question though. I have tried burning two diffrent ways, one I use TMPGEnc to encode to MPEG2 then burn with Ulead DVD Movie Factory, With this method I can view on both my DVD players. But if I burn from Nero using the Video_TS and the Audio_TS it will not play in one of my machines. I like the later method because I can burn the chapters with it (I hope I'm making sense here), anyway is there a way to add the chapters into an MPEG2?

Thanks for all of your help....... Aloha

[furball6969]

If I get you right, you should be able to add author chapters into the stream with MyDVD. I may be wrong as I only used MyDVD breifly over 18 months ago but I think it is similar to the more advanced DVDit as far as chapters are concerned.

[AirborneSilva]

I'm not too sure we are talking about the same thing, my explanation is probably about as clear as mud since I haven't clue one as to what I'm doing over here!!! I will do some poking around the program though to see what I can figure out....

[kitty]

MyDVD is crippleware as very little video with uncompressed PCM audio can fit on a disc. If the company would come up with middleware between this and DVDit to compete with Ulead they wouldn't be in financial trouble.

[AirborneSilva]

Thanks that's good to know, I am obiously a newbie at this so all the info I can get is much appreciated!!

[AirborneSilva]

What is a really good program to burn MPEG2's with? Im sure there has to be better programs out there then Ulead DVD Movie Factory!

[Marco33]

Had the same prob with MYDVD like you.

I use Spruce up the autho the disk( set up the menus, tell it what pictures to use for what, what buttons will play what part of the movie & or trailers ETC) and Nero Express to burn it to a disk.

Spruce does all the work (with my help). Nero is just a drop & drag deal. Drag all the files that Spruce made to a menu folder in the program (Nero)then hit burn.

[AirborneSilva]

Does Spruce Up create an MPEG2? It seems that if I don't backup my DVD's using the MPEG2 format (and then burn them to DVD), they wont play on one of my players so I am stuck with cinverting my files to that format to burn.....!

[Marco33]

Not exactly. Your on page 4,263,978 of dvd to dvdr. You need to start at the begining.

First things first, you need to RIP the required info off the disk to backup. Now most of us just rip the movie & the sound file (usually 5:1) to go with it. Leaving out the trailer, caption, french, stereo 2 channel and the making of the movie junk. Leaving you with basicly two main files. The picture & the sound to go with it.

Two, you will find out real quick that the movies you are backing up are bigger that the 4.3 gig disk you will put them on. They need to be ENCODed or re-encoded ( I feel a flame coming on) resize the movies down to about 4 gig. That is the tricky part.

Three, you need to set up the new disk. AUTHORING, the menu that comes up when you put a disk in you dvd player. Well... you have to set up one, with a background picture, buttons and stuff like that. It can be real basic (laserblast) or involved (Matrix).

Four, Burn all the new info to a disk.

These are the basic steps. Their are a bunch of different ways to do each and everyone of them.

I've only found one to work for me. It took me a month of hard work to get it right. So be ready for the long haul.

[AirborneSilva]

I have been following those steps and have been at it since christmas, so that is close to a month ... I feel that I'm getting it down but now would like a diffrent program then Uleads DVD Movie Factory, that has caused me to burn most of my coasters as the audio and video sync can go off. I did download the patch and thought that it had fixed it but the last movie I backed up the sound was off on that. I have a descent computer, P4 1.8 Gig - 512MB of DDR and a Pioneer A05 DVD burner, so I don't think it's my computer. When I test the movie before burning it the sync is just fine, but then when I check the disk the sound is off. Again I thought that the problem was fixed after downloading and installing the patch, but was proved wrong ...... So, I'm open to sugestions on a descent program that will burn MPEG2 to DVD-R!

Thanks and Aloha

[Marco33]

Spruce up


http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/dvd-r_tools/spruceup.cfm

[AirborneSilva]

Thanks, that sounds like a winner, I will give it a shot... One thing though! didn't I read somewhere that the trial version put a watermark on the movie? The page you sent me said that not all options were available, that I can live with I guess but a watermark would be not liveable... Sorry if that sounded ungrateful for your help......

Aloha